Heavenly Delusion features two different plotlines. While they bleed into each other, it's hard to see at the beginning how Heavenly Delusion's two plotlines connect. Here's what we know so far.
Spoiler Warning: There are spoilers for the Heavenly Delusion manga below!
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What Are Heavenly Delusion's Two Plotlines?
On one hand, Heavenly Delusion focuses on Maru and Kiruko, two young people on a quest to find heaven amidst the ruins of former Japan.
On the other hand, we follow the nursery plot, whereby children grow up in a secluded facility, largely run by robots.
The nursery plot is mostly mediated from the viewpoint of teenage Tokio, who looks just like Maru.
So, how are the two plotlines connected, and are Maru and Tokio related?
Heavenly Delusion's Timeline Explained
Contrary to initial popular belief, the two plotlines of Heavenly Delusion don't unfold simultaneously. In fact, the nursery plot precedes Maru and Kiruko's story by about 15 years.
Initially, many fans thought that the nursery plot unfolds at the same time as Maru's story.
It's easy to assume that the children were growing up in a secure facility because the outside world was already apocalyptic.
As it turns out, the nursery might have had something to do with the apocalypse.
In Episode 6, for instance, Kiruko and Maru discuss a theory according to which overreliance on robots caused the apocalypse.
Eventually, we find out that an increased number of natural disasters -- stemming from an unknown source of power -- are a more likely culprit.
This isn't to say that the nursery wasn't twisted.
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So, How Are the Two Plotlines Connected in Heavenly Delusion?
The children in the nursery lived in seclusion not because the apocalypse had already happened, but because the children themselves were artificially created in the facility.
As Tokio and a friend discover, the nursery's newborns do not initially have faces. Moreover, the children grow up with some special abilities.
While the children aren't taught about their sexuality, Tokio -- who seems quite androgynous but is revealed to be genetically female -- soon starts a relationship with Kona that results in pregnancy.
It is presumed that Maru is Tokio's son. However, the manga also tells us that Tokio's child was cloned.
She couldn't be sure if the doctors gave her her son or his clone; Maru could be either.
To make things even more horrifying, the Man-Eaters that plague humanity in the post-apocalypse turn out to be former humans from the nursery.
Many of the nursery children weren't able to tolerate their genetic modification and got ill. Out of their remains, the Man-Eaters were created.
Originally, this is hard to figure out, but a rewatch reveals that some of the monsters we encounter are characters we used to know.
This knowledge makes Heavenly Delusion's existential and body horror all the more chilling.
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