Tenchi Souzou Design-bu

Who cares if the average rating is not great? Who cares if someone says this anime isn't that good? Who cares if someone says there is no plot, just animals? If you want a fun slice of life to watch, this is a good choice.

Tenchi Souzou Design-bu or Heaven's Design Team is an anime where God (yes, literally God) has gotten tired from making animals himself that he branched it off to his angels or "employees" and they sit down to make animals. The angels are named after planets of the solar system and every one of them has some kind of specialty. For example, ... one of the employees made the masterpiece called "horse" so he specializes in his "orders/requests" from clients around horses. This may sound like a dumb plot at once but trust me, whether this may sound dumb or fun, it is truly fun to watch.

The story goes on at a fun pace, making 2 or 3 animals per episode and sometimes leaving off with a cliffhanger. Likable characters aid in making this anime even more enjoyable. Someone can even gain intelligence of animals from this anime, they describe every aspect of the animal that they make and I do pay attention to learn stuff I had never learned. Did you know that koalas eat their own feces or that Giraffe is directly related to deer or there are immortal animals? Crazy, right? This is one of the reasons I love this anime because facts are actually interesting and new to me and who doesn't love to learn new facts. Not to mention the comedic speech used is actually gonna give someone a nasal laugh. Personally, I may have laughed one or two times per episode but I did laugh nasally. This anime truly adapts the real world and its concepts and uses it to explain legit facts. Straight up, you can't deny facts spoken in this anime is facts, no one can.

There are several interesting characters who work with each other and help each other making animals which are really fun to watch. I am really a fan of their simplistic art style; just look at the MC, does he look like a traditional anime MC? maybe? but hey, he is the main character.

One of the best things about this anime is the OP. So catchy and upbeat, one of the main reasons I kept watching every episode as soon as it came out is solely for the catchy OP. This is one of my favorites for the 2021 season of Winter. From nice visuals to beat-matching movements and a nice way to caption credits, Asahi Production is really starting to become an underrated studio for me.

I would like to finish off by saying that this is indeed an anime that could be classified as "underrated" or "underloved". Ultimately, Heaven's Design Team is a Comedic Slice of Life of God's angels/employees making animals while respecting other species and their surroundings while aiding each other to make wonderful animals and listing several facts one did not know about. Who doesn't love crazy facts? Tell me. The fact that I am here spending time on writing this review shows how much I appreciate this anime for existing and it is one of the animes that you could have fun watching more than 1 time.

P.S - If you have made it until this part of the review and you liked my review, make sure you watched this anime since it is really fun to watch as I keep insisting. Have a wonderful day!

(Completed the show, don't feel like deleting the review to update the episodes watched as it's still useful.)

-As a Biology Student, I think I can give a bit more info about this show than a normal weeb, but keep in mind Biologists aren’t living Pokédexes. There are a lot of creatures in this world to remember them all by the book.

-Anyhow…

-Most of the time what we do to educate people about a creature is to keep information nice and simple to understand, and that’s what this show does best.

-Similar to Cells at Work! This is an educational Anime, this time focused on living creatures (I ... don’t say just animals because it’s been confirmed that some plants have also been made by the characters).

-Mixing a bit of both religion and evolution, the characters manage to explain their reasoning behind each creature design, with aspects such as how their bodies are built and the reasoning behind that, in addition to how will they survive in the real world by sending them to earth and test them. With such tests, it’s decided what animals get approved by God, which ones not, and the reason behind those decisions. All of this wrapped up with the nice, soft and chill comedy aspect of the show.

-There’s also a section after the creature gets approved which uses real life pictures to explain in more detail some aspects about the creature, similar to how in Cells at Work! they freeze a frame and explain what they want people to understand, just that in this case, is in order to transition between creature designs and in a separate section of the show.

-The story is episodically, don’t know if it’ll have a mayor overarching plot, but I doubt it, this is very documentary like, so there’s really no need for a big plot. It’s also very entertaining trying to guess the creature they’re creating based on God’s vague request and their various failed attempts, so it keeps you focused on the episode.

-The art is very “Nanatsu no Taizai inspired” but the creatures, which are the most important part of the show, are really well drawn, animated and depicted. 9/10

-The OST seems nice and very chill, good BGM. 8/10

-The characters seem very likeable, each with their own trait than later on reflects on the creatures they design. 9/10

-I might be bias on my score, since this is basically my future career, so of course I enjoyed this first episode a lot. 10/10

-Overall is a more chilled educational anime than the Shounen like aspect Cells at Work! has. I'm looking forward to the future episodes this show will bring.

