According to various studies, smiling can improve your mood, even if you have to force it; however, it can be hard to force that smile when everything in your life is negative. If the number of people who take their lives every year is any indication, even trying to smile through the pain just isn't enough sometimes. Even so, sometimes, when someone takes their life, some people who cared about them wonder what they could have done to stop it from happening - how they could have made them so happy that they wouldn't have even thought about it. Unfortunately, there's no way to make those who are gone happy now, so the best you can do is bring happiness to those who are still here. From December 2021 to March 2022, a manga about a character who wanted nothing more to bring happiness to people in unhappy circumstances was serialized in Shounen Jump+, and with the combination of its short length and horribly dark themes, no one ever thought that it could get an anime adaptation. Well, I hope no one used a Happy Camera on the day production started on the "Takopi's Original Sin" anime, because it ended up actually getting announced and released, and given how good it ended up being (especially compared to the manga, apparently), we don't need anyone trying to prevent it from happening!
Takopi's Original Sin, or "Takopii no Genzai" in Japanese, begins in 2016, when an octopus-like alien crash-lands on Earth and befriends an elementary school girl named Shizuka Kuze, who calls him Takopi. Takopi has come from Planet Happy with the mission of spreading happiness to others using his Happy Gadgets, and he tries using them to help Shizuka, who is brutally bullied at school and practically neglected by her mother at home. When his attempts to make Shizuka happy end in tragedy, though, he tries his hardest to fix it, only to end up committing an irreversible sin. Thus, this once-innocent little alien has to deal with the consequences of his actions, as well as try to remember something he has forgotten. Meanwhile, we get to learn about the home lives of a few characters other than Shizuka, and trust me, not a single one of them is happy.
I'm just going to say it; the story of Takopi's Original Sin is a very heavy one. It contains fairly realistic depictions of suicide, physical child abuse, child neglect, and parental favoritism, to name a few things; anyone who is triggered by any of those may want to stay away. That being said, it's a very emotional story that gets you to really feel for its characters. The story is also well-paced, with no part of it dragging out for too long. Although I haven't read the 2-volume manga, I do think that the 6-episode length was the perfect approach to this series in order to get the pacing right; a movie would have rushed through the story too quickly, and a standard 12-episode series would have dragged everything out too much. If I had to pick out one issue with the story, though, it's the way it ends; to avoid spoilers, I'm just going to say that it felt cheap.
As I said before, the story of Takopi's Original Sin really gets you to feel for its characters. This includes Takopi himself; he starts off as an innocent little guy who just wants to spread happiness across the galaxy, only to get caught in the middle of a horrible situation that ends up completely destroying that innocence. It hurts to see the world come down on poor Takopi! Even so, though, I did think he was an interesting character who got plenty of development. Shizuka.... well, I've got mixed feelings about her. On one hand, Shizuka's words and actions make her less likable as the series goes on; on the other hand, though, I understand what made her this way and feel sorry for her. Same goes for Marina, the main instigator of Shizuka's bullying; while she does some horrible and unforgivable things to Shizuka, it's easy to see how she ended up the way she did once her home life is revealed. Ultimately, the cast of Takopi's Original Sin is full of complex characters who aren't exactly good people but are in circumstances that caused them to be the way they are. (I don't know what the kids' parents' excuses for being horrible people are, though!) The only exception to the "not exactly good people" thing is Shizuka's dog, Chappy; Chappy is a very good dog.
Speaking of good things, the music and voice acting are very much that. A standout in the voice cast is Kurumi Mamiya, who voices Takopi; the voice she uses for him is adorable and a great fit for the character, even during emotional moments. The ending theme, "Glass no Sen" by Tele, is an emotional-sounding song with lyrics that fit the story well. I also liked the opening theme, "Happy Lucky Chappy" by ano; it's deceptively cute-sounding (if you don't understand the lyrics) and is accompanied by a deceptively cute opening animation that makes one just starting think that things will end up fine just before everything goes downhill. Speaking of the animation, it's absolutely the best part of this anime. Up until now, ENISHIYA has only worked on music videos and short ONAs, and they have used their previous effectively for their first series, giving us animation that is fluid and deceptively cute with some animation sequences that genuinely hit hard. If the folks at ENISHIYA end up animating another anime series, I hope they are able to make something this high-quality again!
Overall, Takopi's Original Sin was a dark yet great anime. If you can handle triggering topics like suicide and different kinds of child abuse, I highly recommend it. Just don't expect to come out of it feeling happy, and if you do....what the heck is wrong with you?
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