This is not your typical review. I'm not going to tell you whether I think you should watch it or not. In fact, I assume you've already watched it to completion already. This review is examining its messages and to a lesser extent, storytelling devices.
I feel like this is a work that is easily misunderstood due to how dark it is in its presentation and how that juxtaposes with its happy-go-lucky OP. It's easy to view this as a dark story showing how cruel humanity is and that its ending is cheesy because it doesn't quite match up with what they've shown. But that is a misreading and so I'd like to examine its messages and through that explain why I think it was always intended to be a positive and hopeful work.
Before I can address the message, I need to establish this first. Takopi is a storytelling device and not magic or a miracle. The intention behind the ending is not to say that Takopi did some magic and everyhing is good now. Takopi is a method to explore the themes and come to a positive conclusion despite the tragic circumstances.
Takopi is extremely naive and has a simplistic view of the world. They come from a world in which conflict is nearly non-existant and difficult situations are resolved through simple means. This means that when Takopi goes out to experience the world, they read the world through the lens of that simplicity. Every problem is surface-level and is easily fixed with a little cheerful gesture.
The purpose of Takopi's naivety is to allow for the exploration and development of the real characters. These characters also have a naive view of their problems. They don't see the interconnectedness of everything. As such the thing they believe will make them happy is not really what would make them happy. It's a surface-level reading. Marina believes that Shizuka dying early on would solve all her problems, and yet it would not. Shizuka believes that Marina's death would be the solution to all her problems, and yet it is not. And Naoki believes that he's worthless unless he can be perfect, which is also not the case.
And with that out of the way, let's explore the messages that this story is trying to convey. I'm presenting these in a similar order to when they were presented in the story itself.
It's easy to view these children like adults and think of them as coping with abuse by being abusive. However, they are children, not adults. Marina can make it seem like the story is trying to tell you that she's coping with the pain by inflicting pain on others, however, Shizuka shows more clearly that this isn't the intention. Let me go through them one by one and explain why.
Marina is abused by her mother and father. Her father may primarily direct the abuse at her mother, but it constantly affects her too. Her mother redirects the abuse she's experiencing onto Marina again, clinging onto her and essentially demanding her support. This results in Marina only knowing one thing; abuse. Her father calls her mother a parasite and vermin. Her mother attacks her and emotionally abuses her. Now think about how Marina acts towards Shizuka and Takopi. It's the exact same behaviour. This is because her world is very limited. She has no real friends, only people who look up to her. All she knows is the abuse from her parents. So that is what she does too. She abuses the person that is related to the problem experienced in her family using the exact same tactics as her parents uses against her, down to using the same insults, even though she probably has no clue what wellfare money is.
Shizuka, however, is not directly abused by her mother. She is neglected for sure, but her mother doesn't directly mistreat her. But what you can see is how her mother's behaviour reflects onto her. She's neglected, so she doesn't talk to anyone when in pain, even when offered help. When she finally does talk to Naoki it's because she knows she can gain something from him. So what does she do? Well, she uses seduction tactics. She plays up her innocence and plays on his feelings for her. And this culminates when she gives him a kiss when he's agreeing to take the blame instead of her.
Naoki's brother points out that Naoki himself is very similar to his mother. This is, I suppose the final little message that "if you didn't get it already, these kids are like their parents".
Related to Naoki's brother saying that Naoki is similar to his mother; his mother said at some point that she doesn't understand how Naoki grew up to be so different from his brother when she raised them the same way. His mother does not understand that she very much did not raise them the same way. Naoki's brother was raised on constant praise. He did well from the get-go and never really struggled. He was essentially perfect. So his mother never punished him. However, Naoki is not the same. He's almost perfect but can't quite reach the heights of his brother. Had his brother been less perfect, this may've not been an issue, but because he is, Naoki gets punished all the time. He always feels lesser. He feels like he lives in the shadow of his brother. This is his mother treating him differently. Because his brother never had to experience this. She may believe she treats them the same, but she does not. And the result is a kid growing up feeling inadequate despite still being excellent in reality.
(Clarification: I'm not talking about the four stages of abuse which is frequently named the cycle of abuse. I'm talking about how children who grew up in abusive housholds often perpatuate that same abuse when they grow up)
All of these characters repeated what their parents did to them in some way. However, they all managed to stop, or at least reduce, that behaviour when they found connection with others. Marina is now friends with Shizuka and no longer treats those around her like rubbish. Shizuka no longer isolates and is able to lean on someone else. Naoki no longer holds himself up to the standards of his brother and learns to live his own life. As such, neither of these characters are likely to perpetuate the same abuse that they recieved as kids when they become adults.
Throughout the whole story we see various attempts by Takopi to resolve these people's problems. Takopi's original sin was even directly related to this. It was a naive attempt at making Marina happy by going back to kill Shizuka. However, every single attempt at making people happy with simple solutions fail. And the reason is that Takopi doesn't understand the full picture and doesn't understand their needs. The full picture is complex after all. It's ~~abuse~~ turtles all the way down. As such, the children can't fix the problem themselves. You'd have to fix the problem at the root. But how would you do that even if you had magic? Would you make Shizuka's parents get back together? But then what happens to her father's new children and wife? And sure, a big source of the problem is Marina's father being abusive and maybe you could solve it there. But Takopi does not possess magic, so what can they do about it? Well, nothing really. All they can do is guide the children that they interact with. And those children are powerless.
This may sound depressing, but in fact, what happens is that after all those naive attempts at simple solutions fail and everything looks horrible, Takopi finally learns the truth. Humans are not simple and a simple solution to the problem does not exist. What Takopi realised at the end was what each of the characters truly needed to smile. They needed human connections.
This is very clearly the central message of the story. It's the conclusion after all. Naoki changes from this kid who isolates due to having to fully live up to his brother's ideals and allows himself to just be friends with people. He gets to hang out with people and have fun with one of his strengths; videogames (or at least I assume as much considering he calls his brother bad at games). This is the result of him finally talking to his brother, his brother taking the blame for the death of Marina, and Naoki understanding that his brother is not perfect and that he shouldn't have to strive to be like him. Takopi learns this from Naoki and is able to understand and then help him in the final timeline.
Marina and Shizuka find a common ground and the bullying ends. This doesn't change the story dramatically. Marina still recieves her scar due to her mother's actions after all. But she's able to deal with it this time because just like how she felt happy in the original timeline when Naoki accepted her for who she is, in this new timeline, she was able to be happy due to being accepted by her newfound friend. This means that her mother did not attempt to murder her in a fit of anger as she no longer felt like she had ruined her daughter's life. As such, despite Marina's mother clearly still not being happy, Marina is able to keep her relation with her even as an adult.
While the story deals with pretty heavy themes of abuse and suicide, it doesn't want to give the viewer the impression that things are hopeless if you're in a similar situation. In fact, it tries to say that the best way of breaking this abuse is to find connections with others and talk about your pains. All the main characters were able to find happiness in their unfortunate situations through connecting with others. I believe it's important to understand this as this story does not want to inspire people to do any of the harmful actions perpetrated by any of the characters in the story. It wants you to take away the importance of friendship and human connections.
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