Heavenly Delusion

So...I couldn't stop thinking about the most recent manga by Masakazu Ishiguro of And Yet the Town Moves fame.

It got to a point where I ended up making a page for it on TV Tropes. It's pretty small, so help would be nice. I also wasn't sure how much of it to put in, since Volume 2 and 3 haven't been published officially, so I stuck with what elements from Volume 1 I could recall.

I already posted my thoughts about the manga in the Chatterbox thread, but I'm putting them in here anyway. (BEWARE OF SPOILERS.)

I ended up blazing through the manga via methods overnight. The Gender Reveal regarding both Kiruko and Tokio caught me off-guard, though they do make certain previous scenes more significant, so yay foreshadowing?

That said, the revelation that Kiruko has the brain of her brother via brain transplant gives me pause. I'm willing to eat crow if it doesn't get Jossed later on, but I'm almost expecting a double twist that reveals no, Kiruko's brother has always been dead, and she has always had her brain intact, but the trauma of seeing her brother get half-eaten by a Man-Eater flung her mind into thinking she's her brother whose brain got transferred to his sister's body. And meanwhile, the stitching in her head is from, I don't know, maybe from picking out bits of Man-Eater or something. Or maybe, part of Kiruko's brain did get Man-Eater infected, so the doctor took those parts out and replaced those bits with her brother's.

Again, I really need to stress this: I don't want to sound like a jerk towards people who feel like they should be a different gender than they are and if they end up not Jossing it later on, I will eat crow.

It just seems a little too convenient to say "brain transplant" when the subject whose brain is getting transplanted has had his lower half completely eaten while his sister didn't get any part of her eaten. Like, doesn't the brain stop functioning if the majority of the body gets torn to pieces? And aren't brain transplants not even that feasible anyway?

Or maybe I'm overthinking a lot of this.

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Jun 8th 2023 at 6:49:40 AM

Internet: Yeah, the manga's pretty great even if a bit extreme in some angles, but I doubt we'll be getting an anime adaptation any time soon.

Production I.G.: DID SOMEBODY SAY ANIME ADAPTATION?!

Yup! A full-fledged anime of Heavenly Delusion is coming in 2023 via Production I.G!

Barging in here to jumpstart discussion for the anime! As an anime-only, I would appreciate it if manga content got spoilered accordingly. Thank you!

With that said, the first episode is out. It's got great animation, BGM, storytelling, you name it. It's also already dropped a bunch of tantalizing mysteries in our laps. I figure that Maru is one of the children from that school-slash-facility. Of course, we don't know if the timelines are running parallel, so it's possible that Maru is an amnesiac Tokito that got out. Or perhaps a clone of Tokito. Or otherwise a descendant of Tokito. Gotta ponder more about that. On that note, the children in that facility are definitely not normal. One is incredibly physically gifted (like Maru!) and one has extremely sharp intuition. Fishy, fishy.

There's also enough civilization left standing for money to retain some value. Kiruko seems to have been getting by doing odd jobs in Tokyo, even. Would love to see more of the more "developed" parts of this post-Collapse society.

Why did the innkeeper drug her two guests? Most obvious thing I thought of is that she wanted to kill the crow monster herself, which I assume killed her family. Or might even be her family.

Marvelous pilot overall, can't wait to dig in more.

Good first episode. I like Kiruko too. She's tough and endearingly cute, but in a down to earth sort of way.

Episode 2: Kiruko wasn’t lying when he told the muggers from last episode that he was a boy. Neat bit of foreshadowing there. That said I’m not sure if Kiruko is LGBT or it’s something weirder like Kiruko’s brother somehow living in his sister’s body.

Figures that the crow monster was the manager’s son. Or at least the manager thought it was. It was obvious she was grasping at straws and that thing was gonna kill her. I dig how grotesque that monster was. And what the hell, Maru can straight up hijack its cells or something.

