Kiruko

Kiruko (キルコ) is a fictional character the manga series Heavenly Delusion created by Masakazu Ishiguro. Kiruko is the protagonist of the series alongside their partner Maru as part of a bodyguard job around Japan to reach an area labeled as Heaven. The character's true identity is Haruki Takehaya (竹早 春希), an orphan raised by his sister Kiriko and had his brain transplanted to her body in order to survive after suffering severe wounds against a "man-eater" creature. Both Kiruko and Maru are able to defeat these creatures with Kiruko relying on her "Kiru-Beam" (キル光線), a super powered gun that was given by Maru's caretaker before the series begins. Kiruko's journey also involves meeting the doctor behind the brain transplant to learn the reason behind Kiriko's death and their survival.

Kiruko was created by Ishiguro inspired by stories of brother and sisters, aiming to write one where they swapped bodies. However, in contrast to previous stories he read, he wanted Kiruko's body change to be written in a more realistic manner. In the anime adaptation of Heavenly Delusion, Kiruko was voiced by Sayaka Senbongi in Japanese and Anjali Kunapaneni in English. Critical response to Kiruko was positive for the seriousness portrayal to their gender identity as well as bond with Maru as they form an appealing relationship that acts as a counterpart to parallel stories involving other students from Heaven.

Creation
Masakazu 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. 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. 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. When asked about the portrayal of the protagonist, Ishiguro saaid Kiruko a represents a gradation of spiritual sexuality.

Kiruko's design changed from original previews as Ishiguro drew her in the Monthly Comic Ryū manga magazine. There the design had a different hair color and hairstyle. Ishiguro was experimenting to see what it would look like on the cover of a magazine if this manga was actually serialized. The female characters in Soremachi tend to be restrained from getting too carried away with their hobbies, so even if they are actually in front of the author, Ishiguro found them friendly. On the other hand, Kiruko was written to be based on Ishiguro's type of woman. When drawing Kiruko, Ishiguro enjoys illustrating her face, most notably, the line that is created by the hollows under the eyes and the step of the cheekbones. He always thought that this is an area that cannot be expressed in a drawing. But when it comes to drawing a woman he likes, Ishiguro feels like he has to work hard on that. The step between the cheeks and the eye sockets is more expressed by the angle compared to when viewed from the front. Besides enjoying their hairstyle, Ishiguro summed up that the design came from his ideal older sister style. While not meant to be taken sexually, Ishiguro visualized the series by thinking of the concept of a man living with an older woman whom he regards as an attractive person he like an older sister.

The writer of the series' animated adaptation, Makoto Fukami, noted the constant banters between Kiruko and Maru important for the plot setting so they avoided trimming them. The director Hirotaka Mori 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 their to handle alone. As a result, he enjoys the two and thinks it is a mutually complementary relationship. 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. Moreover, Ishiguro believes Production I.G made Kiruko more sexually appealing than his own take.

Casting
While voicing the character Kiruko in the original Japanese series, Sayaka Senbongi was excited since she knew of the manga and liked the character. Senbongi was confused by the script, leading her to read the manga on her own to understand the story. It was important for Kiruko to be natural according to Senbobngi. As a result, she thought that if she followed the fundamental feelings of "what do you want to do" and "what do you find fun" at each moment, she would naturally connect with the character. Despite the tension action tends to give, Senbongi and Maru's actor were told to make such sequences acted in a casual fashion. This was mostly to show Kiruko and Maru were already skilled at dealing with such situations whether it was burglars or man-eaters. By the third episode of the anime, Senbongi said a lot of important information about her character was revealed, making them easier to understand. Therefore, the actress expressed joy if the viewer could pay attention to not only the relationship between Maru and Kiruko, but also what will happen to the relationship between other relationships as well as Maru's fate. 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.

English voice actress Anjali Kunapaneni said she got attached to her character while recording the episodes as well as how attached Kiruko becomes with Maru on their journey. She was impressed by their how strong they are despite their young age and keep jumping between many several destroyed cities. Despite finding the story sorrowful, Kunapaneni said she found the dynamic between the leads help to give the anime a hopeful feeling. A scene that attracted her was the discovery that Haruki is actually the brother living inside's Kiruko's body as it imposes ideas about identity and hidden depths to the protagonist. The third episode especially felt tragic due to the backstory provided by both Haruki and Kiriko enough to give them traumatic issues. As a result, when voicing Kiruko, Kunapaneni tries to remember the voices of Haruki and Kiriko. She came to regard Kiruko as a superhero due to how she lives in the apostapocalyptic world. Nevertheless, she still considers Kiruko a childish character when interacting with Maru.

