An unknown length of time ago, the civilizations of the world crashed and normal law and order ceased. This was called The Collapse. Natural disasters were common, food was scarce, and conveniences like clean water and electricity became things of the past. The world is a wasteland of abandoned, broken-down cities and towns. Then, fifteen years ago, a mysterious event took place that was labeled the Great Disaster. Nobody seems to know what happened, but after that point, man-eating monsters began to roam the world.

If this setting seems interesting, then you will probably love Heavenly Delusion. To me, this show is the best anime of Spring 2023. Please enjoy my detailed review of Heavenly Delusion.

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Visuals: 9/10

Production I.G., the animation studio behind Heavenly Delusion, has a long history of producing high-quality anime. Knowing that, I should not have been at all surprised that Heavenly Delusion looks amazing. I’m in love with the art style, which is just different enough from normal anime to be unique, but not so different that it’s jarring. The semi-realistic and semi-stylized way in which the characters are drawn looks perfect to me. The characters generally have tiny noses, fairly realistic eyes, and round faces with blush lines on them.

The character designs are certainly not the most colorful that you can find in anime, but they are still excellent. Not every anime needs to have bright colors and bizarre clothes to make a character memorable. The features and hair of each character is different, so there is no trouble telling them apart. Beyond character designs, the designs for the monster/Hiruko were also quite impressive. They don’t look as horrifying or grotesque as some of the demons in, say, Chainsaw Man, but they look otherworldly in a very eerie way.

Backgrounds, lighting, and colors are good all around. While the color pallet is more realistic than many modern anime series, it never looked boring or depressing. There were a lot of really neat backgrounds and shots of ruined cities and abandoned homes. The lighting was done with good cinematography, though definitely not the best I’ve ever seen. During most action scenes, the animation was smooth, and the action felt real and pressing. Another important aspect of visuals to me is face expressions. In Heavenly Delusion, the expressions were perfect.

There is also some more Avant Garde artwork in this anime. The visuals for the opening song are quite unique and the movements look realistic, almost traced from reality. Additionally, in episode 10, there is a moment where the art style changes when Maru and Kiruko have just survived an attack from an ice monster. I’m not sure why the style changed here, but the reason may have been low budget or a different animation director for that episode. In any case, although it was a little jarring, it was also a cool style. I don’t consider it a major flaw.

Based on everything I’ve analyzed, I would normally give the visuals category 8/10. However, because I love the art style and face expressions so much, I bumped it up to 9/10. All ratings are subjective, anyway.

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Story: 9/10

Heavenly Delusion follows two different stories: the present time with Maru and Kiruko, and fifteen years in the past with Tokio at Takahara Academy. It is a well-crafted story that moves smoothly between the two settings. The show leaves clues and information about the world without ever doing a long exposition dump. In fact, for some people, there isn’t nearly enough exposition. The settings and events of Heavenly Delusion are basically mysteries. It wasn’t until the last few episodes that I started to get a vague idea of what was happening. There’s still a lot I don’t know or understand. (What was Asura, for example?)

For those who always need explanations, Heavenly Delusion will not be enjoyable. It lacks clarity and satisfying answers. This would be a weakness in the story according to some. However, I happen to enjoy it. Even if I don’t understand half of it, I like the mystery. Speculation is also fun. When I finally do understand something, it feels really neat. Importantly, Heavenly Delusion is intentional about its vagueness and mysteries. If that wasn’t the case, it would be bad writing. As it is, though, Heavenly Delusion is well-written, and the mystery of its story is not a flaw.

The pacing was good and consistent. While not typically thrilling, it was fast enough to stay entertaining. There were several surprising plot twists, with the first appearing at the end of episode 2 and explained in episode 3. The third episode was very well done for what was mostly a flashback episode. The ending episode was also pulled off effectively, satisfying what absolutely needed to be done, but leaving plenty of mystery and unknowns to consider. Heavenly Delusion managed to tell the beginning of a truly interesting story in its 13 episodes.

