Culture news This anime was inspired by one of the best video games of all time and its director says so!
The world of Japanese animation and that of video games have always maintained a close relationship. One can serve as inspiration for the other, and vice versa. Something that was confirmed again with Hirotaka Mori’s comments during the Anime Central convention.
A fan of the game from which he took inspiration for the artistic direction of his adaptation
This held its last edition at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, near Chicago. Like other exhibitions of its kind, it invited industry players to come and talk about their work. This is what Hirotaka Mori, director of the animated adaptation of the manga, did Heavenly Delusion (Or Tengoku Daimakyou in Japanese). It was on this occasion that he revealed that he had been inspired by the video game The Last of Us (initially released in 2013 on PlayStation 3) to bring Masakazu Ishiguro’s manga to the small screen. The latter explains on site that he is a big fan of the game to the point that he bought an artbook and asked that the artistic direction of the adaptation be similar. Something fans saw right away:
It must be said that the synopsis of Heavenly Delusion is similar to that of The Last of Us : we follow the adventures of a young man and a young woman in search of a place called “Paradise”. It is in a contemporary Japan, but where humanity has been ravaged by an infection, that the two make their journey.
Subscribe to Disney+
Crossed destinies?
In addition to having a similar artistic direction and context, Heavenly Delusion and The Last of Us also share some success. On specialized sites, the first displays an average score above 80% and is among the top 200 best anime of all time. Concerning the reputation of the second, it no longer needs to be done. The year of its release, the Naughty Dog studio indicates that it was nominated more than 250 times for an award for the best game of the year. It is often cited among the best games of all time and it is its sequel, The Last of Us Part 2, which won the Game Awards in 2020, including best game of the year. And before the success of the Fallout series, it was also The Last of Us (by HBO) which established itself as one of the best serial video game television adaptations with a post-apocalyptic setting.
A success which may not stop since the production of season 2 of the series is launched. The last days, it is the media Deadline which affirms that it should even be broadcast in the early days of 2025. Conversely, unfortunately, the future of the Tengokyu Daimakyou anime series is more uncertain. Despite his presence at the Anime Central convention, Hirotaka Mori did not return to the future of it. The opportunity for the curious to catch up: the manga is still being published, while the first season (13 episodes) is still available on Disney+.
This page contains affiliate links to certain products that JV has selected for you. Each purchase you make by clicking on one of these links will not cost you more, but the e-merchant will pay us a commission. The prices indicated in the article are those offered by the merchant sites at the time of publication of the article and these prices are likely to vary at the sole discretion of the merchant site without JV being informed.
Learn more.