Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi (The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace)

Eight hundred years ago, terrifying demons threatened mankind's existence. On the brink of extinction, humans prayed to their gods, calling out for someone to save them. Emerging from these desperate pleas for salvation, battle deities known as the "Idaten" were born. Possessing unnatural strength and endurance, the Idaten managed to defeat the demons and an era of unprecedented peace was finally ushered in.

Having never encountered demons before, the present generation of Idaten knows nothing of the demon's brutality, but they have instead only lived a peaceful existence. Training under Rin, the only remaining Idaten from 800 years ago, the new Idaten find ways to survive in a time where they have seemingly outlived their usefulness. However, when the tyrannical Zoble Empire resurrects a demon, the misfit crop of gods are called to the battlefield against their natural enemy once more.

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Miyamoto, Mitsuru
Japanese

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Kimura, Makoto

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Kidokoro, Seimei

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Omine, Teruyuki

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Sakurabi, Katsushi

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Opening Theme

"Seija no Koushin (聖者の行進)" by Tatsuya Kitani (キタニタツヤ)

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Ending Theme

"Raika (雷火)" by Akari Nanawo

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Sep 28, 2021

Ryuseishun

Not Recommended

Spoiler

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***

Imagine taking a great portrait like the Mona Lisa, and then furiously splashing it with buckets of different colored paint. What you get is essentially this filth of a series, and from the likes of Studio MAPPA, no less.

Idaten Deities advertises itself as brainless “style over substance” entertainment, but it turns out be something far more inherently vulgar than what people wanted to acknowledge or admit. It isn’t so surprising when it turns out to be written and created by the same author who did Interspecies Reviewers, which itself was quite the shameless example of anime pornography, for better or worse. As ... much as I heavily disliked the latter being essentially anime pornography, it was at least wasn’t something I found especially offensive or grotesque. Idaten Deities, on the other hand, has a sense of embellishment that is foul and tactless in nearly every way thinkable.

The basic premise of Idaten Deities sounds really neat at first. During the earlier days of human history, mysterious monsters known simply as demons attacked and came close to wiping out humanity. In response, a higher race known as deities, also referred to as the Idaten, step in and seal the demons away, effectively saving humanity in the process and maintaining peace in the world. Centuries later, humans has since advanced in technology and civilization, but have turned into their own worst enemy as a result, constantly getting into conflict with each other for multiple sociopolitical or military reasons. This is no by means anything new, but it would’ve sufficed, regardless. The long-lived deities don’t intervene, they just lay around observing stuff, their boredom fueled by the lack of adversity since the clash against the demons. The main reasoning for them to not help humans seemed compelling and mature at first: saving lives would also mean taking lives as well. I’m usually an advocate of the concept of grey morality when it’s implemented the right way. It means that the deities would eventually need to take action at some point, because the many lives that would be saved in the process of punishing and killing actual criminals would still matter more, regardless of their previous reasoning. Except that it later turns out here that the presented main antagonists turn out to be...demons themselves, revived and disguised as the radical authoritarian human figures responsible for all the main conflict. With this uninspiring and underwhelming twist, anything tactful the series had is no more. The given opportunity to judge and absolve the down-to-earth problems of humanity is discarded conveniently. The intended subtextual notes are nullified, and the show turns into your typical black-and-white action series full of conceited perilous plotting here and there that matter no more than further complications. I’m not saying a show like Idaten needs to go full-on philosophical, but what’s the point of all the chaotic splatter and action if there’s barely any sufficient groundwork done beforehand?

Aside from the wasted concepts, Idaten Deities has more fundamental issues at its core. The tone is all over the place, and it seems obsessed with garnishing the obscenity, yet somehow it still wants to be something serious. Nearly every episode, the show feels obligated to insert some obnoxious, and ugly slapstick gags, yet attempts to juxtapose more serious moments. Someone gets brutally killed and turned to mush and blood, yet there’s no realistic sense of shock or impactfulness, just a stale deadpan reaction. An Idaten gets knocked around to where they have gaping holes in their bodies or broken bones all over, but then an unfunny joke or remark is inserted and immediately kills any incentive to take shit seriously. A nun is literally gang-raped on-screen to oblivion in quite visually hilarious fashion, yet she gets made fun of for being pathetic and weak. It’s commendable that the show doesn’t want to stick to the usual anime cliches, but its blatant suggestive violence and unfunny boorish humor immensely outweigh the more evocative beats this show may have had, if any at all. I've had people telling me there's subtlety and references in the jokes made. I'm not sure why we would want to know about some deep-seated meaning behind sex monsters assaulting young little boys.