The story of Heavenly Delusion was well-balanced in terms of content. There were moments of humor, horror, sweetness, and sadness. Episode 8 was a case of a highly emotional episode, and it succeeded in making me shed a few tears. There were also good story themes, ranging from basic to profound. Themes and ideas included: the complex nature of love, disillusionment, sexual exploration, questioning the status quo, identity and gender, the cruelty of the world, ethics or lack thereof in science, and the resilience of humans. These are all fascinating to me.

The director of Heavenly Delusion was Hirotaka Mori, who previously worked on various anime series as an episode director and/or storyboard artist. Considering that this is his first work as the main director, he did astoundingly well. With smooth storytelling, fascinating mysteries, surprising plot twists, and interesting themes, the story of Heavenly Delusion deserves 9/10.

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Audio: 8/10

The voice-acting, music, and songs are all terrific in Heavenly Delusion. The opening song, which totally slaps, is “Innocent Arrogance” by BiSH. I love the electric guitar solos as well as vocals. I haven’t translated the lyrics yet though. The song makes me think of a desperate journey to find something, which is fitting for Heavenly Delusion. The ending song is “Dare mo Kare mo Doko mo Nani mo Shiranai” by ASOBI Doumei. This is a fun, upbeat song that makes me think of casual adventures with a loved one. ASOBI Doumei’s music video for it is also awesome and references the anime with the costumes and settings.

The cast did a great job with voice-acting. Please note I will only be referencing the Japanese seiyuus since I rarely watch English dubs. Gen Satou, voice of Maru, is a young seiyuu who just got started in 2018. The only other role I know him from is Chrome in Dr. Stone. Satou did amazing as Maru. Sayaka Senbogi played Kiruko and also performed excellently. I recognized her from somewhere, and looking her up, I found that she played Haru from Beastars. The voice actress for Mimihime, Misato Fukuen, also impressed me immensely. She has been acting in anime since the mid-2000s and somehow managed to escape my notice until now.

I also want to mention a few roles that were done by much more experienced and famous seiyuus. The most prominent name is Kazuya Nakai, voice of Robin Inazaki. He is best known for playing Zoro in One Piece and Hijikata in Gintama. I’m surprised he did such a convincing bad-guy voice in Heavenly Delusion. One of my top 10 favorite female seiyuus, Mamiko Noto, appeared in the brief role of Asura. She was amazing as usual with her peaceful, musical voice. Noto has been voice acting since the 90s and has only grown more beautiful with time. There are other names I could throw out, but those are the main ones I wanted to mention.

The instrumental music for Heavenly Delusion stuck out at me a few different times. I wasn’t able to find any uploads of the original soundtrack, but only a few covers of pieces on YouTube. They are short but powerful emotional melodies, mostly on piano. The best example is the track “I Love You,” which appears in episode 8. I also remember noticing the music during the scene when Kiruko is running to find Robin. I’m not sure what the piece is called. There are probably some good faster-paced tracks, but I don’t remember them clearly. Anyway, the OST is great.

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Characters: 9/10

The character category for Heavenly Delusion is easily another 9/10. Most of the cast had interesting starting concepts – for example, Maru is an ex-gangster boy, and Kiruko works as an armed bodyguard. The character development was impressive. The cast is large, so there isn’t time to develop everybody in 13 episodes, but the show did well with prioritizing which characters to focus on. Most of it centered around Tokio, Mimihime, Maru, and Kiruko. There were also entertaining side-characters who appeared only briefly. For instance, there was Totori the young innkeeper in episode 6 and Dr. Usami in episode 8.

I spent a bit of time typing out notes on the important characters. We’ll begin with Tokio. At the start of the story, her sex and gender were unclear, but I correctly assumed she was a girl. Tokio is gentle, thoughtful, inquisitive, and imaginative. Curiosity is an important driver for her. Over the course of the series, Tokio goes through a huge variety of life experiences and pain both emotional and physical. Despite this, her core character of being sweet and true to herself does not change. She is emotional but also extremely resilient. Although I wanted to see more about Tokio’s mental processing during the last two episodes, I still think she was a great character overall.

My favorite character (aside from Kiruko) was Mimihime. She is intelligent, kind, and extremely perceptive. Of all the children, she seems to be the only one with an obviously nonhuman physical feature: her long, floppy ears. Those rabbit-like ears are adorable, and there’s something about her quiet, deadpan vibe that I love. The show gradually reveals that Mimihime has the power to see hints about the future in the form of hallucinations. She is also the only one who can see the ghostly image of Asura above the school. I often relate to characters with strong intuition, as well as those that are a little weird or different. So, it’s no surprise that I adore Mimihime.

