Karen's Anime Blog

Today, I decided I was tired of mediocrity. I wanted passion, I wanted real feeling! “What is all this repetitive isekai and harem trash? Don’t they make REAL anime anymore?! Oh, they say that this Takopi show is good, what kind of weird title is ‘Tacopi’ anyway? Whatever, I’ll try it LOL”

*watches first episode*

*cries for several hours*

Okay, I didn’t literally cry, but I wanted to. I had seen some of the early buzz about Takopi and knew it dealt with some pretty dark themes, so I braced myself to be ready for emotional pain before I started it. I shudder to think what kind of reaction I would have had to this content if I wasn’t alerted to it. Fortunately, the show has a disclaimer at the beginning, so no one is going in totally blind.

Takopi’s Original Sin is about an adorable little octopus-like alien who comes to Earth to spread happiness. Unfortunately for him, the first human he runs into is Shizuka, a girl from a poor family who is being mercilessly bullied by the other kids in school. Takopi, Shizuka’s nickname for the pink alien, keeps trying different schemes to make Shizuka happy, but of course, in her wretched situation, nothing does the job. Watching Takopi’s good-natured enthusiasm repeatedly smack up against the wall of Shizuka’s misery is emotionally draining, but very well done; it shows the helplessness of a well-meaning person versus the horror of real cruelty.

Marina, the head bully, is also a victim in her own right, but you know what? I don’t care, I want her dead. I shouldn’t admit that– I should claim to have empathy for every child who’s involved here, but I don’t. Maybe it’s because I was bullied myself, and maybe it’s because Marina’s cruelty crosses a line, but I just don’t want to see her redeemed– I want her taken out of the picture. Will Takopi’s Original Sin go there? Would I actually be comfortable with it if it did? From the imagery in the OP, it looks like Takopi is going to help the two girls become friends, but I don’t know if I can buy that as a viewer. Some things are not forgivable.

I thought Shizuka was drawn as a stick-thin girl to show that she probably wasn’t eating enough, but as the show went on, it became clear that depicting everyone as painfully thin is just this show’s art style. Everyone, except perhaps Marina’s (awful) mother, look like they might blow away in a stiff breeze. It makes all the children seem even more vulnerable than they would otherwise. Interesting artistic choice, but for the love of God, someone give Shizuka a sandwich or two already.

The animation is good so far, with Takopi’s dexterous tentacles providing some whimsical fun (Err, not that kind of tentacles.)The OP is adorable, although not without hints that foreshadow the darkness of the show. No complaints on the production end.

Other things to note: this is an extended first episode, running 37:47. I’m glad they gave the story the room it needed to breathe, because rushing through this kind of content might seem flippant. It’s a web animation, so I guess they didn’t have to adhere to the TV show format.

I’m definitely going to be covering this one, although I’m already bracing myself for the redemption of Marina. Can Studio Enishiya make it work and win me over? We’ll see.

Available on Crunchyroll.