Tenchi Souzou Design-bu

You know, if God really did ask for even half of Earth’s creatures to be made just on the whims of really vague requests, I’d believe it. Because nature is often times really fucking bizarre and the things that’re considered as ‘evolutionary advantages’ really test the limits of how ‘life finds a way’ no matter the situation. Fun, but also really…really weird. Story: Putting it simply, God got too bored or busy to make all of the animals on Earth, so he did as all corporations do and outsourced his work to a group of designers that have God himself be the main client to fulfill anyvague animal requests that he thinks should exist. And so we follow our group of nine designers and administrative staff on their day to day life of designing all of God’s creatures for him. Hoping that not only does their client give them his stamp of approval, but that hopefully he’ll be a little more specific in his requests because vagueness really doesn’t help a creative’s mindset whenever they’re trying to fill out the whims of someone else. And that’s about it for the synopsis. An episodic series by nature, Heaven’s Design Team is a show that devotes all of its time and effort into the client’s various requests and fulfills a small handful of them each episode. The general storyline starts out with a vague set of parameters from God, to which various members of the design team work to create something that fits within those parameters before the final reveal is shown when God himself gives the animals its stamp of approval to just simply exist. A pretty generic formula for sure, but one that somehow never feels old or unfulfilling to watch. This I believe is because part of the fun in the show is just kind of guessing what animal the team ends up making or what facts the audience ends up learning as a result of being introduced to a new species that they’ve never seen before. And this educational guessing game is why I think the show succeeds. At no point does the show try to be anything more than an educational anime with quirky characters, and everything always leads back to the various ‘projects’ that the design team is working on. The animals at the end of the day are always, always the stars of the show. This, combined with the various talking points on the logistical and evolutionary factors that animals have developed in order to survive contribute the bulk of the show to a degree that almost seems like a documentary, yet never feels like a lecture because of how the material is presented. Now, do they also introduce some really weird and oddly hilarious facts about some of the more well-known species in the world? Absolutely, and I love the show all the more for diving into the weird and the obscure to balance out the more common species that everyone learns about when they’re a kid. Characters: The cast of characters that we have here mostly consist of Shimoda, a new administrative angel, and the design team, each of whom are named after one of the nine planets in the Solar System. (Yes, Pluto is actually the name of a character in this show.) While they certainly aren’t deep characters with much to them, the show gives the designers in particular surprisingly memorable personalities nonetheless. This is mostly because each of the six designers have a specific ‘niche’ of animal that they each specialize in/create. Neptune mostly builds the cute-looking animals like otters and pandas, Saturn made the horse (and he will remind you of that every day), Venus specializes in bird design, and Pluto makes all of the weird or dangerous shit. Each member of the main cast stands on surprisingly even footing with everyone else, and their interactions and varying design philosophies are part of the reason why the animal creation process just ends up being so damn interesting and fun to watch. There’re a number of side characters like the insect team, Ueda, Shimoda’s senior, and God himself, but they mostly exist on the sidelines and in a sense, just expand the show a little bit more beyond just the main design room and the Galapagos Island testing grounds that’re featured as the series’ main setpieces. I’d mention the animals here again due to how vital they are to the show, but they’re more plot points or relevant story bits rather than important characters that mean much on the cast side of things. Aesthetics: Asahi Production being a production studio I haven’t really heard of really surprised me with how pleasing this show looks. Everything is very bright and colorful, being reminiscent of kids anime with the kind of popped out pastel colors that the show has going on. It’s consistent if nothing else and definitely gives a friendly and fun vibe to the show if nothing else. And while the show definitely has only a handful of setpieces, the general comedy and flair that the show manages to muster out of both its characters and the various species that get featured is honestly a lot more fun than it has any right to be. Especially when the series always does a shot of the final design of the animal followed by God’s stamp of approval for the design. Again, enjoyable, with few complaints due to how well it fits the mold at the end of the day. 96neko’s “Give it up?” is probably the only autotuned anime OP that I’d give a full pass for. It’s a really fun song that has a lot of charm to it despite being a really poppy song that has little else to provide aside from the ear-pleasing upbeat tone that it has going for it. Would highly recommend a listen because I think it really sets the mood and the tone that Heaven’s Design Team has throughout its entire run. By contrast, “Designed by Heaven”, sung by the voice actors of the two administrative angels is a song that I would describe as being ok, but is vastly overshadowed by its OP sister. A nice palette cleanser that gives the show a nice ending note to close off the episode, but little else I feel beyond that. Personal Enjoyment: Given how absolutely inoffensive the synopsis of the show was when I first saw this, I had a hard time believing that this could be fucked up in any way and threw all of my chips in the middle betting on the fact that this show would end up being just an absolute marvel by the end of the day. And it was just that. And I have absolutely no complaints about it other than the fact that it ended. And I want more. Heaven’s Design Team taps into that bit of childlike joy I have with just discovering more things about the natural world. The mystery and vagueness of each of God’s requests really give each episode the hooks it needs in order to draw the audience in, and the way that the characters interact with each whether they be collaborating on various assignments or competing against one another give each animal created just the right amount of added flavor in order to keep the runtime interesting. Not to mention the science to explain why every animal is the way it is. Even the unexplainable shit that gets approved by God anyway cause it looks fun to have on Earth. At the end of the day, while there really isn’t much to talk about due to the show’s simplicity, I’d argue that’s the reason to watch the show in the first place. It doesn’t try to do anything beyond its means, and the thing that it’s good at, it’s REALLY good at. And this show ended up being way more fun than I had ever expected it to be. Personally I would recommend everyone to give this show a whirl and see where it leads you. Because if there’s anything that this show has taught me, it’s that nature really is a lot fucking weirder than it should be. And I am inclined to believe that that is a good thing because, as always, life always finds a way.

