This was so refreshing. I love psychological manga that deal with darker themes -- Goodnight Punpun, Blood on the Tracks, Takopi's Original Sin, but these kind of stories tend to be so rare in anime form. So seeing Takopi's Original Sin get an anime adaptation that was not only good, but made the manga better, was fantastic to see.

What is happiness? A small question but one that gives Takopi's quite the dilemma as he tries to make several people's lives better, but no matter what he does, he seems to keep screwing up. As he looks through the world with rose-tinted glasses, he doesn't realize that he'll never be able to bring everyone happiness -- because no matter what he does, human greed and selfishness will get in the way of that. It's not the alien that's the problem; it's the world, it's humans and their sinful ways.

It's a heartbreaking anime. I cried at least three times while watching it. I read the manga a few years ago and while it did make me upset, it didn't bring out the same emotions that the anime did. The anime did just a fantastic job, with the animation, the voice acting, and the music to really bring out the raw emotion in the characters and the horrible situations they have to go through.

But the best part about this anime is how human it is. It shows the good and the bad to the main characters; a character you may like is shown to not be as great as you originally believed, or a character you may have hated, you're able to later empathize with. And Takopi realizes this too. Originally, he believed the world to be sunshine and rainbows, but later finds out that's not reality, and his innocence slowly dies.

I'd also like to mention the music. I absolutely love the OSTs from this anime. One of them has been at the top of my most listened to songs for two weeks now, if that tells you anything. The animation was also very impressive. I wasn't expecting much since I'd never seen or even heard of this studio before but they went above and beyond. The animation really made the emotions, and practically everything, stronger. I'm so glad this received such a well-made anime adaptation.

Life freaking sucks, and sometimes that needs to be depicted in media. Yeah, it can be hard to watch, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't exist. Just because something is dark doesn't mean it's edgy or miserable for the sake of being miserable; it means it's realistic. Now I'm not saying what goes on in this anime is the average situation for everyone, but lives like this do exist. People go through hard times, and usually that's not depicted in a realistic way in anime. Sure, this isn't the most realistic or anything, but it's one of the best depictions I've seen. The emotions feel genuine.

If you want to watch a show that's heartbreaking but feels genuinely human, I highly, highly recommend Takopi's Original Sin.