Heavenly Delusion

Heavenly Delusion (天国大魔境) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Ishiguro. It has been serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Monthly Afternoon since January 2018, with its chapters collected in ten  volumes as of February 2024.

The story is divided in two storylines with one involving the characters Maru and Kiruko as they travel across a post-apocalyptic world in order to reach an area called "Heaven" while another story focuses on a group of children who live in a school also called "Heaven" by their superiors. The series was inspired by a manga Ishiguro read in university with the intention of making it different from his previous work, And Yet the Town Moves, portraying a proper dynamic between the two leads as well as the evil they face. The series uses several gender themes and natural disasters inspired by Ishiguro's personal feelings. The manga has been received positively, with praise given to its sense of mystery and the relationship between the characters.

An anime television series adaptation produced by Production I.G aired from April to June 2023. Director Hirotaka Mori and fellow staff members worked together to properly convey the setting seen in the manga while balancing the screen time Maru and Kiruko share with the students from Heaven. The anime adaptation has been received positively for its animation and focus on relationships and gender issues. It has often been regarded as one of the best anime of 2023.

Premise
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 his bodyguard, a girl named Kiruko, in search of Heaven. Maru is looking for a person who has his face and the two often encounter enemies in the form of thieves or kaiju-like creatures they call "man-eaters". The narrative constantly switches between Heaven and Hell, expanding each side of characters.

Main

 * Maru (マル)


 * A 15-year-old boy who is traveling together with Kiruko. He is skilled in martial arts.
 * A 15-year-old boy who is traveling together with Kiruko. He is skilled in martial arts.


 * Kiruko (キルコ) / Haruki (春希)


 * A young woman around 18 to 20 years old who travels with Maru. She is searching for both the doctor who performed an operation on her and a friend she knew.
 * Kiriko Takehaya (竹早 桐子)
 * Haruki's older sister who raced electric cars in Tokyo.
 * Haruki Takehaya (竹早 春希)
 * Kiriko Takehaya's younger brother who looks up to Robin Inazaki.
 * Kiriko Takehaya's younger brother who looks up to Robin Inazaki.
 * Kiriko Takehaya's younger brother who looks up to Robin Inazaki.

Takahara Academy

 * Tokio (トキオ)
 * A young girl who lives in a facility isolated from the outside world. She has a similar appearance as Maru.
 * A young girl who lives in a facility isolated from the outside world. She has a similar appearance as Maru.


 * Kona (コナ)
 * The oldest of the facility children who is a talented artist, although his drawings seem peculiar.
 * The oldest of the facility children who is a talented artist, although his drawings seem peculiar.


 * Mimihime (ミミヒメ)
 * A socially inept girl from the facility who seems to be clairvoyant.
 * A socially inept girl from the facility who seems to be clairvoyant.


 * Shiro (シロ)
 * An observant, tech-savvy boy who seems to be attracted to Mimihime.
 * An observant, tech-savvy boy who seems to be attracted to Mimihime.


 * Kuku (クク)
 * The youngest of the children, she is very agile and curious.
 * The youngest of the children, she is very agile and curious.


 * Taka (タカ)
 * A very athletic and energetic child.
 * A very athletic and energetic child.


 * Anzu (アンズ)
 * A young girl in the facility who loves to dance and swim.
 * A young girl in the facility who loves to dance and swim.


 * Tarao (タラオ)
 * A young boy close to Tokio who is suffering from a debilitating disease.
 * A young boy close to Tokio who is suffering from a debilitating disease.


 * Iwa (イワ)
 * A young girl who is attracted to her classmate Nanaki. They are often seen kissing each other.
 * A young girl who is attracted to her classmate Nanaki. They are often seen kissing each other.


 * Nanaki (ナナキ)
 * A young girl who is attracted to her classmate Iwa. They are often seen kissing each other.
 * A young girl who is attracted to her classmate Iwa. They are often seen kissing each other.


 * Asura (アスラ)
 * One of the children with an unsettling appearance, with healing and telekinetic capabilities, who was close to Kona when they were younger.
 * One of the children with an unsettling appearance, with healing and telekinetic capabilities, who was close to Kona when they were younger.


 * Ohma (オーマ)
 * A young timid girl who avoids the other children due to her power causing intense hallucinations upon eye contact.
 * A young timid girl who avoids the other children due to her power causing intense hallucinations upon eye contact.


