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Jan 18, 2024
tl;dr Overall decent, interesting premise and setting, good art, good ost, fun but limited characters. Somewhat boring plot as of 10 episode in.
This anime definitely stands out from the crowd with it's setting, probably it's main draw. Not many anime are willing to dive into other cultures and while not the most accurate, it's good enough to captivate. While interesting in that aspect, it feel short in the writing so far and leave a bit to be desired in the main characters present through the show.
Art - 8
While it might not be the most breathtaking anime you've ever watched, this is definitely a major
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step above the rest and has beautiful visuals. You're not going to find insanely animated fight scenes or meticulously drawn realistic motion, instead you'll find gorgeous scenery and interesting characters designs. While the animation itself is just alright, the style and backgrounds really bring it up.
Sound - 8
Good music and sound design, good solid voice work. Not much to say here, a step above average.
Story - 6
This is where the anime falls short somewhat. While I believe that this anime has the chance to evolve in the second half of the season, I'm 10 episodes in and it makes it difficult for me to be invested in what is going on. The main character is extremely nonchalant about her situation which leads the viewer to believe not much is at stake. The episodes are also episodic in nature where a majority of what occurs within an episode has no effect or at least little effect in the episodes proceeding it. While there has been some build up and connecting plot points which appear to be leading to something bigger it has been slow goings and is rarely mentioned. In terms of how the individual episodes fare, they're ok. Some have emotional beats that are decent, others are just kind of boring. It wont knock your socks off but the show does try to take itself seriously.
Characters - 6
While I find MaoMao's personality fun, one has to admit that really there's not much to it. She's the typical bored/lazy know it all with a twist, she finds it difficult to keep her nose out of trouble. While fun and cute, her character isn't really challenged so I hesitate to give it a higher rating. Then there's Jinshi, who becomes interested in MaoMao after the first episode. This happens for very little reason and becomes pretty much his entire character for as far as I've gotten up to. There have been hints of something deeper underneath all that but that's about it. Aside from those two, there are pretty much no other characters in the show. The rest of the cast are generic and for the most part unimportant. The characters are fun but not fun enough to carry the show as a comedy. There seems to be some depth to the characters but they haven't taken developing their characters seriously enough to make it a drama. Really, there are pretty much only two actual characters so it is hard to give the character writing a higher rating.
Overall - 7
I will probably finish this show, it's not bad, but I think it really was overrated, especially considering what is out currently. I have no doubt that the plot thickens and the characters grow deeper but as of right now, it's extremely difficult to place this as any higher than slightly above average. After 10 episodes I was hoping for a little more, but currently it's a bit hard to find the motivation to keep watching.
Reviewer’s Rating: 7
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Jul 31, 2023
**NON SPOILER OVERVIEW**
Heavenly Delusion is one of those shows that really only comes around once in a very long time, I feel it's so unique in the presentation of its plot that it's a must watch. The author does a brilliant job of crafting a world and then placing you in it and slowly sprinkling bread crumbs for you to figure out yourself practically without any overt exposition at all and a lot of the enjoyment I found out of watching the show was piecing it together but by bit until the realization dawns on me. That happens multiple times where previous episodes connect to
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the rest and small scenes provide very important clues to figuring out the general plot.
I'll admit I don't think this show is for everyone, it has some very heavy themes and probably one of the most difficult scenes I've ever had to sit through and watch but I think if you're ok with very adult messages it is definitely a must watch.
The art is a 10. The plot makes you feel like a genius once you figure it out. The characters are very endearing and while near the end I feel like there was a bit of a fumble related to how they dealt with the difficult scene I mentioned earlier I think the pros of the characters far outshine the error there. The music is outstanding.
My overall rating is a 9.75, if you're willing to be confused and enjoy piecing the story together for yourself this is for you. Definitely one of my favourites of all time now.