So I guess Maru is looking for Tokio then, whom he’s supposed to inject with a mysterious drug. And that’s supposed to save everyone, somehow. That’s a weird quest to be on. That’s assuming the timelines fit together, though.

Still wondering how the two sides of the plot are related. One point of connection: the sickly kid from the facility seems to have the same condition as that woman who gave Kiruko his Kiru-Beam. Maybe it’s a disease that turns them into monsters?

The facility’s kids are also proven to be superhuman, given that kid can just stand up after falling like five stories down. Maru seems similarly gifted too, so that’s another possible link.

A couple out there theories I’ve had, purely based on how I’ve heard how screw-y this show can get: high possibility that the outside world the facility kids are referring to isn’t actually post apocalyptic Japan. They might be floating in outer space, even. The other theory is like I’ve mentioned last week, that the timelines aren’t running parallel to each other. What if the facility of superkids is in fact ground zero for the Collapse?

So many questions. I’m loving it.

Episode 3: Thank heavens they didn't leave us hanging on Kiruko. Or shall we say, Haruki. A fit of dumb teenage bravado spiraled out of control, and his brain somehow ended up in his sister's body. Very sketchy considering that Kiruko was still alive and breathing when we last saw her, and there was also a gunshot. Seems obvious that the doctor was researching brain transplants. Now we consider the children at the facility have superhuman attributes... maybe they're being raised to be meat sleeves.

It was also cool seeing post-Collapse Tokyo. There's enough of a civilization there to support gambling rings. Also neat that we saw the Kiruko fan in this episode too.

Anyway, at least Maru knows what the deal is. Then a Man Eater attacks, and it's the goddamn fish with human limbs that that Kona kid depicted in his drawing. What the fudge!

"Real babies don't have faces." WHAT THE FUDGE!

not going to comment on the incest thing?

Oh yeah, I forgot to talk about that too. I’m not sure what to think of it except I hope Kiruko and Haruki weren’t related.

Another thing I forgot to talk about: pretty cool visual consistency with Kiruko’s wounds from her go-kart accident corresponding to her body’s present scars.

EDIT: I just remembered the innkeeper talking about how the children born post-Collapse have warped ethics and consider incest to be A-okay which does put the Kiruko thing into perspective.

Edited by fillerdude on Apr 15th 2023 at 7:09:07 AM

Episode 4: Huh, there’s a reason that one girl reminded me of Asui Tsuyu from My Hero Academia. And thanks to her we get a tour of the, let’s say, other side of the facility. The adults are even tracking close contact between the children down to the second. They have to monitor unexpected lesbian activity! I wonder if it’s specifically gay attraction they find unusual or are these kids not supposed to feel any sexual attraction at all? Which would hint they’re not human.

Those babies sure are faceless. BUT THEY CAN TALK. Could be what those kids grow from, could be Man-Eater larva. Or both. We also meet MINA, who in the grand tradition of overseer AI seems to be hatching its own schemes, partly involving hiding Tokio from security footage. They could also be the one who sent that guy Mimihime’s nude picture. I would have theorized MINA wants these mutant kids to bang and produce more faceless babies but the gay relationships put a damper on that idea.

Mimihime why are you talking about getting cut up and stabbed with needles? What have you seen in your prophetic visions?! Meanwhile Tarao wants Tokio to run away, because of course the facility is dangerous in some way.

I love the Junji Ito fish monster so much. And it got defeated by the power of marijuana. Hilarious.

Scenes that will always hit me in the feels: people enjoying food in situations where food is hard to come by. That youkan soup must have tasted fantastic.

Episode 5: "Star Quarrel", lol.

Kiruko is right, if you're gonna beat someone up, you gotta take them all out.

Apparently Maru was only taught how to disintegrate Man Eaters. Weird! Probably the reason Mikura took him in was precisely because he had the capability.

I guess the facility must be run by the Ministry of Reconstruction. Intriguingly, the children are apparently "built" to be immune to all diseases. I wonder if the goal is create a new type of humanity that can survive the wastelands. They also namedrop "Day of Fate", which sounds... apocalyptic.

