A bus full of eccentric individuals is headed towards the urban legend known as Nanaki Village, a place where one can supposedly start over and live a perfect life. While many have different ideas of why the village cannot be found on any map, or why even the police cannot pinpoint its location, they each look forward to their new lives and just what awaits them once they reach their destination.
After a few mishaps, they successfully arrive at Nanaki Village only to find it completely abandoned. Judging from the state of disrepair, it has been vacant for at least a year. However, secrets are soon revealed as some of the group begin to go missing while exploring the village and amidst the confusion, they find bloody claw marks in a forest. As mistrust and in-fighting break out, will they ever be able to figure out the truth behind this lost village?
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
ChrissyKay
Yes, I apologize, but I'm going to have to join the Mayoiga debate, since there are apparently a large number of individuals in the anime community who are convinced that this beautiful disaster is somehow entirely unaware of the fact that it's a comedy. Now, I've heard a lot of things said about the matter, and so I would firstly like to clarify that I am not a diehard fan of the show trying to justify it, nor am I attempting to tell anyone that they are somehow stupid or foolish for assuming that Mayoiga is actually just mind-numbingly stupid trash. I don't even considerthis some enlightened or critical interpretation: this review's main purpose is to tell people that yes, this show is worth watching, and that yes, it is only worth watching if you look at it from the standpoint of "Mizushima and Okada have fun messing around with B horror tropes", because while there are certainly a fair number of blatant giveaways, much of Mayoiga's humor comes from the small details.
So why is Mayoiga good again?
Most anime comedies are bad. That's an opinion, obviously, but it's one that I'm fairly hard-set on. Anime comedy derives mostly from physical comedy, overreactions, making fun of anime tropes, stupid sex jokes/boob jokes/food jokes, and other versions of uncreative/broad-appeal humor that gets reused over and over. When anime does set up good jokes, it often ruins them by pointing to them aggressively to make sure you understood the fact that yes, this was in fact supposed to be humor.
Mayoiga never does this. Once. What makes the show work more than anything is that it's so absurdly self serious one-hundred percent of the time. More than anything, this is likely why there is so much debate surrounding it, because there is never a single moment in the show where Mayoiga acknowledges that anything that it's doing is a joke. On the other hand though, this is what makes it so entertaining. You have stuff like Nyanta and Jigoku wandering around with amunition belts and assault rifles or Lovepon ceaselessly screaming about her gradually-escalating need to execute someone, and no one pays this even a lick of attention. It's pretty much the anime equivalent of that comic with the dog in the middle of an inferno saying "this is fine." In Mayoiga, nonsense passes as logic and no one questions it once. The names "Hyouketsu no Judgeness" and "Jack" are acknowledged to be 'similar'. A character claiming to be able to see dead people is accepted as a valid argument as to why another character is not in fact a ghost. Medieval forms of witch torture are used as practical assessments of guilt, with a council of thoughtful glasses-pushing intellectuals actually trying to stab a twelve-year-old girl just to check if she'll bleed or not. The offhand way in which Mayoiga spews utter nonsense without ever treating its story and world as anything other than absolutely intense and important makes what would be an absolutely attrocious plot into a phenomenal piece of entertainment.
But it goes past that. Mayoiga's dialogue and overblown character tropes may be fun, but what really makes the show special is that it assumes that the audience has seen at least a few B horror movies and murder-mystery plots in their day, and it uses that to violently thrash their expectations in the most viscerally unsatisfying ways imaginable. If Mayoiga was a violent gorefest it would quickly slip into the realm of incoherence, lose the appeal of its nonsense dialogue, and turn into another Another (heh). But instead, Mayoiga capitalizes on lethargy and apathy. It treats its plot twists and reveals like inqonsequential details to skim over. Instead of whipping its characters up into a frenzy, it makes the majority of them lazy, subdued, whiny, and complacent. It devotes ominous attention to cast member that are never remotely relevant. If ever there were a perfect backdrop against which to place a few under-the-radar psychos and sociopaths, it's the one that Mayoiga creates through its easily-distracted mob. When characters start going missing, large portions of the cast are more concerned with existential reasoning or even debating the spelling of said character's names than with worrying about their own or their comrade's safety. Beyond this, Mayoiga goes so far as to present some of the worst direction concievably possible, pace itself in ways that make no sense, and demonstrate a staggering penchant for anticlimax right through to the very end. It could be argued that the plot was technically 'resolved', because it was, but it is done is such a way that you're left confused and slightly baffled, wondering 'wait, what? that's it? this is a story, weren't there supposed to be dramatic stakes?' and then you can't help but chuckle at the fact that Mayoiga got you good one last time as you realize that it couldn't have been any other way.
So yeah, Mayoiga is hilarious. I laughed out loud at least two or three times an episode on average, with plenty of chuckles in between, and I'm talking about from the very first episode. This is funny stuff.
That said, even for what it is, it's by no means perfect. I enjoyed the show immensely, but I still wish that it had been just a little bit better at what it does. The final third of the show is noticeably less funny than the rest, with a reliance on anticlimax and executing big moments horribly taking away from some of the show's momentum. In addition, the show is composed by Okada, who has always loved her melodrama, and this becomes more and more apparent as the number of faux-emotional flashbacks intensifies until that joke has been overdone and it loses its charm. If these flashbacks and idiotic backstories had become increasingly more absurd and creative perhaps this would have worked better, but the show's best backstories are mostly the early ones so unforunately this wasn't the case. In addition, it's usually the case the truly successful comedies succeed the way they do because they manage to be engaging even when they aren't throwing out jokes simply through atmosphere/intesity/actual plot, and again unfortunately when Mayoiga isn't making you laugh, it isn't really doing anything of note. In my opinion, this is what sets something like the first season of Jojo apart from the rest of the fold--even Mayoiga--in that even when Jojo isn't being immediately absurd, it manages to breed an atmosphere of fun and excitement that keeps you interested because it feels like an adventure and not just one big joke. So yeah, this thing is flawed. But that doesn't change the fact that it's a great time, and that it's consistent enough to not give you that empty feeling of 'I want to laugh more, I'm in a humorous mood, but the show's just not quite getting there". With the right attitude, Mayoiga delivers.
In the end it kinda just makes me sad to see the show getting so much hate, because it's a kind of unique and truly dedicated comedy that we see rarely-to-never in anime, and it would be cool if more people could appreciate it. After watching people explode over stuff like Konosuba (personally, I find Konosuba to be, well, kinda garbage, but to each his own) I was excited to have an airing comedy that I was also invested in and could laugh along with the rest of the community. At this point, it seems a little late for that, but it's not to late for all you smart people out there who spend your time wisely and wait until the end of the season to see reviews and decide what looks like it's worth watching. Despite what almost everyone is saying to the contrary, I firmly believe that if you go into Mayoiga expecting a comedy and a self-aware but deadpan parody that you will likely find yourself happily laughing for twelve delightful episodes. Every type of humor isn't for everyone, granted, but for what it does Mayoiga is pretty much one-of-a-kind among anime, and I think it's worth giving a shot, even if just to see if it's for you.