 * Nata (ナタ)
 * One of the new girls at the academy, who gets tangled up in the adults' scheme.
 * One of the new girls at the academy, who gets tangled up in the adults' scheme.


 * Michika Takezuka (竹塚ミチカ)
 * One of the new girls at the academy, who has enhanced physical capabilities and an aloof nature.
 * One of the new girls at the academy, who has enhanced physical capabilities and an aloof nature.


 * Shino Kaminaka (上仲 詩乃)
 * The elderly paraplegic director of the facility.
 * The elderly paraplegic director of the facility.


 * Mina (ミーナ)
 * The artificial intelligence running the facility.
 * The artificial intelligence running the facility.


 * Yuko Aoshima (青島 裕子)
 * A nurse and interpreter in the facility who gets promoted to assistant director.
 * A nurse and interpreter in the facility who gets promoted to assistant director.


 * Sawatari (猿渡)
 * A doctor working in the facility.
 * A doctor working in the facility.

The Outside

 * Robin Inazaki (稲崎 露敏)
 * Kiruko's childhood friend and a sort of mentor who went missing years ago.
 * Kiruko's childhood friend and a sort of mentor who went missing years ago.


 * Ran Kawashima (川島 蘭)
 * Ran is an odd and cheerful child who lived with Haruki at Funayama Orphanage.
 * Ran is an odd and cheerful child who lived with Haruki at Funayama Orphanage.


 * Ken Tachibana (立花 健)
 * Ken is one of Haruki's childhood friends, who lived in Funayama Orphanage.
 * Ken is one of Haruki's childhood friends, who lived in Funayama Orphanage.


 * Totori (トトリ)
 * Totori is a young girl who works with bandits in trapping and robbing people.
 * Totori is a young girl who works with bandits in trapping and robbing people.


 * Mizuhashi (水橋)
 * Mizuhashi is the leader of the Liviumen cult, who are disgruntled by technology replacing their body, supposedly in the name of human experiments.
 * Mizuhashi is the leader of the Liviumen cult, who are disgruntled by technology replacing their body, supposedly in the name of human experiments.


 * Kuwata (桑田)
 * Kuwata is Mizuhashi's right-hand man, who has an agenda of his own.
 * Kuwata is Mizuhashi's right-hand man, who has an agenda of his own.


 * Juichi (ジューイチ)
 * A scavenger and con artist with a dark past who encounters Maru and Kiruko during their travels.
 * A scavenger and con artist with a dark past who encounters Maru and Kiruko during their travels.


 * Marin Inazaki (稲崎 真凛)
 * Robin's younger sister who died prior to the end of the world.


 * Toru Funayama (船山徹)
 * A tall and imposing, but actually kind man who founded Funayama Orphanage, where Haruki, Kiriko and Robin grew up.

Development
After Masakazu Ishiguro ended And Yet the Town Moves, he spent around a year to come up with a new series. He was particularly inspired by the early era from Japan, the relationships involving humans and artificial intelligence when thinking about writing the manga Heavenly Delusion. The original concept came up in 2013 as a concept art for the cover of the Monthly Comic Ryū magazine in 2013. There were unintentional similarities to his favorite work, Akira, such as the post apocalyptic setting and the dynamic of Maru and Kiruko. However, Ishiguro decided to keep drawing it like Akira by paying close attention to the backgrounds and the way the leads try eating. Ishiguro aims to write "evil" properly with his manga in contrast to And Yet the Town Moves. Heavenly Delusion is a collapsed world, so social constructs like laws and rights groups no longer function. Since the goal is to make Heavenly Delusion different from his prior works, Ishiguro hopes to gain a new audience. Once coming up with sketches of young characters suitable for the manga demographic, editorial members from Afternoon offered Ishiguro to write for their  magazine again. In contrast to And Yet the Town Moves, Heavenly Delusion employs a darker tone, most specifically the delusions children have. Nevertheless, he wants the returning fan to also read Heavenly Delusion. One of the children, Tokio, lives in a mysterious facility. She likes fantasy paintings drawn by her friend Kona and collects them. Kona can imagine things that he had never seen before. It overlaps with Ishiguro's statement that he is drawing delusions. At the end of the first volume, many of the plot threads have been laid out but in order to maintain the mystery theme, a few events are directly foreshadowed.

