We all know about the story of creation. God created Heaven and earth, then light, water, and the land Earth. He created a ton of things, all known in the Bible and Genesis, from animals to man to women, etc.
…So what happens if God gets to creating beings but as soon as he gets to animals he becomes lazy? That’s where Heaven’s Design Team picks up the slack! With their client being God, eight individuals and various specific staff members are tasked to create the world’s animals, and now they have a new member of the team: the Angel Shimoda, who is the liaison between God and the Design department and lets them know what gets approval or not. With his role set, the team creates a number of creative creatures, from the snake to the narwhal to the glyptodon (which was real…note the word “was”), and they fight off members who want to eat their creations or deal with those who only want to create destructive animals.
…That’s about it for story in Heaven’s Design Team.
This is one of the problems with the manga: there’s no major story involving these characters. If you wanted to know if this role evolves, maybe it will but it doesn’t quite appear so. With no real established setting — the manga begins at creation but it’s hard to know when it takes place, so it’s likely it’s borrowing certain areas of time — it’s hard to know if there’s going to be anything to prevent the characters from facing a true test.
Also a problem is the characters. They are unique in personality, from Mr. Tsuchiya, an old man who only seems to like creating horses to Meido, who loves creating cute, poisonous animals, but there’s no evolution or development for any of them. With this large cast, it’s hard to get them out of their comfort zone, so we might just be stuck with these static personalities for the rest of the series.
The reason it’s not a huge problem is because everything else about Heaven’s Design Team is fantastic. No, it’s not a case where they’re creating strange animals. However, the process leading up to their creation is strange — did you know the reason a unicorn doesn’t exist is because it’s purely a fantasy creation it develops osteoporosis due to its size? Or that a red-eyed tree frog can mount a defense against snakes because it can go into the water?
Now, whether most of this is true is up for the debate. However, I think Hebi-Zou and Tsuta Suzuki really thought out the creation process of an animal. And with hundreds of animals out there, the stories could go on for a while. Even more helpful is the The Encyclopedia of Real Animals notes, which explains each animal highlighted in the chapter. So if you really didn’t think horsehair worm or an acorn barnacle are real creations…they are. And in some ways they’re kinda scary!
Add to that the personalities of the design team, and this is where the zaniness of the manga takes off. The static personalities aren’t going to work alone, but they work when they bounce off each other. Seeing how Shimoda and Kanamori, a design team member, react to Kimura’s (designer) desire to eat anything is pretty funny. Seeing Higuchi, wearing mechanic-like gear since she’s the engineer who tests if these creations actually make sense, berate Mr. Tsuchiya’s lack of creativity with his designs is great. Then how they each individually react when they get into the guts of the design process, which might involve multiple stomachs and poop, is hilarious. That’s a testament to the design of the characters and the set up to creation of the animal.
I’m still wondering if having these types of stories will work, though I imagine there’s going to be an arc involving individual animals down the road (you’d think right?). I do wonder what could be introduced to serve as a detriment to the team. But at least for now, Heaven’s Design Team fills that whole in my heart where I can gain some knowledge and decry all the weird stuff about how these characters are creating an animal. It’s certainly worth a read.