In Mayoiga-esque fashion, here's the score breakdown loaded ino the end of the review now that it's almost entirely irrelevant.
Story-- Decidedly unique. Better than Trasformers: Dark of the Moon. No other information necessary.
Art-- Totally fucking terrible, the CGI looks like a bad skyrim mod.
Sound-- Surprisingly competent, could even be counted against the show because it's too effective. Opening is catchy AF.
Character-- You either love them or you Lovepon them.
Enjoyment-- Really the only thing worth mentioning, it's a good time, that's enough of that.
Fin.
Hail Lovepon.
karlstein12
Watching Mayoiga is like opening a surprise package and finding out it's something you so fiercely hate, thus transitioning your expectations into a decaying death. The premise itself is interesting, and there's a sense of an odd feeling of triumph at the beginning because as rarely as it comes, to see a pure original 'lost somewhere' flick is definitely something you can look forward to with excessive hype and such was the case with myself. As a matter of fact, before the spring season began, I had Mayoiga at the top of my most anticipated shows list. But Mayoiga, or rather Trainwre- I mean... TheLost Village, turns out as a complete disaster.
Mayoiga begins with a bunch of ragtags together inside a bus heading towards a peculiar place known only as the Nanaki Village. The similarity between all the people, thirty to be precise, is that each and every one of them had a traumatic past of which they were all desperate to escape from. Nanaki Village is a place that is not on the map and no one knows about it, and no one can pin-point the location of the place. Nanaki Village doesn't exist. That is until a mysterious group known as "It's Super Genesis" or "ISG" for short discovers the exact location of Nanaki Village. Various online users who make it through layers of protection of the ISG website, take part in this tour which is branded as the "Start Life Over" tour where people are seeking a world free of hassle and trying to relive their lives, escaping the reality. The irony in the story lies in the fact that "changing your lives" is something the adults should be doing, not a group of teenagers who have barely lived.
A whopping thirty characters could all be in theory, regarded as our protagonists. But we all know that's not bound to happen in a show which consists of just twelve episodes. And that brings us to Mitsumune, the main character in which the show mostly revolves around and has the spotlight. For one, there is nothing that separates Mitsumune from the other thousands of generic main guys there are. He is shy, pathetic and single-minded who has a positive outlook no matter what happens. He is also very disloyal, so much so that he gives up on his best friend, who also joins him on the tour by the way, for a girl he met in the tour! Looking at Mitsumune makes you wonder why would such a phony guy even join on this tour? There's a backstory to him which is just as miserly as the show itself. As I said before, the first episode starts off with the tour organizer, Dahara, stating that only the people with gifted talent could ever break through the layers of their website and join the tour, which also makes you think as to how someone as dense as Mitsumune could have done that all by himself? Mayoiga is full of contradictions such as this.
The rest of the characters are up to no good as well. A majority of them merely exist for plot conveniences, and that includes Mitsumune at times too, and have little to no in-depth characterization. Probably a few of them worth mentioning are Masaki, the mysterious girl to whom Mitsumune falls for. She plays a big role as the show progresses, but there are little traits to her character worth explaining. She's basically used as the embodiment of the emotional trope and is a pretty one-dimensional character. Hayato who goes by the pseudonym Speedstar, is a good friend of Mitsumune's. He acts as the support for Mitsumune and helps him out whenever he is in need. Speedstar is more suited to be the show's protagonist in my opinion as he's displayed as someone who has a strong willpower and personality. He undergoes a terrible characterization later on however which was a waste. A few characters act as a sidekick like Valkana, who is shown as a very angry man. Koharun, who is the one responsible for locating the Nanaki Village and Lovepon, who is probably the craziest in my opinion. All she ever talks is about executing and is a good example of a literal cardboard-cut "yandere" trope character. However, there's a backstory on her which was quite captivating and displayed the struggles she goes through as a kid. It's depressing since the show doesn't do justice at all to the backstory as she's used for mere conveniences by taking on a more active role in the coming episodes saying the exact same thing over and over again.
It's such a shame because Mayoiga has well-designed characters for an original show. The art isn't anything significant and is nothing but generic, but it doesn't necessarily mean bad. The characters and the backgrounds are drawn simple and not too exaggerated which helps the viewers settle in very quickly. But for the most part, there is a visible decline in the art and a good example of this are the first two episodes. The pilot episode has nice visuals but there are times when it goes downhill from there in the coming episodes. The CGI effects used later on suck for the most part. One of the main reasons being the totally absurd "Monsters" but yet there are moments where the characters are shown alongside the CGI-designed creatures and it all feels very underwhelming. The visuals for the opening/ending songs respectively are kept very minimal where they focus on merely introducing the characters. The ending especially only uses the faces of the characters in them with different characters in the next episode ending than the previous. Overall I have to say the art is pretty mediocre.
The sound aspect of Mayoiga is once again a mixed bag. On one hand: Fantastic opening and ending song, A few good soundtracks in between which play by the mood and the atmosphere etc. And then there is this task of voicing over two dozens of characters. Honestly, many of the characters' voices are done terribly and seemingly by amateurs in the industry. And it comes as no surprise for an anime which was supported by crowdfunding, to have budget issues and made by a small time studio. Many of the characters are played by the newer personnel or ones with little experience in voice acting and that is so very evident in Mayoiga.
Mayoiga is at times so insane that it matches the contemporaries of those anime which are so bad that they're good. It's a common expectation that with such a huge amount of cast, many will be put off to death soon and that does seem to be happening until it takes a completely different route. It's tough to tell after a few episodes if this is truly a mystery show, psychological drama or a satirical comedy. Mayoiga doesn't rely on gore to put off the viewers and be 'edgy'. But instead it uses hysterically pretentious philosophical dialogues and awful plot twists which literally does the trick and puts off everyone watching it and can be deemed as cringe-worthy. At this point I'm just gonna say avoid Mayoiga at all costs. It's an utter waste of time and nothing good will ever come out watching it. I'd also like to mention that this is the worst anime I've ever seen.
Stark700
Mayoiga (The Lost Village) is a really strange series and to watch it, you’ll really need to do it with some attention or an open mind. I can’t remember the last time I watched a show with such amount of absurdity, to a point where I feel just as lost as the characters in the story. Directed by Tsutomu Mizushima (Shirobako, Girls und Panzer), the series takes the genre of mystery but what you expect isn’t what you’ll likely get. And in many ways, Mayoiga sends a wrong message that makes the show look like a borderline comedy. As an original series, the premise itself soundsinteresting. Think about it. You have a group of characters each with their own personalities but all end up in the same place, a village named Nanakimura. It invites a lot of questions about what takes place and the discoveries they’ll make. Those who have seen series such as Another, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and Ghost Hound may be in for a treat. On paper, the show looks intriguing. However, the first episode gave me a mixed impression especially when it introduces 30 characters. What goes on my mind is: how on Earth do they plan to give characterization with this many people? The show is also only 1 cour so my expectations was rather dense about how much they can focus on the story as well.