-If you normally don’t watch documentaries, but when you do you enjoy them, this anime is definitely for you~!

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 any ... vague 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 to ... Chemistry
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.

BIOLOGISTS, DESIGNERS, ENGINEERS, ANIMAL LOVERS, CELLS-AT-WORK FANS, UNITE!
If y'all are looking for a quick and digestible (yet informative and fun) show, this is for YOU GUYS.

Notes:
This anime is fairly demographic-specific.
For those of you going into it thinking you'll be given a complex character/plot-driven story, this is not the show for you.
BUT if you're a fan of episodic shows like Hataraku Saibou/Cells at Work, and you'd like to learn about interesting/cool/bizarre animals on earth, then THIS is the show for you.
It's by no means a revolutionary, but it's definitely enjoyable, and you'll leave every episode feeling like you've learned something (whether it be able biology, problem-solving, ... design, etc.).

Summary:
Tenchi Souzou Design-bu is a simple show about functional biological design, presented to us as a show about designers in Heaven that God outsourced to create animals to roam earth. They receive absurd requests like "make a wingless animal that can fly" or " make an animal that ", and need to find biological design solutions to make such animals work. Did you know that all elks have osteoporosis? I did not, and that's just one of the many things I passively learned from this show.
If all of this sounds good to you, feel free to give this show a watch.

Story: N/A
There is no story. Each episode is pretty much self-contained, and there isn't a grand and over-arching story in this anime.

Animation: 7.5/10 (It works. I like it. 10/10 animal animations)
Nothing special, but it looks nice. Although, as someone who spent a lot of time around animals, I should say that they NAILED the animal animations. If you enjoy the art style, you'll enjoy the show.

Characters: 8/10* (somewhat stereotypical but still charming)
All the characters are characters that you've seen before. You have the nervous newcomer, the gentle giant, the fussy gender-fluid character, the cutesy girl that's into creepy things, the attractive but level-headed blonde, etc.
None of them are too fleshed out, but that's... kind of the point. Focusing on the characters would detract from the show's purpose of focusing on animal designs*.
That being said, I still found all the characters to be quite charming (especially Meido and her disgustingly creative animal designs). You really become familiar with each character's idiosyncrasies and quirks, and it really shines through in their designs (i.e. there's a guy that specializes in snake designs and he prides himself in being efficient and practical). I really enjoyed the relationship dynamic of all the different characters, and their interactions and reactions really sold the show for me.

Sound: 7/10 (if it works, it works)
The sound effects and the music in this show were pretty basic, but they all suited the anime well somehow. Nothing felt out-of-place, and everything fit the go-with-the-flow mood. I personally enjoyed the sound effects that would play whenever a new animal was approved, and nothing felt too over-done despite feeling somewhat familiar.
Also, I was not a fan of the opening song, despite being a 96Neko fan since her Nico Nico days, but several of my friends loved it.

Criticisms:
I know this was done in the manga, but there were times when it felt a bit jarring seeing real-life photos of animals in the anime. If you're someone who really doesn't like seeing real-life images of animals in anime, that would be something to consider before picking this show up. I wasn't too bothered by it, though.

Closing Remarks:
This is the review I've ever written on MAL, and I wrote it solely because I feel like this show is not being judged fairly by its merits (as of now, the rating is 6.73 for some reason). Tenchi Souzou Design-bu is an incredibly faithful adaptation of the manga. To go into it expecting anything other than a quick and quirky educational show is unrealistic.
I may be biased since I read all the manga chapters up to this point, but I was just appalled at how this show was being done dirty.
(If anyone's wondering, my grading scheme is similar to university grades, hence the high numbers.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my lukewarm attempt at a review, and I apologize for any grammar mistakes.
I hope it was somewhat helpful.

This is a series of shorts. As in, in a single "episode", 2 or 3 smaller episodes occur, depicting a situation.

Story - 9
Every episode is interesting, capturing my attention with the premise. Sometimes, I can see where the end result is leading, but that does not take away from how the characters progress to get there. There are running gags that are still funny no matter how many times they occur.

