Episode 13

**Idea 13** is the special bonus episode and 13th episode of the Heaven's Design Team anime.

## Synopsis

### Part 1

It's another day in the Animal Department. Shimoda enters to find Kanamori helping Meido out by playing with modeling clay. He asks the two what they are making. Meido proclaims that they are making shark egg casings. Noticing the look on Shimoda’s face, the two reassure him that the sharks will not be harmed when laying the eggs.

Meido shows off one shaped like a corkscrew, which she explains can be wedged between rocks to ensure that it does not drift away. Kanamori shows off another that has strings that can wrap around its surroundings. Fascinated, Shimoda picks up another that looks like a bowl and asks about its story. Embarrassed, the two designers admit that it was something they made by accident. Kanamori tries to think of a method in which the bowl could function like a house to protect the eggs. Suddenly, Shimoda receives a message from God giving divine approval for three designs.

Meido is happy that most of their designs got approved. Despite the bowl not being considered, Kanamori is happy with the work they had accomplished. While Meido leaves to test the eggs, Kanamori hopes to get a similar assignment involving birds. At that moment, Shimoda receives a message from God requesting a new animal from Kanamori. The request is for “a bird that doesn’t lay eggs.’

Dumbstruck, Kanamori speculates how she is supposed to make a bird reproduce without laying eggs, further stating that it isn't possible. Shimoda explains to her that God wants to see chicks being born rather than hatching from eggs, and asks Kanamori if it is a problem. Discouraged, Kanamori grabs a sofa from another room and collapses on top of it. She explains to Shimoda that birds cannot carry their babies in their bellies because it makes it harder for them to fly. Furthermore, once the eggs have been laid, they will only become active once the incubation starts.

Because there are so many problems with the order, Kanamori is uncertain whether she can deliver. From her perspective, “a bird that doesn’t lay eggs” feels like a rejection of birds altogether. Hoping to cheer her up, Shimoda suggests that she design a bird that doesn’t fly. Even though she finds flightless birds boring and easy targets for predators, Kanamori decides to try. After a few minutes of sketching, the design looks more like a hamster than a bird.

Seeing how stressed she is, Shimoda suggests that they take it slow. First, he proposes giving the creature a few bird-like elements, to which Kanamori responds by adding a beak. Next, they adjust the limbs to make them more bird-like. Then they remove the ears and make the feathers hair-like. With the design looking more like a bird, Kanamori takes the blueprint to Higuchi’s Lab to make a prototype.

Later on, Higuchi comes out with a new prototype. Higuchi is convinced the overall design will work, but Kanamori is still complacent that the creature is more mammal than a bird. In response, Higuchi takes out a marker and draws a line on the ground, and labels one side mammal and the other bird. She then places the prototype right on the edge of the bird's side, indicating it is still a bird. After explaining how the bird carries the egg in its body, Higuchi is confident that the adult can handle a live chick inside.

Despite Higuchi’s seal of approval, Kanamori cannot come to terms with the final design and starts having another breakdown. As Shimoda tries desperately to calm her down, he receives an immediate response from God giving divine approval for the design. Thus, the Kiwi bird is born. While Higuchi and Kanamori try to understand what happened, Shimoda explains that God got a kick over the bird’s skeletal structure. He, therefore, changed the request to “a bird that seems like it stopped laying eggs in the next round of evolution.”

Exhausted, Kanamori collapses on the couch and contemplates that she may not be cut out for twisted assignments. At that moment, Meido walks into the room with some exciting news. The bowl that she made with Kanamori got approved as a sand collar for snail eggs. She tells Kanamori that she is a genus and thanks her. After a few seconds, Kanamori cheers up a little and hugs the Kiwi bird she designed, proclaiming that perhaps she can handle twisted assignments.

### Part 2

Shimoda reads a list of assignments to the members of the Animal Design Team:

* Mizushima- doesn’t sink
* Meido- can swallow needles
* Unabara- doesn’t mind painfully uncomfortable surfaces
* Kimura- tolerates both oppressive heat and extreme cold
* Kanamori- can survive on small amounts of water

Shimoda finishes by explaining that the assignments are all requirements that the team has accomplished in previous orders. Now, God’s latest request is “an animal that combines all of the above.” After a brief moment of silence, the team goes into panic mode. As Shimoda watches the team, he worries about their mentality. However, Tsuchiya reassures him that everything will work out.