I'm increasingly more convinced that the Maru's side and Tokio's side of the story are not happening in parallel. The framing of the shots seem too deliberate in making it seem they're happening at around the same time.

Poor Asura. I wonder exactly what kind of her mind her body was burdened with, to the point that she committed suicide.

Tokio seems to have gotten sick, except they explicitly ask "have I gotten sick too?" which is usually a sign that they're not. Considering their intimacy with Kona in a previous episode, and the way their vomiting looks eerily similar to typical depictions of women finding out they're pregnant in entertainment...

Okay, so now we have the Immortal Doctor, among which is a doctor that can fit humans with monster parts. Any body modification outfit has to be connected to the facility, right?

Guys, hear me out, that demonic-looking tumor from a dead super kid? Maybe think twice before messing with it.

Edited by fillerdude on Apr 29th 2023 at 8:25:50 AM

Episode 6: Never trust anything that says it's 100% safe.

Fatal Dive is much cooler than Maru-Touch. Lock that in, Maru. Too bad that was a bear. A bear that's clearly had it rough. At least beating it let Maru and Kiruko partake in its meat. And I guess if the bear wasn't there, the bandits would have trapped them.

Know what, I do like that Tokio is being a regular horny teenage boy.

Wait a damn minute Maru can dive into humans too? Or I think the more likely possibility is that the humans living in this post-apocalyptic world aren't all fully human! JUICY.

Asura looks alien. Like, gray, big-head alien.

And with Tokio's sex "reveal" this episode, I think I was right that last episode meant to imply that Tokio is pregnant. Will their baby be a faceless monster too? Stay tuned! Also MINA is definitely screwing with the security footage. Yet another AI becoming a crapshoot.

Ok, I think I'm confused as to Tokio's sex... So is Tokio a masculine-presenting woman or some sort of trans man? IDK, and honestly, I might never know until further episodes clear it up. In all honesty, I thought that Tokio and Kona's relationship was fruity (read: gay), but after EP 6, that seemed to be thrown into pieces. To me, it was yet another reminder to never assume the gender of someone based on appearance.

Tokio is a woman. She just happens to look tomboyish.

Tokio should be a woman, because she is heavily implied to be pregnant. It was pretty cheeky for the story to make her look similar to Maru, too.

Edited by fillerdude on May 9th 2023 at 8:39:42 AM

Episode 7: No glimpses into the facility this time, which is a first. It’s all about Kiruko and Maru navigating Immortal Order territory.

I don’t think these Liviuman guys have the full picture either. Seems like Dr. Usami is trying to kill the godforsaken machine-strapped abomination the woman saw in the hospital. What if said abomination is a kid from the facility whose power is some form of quasi-immortality? Usami himself could have been part of the staff there.

Somehow I knew that Kiruko was only hallucinating. Still a horrible scene though! I’m not sure why Maru decided a kiss was the best way to wake Kiruko up again? But hey it worked I guess.

We also get a clear look at Kiruko’s scar on his head. Nice little indicator that his past is what is presently on his mind.

Episode 8: Genuinely upset me. RIP to Dr. Usami and Hoshio. The way they’d accepted their time has come, no wailing, no ugly crying, just somber acceptance. Their deaths hit a little too close to home.

Notes about this episode: We see the blackish bruises again, and seems like they’re the symptom of a disease that as I’d expected, turns people into Man Eaters. But specifically after they die. Which means the demonic tumor the facility staff extracted from Tarao’s corpse is dangerous, BECAUSE OF COURSE IT IS.

Furthermore, Maru Touch works on anyone afflicted with the Man Eater disease. Which means that the hotel girl from a previous episode is probably infected…

I wonder if we will reencounter Liviuman. That Man Eater is going to wipe them out for sure. I can see survivors somehow pinning the blame on Kiruko and Maru. Another thing: Inazaki is confirmed to still be alive, at least he was still alive two years ago. Most solid lead Kiruko’s gotten so far.