Ishiguro came up with the manga when he was a university student. The story is based on the story of a race on a circuit, where the Earth is destroyed in the middle of the race, and the main character is about to die. For the title, he wanted to use wordplay to create ambiguity. Since character "heaven" will appear, he uses "heaven", but he also wanted to use "dai" in the middle and then added "hell". The artwork became more detailed, most notably Kiruko's facial expression. Once reaching its ending, Ishiguro plans whether or not make the title explicit. The man-eaters -like creatures Maru and Kiruko fight are based on the creatures from the past, such as Cambrian-period organisms. Their shapes are often designed to appeal to the drawing style he employs. The science fiction themes he has been drawing since his childhood and continues exploring them in Heavenly Delusion were influenced by the late manga duo Fujiko Fujio.

Ishiguro thought about the manga for years. Since he enjoyed walking, he often fantasized about a world destroyed by a catastrophe and found himself inspired by an anime where the main character wandered alone, like Chirico from Armored Trooper Votoms. He liked the idea of a hero traveling alone in combat armor through the desert, which inspired the leads. At the initial stage, he planned to depict a world that would look more like a desert. When the first volume came out, the company Minami Kamakura Film Commission provided a video promotion, and as it turned out, they had previously released a video with music by Kenshi Yonezu, with the same image: Miku in a jacket against the desert. He decided to change the plot and returned to a more urban setting, though it was difficult to draw backgrounds with a large number of buildings. The concept of the academy was modeled after Yumeno Kyusaku's novel Dogura Magura (Dogra Magra, 1935),. The original length of the manga was extended due to Ishiguro finding the ending weak. In the process of working on the series, Ishiguro sometimes has to completely rewrite panels or correct an incorrectly written script to turn it into the best version.

The sibling-like dynamic of the duo of Maru and Miruko was based on Ishiguro's personal life. He was inspired by an event when he noticed a person who was interested in his sister. Another aspect of the protagonists' dynamic was inspired by buddy films. Maru's design is based on Kon from And Yet the Town Moves inspired by the way JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's eighth story arc, JoJolion, reuses previous characters. In the beginning, Maru has feelings for Kiruko without knowing that his bodyguard is a man inside a girl's body. Ishiguro called this premise as "transsexual sci-fi", alluding to the possibility of Maru still loving Kiruko despite knowing the truth.

Themes
When Ishiguro started writing the series, he felt a certain discomfort about what was happening in Japan. It seemed to be around 2017–2018 when Japan was looking for flaws in its governance in the run-up to the 2020 Summer Olympics. He experienced because of the scandal with the empty New Year's food. At that time, there were earthquakes and tsunamis that stripped people of all their habits. Sensing an ominous similarity between that time and present, he wanted to convey the sense of threat that society increasingly felt. The credo of the series is to be cautious, or else they may encounter something truly terrible. The character of Totori was also written to prove that people who can easily be seen as villains are important to others, making her sad knowing of the gang leader's death. While reading the manga, the author wants the reader to experience fear which comes in multiple forms. One the central aspects is the most minimal "heaven" for people is to "feel extremely comfortable in their own field of vision." Depending on situation or point of view, the place will come across as a hell. The concept of looking for heaven comes as one of the biggest morales of the series.

Ishiguro does not remember exactly when the idea came to that a girl's body contained the brain of her younger brother, but it was a series of sound considerations from which he understood that this is the story he wanted to tell. He has always been inspired by stories of brothers and sisters, so he wanted to create his own story about a brother and sister swapping places, where the brother takes care of the sister. He rejected coincidences related to magic and wanted to create a more realistic and accurate world to show what happens during a brain transplant. He was also against the idea of a man turning into a woman leading to perverted jokes about cleavage and lacking a penis. Instead, with Kiruko, he wanted the scenario to be more realistic. Another theme involves how relationships would change if somebody's sex changed. He often writes metaphorical situations with Kiruko's menstrual cycle being caused by clashing with Maru's lips when awakening from an hallucination from a Hiruko's attack. Kiruko represents a gradation of spiritual sexuality. The school is depicted as a kind of thought experiment in a world where sexual elements are abolished.

