Jun 15, 2024
If I can summarize Tengoku Daimakyou (TD) in one phrase, it is what you get when you combine The Promised Neverland S1 with The Last of Us.
The viewer dives straight into two parallel stories. On the one side, there's a group of gifted children being raised by robots and scientists in a school, inside a facility cut-off from the outside world. The school is seemingly a paradise... but you know that's too good to be true. On the other side, you've got 20-year-old girl Kiruko and 15-year-old boy Maru travelling across a post-apocalyptic Japan, where man-eating monsters called "hirukos" roam. Kiruko is a sort of
...
handywoman who was hired to take Maru to a certain place where someone who looks like Maru lives. The problem: the only thing they know about that place is that it's called "Heaven".
In a hellscape full of anime with excessive exposition that often ruins a good mystery story, TD is a masterclass of "show, don't tell" storytelling. The viewer isn't immediately nor overtly told what's really going on in the "school". You get clues throughout the series, but it's up to you to figure it out. Similarly, you find out about Kiruko and Maru's pasts, as well as the nature of the apocalyptic event, through bits and pieces. Both stories are clearly connected, but the pleasure of finding out how is yours.
The characters are great and I love Maru and Kiruko's chemistry. There's a fine blend of mystery, action and comedy. The animation and musical score (by Kensuke Ushio) are gorgeous. The story has good pacing and unravels in a very rewarding way for the attentive viewer.
For the moment, no season 2 has been announced, but the manga is near completing enough material for another season. This anime was a passion project by Production I.G. and had enough commercial success to justify more seasons. So I'm not afraid of the series being cancelled after only one season, like The Promised Neverland was.
Beware: there is a scene with explicit sexual violence, which has caused some controversy around this anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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