Heavenly Delusion

Episode 11

After weeks on the sideline, the "Heaven" side of Heavenly Delusion takes the narrative's reins and slides downhill towards the inevitable disaster at the bottom. It feels a bit like the anime playing catchup, and that's more or less true. The adaptation, particularly with episodes 8 and 10, has prioritized aesthetics and cohesion in favor of following the manga to the letter. I've already argued that this has been an elevating approach too, so I don't mind if it means a more utilitarian installment now and then. I'd say that this episode benefits from the rearrangement, where Mimihime takes charge and becomes even more likable—and pitiable.

Naturally, we don't ignore Kiruko and Maru's antics for a full week. I wouldn't forgive the anime if it ever did so. But their pursuit of Takahara's Ibaraki facility remains in progress, and the only big revelation we get is the apparent appearance of Robin in the direction they're heading. However, I'd like to focus on the car-naming scene for a second. It's yet another comedy routine that has endeared me to these idiots. I can't help but draw a line to the nursery scene towards the end with how the anime arranges this material. We were supposed to assume that Maru had been searching Tokio but with the presence of the KirukoMaru Mk. II, alongside the appearance of a second baby next to Tokio Jr., maybe it's more complicated than that. It's nice to know that even when I think I've figured things out, Heavenly Delusion delights in throwing wrenches around.

That said, there are a lot of details in the Heaven segments that support my disjointed timeline theory. Ohma is a big one, but she's also a character whose importance goes beyond solving the series' puzzle boxes. Her power, for instance, shows the depths of the depravity within the people in charge of this experiment. While the other children's supernatural powers have ranged from helpful, to benign, to mysterious, Ohma's is the first that is outright hostile to both the user and the victim. It forced her to become a recluse, and she's a sensitive enough girl to share the trauma of her targets. The episode's other details, such as the gun looking suspiciously like Kiruko's laser, hint towards the probable military applications of whatever the Takahara Academy is researching. They couldn't care less about the children's welfare.

Mimihime comes to the rescue, and if you didn't already like her character, then this episode paints the portrait of a girl with lots of quiet strength and one heck of a pair of ears. Seriously, that was one of my favorite revelations in the manga—those were her ears the entire time! They don't call her Mimihime (literally "ear princess") for nothing! More seriously, however, I can't help but admire the fortitude she shows in befriending Ohma, listening to Kona, and dealing with her hallucinations and portents of an awful past and/or future. Consciously or not, she probably has a better idea than anyone else in that building of the disaster in store for them, but she carries herself forward regardless.

I could make a laundry list of the revelations, big and small, that make me shake my fist in Ishiguro's general direction. Ohma's powers, for instance, resemble the maneater who attacked Kiruko in the parking deck beneath Usami's hospital. I already mentioned the gun. The director talks about the kind of brain transplant that happened to Kiruko—and there's no surprise that the utopian language, vision, and science surrounding Takahara Academy have all been in service of preserving the power of one older elite person. Mimihime sees Kona turn into a Hiruko, and we finally hear the term used by someone other than Maru. Whatever it means, the identity of the monsters Maru has been slaying has never been clearer nor more tragic. There's still at least one big unanswered question—what spurred their transition en masse into monsters—but I imagine the final test put together by Sawatari and Aoshima won't go as planned. Hubris, after all, is the common thread linking much of the apocalyptic disaster fiction Heavenly Delusion takes its cues from.

I think I can say now we're firmly in the unraveling stage of Heavenly Delusion's mysteries, so our big question turns from, "What are the answers?" to, "Will these answers be worth it?" More specifically, does this series have anything important to say beyond its admittedly deft and intricate narrative sleight of hand? We can't answer this definitively yet—there are at least two episodes to go and more manga to read or adapt beyond whatever stopping point the anime finds—but this is an important question to keep in mind. Many stories of this ilk lose their luster or collapse entirely at this point. Personally, however, I'm not too worried. Heavenly Delusion is weird and ambitious, has an endearing cast of characters, and has been warming plenty of thematic irons in the fire. So long as it follows through on these strengths, I think it can keep its endgame as magnetic as its setup.

Rating:

Heavenly Delusion is currently streaming on Hulu as Tengoku Daimakyo.

Steve is on Twitter while it lasts. He wants to try Kiruko's cooking. You can also catch him chatting about trash and treasure alike on This Week in Anime.