Can people be trusted? While it’s good not to be too cynical, it’s also wise to exercise caution when taking information from others. People are mostly self-interested creatures, and there are many reasons why lying might benefit them. There can even be good reasons for lying on the rare occasion. Even when people aren’t intentionally lying, there’s a lot of misinformation in the world. People can be wrong or ignorant. That’s why it’s important to stay on your toes, practicing skepticism and critical thinking.

In the next few episodes of Heavenly Delusion, Maru and Kiruko will encounter people who lie to them and mislead them. In episode 7, it’s Mizuhashi and her group. In episode 9, it’s Juichi the information broker. In both cases, Kiruko and Maru are mindful that people are not always trustworthy. While the idea of lying isn’t a huge theme in this anime, it’s one small aspect that contributes to the dangerous nature of the outside world.

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Episode 7: The Immortal Order

Maru and Kiruko are in search of the Immortal Order, thinking they can find the old doctor who transplanted Haruki’s consciousness. Instead, they are found and invited in by a group who oppose the Immortal Order. Apparently, the Order runs a hospital which performs human experiments and tries to substitute machinery for body parts that don’t need replacing. The doctor in charge is named Usami. The leader of the anti-experimentation group is Mizuhashi, whose leg was amputated against her will and replaced with a piece of metal.

According to Mizuhashi, Dr. Usami has a secret: he’s keeping a hacked-up person on life support with a ton of machines. That person asked Mizuhashi to kill him. But apparently, she was so freaked out she could not do it. Now, she and her group protest the Immortal Order every day. But they can’t really make any progress because they’re afraid of Usami’s secret weapon: he’s keeping a live maneater/Hiruko in the basement. Mizuhashi hires Kiruko and Maru to go kill that monster.

Instead of finding a fast, ferocious creature, the two teenagers only find several weakened, dormant maneaters. Maru is able to kill all of them, but not before Kiruko suffers a strange kind of hypnosis. He hallucinates being brutally eaten alive by a bunch of small maneaters. Maru brought him back to reality by kissing him. Just when Kiruko starts to calm down from the traumatic experience, an older man with a gun approaches. He is impressed that they killed the maneaters, and says he wants them to kill someone for him. This man claims to be Dr. Usami. To be continued.

The hallucination scene was surprisingly intense. It had me fooled and I thought Kiruko was really getting eaten! What a relief that it wasn’t real. I felt annoyed that Maru kissed Kiruko, but I don’t have a better idea of what he could have done. It was interesting to learn about the Immortal Order, but I don’t know how much of the information was true or what context we might be missing. After all, Maru felt “wrong,” like they were being tricked or set up. Mizuhashi doesn’t seem genuine to me. I don’t trust her. But assuming her stories are true, I am interested to learn about that person is who is being kept alive by machines against their will.

I have several theories related to the Order and Dr. Usami, but they are loose and vague. For example, what if Dr. Usami was trying to make a new person out of body parts from other patients? Maybe the old doctor from Haruki’s past has changed bodies, or is developing immortality from the standpoint of putting old brains into young bodies. It’s all fascinating stuff. As usual, this sci-fi mystery anime makes me crave more!

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Episode 8: Their Choices

While Mizuhashi’s group protests outside the hospital, Dr. Usami takes Kiruko and Maru inside. They see a lot of evidence of people who are being helped by Dr. Usami with prosthetics. So, it seems the doctor is a good man. He takes the teenagers to see the “hacked up” person who Mizuhashi saw in her story. It’s a teenage girl, covered in bandages, missing her limbs, and hooked up to many different machines to keep her alive. She has only one eye, which was given to her by Dr. Usami.

Outside, a protestor throws a stone at the men guarding the hospital. One of them throws a rock back, making Mizuhashi fall and hit her head trying to avoid the projectile. The other two leaders of the protesting group decide to announce that Mizuhashi is dead in order to enrage the crowd. They encourage the crowd to become violent, which quickly results in at least one death. This is the group’s opportunity to take over the hospital and take down “The Immortal Order.” The leader’s true goal is to secure the technology and generators for their own goals. It was never about stopping evil human experiments.