Essentially, the show is pretty much about a group of characters being lost in a remote location after being dropped off by the bus driver. The setting (Lost Village) invites a lot of attention because by plot formulaic standards, there’s bound for a lot to happen. It’s not strange in the sense that everyone on this trip gets lost but why they are there. And it also sets up developments related to survival, trust issues, and possibly even death. The show already establishes a few given ideas though – being that no one really knows why they’re there, what’s at the village, or how to get back. There’s a lot of diverse personalities all mixed in at once if we take at the characters individually. Their common goal of course is to get the hell away from there as fast as possible.
On paper, there’s 30 characters but the series does manage to show some background stories for some of the more prominent individuals. Besides Mitsumune, we also get some storytelling about Hayato (Mitsumune’s best friend), Valkana (a man that is trying to build a new life from his previous job), Lovepon (a girl obsessed with execution), Nyanta (a kid with fondness with guns), the mysterious Masaki with connections with the bus driver, and among others. While their background stories doesn’t have direct connections to the main story, it does identify their characteristics. And that’s an important part of the show. The characters in this series needs to know who each other are to build trust. In a place of unknown, the last thing they need is betrayal or turmoil between each other. The show only does a moderate job at crafting relationships because quite honestly, there’s just too many characters to work around with. In retrospect, most of the character relationships are based more on how much they want to know about each other.
After seeing a fair amount of episodes, I find it hard to understand the purpose of the show. Yes, it’s supposed to be a thriller but a lot of times, I find it rather amusing with the amount of superstitious events that occurs in the series. Perhaps it’s surreal comedy? Who knows but some of events going on are rather unbelievable. In addition, the story feels more like a skit where the characters are there for entertainment. Their established personalities become more and more evident as each episodes ventures on. At some point, I have to wonder if it series is trying to be unintentionally funny or not. For instance, the show at one point decided to actually make Lovepon into a prominent character for the viewers to take seriously despite her behavior being borderline insane. It’s definitely not scary if that’s the original purpose because just how ridiculous it has been. The first two episodes actually makes the series somewhat compelling because of the way it sets everything up. However, the amount of absurdity that builds up more and more and later feels just like popcorn comedy.
While the artwork isn’t great, it isn’t bad either. It’s more like somewhere between the middle where it’s acceptable. The setting does have a genuine feeling of horror with its eerie atmosphere. Character designs aren’t impressive but they are fresh enough to show that each individual has some unique trait. The fun part about the show is the character expressions as we see how they react to certain situations. Lovepon is the gold standard for this while there are times when see others behave in ways that are laughable.
Soundtrack on most part works for the show. It works in the way that it portrays the atmospheric setting well. The OP and ED theme songs aren’t very impressive but the OST has the general idea of giving mystery vibes. Character voice mannerism actually deserves some praise especially with the female characters because of how they react. Meanwhile, the show also crafts some dramatic scenery accompanied by the choreography of intense music at times.
“What did I just watch?” You’ll probably ask yourself that question more times than you can count by the time this show is over. Make no mistake, Mayoiga is more about entertainment than an intriguing mystery or horror story. It has the general premise but it hardly delivers at what it tries to do. There’s also a lack of sorrow felt during the show despite some key staff involved and writing. So what is Mayoiga really? Is it a show that is “so bad, it’s good”? Well to me, it’s more of a “I’m so lost”.
Aegair
The Lost Village is a rather unique show. Featuring a large cast of thirty named characters, acclaimed director Tsumotu Mizushima (Shirobako, Girls und Panzer, Dai Mahou Touge) and a similarly acclaimed writer Mari Okada (Ano Hana, Toradora, Nagi no Asakura); to call The Lost Village ambitious would be an understatement. In this review I intend to explain what makes The Lost Village brilliant whilst also explaining what makes this show as polarizing as it appears to be. The Lost Village presents itself as a horror show. A bunch of kids and young adults board a bus to a mysterious village in order to rebuild their lives.On the way large there are constant references to suicide, cannibalism, and torture. An incredibly generic thriller horror opening. Typically this kind of show with a large initial cast fall into that brand of horror where most of the cast is 'spent' in either a gorey or a psychologically unnerving manner. That would normally be what draws people to the show initially, for example Higurashi. At the start of the season that is very much what I expected from The Lost Village: an over the top horror show with some incredibly silly deaths, basically Another. I couldn't have been more wrong.
The Lost Village is a comedy show. It is a comedy show set in an amateur studentish horror show. Most anime comedy revolves around overt gags. You have a show, be it a comedy show or merely a show that utilizes a comedy, and in it a joke is presented to you. The joke is then commented on by the cast, usually a 'straight-man character'. Obviously this varies, from Key adaptation's very single skit focussed approaches to comedy, to Jojo's Bizarre Adventure's approach of having ridiculous things be ridiculous but playing it entirely straight within the show itself. However, none of these is how The Lost Village approaches comedy. The humour in The Lost Village is instead more meta-structural. Playing with genre or anime-in-general expectations by 'looking' at the 'correct way' of doing things and then doing the opposite.
All thirty-something characters are all one dimensional flat characters with maybe one or two traits to each of them. You have the meowing gun fan, the earnest execution lover, that incredibly thirsty boy, and that's a joke. In a lesser show this would be atrocious. An entire cast of unlikable bland characters. Yet the show constantly draws attention to not only how ridiculous the cast is, but also how genuine the cast is. That meowing gun lover will always be meowing, always will be in love with guns, and that is just their character. No tragic backstory, even when brought up, will explain that away like a traditional horror thriller would. The meowing gun fan isn't meowing because she was bullied as a kid, nor is the execution lover into execution as some form of vengeance over abuse. Instead, The Lost Village's tragic backstories exist merely to poke fun at tragic backstories. To poke fun at itself, and to bring genuine laughter to it's audience.
Almost everything in the show revolves around taking it's horror thrilling premise and ruining it. Any tense moment will be butchered by traditionally bad shot composition. All movement in a scene being off camera, the focus of a scene being completely absent and the 180 degree rule being ignored, or just putting props in the way of the character talking for the sheer purpose of taking all tension that 'should' be in the scene away. Or perhaps, instead of using bad shot composition, what will ruin a scene is the cast just getting bored. Rather than grouping together, or splitting up in order to find the plot the vast majority of the time the cast state that they should be doing that and then immediately get bored and distracted. The show is completely consistent in it's contrivances. It's running jokes continue running and even reach climactic highs as the cast accidentally run across and have Plot happen to them.
The Plot in The Lost Village is a Plot of nothingness. Since it takes so long for the cast to actually 'get' anywhere what could typically have been a hamfisted appreciation of trauma instead takes an entire season to get going and then get's 'resolved' in bored characters speaking verbal shitposts at each other. These conversations about nothing, or about something important before getting distracted account for around half of all that happens in the show. It's ridiculous.
Yet, even with all this ridiculous nothingness going on, The Lost Village has some genuine moments. These genuine moments, whilst laughed at in some form of another most, but not all, of the time, are well done. A character dealing with or coming to terms with their trauma is not laughed at. The traumas that the Plot of the show explores are not the jokes in and of themselves. The Lost Village cares deeply for it's cast of sometimes absurd archetypes, and sometimes oddly genuine people. In caring for them it cares deeply for it's audience. Genuine struggles are treated genuinely. There's no gratuitous abuse, and the only violence that's a joke in and of itself tends to revolve around The Big Bads being CG and terrible.
