Big Order. Big Trainwreck

Big Order. Big Trainwreck

Being made from the creator of the utter monstrosity that is future diary, big order was bound to fail from the start. It's hard to find a writer who fails so hard at telling a story without any form of self-awareness. It's even more badly written than future diary but thankfully less annoying. The anime adaptation only expands on the flaws by adding new scenes that are even worse than what happened in the manga. This is what happens when you hire the creator of Boku no Pico( I'm dead serious) to write the script.

To be fair, the series did have the potential to be good. Eiji accidentally caused the apocalypse ( through a dumbly worded wish) and he has to cope with it as well as having to take care of his sister. Could've been a nice character-driven drama but nope The first episode/chapter was strong but things just go downhill from there.

The story lets the audience know early on that this is a post-apocalyptic setting but it barely plays a factor here. Characters still go to school and use their phones without any problem. Apparently, there's still enough resources to maintain government building and internet service. You'd only know that the city went through a disaster because of the generic scenery of destroyed buildings. Our protagonist is Eiji Hoshimiya, a sullen teen who's riddled with the guilt of causing the great disaster while having to look after his ill sister. How did he cause this great disaster? Some random mystical little girl called daisy appeared before him and granted his wish to save the world, which she somehow interpreted as destroying it.

He lives the normal high school life until he meets a transfer student named character named Rin. She invites herself to his apartment and kidnaps Sena as revenge for her dead parents. While her wanting to get revenge on Eiji after her parents died in the apocalypse is an interesting goal that's her all there is to her character. She acts angry and homicidal towards Eiji whenever she's not having forced as hell ship tease moments with him.  Their fight introduces the concept of orders, a blatant copy of the stand abilities form JoJo that represents the user's inner desires. Rin can use flames to heal from anything and Eiji can manipulate anything within a given radius. The aftermath of the battle results in Eiji accidentally ordering Rin to marry him and him getting drafted in a mysterious political organization called the group of ten.

What follows is a half baked story of political warfare as the group of ten use Eiji to gain dominance over Japan. Your manga is off to a great start when the main characters of nationalistic terrorists.

Nothing about the story or characters stood out. Things just happen and the audience is given no reason to care. How is it even possible to make a cast of superpowered individuals as boring as a brick wall? At least the cast of future diary could envoke emotion in me even if it was mostly annoyance. The only names here I remember are Eiji, Rin, and Sena and none of them are interesting at all. These people are just archetypes and tools used to move the garbage plot forward. There's a character called Daisy who's essentially a goddess but nobody questions her existence and her purpose is very poorly defined. Another character is Iyo who gets pregnant when Eiji touches her ears and tries to rape him in the anime cause she fell in love with his basic bland unseasoned chicken personality in a heartbeat. Said attempted rape never gets mentioned again after it happens. Not only is it offensively bad but if the genders were reversed, I'm sure male Iyo would be portrayed as a villain so seeing her get off scot-free is annoying. The creator's sexism resulted in writing females who only exist to pine after the basic male lead.

                                        Is this shit for real?

The anime also thought it was a good idea to add disgusting incest subtext that wasn't in the manga. Eiji and Sena have an implied sex scene and the show wants viewers to think they're in love. This was nothing more than the director and scriptwriter pleasuring themselves seeing as how said incest does absolutely nothing to develop the two and is never referenced again. Again, the lack of self-awareness and sexism is crazy.

Readers aren't given good explanations on character motivation at all. I read the manga and watched the anime but I still don't understand the reasoning behind most of these characters. A few people wanna take over the world and that's about it. Why has no one made a wish to undo the great destruction? Daisy grants wishes to random people and not one of them at least thought of restoring the world? When nobody has any solid motives or decent personalities, the plot will bomb. The story wouldn't have been this bad if the writer didn't try to make it complex. I would much rather have read a JoJo Esque battle shonen than this poor excuse of a story. At least then it would've been popcorn entertainment.