Back inside, Usami asks Maru to kill the girl. He explains that she has a disease that will make her turn into a maneater/hiruko. For years, Usami slowed the disease by removing the infected body parts. But time is up. In order to end the girl’s suffering and let her die as a human, Maru agrees to kill the patient. But first, the girl asks to see the sky one last time. Usami, Kiruko, and Maru grant this wish. Then Maru follows through and kills her. She left a message for Usami, thanking him for keeping her alive for so long. It also says “I love you.” The message makes Usami break down into tears.

In the last part of the episode, Mizuhashi’s group took over the hospital. Usami’s patients left for another settlement. But before leaving, the patients told Kiruko that they recognized Robin from the picture. Apparently, they knew him as a young doctor who was practicing surgery. But he left the hospital one day without a word. Kiruko wanted to ask Usami for more information about Robin, but Usami asked to be alone with the dead girl for a bit. He then shot himself while holding her, ending his own life. As a result, Kiruko is left without further clues, and Maru is severely upset, saying that “My hands bring only death.” To be continued.

Writing a satisfying recap took four paragraphs, so I’m not going to spend much more time on my thoughts for this episode. I’m not even going to write about the fact that the disease caused people to become maneaters. (I’ll write about that some other time, maybe.) For now, I just want to state that this episode was masterfully executed for maximum emotional appeal. In a single episode, we learned so much about Usami and the girl he tried so hard to save. I sympathized with Usami deeply, and I teared up a bit when he cried. His decision to end his life was sad, but again, I sympathized. Kudos to the anime creators for presenting such an excellent and poignant episode.

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Episode 9: Children of the Nursery

There was so much new information in this episode that detailing everything would take multiple pages. So, I have only included a short, vague recap, followed by a few thoughts. Episode 9 showed us that in the past, the child known as Asura was not human. It’s likely that he was some kind of alien with psychic powers. After discovering a secret about his birth, Asura killed himself. Back in the present, Kona gets an unpleasant feeling that “whoever killed Asura is coming after Tokio.” Speaking of Tokio, the doctor discovers that she’s pregnant and isolates her from the rest of the children. The director of the nursery holds a meeting, saying that the facility is in danger now that the children know about sexuality and gender. The facility is called Takahara Academy.

Meanwhile, Maru and Kiruko encounter an information broker who tells them stories for money. He provided three theories about the cause of the Great Disaster: 1) asteroid impact; 2) alien invasion, and 3) mysterious terrorist attack that sparked world war. After realizing that one of his stories was bullshit, Kiruko tells the information broker to leave. Kiruko and Maru then stumble upon an amazing find: a closed down branch of Takakura Academy. The bird logo is all over everything. Finally, the two travelers have found a link to “Heaven.”

I’m not really sure where to begin with all this. The information broker, Juichi, was rather funny. I thought it might be interesting if there was truth to the story he told about the barricaded city run by women. But it seems like he made it all up at this point. Asura seemed really caring and wise. I wonder what the secret purpose of his birth could have been. Someone or something has been interfering with the cameras and security in Takahara Academy for the benefit of the children, and I think it might be the spirit or leftover will of Asura. I’m fascinated by the fact that Mimihime can see the shadow of Asura’s winged body stretched over the ceiling.

As for the cause of the Great Disaster, my gut says it’s the third option. Humanity created some kind of technology that gave them the sickness that turned them into monsters. There were also catastrophic effects on the environment, causing many earthquakes and long winters. That would be my main theory. Then again, I also think it could be a combination of all three causes. Alien lifeforms sped up the forbidden technology, perhaps, and the asteroid sped up the environmental destruction.

There’s still so much we don’t know, including the origin and nature of psychic powers, which many of the children seem to have. I’m thrilled by this anime and I hope to learn more answers in the next few episodes.

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Thank you for reading~