Role in Heavenly Delusion
Kiruko first appears in Heavenly Delusion taking the look of a young girl bodyguarding the teenage Maru into taking him into a place called Heaven after his caretaker, Mikura, died while entrusting Maru as well as a gun. Calling it Kiru-Beam, Kiruko uses this power to protect Maru and herself across the journey while becoming a fighting duo to defeat giant Man Eaters attacking people with Maru having an unknown power able to instantly kill them once reaching their inner cores in battle; Kiruko labels it "Maru Touch". When Maru falls for Kiruko in their journey, Kiruko claims they is actually a boy trapped in her sister's body. Kiruko's true identiy is Haruki Takehaya who was raised by her sister Kiriko an orphanage. The older sister, Kiriko, was a successful electro-kart racer while her younger younger brother Haruki hung out with the much older Robin Inazaki, who was the leader of a group fighting man-eaters. One day during a race, a man-eater amputated Haruki and Kiriko tried to save him. Haruki later woke up in a hospital, but realized that he had Kiriko's body after the doctor operated on them. Months later, Haruki tried to find out what happened, but the orphanage and everyone she knew was gone. As a result, Haruki became an odds job and took the name Kiruko.

During their journey, Kiruko and Maru keep a strong bond and continue fighting man-eaters in the process. They meet a man named Juichi who offers and upon meeting their people they are given a van, which they call "Kirukomaru Mark II". They go the Ministry of Reconstruction to register and obtain some where Kiruko discovers that Robin is there. At the appointed time, Kiruko goes alone to explain Robin that they is really Haruki in Kiriko's body, which causes Robin to suspect Sakota did the operation. However, Robin handcuffs, rapes, and forces Kiruko to have an identity crisis. Maru saves Kiruko, nearly killing the man in the process. Although Maru once again confesses his love to Kiruko to protect them, Kiruko instead detests how she let their sister body be violated by Robin and cannot let Maru stay with them. Kiruko meets Teruhiko Sakota who transplanted her brain years ago after Kiriko was shot in the head by an unknown person. When Sakota sees Maru, he claims that Heaven is Takahara Academy where Maru was conceived and born until being taken to Mikura. Finally having a lead about Heaven's location, the duo continue their journey but Kiruko stops by Osaka to find a Funayama Orphanage. There, they meet a man named Toru who recognizes Kiruko as Kiriko and claims that such person was killed by Robin.

Reception
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 of Maru and kiruko was noted to be more comical than tragic in contrast as a result of how Ishiguro writes the chapters. 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 appealing due to the way it was handled. Anime Feminist enjoyed the dynamic between the two leads but criticized the attempt of gender violence when people try to attack Maru and Kiruko. With the 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. CBR 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 the apparent young woman is originally a young man while Kiruko was compared to a transgender character who is trying to accept the idea of having a female body.

Anime News Network praised the narrative of Heavenly Delusion for its focus on Kiruko and Maru's appealing relationship and Ishiguro's character designs. This include how Maru often calls Kiruko "sis" and care about each other despite not knowing fullwell about each other's pasts. Their stance against bandits also was praised for coming across as a likable due too. Furthermore, they felt that while the volume explores the mysteries behind Kiruko and wonder if they was connected to the student Mimihime in the same fashion that Maru was identical to Tokio. IGN praised the dynamic of the leads as the best parts 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. Clarin and Meristation compared Kiruko and Maru's story 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.

In Critical Posthumanities, Kiruko is seen as a "human chimera" due to the nature of their life after the surgery and both Maru and they come across as "transhuman" and "posthuman" by nature with Maru also standing out as one of the first humans born with the nature to eliminate Hirukos just like him. The apparent lack morals Kiruko and Maru display in the series were noted for being allowed a woman to let a ManEater confused that might be her late son living as a ManEater. The writer calls Kiruko "a new person born out of the combination of two bodies and yet a separate existence from them".

Game Rant said that while the comedy between Maru and Kiruko always works, the sixth episode makes their sexual themes uncomfortable to the audience as during an action sequences, Kiruko offers Maru that she will let him touch her cleavage if he hands over a battery needed to battle an enemy. The following scenes where the two start arguing about the favor was subject of criticism by the writer especially in contrast to Tokio and Kona's relationship which is calmly handled in a different manner when the two become intimate. For the series' finale, the website was found it hurtful the fact that Kiruko was violated by Robin Inazaki which leads to an existential crisis to the victim about her relationship with Kiriko. When Maru rescues Kiruko by beating up Robin brutally, the website found the scene fulfilling and noted that Maru's proper love declaration to Kiruko was also appealing because Maru is comforting Kiruko by reassuring he loves her by who she is rather than previous identities which was trying to be attached to.