Art - 9
Simple art style that does not take away from the simple office life type story. There are many stills, but they are suitable for depicting new animals. This is marvel of animation, ... but it does not need to be.

Sound - 9
Not sure what to say about sound, other than I see no problems with it.

Character - 10
A great cast of characters, somewhat stereotypical at times, but its very enjoyable to see all their interactions. By the second episode, when each person starts designing, I can get a feel about what they could be coming up with, which speaks to how quickly each character has developed.

Enjoyment - 10
Never a dull moment with this show, whether its seeing the work-related stresses, or the creative process of the characters. Despite short episodes, the pacing does not feel rushed. Despite my utter satisfaction with each episode, I am left wanting more.

Overall - 10
Comedic, wholesome, educational fun for the whole family. Despite the allusion to Biblical Heaven and God, the show takes a highly practical approach to how animals are designed, indicating the scientifically limiting factors that prevent certain designs of animals. Its a lighthearted rendition of "intelligent design" as opposed to evolution, but still alludes to evolution through the use of the Galapagos Islands. All-in-all, a cleverly written and enjoyable anime!

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...

"Tenchi Souzou Design-bu" or "Heaven's Design Team" is about group of co-workers who create designs for animals. The most interesting, is that every design will be deconstructed, and developing process will be shown from a scratch.

Story - 7
There no such a thing like linear plot, obviously, cause it's Slice Of life. There is a lazy "god" who got tired of developing any kinds of animals and a group of really various weird designers, who must do all the work instead of "god".
This show driven by characters and cognitive leads, every gag flows from these components. We have kind of a main character in form of ... bellboy, who helps to send "god's" requests, but designers are definitely took the lead.

Art and sound - 6
When I saw Thumbnail pic., it looked like "Nanatsu no tanzai" spin-off, but the actual anime is different. There no spectacular animation or heavy detailed background. Just your typical underdog show of the season with decent picture. Sound has the same story as the art.

Characters and enjoyment - 8
Characters are actually enjoyable af. Gothic-loli yandere, Chill-panda-like man, THE TRAP (not really), just normal man, obsessed-mechanic girl, one more normal man, Angel-demon(????), Man who really loves his horses(don't get me wrong). So, in this kind of Collective, with their distorted thought process and really brutal ideas, you'll not gonna get bored.

Overall pretty astonishing show, which got overshadowed by such a great winter season of anime. Definitely good show to learn something new about animals and laugh a bit.

Fuck y'all. This is the kind of food I want. No more of that same shit, I want animal planets.

Cells at Work? Nah man, we don't focus on fictional anime females or males. This here is where actual culture lies, the true justice of the ever-loving but still cruel hands of nature: animals. Learning about the body in a digestible way is fun and all, but fuck, I wanna know the useless information. Like the fact a mother bear can get pregnant from multiple other bears at the same time, with every single one of her children being from different fathers while not yet being ... born. Family day must be very interesting for bears.

This one dude, what a man, anyways this dude is single-handedly responsible for creating the saviours of our planet. He has created the sea otters, rabbits, seals, penguins, anything cute in the animal kingdom, he was the true origin. Thank you man, you have saved us all. If he decided to be a leader of his own religion, I will worship him. One other guy, the old man, truly has the best taste though. Horses are to be worshipped, I agree old man.

Reject humanity, become monke. We must become one with the wild.

It's a fun and quirky show that nice to put on when you don't necessarily want to think about things too much and has quite a few few 'oh thats interesting' moments.

It doesn't have much storyline to it but I don't think thats a bad thing, most episodes feel like 2 or three shorts tied together, each with a new 'request' from god and you find out tones of interesting 'facts' along the way. The designs can be funny to start with and each designer has their own way of tackling problems and interpreting requests. It's also interesting to see what designs work and get ... accepted.

The art style is nice to look like and the characters are designed to give an indication of their personality just from looking at them, especially if you watch a lot of anime. Each of the characters has their own personality that generally revolves around a specific trait e.g. Kanamori is quite flamboyant and Unabara is the soft hearted giant. I wouldn't say there is anything revolutionary about them but just like with the storyline there doesn't need to be. It in enjoyable to watch the characters interact and see them inspire each other.

I know I've ranked this series high but thats because personally it's doing exactly what I believe the show was meant to do, softly educate people about creatures and entertain them while doing it. I think if you have even a passing interest in animals or even the commissioned design process you'll get a couple of kicks out of watching this.

