This is definitely a must read for fans of the anime version of Angel Beats! Angel Beats! Heaven's Door is served as a prequel to the anime, and this time, it is not focused on Otonashi, but is focused mainly on Hinata, Yurippe, and Kanade. (Otonashi barely makes an appearance, only a tiny bit, just a heads up for people who are looking forward to seeing him.) For those who were disappointed with a lack of character backstories in the anime, rejoice, as this manga, so far, covers a couple of other characters not shown in the anime. So far it has covered Shiina, Yusa, Chaa,Ooyama and a bit more clear story of Hinata's death.

I have said in my review of the anime that I was disappointed that only a few characters managed to get proper backstories. The manga, however, has managed to rekindle some of my hopes in wanting to see some other characters go into detail (T.K. and Noda mainly). The characters that were mostly kept in the dark (Shiina, Yusa, Chaa) have interesting backgrounds and had a very different, much darker personality before they eventually joined the SSS. Hinata's "death" was explained much more clearly, and we also got to see what kind of personalities Ooyama and Noda had a bit more clearly. Although we're still far from getting all of the SSS members' backstory, the content of the manga so far is definitely satisfying (although they aren't uploading that much... 34 chapters in about 3 years. Still hoping for the best though...).

As for the art, it's beautiful. I expected nothing less from it. It's clean and has good character and background designs. Just like the anime, it's one of strong points of the manga.

So far, I am enjoying this a lot. I probably enjoyed this more than I enjoyed the anime itself. Some good humor, fighting, and most importantly allowing us to explore into a couple of characters have been enough to make me like this manga more than I thought I would have.

As I am waiting day by day for a new chapter, I'm also hoping that they somehow don't screw this up, and end it early just like the anime. (Which would be Very, VERY disappointing, seeing as how the manga panned out so far.) In the very least, I'm expecting to see at least a couple more characters go into detail, about 4-5 more. Unfortunately the waiting seems to be forever as it's been about 2 months since we got the latest chapter. However, as slow as it might seem, it is still worth waiting for the sake of wanting to know other characters more.

As I have said before, Angel Beats! Heaven's Door is a must read for those who liked the anime. It is also a must read for those who wanted to know more about the other characters, as well as what happened prior to the anime series. All in all, this is turning out to be a great read. Now if they could just keep this up...