It would be easy to look at what The Lost Village does and compare it to check lists of good and bad writing and decide it is definitely of the former. But to consider the show bad because of this would be doing it a disservice. The Lost Village takes traditionally bad writing and direction and instead makes it good. The Lost Village uses the implicit 'joke' in stuff like The Room or Birdemic and makes it explicit. If you buy into the inconsistent consistency of it's premise The Lost Village is a precious show. An unmissable and unique experience. However, such an experience may be hard to get into, for by using traditionally bad techniques can be a major turn off making it impossible for one to get immersed in the fun.
Kaiser-chan
Okay, at first episode I thought this anime got potential, maybe something that stand out from the rest of anime this season, well I wasn't completely wrong. This anime got too many characters and hardly any of them are importants. Most of them are fucking annoying, make me want to punch my computer's screen hoping my fist would break through dimension knock them the fuck out. God, fucking Lovepon and her EXECUTION! This anime do a poor making me care about any of the characters. These characters are all losers who want to escape their lives because they fucking suck. We slowly learn how lamethey are and then we got their weird fucking trauma manifest as creepy fucking shit. One of them got silicon as his trauma monster because he got one implant inside his head to make him taller, fucking lol. I kid you not.
Each episodes make you question the characters capability to use their brains because nothing they do make fucking sense. If you expect any good explaination for everything that's going in the series, you won't. I mean they explains it but its garbage.
Overall, I regret watching this anime. I never give an anime such a low score but this anime deserve all of it. Fucking garbage.
HaXXspetten
Welcome to "so bad it's actually funny" – the anime. Sort of. It's hard to explain just how bad Mayoiga actually is without seeing it with your own eyes, but if I were to use one word to describe it then it'd be "amateurish". It feels like both the scriptwriting and the directing were done by a group of 14-year-olds for some school film project or something. It's like one of those second-rate western horror flicks that you solely watch for shits and giggles, except put in an anime format for even greater effect. You might be familiar with the 2012 anime "Another": it was ananime which was supposed to be a horror/mystery show yet it became more known for being an unintentional comedy due to how hilariously bad it was at creating suspense and because of how stupid its death scenes were. Guess what; Mayoiga and Another share the same director... and as a result Mayoiga is basically the same deal all over again, though with a lot less casualties in it this time. Actually that's not entirely fair; Mayoiga is even worse.
Within the first 5 minutes of the very first episode, we're introduced to *30* new characters, all with their own self-introductions. I have seriously never seen an anime before which overwhelms you to such an extent right from the start with so many new names to learn. How is anyone supposed to remember them all? Long story short, you won't. Don't even try. And besides, as you'll find out, the characters are all terrible anyway so spare yourself the effort.
Basically, the story starts out with a bus filled with 30 unfamiliar people bound for a mysterious rural settlement called "Nanaki Village", a place which supposedly cannot be found on any map for unknown reasons. The purpose of the trip is supposedly for all the passengers to start over with new lives for themselves due to their respective personal circumstances. After some troubles, they arrive at the village only to find out that it's abandoned, and soon enough strange things start happening around them. Some people disappear whilst exploring the village, and mysterious claw marks dripping with blood are found in the forest. This all has the setup for an obvious horror story where people will get killed from the shadows or something along those lines, which would have been the obvious solution to the problem of the overwhelming size of the character cast: I.E: by killing off the majority of them. But strangely enough that's not what happens.
Instead, Mayoiga descends down a spiral of "wtf am I watching" as the characters first turn on each other only to then keep changing their minds on who's guilty of what every 2 minutes, and absurd supernatural events seemingly start to occur with "monsters" straight out of Disneyland appearing everywhere. It's one big scrambled mess which barely makes any sense, but above all it's completely impossible to take seriously. I find it hard to believe that you're really supposed to be scared or intrigued by this, because the only thing it ever makes you do is laugh out loud at how unbelievably stupid and nonsensical the things that are happening are. And while the story admittedly does start to make sense towards the end, at that point you don't even care anymore.
What really makes Mayoiga stand out though is the character cast itself. I don't really know how to put this other than that it's absolutely *horrible*. Like record levels of awful. I've already mentioned the huge problem of it being impossible to remember the names of more than a handful of them, but on top of that not a single one of them is likable. At all. They all behave like complete and utter retards from start to finish, blatantly changing their opinions whenever someone else brings up any new piece of information, they all have needlessly cliché and bland backstories which you don't even want to hear in the first place, and they're just plain annoying to watch. They're completely incapable of handling the situation they find themselves in and they act paranoid beyond belief for almost no reason. I guess you could argue that a group of people who think that running away from society by joining some shady bus trip to a rural village probably aren't the smartest people to begin with, but still. That sounds more like a bad excuse than anything else.
The MC is a weak, gullible boy called Mitsumune who feels like the most unsuitable person imaginable to be the protagonist of a horror/mystery show, and he just ends up coming off as annoying more often than not. Worst of all though, there's this one psychopathic girl called Lovepon who does nothing but desperately yell the word "Execute!" at any given moment, and is one of the most obnoxious characters I've ever seen. She reminds me of Nina Einstein from Code Geass a lot (protip: that's not a good thing). She wants to kill everyone for the slightest suspicious move, yet everyone else seems to trust her instincts completely above anyone else who says otherwise. Like really? Can't you like… see that this girl is completely mentally unstable? Why are you going along with her as if she's reliable or something? I seriously don't get it. Who's more stupid: the idiot or the people who actually believe in her? In any case the entire cast are basically cardboard cutouts of various common anime tropes, with their specific traits cranked up to the max but their IQ dragged down to under 50. There is absolutely nothing to make the viewers feel any sympathy or connection to them, and as a result you just end up not caring about what happens to them. There is basically no depth or character development at all. Yes, we get a lot of tragic backstories from them spoon-fed to us, but those are all so incredibly bland and generic that it doesn't actually help their cause much to speak of. Rather it just ends up feeling like a waste of screen time.
So as far as being a horror/mystery goes, Mayoiga is in my mind one of the worst anime ever made. However, there is one saving grace for this show, albeit an unintentional one. And that is quite simply that it's actually pretty funny. Sure it's for all the wrong reasons, but either way the sheer amount of stupidity in the scriptwriting results in some comedic genius. The characters consistently do the most idiotic things that will catch you off guard and just make you laugh at how dumb they are. And don't even get me started on the so-called "horror" elements of this show. Just... just see for yourselves and you'll see what I mean; they look so ridiculously dumb it's hilarious. And because of that, the actual entertainment value of this anime is actually decent despite it being awful in basically all other categories, hence why I'm still generous enough to give it a 4 in the end. As for whether being "so bad it's funny" is enough of a motivation to actually watch the show though... well that probably just comes down to your sense of humor. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. Only one way to find out. Mayoiga is not an anime you laugh with. It's an anime you laugh at.
krazykillerkurt
NOT FOR THE WEAK-MINDED Ok first of all. This anime obviously made a lot of people disappointed, but just because it was able to do that was I able to enjoy it even more than I already had. This anime was tagged as Mystery and for the entirety of it I was just left wondering at awe in every episode. Even though the flow of the story was bad and it could've gone way better, I was able to enjoy this anime because of how crazy it is and how people are getting frustrated over it. Story(6) Yeah the story is pretty bland and the flow is abit horrible but it's certainly not mediocre because it is pretty damn unique.
