Idea 4 is the 4th episode of the Heaven's Design Team anime.
Synopsis[]
Part 1[]
Shimoda walks into the design department to greet everyone and ask how their work is progressing. He finds the team scattered about the room in a slump, except for Tsuchiya who is helping Higuchi repair her lab. Kanamori comes by and Shimoda asks if everything is alright. She explains that the team is going through a creative block due to some complicated requests sent by God. Just then a new request comes in for Kanamori- to make a horse fly. Everyone is shocked, especially Tsuchiya.
Shimoda explains that God chose Kanamori because of the dragon idea that she and Kimura had before. Kanamori is unsure about taking on a project that would normally be Tsuchiya's specialty. Intrigued to see what she comes up with, Tsuchiya wishes her luck and gets back to helping Higuchi. Shimoda wishes he could help and looks at the other designers as they all appear to be stressed out.
God then sends another message, telling Kanamori that he is giving her complete freedom on her project. Shimoda thinks it is a sign that God has faith in her. But she rebuffs his claim, saying that God will only decide what he wants when he sees it finished. She starts with her first draft, a pegasus with all its flaws fixed. But it is rejected immediately after being sent. God tells her he wants to see something more "outside the box and to let her imagination shine," which infuriates Kanamori.
Kanamori's next draft is similar to the previous, one but with a dark, skeletal appearance. After sending it to God, She gets another response. This time saying that the animal doesn't have to look like a horse and that it can be smaller. Kanamori is again furious that God didn't mention this before and storms off to start again. Worried about the mentality of the design team, Shimoda asks God to ease up and be more straightforward with his response. God agrees with this.
Two hours later, Kanamori returns with her third draft. A tiny animal with a fairytale appearance to it. Hoping this would be the final draft, she has Shimoda send it to God, and immediately gets a response back. Shimoda nervously tells her that God Liked the evil-looking version from before and asked Kanamori to keep the design "radial," and the colors "subdued." Kanamori is confused by God's sudden use of industrial language when Shimoda confesses his conversation with God. But it appears he made it worse. Kanamori assures him that he is not to blame, proclaiming that it is God's fault.
Once again Kanamori starts a new draft, with Meido and Unabara standing by to observe (and also to relieve some stress from their work.) Reworking the fairy version, Kanamori incorporates some of the features from the evil version. She comes up with a variation of the bat species. As she explains some of the animal's features, Unabara suggests giving it echolocation to avoid bumping into obstacles. Meido suggests making blood its diet, although Kanamori is in denial about that idea. After sending it to God, Shimoda receives a message from God with divine approval. The greater horseshoe bat is born.
Suddenly another animal receives divine approval. One of Unabara's drafts for a creature that runs with no legs was a success, and the Lovenia Heart Urchin is born. Mizushima and Kimura cheer, due to sleep deprivation. At that moment, Kanamori realizes that she forgot to erase a pair of extra nipples that she left in. But the design had already been approved. So she decides to leave it in to help with nursing the babies.
Part2[]
Kanamori is working in the office when Mizushima and Shimoda note that she is more dressed up than usual. She explains that God gave her a project for "a bird that looks like a precious stone." To help inspire her, she wore all sorts of jewelry to work. At that moment, God sends another request for Kanamori to design "a bird that produces precious stones."
Even though birds were her specialty, Kanamori is at a standstill with the new project. She asks Mizushima if he would help her, offering to give him one of her precious stones as a reward. However, Mizushima says no, adding that he is only familiar with diamonds. Kanamori suggests he could give it to someone special and he replies by asking why he would do that, leaving Kanamori to state how unromantic the office is.
The conversation changes topics when Mizushima asks about opals and what they are made of. At that moment, Higuchi walks in and answers his question. She states that opals are made of water and silica. Upon hearing the word silica, Mizushima compares it to the dying agent inside packets of crackers which infuriates Kanamori.
Higuchi interrupts the conversation to inform Kanamori that she has finished the bird prototype she had requested. Per Kanamori's orders, the bird has the same iridescence as opals and is small enough to escape predators. However, the bird doesn't have the energy to maintain itself, and can't thermoregulate due to its small size. Kanamori is in tears over the development and is determined to figure out a way to solve the problem. For the next couple of hours, she brainstorms on what to do.
Finally, she has the idea of making flower nectar as the bird's main diet, given that it is high in calories. However, due to the bird's small size, it would not be able to perch on the flower to drink. After some careful thinking, Kanamori considers making the bird hover like a bee. But without knowing the mechanics, she decides to go to the insect department for advice. Suddenly she trips and falls to the floor. Mizushima comments that she shouldn't rush while wearing high heels and that wearing too much jewelry doesn't help. She retorts telling him that he doesn't need to criticize her style. Being who she is what makes the animals she creates special.
Later on, one of the employees in the insect department explains to Kanamori how a bee's wings work, adding that if she incorporated it, her bird would be able to hover and fly forward and backward. Kanamori then adds the feature to her bird and it can eat. But Higuchi is concerned that it would need to constantly eat to survive, even at night. Mizushima then suggests making it hibernate like a snake to control its metabolism when it is asleep. At that moment, Shimoda receives a message from God with divine approval, and the hummingbird is born.
