This review contains spoilers. Read at your own discretion.

Heavenly Delusion has a lot of interesting, and partly also very good stuff. But overall it feels like a melting pot of a lot of ideas, hints, and mysteries, without a clear direction and needed focus. I think storytelling is more intellectual when it can actually convey what it wants to while you watch it, letting the viewer piece things together themselves but also knowing what to emphasize and what not.

And maybe I’m a stupid viewer but Tengoku was a show which didn’t feel intelligent in that regard because it relies too much on subtleties. This maybe is a broader discussion about how you approach media in general, but I don’t like having to rely on forum threads just to understand the important aspects of the story. For instance, I didn’t get first that Mimihime is the girl who died in episode 8, even though that’s a crucial piece of information. And while Tengoku does offer a lot of material to dissect and analyze (I won’t deny that) I think it’s not particularly good at bringing all the important details to the viewer’s attention so you don’t simply feel confused while watching the show. Little details and easter eggs are supposed to be extra for those who want to delve deeper, they aren’t supposed to be crucial to whether you understand what you see or not. It's also notable that this season ended on an unsatisfying note, leaving a lot of mysteries and strongly teased plot points open.

I also think that despite handling some more sensitive topics and not being that bad at it (such as Haruki being in Kiruko’s body) the series is surprisingly tasteless and insensitive at times with the fanservice. The inclusion of rape in the last two episodes is obviously the biggest offender here.

But even with a kinda loose and more confusing mystery going on, the series overall is still good. I think some stuff this series dealt with is interesting, it utilizes its premise well and the main characters are likable and grew on me. And while it is only one episode, episode 8 really grabbed me emotionally and made me tear up. It has good horror segments in various forms and production-wise it’s obviously very high quality, with the music and backgrounds creating a unique atmosphere that fits the show and makes it stand out, complemented with splendid photography and very consistently strong character and action animation. It is generally quite nuts how much high-profile staff worked on this show, and I'm not sure if S2 (if we get it) will be able to reproduce this kind of quality - Probably not.
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