Then the episode ends with Mimihime waking up from a dream… And remember how she was always talking about seeing a boy that looked like Tokio? Her weird statement about being cut up? Holy shit I think Hoshio is Mimihime. Which would lend more weight to the idea that the facility is set in the past of the Kiruko-Maru time period.

Usami literarly had the same VA as a boy who had a crush on Mimihime and they look pretty similar. So 99% it was them. Unless the author makes some weird shit that either of the plotlines is a sort of virtual simulation.

Oh, I don’t really check the VA precisely because it can spoil things like that… anyway, now that makes more sense. The guy who got the nudes seemed like he was good with gadgets. This is gonna make the facility flashbacks even sadder now.

Episode 9: We can finally put a name to the facility: Takahara Academy.

Okay, so Asura killed herself and has apparently been hanging around as a ghostly angel of doom. I think Asura telling Kona to find someone to love is her “seeing” that the future she’s chasing comes with Tokio getting pregnant. The obvious conclusion is that Maru is Tokio’s son, but who knows? We’ve seen what “babies” are like. Also the researchers, as seen in a previous episode, seem just as surprised that the children understand the concept of sex as they are with Tokio’s pregnancy. They probably really don’t see them as human.

What is Asura’s calling? To rid the world of humans and populate it with her kind a.k.a. the Takahara children a.k.a. the Man Eaters?

Anyhow, that storyteller seemed to be wasting our time, but usually that kind of thing tends to have a grain of truth in them. So maybe there was an asteroid, but it didn’t destroy the world, it only brought some sketchy alien organisms with it. Which an organization tried to experiment with, to disastrous results.

Also sad seeing Mimihime and Shiro after last episode.

Edited by fillerdude on May 27th 2023 at 11:29:19 AM

Episode 10: Jesus, Juichi’s backstory went places. The “people he hate” turns out to not only be the women, but also one of his fellow breeding slaves who ratted him and the mothers of his child out. I don’t think he was even planning on killing the guy, but the grudge bubbled up from inside him.

Jugo having the same freezing ability as the spider Man-Eater implies that that Man-Eater wax probably one of his mothers. Jugo seems like he’s the same as the kids with superpowers in Takahara Academy.

Speaking of the academy, they have a fresh batch of guinea pigs, and uhh why do they seem a little more unhinged?

The animators also popped off this episode. There’s like six or seven different styles going on, slightly disorienting but it works really well in the context of the episode.

Edited by fillerdude on Jun 3rd 2023 at 9:12:00 AM

Does that also mean the stories from EP 9 might be true and not just time wasters?

The one about Amazons town was true. As for the second one, he provided 3 versions: which one is true is up to speculation (though, all 3 can be true to some extent).

Apparently, they hired one of the Trigger up and coming directors (he worked on episodes of their recent shows) to handle this one (and a few of their animators). So yeah, it is very Trigger-style. So it's Fate/Apocrypha discussion all other again where some people point out that a lot of scenes actually had more animation while the others complain about deranged designes and a couple of slide-show scenes.

I missed the fate apocrypha discussion so it's nice I can see people's shit takes on real time this time! (It's not)

Meh, in my opinion the “Trigger” style worked for the episode.

I theorize about that in my episode 9 post. Yes, I believe his stories had an inkling of truth to them.

I've gotta say I've always liked how be it happy or sad there's always a definite sense of how things will continue to move even after Maru and Kiruko leave an area.

Also I just realised that the Hiruko was the kid's mother (it was wearing their special toy bracelet plus the similar powers and the timeline of her appearance), so at least one of those women that got killed was a former academy kid. In that case this proves that not only the condition but the abilities are hereditary. Maru is almost certainly Kona and Tokio's son so does he get a mix of their powers? We know Kona has some sort of 6th sense but I'm not sure how Tokio's powers would land on the ability to kill the Hiruko