Art(8)
The visuals were great and the monsters/Nanaki were just awesomely creepy.
Sound(8)
The audio was pretty great actually. I really like the ED song. Oh, and of course how could I forget Koharun's eerie song.
Character(7)
It's good. Not great, but good. Each had their own unique crazy personality.
Enjoyment(10)
It was like riding a roller-coaster 'nuff said.
Overall(8)
I don't understand why people are giving it a lot of hate. It's certainly cut from a different cloth, that much I can say. I won't be able to see an anime as crazy as this one for a long while and I'm glad because I myself might also become even crazier if I keep watching more anime like this. It's a pretty great anime and it's definitely not for sane people.
REMOVEDACC1234
Mayoiga, the anime deemed "Comedy of the season". Personally, I find it quite appealing that someone would deem this "masterpiece" a comedy. Story is a 7/10 from me. People go in a village, stuff happens, silent hill vibes. 7/10 Art 9/10, fluid art animation is quite seller. Much appreciated. Everything else *8/10) Characters were unique, concept was good. Got a Law exam tomorrow. Overall 7.5/10 or 8/10.Kept me interested, one of the most important pieces of modern day anime.
Ok im going to go study now, bye.
..
Hold on, if this anime was really that bad, then...why is it getting good reviews.
People die if they are killed.
Tuturuu (Filler)
711nono
Many people within the anime community complain about the degrading quality of modern anime works. Though I always try to view anime in a positive light, I can't deny that Mayoiga is a great example of this. I mean it was so mediocre and pretentious and it just fell into an eternal abyss of dissapointment. The lost village is the type of show that tries several ideas and concepts but fails miserably at several of these endeavors. It desperately attempts to incorporate deep themes but can hardly get down dynamic characterization and development, not to mention a completely muddled narrative. The story ofMayoiga follows thirty young individuals who are going to a village to escape all of their problems. This is an incredibly promising concept which could have been amazing if it was handled and developed properly. However a main issue is that a core story doesn't really appear until midway through the entire series. This leads to much confusion throughout the entire series because even after a narrative is established it doesn't take long for it to completely fall apart.
The main characters of Mayoiga had great potential. The character of mitsumune had an interesting backstory and some valid motivation. However he is a really annoying and bland character and he hardly grows throughout the story. Masaki is kind of the standard timid quiet innocent girl that is very generic. Koharun was also pretty bland but there was a good plot twist involving her. Hayato was probably the best and most interesting character and his motives were very relatable.
The other side characters in Mayoiga is the perfect example of a large amount of characters who don't mean crap to the viewer. Honestly just info dumping their backstories at random is not a good way to develop a character. Their were a couple of semi-interesting side characters but the rest were just hit garbage. The cast was way too big and it really hindered the potential of the show.
The themes of accepting your psychological scars is explored through characters I can hard,y care about. This makes the anime very pretentious due to it trying to be deep but failing miserably.
The art of Mayoiga is actually good. There is a feel of modern polish and I had no problem with it. The voice acting was also good and the actors portrayed their respective characters accurately. The music was excellent with a great opening and ending themes. The ost also built good atmosphere.
In conclusion Mayoiga is a series that had an amazing amount of potential in its premise but just completely flopped. It has some redeemable aspects but there are much better less pretentious mystery anime out there so I can't reccomened this anime.
living_wid_dying
No matter what the reviews are, this anime is worth watching, i binge-watched it today and wrote a review right away so people don't miss it. I won't say it's underrated but stories like this are rare. It has interesting concepts, and good comedy one-liners (I know it's horror but mostly at the start till the suspense). For my fellow anime lovers & otaku, definitely worth watching guys. This is decent(has/had great potential TBH) anime with a unique storyline and plot, a bit of fun, SOL. The ending was good, I like the natural/neutral endings instead of forced only happy or sad endings. Just check out thefirst episode you will get hooked from or 1st or 2nd episode onwards.
Pessoa
Mayoiga is a perfect example of a third-rate anime that takes itself too seriously with its cardboard characters and creates few unintended pitying chuckles. A group of people travels to a hidden village to start life anew. Character introductions start immediately, with the worst possible way, letting each one stand up and talk. They are all eccentric and therefore typical in anime, each you might have seen in any other average show. The anime relies heavily on the mystery aspect to grab attention. It is all good and nice, but for a mystery to work, one needs to connect with characters. Otherwise, who cares about anuninteresting nobody experiencing problems? Another part of the mystery is the character backgrounds, which for obvious reasons are revealed slowly, and unsurprisingly, we discover that many characters have some tragic past. The creators don’t fail to use the easiest way of characterization. They make them victimized. To create the villains, they make them despicable caricatures.
You can spot the main character the instant you see his ordinariness among others on the bus. He is our hero, weak-looking, a coward now and then, but defending others selflessly, kind, bland, nice, wimp, boring. In short, a face you’re already familiar with. After a person is lost our wise hero asks, “Is it really a good idea to call the police?” If it isn’t, then only in an event of genocide people should call the police. There is an aloof character, a shy one, a cute one, a potential murderer one, a silent one, a tsundere one, a psycho girl, an adventure-seeking one, an aspiring detective, a middle-aged bus driver who acts like a whiny child, a bossing type, a messing-around potential rapist one. The list goes on. They are slightly crazy, illogical and violent. All for the shock factor.
Characters take themselves too seriously. They are like children playing adult. They can make you chuckle and cringe few times with their overacting. The anime tries clumsily to add some plot twists but fails embarrassingly. Great plot twists come with characters we love, they aren’t just unexpected turn of events.
The animation is ordinary, too ordinary. It could be made a decade ago and nobody could tell the difference. The sound is as unimpressive as the animation, with a forgettable opening and ending. There are many anime out there which heavily rely on great visuals and sound, effectively redeeming poor plot. Mayoiga isn’t one of them. Low budget is apparent from the very beginning.
It’s painful to write a negative review of any anime. Long working hours and low wages in the industry make everyone hesitate. Yet, every year watching dozens of generic works that will be soon forgotten isn’t helping. Wishing to see something extraordinary, solid, awesome demands fans to be harsh in their criticism. A genuine art piece is visceral, stays with us, inspires us, and sometimes makes us better or worse persons. Mayoiga, a below mediocre work, delivers not much enjoyment. It isn’t worth it, but you can force yourself to over-think or lower your expectation to get some pleasure. For me, Mayoiga is a passing memory. It will be forgotten and lost in few seasons, thrown into the dustbin of anime history.