Before I show my notes for Kiruko, it’s worth noting that the adults in Heavenly Delusion are also well-written. The show does a good job introducing and exploring them in the brief time it has to do so. Besides Dr. Usami, Junichi the information broker is an interesting adult character – if not always admirable. The unnamed female director of Takahara Academy is a good antagonist. She is eventually revealed to be downright evil despite seeming rather sympathetic earlier in the anime. In the last two episodes, we learn that Robin is a horrible, perverse person. It’s important for an anime to have a few villains, though.

Next up is Kiruko, one of the most important characters. The transphobes will disagree, but I think Kiruko should be referred to with male pronouns. Although there is a sci-fi explanation behind it, Kiruko is technically a young man. Since his mental gender identity doesn’t match with his biological sex, he is transgender. I love having a trans character in anime who isn’t a joke or a threat. It’s a rare thing in anime and something that should be applauded. Now, as long as the continued story doesn’t force a female identity on him, I will be very pleased.

I do appreciate that Kiruko is trans, but regardless of gender, I mostly love his personality. He is adaptable, resourceful, brave, and funny. His often humorous responses and habits help make him relatable. One of Kiruko’s most admirable traits is his resilience. Despite going through so much, he doesn’t give up, and still tries his best to forge a path ahead. Now, Maru is an awesome character who deserves his own paragraph at least. But for the sake of keeping the review to a reasonable length, I must end this section here. Sorry, Maru.

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Personal Enjoyment: 9/10

My enjoyment for this series was very high. While there were some annoyances, they were minor compared to the bigger picture. I’ll spend a little time mentioning and discussing some things I enjoyed. I already said how much I love having a character whose gender and sex do not match. I mean, it sucks that Kiruko has to suffer this way, but I applaud the representation. I’ll restate: it’s neat that this anime recognizes the difference between sex and gender.

On a related note, a discussion can be had about gender and sex in this anime as a whole. Takahara Academy functions as an educational orphanage, so it’s safe to assume the children have been here from a very young age with no outside influence. These children were never taught about biological sex, gender, or human sexuality. I don’t think this is a good thing – neglecting sex education is especially bad. We see the consequences of this with Tokio’s teenage pregnancy. However, sex education aside, it’s interesting to consider the effects of a system that raises children without any clear gender roles.

I suspect the children would be happier and have less reason to judge each other and themselves for failing to conform. That being said, human nature would still assert itself, and the kids would find other ways to be assholes to one another. Or they would eventually detect differences even without knowing what sex was, and would use that to create standards of judgement. But even in then, I think good could come of erasing strict gender roles.

Hypotheticals aside, we can see the results on the characters. I like the way Tokio, Kona, and most of the other kids behave with regard to gender. They are unconcerned with it – whether male or female or whatever, they are just kids being themselves. Kona has no toxic masculinity, and Tokio feels no pressure to be submissive as a woman. Some kids are obviously more or less masculine or feminine than others. This should be allowed as they begin to assert their individual identities. It’s really a fascinating thing to think about, but I believe I’ve rambled about it for long enough.

Back to the topic at hand, there was so much to enjoy in Heavenly Delusion. There were aspects of each category that were enjoyable. I love to nerd out over Japanese voice actors, and think I liked Maru’s voice the best in this series. As I mentioned in the visuals section, I really like the art style in this anime. Additionally, the theme of personal identity is very important to me, whether it has anything to do with gender or not. On a final random note, one of my favorite parts in Heavenly Delusion was the visit to “Tomato Heaven.” I just want to live there, eat fresh tomatoes, and get high from good cannabis every night. Sounds like an amazing life if you ask me.

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Overall Score: 8.8/10.0

The overall score is calculated by taking the average of the scores from the five categories we discussed. A score in the high 8s is beyond excellent. I’m extremely impressed with Heavenly Delusion and recommend it to anyone who would like an intense and mysterious sci-fi adventure.

Thank you for reading~

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