When you go through so many shows during a seasonal it's no surprise that you find yourself in front of something unexpectedly great. I wasn't sure what I was getting at before starting Tengoku Daimakyou. The name under the studio and the talented art director + episode directors and storyboarders was already a sign of confidence that I was about to experience something possibly good, but didn't know how good it could be. When the end of the product makes me want to binge it in just a day or two it's a clear sign that it exceeded my expectations. Needless to say... I was impressed.

The series is set in a post apocalyptic world, the civilization is ruined, people roam the streets with the risk of being faced with a man-eating monster. We witness two separate stories: a group of children who are isolated in a facility; meanwhile two survivors, Maru and Kiruko, are searching for a special place called Heaven. Along with their adventures we get to know many backstories relating to the origins of the apocalypse and how the characters end up to their devastating situations. With great ideas that would lead into a excellent sci-fi series the one thing essential to make it work is a good direction. Creating hard explorations feeling intense and believable in a hostile world as well as making you care about the protagonists in whatever set-up their in. I believe this anime succeeded in both categories. It has a good mix of comedic moments, horror, mystery, romance and drama fitting nearly wonderfully in 13 episodes. None of them feel forced with maybe the romance (between Maru and Kiruko) as the only exception, many people seem to not being into it and I can understand a little, for me it wasn't bothering, it might actually be one of the highlights of the cast. The drama in particular surprised me more then I would imagine, it wasn't utilized much until the second half, once the more serious moments happened I was very convinced, the final scene from episode 8 was when it hit the best, it was satisfying. Like other world building series, Girls Last Tour just to name it, Tengoku Daimakyou goes on a more episodic structure, mainly with the duo, they go in different locations and meet with strange individuals, and getting more knowledge of their world with dark reveals. The kids in the facility reminds more to The Promised Neverland (for what I can tell... I haven't seen Neverland), the poor fellas struggles with trauma and find a way to escape from their prison. The two side stories go very well in parallel, my favorite tho would be the one about the duo. While I believe the facility part didn't have the best execution possible I think it had some very intriguing elements and some of the most interesting ideas.

For this type of work the concept and ideas are good enough to carry the show and making a fun popcorn entertainment but the cast of characters deserves a decent enough praise! Is it the most advanced or well written cast of characters ever? No, barely even close, but it works good enough for me. Obviously Maru and Kiruko are the two highlights, their relationship feels legit and not cheese or forced. They go fine with each other like brothers, they're either having fun together or help each other out in complicated situations. The dialogues between the two feels natural and they exchange many facts in common. Seeing more of then in (possible) feature seasons would be very appreciated.

Now we go to what is probably my favorite aspect of Tengoku Daimakyou: the aesthetics, production value, and art direction. Y'all don't need an explanation as to why this anime has a creative look to it... but I'm gonna explain anyway!
The visuals/backgrounds are very wide and detailed showing a lot of urban decay, there's a big sense of scale put in the abandoned cities. The character design is unique, the expression the characters can get during the comedic moments are very expressive and cartoonish and they definitely remind me of the old school Gainax/Trigger, it wouldn't be surprising if some of their people did work on a few episodes, it gives a lot of personality to the protagonists. That also goes for the radical designs for the monsters. The color palette fits very well with the scenery and the atmosphere. The action scenes are very well composed and well shot. Kensuke Ushio (who worked in other popular projects such as Chainsaw Man) was the composer for the soundtrack and he did a very good job at setting the general tone for the serious moments.

One thing I need to add briefly in my review, Tengoku Daimakyou deals with problematic damage unfortunately common in human nature. Don't want to go in details but it's a lot more violent and disturbing that it seems. Not everybody is gonna get easy shot on it, it might be very bothering for certain individuals. The way it handles such heavy themes I think it was done alright, but because of it there were quite many complains about what happened in the last episode, and I would agree that the last episode didn't give the greatest ending (mostly due to how fastly paced it was more then anything) but personally it wasn't that big of an issue, I can recommend it to people who don't get easily upset.

To summon up my thoughts real quick, is this series flawed? Yes of course, especially when it won't appeal to everybody. But there's genuinely a lot I can love about. It works as something you want to be engaged from it, some interesting characters didn't have enough screen time, I still want to see more of the runaway children, the last few episode had pacing issues but overall I have nothing but compliments. I'm glad someone is giving it a try, it is well deserved. It shows that Production I.G can still give amazing production value with exciting stories and an impressive narration. The world building aspect alone is worth a watch!