History Manga / Skyhigh

* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: One half of a musical group (Kouji) had incredible musical talent, but was waiting for the right inspiration to write--which he found when he and the other half (Ryouta) had a car accident and Kouji saw his partner's spirit separating from his body. The song went on to become a smash hit and Kouji's been famous for the two years Ryouta was in a coma before dying. Ryouta is furious that Kouji wrote a song rather than help him in the aftermath of the crash and with TranquilFury asks if he's having fun. No, not all. Kouji, smirking ruefully, explains that he's been ''suffering'' all this time.

* FondMemoriesThatCouldHaveBeen: After learning that he'd sired a (now-deceased) daughter from a one-night stand eighteen years ago, Azuma writes his last book--a year by year account of the life he would have given her if he'd known she existed.

* LonelyTogether: In life the decedent in "Room 302" started a relationship with a man out of mutual loneliness. Although she wasn't in love with him, she was sincere about her desire to stay together with him--unfortunately, he got the impression that she was a GoldDigger scamming him and killed her, then himself upon learning the truth.

* TakeAThirdOption: [[ChildByRape Eugene]]'s mother Yuka, killed while pregnant, pleads with Izuko to allow her innocent child to live. Izuko gives her the "the frozen option"--to spend another sixteen years alive on earth, at the cost of the total annihilation of her soul upon death. She agrees.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Ayame Joumaru, famed actress and singer, decided that she wanted to have a child and so had herself artificially inseminated with an anonymous man's sperm. That child, Mai Takamaru is genuinely kind, charming, lovely--oh, and she inherited an incredibly powerful curse from her unknown father's bloodline that killed the psychic who tried to learn more about it.

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: One peculiar quirk of the Gate of Grudges is that you don't go there until your body is discovered by someone after death. One decedent was a little girl who dies playing with her friends twenty years ago. What are the souls up to in the meantime? Apparently nothing. At any rate, this sometimes necessitates CatchingUpOnHistory.

* GodJob: [[spoiler:Keeping the Gate is only a temporary job with a duration of thirteen years. At the end of that period, the keeper is given the option or staying or going on to reincarnate and giving her position to a worthy candidate. Izuko passes her position to Anna at the end of the first series, and at some point before ''Skyhigh: Karma'' Anna passed it on to a girl named Miho.

Izuko is the keeper of the Gate of Grudges between Heaven and Earth. When someone dies in a manner which may cause them to carry a grudge, they show up at said gate.

Izuko gives the deceased three choices--

* GodsHandsAreTied: If a gate guardian should make a choice for someone's fate, they will immediately be sent to Hell. They can provide information and even make a plea against vengeance, however, and attempt to persuade people to do the right thing.

** Kino-shita, assisted suicide. Normally suicide gets you sent to hell immediately - Izuko says it's murdering yourself - so she researched this technicality and convinced her friend to do it.

* GodsHandsAreTied: If a gate guardian should make a choice for someone's fate, they will immediately be sent to Hell. They can make a plea against vengeance, however, and attempt to persuade people to do the right thing.

* ItCantBeHelped: After the schoolgirl Kino-shita kills herself because she knows she'll be able to kill the AlphaBitch at her school as a ghost, she realizes that her friend she left behind is overjoyed in her death and then wishes she hadn't decided to drown herself. Izuko simply tells her that's it's too late and it can't be helped, so she might as well just go to heaven without going through with the killing.

* MurderTheHypotenuse:

* GhostlyGoals: A major drive in the individual plots

1) They can await reincarnation in Heaven.\\

* FrightDeathtrap: Vengeful ghosts seem to have inherent ability to scare people to death.

Izuko is the keeper of the Gate of Grudges between Heaven and Earth. She gives the deceased three choices--

1) They can await reincarnation in Heaven.
2) They can defy death and remain WalkingTheEarth as a ghost forever.
3) They can curse a human, return to Earth in the form of a VengefulGhost to kill them, and suffer eternally in Hell.

They have 12 days to choose their fate, and can learn things about their lives and the lives of the people they once loved during the period of making this decision.

Izuko is the gatekeeper between Heaven and Earth. She gives the deceased three choices-- they can await reincarnation in heaven, defy death and remain WalkingTheEarth as a ghost forever, or to curse a human and kill them, and burn in agony eternally in hell. They have 12 days to choose their fate, and can learn things about their lives and the people they once loved's current lives.