The pacing of the show is uneven; the narrative jumps back and forth from intense-looking action scenes to segments of tedious dialogue and contrivances. The storybuilding is uninteresting; the entire concepts regarding the Idaten and the demons as well as the history between them and humanity are delivered in literal fast-forwarded droves; they’re essentially like those extended disclaimers in a TV ad. With this inability to really establish the settings and premises in a more emphasized manner, the series is subjected to an identity crisis. I really don’t understand why this show feels the need to be simultaneously serious and funny when it can’t express any of its exalted ideologies and mechanics in a proper manner. It constantly pesters you with supposedly deep subjects while tossing all these ridiculous profane gags about rape, gory violence, sex, masturbation, and virginity. I’m not saying it’s sacrilegious to poke fun at these things if you’re watching a show that’s meant to appeal with fetishism, but Idaten Deities is too immature and unfunny to really have a good enough excuse for itself. The characters in this series are nothing memorable at all. The series continuously intends to make them look cool and quirky, but they come off as nothing more than gimmicky and annoying. There’s virtually no development implemented for them, they’re simply pulled along by the ridiculous plotline whenever it’s convenient. We get typical archetypes from the boneheaded and brash Hayato to the overly calculating Ysley to the uprighteous master figure Rin to the crazy sex-driven Miku to the evil doctor villain Oobami. Let’s not forget about that nun named Gil, who does nothing but emphasize about faith in God nonstop, but will be known more for being absolutely violated by a bunch of sexually frustrated soldiers in the very first episode.

In terms of the audiovisuals, Idaten Deities does initially seem quite colorful with the artstle, but the choice of aesthetic is just off-putting. The color hues constantly change for no good reason, and the quality of the actual animation isn’t really enough to support it. There’ll be some impressive-looking cuts here and there, but the composition is a mess. Many sequences often get cluttered by annoying speedlines and awkward still frames. Many of the stylized frames are left unedited and entire scenes felt out of place and disjointed. Not surprising since this series is produced by Studio MAPPA, who are infamous for their harsh treatment of their employees and their bad habit of grabbing freelancers. Even disregarding the messiness, there’s little meaning to the drastic color changes, and the aesthetic gimmick simply comes off as completely devoid of purpose. The only time where this kinda works is with the visuals of the opening theme, which is quite impressively stylish by itself, but that is a double-edged sword, as the actual show itself simply pales in comparison. The sound design is uneven and bedridden by technical issues, as the background music plays either too loud or too soft throughout a majority of the episodes, especially during the action scenes. The OST as a whole isn’t actually that bad, but it’s not something I find memorable or impressive by any means. It’s nice to listen to by itself, but not within the show where the inconsistency in audibility gets very irritating.

Much of my personal enjoyment can already be inferred from everything previously stated. I tried really hard to keep myself interested out of obligation in the hopes that I would’ve been able to think less about the plot and find amusement from the action-filled parts. That proved really hard when the show is so tonally inconsistent and the art direction. Countless times I found myself excessively annoyed by the rancid nature of the show and its fetishes and character archetypes. There was little to no engaging aspects of the show for me, whatever ideas or worldbuilding it had at the beginning were wasted for the sake of mindless fighting and fanservice. The cliffhanger ending merely served as an even more bitter aftertaste to an already stressful experience.

In the end, Idaten Deities is a show whose only notable appeal is the stylish animation and not much else. Lacking a tonal identity and any commendable or interesting elements to put value in, it was a product made with no foresight or tactfulness, with everything being essentially a mishmash of different concepts that don’t mesh well at all. Even if it was fairly watchable and did some daring things, it came off more underwhelming and dull instead. I could care less about the state of its source material or whether or not it’s a bad adaptation or not, what I got was essentially a series so full of fetishes and profanity that the anime medium should avoid resorting to at all costs.

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Sep 28, 2021

KANLen09

Recommended

This show is the reason why 3 of the most notable entities exist: Interspecies Reviewers, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, and MAPPA. What, you still cannot figure out what sets Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi a.k.a "The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace" apart? Then go figure and find your own peace treaty in a wild wonderland world.

Written by Amahara, illustrated by Cool-kyou Shinja (of which this is the 3rd work of 3 featured in this season, damn this author is rekting the Summer season hard) and produced by MAPPA. Announced as one of many shows at the MAPPA Stage 10th Anniversary event under debut director Seimei Kidokoro's ... direction, Idaten tells the story of humans and demons co-existing in a fictionous world where demons drive mankind nuts, only to have literate gods in the form of deities called "Idatens" for humans to pray for salvation and extinction upon their kind, and attain peace for an exchange. And damn is Idaten-tachi such an uncanny, other-worldly anime, if not already hinted by both Amahara and Cool-kyou Shinja's expressions of interest at weird-looking demon and deities with the same aforementioned traits from the series they've worked on, much less all the fast-paced frenetic action. Combine that with MAPPA's production that animation-wise, looks identical to Jujutsu Kaisen and the visuals full of psychedelia, Idaten is grotesque, rapey, and in all ways condescending, but to stomach all those, and you'll see an experimentation show like no other (well, count Dorohedoro one as well).