**IN-DEPTH SPOILER SECTION**
This section is for the breakdown of my score if you're interested in reading with the 4 categories Art, Plot, Characters and Music/Audio:
ART: 10
One of the best looking animes I've seen in a while, while there aren't many too many crazy action scenes the few that exist are incredibly well done. The anime isn't afraid of jumping between art styles most notably when fighting the spider man-eater I felt like it jumped between 3 different animation styles seamlessly which really brought another level to it.
The show makes the slice of life-ish sections very warm and inviting while keeping the intense heart pounding sections vivid and surreal. They do this mainly through how they animated Kiruko's face I feel like, where during moments of levity her face is much more animated, round and changes shape a lot, feeling reminiscent of Doraemon. Then during intense sections they keep her face very well defined. It really adds a lot to the tone. Aside from that I really can't praise the art enough just generally speaking I feel like you really can't find a fault in the art unless you just dislike the style.
PLOT: 10
This is easily the best part of the show. Like I mentioned in the overview Heavenly Delusion very rarely provides the viewer with outright exposition, and this is how it should be done far more often than it is in anime. People always hear of the rule show don't tell but really this is the gold standard. While the plot can be confusing at first, really that's the point. It only provides information when the character themselves become privy to it, mimicking how confusing the world is for the characters themselves. Then by connecting the two storylines do you as a viewer finally understand more than the characters. When I realized that the "Heaven" the students were living in must have taken place years before Kiruko and Mary's story it was one of those "A-ha!" moments that I will never forget. It all fell into place and then I also had the horrific realization that Shiro and Mimihime were Usami and the mystery dying girl and that the children themselves were the man-eaters, that kind of feeling of having something dawn on you without being forced by the anime itself is very difficult to achieve but Heavenly Delusion absolutely nailed it here.
With that the author also planted seeds to revisit, for example no doubt the fact that Maru could "enter" the King of Hotels girl will be a plot point later on, not to mention Juichi and his baby. All these plot threads while unfinished at the moment will no doubt come back in S2 or beyond. That and all the mystery still surrounding the main plot like what caused the great collapse, what happened to Maru's twin and Tokio, who is Doc. The plot is a series of interconnected threads that all each tangle into one another relating in some way.
I will say as it stands, the current plot is incredible as a proof of concept going forward, but there is potential for further seasons to come apart at the seams because of how complicated the plot and the moment is. I'm putting my faith in the author to be able to continue to put out a high quality and consistent plot but because of the nature of the season it is "unfinished" as major plot points still haven't been revealed even by the end of season 1. That is the only caveat I feel forced to include.
Characters: 9
Most of the character, even side characters in this show are likeable or understandable. No-one is black and white all good or all bad. All the characters feel extremely grounded and relatable for the most part. The main duo is extremely likeable and while their relationship is confusing it feels real in that sense that despite it they are able to continue on this adventure and still care for each other in their own way.
Usami/Shiro for example is right away a stand out character even though when you just meet him, he hardly gets any screentime yet still managed to pull you in by the end of the episode. Then when you find out he's Shiro the sadness hits again. Juichi is another good example of a side character you barely get to see but his motives are very understandable and while he seems at first like a bad guy you realize that instead of labelling people as "bad" or "good" really you should be looking at them as people with their own goals and motivations who could be bad in the moment but carry understandable intentions. This may sound obvious but too often in anime are character one of the other, very rarely do we see two "good" characters with different motivations come at odds morally.
However the reason why I knocked a point off in this category was for how they dealt with the episode 12 scene. If you know, you know. For me, that was genuinely one of the most difficult scenes to sit down and watch, it was absolutely horrific just how many layers of mental torture was put into one scene. For that, it was extremely well done and a very major hurdle for Kiruko to get over, except actually it wasn't. The way she brushes off what happened after one short conversation with Maru was absolutely crazy and not in a good way.
