Anime Review: Takopii no Genzai

For those who know me, you know that I prefer to be an anime-only watcher. I’ve had the manga for Takopii no Genzai (Takopi’s Original Sin) for quite a long time; however, I didn’t read it because around the time I picked up the manga, the anime was announced. So, I waited until it aired so that I could go into it blind. Now that it has come and gone, what kind of impression did it leave on me?

Let’s go!

The Story

Shizuka is a very troubled girl. She comes from a broken home where her father left, and her mother couldn’t care less about her. The only friend she has in the world is her dog named Chappy. Even at school, she is relentlessly bullied and physically assaulted by a girl named Marina because she blames Shizuka for the shambles her home is in. Marina’s parents constantly argue, and the tie-in here is that Marina’s father is out conducting “business” with Shizuka’s mother.

All of this changes when a pink chibi octopus from the Planet Happy descends to Earth. The job of a Happian is to make people happy. He is discovered by Shizuka and, since he looks like an octopus, says -pi at the end of everything, and the Japanese word for octopus is tako, she names him Takopi. The problem with Takopi is that he doesn’t understand anything about human emotions. Even when Marina was beating the ever-living crap out of Shizuka, he thinks they can make up and become friends just by talking. He doesn’t understand why Shizuka is in such mental or physical pain all the time.

That is, until Chappy gets taken away from her and Shizuka breaks down. She goes home and commits suicide. When Takopi discovers her, he finally realizes (partially) the gravity situation, so he uses one of his Happy Gadgets, a camera that can transport you back in time to when you took a picture. He inserts a picture he took when he first met Shizuka and relives her life over and over again, trying to find a way to make her happy and fix things, but he ultimately fails every time.

While I won’t go into anything beyond that to avoid spoilers, I will say that the final two episodes do play with the timelines a bit, we do get multiple perspectives at different points in the present, past, and future (if you consider the future from the point in time from the first four episodes). In the end, it delivers an impactful ending, but the journey to get there has been one of the darkest I’ve seen in anime in quite some time.

The Characters

Shizuka Kuze

Shizuka is the definition of a breaking point. When you have a father who abandoned you, a mother who doesn’t care, no friends, classmates who verbally and physically abuse you, and have your only friend in the world taken away, it’s only a matter of time before you reach a breaking point. Now, imagine along comes some Happian who tells you that they can fix it all for you, but every time they try, things never get better. Since she, herself, is not aware of all of the do-overs, her suffering just gets prolonged each time. It’s truly heartbreaking to see someone like her go through so much, and because her suffering keeps getting prolonged, she does reach that breaking point. What she does once it comes, I’ll leave for you to discover, but I won’t say it’s shocking, but more or less expected.

Shizuke represents so much for so many. Even if your life isn’t a 1:1 comparison, many out there have experienced some part of her life, no matter how big or small that part is. Then again, some haven’t, but I am sure that many can sympathize with what she was going through. Shizuka is the type of character that you want to reach through your monitor, pull her out, and save her, but you can’t. You can only watch and share her pain along with her, and that is one of the biggest reasons why this anime has gotten a lot of attention. Just the sheer magnitude of the situation poor Shizuka has gone through has touched many viewers. It stirs your emotions because you know that you can only sit back and watch. So, when I say she was a powerful main character, that is what I am referring to… the power and ability to invoke those emotions.

Takopi

Takopi truly is an idiot, but that’s what gives him his charm. He’s not an idiot on purpose, though. Because of the culture he came from, he just doesn’t understand things the way we humans do. To us, humans are an alien species. Our cultures, our practices, our little quirks and nuances are completely foreign and unknown to him. The only thing Takopi has ever known is that it’s his duty to make people happy. To say that he had a sheltered life is a massive understatement because on Planet Happy, everything is sunshine, rainbows, and filled with Care Bears (remember those?) and gummy worms, confetti, song and dance, and you get the point.

