Heavenly Delusion: Volumes 1-3

Here it is. An article about an ongoing manga. This will be a general overview of the series, featuring some (non-spoiler) screenshots from the first three volumes of the manga “Heavenly Delusion”. The manga follows Maru and Kiruko as they make their way across post-apocalypse Japan on their journey to find a place called “heaven”. Secondarily, we are also shown a second storyline, following the lives of children raised in some kind of institute away from the rest of the world.

This manga has a high quality anime adaptation by production IG (ghost in the shell, Psycho Pass) which ends around chapter 34 of the manga. There are currently 58 chapters published.

I would describe the art style of Heavenly delusion as a more rounded, softer version of Akira. Characters have round bean-shaped faces and almost cartoonish expressions. This works well for the mundane day to day scenes of our protagonists living in what is generally a peaceful post apocalypse, and helps to lull the reader into a false sense of security. “nothing bad is going to happen”, you may think to yourself.

This could not be further from the truth as we quickly see that the wastelands are inhabited by other humans as well as monsterous creatures, neither of which have our protagonists wellbeing at heart.

Usually I would be hesitant to read a series that is ongoing, let alone to recommend it to people, but having read the currently available material I feel that a satisfactory story has been told, so much so that even if the publication ceased I wouldn’t feel as though I had wasted my time.

I won’t be going into any detail on the story, but I will say that it raises some interesting points about the idea of reality and perception as well as the link between the two. Kiruko has an interesting story arc concerning her understanding of her own identity, which has not yet been resolved. Though this arc is made clear in the first few chapters, I think it is more effective if you experience it yourself than read about it through me.

Overall I would recommend this to people who liked the story of The Last of Us, Girl’s Last Tour, Grey or I am a Hero. The story is fairly fast paced, so I would see if it grabs you by the end of volume 3 and go from there.