The most positive thing about the series was the stands er- I mean -orders. Many people complained that the powers were too op( they're not) and were confusing. One person even called Eiji one of the strongest characters in fiction which honestly made me laugh. Op powers are good when handled well but everything is shit here. There's also the music composed by Call Evan. It made wonderful use of jazz and "Dominate", Eiji's theme song is far too good for what this show deserves.

Eiji can control the environment and people around his perimeter with little restrictions yet he always gets his ass kicked. There are hundreds of ways he can win any given battle and he fails to use any of them. He can condense the air to make a shield but rarely uses that ability and never uses it to suffocate his enemies. He never commands enemies to attack themselves. To make it even worse, his power is a weakened form of his maximum potential and in the manga, he can fuse with other orders to get even stronger. Even then he still gets his ass handed to him😶😑🙄. The sheer lack of creativity from both the creator and character is just marvelous. How is it even possible to be this incompetent?

The other characters are no better. The leader guy of the has a rip-off order of kumagawa misogi's all fiction from medaka box. Fact from fiction ( even the names are similar) lets him negate events from reality. Unlike kumagawa who marvelously screws over the main cast from his manga with his ability, the leader guy doesn't advance the plot at all and does not have any noteworthy battles. You also have a guy who can atomize anything, a girl who shoots lasers, a man who can brainwash others and a terrorist who controls rocks. Besides the terrorist chick, none of these people use their abilities in innovative ways. The writer could've taken lessons from JoJo, one-piece and even law of Ueki( so underrated) when it comes to writing superpowers.

The endings of both anime and manga are around just as bad but the manga might be even worse. The anime has an inconclusive ending where the world no longer hates Eiji and he just goes to school. That's it. The climactic battle was him using the full power of his order to manipulate abstract concepts to create a world where Sena can be happy. I'm sure the writers didn't intend for Eiji's last order to be as op as I just described but it Is. He wishes for something abstract and it comes true which implies he would be able to manipulate other concepts. And yet, he doesn't do anything about the run-down world he lives in. For a post-apocalyptic setting, the apocalyptic event barely had any influence on the characters or plot.

The manga comes up with a dumbass plot twist that Sena was the one who caused the great destruction and Eiji was just covering up for her. She turns evil and tries to destroy the world cause she's evil. Eiji refuses to let anyone kill the potential mass murderer and constantly protects her. Did I mention Rin and Eiji and kinda low key dating at this point? Eiji faces sena in an anticlimactic battle followed by a 1-year time skip where their current fate is unknown. And people thought Naruto had a bad ending..... With how abrupt and lazily put together the ending was, I can't tell if the manga was canceled or the creator lost interest. Both options seem highly likely.

                             That’s his sister by the way. Cause incest was exactly what this show needed

With its bland characters, a nonsensical plot and poorly thought out powers, big order is a  clusterfuck of a show that continues to fade into obscurity. Even having a big name creator wasn't enough to keep it within the public eye. I was hoping for a so bad it's a good experience but this was just hot garbage. I give it a 4/10 for its bland character, muddy plot and terribly written romance. It only gets a four because the music and powers were pretty cool.

Sayonara Shinjuku

The girl stood on the edge of the skyscraper. Her heart, like the night sky above, was etched in darkness. She looked down upon the apathetic citizens of Shinjuku as they went about their boring lives.

Salarymen rushing to catch the last train.

Drunken vagrants hassling for change.

Nightwalkers bringing their clients into love hotels.

" What a drag." She muttered.

Up until a week ago, her life was normal.

Up until a week ago, she had no reason to die.

But now?

Her feet were almost off the edge.

Her balance was supported only by her heels.

" Goodbye Shinjuku. I don't need you anymore and i'm sure you feel the same way. Oh. Im sure you wont be missed either." The girl said while staring at her stomach.

The father discarded them with a callousness she thought impossible. He had fed her so many expert lies about love and commitment. She adamantly kept their relationship secret from students and faculty. The girl thought she had done right by her lover. He repaid all her efforts with apathetic stares and crumpled dollar bills.

She wondered of she would make it on the news after this. That would make it impossible for her to be ignored. Yes, that would be the best ending.

With one final step, her body plummeted.

