The Idaten Deities Know Only Peace

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 spectaclelike the overly serious and painful melodrama in Bubblegum Crisis and Symphogear. It's because a work that's entertaining and well-presented first and foremost tends to be looked down upon. It neglects the idea that perhaps the style is the substance like in Redline. It also forsakes the idea that while the writing can’t quite compete with the visuals, it can still do enough to not only avoid getting in the way too much, but make the show more interesting in its own right, like with this series. This isn't to say Idaten Deities doesn't have issues worthy of criticizing. It most certainly does. It's crass and juvenile to a fault. The character designs by Amahara (not actually Cool-Kyou Shinja, this is based more on the OG web manga than the serialized one) may work when the female characters are just doing their thing or casually flaunting it around with their mannerisms or outfits without drawing too much attention for a (somehow) non-ecchi title. The show can even highlight that with its camera angles if it wants, since it knows how crass, sexy, and debaucherous it wants to be. However, whenever it shoves rape and sexual assault into the mix, the results are as gaudy and annoying. No matter how much the show tries to spice up the scenes with weird visuals or anything, these scenes are just needlessly unpleasant to watch. If anything, it shows why they don’t work, as the show tries to be super casual about these issues. The demons are generally vile and debaucherous enough without this element coming into play more than once to sour the mood. The fact that one character is introduced by getting raped and her second scene involves her getting fingered against her will while neither of these scenes have that much gravitas to them, makes it understandable why someone would be turned off by this show. It’s a stain on an otherwise fun and interesting ride you won’t get anywhere else. However, barring that one particular blemish, what exactly is so wrong with this show? Why is it that something like Idaten, which has higher production values than even some popular anime that have come out as of late, deserves to be buried or dismissed? The other issues people seem to have involve the show's constant color changing and its characters not being particularly sympathetic, both of which seem to miss the point entirely and feel a bit restrictive and taste-based, respectively. Let's address the show's visuals. Despite being overshadowed by Maid Dragon S2 this year, Idaten is still a highlight of the year in terms of style. The colors are vibrant and the outlines are distinct, often a noticeable reddish purple as opposed to the more understated thin black outlines in most modern anime. Despite how they stick out, the characters still fit the vibrant backgrounds. The colors, both regarding the fun and expressive character designs and the art direction, are similarly vivid. The environments and colors are the closest thing anime is gonna come to looking like Cruelty Squad or ULTRAKILL, as much of a reach as those comparisons are. One can certainly take issue with the admittedly somewhat garish color choices, especially when the show completely and constantly shifts them, but it’s nonetheless really cool and fun that they did this without making the colors eye-bleedingly oversaturated. Fun really is the right word for the show’s visuals. Is it not fun for the show to constantly shake up the colors depending on the environment they travel to, what situation they’re in, or even what attacks some of the demons bust out if the situation calls for it? Should it really be constrained to only busting out these changes in the big beefy flashy moments like in Chivalry of a Failed Knight, especially when the show does this consistently to the point where it never feels aimless or haphazard? It would be one thing if it were truly random and silly, or if the colors were absolute death, but here, it’s a refreshing treat. Outside of the color changes, the actual character animation is wonderful. There are all sorts of amusing facial expressions, and the action scenes are very fluid, punchy, and easy to follow. They’re generally pretty dynamic and even the cuts that don’t seem as visually impressive and do employ some animation shorthands do, such as characters having multiple limbs to show how fast they’re punching, look way better than examples you’d find in Akame ga Kill, Slime, or any number of shows. Good luck counting the number of shorthand speed lines or stock backgrounds in place of actual backgrounds on more than one hand! Even the episode title cards have creative thought put into them, with each of them having distinct colors from one-another and sometimes being put into the environments and backgrounds! Seriously, you can feel just how much director Seimei Kidokoro and his team at (black company) MAPPA emphasized the word “fun” when it came to the