Heavenly Delusion is an undoubtedly mature show, hiding behind the guise of cartoonish character designs and motions, and gorgeous sequences of landscape and background art; something that has become quite popular in recent years with shows such as Made in Abyss. Meanwhile, the content of the actual episodes is downright grim and depressing at times; but there's always a moment of entertainment or optimism that keeps its tone from sliding down into melodrama, the way that a lot of similar shows do. It keeps a perfect equilibrium of horror (both supernatural, and human), lighthearted comedy, and drama.
The story holds a lot of elements that may be considered cliché or lazy by some; the apocalypse that nobody knows anything about, monsters with crazy abilities and an unknown origin, the plethora of mysterious organizations that exist only to be mysterious, and a main character with a literal plot beam on her hip; but the way that it utilizes these things is far from the usual. They aren't just things that exist in the world just to exist; each part of the story was evidently meticulously crafted with each element in mind and at play in one way or another; either to exemplify character flaws or motivations, or to better set the stage for the rest of the narrative.
It builds up, throughout its 13 episodes, a sense of understanding about the world and what the grand design of the story will be, as the viewer picks up on the clues laid out scene after scene; but it continuously turns that understanding on its head, in ways that make every episode genuinely gripping. The ambiguous nature in which some of the plotlines end only served to increase my fascination, and left me feeling a way that I haven't felt in a long time about an anime.
I loved this. A lot.
