Heavenly Delusion (manga)

Heavely Delusion (天国大魔境,) is a manga series written and illustrated by Masakazu Ishiguro.

The series has been serialized in Monthly Afternoon, Kodansha's seinen manga magazine, since January 25, 2018. It has been licensed in North America by Denpa, who translated and published the first volume on December 30, 2019. A 13-episode anime adaptation produced by Production I.G. premiered in April 2023.

Story
Within the safety of the walls, youths are raised in a nursery-style setting by robots. While life there may appear stale on the surface, the children are full of potential and curiosity. In many ways it is like a slice of heaven. The outside world is a hell-scape. It is almost entirely void of anything mechanical and is now inhabited by bizarre, yet powerful super-natural beings. Maru, with the aid of Kiruko, is out there crisscrossing what was once Tokyo for heaven. But after searching for so long, maybe heaven is more of an untenable dream than a potential reality.

Profile
Heavenly Delusion started in Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine since 2018. Heavenly Delusion has since been licensed by Denpa in North America, with the first volume being released on July 18, 2023. The series, still ongoing, consists of 8 volumes published by Kodansha under the Afternoon KC label, in which is translated into English and released in North America by Denpa. With the first volume of the manga publishing, Tasuku Watanabe directed a Promotional Video lasting 30 seconds of the manga.

As of December 2018, the total circulation of Heavenly Delusion has reached up to 130,000 copies in total. The manga inspired a TV anime airing on multiple television networks, and was then licensed by Disney in order to broadcast the series internationally on Disney+, with new episodes releasing every week on Saturday.

The series itself was derived from a one-shot manga Ishiguro drew back at Monthly Comic Ryū, and when he looked back onto his works that never got the chance to be published. Since he didn't get an opportunity to serialize the series completely. However, the ending of SoreMachi and now working under a new magazine at Kodansha, Ishiguro remade and renamed the series, and was then fully able to serialize it at Kodansha's Monthly Afternoon magazine.

Themes and Influences
Citing the manga series Akira as a source of inspiration, Ishiguro said that when he draws a collapsed, dystopian future; he'll always leaning up towards Akira. Although he tries to avoid similarities, Ishiguro said that similarities and comparison between one and another is inevitable. The title, under the concept of "Heaven" and another "Realm"- Makyō, particularly because "Heaven (天国)" will show up. Adding in "Great (大)" in the middle and lastly adding in "Realm (魔境)." Both of which was because he wanted to, and was long thought after thinking about the title respectively. In addition to Akira, Hirohiko Araki's Jojo's Bizarre Adventure was also another influence. While Kiruko's design was based upon a one-shot Ishiguro did, Maru's design was based upon a character in his previous notable work, SoreMachi, called "Futaba Kon."