Because of this, Takopi has a very simplistic… almost innocent, child-like view of us humans. He simply can’t comprehend things on a deep level, and that’s what makes him an alluring character. It’s like watching a small child try to solve adult-level problems. Hey! Getting punched in the face? No problem! Just smile and hug your abuser! It’ll make them feel all warm inside, and you’ll become friends! Then you can go on picnics, sleep over at each other’s houses, and even bake a cake together and share it with all of your friends! That’s the Takopi way!

The real world doesn’t work like that. Takopi uses utopian logic in a world that isn’t black and white, but you have to look past that to truly love him as a character, because what makes us attach ourselves to him is the effort. No matter what, no matter how grim the situation, no matter how impossible the problem, Takopi continues to find a solution. He is loyal to a fault, but he will never give up on you. At first, he was like this because it was his duty, but after Shizuka’s suicide, you could see him beginning to understand things little by little. While he didn’t completely understand it all, he understood enough to know things needed to be fixed. He no longer felt a duty to his home world… he felt a responsibility to fix the lives of the people he considered his friends. Simplistic or not… Takopi became a true friend to them all… a friend who wouldn’t give up just for the sake of seeing you happy. Just an amazing character from start to finish!

Marina Kirarazaka

Misunderstood. That is the best word to describe her. At first, you thought that she was just the devil himself. You thought that she enjoyed abusing Shizuka for the heck of it, like it was just something to do to kill boredom. Then, you learned about her life and the reasons why she came to resent Shizuka… then you realize that she didn’t truly resent Shizuka, but more or less used her as an outlet to unleash her frustrations on. The best way to describe Shizuka in this situation is Guilt by Association. Of course, Shizuka did nothing wrong to Marina; however, Marina’s family situation was driving her to the brink of insanity, much like Shizuka’s. Well, when Shizuka is your age, nobody likes her, and she is related to the heart of your problem; she became a proxy target… and an easy one at that.

Then, there is a moment where justice is delivered, but it leaves you wondering if it truly had? By this time, you’ve come to understand how things were for Marina, so did she truly deserve that treatment? This became one of the big moral questions you had to answer. There are quite a few of them in this series, but this is the one that got talked about the most. Of course, if you ask 100 people, you’re going to get 100 different answers, but for me, I don’t think this version of justice was warranted. There were probably better solutions, and one of them boils down to Takopi’s biggest message… just talking it out. To understand one another rather than putting more degrees of separation between you is the key to finding happiness, but neither Shizuka nor Marina would allow that. Their emotions have driven them to a point where discussion was near-impossible, so that goes back to the original question? Was justice truly delivered?

Even now, I wonder about that. Especially in the final episodes, where we do a six-year time skip and we see what becomes of Marina and Shizuka. I have to say that this was probably one of the better-written antagonists that I’ve seen in a while. You grew to hate her immediately, then you learned about her and began to understand her, and then you’re left questioning whether she deserved what had happened to her, but that question is asked at a moment where the understanding had fully settled in. You were still focused on the truly evil version of Marina. It was perfectly timed, but I think she was an outstanding antagonist just for the pure emotion she brought out from those who watched the show.

Naoki Azuma

No. The character that made you first say, “FINALLY! Someone normal in this show,” proves that nobody has it easy. Azuma has an older brother who seemingly just breezes through life without much effort and gets the best grades. His father runs a clinic, which means his mother is usually home to take care of things, but she’s got Asian Parent Syndrome. In other words, getting a 95 on a test is considered a failure… especially when big brother keeps bringing home 100s. It’s not good enough that Azuma is ranked #2 academically. His mother demands that he tie his brother because she just can’t be satisfied with having two ranked #1 and #2, respectively. No! They both must be #1, dammit!