HellLyter
Hey, are you looking for a well made mystery anime that boasts a suspenseful plot with intriguing characters? Then DON'T watch Mayoiga! This show failed miserably to be the good mystery anime that it tried so hard to be. Mayoiga got consistently worse and more agrivating to watch as each episode passed by. In fact, it almost drove me to take a bus tour to an abandoned town divode of life and technology myself just so that I wouldn't have to watch this disgrace on my PC every week. Plot: 1/10 With an intriguing (albeit kinda stupid) premise, I figured that the overall story would at leastbe somewhat interesting. However, since episode one the plot practically disappeared in a similar way to how some of the characters in this show vanished. And by that I mean in a vague and unexplained manner. The writers just seemed to disregard whatever plot elements they had in mind to specifically focus on the stupidity of the characters. The story doesn't go anywhere due to the singular focus on the idiotic decisions made by the anime's cast. Mayoiga unintentionally transferred from a mystery to a comedy. I won't go into detail on this point, but if you watch the anime, you'll understand where I'm coming from. The writing in this show is absolutely horrid.
Animation: 4/10
The art is quite basic. The majority of the characters each have their own original design, although they're animated in a rather simplistic manner. There's not much to say about the scenery, which is also kind of underwhelming. My main issue has to be the cgi monsters that appear. They're so poorly designed that I couldn't help but chuckle a bit when I first saw them.
Sound: 4/10
The opening theme song is rather average and isn't anything special. The ending is mediocre and skippable. The background soundtrack helps keep the mood tense and edgy during suspenseful scenes- oh wait, there aren't any in this anime! The voice acting is average and bland, and I really don't like the main characters voice. It's rather annoying.
Characters: 1/10
If you ever decide to create a twelve episode long anime, never, under any circumstances, have a cast of over thirty characters. That's right, the geniuses who created Mayoiga thought that they'd be able to effectively develop OVER THIRTY CHARACTERS in just TWELVE EPISODES. As you can imagine, the majority of the characters don't even have a personality, much less any development. Practically all of the characters are so stupid that I almost want to smash my head through a concrete tablet when I watch them. They're so disorganized, paranoid, and have no idea how to deal with the undesirable situations that they find themselves in. Then again, what else can you expect from a bunch of ignoramuses who want to escape society by taking a sketchy bus tour to an uncharted town that has a very probable chance of not even existing. Oh, and instead of developing as characters as the anime progressed, the doofuses in this show somehow manage to get even stupider and more annoying with each passing episode. Now that's an accomplishment!
Enjoyment: 2/10
Although I had hopes that Mayorga would be able to keep me entertained, my expectations were shattered almost immediately. By the latter half of the anime I even started cringing every time a character said something stupid, which was approximately every time they opened their mouths. While I was initially intrigued with this show due to the mysterious aspects of Mayoiga, I later found myself laughing at scenes that I assume were meant to be "unnerving" or "scary" due to Mayoiga's poor execution mixed with its abysmal cast of characters.
Overall: 2/10
It was very clear from the beginning that Mayoiga had the makings of a flawed anime. Nonetheless, I held on to the hope that it would be able to find some success. Unfortunately, the show just got worse and worse with each passing episode until it reached a point where it actually became painful to watch. Overall, Mayoiga is simply a very poorly constructed show that failed to deliver.
MozillaFennekin
Apparently, Mayoiga is categorized as a mystery anime, but the real mystery is figuring out what the fuck was going on half the time, and not really in a good way. One of the most talked about anime of Spring ‘16, Mayoiga deceived whatever target audiences it was trying to lure in; at first it seemed like a group of weirdos assimilating into an uncharted society, then it seemed to be a murder mystery, but really it was… a psychological “horror” involving freaky CG monsters. Oh. Mayo-egg starts off with thirty Redditors getting on a bus headed for the middle of nowhere, so they can start newlives in an uncharted village. Fucking millennials these days. And I almost wanted to drop the show after the first five minutes, because they were spent on introducing each character, one by one, as if anyone’s expected to remember them. And they’re ALL tropes. I get that only a fucking crazy idiot would get on this magic school bus to hell, but very few are actually insane… everyone else is just an anime trope. The guy who raps all the time. The guy who eats food all the time. The potential serial murderer who doesn’t talk. Is this supposed to be some big joke?
Apparently it is, actually. A lot of people have concluded that Mayoiga’s general lack of seriousness and incredibly trope-y characters make this a comedy series rather than some horrific drama. So uh… when exactly was I supposed to laugh? “Hurr hurr, this guy’s getting chased by a giant boob monster!” Alright, yeah, that’s pretty weird. Anything else? ‘Cuz people taking silly situations really seriously… isn’t a very uncommon thing in anime, specifically bad anime. Maybe I just don’t enjoy subtle humor in general, because I was only interested when the really crazy shit was happening. All hail Lovepon. But otherwise, I wasn’t amused by the mob mentality of the villagers or their dumb conversations and theories.
I do believe this could’ve at least been improved easily, though. They should’ve reduced the headcount significantly. This statement is a small spoiler, but only one person dies. With the amount of characters, it’s no surprise that most people expected a weekly massacre. (RIP to the guy on /r/anime who made a status chart for this exact reason.) But no, everyone sticks around and pops up every now and then (“then” being “maybe once every three episodes if they’re lucky”) to give their amazing (read: fucking annoying) one-liner, then back to filler hell they go. Keep the characters that actually have presence. No one cares about the guy who talks about eating, or Yuuna, or Yuuna, or Yuuna. Having less characters would at least give an excuse to have more CG monsters.
If anything, violence would’ve made the show more entertaining. Or maybe if this turned into a huge game of Town of Salem. Ever played that? It’s a game where the townspeople have to find everyone evil and hang them, or the evil people have to kill all the townspeople. Watching everyone point fingers furiously and falsely killing off each other would’ve been a fun time for the whole family. But instead of a simple, entertaining show to watch while getting shit-faced drunk with your friends, Shirobako’s director goes with… people getting attacked by monsters created by their mental stress. You know, the classic.
I guess it’s one thing to be surprising, and Mayoiga is pretty interesting and creative with its concept, but it’s like mixing peanut butter with mac and cheese. They’re both awesome on their own, but putting them together is strange and not very fun. We’ll be right back after this public service announcement.
[The author of this review recommends that you do not mix peanut butter with mac and cheese. It does not taste good. Thank you for your attention.]
Anyway, I’m not really sure what this anime was supposed to be. If it was a drama, it was too wacky to take seriously. If it was a mystery, it didn’t leave people guessing, just in a state of confusion. If it was a comedy, it simply wasn’t funny enough. And if it was supposed to be all of them at once… well, it sucked.
The art just kinda sucks. That’s it. Nothing is specifically bad about it, it’s just kinda mediocre because most of it is people standing or sitting around, talking. Facial expressions and camera angles don’t do anything to help or harm it, but the lighting is pretty decent, as much of the show takes place during the night, so expect a lot of dimly lit rooms and… campfires. Yeah, campfires. For roasting marshmallows, and sometimes witches. The CG is beyond jarring, it’s fucking hyper-realistic like we’re in a shitty creepypasta. But that’s kinda the point and they’re consistent with it, so it’s good in a strange way? Quite an oddity, it is.
If this show had music, let me know. ‘Cuz I sure as hell didn’t notice anything. The OP is about average; the song has some heart but sounds cheaply produced; the mixing doesn’t sound very even, and the instrumentation sounds lacking, somehow. But it has a good vocal melody, at least. The ED is a strange, but fitting song to close each episode with; it’s a soft acoustic ballad and it’s quite nice. I don’t have anything to say about the voiceovers because of the sheer number, but whoever played the based goddess Lovepon is pretty good.