Allegedly as the manga progresses it is properly dealt with, but as of right now I haven't read the manga so I can't actually say whether or not that's true, I'll just have to put faith in the author. I will get around to reading the manga eventually so I'm praying it is. That's really the only complaint I have with the show, and it's not even the scene itself, I feel like the scene while not particularly necessary for the over arching plot really shines a light on the despicable world that they live in, while for a majority of the other episodes it's been quite happy go lucky for the most part. This should have really been a grounding moment for Kiruko and Maru to show how harsh the world truly is and how it can bring the worst out of people but oh well.
Music/Audio: 10
Kensuke Ushio is at it again making a beautiful soundtrack, really not much to say the OST is pretty much perfect. The OP is also very well done with an absolute banger of a song, and the ED is also quite good fitting the more carefree mood of the anime.
In terms of audio the voice acting is phenomenal, the sounds effects are well done and louder sounds effects like gunshots don't blow your eardrums out which is strange praise but I feel like happens way more than it should (look at psycho pass, danmachi, sao etc).
Honestly no complaints here.
OVERALL: 9.75
Truly one of the best shows I've personally ever seen, the plot is interesting and let's you piece it together yourself, the characters are likeable and realistic, it's got the feels, it's got sick animation. If you're willing to really sit with this one and do a little bit of theorizing while you're watching I really can't recommend this enough.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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Apr 21, 2021
TL;DR: The first three quarters of the manga are overall very good with some exception with the last quarter setting up something that never pays off, leaving the manga feeling unfinished and hollow. Simultaneously I Am a Hero has character quirks that left me feeling off and a serious problem at developing relationships.
Story: 3
I'm not going to sugar coat it, the plot of this manga seems unfinished, there are several chapters dedicated to setting up a seemingly overarching purpose for the zombies but by the end it's simply thrown away and nothing is explained. I'm not going to spoil anything but just know you're in
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for a very unsatisfying ending. The rest of the story is good and for the most part character motivation is believable.
Art: 8
The art is not typical and instead has a unique rough and realistic-ish look to it. It's hard to describe and personally I found it somewhat distracting however barring my personal preferences I can see the quality and detail in it and it is overall superb, especially in the gruesome zombie related scenes.
Characters: 7
The manga's characters were a bit more of a mixed bag for me. I liked a majority of the characters and I thought Hideo's development shone for the duration of the manga, even the ending seemed fitting for him, at least looking at it through the lens of his character. While Hideo's development was very good his co-star Hiromi's was not quite as great. She starts as a fairly generic high school girl and she is somewhat developed through the manga but by the end her character flip flops around and to me is just becomes downright unlikable. There were a few other characters I didn't care for but they aren't glaringly poor and it was mostly my personal subjective tastes. Another large issue was the way romance was handled. The romantic relationships between the main characters felt unnatural, in fact the character's themselves acknowledge that a few times, yet they still end up getting together not just sexually but romantically as well. It didn't feel natural and an incredibly huge plot point was the result of the romance and was very petty to boot.
Enjoyment: 6
Despite giving this manga an enjoyment of 6, there were moments that were genuinely amazing and deserving of a 10. This manga is incredibly grounded and realistic and for that reason alone it was already quite good in my books. The only hits to enjoyability were the aforementioned final chapters and a weird quirk with all the characters. I'm not putting this in the characters section because I don't think it was inherent to the character's themselves but rather random "ha ha" eccentricities in these characters as it has no real consequence to them as people aside from throwaway scenes (for the most part anyways). For some reason, every character is horny as hell with few exceptions. Like I get it's the apocalypse but come on, the author even somehow managed to fit a hot springs fan service scene during an intense chase.
**Spoilers**
Not to mention the age gap between Hideo and Hiromi when they have sex one being 35 and the other being around 15 respectively. Or Oda saying "Your cock is so good" at a very inopportune time that seemed kind of tone deaf to me (if you've already read it you know when I'm talking about).
