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Heavenly Delusion |⬢⬡⬢
The story switches between following a dynamic duo wandering through a post-apocalyptic world in order to find "Heaven," and a group of children living life supposedly in that paradise. But there's more to the story than what it seems, and the questions keep building up in this adventure full of laughter, tears, and mystery.
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- Story: Split perspective of a post-apocalyptic world full of strange monsters from both survivors and sanctuary (8.7/10)
- Characters: Everyone, especially the two main characters, have mysterious backstories, and you quickly become attached (8/10)
- Visuals: Amazing backgrounds and full shots, stylized animation, overall nice aesthetic (8.3/10)
- Audio: Phenomenal voice acting, overall does its job well (7.7/10)
- Bingeable/Hype: Great from the start and really picks up after the 2nd episode with each episode has you asking more questions than it answered (8.5/10)
- Enjoyment: I was initially wary of where the story was going, but as the plot unraveled itself this anime quickly became my favorite of the season (8.2/10)
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Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide
Carefree children play, running through trees and jumping through steams of fresh water, all while in the safety of a large domed facility. It's paradise on earth. Then boom, collapsed and overgrown buildings, gangs of bandits, no internet, you get the idea; it's the end of the world. The story switches between following our beloved protagonists Maru and Kiruko as they wander through this post-apocalyptic world on a journey to find "Heaven," and the children living in it, namely Tokio. As the dynamic duo wanders from house to house, pillaging whatever resources are left, eventually ending up at a still functioning inn. You can't help but wonder what possibly could have happened to cause the fall of society. And then we see. The characters are attacked by a man-eating ostrich starfish monster and we learn that the weird innkeeper lady has been drugging people to feed to it. Ever since her son was eaten by it long ago, she’s been taking care of it and keeping it fed. Even though the headless chicken ate her son, she still loves and protects it because it's the only part of her son she has left. Kinda sad… maybe heartwarming, and then it slices through her face like a hot wire through wet cheese and blam blam our MCs kill it. The story takes a 180 from something from a lighthearted and fun adventure to a nightmare hellscape. But don't forget the second story line. In Charles Xavier's school for gifted youngsters we see a bunch of school children living in a supposedly perfect and safe place only to find out they're glorified guinea pigs with weird abilities like climbing stuff, being able to fall from ten stories up and be fine, and being gay. (I'm joking ofc, but this actually all develops into a kinda important plot point) The whole place is weird and uncomfortable, and despite being shown half as much as the main story is very important to understanding the plot.img49%(https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExbmg2MTk2aWgxOG1uYXU5c2JvdXZ1ODh3b3VtbGkyZWF0aHV2aGY2ZyZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/Fnv8n5goZ0EVa6A6Go/giphy.gif) img49%(https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExcHdibXgxb3QyMHUxdmh0bTI3anlrMzNqMzVsYTJhaWFrODd2MXpiciZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/REQYvT1Tlwh0aAfhjf/giphy.gif)
It's an amazing plot that manages to switch between perspectives very well, allowing it to tell almost two entirely different stories that you just can't help but wonder how they're connected. On one side, you have the scary outside world, destroyed by who knows what, and full of danger and mystery. On the other, you have an unnerving safe haven with creepy adults and weird kids, full of cameras and just as much mystery. It does a fantastic job of breaking tension with comedic moments and tackling the big theme presented throughout the show. It's also full of * a lot* of mystery; every time you think you have an answer, two more questions take its place.
\* Analysis (major spoilers) \*
Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide
Real quick, can I just talk about Kiruko? Um, WHAT?! When he was like 'I'm a dude in a girl's body' I was like "ah." But then plot twist, dude was literally a dude in not just any girl's body, but his sisters?!? Wahhh!!! I like how it subverted my expectations and gave a lot more complexity and mystery to Kiruko and everyone in her past. Real talk though, how we gonna interpret these scenes from episodes 1 and 7?
img50%(https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExYXByancxNnR4N3M5bndvdTB0bGhoZDlrN2p6NHlta3RjbXBwaDFwZCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/YEEfTpxNI0L3AXojXn/giphy.gif)
siscon
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gae
Regardless, that moves me onto the theme of this anime. Corruption of innocence. Look at the setting: Heaven and Hell. We have a utopian paradise, Heaven, and a literally destroyed society, Hell. In Heaven, we can see that it's full of innocence; it's absent of corruption. You don't have to reach very far to support this. It's full of children, food is abundant, they have no knowledge of the outside world. Hell, on the other hand, is the exact opposite, the landscape itself corrupted, literally destroyed by nature and neglect. In the first episode we see bandits go after Maru and Kiruko, life is a struggle, that innkeeper even tried to feed the duo to a monster, a stark contrast to Heaven.
It only makes sense that our main characters want to reach Heaven, it's perfect. But Heaven on earth is still on earth. It's becoming corrupt. Kuku and Tokio find the true purpose of the facility (even if they don't understand it fully), an innocent crush turns into a perverted infatuation when Shiro receives a mysterious nude picture of Mimihime, Tokio becomes pregnant after the cameras mysteriously don't work, and Tarao dies of an illness, the second death among the children after a past suicide. Throughout the show, "Heaven" becomes less end less perfect as the children lose their innocence. We see this even more as the hierarchy within the administration breaks down and (spoiler) in the last episode eventually collapses entirely with the physical destruction of the facility
img50%(https://i.imgur.com/cyUc7i2.png)
The outside world, "Hell," seems no better, bandits and angry mobs attack anyone doing a sliver of good. (rip doctor and ipad girl) I mean, even he, who was trying to do the right thing kept making more ethically questionable decisions and eventually committed suicide. It's during this that Maru loses his innocence after killing Hoshio. We also meet Juuichi who was taken as a "breeding pig," and the two women he loved were killed. We think we see life getting better after he escaped and then met his son again, only to kill one of the men and run away. And then, of course, there’s that scene with Robin and Kiruko. I don't think I have to explain the corruption of morals and innocence there.
And so we see our main characters trying to find this heavenly place to escape the corruption of society, only that place is being corrupted too. It's not really Heaven, it's a place on earth. And nowhere on earth is free from the depravity of man. Thus why this place, heavenly as it is, is only a delusion. It could never exist. We also see the physical and mental corruption of people, which is part of my theory on what the maneaters really are.
If we're going along with the theme of Heaven and Hell and corruption, it stands to reason that the hiruko (at least the first batch) are the demon/corrupted versions of the angels/kids. The only thing I'm uncertain of is how exactly people transform into hiruko, and if the kids are either humans that have been 'corrupted,' or some type of human/hiruko hybrid where the hiruko side overtakes the human side
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