* LonelyTogether: In life the decedent in "Room 302" started a relationship with a man out of mutual loneliness. Although she wasn't in love with him, she was sincere about her desire to stay together with him--unfortunately, he got the impression that she was scamming him and killed her, then himself.

* ItCantBeHelped: After the schoolgirl Kino-shita kills herself because she knows she'll be able to kill the AlphaBitch at her school, she realizes that her friend she left behind is overjoyed in her death and then wishes she hadn't decided to drown herself. Izuko simply tells her that's it's too late and it can't be helped, so she might as well just go to heaven without going through with the killing.

* MisplacedRetribution: With the proper object of her vengeance having killed himself, the woman from "Room 302" vents her rage upon the people unwittingly making love on the bed her corpse is hidden under.

* ItCantBeHelped: After the schoolgirl Kino-shita kills herself because she knows she'll be able to kill the Libby at her school, she realizes that her friend she left behind is overjoyed in her death and then wishes she hadn't decided to drown herself. Izuko simply tells her that's it's too late and it can't be helped, so she might as well just go to heaven without going through with the killing.

* WhoWillBellTheCat: When two parents who have inadvertently raised a killer decide to curse him and end his life before he can murder again, Izuko beings up the fact that they only need one person to curse him and thus be sent to hell.

* {{Meganekko}}: Kino-shita

* ImprobableInfantSurvival: The pregnant's woman son does not go [[spoiler:down to hell]] with her. [[spoiler:She puts her son's spirit into the body of her murderer's newborn son, replacing her murderer's child.]]
** Actually, it's ambiguous where Noriko goes at the end. The last page leaves us with Izuko looking at [[spoiler:the sky]]. That's the ending we get when someone goes to [[spoiler:heaven]].

* RealityEnsues: Sawano Mizuki accidentally drowned by drunkenly falling asleep in her bathtub. Obsessed with her beauty and purity, she said dying in water and leaving a beautiful corpse behind had always been her dream. When she requests to see her body...well, drowning victims who've been in the water awhile don't look so great, let's just say.

* InfantImmortality: The pregnant's woman son does not go [[spoiler:down to hell]] with her. [[spoiler:She puts her son's spirit into the body of her murderer's newborn son, replacing her murderer's child.]]

* GoOutWithASmile: Pretty much all the characters, even the ones who have damned themselves.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Although Ryouta was less than enthused about how little Kouji contributed to their group, he could tell that Kouji had incredible talent and (in spite of his own efforts) that the only way he'd get anywhere was by pairing up with him.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Although Ryouta was less than enthused about how little Kouji contributed to their group, he could tell that Kouji had incredible talent and (in spite of his own practice) that the only way he'd get anywhere was by pairing up with him.

* CruelToBeKind: When two young children are separated from their parents by being killed in a drunk-driving accident, two other people who had died on the bus with them consider cursing their parents to death in order to reunite the family at the gate, at least for a little while.

* EmotionlessGirl: Izuko

* LoserProtagonist: The man that saves a woman from an assault.

* RealityEnsues: A woman accidentally drowned by drunkenly falling asleep in her bathtub. Obsessed with her beauty and purity, she said dying in water and leaving a beautiful corpse behind had always been her dream. When she requests to see her body...well, drowning victims who've been in the water awhile don't look so great, let's just say.

* TakeAThirdOption: [[ChildByRape Eugene]]'s mother, killed while pregnant, pleads with Izuko to allow her innocent child to live. Izuko gives her the option to spend another sixteen years alive on earth, at the cost of the total annihilation of her soul upon death. She agrees.

* WantingIsBetterThanHaving: One half of a musical group (Kouji) had incredible musical talent, but was waiting for the right inspiration to write--which he found when he and the other half (Ryouta) had a car accident and Kouji saw his partner's spirit separating from his body. The song went on to become a smash hit and Kouji's been famous for the two years Ryouta was in a coma before dying. Ryouta is furious that Kouji wrote a song rather than help him in the aftermath of the crash and with TranquilFury asks if he's having fun. No, not all. Kouji explains that he's been ''suffering'' all this time.

* ISeeDeadPeople: Some people, such as Kouji from "A Song" can do this.