Heavenly Delusion (TV series)

The story is divided in two storylines with one involving the characters Maru and Kiruko as they travel across a post-apocalyptic world, while another story focuses on a group of children who live in a school. In the outside world, 15 years have passed since an unprecedented disaster completely destroyed modern civilization. A group of children live in a facility isolated from the outside world. One day, one of them, a girl named Tokio, receives a message that says, "Do you want to go outside of the outside?" Mimihime, another girl who lives in the same facility, has a prediction and tells the upset Tokio that two people will come from the outside to save her, one of whom has the same face as her, while the director of the school tells her that the outside world is Hell. Meanwhile, a boy named Maru, who looks just like Tokio, is traveling through this devastated Japan with a girl named Kiruko, in search of Heaven. == Production ==

For the anime adaptation by Production I.G, director of photography Kentarou Waki appointed Hirotaka Mori as director based on their close relationship. Mori was worried he would not perform well in the role but was helped by directors Yuji Kaneko and Waki. Mori had known the animation producer Masashi Ohira since he started directing; Ohira motivated Mori to work on the project. Because expectations had been raised, Mori felt he had to make a proper product and meet the expectations. He was particularly attracted by the premise of the dual storylines and how the manga would change. Writer Makoto Fukami had read And Yet the Town Moves which made him interested in Heavenly Delusion. The offer to make the anime happened before the fourth volume was released so the staff did not know how to end it. The narrative of the first chapters were trimmed to tell a more-direct story. Fukami avoided trimming the constant banter between Kiruko and Maru, which they noted was important for the plot setting. Mori said because the episodes were 20 minutes long, they had to decide how much screentime to give each side of the narrative to properly show the characters' stories. For Mori, action scenes were the most challenging parts. The most prominent were the man-eaters, which were animated to give the idea of horror. Mori said it would look better with sound and movement, and that is why he thinks there is a significance to doing it in animation, which led to more effort on it. Because manga is drawn black and white, Mori was conscious of adding color to the world, such as the ruined landscape and the school, to make it look more attractive. Mori thought Maru is very pure and knows nothing yet. Mori finds Maru attractive for how he does not strangely rubbed his perception of the world different the more he travels around it. The director thought Maru meets Kiruko from a place where he does not know his own past, and gradually gains an ego. Kiruko is in a complex relationship with Maru, and has a past that is too heavy for her to handle alone. As a result, Mori enjoys the two characters and thinks they have a complementary relationship. Hibiku Yamamura, Tokio's Japanese voice actress, regards Tokio as a delicate, difficult-to-approach character. Both Satō and Sayaka Senbongi initially had problems understanding their characters Maru and Kiruko, respectively, because there was little information about their pasts in the first episodes. Satō said Maru was one of his most-challenging roles. Ishiguro contacted the voice actors and told them they made their characters properly interact in the way he had envisioned. == Release ==

The series, produced by Production I.G, was announced on October 18, 2022. It was directed by Hirotaka Mori, with scripts written by Makoto Fukami, character designs handled by Utsushita of Minakata Laboratory, and music composed by Kensuke Ushio. The series aired from April 1 to June 24, 2023, on Tokyo MX and other networks. The opening theme is "Innocent Arrogance", performed by Bish, while the ending theme is , performed by Asobi. Avex Pictures released the series on two Blu-ray box sets on August 30 and September 27, 2023. Disney Platform Distribution acquired the distribution license of the anime and streamed the series worldwide on Disney+ and in the United States on Hulu. The series was released in English under its Japanese title, Tengoku Daimakyo. == Episodes ==

Critical response When it came to the adaptation, Anime News Network gave the first episode of the Heavenly Delusion anime a positive response due to its dystopian premise and the amount of characters, and compared in to Blame!, and the animation of the human and monster designs. They noted the series appears to heavily focus on gender, not on Kiruko's themes that come across as negative as the reviewer still found the character interesting based on how they are written. The reviewer praised the relationship between Maru and Kiruko for the way they care for each other, and noted the flashback's incestuous "angle might just be sensationalism for the sake of it, but I don't mind that extra splash of taboo when the full picture is this interesting". Toni Sun Prickett of Anime Feminist enjoyed the handling of the animation and the dynamic between the two leads, and said Maru looks suspiciously similar to another character in the parallel story. Prickett also mentioned the amount of gender-based violence that occurs when Maru and Kiruko are attacked. With the eventual revelation Kiruko is a young man who had his brain transplanted into his sister's body, the website was optimistic about the handling of the main duo; for Maru still appearing likable when confessing his feelings to Kiruko and not sounding homophobic in response to the twist. Prickett was troubled by the repercussions of this twist on Kiruko's feelings because her early scenes in the first episode now made her look incestuous. Alice Gallo of Comic Book Resources also noted the series gender norms due to the complexity of Maru's and Kiruko's relationship because Maru seems to retain his affection for Kiruko despite knowing he is male. Gallo also compared Kiruko with a transgender character who is trying to accept the idea of having a female body. Before the series' release, Polygon stated despite the absence of talented creators in the production staff, aside the studio and the composer Kensuke Ushio, the series looks intriguing and the animation is impressive. Clarín and Meristation compared the anime to the video game The Last of Us for its post-apocalypse setting with the main duo exploring areas like The Last of Us protagonists Ellie and Joel. NME enjoyed the mystery and lack of exposition dumps, positively comparing the premise to those of The Leftovers and Station Eleven. IGN praised both the animation and the dynamic of the leads as the best pars of the anime. The Philippine Star praised the series for focusing on gender dysphoria through the relationship between Maru and Kiruko without queerbaiting audiences in a manner similar to "switcheroos" like Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon. The voice actor for Kiruko, Sayaka Senbongi, was excited to voice the character because she knew of the manga and liked Kiruko before being cast in the role. According to Ishiguro, Production I.G made Kiruko more sexually appealing than his own rendering. The scene in which Totori tries to seduce Maru also received Ishiguro's attention because he found it more erotic than the equivalent scene in the manga. Furthermore, Ishiguro claimed that he cried when watching episode 8, much to his surprise as he originally wrote it himself. Ishiguro said Robin was "born in the story out of sheer necessity", and was surprised he became the most-hated character in the series. Accolades Heavenly Delusion won the overall "Spring 2023 Anime Awards" in the Anime Trending Spring 2023 awards. With this award, the series secured an Anime of the Year nomination. Ishiguro was pleased with this award, considering himself a fan of the Production I.G adaptation of the manga. It also won the Spring 2023 Genre awards for "Favorite Supernatural" and "Favorite Mystery or Psychological". At the 10th Anime Trending Awards, Heavenly Delusion won Anime of the Year, Best in Episode Directing and Storyboard, Best in Sceneries and Visuals, Mystery or Psychological Anime of the Year, and Supernatural Anime of the Year. At the 8th Crunchyroll Anime Awards in 2024, the series was nominated for Best Director (Hirotaka Mori), Best Drama, Best New Series, Best Cinematography (Kentaro Waki), and Best Opening Sequence ("Innocent Arrogance" by Bish). Awards and nominations == Notes ==