I honestly wasn't planning on watching this show this season until one of my friends told me that it was something right up my alley. I'm an Animal Science student and seeing a show that shows off everything that I've been studying and shows it in an easy to understand fashion is so fun to watch. I love being able to be like "Oh yea! I learned about this!" in the eps and then laugh at all the ways that the designs wouldn't work. I can understand how this show wouldn't appeal to everyone as it can be very biology focused at some points. For ... me who is a very anatomy and physiology focused person due to my field of study it is such a fun show that it easily made its way into my top 10 shows ever. I have started recommending this to my other Animal Science/Pre-vet friends who watch anime because it goes hand in hand with what we learn about in our lectures! I highly recommend this to anyone in the biology/zoology field!!!!!

Heaven's Design Team really feels like an underdog anime. It didn't get rave reviews, or even a ton of discussion, but I really enjoyed it a lot. I think that there's a lot here artistically and comedically that was overlooked.

The main characters are angels who are hired by God himself to do the work of creating animals to populate the earth with, based on his requests. You get to see what the design and thought process behind creating the animals are, the original versions often looking nothing like the final product in the most hilarious ways. A simple premise, but it leads to all sorts ... of wacky situations, such as our main characters drowning in panda bears. Each episode has educational segments about the creatures featured, but they are brief and oftentimes have cute pictures attached! That being said, don't go into this expecting an overarching plot aside from your usual slice of life antics.

Each of the angels have their own quirks, and most of all, obsessions in terms of what designs they like. Kimura loves things that taste good, Unabara loves all things cute, Meido loves the most morbid parts of the animal kingdom, etc. Seeing how they work together and disagree at times is really fun. It feels like it pokes fun at some aspects of religion, but in a fun rather than mean-spirited way.

The art style is really nice as well. The characters have designs that fit their personalities well, one detail I noticed was that Kanamori always has a new outfit since she loves fashion and beautiful things. It doesn't suffer from the dreaded "same-face syndrome" and all of the characters look distinct. The music fits the series' cheery and humorous tone, and the voice actors mostly do a great job.

It's a shame this series is so over-looked, because it truly is funny. If you are a fan of animals of all types, it is worth a peak!

As someone who knows very little about anything regarding biology bar what I learned in school, the anime is a very good balance of informative and fun.

Story - 5 - The story is very simple but gets the job done. Episodes are self-contained with an overarching premise so the story is barebones and does nothing great but gives the show a nice platform for each individual episode.

Art/Sound - 7 - It's nothing new and the majority of it is very basic, especially related to the sound with very standard anime sound effects and an opening song I'm not really a fan of but don't hare ... either. The animation is a style we've all seen before but the animation on the animals is very nice and made me laugh quite a lot. Overall, the art and sound design is good and nothing feels out of place but there's really nothing new either which is fine.

Characters - 9 - The characters in the show are the real driving force as they are the one's designing and creating the real stars of the show, the animals. Each character has their own quirks such as an old man loving horses, a creepy loli, the attractive blonde with big boobs, you know, the usual. This isn't a bad thing that they're mostly generic and aren't fleshed out since they really are just there to push the premise and allow for different design styles and it's done extremely well. I began to like the characters from the first episode (bar the grandson, I hate him) as their personalities bounce off of one another.

Overall I really enjoyed this show, it's funny and informative. I definitely recommend giving it a try if you like anime you can jump into without needing to become highly invested in a long storyline. It brings back a similar feeling I had watching children's cartoons before I went to school.

This is a very good series! Not gonna lie is not for everyone, it follows the same idea as cells at work but more focused on teaching you stuff.

Still, is very good, i don't know a lot about biology so is very fun to try and guess what kind of animal they're making, they also explain you why certain fantasy creatures can't exist based on biology which is also very interesting.

The characters are really funny most of the time even when they repeat certain jokes, since all of them have a very specific personality and you can tell who designs what just in the ... 1st episode, i specially love kanamori since she's basically trans and never , not even once the series makes fun of that , on the opposite they gave her the most pretty cloth changes on the show and everyone likes her, it makes me so happy to see a series so entertaining and respectful even when it comes to the religious side (since i was worried they tried to tell you about the bible or something at some point but that never happens, is just about the animals).

