Tengoku Daimakyou

Spring 2023 hasn't hit the ground running, it's hit screaming like a Bugati Chrion Supersport 300+. Possibly my top 2 series (#1 for sure, ...

One of my favorite moments in the premiere comes when the innkeeper (the kids are amazed to find an ](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-07.jpg) [inn](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-41.jpg) still operating) [makes a faulty assumption sabout Kiruko and Maru](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-64.jpg), because it’s such a classic Ishiguro moment in a context we’re so unused to seeing them. There are a bunch of kids living “](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-06.jpg) [inside](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-01.jpg)” – in a school of some sort, with robot teachers and no overt connection to the outside world. And most especially the world created by Kaneko is as beautiful as it is ](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-08.jpg) [unsettling](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-72.jpg), immediately burning itself into the brain. [Kiruko](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-27.jpg) ( [Senbongi Sayaka](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=133460)) is a little older (“18 – no, 2o”), a little more cautious, and carries a battery-powered gun which doesn’t shoot bullets. It even puts me in mind of Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou a little – a post-apocalyptic series by a genius mangaka which presents a gorgeous vision of ](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-05.jpg) [our own world through the lens of decay and decline](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-10.jpg). [Maru](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-11.jpg) ( [Satou Gen](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=174504)), appears to be a pretty normal 15 year-old boy apart from some unreal combat skills. And the rest of the staff is stellar, most especially Art Director Kaneko Yuuji, one of the absolute legends in the business.](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-02.jpg) [This premiere is, in a word, great. The reasons are quite different – much more conventional in this case – but the essential conundrum of what and what not to say is very much a common thread.](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-01.jpg) [It says something about what kind of season this is – and what kind of series Boku no Kokoro is – that Heavenly Delusion isn’t flat-out my top pick. And the least is probably all I should say, though I can’t resist noting that this series is very, very weird.](https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Tengoku-Daimakyou-01-03.jpg) [In many ways Tengoku reminds me a fair bit of the legendary sci-fi anime of the 90’s and noughties. And there are a pair of teenagers roaming that outside world, an indeterminate time after “the collapse”, when most of the trappings of modern civilization seem to have, well- collapsed. His offbeat sense of humor pervades the work, no matter how bizarre and graphically disturbing it gets (and it gets). Possibly my top 2 series (#1 for sure, and #2 is a tossup) are right at the gun, and Mix was pretty high up my list, too.