This Week in Anime

What the Hell is Going on in Heavenly Delusion?

Chris
Nick, there's a lot of talk of problematic ships these days. Fortunately, I've found one ship everybody ought to be able to agree on.

Oooooh boy. Even before getting into whoever was waking and baking, instead of getting this series streaming everywhere upon its premiere, just that whole issue of the title of this show requires clarification. Because even under ideal circumstances, it would be hard for people who heard about this new Heavenly Delusion anime to find it thanks to that swerve of nomenclature.

It says a lot that while there was plenty of chatter about the project and its source manga leading up to the release, in the wake of the "premiere," pretty much all of the discussion I saw around the anime for the next couple of days came from confused US fans trying to figure out if it had been released here on Hulu yet, and how we could find it.

This included clarifying the unexplained first episode's multi-day delay for the U.S. Hulu release, which also amusingly featured Reuben contradicting a post by Hulu Support itself, which claimed that they didn't have the streaming rights to the series as Hulu was already streaming it in other territories.

Tengoku Daimakyo Episode 1 is now up on Disney+ internationally with multi-language subs! There's a one-off delay with Hulu for the US audience that'll be resolved early next week. Shouldn't impact the normal launch for remaining eps once it goes up, apologies for the delay.

— Reuben Lack (@thereubeh) April 1, 2023

They are mistaken. This will be available on Hulu later this week, hopefully today.

— Reuben Lack (@thereubeh) April 3, 2023

It's a bizarre bumble from a company with the media presence and promotional power like Disney, especially picking up big names like Tokyo Revengers there, as well as Bleach and this, a highly anticipated Production I.G adaptation of popular manga Heavenly Delusion.

I realize even we haven't clarified that title business yet, by the way, so know that that's problem point #2: Eschewing the official English title used elsewhere in favor of the decidedly less search-friendly "Tengoku Daimakyo."

Of course, that brings us to the third issue: Even if viewers did somehow manage to stumble onto this show against all of the big D's apparent efforts, trying to watch the subtitled Japanese version might still prove more trouble than it's worth, with the captions on these streams regularly drawing ire even in comparison to Hulu's already famously lax standards.

I'd heard speculation that the mistimed captions might result from Hulu not playing nice with AdBlock, though even switching it off did little to help. But that might not have been the issue since the recently released fourth episode featured subtitles that worked!

It's a quality-control Russian Roulette that, for all the issues I have with Crunchyroll and HiDive as companies and services, makes me appreciate that they can at least get the basics right!

Regardless of the audience, it'd be enough of an annoyance for any series. But it's incredibly frustrating that so much of the discourse around this anime has been about its botched launch. Because what Disney has in Heavenly Delusion is a series that absolutely should have tons of people talking about its plot. It's every bit as wild and outlandish (complimentary) as the trainwreck of a release.

We're only four episodes in, and some Samurai Flamenco-level swerves are already powering this show.

That said, given the way some dorks out there get about characters' gender identities, perhaps it was a blessing in disguise that I didn't have to sift through a ton of reactionary takes following the reveal of Kiruko's situation.

Part of me wonders if Disney's odd obfuscation of the show is down to them not thinking it fits their "branding" or whatever. Because so many of this show's big, reaction-worthy moments can get grisly, weird, or some wonderful combination of the two.

You just aren't going to get kids killing a horrible fish monster with weed anywhere else on Disney+.

It's the most open endorsement of the drug I've seen in an anime, even if, in this case, it's on account of its weaponizable properties. But it also feels right at home in a series like Heavenly Delusion, which has been all about odd indulgences in what it's covered so far. Weed, cross-gender brain-switches, and a fair amount of casual same-sex smoochin'.

Apart from the release woes stunting its audience and not accounting for others caught up on the manga, it could make following Heavenly Delusion and discussing it on its own merits week-to-week a real treat. It helps that the writing and direction of the show are structured so well, with clever stuff like the obfuscation of exactly when the school segments take place compared to the Kiruko/Maru parts. That's a shoe drop I'm anxiously awaiting, even though I know it'll probably be a while.
And also, given Maru's near-certain connection to Tokio, the former's misgivings about getting together with guys are all the more ironically amusing.

See, those are the sorts of shenanigans that lent themselves to group watches, apart from telling people where they can even watch the show. This series got me cackling like a sicko over a lady getting disassembled right after they played us with a "He's still my son even though he's a monster" moment. I need to be able to share this with others to catch their reactions!

For a show so built on offbeat weirdness, it's amazing how it wields that for genuinely arresting moments like that. It's a series that will drop that these kids have superpowers, then hang a suspenseful stretch on Tokio's inexplicably goofy pose before wrapping around to reveal it was all a misdirect.

The reveals in episode three absolutely roundhouse kicked my mind back to that "joke" from the first episode. It plays off all of those weird inclusions the show has already thrown in as compelling clues. Such things like the bizarre scene of Kiruko getting frisky with the mirror later in that first episode suddenly seem to crystallize until you back up again and go, "Wait a minute, that just raises further questions!"

It's great.

I mean, there are certainly other reasons to feel bad for her. But she also drugged our leads and may have been feeding others to what she thought was her giant mutant bird-son, so maybe things evened out.

It chains together seamlessly when we see the faceless "babies" in the school sporting the same eye markings as the man-eaters. We don't get anything approaching answers yet, but it gets our gears turning, which is enough this early in.

Two shows that could be united on how discussable they are and their inclusion of plot-relevant tomato crops.

Even without medicating, the experience of Heavenly Delusion is elevated, thanks to how great it looks. Wonderfully realized backdrops depicting the disastrous post-apocalypse-scapes and direction that crushes it in major, revelatory moments.


Even its weirder moments stand out thanks to a well-framed presentation. Heavenly Delusion sometimes gets fanservicey, but even absent the weight of the context we later get, a shot like this still feels like Art™️.

I mentioned this in last week's column with Nicky, but I love how the show's ED captures that vibe. Even as we're propelled along by all the mystery elements and the maybe-flashbacks to the school, it makes me think I could keep having a good time with this series regardless of how long it runs, just coming along with Maru and Kiruko as they crash cannabis communes and scam people out of batteries.

We can't help anybody find Heaven, but we can at least spread the good word about Heavenly Delusion, er, Tengoku Daimakyo if you want to search it up. We, like company dubbing managers, shouldn't have to be the ones doing PR for what ought to be a huge show like this, but that's just the wasteland that Disney and Hulu have left us to wander.

Though it could always be worse. At least Anime Strike isn't still around to pick this one up.