Did I enjoy Mayoiga? Eh. I didn’t not enjoy it, save for the extremely slow start. But with a general lack of focus, I don’t think it was a matter of not enjoying it, it’s just that there wasn’t much to enjoy.
Story - 3/10
Art - 4/10
Sound - 3/10
Characters - 3/10
Enjoyment - 4/10
Craziness - EXECUTE!!!!/10
Overall - 4/10
Favorite character - Lovepon
Favorite episode - 6
Recommendation level - Low
khattikeri
2/10 is actually a rather generous score for an anime so abysmal. If MAL offered negative scores, I may have spitefully given it a -2 rather than a positive one. I trudged through all twelve episodes, wasting 22 minutes of my life every week hoping that somehow, the plot would actually slowly turn good, and the characters wouldn't be so goddamn obnoxious. Didn't happen. I'm asking God for a refund of those minutes after I die one day. First off: Why the everloving frick would you have 30 characters in a show that's only twelve episodes?! With so little time to develop anyone as a character, it'sa wonder that they even thought that that was a good idea. Honestly, over 2/3 the cast could've been tossed away and nothing from the show would've changed. It was an unnecessary waste and barely anyone was given decent character development. In so-called horror/mystery shows such as this, it is crucial to have characters that the audience can root for or relate to. No such thing here. By the time episode 2-3 finished practically everyone watching was hoping that the whole cast would just die. Not to mention, the characters who are presented more often are meh at best and fucking annoying at worst. They're all one-trick ponies who have one defining trait and nothing else explored about them. They have ""backstories"", but those are just another bad attempt at trying to get the viewer to sympathize for them (one was bullied, one tried to get into the military and failed, one did something wrong on a business deal, one was abused by a stepfather, etc.) and though you may feel bad for them a bit, it doesn't change the fact that most of them are useless and annoying characters. There are points where you may think that certain people got character development, and then, BAM! They reverted back to the way they were. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'd talk about a story if there actually was one. Every time there's a mystery, there's always a crappy, half-assed explanation, followed by another mystery that is inevitably going to end up with the same crappy half-assed explanation by the next episode. At the series' end, there were still many questions left unanswered. The characters themselves are so annoying that it's actually hard to focus on the story (or on whether the story is actually there or not).
The art is the best part of the series. It's not too bad.
The OP/ED were nice to listen to, but they're easily skippable. I didn't really pay attention to the sound in the series otherwise.
OVERALL: unless you are fond of subjecting yourself to torture in all sorts of forms, don't watch this show. it's a waste of your time.
snarat
Mayoiga, was one of the most interesting anime in the spring season of 2016, there is a reason why I added "was" because it literally was interesting for the first 3 episodes or so. let's talk about the story, a group of strangers on a trip to an unknown village. a lot of people got excited because those kinds of stories are really famous and they always turn out to be good BUT not in Mayoiga. don't get fooled by its misleading genre of Horror, Mystery, Drama, and Violence. they made it seem like it would be so scary with a lot of deaths, blood andgore but no no no that was all a lie, it is more of stupid comedy than a drama anime LOL.
Story: 4/10
I loved the fact that it was a mystery anime and in fact it was the anime i looked most forward to this season, i was wrong. so people who go to "Nanaki Village" get to face their Nanaki (monsters) made from their psychological scars and fears(?) not bad but the name just didn't know what to do with the story and thought "oh why don't we create stupid monsters that will haunt their owners until they accept them" ??????? that is so stupid, the story for me was the worst part.
Art: 5/10 --- Sound 7/10
Character designs were good but not so special, the Animation was better but not the kind that i'd call "AMAZING" let's talk about how bad the Monsters' animation was, CGI? seriously CGI??? i really really hated it how the used CGI for the monsters, it just looked so bad like so so bad i don't want to even talk about it anymore.
I personally liked the opening and ending, mostly the opening, the opening was very good for me, the ending was okay. some characters had good voices and some had really bad which made them even more hate-able.
Character: 2/10
yes i gave it a 2!! main male character is the stupidest ever, main female is the "dumb, scared from everything" character you see everywhere even though she was cute, other characters were so bad and annoying, and let's talk about Love-pon, "execute him" "execute her" "execution time" sweety please go execute yourself. seriously if you want the anime to do good then you should have created likeable characters.
Enjoyment: 6/10
I don't even know why or how, i gave it a 6 because i did enjoy the anime a bit, it had that feeling of "keep watching me" even though it was stupid, but still its not that enjoyable that you'd go and re-watch some scenes.
Overall: 5/10
bad story
bad characters
good/okay soundtracks and OST
animation not special and ugly use of CGI
average, average, bad, average anime
yes that is all, it's like the creators made the anime bad on purpose, but i won't say that i wasted a lot of time watching Mayoiga, it taught me again to never judge a book by its cover.
Joji1006
I swear! The only good thing about this horrible show was probably the art. The characters were awful. Every single episode, they kept screaming and acting like idiots. It completely ruined the whole show for me! None of them made any sense. They acted unreasonable. The only good characters were like two of them. The rest of them acted like complete retards who kept wanting to "control" the situation by themselves! Especially Lovepon! Oh god she was the worst! She kept going on and on about the execution crap! And what was with the ending!? After all that crap about beating each other, they suddenly started toact civilized!? Also the drama was awful! Most of the time, it felt forced. Honestly, I feel like the writers were pulling this story out of their asses each episode!
I mean. The concept was really cool, but the execution (no pun intended) was awful, especially with such horrible characters. I would NEVER recommend this anime.
Story: 3 (I only rated it a little higher cause the concept was cool.)
Art: 7
Sound: 5
Character: 1 (I have never seen worse personalities before!)
Enjoyment: 3
Overall: 3
Tokis86
There was a little anime and when it was good, it was really really good, but when it was bad, it was really really bad. Mayoiga would probably be best described as a psychological supernatural thriller. There is no gore, no murders, no blood, ghosts or epic battle scenes. What this anime does deliver though is monsters, mysteries and cliffhanger moments by the bucket load. Story in a nutshell: A large group of unrelated & dysfunctional people disenchanted with society run away together to start their lives anew in a mysterious village which exists on no mainstream maps. The village is full of mysteries and it isnot long before people start to get tormented by monsters.
I found this anime challenging to rate because while petty bad, it is not awful at everything it does. And the thing it does best is mystery. That even as dysfunctional as the anime is (poor pacing, a myriad of useless characters etc), it often keeps you just hooked enough to continue baring with it.
Overall: Good story with so much potential and creativity but very let down by poor pacing, illogical character interaction and poor character design (and too many characters in general).
Mysteries abound in this anime but unfortunately so too does disappointment.
Flawfinder
There's this 2015 movie called Tag that's on Youtube as of this moment. It's by my favorite present-day foreign film director, Sion Sono, and it's easily one of the best modern-day horror movies I've seen in a long time. It was creepy. It was funny. Its take on puberty was pretty cool. And even if you don't agree with me on the film's quality, I think most of you would be hard-pressed to deny that it was better than watching Diomedea's attempt at scaring the living daylights out of people with their shitty horror comedy about a bunch of faceless rejects whining about personal problemsno one gives a shit about.