Adaptation
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 about whether or not he would be able to handle it but had helped from directors Yuji Kaneko and Waki. Mori had known the animation producer Masashi Ohira for a long time since he started directing, who motivated him to work on it. He felt like he was going to have a good time. As much as the expectations have been raised, Mori felt stronger that he had to make a proper product, and meet everyone's expectations. He was particularly attracted by the premise of the two storylines and how it would change in the future. Writer Makoto Fukami had previously 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 going to be released, so the staff had doubts how to end it. The narrative of the first chapters were trimmed in order to tell a more direct story. Fukami noted the constant banters between Kiruko and Maru important for the plot setting so they avoided trimming them. However, Mori said that because all episodes were 20 minutes long, it had to be decided how much screentime must each side of the anime must share to properly show their stories.

For Mori, the most challenging parts are the action scenes. The most promiment were the man-eaters who were animated to give the idea of horror. Maru's action sequences were animated by Tetsuya Takeuchi who wishes to match wuxia-like choreography with active camerawork. He was also assisted by Ryo Araki. Mor thinks 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. Also, since manga is black and white, he was conscious of adding color to the world in which they live, such as the landscape of ruins and the school, to make it look more attractive. As for Maru, he thinks he is very pure and does not know anything yet. Mori finds him attractive for how he does not strangely rubbed and it is bright. The director got the impression that Maru meets Kiruko from a place where he does not know his own past, and gradually gains an ego. On the other hand, Kiruko is in a complicated situation with Maru, and has a past that is too heavy for her to handle alone. As a result, he enjoys the two and thinks it is a mutually complementary relationship. Tokio is seen as a pure adolescent-like character. She has a different kind of purity than Maru, and he gets the impression that Maru has managed to maintain his innocence even though he has been through a lot of hardships, but Tokio has lived without being exposed to external pressure. Mori think he is a character that symbolizes the interest and disgust of various things that are born in adolescence.

Mori believes that the original work already contains the message that Ishiguro wants to convey, so the production side does not add anything else as a plus, but this work really has many elements, such as disasters, technology, and so on. He also thinks it would be nice if the viewers could choose what to pick up among the scattered elements and how to enjoy it, and feels that it is a work that has the bosom to be able to do that. increase. That is why Mori think it is his responsibility in making anime to properly convey that in a way that does not distort it too much. The hints are drawn from the first episode, so Mori is glad if the audience could see it from various perspectives, such as being curious about the mystery or liking the world view of Maru and Kiruko traveling through the ruins. As a production side, the production of the first episode was the most difficult. It is an introductory part, so the animators wanted the audience to like the world view and characters, look forward to the future. The series was meant to air for twelve episodes but one episode was added in order to provide proper closure.

Gen Satō, Maru's Japanese voice actor, found that while Maru expresses several emotions, not much about him is known so it got difficult for him to voice the character, while Hibiku Yamamura, Tokio's Japanese voice actress, regards her as a delicate character, which made her hard to properly approach. Regarding the anime adaptation, the director and production side had to think about the overall structure, so Ishiguro had to tell them the story to the end. Because of this, he asked the editorial department to appoint a separate editor, specifically for the anime. The first season is meant to adapt the first six volumes of the manga. Both Satō and Sayaka Senbongi initially had problems with understanding Maru and Kiruko respectively as there was little known information about their pasts in the first episodes to the point Satō said Maru was one of his most challenging works. However, Ishiguro contacted them and told them they managed to make their characters interact properly as he had envisioned.

Manga
Written and illustrated by Masakazu Ishiguro, Heavenly Delusion started in Kodansha's manga magazine Monthly Afternoon on January 25, 2018. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual volumes. The first volume was released on July 23, 2018; a promotional video, directed by Tasuku Watanabe, for the first volume was released on the same date. As of February 22, 2024, ten volumes have been released.

In North America, the series is licensed in English by Denpa. The first volume was released on December 31, 2019.

Anime
An anime television series adaptation produced by Production I.G was announced on October 18, 2022. The series 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. It 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 "Daremo Karemo Dokomo Nanimo Shiranai" (誰も彼も何処も何も知らない), performed by ASOBI Doumei. Disney Platform Distribution acquired the distribution license of the anime and streamed the series worldwide on Disney+ and in the United States on Hulu. Avex Pictures released the series on two Blu-ray box sets on August 30 and September 27, 2023.

Other media
An official guidebook was released on November 22, 2022. It includes detailed information about the series' setting, story, characters, and features an interview with Ishiguro.

Manga
By December 2018, the manga had over 130,000 copies in circulation.