This invokes paranoia within Azuma; however, because of his father and his clinic, despite always being measured by a brooding mother, he has a nice quality about him in the fact that he wants to help people. This is one of the reasons why he became infatuated with Shizuka; however, his lonely lifestyle hasn’t allowed him to comprehend romantic feelings properly, so when she starts paying attention to him, he becomes, for lack of a better word, a simp. A simp that would do ANYTHING for Shizuka. Oh yes, there are things that he does out of the name of infatuation that throw all common sense out the window.

However, even he has a breaking point. Certain situations happen, and it makes him begin to wonder just what the heck he has been doing this entire time. One of those moments was a heart-to-heart talk with his brother. I will have to say, though… for as much as he was involved with everything, he kind of felt like a background character just tagging along… despite the impacts he had and the backstory he was given. While he did have his moments, it was made clear that this wasn’t his show. That honor belonged to Marina, Shizuka, and Takopi. Still, when he was on-screen, he did make an impact.

Art & Animation

ENISHIYA did an incredible job with the art direction of the show. The character designs, the color choices, and the backgrounds all gave this show a unique visual package. The style reminded me of something akin to an anime movie that focused on solid colors rather than a lot of gradients in its highlights and shading. The flat look worked and worked well as it gave the show a gritty feel, and given the story’s material and subject matter, it melded well with it and drove home the overall atmosphere.

The animation also played into this simplistic “flat” style, too. Even the lights and special effects were akin to things you would find in late 80s / early 90s anime before CGI was a thing (or at least prevalent). In a way, it gave the show an old school meets new school feel. The animation also kicked things up when it needed to, with the final episode having some nice sakuga moments.

The soundtrack was haunting, and the use of silence in parts where it was needed was done masterfully. All around, this was a complete package from a visual and audio standpoint. Even the opening theme song, which is a style that I don’t particularly care for, worked well. It was a typical J-Pop song that made you believe that this would be a sweet story about a chibi octopus… or maybe a kid’s cartoon; however, it’s in direct opposition to what the show is truly about… as if it were being ironic on purpose. I can only think back to how Puella Magi Madoka Magica was presented and how apologies had to be given all around for luring unsuspecting children into a world of darkness and misery.

At least the opening title card at the beginning of each episode gives a fair warning.

Final Thoughts

Simply incredible. I wanted to give this a perfect 5/5 so badly; however, there were a couple of nuances that stopped me from doing so. One of which is that a couple of the plot points were left either unresolved or unexplained. Without saying too much, one of them was when Shizuka went to Tokyo. Something was happening back in her hometown at the same time, and unless I missed a detail somewhere, that didn’t seem to get followed up on. It makes me wonder if a certain group of people was completely incompetent. Or maybe something did happen during the time skip that erased all of that? Especially when we cross-examine our other character, Marina.

Because of such, the usage of timelines, while convenient, can sometimes get muddied, and I think that was the case here. While we did understand that there were a few time skips, both to and from during six years, we were left to figure out what moment of time we were in rather than just doing something as simple as putting a lower third on the screen that says “6 years later.” So, the aforementioned situation either got resolved or just didn’t happen at all. Plus, there was very little explanation about one of the characters just simply being there when they shouldn’t.

The show could have done a better job handling that, and the ending also felt slightly rushed as well… like it could have had a bit more time to breathe. So many events happened one after another in those final two episodes that it kind of scarred any chance of this show getting a perfect score. Despite the flaws, though, this still ended up being one of the most captivating anime shows of modern times… but I will say that it won’t be for everyone.

Dark and mature things such as suicide and death don’t bother me one bit; however, there are some people out there who are overly sensitive to such topics, so they may not enjoy this show or even feel compelled to watch it… which is fine. So, I recommend the show with caution to your own situation. I’m assuming you’d be able to make that judgment call for yourself.

As for me… I highly enjoyed it, and if it wasn’t for Solo Leveling, I’d say this would have a great shot at winning Anime of the Year… but Jinwoo and his corporate backers are just too strong, so…. Yeah. Shizuka gets shafted again… (presumably)

Overall Score: 4.75 / 5

Until next time…

Ja ne!