visual presentation. The backlash the studio has faced regarding its abysmal treatment of its staff even by the subterranean standards of the industry is certainly warranted. It’s natural that this show would be a casualty of that in some regards, should that be one of the reasons it’s not even remotely popular for its season. However, the efforts of director Kidokoro and his team deserve to be lauded and acknowledged. The fact that they haven’t gotten anywhere near the level of attention of beloved juggernauts of modern anime visuals such Mob Psycho 100 or Dragon Maid has, hell, the fact that it’s not even close to more moderately popular titles such as Akudama Drive, is criminal! Let’s not neglect how the show is written or assume that the visuals are the only real reason to watch it. Doing so is what nets you in “style over substance” territory, and dismisses the writing purely for its juvenile aspects and [very much controlled] flippant tone. They may be the best part, but there’s more to dig into with how the show’s written than some may think. The conflict is ultimately a farcical one. The Idaten notice that demons are out there in the world after 800 years of them being sealed in the underworld, and so they find each other, train, and wipe them out. It's made as early as episode 2 that not only are demons generally weaker and aren't able to regenerate the way an idaten can, but they're never gonna have a chance. It's utterly hilarious how the death of one of their stringer members shuts them up, as they know they're the underdogs in this situation. The best they can hope for is to be brainwashed into aiding the idaten, but they already obtained all the captivates they need by episode 5. This fact and what does come in the last 5 episodes do present faint moments of hope for the demons, but the series goes out of its way to show that it's more about delaying the inevitable than anything else. They know they're screwed by episodes 2, 7, and 10. It's utterly hilarious seeing them shift the goalpost over the course of the series from "killing all idaten" to "killing one" and "surviving long enough for remnants to reform in any meaningful way". Despite this, the show still manages to keep some level of intrigue with what both sides learn and guess from one-another, and how every time, most of it is true except for at least one vital piece of information that trips them up or otherwise stalls their progress. A lot of explanations and info-dumps are fast-forwarded for the sake of time and entertainment, but the way both the Idaten and the humanoid demons under Dr. Obami's rule piece together who or what he is when he himself doesn't know, is one of many examples where this cat and mouse game of information constantly keeps itself fresh while informing the audience. The more the audience learns about the idaten, the demons, and the mechanics, the more engaging some of the fights become in spite of the foregone conclusions of “demons lose and/or die”. Adding to the farcical nature is the fact that we’re not even necessarily meant to root for either side. It’s simply an entertaining charade of evil-doers trying and failing to kill and then slip past the generally callous Idaten. The show may stop and ask questions like “if the demons that forced themselves into human civilization were generally able to live and rule in secret amongst them, what’s to say they can’t coexist”, but the only one who genuinely entertains this question until the very end of the show is Gil, the one relevant human character. She's also the one that got raped in episode 1 and spends most of the shoe in captivity until being freed and watching the emperor of Zoble (the kingdom she's imprisoned in) try to make sure she and the other prisoners aren't hurt. It does seem like sometimes some of these evil demons have a shred of decency and humanity, but barely anyone cares and the most some of the others amount to is loving one specific partner or when Brandy (the Zoble demon empress) makes sure her kids are safe in a moment that surprises both her and said offspring. The idaten aren't necessarily moral, either. They're gods meant to protect humanity from demons, but couldn't give a fuck about the humans themselves or if countries slaughter each other via wars. The oldest one, Rin, even suggests eradicating the kingdom if Zoble outright, knowing any humans living there will die just to kill the couple hundred demons living there. Ysley, the most strategic one of the group, only really rejects this because neighboring countries such as Hotaena will use this as an excuse to war and it'll be a pain in the ass for him considering his master, Prontea, is stationed in Hotaena and enjoys his time there. Even Hayato and the youngest idaten for most of the series, Paula, are single-minded strength junkies and the token normal person without a strong moral compass, respectively. Morality isn't of anyone's concern except for the human, Gil, and what little standards anyone