is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Ishiguro. It has been serialized in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon since January 2018. An anime television series adaptation produced by Production I.G aired from April to June 2023.
The story is divided in two storylines with one involving the characters Maru and Kiruko as they travel across a post-apocalyptic world, while another story focuses on a group of children who live in a school. The series was inspired by a manga Ishiguro read in university with the intention of making it different from his previous work, And Yet the Town Moves, and portray a proper dynamic between the two leads as well as the evil they face.
The manga has been received positively, with praise given to its sense of mystery and character relationships. The anime adaptation has received a similar response for its focus on relationships and gender issues.
Plot
In the outside world, 15 years have passed since an unprecedented disaster completely destroyed modern civilization. A group of children live in a facility isolated from the outside world. One day, one of them, a girl named Tokio, receives a message that says "Do you want to go outside of the outside?" Mimihime, another girl who lives in the same facility, has a prediction and tells the upset Tokio that two people will come from the outside to save her, one of whom has the same face as her, while the director of the school tells her that the outside world is Hell. Meanwhile, a boy named Maru, who looks just like Tokio, is traveling through this devastated Japan with a girl named Kiruko, in search of Heaven.
Characters
Main
A 15-year-old boy who is traveling together with Kiruko. He is skilled in martial arts. / A girl who is around 18 to 20 years old who travels with Maru. She is searching for both the doctor who performed an operation on her and a friend she knew.
Haruki's older sister who raced electric cars in Tokyo.
The younger brother of Kiruko Takehaya who looks up to Robin.
Takahara Academy
A young girl who lives in a facility isolated from the outside world. She has a similar appearance as Maru.
The oldest of the facility children who is a talented artist, although his drawings seem peculiar.
A socially inept girl from the facility who seems to be clairvoyant.
An observant, tech-savvy boy who seems to be attracted to Mimihime.
The youngest of the children, she is very agile and curious.
A very athletic and energetic child.
A young girl in the facility who loves to dance and swim.
A young boy close to Tokio who is suffering from a debilitating disease.
A young girl who is attracted to her classmate Nanaki. They are often seen kissing each other.
A young girl who is attracted to her classmate Iwa. They are often seen kissing each other.
One of the children with an unsettling appearance, with healing and telekinetic capabilities, who was close to Kona when they were younger.
A young timid girl who avoids the other children due to her power causing intense hallucinations upon eye contact.
The elderly paraplegic director of the facility.
The artificial intelligence running the facility.
A nurse and interpreter in the facility who gets promoted to assistant director.
A doctor working in the facility.
The Outside
Kiruko's childhood friend and a sort of mentor who went missing years ago.
Totori is a young girl who works with bandits in trapping and robbing people.
A scavenger and con artist with a dark past who encounters Maru and Kiruko during their travels.
Production
Development
After leaving the manga magazine Young King OURs due to a writer's block, Masakazu Ishiguro started drawing Heavenly Delusion with unintentional similarities to his favorite work, Akira, such as the postapocalyptic setting and the dynamic of Maru and Kiruko. Ishiguro aims to write "evil" properly with his manga in contrast to his previous work, And Yet the Town Moves. In this case, humans who no longer feel like actual people. Heavenly Delusion is a collapsed world, so social constructs like laws and rights groups no longer function. Since the goal is to make Heavenly Delusion different from his prior works, Ishiguro hopes to gain a new audience. Once coming up with sketches of young characters suitable for the shonen demographic, editorial members from Afternoon offered Ishigiuro to write for their seinen magazine again.