**Spoilers**
While not make or break it just left me exasperated, every few chapters left me thinking "not again". It just brought me out of the experience. Maybe it's just me, I dunno. It just really didn't work.
Overall: 6
In the end, this manga is solid, and it hurts me to put it at a 6 because it could've been much much higher. It shines in the earlier chapters but leaves so many threads hanging I could knit myself a sweater. It has a lot of odd quirks and the manga can be horny at the weirdest of time (in my opinion) but that and the bad ending aside I Am a Hero really is a gold standard for zombie related media. I think if you're more of a "journey is more important than the destination" kind of person this manga could turn out to be a favourite of yours. Otherwise, if you're more like me and need a good conclusion you should probably avoid this manga like the plague.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Mar 27, 2018
Hello all, I'm going to start right off the bat by saying that I'm not a critic, nor am I particularly smart. I'm just a normal guy trying to watch some anime. Now when I looked at VE on MAL I was really surprised at the amount of <5* reviews. Now I'll be the first to admit that VE is not perfect, there are some really weird logic fails. ie little girl jumping 20 feet into the air and stabbing and killing like 10 people. I think it's safe to say that's just anime doing its anime things. So, I'm just gonna do that review
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format thing that everyone decides to do so.... uh, yeah, let me just get into that I guess.
Story - 9
So, yeah, I gave the story a 9/10 because the story was incredibly beautiful. I've seen a couple other people say this but yeah, the story is pretty simplistic, it's about a little girl who has known nothing but war try to find what love means. Each episode is essentially its own little story in itself, giving little snapshots of life in different stages. Each episode also grows Violet's character somewhat, because she has to deal with all these emotional troubles, her emotionless character has to react in ways she never has. Yeah, that's about it, I think a lot of the bad reviews might have a little to do with the expectations of what it was going to be. I think a lot of people maybe thought it would be a bit more grandiose.
Art - 10
KyoAni, honestly, is there anything else to say?
Sound - 9
OST was great and really set the stage for the anime, there were a few scenes where the background music overpowered the characters but it's not as if it was irredeemable. Still amazing.
Characters - 8
I think a big thing that a lot of people gave VE criticism for was the lack of character for Violet. I will admit it is a little unrealistic for Violet to have absolutely zero emotions but considering how she was treated by everyone in the military besides Gilbert I can imagine how she would end up like that. I mean, she was effectively a slave, you have to stay stoic in situations like that, there's no room for emotions.I do agree, though, in some way, I think the character development was a little slow, the first 4 or so episodes had little to do with actual development of her character. I believe the development was a little bit on the slow side, and the side character were also kind of bland, but to be honest, you don't see them too much anyways so it's not too much of an issue. Also, the new character introduced each episode actually surprised me. Although they were limited to the "tell" method, the characters actually had a lot of depth and emotion behind what they were doing. You could actually relate with most of the character in each of these individual episodes.
Overall - 9
Though not perfect, it is a really enjoyable experience. I've noticed that a lot of the reviews have only watched 4 episodes or so and I'm going to tell you straight up; you need to watch more. This show has a very slow build up and honestly, at episode 11, I don't think its done. No one knows for sure how the end is going to be, but we can only hope it's amazing.
TL;DR
It's good, beginning is slow though.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Jan 2, 2015
Well, this light novel was pretty much amazing. Firstly the premise is new and fresh and the take on the post apocalyptic world is different, though I may have enjoyed it if it did have a LITTLE bit of a bigger focus on that side of the story. Although there is only one short book I had a fun time, the characters are pretty stereotypical, though, I don't know, maybe that's your cup of tea. The pictures were neat, their faces looked oddly small though... I kinda wish there was an ending to this small book, I'm not one for endings, but for some reason
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I really crave a satisfying conclusion, but that's just me.
Side note: me personally I think 'STARS - you ex lover is dead' is a song that fits this ALMOST perfectly, just me though, also I dream of an anime, though I know that's never going to happen.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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