The lights and sounds of the city all became a blur.

In a moment, she would become red splatter.

She'd be forgotten by the next morning.

No more regrets.

No more bitter sentiments.

All she had left were the memories of one week prior.

Rokka no yuusha- The mysterious fantasy

There exists a powerful demon god that must be slain by six powerful warriors blessed by the seal of brave. The only problem is that there's an impostor among them. Rokka no yuusha bills itself as a fantasy mystery anime, quite the rare combination. Mystery is a genre usually assigned to historical, contemporary, or sci-fi settings. Even when fantasy series has elements of mystery, it usually won't be the main theme.

Our story centers itself in Adlet Mayer, a loud and arrogant redhead who constantly proclaims to be the strongest man in the world. His strength comes from his wits rather than brawn. He and the other braves assemble inside a mountain cave only to find a seventh brave. The conflict quickly breaks out and each one of them becomes a potential traitor.BIt was fun seeing the mystery on the 7th brave unravel but it quite honestly dragged out for too long. RNY only has 12 episodes so the entirety of the show is spent searching for the traitor rather than killing the demon god. The anime feels like a prologue to a story that never was. I don't know how faithfully this anime adapts the novel but having the narrative get sidetracked so early on is a bad way to write a series.

Two characters I particularly disliked were Fremy and Mora, the former more so because she's a karma houdini. Mora is supposed to be the wise one of the group but adamant belief Adlet is the traitor based in her leap in logic. Her reasoning made little sense and there's no reason for her to accuse solely him when there's an assassin and serial killer on the team.

Fremy is my most hated type of character. She does horrific actions and faces no consequences for them. She's responsible for killing multiple innocent braves in her past but Adlet protects her because " she's one of us". That piss poor reasoning really dampened the respect I had for Adlet but he's still the best character here. Fremy feels no remorse for what she did and said plot point quickly gets brushed aside. It's ludicrous how the cast could be so comfortable hanging around a serial killer. The narrative seems to think her tragic backstory if having an abusive mother can excuse her actions but that kind of logic is beyond childish. Tired of watching shows that don't know how heavy murder is.

The others are mostly meh. There's an assassin and little girl who's in the teams but they don't really stand out and their character designs are so bland. Nashetania wins my love with her perfect bunny girl character design and her loyal knight Goldof brings in fan service with his gender-bent black rock shooter attire. The two make a nice pair of eye candy and their interactions were always fun. Nashetania is the upbeat princess who's a bit ignorant of how the world works and Goldof is Mr muscle who loves his princess and his answer to everything is usually violence.

Rokka No Yuusha had the unfortunate fate of being animated by a low budget small name studio, leading to hideous CGI monsters amidst some shoddy animation. I've seen PSP games with better graphics and the terrible CG messed up Nashetania since her sword attacks are always horribly rendered. Would animating actual swords cost too much money and effort as opposed to weird silver spikes?

Another glaring flaw is how utterly underutilized it's Meso-American setting is. Fantasy series are European based 99.99 percent of the time and Japanese or Chinese based if its anime, completely ignoring the other cultures of the world. The Meso-American setting is really only apparent in the first episode and the cast are ridiculously pale-skinned European looking. We could've of finally gotten a Mayan based fantasy but any meso lore to be found here is simply superficial icing on the not so well done cake. This flaw doesn't influence my rating but it certainly shows japan has its head stuck up its homogeneous ass.

      SPOILERS!!! SKIP THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPH AND SKIP TO THE LAST ONE IF DESIRED

After several episodes of our heroes fighting over whodunit, Adlet reveals in the impostor is none other than Nashetania! Certainly didn't see that one coming and I don't mean that in a " Wow you got me!" type of way. There were no hints or clues to this reveal besides Nashetania briefly acting psycho in one episode. We find out her motive to create harmony between the human and demons by reviving the demon god, even if it sacrificing thousands of people. A villain who's so innocent and pure-hearted they can't see their own vileness is an interesting concept but we barely get know about her before the show ends. The anime has the audacity to end things off by having a cow costumed girl show up at the last minute to join the heroes on their journey to kill the demon god. The cast barely even react to it and accept it as they head off. All that struggle and conflict over who was the seventh brave turned out to be for nothing. 