on either side has. Why care? Gil's practically chastised or brushed off by both sides for doing so regarding the war and what the demons did to her people. The show keeps this amusingly callous nature until the last few episodes where the tone still feels rather frank. It's not necessarily a bad thing that we're not meant to really root for/against or sympathize with anyone. That being said, it can limit how enjoyable the show can be as the lack of ability to really care about or get invested in the conflict prevents the spectacle from being as exciting as it can be. The characters and fights are entertaining enough, and the show knows not to take itself too seriously, but it's not like the characters have that much going on beyond fun, catty banter and antics, and how Ysley, Obami, and Miku constantly scheme, learn, and adapt over the course of this conflict. Oh, that's right. We should probably touch upon some of them beyond just Gil, Paula, and Hayato. Ysley is perhaps the most interesting of the main cast, as his allegiance leans more towards Prontea than Rin, making him conduct retrievals behind everyone's backs as he starts asking most of the questions and making the most hypotheses regarding the demons. He's also the one who explains how nobody really gices a fuck about humanity aside from when demons are involved. Rin is the shrimpy oldhead of the group, existing for over 800 decades, watching her father and ancestors seal themselves for that time. Her backstory and how the end of ep 8 and start of 9 bring that back to haunt her at the end of the Zoble invasion are the closest the show comes to expecting us to care about anyone as she spent decades without anyone in the world before she realized the world had become safe for a time. The last two characters to really mention are Miku and Dr. Obami. Miku is debauchery incarnate: a supernaturally intuitive planner who spends as much time thinking as she does feeling up or hitting on prisoners and subordinates. This is before the last few episodes where things get so much more messed up and she becomes just as much of a threat as Obami. Interestingly enough, she's the only one to question him on his identity and intentions, the former of which Obami doesn't know himself, as both the idaten and audience learn only slightly more about him than he does. He just knows the initiative to conquer the idaten and the world, and that ordinary demons not quickly fused into a human brain and body are just savages that will complicate matters for both sides. The music is also pretty good, at least regarding the OST by Yoshiaki Dewa. It's not always that memorable when listening to the show itself, but there are a fair number of choir-based and intense tracks, with the vibrant and ever-shifting title track and its variants, "World Adjustment'', "God of Battle", “Escape”, “Training Room”, “Kicking”, and “Sadness of Love” being among the most notable ones. It's like a mix of industrial and avant garde, with techno, and perhaps more indiginous (for lack of a better word) percussion and choir elements thrown in as well to make it an eclectic soundtrack. Some of the tracks are rather strange and unique, and the OST fits well with the impressive fight scenes, as well as the moments of thinking and planning several characters engage in. Many of the aforementioned pieces stood out when watching, but several more did as well upon listening to the full OST, including some of the more traditional kinds of songs in the tracklist. Meanwhile, the OP and ED aren't exactly memorable or enjoyable songs as the former is kinda whatever and the almost noise-pop-esque song for the latter is surprisingly hard to listen to, but their visuals are top-notch with a Mob Psycho 100 II level sequence and a still vibrant and fun what-if scenario, respectively. Idaten Deities is a weird and engaging show for reasons that some other titles could never get away with. It’s callous and juvenile, both hilariously and unfortunately so at times. The characters are the least interesting aspect of the series, with the amazing visuals amusingly uphill and forgone nature of the conflict being where most of the entertainment comes from. The show's callous attitude does make slapstick beatdowns more fun whenever Hayato, who expects beatings from Rin no matter what, gets demolished and treats it like an annoyance at worst. It's an entertaining spectacle with some odd decisions made towards the back end, and some interesting questions and ideas it tackles without losing sight of its fun yet lackadaisical and glib tone. There's minimal ugly CG and generally speaking, the show's visuals are consistently well-animated, vibrant, and ever-changing. If you can look past some of its worst and most distasteful moments, then this series is certainly one of the most darkly humorous and entertaining popcorn spectacles in recent years. Just beware of the cliffhanger ending that happens right when the show actively feels like creating tension.

