Heavenly Delusion, by Masakazu Ishiguro, is a mystery, adventure manga, with a slight horror vibe. It focuses on 2 sets of characters, Maru and Kiruko and Tokio and Mimihime, as they live in post-apocalyptic Japan. Tokio is a boy in a facility living an idyllic life with his friends when he is confronted by a question, “Do you want to go outside of what’s outside”, that makes him curious about what exists outside the world he knows. Mimihime is Tokio’s friend in the facility who has a dream about being saved by someone from outside who has a face just like Tokio. Maru is boy who is travelling on a journey to find “Heaven”. Kiruko is a handyman who is travelling with Tokio as his bodyguard on his journey with a mysterious past.

The art style is interesting. It reminds me of more child focused or slice of life manga accessible for a younger audience, with character designs focusing on cuteness. Like designs from cartoons like Adventure Time or anime like Nichijou although not to the same extent. This makes it seem almost deceptively light at first given how dark some of the content is further along this volume. I like this a lot. It made it way more impactful as the story got darker, an interesting contrast in my opinion. The art style is also very consistent and well done. Paneling was done well also.

Character designs were good for the human characters, but outstanding for the first creature we see. It was scary and disturbing, perfect for a post-apocalyptic monster. I liked how Ishiguro was able to contrast how orderly the facility was by having all the characters dress in a uniform to how disordered the outside was with all characters having a large range of clothing. One even randomly wears a motorcycle helmet.

The story was very interesting to me. I liked Ishiguro’s decision to have 2 concurrently plot threads, one being in the facility and one being outside, with the goal being them meeting. I have a lot of anticipation for the characters meeting especially since Maru’s goal will be fulfilled with this happening. I enjoyed the mystery theme kept throughout this volume, slowly feeding information about the world while keeping us on the hook to find out how everything got the way it is now. This really has built my anticipation for the next volume.

 The story, despite the art style, sets a dark tone early, with Kiruko being threatened with sexual assault, and keeps it with brutal gore further on. Despite this I do feel like this initial tone shift was used for shock factor. I liked how each of the characters got a decent level of focus, particularly Tokio, Maru and Kiruko. I found them likeable protagonists and liked the amount of development they each got.

I feel like there is an undercurrent of sexual tension between a lot of the characters that I see being used in the future for potential drama relationship wise and I’m interested to see how that develops. I can see a potential love triangle already and while I do not normally enjoy this, based on the strength of the rest of the story I’m hopeful that this can be done well.

The target audience for this would be people who enjoy post-apocalyptic settings as well as cyberpunk media. If you liked Darling in the Franxx and Ghost in the Shell, I see you enjoying this. The vibe this manga gave me was like Akira in my opinion, especially the arc where Neo Tokyo was destroyed. The more I think on it I think that Kiruko’s outfit was inspired by the classic Akira jacket, and I feel like there is a lot of inspiration from Akira in this manga in general.

The strengths on this manga are its story, characters, the mystery, and I liked the contrast between the art style and its dark tone. My only complaint was the scene that felt used for shock factor, but this did not even last long, and it was effective in what it set out for.

In conclusion I really enjoyed this manga, and I cannot wait to continue reading this and to watching the anime after it’s done this season.

I’d rate it a 4.8/5.

You can check out volume one of Heavenly Delusion on Amazon via my affiliate link here.