Production is still stellar and all the character animation is always lovely to see as always. Kyoani is truly back.

Story-wise, it was great to see Motomu again as he's one of my new favorites, but the drama was a little undercooked and resolved a little too easily off-screen (and also, like with previous first-years, a little too unempathetic to the kids issues?). I think this has to be set-up for when Kumiko's Floofy Presidentness isn't enough to magically resolve a first-year's issues so easily by the power of dialogue alone, probably once Mayu gets the spotlight.

Nice nice!

Not the most well-done of season finales, a bit sloppier in the production vs 12, but overall good and nailed the money scenes at least. The little anime original ending convo wasn't necessary but whatever.

The complaints here are hilarious though.

1) "Nothing was answered!!"
Not only is the overall plot not even halfway done at this point (literally only 1/3rd), almost all the major mysteries are actually already "answered".

There's not going to be a narrator come in and "confirm" things for you in a neat bow. There's not going to be an exposition dump plot device character like the magic glowworm in Shinsekai Yori to explain everything to you. There isn't going to be sepia tone flashback recap episode to help you tie everything together. There's no Sherlock Holmes detective for you to piggyback onto and feel good when he solves everything for you without you having to lift a finger.
The ending teaser tag was literally just to make things 100% simple for you - the Takehara kids go to a populated modern urban city.

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it - if you didn't understand already then you should've dropped the show months ago.

2) "There was zero follow-up or effect of the rape"
Was she not crying and contemplating literal identity death? Crying on the river? Ripped up the photo and said she's done with that goal for good? I'm wonder whether the people saying this were even able to figure out what actually was happening over the 1-2 days of her captivity or what Robin was doing. Did you need a narrator to tell you what she was feeling instead? This isn't a straight-forward TV melodrama. The series is also, of course, not concluded. If anything the plot only really gets going now.

3) "The rape didn't need to happen, Robin should've just uh done uh something else idk"
Just stop watching media entirely and especially don't read any books. You're not showing off how moral you are by moral grandstanding over fiction. Your idea of a "good(??) rape scene" is likely a revenge porn action flick or where the series lectures the would-be rapists who may somehow be watching at home, hopefully teaching them a Very Important Message about Not Being Bad Guys.

4) "Nothing was accomplished"
The character goals set out in episode 1 were all mostly concluded. The kids saw the outside just like Tokio and Mimihime talked about. Kiruko found Robin just like she talked about with Maru. This is a character driven show in the end - did you expect a big boss fight with the "DEMON KING HIRUKO" to save the world from the apocalypse with time travel magic or something? Most people saying this either bring up things that were actually concluded but they didn't realize it, or just don't care. They don't seem to just say what they actually wanted from this series at all.

From the beginning, most people simply fundamentally misunderstood the point of the show entirely. The Takehara kids are not in an escape-room mindgame Promised Neverland clone, nor are Kiruko and Maru on some shounen quest to solve the mystery of the apocalypse and save da world. This is a slice of life action adventure sci-fi supernatural slow-burn mystery drama genderbending romantic comedy - simple stuff.

While the show isn't perfect people keep judging it based on things they conjured up in their imaginations, even bashing dialogue that never happened (like Kiruko "forgiving Robin"??), which I don't think is very fair to do to such a rarely unique unconventional production and story like this that we likely won't see again for many many years.

She never said anything about forgiveness.

Before Episode 12:
"Whoah I'm absolutely loving this show. It has deep mysteries, and doesn't hold your hand with tons of exposition or explanations, and reveals answers very gradually over a long period of time. The shocking traumatic scenes hit so hard as it should it a post-apocalyptic story, like those random characters in episode 8 I didn't figure out the names of. Did she have cancer or somethin'? Anyways wow I'm loving a show that finally respects my intelligence and doesn't just tell me all the answers instantly, this is what I watch deep mature adult anime for. Just like Promised Neverland and Paw Patrol."

