Takopi’s Original Sin

Short Synopsis: An octopus-like alien searches for a way to save the life of the miserable human child he has befriended.

Wooper: I typically omit major spoilers when writing these impressions, but since this episode was prefaced with a content warning concerning its most traumatic scene, I’ll address it here. This series deals with themes of bullying and suicide, and not lightly. The moment when alien protagonist Takopi discovered his human friend hanging from the ceiling of her house was engineered for maximum impact: the girl’s disheveled appearance, the dangling animation, the marks around her neck. Worst of all, those marks had been left by a magical ribbon given to her by Takopi himself, transforming his cutesy ignorance of human nature into an inadvertently lethal blind spot. From there, the story progressed into Takopi’s time-traveling campaign to rescue his new friend from despair, balancing humor, sadness and cruelty with a deft touch. There were moments where the show shifted into simulated cutout or diorama animation to highlight its main character’s naivete, and moments where he was assaulted by hatred and violence – a frightening and entirely foreign experience for him, given his origins on Planet Happy. I found this premiere’s psychological approach to be very effective, but if I have one criticism, it would be how often music can be heard throughout its 37 minutes. The soundtrack was fitting, but it occasionally played during scenes where I’d have preferred the cry of cicadas to the sound of musical instruments. That quibble aside, I’m very happy with what we got here, and I look forward to cheering on Takopi as he harnesses his inherent goodness in order to save an innocent life.
Potential: 85%

Mario: Damn. At the moment, Takopi walks a very fine line between silliness and straight-out cruelty. The mismatch in tones, together with the extremity it’s willing to go (you’ve been warned) can turn some viewers off. But for now, the premise holds up as it deals with abuse and depression with nuance, and at the same time still provides a more optimistic outlook in the eyes of Takopi. He might be too oblivious to notice the trauma until he experiences it, but his fear of taking a step forward is totally real. The episode also ends on a hell of a reveal, as it shows how even the bully is just a victim of her own emotional abuse in her domestic life. The Doraemon-esque charm from Takopi works extremely well in that context as it displays just how out of touch he is. I’m certainly intrigued to see how the show goes from here.
Potential: 60%

Detectives These Days Are Crazy

Short Synopsis: An over-the-hill P.I. and a teenage wannabe detective harass each other until they reach a reluctant partnership.

Wooper: I was already mildly interested in this show before watching the premiere, since its original author also wrote Senryu Shoujo, a romcom whose short adaptation charmed me a few years back. Detectives These Days is a lot different from that series – for one thing, Senryu Shoujo’s female lead was mute, while Mashiro (Detectives’ teenage tagalong) is played with gusto by none other than Kana Hanazawa. Rather than fitting the sort of cute role for which her actress was once typecast, Mashiro veers from aggravated to cloying to badass throughout this episode, culminating in her takedown of a yakuza group in its closing minutes. Honestly, it’s a bit much. The show’s stony reaction faces and weird visual gags (including Mashiro stashing impossibly large objects down her shirt) clearly indicate its fondness for absurdity, but not much about it feels fresh. There are jokes about the older private eye being an out of touch Luddite, him perving on his younger partner, and both of them ignoring their clients in favor of doing whatever the hell they want – all a bit too familiar for my liking. The animation may be serviceable, and the performances may be ballsy, but I can’t see Detectives These Days surprising or amusing me week in and week out.
Potential: 20% (mostly for HanaKana’s rapping during the ED)

Clevatess

Short Synopsis: An all-powerful dark beast decides to raise a humanoid child in order to get a sense of its race’s potential.

Mario: I still do not think this episode deserved a double-length runtime, especially after the moment when it revealed what the show is actually about. In fact, I’m leaning more towards the first half than the second half, where the story is more serious and where you start to learn Clevatess’ point of reflection. After reaching the point where the new baby arrives, however, the show’s tone shifts into more silliness, some of which I could very well do without (Alicia!). To the show’s credit, I’m fine with the worldbuilding it displays and I figure that eventually this gang of three will have to cross the border to see the other kingdoms. Not sure that alone would guarantee a second watch for me, though.
Potential: 30%

Wooper: Do my eyes deceive me? Have we been blessed with a competent dark fantasy anime in the year 2025? Even though there’s a particular element of Clevatess’ story that ought to be banished to the shadow realm, I’d say the answer to that second question is yes. The animation was a fair sight better than I expected for a LINE manga adaptation, especially during an early scene where 13 heroes (each wielding a different weapon) staged an attack against the titular dark beast, whose restless horn-capped tails must have posed a real challenge for the animators. There wasn’t that much additional combat during this double length premiere, but with multiple fantasy races occupying a single continent, further conflict is inevitable, and I’m interested to see how it will arise. For now, the show’s primary concern is Clevatess’ goal of raising a Hidenean baby, whose maturation he’ll use to answer the question of whether the continent’s humanoid races should be spared. There are parts of this plot that wink too obviously at the audience, especially the sexualization of the woman that Clevatess recruits to raise the child. I’m not wild about the character designs, either, or the low resolution and chromatic distortion used for flashbacks and dreams, respectively. But there was certainly some care put into the creation of this show, so I’ll give its story a couple more episodes to evolve.
Potential: 45%