Tengoku Daimakyou – 11

「テストを始めます」 (Tesuto o Hajimemasu)
“The Test Begins”

If there’s an obvious lesson from Spring 2023 and indeed the entire year (which I dubbed “the year manga saved anime”), it’s this – great manga make great anime. Not always (Biscuit Hammer would like a word) but a lot of the time. Above and beyond that, however, sometimes an anime is just exceptional as an adaptation. I follow Ishiguro Masakazu on twitter, and he’s been a constant source of glowing comments about this one. Lately he’s tweeted out “I don’t know how Production I.G. is even doing this anymore”, and I know how he feels. This is a great manga, but it’s nice to see a creator have the experience of seeing their work adapted brilliantly beyond their wildest expectations.

In the context of what happens after this season, Tengoku Daimakyou is a bit hard to figure out. As with BokuYaba we can talk more about that after the final episode, but I don’t quite know what to take away from the production committee splashing so lavishly on this anime. I have a full range of expectations where this season’s beloved (to me) manga are concerned – somewhat hopeful with BokuYaba, resigned with Insomnia, and totally clueless with Heavenly Delusion. The manga is popular but not a blockbuster, the anime very well-received but not a major source of hype. If there is another season it will likely be a while (the anime is using better than half the material – albeit skipping a lot they could theoretically go back to later) but I would be happy to wait for more anime this damn good.

Ishiguro’s elegant and fragile construction surviving the changes Mori Hirotaka and Fukami Makoto have made is testament to how artfully those changes have been executed. The mythology continues to come together, puzzle piece by puzzle piece, rewarding those who pay close attention. There’s some focus on Kiruko and Maru this week, but mostly it’s the school that drives the action. Maru has decided to name the van, but his dodgy kanji skills undercut his efforts (he inadvertently dubs it the “Kiruko 9”). As the pair head towards the Ibaraki facility, Kiruko bemoaning that a car isn’t always an advantage in a post-collapse world, they stop for the night (Maru is reading Nevil Shute’s post-apocalyptic classic On the Beach) and Maru spots smoke emanating from a mysterious spot on the horizon.

Back at school, the director and Sawatori-sensei have a very revealing conversation. The director makes reference to “the combatants” and betting everything on Tokio’s child. She as much as admits that her plan is to achieve immortality through the use of “containers” – first Aoshima-sensei and then eventually Tokio’s child (which needs a minimum of 13 years to ripen). Sawatori is clearly horrified at this notion, but but’s hard to know how much of what she says comes as a genuine surprise to him.

Tokio does give birth – Kona “synchronizes” with her and winds up bedridden himself – but there’s more to that birth than initially meets the eye. Meanwhile Mimihime has an encounter with one of the new students, a girl named Ohma (Kino Hina). Ohma always wears sunglasses and is perpetually alone, and when Mimihime removes the glasses to wipe away her tears the reason becomes clear – she forces Mimihime to hallucinate a terrifying scene drawn from her worst fears. It’s no spoiler to say that’s not the first time we’ve seen that ability in Tengoku Daimakyou – whether that’s a coincidence remains to be told.

“To reach the outside of the outside – that is your role, as Hiruko” is the message the teacherbot gives the children when they’re all gathered together to inform them a “long test” is coming. And several of the children note that on hearing the name “Hiruko”, it felt like “being called by my real name – one I’d completely forgotten”. That, paired with Mimihime’s conversation with Kona, suggests at some very disturbing possibilities for these children’s future.

And then we have that meeting between Sawatori and Aoshima-sensei where talk of executing a plan “while the director isn’t around” is exchanged. Is the test part of that plan – or the reason why Aoshima feels the need to execute it at this moment? There’s a lot we don’t yet know, but there’s also much that Ishiguro and the anime team have chosen to show us. Never the full picture, but enough to suggest the shape of what we’re seeing, and even a few minute details…