Happy to be finished with the project, Kanamori thanks Mizushima, with the latter commenting that he takes pride in his personal style too. In addition, he also came up with an idea for a bird that produces precious stones. Even Higuchi agrees that his idea is good after looking at the draft, leaving Kanamori curious as to what he came up with. After explaining to Shimoda how birds eat stones to help grind their food, Mizushima explains how his design eats rough diamonds. Kanamori is concerned that the bird won't be able to fly. But Mizushima explains how he took that part out and focused on the bird's leg power instead. After spending years in the bird's gizzard, the diamonds will eventually become polished stones.
Mizushima presents his design, which looks like a plucked chicken with a long neck and legs. Kanamori is furious that he didn't add any feathers, despite his statement that it wasn't necessary. She grabs Mizushima's draft and starts adding feathers. Mizushima tries to stop her when the draft flies out of their hands and lands in Shimoda's hands. Suddenly, God approves the design, and the Ostrich is born, two both the designer's surprise.
Even though the design wasn't what either designer was going for, both agree to leave the design as it is since God has happy. As a token of appreciation, Kanamori offers one of her precious stones to Mizushima, who selects a diamond. He then offers it to Higuchi to make into a condenser lens. Kanamori professes that her office must be where romance comes to die.
Part 3[]
Ueda walks in on the design team to find the whole room transformed to look like the savannah. The team is scattered about the ground wearing prison-striped uniforms. Ueda wonders if the team is collaborating on a piece of art. Shimoda corrects her by stating that they are playing hide and seek. He then tells Tsuchiya that the striped horse may not work. Tsuchiya, who was standing on a striped horse, argues that just because Ueda can see them doesn't mean that other animals can.
The team does a test with Kanamori wearing glasses designed to allow her to see like a lion. However, it proves to be a failure. Confused, Ueda asks what is going on. God asked for more animals with stripey patterns. The team is trying to figure out the advantages of putting stripes on an animal.
Unabara points out one advantage. The black and white areas could create different airflows, thus helping keep the body cool. Although he doesn't feel very cool at the moment. That and he is stuck on his latest assignment from God- a "seemlingly carnivorous herbivore." Mizushima suggests Unabara takes a break. However, Unabara welcomes the distraction and thinks about making his animal striped too.
Suddenly he gets an idea. For his animal to survive, he designs it to live in an environment with high altitudes and snowy conditions. He also equips it with no need for hibernation and the need to change its coat between seasons. He comes up with a new bear species called the giant panda, which immediately receives divine approval from God. Everyone believes this will fulfill God's request for striped animals.
Suddenly, the panda starts acting strange. Its eyes turn white, and then it starts crawling across the ground towards the team. After checking the proposal, Shimoda realizes that the blueprints for the starfish got mixed in with the panda. Kimura explains how characteristics of the starfish, which is a carnivore with no brain. As a result, the panda is now behaving like a starfish.
In an attempt to remove it, Kimura tries to pick up the panda. But he only manages to rip off a clump of fur, which then turns into more pandas due to the starfish's ability to regenerate. The team is buried in a sea of pandas within minutes. Thinking quickly, Tsuchiya brings out some tsetse flies to put the pandas to sleep. Because the panda's stripes are so thick, the flies go for them and leave the team alone.
Later on, the team is cleaning up the pandas. Thanks to the flies, the team was able to find another advantage to having stripes. As such, Tsuchiya's striped horse is approved, and the Zebra is born. Both Tsuchiya and Mizushima celebrate while Unabara laments on how well the flies' sleeping disease worked. Ueda points out it was because she cursed them. Unabara asks if angels were allowed to do that, when suddenly a message comes in from God, announcing that Ueda report to Hell. A bolt of lightning comes down and strikes Ueda, making her disappear. The team is left shocked at this development.
Characters[]
- Shimoda
- Ueda
- Tsuchiya (Mr. Saturn)
- Kanamori (Venus or "Ven")
- Kimura (Jupiter)
- Meido (Pluto)
- Mizushima (Mercury)
- Unabara (Neptune)
- Higuchi (Mars)
Featured Animals[]
- Greater Horseshoe bat
- Lovenia Heart urchin
- Hummingbird
- Ostrich
- Giant Panda
- Zebra
Trivia[]
- This episode contains chapters 10, 14, and 16 of the Manga series.
- In the manga series, the events of chapter 16 took place after the team went on vacation.
- In chapter 10:
- After Meido explains how God hasn't replied about her proposal, Shimoda asks what she designed. Meido tells him that it was a creature called a shark. The scene did not appear in the anime version due to graphic content.
- When Shimoda notices that Unabara is hugging a dolphin with fluffy fur, he asks why and Unabara created it. Unabara replies that he needed something to give him comfort. This did not show up in hte anime. Instead, the scene was replaced with another showing Unabara buried in a pile of fluffy dolphins.
- In Chapter 16:
- The blueprints for the Giant panda were mixed up with Kimura's hot-pot animal, which was based on the starfish. This was edited out of the anime.
- When the team was at the island villa, Kimura was showing off some of the features of his rejected hot-pot animal. God then sends a message asking for an animal with some of those features. Thus the team came up with the zebra moray eel, which has received divine approval. This scene never showed up in the anime.