Wow…

Sort of peripheral to your point, but…

Heavenly Delusion was new to me, so I looked it up and discovered the original manga is by Ishiguro Masakazu, the author of one of my all time favorites, SoreMachi. I don’t know how I didn’t know that this existed, but I’m all over it now.

SoreMachi is a sort of breezy SOL with bits of weirdness tucked around the edges and an absolutely stellar cast of characters. I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with the weirdness front and center.

Anyway - Kemurikusa is indeed broadly similar to Usuzumi no Hate, but with the significant difference that the characters themselves know next to nothing about the world - aside from what they’ve gleaned in the time they’ve lived there, it’s as alien and inexplicable to them as it is to us. Actually, in some ways, it’s even more alien to them. We can recognize that they live in a derelict railroad car and travel through city ruins, but to them, it’s just a box with round things that they found and the world is just a place of open spaces and enclosed spaces.

But now I’m off to binge the Heavenly Delusion (Tengoku Daimakyo) manga.