Overall, I'm gonna have to give this a 6.5/10. There were definitely some good concepts and characters to keep me interested but not enough to genuinely make me excited. I recommend it if you're in the mood for a mystery with a unique setting but don't expect much from this. BTW, I love Robbie Daymond’s performance as Adlet. He really captured his confidence and playful personality.

Aggressive Stupidity is the real challenge of Ousama Game

By now, many people have likely heard of the show that went down as the greatest Trainwreck of 2017. It was a glorious failure that was simultaneously annoying as it was hilarious. The concept of a survival game is simple enough that an average writer could make an entertaining work from it but only a truly horrible writer could mess it up.  

Ousama game is weird in that it adapts two manga at the same time. The sequel manga makes up the majority of the anime while the original manga is adapted in the form of long flashbacks. Trying to adapt two manga in only 12 episodes was bound to lead to a jumbled narrative that feels like it has ADHD.

Being a survival game, the story is naturally full of suspense to attract viewers. The synopsis is that everyone in nobuaki's class receives a message from someone called "king". They must follow all of his order or else they will die. Nobuaki is a survivor of the previous King's game and is determined to finally put a stop to it. Seeing how the students will react to their given challenge is always fun and the stakes were always high. Getting orders from an anonymous person via phone with the promise of death is a solid premise. This would've been a fun show had it not been for the dog shit characters

Let's talk about the characters cause dear God these are the worst written characters to Grace the face of the earth. Since this is character-driven, these assholes are the plot. Everyone here is a dumbass who goes out of their way to antagonize one another. From the original ousama game, there's this mysterious bitch who knows the secret behind the game but refuses to tell anyone. She just waits while the others die off while she acts like the smug piece of shit she is. There was also the asshole bully who ordered some guy to kill himself as a king's order and gets surprised when the boy dies. A girl kills herself when she loses a game, not knowing that the punishment was harmless. To top it all off, Some truly dumbass bitch gets to decide her own king's order and she orders herself to touch the king.

This was based on the extremely weak assumption that the king was definitely in her class. Unsurprisingly, she dies like the fool she is. It takes a special breed of stupid to make characters like these. Aki Honda takes the cake by perhaps being my most hated character in all of fiction besides Bakugou Katsuki.  She introduced herself as being a kind-hearted and upbeat girl who immediately likes Nobuaki but goes from 0 to 100 as soon as the ousama game starts. She immediately morphs into a cartoonishly evil alpha bitch who watches in delight as her classmates die. The students see her act like the vessel of Satan multiple times but some still trust her for some reason. Like her friend who saved her cause Aki was nice to her once. The heartless witch could've been dead but no. Some dumb bitch had to save her.

Then it's revealed the entire reason she acts like a bitch is so the others won't be hurt when she's dies. That's the dumbest fucking ass-backward logic I ever heard. She tortured everyone without remorse and caused them far more grief than her death would've caused. And the whole evil transformation happened at the snap of a finger without any build-up. A+ acting skills for Aki but her performance ruined everything for everyone.

The reveal behind the ousama game is what cemented this show as an aggressively stupid. The whole thing was set up by an intelligent virus that forces the body to kill itself! Sound like the type of crap m night Shyamalan would write. How on Earth a virus could force the human body to combust, send out text messages and other bs is beyond me. The plot twist is just too mind-boggling stupid to take seriously. It would've been better off as a mystery.

Ousama game's only saving grace is the opening song, feed the fire by cold rain. Dear God was that song amazing!! An all English Hardrock song that easily surpassed the entire show. Ousama Game wins a 5/10 for being an entertaining and hilariously bad piece of trash with a great opening but god awful characters and plot twists.

For a manga that actually handled the king's game concept well, read Arisa by Natsumi Anso. It's a shojo series filled with twists and turns to keep the reader in suspense. No b movie horror logic here .