I don't know what else to say here, if you like a chill series where they teach you stuff in a funny way this is for you, the OP is very good too, this series does everything right.

The story isn't the most important part of this show. But its a light hearted, fun, educational show about animals. While I don't think the show is for everyone, its one that you will know if you want to watch it after the first episode.

Its also very family friendly, but interesting enough to entertain older audiences.


The show's art style is very childish, which adds to the colorful characters. Also I just love the opening, bright and cheerful.

The characters are all rapidly developed with distinct traits and relations. From the stuck in his ways old timer, to the bright eyed new guy. Every character ... has their own personality to their work.

Heaven's Design Team is a neat episodic-style series that feels like a documentary had a kid with a comedy. I enjoyed my time with it but I had enough of it by the time it was over.


The story is lackluster and pretty much a monster-of-the-week format. Each episode several creatures, say five or so, come into the spotlight. You will be dragged along the creature creation concept based on God's vague whimsical requests. The design team has to figure out how to make a viable creature that fulfills the request, and it's exciting to see those odd requested features go from an unrecognizable first draft ... to an animal you'll likely have heard of before. Seeing the thought process is humorous and fascinating and how they overcome certain obstacles during the design process really makes the series what it is. It's lighthearted without any dark twists, and what you see is what you get. If you like the trailer, you'll like the series.


The characters are pretty much all defined by one or two personality traits. Seeing how short the series is, I didn't really expect more. It's enough to make it all work and give everyone their 'thing' and area of expertise. It works well enough, and the main character seems to be a kind guy. Nothing special here, anyway, but nothing to complain about either.


Music and sound effects were unremarkable. The opening was condensed musical diabetes, but the ending was catchy - it reminded me of Interspecies Reviewers in a way. Artwork and backgrounds are minimal and the lack of art budget is quite noticeable, yet the finished animals actually look really good.


Overall, I enjoyed my time with this series. I watched it together with my partner and we had a great time. On the other hand, by the time we reached the final episode we were kinda done with it and happy that it ended when it did.

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).

STORY: The anime doesn't have a proper story to follow at each episode, but it still manage enough content to make the watcher see in order to catch up some gags or puns. But what makes the anime extraordinary is the fact that is an educative way to tell about animals without being too serious like a school, and going to the thought of "the science must be fun for everyone". This is showed by us a way better that we can find in Hataraku Saibou for example, because it's less complex for kids and adults. (8/10)

ART: The art is very polite in a way ... that helps to catch the attention of kids and it's easy and pleasant to see even for adults. Colorful, simple traces, perfect for an educational anime. (9/10)

SOUND: In terms of sound design, the anime is simple but it's still good, when it comes to that informative sketches. But when we talk about opening and ending, the anime is truly good, with catchy songs which combines to the atmosphere of the anime. (8/10)

CHARACTER: Definitely the best part of the anime. The characters are charismatic enough to make you understand their personalities and how they apply that personality in the work they are making for God. Fun and informative, the characters are the thing that make the anime good enough to be extremely enjoyable for everyone in every age. (10/10)

ENJOYMENT: Perfect enjoyable, for kids, teenagers and adults. Don't need to say more, go watch. (10/10)


OVERALL: The overall is: great anime, go watch NOW. (9/10)

I wasn't sure if I was going to like Tenchi Souzou Design-bu but it turned out to be a cute little anime that was both entertaining and interesting to watch.

Tenchi Souzou Design-bu isn't a story heavy narrative, or even a character driven story, it's just an anime with funny characters who discuss animal characteristics and why specific animals are built in the way they are. It's very interesting and the final episode is even a little heart warming, but don't expect even the most basic of a storyline.

There's not much to say outside if you want an anime that you can just relax to and ... learn some animal facts then this is a good one.

7/10. No story or character development or drama or anything of the like but was a cute, enjoyable watch regardless.

Watching this anime is like eating an nugget. Fuss free, brings joy, fulfil some craving but doesn't fill up the stomach.

If you're looking for a mind-blowing, perspective-changing anime, this probably isn't the one. But if you had a bad day at work and just want to watch a quick silly (yet educational) anime over lunch, this is perfect for few chuckles that brighten things up just a little :) And of course, their sense of humor can be kind of strange at times, but that's what make this show charming!

I wished the animation quality could be slightly better though. The characters are endearing ... but their charms are just diminished by the static animation at times :(