(This review contains spoilers, but they are tagged as needed)
Reviews serve multiple functions: they help us decide if we are (un)likely to enjoy a piece of media, articulate opinions we can’t find the words for, reinforce the reasons we love/hate something, etc. Beyond this, writing benefits the reviewer by offering a means through which we can meditate on and interrogate our feelings about a work. Takopi’s Original Sin has left me with the need to address all of these.
So, should YOU watch Takopi’s?
This depends on the type of person you are. If you find profundity in watching vulnerable protagonists go through horrendous circumstances with no further nuance, this will likely be the show for you. And no shade if that is you! I love misery fiction! This show also has the benefit of being beautifully animated, having multiple emotionally impactful moments (kudos to the voice actors), and keeping you invested and wanting to watch more, even for someone like me who definitively did not enjoy it.
If you want a deep reflection on the cycle of abuse and how it affects those caught up in it, I would not recommend this. I know, it may be tempting because of the way it instantly shot up in ratings with tons of people adoring it, but if you’re not the kind of person who enjoys media in the way I described above, you will probably catch on to many of the issues of Takopi’s Original Sin (referred to as Takopi’s from here on).
Alright then, what are the issues?
This section assumes a familiarity with the plot of Takopi’s. I’m bad at explaining plots, so if you want to read my review with full context, go ahead and read the episode descriptions on Wikipedia. However, before diving into spoilers and explaining my issues with Takopi’s, I want to give two disclaimers.
First, while definitely not to the extent of these characters, I do in fact know what it feels like to experience bullying and abuse. There’s a seemingly automatic response to reviews like the one I’m typing right now where the reader will assume that the author simply has a skill issue and can’t understand what the characters are going through, hence the negative review. No, that is not the case and should not be assumed. Frankly, even when dealing with objectively heinous content, an author should still have to put in effort for their audience to sympathize with their characters and be moved by their story.
Second, critics of works like Takopi’s are often met with a barrage of responses that boil down to the idea that such works are cathartic for their audiences, and we shouldn’t invalidate that. I agree! If Takopi’s is cathartic or otherwise deeply impactful for you, I’m glad you got to experience that. As I mentioned earlier, I love misery fiction, and I love seeing beaten-down characters who either find ways to keep going or succumb to their circumstances. However, compared to the types of misery fiction I usually enjoy, Takopi’s carries with it the expectation that it will say something profound about the human suffering it depicts, but then it completely fails to deliver. This is where my main issues with the series come in.
1. Lack of nuance
Spoiler, click to view
You could say it's unfair of me to base a large chunk of my critique on an assumption of authorial intent. However, in my opinion there is clear textual evidence that Takopi’s was supposed to be the aforementioned “deep reflection on the cycle of abuse,” perhaps most apparent through its treatment of Shizuka and Marina. Marina is of course introduced as a terrible, one-dimensional bully, but she is later given “nuance” when we see that she is being abused at home, and that her treatment of Shizuka is a reaction to her lack of power and inability to cope. In Shizuka’s case, her character arc explicitly shows her taking on abusive tendencies such as manipulating Azuma, celebrating the murder of her classmate, wanting to kill her father’s family, etc. I think this is actually a good thing, as it shows our characters as imperfect victims. I also just want to make it clear that I don’t think these behaviors make either of them “bad people.” They are literally just children trying to cope. However, these actions, clear manifestations of perpetuating abuse, is to me an obvious attempt at showing that abuse is in fact a cycle, thus challenging the commonly-held belief that abusers are inherently evil by explicitly depicting their behaviors as learned. We literally see our child protagonists developing these tendencies directly in response to their circumstances, which allows us to recognize that, while these behaviors are objectively bad, we can still approach them with empathy and understanding. However, this message falls flat because of how comically evil the adults are. Shizuka’s dad? Piece of shit. Shizuka’s mom? Piece of shit. Azuma’s mom? Piece of shit. Marina’s dad? Piece of shit. The only one who gets some sort of depth is Marina’s mom, but then that