Before I decided to read this manga, I had skeptical thinking about how come a music can be drawn into a manga? Seeing how high the score in this site and the positive review about it, I finally decided to give it a try and fortunately it's beyond my expectation. Blue Giant is a tale about a Highschool boy called Miyamoto Dai who found his passion on jazz music. Through this manga, we can see his whole jouney to become the greatest jazz player in the world. In that very whole journey, there is two major phase that shown in this manga. The first phase is when our main character Miyamoto Dai in his Highschool and the second phase is when he went to tokyo after graduation to reach his dream even further. In the early chapter of the manga, we could see everyday life of Miyamoto Dai as a highschooler. Through all of his hardwork, he met various people who support his dream and with every person he met would led him to made a decision to leave his hometown and become the jazz player in tokyo. After he went to tokyo, he would met another people who support his dream and thus, his journey in tokyo would develop not just his skill at playing sax but as a person growing up.

If we talking about the plot, I would admit that there is nothing special to begin with. It's just a tale about a person who want to reach his dream as in other manga usually made. However, as simple as it is this manga has managed to make me keep on fire seeing how hard the main character work to become the best of him. I myself actually not that familiar with the jazz music itself yet this manga has managed to draw me in to the story. The pacing itself is good, not too dragged and not too rushed, and I could say that there is no useless chapter. Every one of them has their importance to the story

Next, there is the characters. I would say the best trait of Miyamoto Dai is his huge spirit and hardwork to become a person he wanted to be. To be frank, as likeable as he his, Miyamoto Dai still lack of something that could spice up the story because there is no major character development for him in the entire story. Yet, the interesting things is the other characters such as the pianist Sawabe Yukinori and the drummer Tamada Shunji, both of them are got their character development and the person behind their development is none other than Miyamoto Dai himself. Their destined encounter with Miyamoto Dai has led them to be a better person and character. Then, what about the side characters? I would say the side characters are interesting as our main characters. The thing is, this manga shown us the inner dialogue of every side characters like how they feel and think about the main characters performance and how the main characters become somewhat impactful with their life upon their encounter. Not only that, usually the side characters in other manga would be just thrown away after a few chapters or arc yet this manga never done that. Every side characters that linked to the main characters are always pointed out in the manga.

About the art, I would say it's excellent. Of course, some of you would say the character design is plain and not that unique. Yet, the other things such as background and instrument, all of them are very detailed and well-drawn. Especially every time there is jazz performance, the art is really gorgeous and had me goosebumbs every time I see it. In conclusion, the art is very enjoyable.

Overall this manga was great, you don't have to be familiar with jazz to understanding the story becase it's just that simple. Don't hesitate to give it a try and don't set your expectation too high because everyone has their own taste and if you ended up not liking it, it's probably because you're not the target audience or this manga just isn't for you to begin with.