Heavenly Delusion ranked first on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! 2019 ranking of Top 20 manga series for male readers. Heavenly Delusion was one of the Jury Recommended Works at the 24th and 25th Japan Media Arts Festival in 2021 and 2022, respectively. The manga was awarded the French Daruma Award for the Best Screenplay category at the Japan Expo Awards in 2023.

Critical reception
Reviewing the first volume, Anime News Network praised the narrative of Heavenly Delusion for its focus on Kiruko and Maru's appealing relationship and Ishiguro's character designs. Furthermore, they felt that while the volume explores the mysteries behind Kiruko, there were still too many mysteries the plot would explore in the future. The French website Manga News found the premise captivating due to the mysteries it shows. Sigue en Serie also commented on the mysteries of the series, which would motivate readers to move quickly to the next volumes in order to understand more the plot through the two parallel storylines. By the third volume, Manga News noted that the events from the both storylines have been connected especially from Tokio's point of view while the duo's journey was noted to be more comical than tragic in contrast as a result of how Ishiguro writes the chapters. They still felt both plots offer interesting mysteries whose connections are not given away that easily. Brutus magazine listed Heavenly Delusion on their "Most Dangerous Manga" list, which included works with the most "stimulating" and thought-provoking themes.

Vinland Saga's author Makoto Yukimura expressed interest in the themes of Heavenly Delusion due to the idea of a heaven as well as how Ishiguro tells two stories at the same time that are connected as the narrative continues.

Critical reception
The first episode earned a positive response by Anime News Network due to the dystopian premise and amount of character, while being compared to Blame!, and the animation produced for both human and monster designs. They noticed that the series appears to heavily focus on the gender, not on Kiruko's "experience of trans men, but rather as means of interrogating and playing with rigid gender constructs in a more generalized sense. Gender affects all of us, across the entire spectrum of identity and presentation, so thinking about gender critically and flexibly is an important thing to do." They further praised the relationship between Maru and Kiruko for how caring they are with one another and noted that 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." Anime Feminist enjoyed the handling of the animation as well as the dynamic between the two leads with Maru looking suspiciously similar to another person featured in the parallel story. Nevertheless, they mentioned the amount of gender violence when people try to attack Maru and Kiruko. With the eventual revelation that Kiruko is a young man who had his brain transplanted to his sister's body, the website was optimistic about the handling of the main duo; for Maru still coming across as likable when confessing his feelings to Kiruko and not sounding homophobic in response to the twist. They were troubled by the repercussions this twist has in regards to Kiruko's feelings, however, as her early scenes from the first episode now made her look incestuous. Comic Book Resources also noted the series gender norms due to how "complex" they found Maru and Kiruko's relationship as Maru still seems to retain his affection towards Kiruko despite knowing she is actually male while Kiruko was compared to a transgender character who is trying to accept the idea of having a female body.

Before the series' release, Polygon stated that despite the absence of talented creators in the staff of the production aside the studio and the composer Kensuke Ushio, they noted that the series looks intriguing, and the animation is impressive. Clarin and Meristation compared the anime to the video game The Last of Us for the post-apocalypse setting it provides with the main duo exploring areas like its two protagonists, Ellie and Joel. NME enjoyed the mystery and lack of exposition dumps, positively comparing the premise to 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 similar to "switcheroos" like Ranma ½ and Sailor Moon.

While voicing the character Kiruko, Sayaka Senbongi was excited to voice her since she knew of the manga before being cast and liked the character. Ishiguro praised Senbongi's work in the fifth episode when delivering Kiruko's mental breakdown, having interfered with the script to add new lines to the anime. Moreover, Ishiguro believes Production I.G made Kiruko more sexually appealing than his own take. The scene where Totori tries to seduce Maru also received Ishiguro's attention as he found it more erotic than in the manga. Furthermore, Ishiguro claimed that he cried when watching episode 8, much to his surprise as he originally wrote it himself. While calling him as "born in the story out of sheer necessity", Ishiguro was surprised that Robin became the most hated character in the series.

Accolades
In the Anime Trending Spring 2023 awards, Heavenly Delusion won the overall "Spring 2023 Anime Awards". With this award, the series became worthy of being of nominated Anime of the Year. Ishiguro was glad with this award, considering himself as a fan of the anime adaptation created by Production I.G. 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 New Series, Best Drama, Best Director (Hirotaka Mori), Best Cinematography (Kentaro Waki), and Best Opening Sequence ("Innocent Arrogance" by Bish).