Heaven’s Design Team (Tenchi Sōzō Dezain-bu) is a 2021 anime based upon the manga of the same name by Hebi-Zou, Tsuta Suzuki, and Tarako.

The concept of Heaven’s Design Team is that God hired contractors to create the animals in our world. Our protagonist, Shimoda, is an angel who is picked to serve as a liason between the deity and his team of designers.

The typical episode begins with God passing along a frustratingly vague idea to the team, who then troubleshoot ideas until they are accepted. For instance, the request for “an animal good at hearing” results in the owl…eventually.

And that’s what makes this such a great anime, not only is it funny, it’s actually educational! Thanks to HDT I now know that elephant’s ears are big because they dissipate heat, some frogs compete for mates with leg-stretching competitions…also, koalas are horrifying!

The prompt was “cute, but not cute”, by the way.

Only one season of this show has been made, and there’s decent odds it won’t get another. However, it’s well worth a watch if you like animals at all or just like comedic anime. Happy posting!