The only other manga from this creator with an anime adaptation is Ishuzoku Reviewers, and my problem with this show is the same as my problem with that one. In both cases, you read the premise and think, “that’s genius,” but then you actually watch the show, and it’s just mediocre. The idea is that once upon a time, demons ravaged the Earth and drove humanity to the brink of extinction, so deities came down to seal them away and save humanity. Centuries later, humans have become their own worst enemy, killing each other for politics, power, religion, militarism, expansionism, the usual. However, the deitiesdon’t intervene or pass judgement, because in their eyes, the only way you could save human lives is to take other human lives. This moral detachment is a surprisingly mature worldview for an anime like this to have, and the story at first seemed like it would capitalize on this completely. The villains are this group of degenerate fascists who wage indiscriminate wars of aggression, raping and pillaging to their heart’s content. This is obviously a case where the deities should step in, because these people are inflicting untold amounts of death and destruction, so even though the deities would still ultimately be killing humans to save other humans, the amount they’d save versus the amount they’d have to kill speaks for itself. As Winston Churchill once said about the Nazis, “we can’t breathe the same air as these people.” They simply have to go. But just as the deities begin stepping in to smite the aggressors, it’s revealed to us at the end of episode two that the fascists are actually demons in disguise…do you see why this ruins the thematic message? If those responsible for instigating the conflict are demons, the embodiment of all generic evil, then the moral grey area becomes black and white, and all our analysis regarding the ethics of human conflict gets thrown out the window as humanity is completely exonerated of its greatest crimes, because it turns out demons are the ones to blame. I mean, it’s not like the evils of humanity have engulfed the world in untold amounts of death and destruction in real life before, right? It’s not like the soldiers in this show dress like Fascist Italy and act like Imperial Japan, right? Anyway, if you don’t think about it that seriously and just forget the themes, this show isn’t bad on the surface. The crazy colorful artwork looks awesome, but unfortunately, the animation is rarely there to back it up. There’s one or two flashy cuts of action sakuga every now and then, but the production is super messy, so even these cuts can sometimes be surrounded by speedlines or completely unanimated stills. It also does that annoying shit MAPPA does now where they’ll hire freelance animators without correcting their stylized drawings at all, so in the finalized episode, certain scenes will look totally different and out of place. I saw people defending this when they did it with Jujutsu Kaisen and when A-1 Pictures did it with Fate/Apocrypha and Grancrest Senki, and I won’t fault casuals for thinking it looks cool regardless of technical shit, but let’s not be willfully ignorant and pretend this is an artistic choice by the animation staff when it’s clearly a consequence of poor scheduling and outsourcing foreign animators from Twitter. Not a joke, by the way. They seriously outsourced from Twitter. The sound director doesn’t have a bad record, but the audio mixing in this show is really uneven. I bring this up because the music is amazing, but sometimes it gets drowned out by the action, and other times it’s just as loud as the dialogue. The opening is badass, and it’s filled with bizarre imagery and tons of personality, but it just makes the show seem like a let-down by comparison. The writing is fine, and the director obviously cared, but while many comedic moments can be genuinely hilarious, most of the humor is slapstick. There’s a scene where this woman makes fun of a nun for getting gang raped, so I can’t say there’s no memorable characterization, but the main protagonists are all dull and underdeveloped. It’s for this reason the series can honestly be accused of making its villains WAY more likable than its heroes. It doesn’t stick to tropes and actively tries to be as irreverent, vulgar, and objectionable as possible—to the point emotional moments feel unnatural and obnoxious—but daring doesn’t equal engaging, and the show is often boring. Some say this is a bad adaptation which butchers the flow of the manga and suffers from heavy censorship, and this may be true considering its odd pacing issues and anticlimactic cliffhanger ending, but frankly, I don’t care. What I care about is the anime in front of me, and the anime in front of me is underwhelming, if watchable. Thank you for reading.

