Is Blue Giant Supreme Worth Reading? Review & Where to Read
Quick Answer
Yes, and if you liked the original for its sincerity, this one might actually hit harder, because now there's a full band of people worth caring about instead of just Dai.
Quick Verdict
“Same warmth and craft as the first Blue Giant, but widened out into a real ensemble — Dai stops being the whole story and starts being one part of a band learning to trust each other.”
Best for: Readers who finished the original Blue Giant and wanted more than just "Dai gets better at saxophone" — people who want a cast to grow attached to.
Not for: Readers who haven't read the first Blue Giant yet — this picks up immediately after it and leans on everything you already know about Dai.
- Type
- Manga
- Genres
- Drama, Slice of Life
- Status
- Completed
- This review
- Minor Spoilers
- Author
- Shinichi Ishizuka
- Publisher
- Shogakukan (Big Comic)
| Quick facts | |
|---|---|
| Format | Manga, 88 chapters, 11 volumes |
| Run | 2016–2020 · completed |
| Community score | AniList 8.0 · MangaUpdates 7.1 |
Overview
Blue Giant Supreme picks up right where the original left off: Dai Miyamoto has made it in Japan, and now he's thrown himself at a much bigger problem. He lands in Munich with no German, shaky English, and no idea how to find a stage. The first few chapters are just the grind of survival — a place to sleep, a meal, someone willing to let him sit in — before the story settles into its real subject, which turns out to be less about Dai alone and more about the band he slowly puts together around him.
What it does well
The biggest change from the original series is also the best one. Blue Giant was a story about one guy's obsession; Supreme is a story about what happens when that guy has to actually build something with other people, in a place where he can't rely on talent or charm to smooth things over. Watching Dai's bandmates come into focus — each with their own reasons for being in this, their own doubts about whether it's going to work — gives the book a second gear the first series never needed. The concert pages are still the main event, and Ishizuka keeps finding fresh ways to draw a room reacting to live music without leaning on dialogue to explain what everyone's feeling. If anything, the art has gotten more confident since the first series — the crowd scenes and the European backdrops carry more weight and detail than Dai's earlier scenes back home ever did.
Where it falls short
The book occasionally takes a shortcut it hasn't earned — a contact who happens to know the right person, a venue that opens up at exactly the right moment. It's not constant, but it stands out more here than in the original, where almost everything Dai got was because he put in the hours first. The other real catch is accessibility: this is not a book you can start cold. It assumes you've already spent a full series caring about Dai, and it doesn't pause to re-introduce who he is or why any of this matters to him. And for English-only readers, there's a practical wall — no licensed translation exists yet, so right now this is a series for people willing to either read Japanese or wait.
Verdict
If the first Blue Giant won you over with its sincerity and its stubborn, single-minded lead, Supreme takes that same engine and gives it more to work with. Trading Dai's solo ambition for a band's worth of people trying to trust each other is a genuine escalation, not just more of the same, and the concert sequences prove Ishizuka hasn't run out of ways to make silent panels feel loud. Read the original first — this one isn't interested in holding your hand.
Strengths & Weaknesses
Strengths
- The shift from one musician to a full band is the smartest thing the sequel does. Dai arrives in Munich alone, broke, and unable to speak German, and the slow process of finding bandmates and building real chemistry with them gives the story a second and third person to root for instead of just one.
- The concert sequences are staged even more confidently than in the original — Ishizuka keeps finding new ways to draw a room full of people reacting to music without a single word of dialogue, and it never feels like a repeat of the same trick.
- It takes the "becoming a professional musician is brutally hard" thread from the first book and pushes it further by dropping Dai somewhere he has zero safety net — no language, no local scene, no fallback plan — which raises the stakes without resorting to melodrama.
- The art has visibly leveled up: backgrounds and crowd scenes carry more detail and life than the first series, especially once the story moves through different European cities.
Weaknesses
- A few plot turns resolve a little too easily — the right person shows up at the right time more than once, and the story doesn't always earn those breaks the way it earns the practice-grind scenes.
- You genuinely need to have read the original Blue Giant first. This isn't a jumping-on point; it assumes you already know who Dai is and why he's chasing this.
- There's still no official English translation, so right now this one's for readers willing to track down the original Japanese volumes or wait for a license.
Similar Titles
The original — read this first. Supreme picks up immediately where it leaves off and assumes you know Dai's story so far.
A different side of the same idea: classical musicians figuring out how to actually become professionals, with more comedy mixed in.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to read the original Blue Giant first?
Yes. Supreme is a direct continuation, not a new starting point — it picks up right after the first series ends and leans on everything you already know about Dai.
Is there an official English release?
Not yet. Seven Seas Entertainment has licensed the original Blue Giant, but as of now Supreme hasn't been picked up for an official English translation.