"Everything began, with the creation of the world. The Almighty God created everything: light, waters and the land. Then, He tried to make the creatures living on Earth: animals...or so, that was the plan. God thought He'd create them, but it became tedious, so He outsourced them instead"...to the only group that could: the Heaven's Design Team. This Winter 2021 season is stacked on all fronts, but also in the edutational department as well? Sheesh, what a time to be alive! If there was ever an eulogy for the passing season, it'd go like this: Dr. Stone: Teaches you all about the properties of Science, according toChemistry Cells at Work: Teaches you all about the properties within your body, according to cells Yuru Camp: Teaches you all about the properties of camping, according to outdoor camping standards Heaven's Design Team: Teaches you all about the properties of All (Living) Creatures of Our God and King, according to Biology And honestly, you can take whatever show for all its worth, but going back to this show, it serves to illustrate biology of real life animals, explaining their characteristics and some issues regarding mythical animals (e.g. unicorns, which can't be Approved). And all of this while showing the concepts of design thinking, such as testing and prototyping, while God takes the wheel by either approving or declining the designs of living creatures as God's clients see fit. SAIYŌU! If anything, this show is tons of comedic fun and is a blast to watch, much less being a show that's IMO underrated, or at worse, overlooked. Featuring an episodic storyline of how animals and other living creatures came to be, Heaven's Design Team doesn't scramble its way through skipping important functions in the midst of the many creations, but rather potently going through step-by-step to what makes the living creatures special and unique about them in methodological order. And it's this level of detail in edutational shows like these that make or break the experience, and in most instances, largely makes it up for some learning pointers to the many common creature folk and the few that are just uncommon or rare. Adding to the fun factor, is the large myriad of characters that serve as both the go-to intermediaries between humans and God, and of course, the Design Team itself (though I don't quite understand why the translations to the Design Team's characters are assigned planets for names, that's just off-putting): Starting with the intermediaries: rookie angel Shimoda and his supervisor, Ueda. Shimoda largely serves to both oversee the Design Team and be the communication point between them and God. The submissions of the Design Team's paper drawings of details and illustrations of their potential animals are given to Shimoda, which is enclosed in a special handy-dandy book, to which then God sends him a direct telepathic message with His decision to judge whether the creature is approved or rejected. Ueda is like Shimoda, only less active in the communication space, and handles other creature departments, such as the Insect department. Onto the Design Team: - Tsuchiya/Saturn, chief of the Design Team, and has a weird obsession for his greatest masterpiece: horses. Horses can come in many shades but of the same looks and size, but to put his character in perspective, one that will go far to create iterations of horses that are mythical and not really suited for real-life uses (a.k.a unicorn or pegasus). He has a grandson named Kenta who visits the Design Team on occasion. Like (grand)father like son, he loves horses, but weirdly enough, his childish drawings sometimes becomes approved animals. - Kimura/Jupiter, the most carefree of the team and rarely gets into an argument. Despite his greatest masterpiece being the cow, he's a foodie by nature, the vast majority of his designs are meant to be eaten, but can sometimes go too far by judging animals if they're worth tasting. He also enjoys acting like a detective when mysteries happen, on occasion that is. - Mizushima/Mercury, the impersonal and somewhat apathetic member of the Design Team. He does not have a particular quirk in designing his animals, aside from making them as efficient as possible, and is always the one to point out issues with his teammates designs. His greatest masterpiece are snakes, to which the usual conflict with Kanamori is deeply in particular since the latter's bird designs are often preyed upon by his snakes. - Kanamori/Venus, the flamboyant trans woman with an eye for beauty and style, and with her greatest masterpiece being birds, it's not hard to see the parallels. She has a tendency to be overly dramatic and hates to settle on her designs if they are not absolutely aesthetically beautiful to her liking. She also bears a strong dislike of insects in general. - Meido/Pluto, the punk-lolita dressed-up fashionista and a deep obsession creating morbid features into her design. Her greatest masterpiece are poisonous frogs, which are an indication of her designed creatures tending to be poisonous, cannibalistic, and parasitic, yet she considers them to be cute, and have the widest range of animal designs from a shark to a koala. - Unabara/Neptune, the tall and big man, but with the heart of gentleness and sensitivity. His greatest masterpieces are the kangaroo (and later the sea otter), and has an eye for creating cute animals. - Higuchi/Mars, the Design Team's primary engineer who creates drafts of the animals that the crew creates for testing. Being largely opinionated about the roughly drafted end designs (much less design fixes needed), her passion for creating animals can sometimes be aggressive, but she maintains that happy friendliness towards everyone. She also runs and maintains Galapagos Island, a simulation island meant to test out new animals to be sent out to the wild for testing. - Mushibu, the side Insect Department dedicated to designing insects, though sometimes wheeled in to help out with the Design Team's creations. There are seven members of the team, but they all share the same appearance aside from different colored shirts, and occasionally talks in unison. - Last but not least, there's Yokota, Hell's representative. Speaking in a Chunni fashion, in the similar manner to God, he occasionally tasks the Design Team with creating hellish creatures to inhabit the realm, though he's not a part of the crew. An aesthetic choice to go for a simple but striking animation design as per Asahi Productions's pedigree, because realistically it's just a showcase of cutesy designs and a look that doesn't need lots of polishing, just enough to make it stand out. It's goody-two-shoes alright and nothing much to complain about. But the music, oh man the music, it's light-hearted with the peppy feels. This might be one of the rare times that 96Neko (a.k.a Kuro Neko) has had a song like that, and the OP is definitely very catchy. Same goes to the ED, and this is my personal bias, but I absolutely love songs that are produced by the old techno-electronical classy folks at Technoboys Pulcraft Green-Fund, and this ED is no different (that one episode with the full Engrish ED weirdly slaps though). When all is said and done, this show is good for sleep-inducing chilling comedic levels of relaxation and rest, albeit in a very good way that if you glossed over it, you're not missing much, just rewind and restart like normal! Throwing in the facts: it's the wet dream of biologists everywhere, and you'd not be wise to watch this one if you have the time. Recommended for animal lovers and the like.