A deity, or an Idaten in this matter, is made out of these things: Adding your own thoughts to a nascent existence in order to shorten the amount of time required for manifestation. As a result, the personality of one who draws the newly chosen Idaten has a certain level of degree of influence shapen from the summoner. If you couldn't get that scientific-level explanation, just remember this trait: a common shared desire between beings thirsting for abilities that would help defend those worth living a life. That story is told through Rin, a young 800-year old Idaten who has witnessed the battle between Idatens and demons, and sealing them on a vast desert statue/monument-like location so that the peacetime "treaty" can be maintained for years and generations. Protecting this seal for 800 years has the Idaten gods rendered tiredness at their job, because their role is to eradicate demons, and since there're no demons to kill, they need to kill time somehow to remain for that one purposeful day, where demons have an uprising to prove their usefulness towards mankind once again. But as Magneto of X-Men once said: "Peace Was Never An Option", and indeed, demons acted on that thanks to a nation known as the Zoble Empire, stacked full of demons at their disposal to wreak havoc at both mankind and the Idaten gods they pray to. So, it's the conquest of the Idatens to finally have their purpose-driven life be served to give the demons a beating-down and wash, rinse, repeat the same commitment held for those 800 years of peace past. It's quite the simple "as molasses" story, but Cool-kyou Shinja's illustrations truly take the manga (and now the anime) to the next level.

It's of no doubt that Amahara knows what his characters want to be, and is thoroughly exemplified through the manga and anime. Starting off with the Idaten deities crew, Rin is the 800-year old Master Shifu Idaten who has crossed her life at doing the one sole, important job of not letting demons have their way, and she is OP by default, learning from the experiences of the elder gods who went before her. Her understudies are Prontea and Hayato. The former is a mix of both strength and intelligence, while the latter is this normal-looking boy who's quite brash and proud, and is one who've suffered most with Rin's unrelenting training sparring sessions, becoming the usual "no-reason" Shonen-ish trope of a strong OP character to protect those who can't defend for themselves. Paula is the same as Hayato, though she's forced to become like him because she is an Idaten in name only, and walks alongside Hayato in companionship. Ysley is truly balls-to-the-wall intelligent, I'd reckon that I can refer to him as their world's Albert Einstein. Alas, where there lies a yin, there must be a yang, and the demons equalize the Idatens in every regard. There is no shortage of powerful demons, but intelligent ones are far and few in-between, so for the lead group led by Dr. Oobami (better knows as Demon Lord Over-M for a disguise), the higher-up demons are posed to follow his political totalitarianism and make that ideology work. Some demons like Takeshita and Brandy (king and queen of the Zoble Empire) take that into heart, while others like the sex-crazed Miku envelopes that and comes up with strategists Zhuge Liang style to see their objective towards the end. Miku is a crazy-ass archetypal character (like the rest), and given Amahara's fascination for fictional rough sexual favours, I have to admit that Miku is the closest resemblance to Interspecies Reviewers in almost every way, and "come one, cum all" if we all have a lil' bit of Miku in our lives.

Not surprisingly, MAPPA has come under the spotlight recently for the unapologetic practices of overwork, and if the Attack on Titan's director Yuichirou Hayashi's now-infamous panda black eyes meme at the MAPPA Stage 10th Anniversary event is of no consolation, then the studio itself is in deep trouble of angering fans the wrong way. Speaking of the event, this show was one of many works featured at the event (with the biggest highlight of course all given to Chainsaw Man), and the reception was decent. Even then, I feel that MAPPA has been pushing their employees way too much by pumping out lots of works (just like all other studios except KyoAni), and while Idaten's production values are on the high-end, you can't really tell the backbones of how this anime managed to shine with its outlandishly unique visual aesthetics, hiding the inherent flaws of a studio whom has regularly pumped out hit after hit action-heavy shows like Jujutsu Kaisen.

The music is just simply *chef's kiss* fantastic, and by the way, it's not Akari Nanawo's ED, but Tatsuya Kitani's OP, which is just pure banger, and one of the stand-out OPs of the season. The OP visuals are on a whole other level resembling the likes of Dorohedoro, only if it wasn't CG and a lot more color to bring that trippy, seizure feel. I'd never get tired of watching such a creative OP done very well to complement the high beats of Tatsuya Kitani's excellent vocal range, and for a female-like soprano no less sung by a male. Visuals are top marks across the board, and Akari Nanawo's ED is fine I guess.

Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi is pure uncensored wildness like Interspecies Reviewers, has character designs like Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid (when it comes to the busty boobs part), and debut director Seimei Kidokiro's first outing is truly a great step in the right direction. Definitely looking forward to more works that this director will helm in the future, and for the rest, Idaten is not for the faint of heart with its R17+ rating of violence, profanity and sexuality at the core of it all. I'm speechless that MAPPA has done another wonderful job, but that should come as of no surprise. Just get the inner workings sorted out and let everyone have some rest from working hard to give us more anime. Meanwhile, watch Idaten, it's a very good godly show that doesn't know peace in it.

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Sep 28, 2021

CodeBlazeFate

Recommended

Perhaps it's time to play Devil's Advocate.

Idaten Deities is certainly an oddball among the Summer 2021 line-up. By far one of the most lavishly animated, stylistically interesting, and well-produced shows of the year has been largely ignored, and similarly written off as nothing more than incomprehensible edgy garbage that's "style over substance".

What a silly pain in the ass this buzzterm is. It's nothing more than an excuse for people to dismiss a well-animated work they don't like because the writing isn't trying to be the 10/10 kino that the visuals are. It's not because the writing actually gets in the way of all the spectacle ...

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