Tengoku daimakyô

No one should sleep on this. It's easily the best show of 2023 hell it's even up there with the best and I've seen all the best anime has to offer.

The story starts with Kiruko and Maru traveling through a post apocalyptic Japan, it might seem like a normal adventure and explorative based story but it comes of deeper as the story progresses. We also get to witness another story in the same anime which gets you pondering when's it's all gonna add up.

The Main Characters are very detailed and there's no abnormality in their patterns or decision making, every form of grief is processed realistically and time is allocated for healing, This kind of structure flows with the other part of the story making it feel like one huge orchestral rendition with no room for errors. You know Maru and Kiruko have goals but you still completely get all the reasons for their detours and their strong personalities, nothing feels forced while at the same time the anime treats you to a perfectly crafted world, relatable in world characters, stunning animation and wonderful soundtracks.

Outside the plot, the story also creatively addresses some of the main real-life social issues from gender norms, artificial intelligence, environmental sustainability, governmental malfeasance, and classism.

All above would be enough for a 9 but the anime had to keep the audience guessing with the complexity of the second part of the story and how it shaped the first. Always seeing what seemed like the end of characters in the 2nd story always felt bothering and mind blowing if you tried putting 2and 2 together.

So far they've created a stunning foundation and I'm really hyped to see how it all plays out.

At first it promised an interesting tale, some huge twist and discovery/arc of the two storylines intertwining into an entertaining/complex resolution.

There are many interesting moments, kewl action scenes, thoughtful events that come over the episodes. But putting it all together is hugely disappointing. The characters, especially those at the institute are very indistiguishable from one another, their storyline(s) just as well.

The only and main pros of this anime are the visuals and moments and scenes that are fun to watch.

But the story is beyond irritating, NO real questions are answered and by the finale the viewer only has MANY more questions and ZERO explanations. What is with this modern pretentious manner of writing shows where the authors think they are being smart by not answering questions or completing the story. THAT IS THE WHOLE POINT OF STORIES and it has been since the first story was told by the fire.

Worth a watch probabily but dont expect any compeling storyline, it just fizzles into ...

If you're a manga reader, you know it can be difficult to follow complex stories with monthly issues. For example, the latter half of Attack on Titan must be read in one run to fully appreciate its depth. I think this is precisely why it lost some of its popularity toward the end of the story-it was too complicated, and casual readers couldn't easily follow the storyline.

The same is true for "Tengoku Daimakyo." I've appreciated the mangaka's other works, such as And Yet the Town Moves and other short stories (all interesting and mixtures of humor and mystery). However, I stopped reading Tengoku Daimakyo around 30 chapters in, simply because it took too long for the next chapters to become available.

The show is a godsend. It has incredible illustration, ambiance, and music. It captures the strong chemistry of the two leads, and the story never shies away from confronting the more controversial philosophical questions (e.g., who are you if you are in someone else's body?).

Watching the series within three days allowed me to see connections that I completely failed to see when I first read the manga. Once you understand how the two storylines intertwine, all those minor visual cues carry much more significant emotional weight (e.g., the view of the sky in episodes 8 and 12).

This show is a mental puzzle with answers lying right in front of you (which reminds me a bit of "The Prestige"), and the reveals are done in such elegant ways that you have to devote your full attention to feel its impact.

You can clearly see influences from Satoshi Kon, Akira, and even some of Doraemon.

After finishing season 1, I re-read the manga and found the answer to many outstanding questions, but there are still significant unanswered questions that remain. I am eager to see Season 2, as I believe if the manga concludes in a satisfactory manner, this series will be known as a masterpiece in the history of animation.

The name precedes itself, coming to think of it, this year is kinda weird from the new animes and strange story lines that's keeps popping out, makes me wonder how far can one's imagination stretch from the concept to the story line to the whole execution of the whole plot one could sit back relax mingle with all the reactions thrown at them by the weird writers and their crazy containers of concept that makes you utter the oi or nani nanda kure but mostly though, wow I'm amazed by how the whole thing turned out agents that keeps unraveling the truth from the get go to the adversities that they come face to face with in their everyday basis that's like the whole thing that makes you want to keep watching but the studio's smart too that much i can tell, it's not easy fitting all the whole good stuff into the fussy first twelve or in this case thirteen that comes to mind instead by marketing the anime which is like sole purpose of the studio boom here's another sequel you predicted.

I've never written a review on imdb, but I feel compelled to do so now because this anime is simply criminally overlooked.

The animation quality is superb, the story is compelling, the characters are interesting and likeable, the humor is doled out in perfect doses, the music is excellent (one of those animes where I never skip the intro); every episode leaves you wanting more.

That said, I will now embrace the downvotes by committing the most egregious sin imaginable in the world of anime and recommend the dub over sub.

I know, I know... but hear me out.

1. The voicework talent on display is simply phenomenal; the protagonists are the obvious standouts, but even the smaller character did their job extremely well. And while this part is arguably subjective, what is absolutely objective is...

2. The translation. Simply put, whoever did the dub translation has a far superior mastery of the English language than their sub colleague. Greater clarity of meaning, more appropriate phrases, nuance, and last but not least - the timing (at times the sub will reveal a punchline to a joke or the crucial part of a sentence before the characters actually react, making for an intermittently awkward viewing experience and a few jokes ruined).

3. Audio engineering: As strange as it seems, the dub is actually better in this regard than the original audio. No spoilers, but one of the more jaw-dropping examples in episode 5 or 6, in one of the most haunting and tragic scenes I've ever seen on screen. A big part of that is the effect over the voice speaking. Out of sheer curiosity I checked the scene with original audio and was dismayed to find the goosebump-inducing voice now sounded like it came from a barrel on the other side of a valley. And there are other examples like this.

Either way, no matter which way you prefer to watch, dont miss out on something this damn good.