About as simple as it gets, without any aspirations to be anything other than a slightly manic workplace comedy. It's also surprisingly educational; I definitely picked up a few extra animal facts here and there. Mostly, it's carried by its characters, who are all very fun and silly and chaotic and charming. It's very fun to watch with friends; me and the people I was watching this with made a very fun game out of trying to guess what animal the team were designing at any given point. Often everyone was wrong. There's probably a good drinking game in there somewhere...

Heaven's Design Team is an anime that... Well, it's not an anime in a default sense. There's no plot. There's no punchline. What Heaven's Design Team IS, is a lightweight easy-to-digest trivia about various animals. It's not bad, but it's not good either. All the micro-episodes follow the same pattern: -god orders the design team to make some seemingly fucked-up animal (think "make an animal whose males go through pregnancy!") -design team makes some noodle-doodle play-doh monster that fulfills that requirement without dying from some critical body failure -they add some final touches to the design -a-HA! it turns out it was Seahorses ALL ALONG!!!! Crazy, ain't it, dear viewer?!?!!And rinse and repeat. Well, I'll admit that the idea is... servicable, but 5 minutes of watching just to know that this animal is fucked up in this way, or that animal is fucked up in that way is way too long. Any shred of comedy evaporates by the time punchline arrives, but then again the amount of educational information isn't dense enough to properly be an educational anime. Characters are cardboard archetypes too, you'll know exactly what to expect from them at a glance, and they won't become anything more, ever. IN SUMMARY This anime's strong point is the fact that it doesn't have glaring weak points, so even though it's a lukewarm, glorified trivia pop-up ad in a form of anime, you will only regret using your time to watch it (contrary to bad anime where you hate losing your time memorizing garbage you'd rather forget). So, if you want to waste some time and have nothing great to watch, it's a good time-filler with no substance (and no consequences).

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