After Episode 12:
"UHMMM??? Excuse me!???? This was TOTALLY unnecessary, it didn't add to the plot or character at all, which I can say immediately after only seeing the scene 5 seconds ago. Why did Robin do this? The show NEEDS to tell me the answer RIGHT FUCKING NOW or else this counts as bad writing and I'll rate the show a 0. I watch this cartoon with my grandparents and 3 babies and the little dog from across the street and Jesus too who lives behind the 7/11 and I did NOT appreciate adult content in my M rated cartoon. I also didn't watch the show but I heard about it in a TikTok comment somewhere so I just really to let everyone know how much I stand against content like this. Thank you, thank you, I know I'm such a good person, you don't need to praise me THAT much, aha. Anyways I'm off to re-watch Berserk."

Didn't you watch Goblin Slayer?

Are you bashing a show you don't watch?

The anime is a very very good adaptation although not a replacement or better overall. The manga has just more content overall, much more character interaction, and also has more of the Slice of Life, Survival Adventure etc feel, where the anime focuses more on the action/thriller element. The anime also tries to make some things much more obvious to help viewers along. I think any fan should read and watch both the manga and anime. As the author told the production staff the entire story so they know what to focus on etc, it's fun to see two takes on the same story.

Sometimes character interactions can hide very important clues, like Shiro and Mimihime's scenes, so it's not a good idea to discount them entirely.

Just start from chapter 1. There's skipped content, new clues, old clues to refresh your memory on, and it's barely anything to get through.

This series is all about subtle clues and body language. Please pay more attention on your rewatch.

There was nothing in the manga more explicit really, it was a near 1:1 adaptation. I'm not sure why people are saying this unless they hadn't read the manga themselves or just skimmed through the chapter.

Kiruko does have some feelings for Maru, even if they're minor or not well understood. She never told him she didn't like him, she held his hand, she flirted here and there. I think a lot of people misunderstood what she said on the boat because they weren't reading the dialogue themselves.

Why wouldn't Robin have something against Haruki or want to torture him, if he had a reason to? We only ever see him through Haruki's rose colored glasses. There's lots of ideas that would make perfect sense.

the camera date is using "tennei time" for the year. it's not 2023 or 2017 but their own year system.

The fact that they even explicitly showed our main character Kiruko having a complicated sexual relationship with "themselves" in the first episodes probably should've clued people into the kind of topics the show was going to continue to cover - sure, maybe it's presented in a bit of a funny or shocking way, but it's not meaningless or frivolous, it was there for a reason, and not just for fun! I think people are expecting Tengoku to be a very dry sexless sci-fi they can show their family to impress them with how Cool anime can be or something, but it's not.

It/s a smorgasbord show and I think people casually watching it as a random seasonal while only wanting or expecting one or two kinds of things from the show will be shocked or put off by what the series has to offer - which is a lot across the board. It demands and delivers a bit more than the average series (from piecing together the plot themselves, to adult themes, to lighthearted elements and comedy too) and I think that will surprise some people.

I guess I'll say now that if people are shocked at sexual content in a seinen TVMA series then they should drop it now for their own sake, especially since this one was lighthearted at best, and will not be as much in the future. This isn't an ecchi comedy nor is it a 2deep4u action shounen that attempts to look super cinematic and mature but doesnt have much to say underneath the surface.

This is also not just a straight serious mystery drama - Tengoku combines comedy, slice of life, survival, tragedy, and so on together, which is important in developing the characters dynamics and setting the stage for what "heaven" even means. Some sequences will just be them goofing off around some ruins together. This is after all from the same author as Soremachi. But nothing is written frivolously or as 'filler' even in this episode - the series from start to end was written before the author even drew the first chapter, and even throwaway pieces of dialogue are important in some way.

Also reminder this is a post apocalyptic society and these kids only know as much as their orphanages or street gangs have taught them, it would be odd to blame this or that on "Japan" since this is its own world as it stands

Oh yes the mangas skipping some panels and scenes, transition scenes like them getting off the raft, or them getting on the boat, set-up scenes, little joke lines or banter, etc. It's nothing too major but its worth reading to get a second glance at it and fill in the blanks, since it gives a more slower "SOL" vibe. The author also said he makes the story to encourage re-reading since he rarely ever exposits himself, so there's tons of clues that'll make you hit your head 40 chapters later when tings pieces together bit by bit.