also feels soiled because she is hands down the most actively abusive, going so far as to literally try and kill her daughter. I don’t think the parents need to be redeemed, hell we don’t even need to be given any of the tools to try and understand their situations, I just think they are so bad that the viewer has absolutely no reason to even contemplate such things. Trying to understand the causes of abuse ends when a person in the world of Takopi's turns 18. Further, I reject the idea that this is because the story is told from a child’s/naive perspective because there is so much “wink-wink-nudge-nudge” dramatic irony that assumes we know more than the main characters, but then that assumption is not extended to its treatment of the parents.2. Tonal whiplash
Spoiler, click to view
The entire reason I watched this show (when it was otherwise not on my radar) was because I saw screenshots of the content warnings included at the very beginning of the show and was admittedly intrigued. I knew it was going to go into very dark areas, and that the cutesy things happening were bound to quickly take a turn for the worse. I was accepting of this, as I think tonal whiplash can be a very good narrative technique. Why do you think Doki Doki Literature Club exploded in popularity? I personally love a good tonal incongruity, many of my favorite films are black comedies, but I do believe that it leads to people thinking that the quality of a work is instantly better, even when the technique is executed poorly and said work suffers because of it. Takopi’s is one such example. I feel like the first episode gets away with it, but from then on, any time we are confronted with a slower, happier moment, it feels so artificial and like it is solely there so that the next devastation will hit harder. Sure, that should be a part of the reasoning, but it shouldn’t be the only one. I think the other reason I feel this way is because the anime takes itself quite seriously, so the “silly” moments are there just to fulfill this singular purpose. This makes these moments feel almost satirical, even though when included within a harrowing story of abuse, could be so much more. They could develop the characters, give a more multifaceted look into their lives, show that abuse is still abuse even if the victim’s life isn’t 100% doom and gloom. However, they simply don’t because you’re just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Ironically, in an attempt to build tension, it completely dissipates it. 3. THE ENDING
Spoiler, click to view
Oh my god the ending. By the time I got to it, all I could do was laugh. This section is not going to be very well articulated, because I just viscerally hate this part of the anime. There’s nothing wrong with not committing to a completely happy or completely sad ending, but taking the middle road does take a level of finesse that was…not present. The entire anime rides with the idea that ‘there is not some magic cure that will end your trauma. The best we can do is find support in any way we can and just cope.” This premise is what requires Takopi to develop a more complex understanding of human relationships, because it realizes that its magic tools simply do not work and, in fact, usually make things worse. This premise is literally how Takopi is meant to atone for its original sin. So the big finale is to…have this alien use a magical item to solve everything. Huh? Sure Takopi doesn’t literally fix everything, but really? The real solution to depression is the friends we made along the way in a different timeline. Killing yourself is chill as long as you’ve emotionally developed and it’s self-sacrificial. Not to mention, and this is completely personal, Takopi really kinda sucks as a character and I don’t like it, so its death was so…empty. I don’t know a better word to describe it. What is the point of any of this? What is Takopi supposed to represent? Is it childhood innocence? Toxic positivity? Black-and-white thinking of the world? Is it literally just Jesus, dying in order to save everyone else. There’s gotta be something to it, but the entire narrative just failing to deliver anything meaningful means I don’t even want to try and explore these possibilities, and YES, if a “deep” story fails to invoke that urge to think about its themes, then it has failed on quite a fundamental levelStories like Takopi’s have a baked-in tendency to invoke extreme feelings of sadness, empathy, a need for justice, etc., and we as audiences have a tendency to conflate these strong feelings with good storytelling. In some ways, I think this is valid. Emotional reaction is a key sign that an artist has successfully connected with you, and I think that is an incredible thing. However, when a work itself promises more than that and then fails to keep that promise, I can’t help but feel duped. Thus I can’t find it in myself to recommend nor enjoy Takopi’s Original Sin.