It has been a long tradition since anime fights are about 2 mindless guys brutally punching each other while shouting their move names out loud as if anyone even cares and eventually stops until one is deemed unable to move. What if there was an exception? What if fights only reached the climax after someone had both of their arms chopped off, eyeballs plucked out and heart pierced out? Blessed with heavenly-made animations from MAPPA, Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi adapts the story of the peaceful generation of mythical battle deities capable of growing infinitely strong, Idatens, facing the revival of the demons. The production teamof Heion is a match made in heaven. With the original story coming from Amahara, the original creator of Ishuzoku Reviewers (the most "cultured" anime last year that is surprisingly decent) and original character design from Cool-kyou Shinja, the mastermind behind Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid. This show eventually became what the public claims to be "the hidden gem of Summer 2021, the blandest season in a long time". Fixed colour palettes? We don't do that here, the colour changes as the atmosphere changes. You might get reminded about JoJo, which is entirely normal. The art style, as expected of another Cool-kyou Shinja work, is overly simple yet manages to remain fascinating. "Never judge the book by its cover." The complexity of the art style does not define the quality and overall enjoyment of anything, anime or not. The fight animations are fluid, smooth, well-done, and perfectly demonstrates the intensity of the fight between heaven and earth, Idatens and Demons. Blood spills are everywhere, and maybe a lost limb, it superbly captures the fighting spirit that everyone longs to witness in an anime. The fight scenes are probably the first thing that comes to my mind when you ask me about what's the main appeal of Heion. Not saying that Heion is only good for its fight scenes. You might think that the character personalities are bland, but they're totally not... that much. - Hayato, the Eren Yeager of the show. Strives for power over everything else. He's not the type of character who gets overpowered simply by believing in the "power of friendship", he believes in the power of power itself, constantly training under Rin in order to achieve the strongest "power" can become. - Ysley, the type of nerd who instead spends his time figuring out the smartest and most brilliant way to cheat in an exam. He's the big boss behind all the plans. Planning everything, performing "surgery" on demons to inspect and gain more knowledge about them and even managing to convince enemies into joining forces with him. - Rin, the only surviving Idaten from 800 years ago, rumoured to be the strongest Idaten out there. Nothing much to talk about her except that she's basically the center of the story. She's the trainer of all Idatens and everything relates to her. Even Obama himsel- I mean Oonbami has some sort of relation to her that might be spoilers if further elaborated. If you look closely the characters are actually not that bad. Openings. Some skip them. Some don't. But in Heion, NO ONE on Earth skips them unless they're in a rush. The OP is an absolute banger. It's a combination of a catchy song and animation that perfectly matches the beats and bass of the music. Providing one of the best OP experiences ever presented in the entire anime history. The quality of sound effects are not realistic, low-quality, and drags me back to the 80s when television and the animation industry weren't as fully-fledged as the present. However as the show progresses, I realized that IT WORKS. Take as an example when a studio hired a chef to film a cooking show on making pancakes, but the production team messed up and provided the ingredients for a pasta. The chef still managed to make pancakes better than before knowing that it was the wrong ingredients. I know this might not make sense but it's the most direct way of explaining how well the seemingly out of place sound effects work in this. It fits the atmosphere, the plot, the simplistic art style, to the point that you will feel weird if you imagined Heion with realistic or any other genres of sound effects. So the conclusion, is Heion worth our time to watch? Yeah, probably. Possibly the only con of the anime is that there are a few bits of deus ex machinas. If you're looking for some otherworldly fight scenes and a simple yet dark and thrilling story then I highly recommend you to give this a shot. It's fully up to you whether you decide to mark this show as a boon or a bane. Heion Sedai no Idaten-tachi gets an 8/10 from me.

Saw the art style and i trust MAPPA making a decent anime,decent opening and ending visuals and soundtrack. This anime is awful,like what is the story?, old guy traps demons because demons kills humans why?,because demons wants to destroy the world and eat humans,oh cool where do they come from?, meh i don't know, anyway cool now that they are sealed humans are safe right?,well apparently the old guys who sealed the demons got mixed in with the pot of dead demon stew and now it has knowledge,and btw it has wifi to control robots from afar. The story has no substance,the nudity is awful,characters are annoying,themc trio of useless girl,smartass(who btw they tease this guy as having evil intentions in ep 1 but they do nothing out of it),and the generic battle genius. This anime made me uncomfortable,i expected a battle fantasy smoothbrain time not a confusing unrewarding journey with these annoying characters with flashbangs of nudity here and there just to get to the ending where nothing happens. Watching this anime,you feel like a homeless man sleeping on the cold streets and someone bust a nut at you randomly