Mizushima announces that he has finished his assignment. For his part of the design, the animal will have long legs with flat feet. He then presents a mock-up dummy made of wires to show the team. Shimoda is surprised by Mizushima’s approach because he initially thought he would design something similar to a boat. Mizushima explains how he prefers to challenge himself when creating animals. Therefore his approach to the design is based on an insect called a Pond Skater. After explaining how Pond Skaters use their skinny legs to distribute their weight evenly to stand on the water’s surface, Mizushima tests his dummy in a kiddie pool of water. To everyone’s amazement, the dummy floats on the water’s surface.

At that moment, Unabara interrupts with concerns as to whether Mizushima’s design would contrast with his. For his assignment, Unabara’s first idea of a painful surface was the Mountain of Needles attraction in Hell. Using an Elephant as the base of his design, he added some cornified skin protective elements to the feet, knees, and chest so that the creature could sit and lie down comfortably. When Shimoda asks if covering the whole body with cornified skin would be better, Mizushima points out that it would be too much weight. He also points out that the goal was to combine everyone’s ideas into one animal. However, Unabara’s current design would not be able to work with Mizushima’s design. Mizushima aggressively has Unabara change his design by removing some weight and making the legs longer. As a result, Unabara’s design resembles a small, slimmed-down Elephant with tall needle-like legs with wide feet.

While Unabara laminates how his design now looks like it would be more suited in Hell, Meido decides to join in by asking if it’s supposed to eat the needles from Needle Mountain. For her assignment, Meido has to make the creature capable of swallowing needles. But getting the needles to go smoothly down the throat is not an easy task. Looking for some visual preference, Meido asks Kimura to try eating a long needle. To Shimoda’s amazement, Kimura manages to pass the needle vertically down his throat without hurting himself. Meido gets an idea and creates another draft of the creature. She creates some finger-like appendages and lines them on the inside of the mouth. Thus enabling the creature to swallow needles without hurting itself. Despite Shimoda’s skepticism, Tsuchiya reassures him that the team is making good progress.

The next person to go is Kimura. For his assignment for a creature that tolerates oppressive heat and extreme cold, his design is a big, round, furry creature. Despite Kanamori’s accusations of using Unabara’s Seal design as a base, Kimura is confident that his design meets all the marks. However, Shimoda wonders how it will handle oppressive heat with all its fat and fur. Kimura figures the creature could just sweat it out. But Kanamori point’s out that her assignment is to ensure that the creature can survive on small amounts of water. Because sweat reduces the amount of water in a living organism, the creature would be in danger of dying.

Despite Kimura’s remarks, Kanamori struggles with coming up with a solution. With no other choice, she calls Higuchi for help. While Higuchi notes that the fat and fur approach would help the creature survive in hot climates, it would need water to keep it from getting heat stroke. Using the information, Kanamori deduces that she would have to store the water somewhere in the creature’s body. Higuchi suggests using the creature’s blood cells. But points out that they can only hold a certain amount of water, or else they burst. Plus, the cells cannot be too big, otherwise, they will cause blood clots. Kanamori comes up with a solution by making the blood cells oval-shaped, thus ensuring the cells can be bigger and still pass through the blood veins.

Despite all the progress made, Mizushima points out that the creature would be too heavy, especially with everyone’s ideas combined. Grabbing Kimura’s blueprints, Mizushima cuts the creature in half, eliminating the bottom portion, to everyone’s shock. He takes everyone’s sketches and puts them all together. With the final design near completion, the team wonders what environment would be ideal for it to live in. Thinking back to all the assignments they were given, the team figures out the answer, the desert. After a few more revisions, the team has their animal, the Camel. Suddenly, Shimoda receives a message from God giving divine approval.

Tsuchiya commemorates the team for their teamwork and congratulates them on a job well done. He then remarks that God might consider handing them more multi-part orders in the future. However, the team is left horrified at the idea.

## Characters

* Shimoda
* Ueda
* Tsuchiya (Mr. Saturn)
* Kanamori (Venus or "Ven")
* Kimura (Jupiter)
* Meido (Pluto)
* Mizushima (Mercury)
* Unabara (Neptune)
* Higuchi (Mars)

## Featured Animals

* Kiwi
* Camel

## Trivia

* This episode features chapters 32 and 37 of the manga series.