Sabikui Bisco
a review by CabbagePanda
CabbagePanda
4 years ago·Mar 30, 2022
75
/ 100
a review by CabbagePanda
4 years ago·Mar 30, 2022
Personal score: 8/10
Objective score: 6/10
One thing is for sure, this is a series of events that you won't be able to predict. One day the characters will be running from a walking temple, the next they'll be arrested by a bunch of kids. Personally, I found the plot to be really interesting. Even though it tapered off towards the end, I watched every episode with excitement. Their journey to find the Rust Eater was clear and they made it. I didn't find the plot to be too bad even though, yes, there are a lot of flaws later on.
Objectively, the plot is alright. Because they find the Rust Eater in the middle of the anime, the rest is spent in a very long fight (I won't give too much away don't worry). They had a clear goal to find this miracle mushroom and made some stops along the way that would help them get there. After they find it, however, I can't say it's too impressive. Suddenly our main characters find themselves in a dog fight with Kurokawa over the Rust Eater because, of course, he's a corrupted official with money on his mind. While this isn't a bad plot point, it drags on for a very long time. And during this fight occurs the most fatal scene in which
Personal score: 6/10
Objective score: 7/10
These scores are pretty much the same because I think it's clear that some characters are poorly written and developed, and the same for their relationships. From an objective standpoint, Milo and Bisco are great characters and Kurokawa is the perfect villain, while the side characters serve their purpose as helpful friends and family.
However, many characters are not written well, the most obvious being Pawoo. Here we have a strong woman who is the leader of a city's police force, which is great, except for the fact that she is very two-dimensional. For most of the story, she pursues Milo and Bisco in order to kill Bisco, and throughout this you see is her headstrong rage and a whole lot of strength. And that's really all she is, headstrong, and her only purpose is just to give Milo a reason to return to Imahama. She isn't the only character, Tirol also has her flaws. We see her tell Bisco and Milo about her mistrust and her former jobs, but this is a sudden development that seems to be there just to give her a dramatic reason and it's not elaborated on. Now, I said Kurokawa was the perfect villain, but every villain needs a backstory, something we get very little of. If they had shown his rise to power or his past evil deeds, this would make him a much more fleshed out character that isn't just really hard to fully get rid of.
What is one of the best selling points of this anime is the relationship Bisco and Milo develop. They are best buds, an inseparable power duo, and you get to see how that is formed throughout the show. And here's where I go on my little tangent about how gay they are even though they are canonically not gay (this is a very personal opinion). Both of them get very intimate with each other, one of them even telling the other, "Aishiteru," which is a pretty deep form of love. And yet, the author decides to deviate from this romance and puts in some Pawoo x Bisco action. This leads me to my point about the very forced and sudden relationship between Bisco and Pawoo (back to objective). After Pawoo realizes she was wrong about spending a large portion of the story manhunting Bisco, she's suddenly very into him. Then, despite their lack of interaction and intimacy, she gives him a smooch in the last episode. While this could have been a fun romance to watch, it wasn't well written and felt very forced, as if the author was told to make their characters straight to avoid backlash.
Personal score: 8/10
Objective score: 10/10
They did a killer job on the animation. OZ, the studio, did really well by blending together CGI and normal animation together as seen with Actagawa, the giant crab. The main action of this anime, the archery, was flawless and the mushrooms popping up was such a satisfying visual. The scenery had me in awe and there was so much to see. I personally didn't like how they drew Milo or Pawoo, and since they were important characters, this really affected how I score this section.
Personal score: 10/10
Objective score: 10/10
This was amazing. I think all the voice actors and actresses should receive awards for this anime. Natsuki Hanae (Milo) and Kenjiro Tsuda (Kurokawa) especially. The emotion they were able to convey was clear and made it feel more real. Milo's VA did a really good job voicing the despair and anger Milo felt during certain scenes. Kenjiro Tsuda made Kurokawa sound like a bone-chilling villain and even when special effects were applied to his voice he still made him sound vengeful.
Personal score: 8.5/10
Objective score: 7.5/10
This was a really fun and interesting anime and definitely something out of the ordinary. I really enjoyed this despite how long it took for the final fight to conclude and other flaws. It's not perfect and maybe a little confusing, but it has adventure and fun written all over it. If you haven't watched this yet, you definitely should. There's just so much to see and enjoy for a 12 episode anime.
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