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So I just finished reading Sora no Otoshimono (Heaven's Lost Property) and my GOD beneath all the levels of ecchiness there are some form of lessons to take away from the “plot” or storylines. I discovered this manga through the anime after seeing one of the scenes on this subreddit, and I binged watched the first two seasons and the first movie in 3 weeks. (PS: I have not watched the last movie which was suppose to be Season 3 because of the bad reputation it has.)

After finishing the anime, it left me wanting more because obviously it didn’t answer any of the questions ... of what exactly the Synapse is, who exactly are the residents of the Synapse, what exactly is the purpose of the Angeloids and the biggest mystery what happened to Sugata in the past. Hence, I turned to reading the Manga and boy was I not disappointed, it was hilarious and touching all at the same time.

For the people who are lost in what I just mentioned, Sora no Otoshimono is basically an Ecchi, Harem, Comedy, Romance anime about the perverted MC (Sakurai, Tomoki) and his involvement with “Robot Angels” or Angeloids who have come to disturb his peaceful life in a small village in Japan. The series delves into all forms of ridiculous ecchiness but as I said before it is more than that.
SPOILER ALERT


Right, now back to the point of this post which is how unexpected I felt this Manga is and how bad I felt for almost writing this off as a run of the mill Harem, Ecchi series.
Firstly, regarding Tomoki, despite all the shenanigans he gets into for being a pervert, he is actually one of the most kind-hearted individuals in the series. We see this throughout the series by how he treated the “annoying Angeloids” who had destroyed his peaceful life. All of the Angeloids in the series are completely infatuated with him and there are good reasons why. Angeloids require a “Master” who will give them orders to execute and their entire existence is based on this. Of the three main Angeloids in the series, only Ikaros has Tomoki as a Master while for the other two Nymph (Beta) and Astraea (Delta) don’t. Both Nymph and Astraea desire Tomoki to be their Master but he consistently refuses this request because in his eyes nobody should have such as relationship. He doesn’t see them as tools for his entertainment but sees them as people, and he believes that everyone should have the freedom to choose what they want to do.

Is that your Own Decision?
For an Angeloid to ignore their Master’s orders…? Is it wrong?
For an Angeloid not to have wings? Is it wrong?
To cry while eating a candy apple…To love pastries…To see animals at the zoo…
And be happy. Is that so wrong…!?
Decide for yourself …! What do you want to do…!

But as Angeloids this is a concept that is extremely foreign to them, they don’t understand the concept of “free-will/freedom”. **To them it is easier to follow then lead**. Then there is Chaos another Angeloid who doesn’t understand the concept of “Love”, and hers is another heart-breaking story. The underlying storyline being them understanding what it means to be free and the beauty of being able to choose what they want to do instead of following orders, it is pretty difficult to explain how touching this is without going in depth into the different chapters so I will leave it up to you to read the Manga to understand this.

Secondly, the mystery that is Sugata, his backstory was never revealed until the last few chapters in the manga but it was constantly hinted that something happened throughout the series. A basic introduction for Sugata would be a student going to the same school as Tomoki, founder of the New World Discovery Club and a boy who lives by the river in a tent obsessed with flying. Before I proceed, I urge you to read the series because his story is really heart-wrenching that you can only get after reading the entire series. So why is Sugata the way he is, did his parents die when he was young? Quite the opposite, he was dead in his parent’s eyes. Sugata had an older brother who was as obsessed with flying like him, in fact you could say his obsession was because of his brother. So why the past tense, well his brother died was Sugata was young due to an accident with a hand-glider because Sugata did not check the equipment properly. Having come from a rather well-off family, their capable heir had just died and the cause of it was his brother. From then on, Sugata’s parents stop acknowledging his existence and it was at that point that Sugata started looking for the “New World”.

Well, my brother was set to become the proud successor to the Sugata Family. When my parents learned that my brother’s death was my fault…they came to despise me. A few years later, my younger brother was born and with that I became completely non-existent to them.
That’s when I started looking for the “New Continent”. But that “New Continent” wasn’t really what I wanted…
It was a New World that I wanted!! I wanted a world where it was okay for me to live!!

The above few lines occurred at the climax of the ending, it was Sugata’s wish that essentially erased the world below. But does that make him a horrible person? You decide.

Lastly, the significance of the Synapse, I was constantly intrigued at the concept of the possibility that there is an advanced civilization we haven’t found out about and the Synapse presents that. The Synapse is basically a civilization which is eons more advanced than the humans in the series, in fact they used to be humans but through technological advancements they have become what they are now “Angels”. The two major residents of the Synapse are the King (Minos) and the inventor (Daedalus) who created the Angeloids. Aside from that the Synapse is largely a huge place with very few residents, but why is that so? It is revealed that Daedalus had invented a device which can grant any wishes, the people of the Synapse rejoiced but it was short-lived. Soon they found that getting what they desired instantly wasn’t all it was made out to be and a population of millions soon became thousands, with a majority of them committing suicide, *DARK* for an ecchi series isn’t it? The remaining residents of the Synapse went to another device Daedalus created which is a “Dream-maker” since residents of the Synapse are unable to dream unlike humans. This device puts the person to sleep and allows them to live as a human down below on Earth. It is further revealed that the Synapse created the Earth below and has the power to manipulate the thoughts of the humans and even reset the world as they pleased. So why would they create such inferior beings? The answer is that they were bored with their existence and needed entertainment, but soon they became jealous of the inferior creatures they created.

Humanity seemed…To have everything we knew we lost…
The Humans we created as our playthings soon became the object of our deepest envy…
What we coveted above all…was the human ability to “dream”
And so we came to crave that sense of “Giving up our freedom”.

The resident of the Synapse who remained chose to give up the advanced civilization of the Synapse and the ability to get anything they want at the snap of their fingers for the chance of a human life albeit a fake one down on Earth. What the Synapse actually represents is a Dystopian future of humanity, similar to Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” in which “What we love will ruin us”. The residents chose to commit suicide because it was easy to get what they desired and that removes all meaning of what they desire in the first place. If there is a lesson we can take from the Synapse it is this, there is a huge difference in getting what we want without working for it and earning it. The sense of accomplishment in earning what we desired is that difference, working hard and earning something, it gives life meaning. If we simply gain whatever we desired it loses its meaning. Working hard is a talent and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Boy that impassioned speech went longer than I expected. To conclude, Sora no Otoshimono or Heaven’s Lost Property is a beautifully constructed story with different layers that you have to experience first-hand. I urge you to give this series a shot even if ecchiness is not your thing.