Takopi’s Original Sin is an anime that confronts the brutal reality of bullying and its long lasting consequences. Set in an elementary school, it follows an alien named Takopi whose mission is to naively cheer up a depressed girl named Shizuka, unaware of why she is actually sad and what it can actually do in the situation. Even though I will not specify any specific moment there will be spoilers of the theme below.

Going in blind, this anime was more intense than I expected. The dark tone is established immediately, and the seriousness is reinforced through the unusually long first episode (one hour long). The world building and character development throughout the show is done wonderfully as well, every action that a character does in this show can be explained through their personalities and past experiences. Plot wise, the story is compelling and thoughtfully constructed with an ending that ties its themes together in a satisfying way.

Despite its praises, there are certain writing flaws that are hard to ignore. The first being that the setting is in an elementary school. Yes, bullying in elementary school is not exactly rare, but the form of bullying taking place is not exactly realistic either. One of the plot points in the story is that Marina bullies Shizuka due to Marina’s dad sleeping with Shizuka’s mom and Marina’s mom taking out the stress of the failing marriage onto Shizuka. Though domestic violence is a common way to turn children into bullying, it is quite unrealistic for Marina at the age of 9 to identify Shizuka as a problem to her home life. Sure, having the setting take place in elementary school does help convey the idea that bullying can happen to anyone, but it also breaks the immersion of the story.

Another criticism of the story is that it seems to condone bullying towards the end. At first the anime properly shows the dark side of bullying and how it could lead to suicide. However towards the end the anime adopts a different message; the idea that some people can not be saved and it is better to leave them alone. This is actually a very important message that some may need to hear but the lack of accountability or repercussions that the main character has for committing so many crimes is concerning. Also, having an entire anime be based off of a message like that could convey the wrong thoughts to an audience that may not know better, potentially causing them to cut off people who very well could have needed their help.

Overall, even with the criticisms this anime really did surprise me. It is definitely in the top 15 darkest animes I have ever watched and it does a very good job of conveying the relentless brutality of bullying. I definitely recommend it to anyone who is able to handle the content.