ZeroZaki's Humanity test passes with flying colors

One day an average high school student finds out she has latent homicidal tendencies and is adopted into a family of killers by a tall man in white attire and long black hair. Zerozaki’s humanity test is a manga adaptation of a light novel of the same name by prolific author NISIOISIN. I generally have a love-hate relationship with his works for their boring drawn out dialogue and anticlimactic resolutions. This manga however was a short and delightful read from start to finish. It's important to note that this is actually a spinoff from the Zaregoto novel series and as such features a few returning characters.

To elaborate on the plot, the main character Iori gets her life turned upside down after being targeted by an enemy of the zerozaki family. Her friends and family are killed by Soushiki after they were permanently brainwashed by Naguma Sawarabi and only has soushiki zerozaki to turn to. The man in question is in search to find his elusive serial killer brother Hitoshiki Zerozaki. Naguma on the other hand wants revenge for his sister who was killed by Hitoshiki and kidnaps Iori to bait the Zerozaki family.The manga is fairly short and has enough twists and turns to keep readers wanting more. I felt that the manga could've gone into more detail about the killing names( assassin clans) briefly mentioned but then again, I imagine the original novel goes into more detail.

The artwork has a nice crisp and clean feel to it, making the character designs feel full of life.  Fight scenes are well put together and have a smooth flow. Since this is a Seinen manga, it doesn't exactly shy away from showing gore but doesn't embellish in it either.

NISIOISIN’s strongest skill is definitely his characterization and this manga reinforces that. Characters are quirky and are distinct from each other which make for interesting interactions.  Soushiki is technically a villain since he comes from a family of killers and most likely kills innocent people but his suave and charismatic personality makes it so easy to forget that. He's a total gentleman despite being a monster. Iori Zerozaki certainly resonated with me the most since we both go through life without real direction. We run from our problems while hoping to go find a solution. I read this manga during the worst times in my life and seeing myself inside the protagonist was so blissful.  A character I feel that could've used a lot more screen time was Hanamaki Kojika. He was a complex and conflicted character who unfortunately leaves the plot a few chapters after his introduction.

If you're the type of person who enjoys fast-paced thriller action, then Zerozaki's humanity test is the manga for you.

Hepatica and the Cruel Nature of Bullying

Haruka has it rough. She moves to a school in the countryside due to her dad family getting a new job and gets tormented everyday by a group of bullies. Her family and a boy named Aiba seem to be the only traces of happiness in her life, but will this happiness last?

Hepatica is a brutal depiction of middle school bullying and the cruelty of children.  The tourment Haruka goes through ranges from regular verbal abuse, being pushed into garbage, and the event which kicks off the revenge plot of the entire manga: her house gets burned down with her family it it. This is the final nail that turns Haruka from an innocent school girl to a cold blooded vigilante.

The children in this manga are so twisted not even the puppy killers form Elfen lied or the cast of Narutaru felt this vile. They bully Haruka extensively for the sole face she’s an outsider and even after her family dies, they taunt her over it. I’m usually not a fan of revenge stories because the victim turns into a perpetrator, but the bullies here deserved every bit of suffering they received.  Never has the murder of middle school students been so glorious.

Some readers might find it hard to digest that children could even be this sadistic and I do admit that the events are a bit overblown, but some children out there are fully capable of being psychopathic monsters. What doesn’t help is when the teacher enables the bullying and even seems to be afraid of her own students. Even Aiba, Haruka’s only friend, shows to have a hidden dark side that comes into play during the final chapters. As we read on, we find that some of the bullies have their own troubled lives they want to escape from. This in no way excuses or lessens their behavior, but it does show how a cycle of bullying is created.

I give Hepatica a 7.5/10. The character drama resonated with me and I rooted for Haruka the entire way. The plot twist near the end genuinely left me shocked  and the final pages were heartbreakingly brutal. Reading this was similar to how I felt after reading Metamorphosis by ShindoL. My only complaints are that the art can feel too rough/ amateurish at times and the story can verge into juvenile edge territories. Surprisingly enough, this is a josei manga which makes it the first manga I’m reviewing here for a female audience.