About a year ago now, my boyfriend and I watched a short 13 episode anime called Tengoku Daimakyou, or Heavenly Delusion. The fact that I’m still thinking about it today is a testament to how good I found it. I’m someone who can’t really enjoy a piece of media if the characters aren’t developed well, but this show goes above and beyond with humanizing the two protagonists, as well as some of the best post-apocalyptic worldbuilding I’ve ever seen.

The story follows the two main characters, Kiruko and Maru, on their quest to find “heaven” in a world that has long come to ruin at the hands of mutated creatures called “man-eaters”, exploring the dynamics of ruined civilization while monster hunting along the way, with an ambiguous goal to find someone who looks just like Maru. They encounter several challenges, both to do with these monsters and with the other humans, which is already much more than other dystopian shows are willing to do. Shows like Attack On Titan had me in the beginning, but once they started to completely ignore the sci-fi aspect of it, I became disinterested. It’s very possible to make a post-apocalyptic commentary on humanity without just focusing on humans, and I think Heavenly Delusion does an excellent job at just that.

Aside from following Kiruko and Maru’s adventures through the world of the future, there’s a simultaneous subplot that follows a girl named Tokio in an extremely prestigious facility for doing experiments on gifted children. Without too many spoilers, I just want to say that these two plotlines end up intertwined in the most intriguing way, and there are many more layers to the plot than I would have initially anticipated. I would definitely recommend it, and I’m waiting very impatiently for a season 2. Truly underrated series.

I’ve attached the trailer for the series to this post, but I would also highly recommend checking out the episode opening and endings. They’re some of my favorite out of every show that I’ve watched.

Heavenly Delusion trailer – 2023