Heavenly Delusion: Do you want to go outside of the outside? — Otaku Orbit
Heavenly Delusion is a manga series by Masakazu Ishiguro. Set in a post-apocalyptic Japan, a unknown disaster destroyed modern civilization 15 years prior. The first episode, “Heaven and Hell,” doesn’t elaborate on the details of world but does set the tone for the series. Heavenly Delusion starts inside a dome cut off from the outside world. The dome seems to be primarily filled with children. The school appears to be completely taught by robots. During a surprise exam one of the students receive a message, “Do you want to go outside of the outside?”
Heavenly Delusion instantly reminded me of a number of series, mainly The Last of Us and The Promised Neverland. If your familiar with any of these series you’ll notice the similarities. Outside the dome a young man named Maru and a young woman Kiruko. Maru resembles one of the girls from the dome, Tokio. They search the beaten down terrain looking for homes to scavenge. They enter a home, find a toothbrush, unused tissue, and tragically the corpse of two people. Kiruko notes that most humans died from starvation.
A strange creature stalks at night
During the night a strange crow like creature descends on the empty town and lands on the roof of the Hassou Inn. This creature shows up later and it’s creepy. In the morning, Kiruko and Maru are attacked by five men look to rob them. Maru single handily takes on two of them effortlessly dodging their knife and pipe attacks. He’s agile and quick. He’s clearly trained in combat but he might have some enhanced abilities. Kiruko pull out a gun that shoots a laser beam. The gun is powered by a battery that requires a charge.
Heavenly Delusion makes a point that the gun only has four shots at most. This is obviously going to matter in the future. Kiruko and Maru arrive at the Inn run by a woman. Kiruko pays her 12 dollars meaning that money still matters to a certain degree. However, Kiruko feels like she’s shortchanging the woman and gives her something more valuable, AA batteries. Kiruko asks the innkeeper if she’s seen two men in a photo she keeps in a plastic bag. One is a man named Robin Inazaki and a mysterious man she calls Doc.
A dark series with humor
During the visit the innkeeper assumes Maru and Kiruko are siblings who are engaged in an incestuous relationship. It’s played for laughs but I think it’s being implied that incest happens more frequently in this world. The humor in this series could help balance the potentially dark themes I assume will come and I think that might set it apart from other post-apocalyptic series. The innkeeper prepares her shotgun as the previous mentioned crow like monster reappears and lands outside her window.
Heavenly Delusion isn’t a series I normally would gravitate towards but I like what I seen so far. I didn’t mention the animation but so far I think Production I.G has done a phenomenal job. MAPPA is still the standard but I.G. does good work and it shows here. It’s early in the series so a number of questions are introduced and not answered for example: What’s the significance of tomatoes? What are the monsters? What happened to Japan? Did it happen elsewhere? Who are the men in the photo?, and why does Maru look like Tokio?
So what do yo guys think? Did you like this episode? Have any theories on some of the questions I asks? Did the series remind you of The Last of Us or The Promised Neverland?
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Originally published at https://otakuorbit.com on April 5, 2023.