Okay okay, I know I'm setting a low bar when bringing up the name, Diomedea - a studio so faceless and forgettable that I'll bet most of you fans of the magical boy high school show aren't aware that they're the ones behind it. And it's true, my reaction to most horror anime is about as positive as a baby fry's when they instantly wake up to their mother about to celebrate their birth by swallowing them whole. So to say I was shocked that Mayoiga ended up being crap is like saying the majority of the U.K.'s intelligent population was surprised that Boris Johnson didn't keep the majority of his manifesto promises when it came time to deliver on them.
In fact, the only thing that was shocking about this show was the cult fanbase that erupted in its wake. I wasn't sure what they were seeing at first until I realized that the director was Tsutomu Mizushima - the guy who gave us critically acclaimed shows like Shirobako and unintentionally funny trash like Another - and that everybody who went into this show knew he was the guy behind the anime beforehand. No seriously. Name me one guy who loved this anime's atrociousness that didn't look up who the director was. Apparently, in order to enjoy this anime and that godawful Hippopotamus song, you'd have to know the director, have watched Another, have found that show hilarious, and make constant comparisons to that show whilst using other people who think similarly to back you up. Those are not acceptable conditions for liking a show! That's ten levels below needing to read the original source material in order to appreciate an adaptation.
But let's talk about the anime itself. It's focused on a group of thirty boys and girls...guys, if you want to make Battle Royale, just make Battle Royale. Lord knows we could use an actual animated adaptation of that rather than another goddamn copycat that only barely acknowledges the original inspiration. Anyways, it's about a group of thirty on a tour to a mysterious village so they can start over their lives or something. I dunno. The details of the tour were so loosely defined that apparently one person joined just so she could shoot things without anyone complaining. When they get to the village, they discover it's been abandoned and certain members of their tour start mysteriously disappearing, so they start looking for...bwahahaha! Actually, they just mostly ignore the people who disappear in favor of discovering the secrets of the village itself. And trust me when I say that Nanaki Village ain't exactly Gravity Falls.
The series basically goes through its story by having each episode consist of one section of the main cast searching for answers, another section revealing their pathetic sob story that will in no way affect the plot other than influencing whatever CG monster ends up chasing them, and a section where the characters just act crazy for no reason other than they can. Oh yeah, I should probably explain those CG monsters. They're basically supposed to be physical manifestations of the characters' deepest fears, so they take the form of giant bees or penguins or whatever the fuck you call Hayato's thing that looks like a cross between a homeless woman, a malformed spider, and a giant turd. And to be fair, the fears do have potential on paper like parental abuse and dead family. But it also matters how you convey those fears, and Mayoiga seems to think that the best way to do that is to say the children have them. Well tough, but so do a lot of people in real life. What makes these fictional characters special?
Also, the solutions these characters come up with to resolve their issues are pathetic. Nothing but power of friendship and yelling their feelings, which is the fucking white noise of teen drama resolution at this point. Not saying that that can't be an effective way to resolve a conflict, but Haibane Renmei's finale earned it through its strong usage of religious metaphors supplementing a sin that's vaguely defined on purpose towards a character that was more than just a cliche. Mayoiga has nothing of the sort to elevate the drama but camp, and really shitty camp to boot. There's a scene where the characters are threatened by fire arrows (fucking rolling in creativity right here) and all they can do is react to getting shot the same way most people react to watching The Neon Demon after ingesting sleeping pills. Granted they were under a spell that made them lethargic, but when someone flat-out states that a fire arrow isn't effective as a lethal weapon to justify their drowsiness whilst another person states you need to bring a matchlock gun to get them scared, I start rolling my eyes. Even if they look lame and you can't cause a fire with them, a fire arrow will still kill you if it hits you in the fucking neck.
Mind you, I would have done less eye-rolling if that had actually happened. Or if anyone had actually died in this show. Yeah, despite the fact that it's marketed as a horror story and borrows heavily from works that feature creative ways to kill people, every single character is alive by the time the series ends. Not a single one is beheaded or set on fire or even given as much as a scar in this show despite multiple opportunities to do so. And no, I'm not for torture and brutal deaths even if it's done to characters I don't like, but you might as well have gone that route and entertained someone in the audience if you weren't going to give us anything other than this half-assed attempt at a redemption story. I was talking about this show with a bunch of friends at Expo and we all agreed at being super disappointed that nothing even approaching a bloodbath ever occurred. When we expect a setup similar to Battle Royale, we expect an ending similar to Battle Royale as well.
I could go on complaining about everything else this show does wrong (Hayato's possessive nature towards the main dude, anyone?), but I've got limited time this weekend and most of you guys have already moved on from the show by now, so let's just get to the important questions.
Is it scary? No. The monsters look worse than the CG alien from Howard the Duck, they move so slow that they couldn't catch up to a bus dragging the Statue of Liberty behind it, the tonal shifts ruin any sense of dread, and you cannot seriously expect me to believe that a penguin whose only method of attack is to punch you with its flipper could possibly threaten my life any more than I could threaten his with a kick to the stomach.
Is it funny? No. There's way too much expository dialogue, the imagination in these scenarios is bog-standard, and I have it on good authority that anticlimaxes that halt plot progression (and more importantly, seeing these unlikable characters fall into a grinder) have never in the history of mankind been humorous.
Is the psychology interesting? For a first draft maybe. This entire show feels like it got animated because the final script burnt up in an accident and all the production team had to meet the deadline was something they had previously thrown away once they were done choosing a compelling direction to take these elements. Nothing about this show feels like the creators were giving it their all, like they realized what sort of crap they were dealing with it and proceeded to just not care. The animation and cinematography are incredibly flat, the character designs clash badly with the setting like putting the cast of Dragonball Z into Shin Sekai Yori, and the ending feels like something M. Night Shyamalan's malfunctioning robot clone would come up with before getting thrown into the trash heap.
Is my review of this show over? Yes it is. I've got better things to do than wasting anymore of my time on this pig shit. Like reviewing Big Order...oh wait.
hana_b
Most people said that it's bad but I personally think that it's good. I'm really not the type of person to give reviews but I'd probably make one for this anyway. The story about being lost at a certain village with bunch of people who has psychological scars piqued my interest. Most people had dropped this because there are quite a few who had written some bad comments about this particular anime (DON'T JUST JUMP INTO THE BANDWAGON). But why won't you give this a shot. It's only worth 12 episodes, the art is not bad and the music is outstanding. This is not everyone'scup of tea but why don't you give this a watch and judge this for yourself. My only issue about this anime is that it contains a lot of characters and because of that, some characters were not executed properly and the ending could have been better. This should've been longer because the theme was really good and the characters were really interesting. This should've been longer to execute the plot more properly. This should've been longer for the characters to develop more. This anime should've been a bit longer. It's very promising, the art is great, the soundtrack is great, and the characters are interesting. All I see is an anime full of potential and it should've been a bit longer.
