What is happiness? Ever the fan of psychology, questions such as this are ones that high school student Ritsu Shikishima likes to ponder as he spends his peaceful days with his friends. His perfect world, however, begins to unravel when he hears a strange voice obscured by static, pleading for help. This voice belongs to μ, a beloved pop idol, whose singing begins to have an adverse effect on the world. Before Ritsu's very eyes, the faces of his friends and family become distorted by glitches as the sound of μ's voice transforms them into Digiheads: berserk monsters bent on the extermination of all those who begin to awaken to the true nature of their existence.
Realizing that he is trapped in a virtual world created by μ called Mobius, Ritsu must now gather everyone else who has managed to realize the truth before they are all eliminated. Together, they will use their newfound powers and weapons granted by their emotions—known as the Catharsis Effect—to fight off the mysterious group known as The Ostinato Musicians as they struggle to escape.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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CodeBlazeFate
Everyone has a different form of perception, how they see reality, and everything in it. We can see a show or movie and have different reactions to it and notice different things in it. We can have different political opinions, views on society, or subject preferences. Once you think of it, it's quite fascinating, and in many cases, outright chaotic. After dressing itself up in psychology and philosophy Caligula is a fascinating and musically endearing, if awkward, convoluted, and questionably executed foray into just how fucked perceptions are. It jumps off from its premise to deliver a unique experience in the name of establishing the credibilityto tell you something: don't get too attached to escapism, and accept reality.
Just think about it. It's antagonists -Mu and mediocre cronies services mostly for their themes- are well-intentioned extremists who have indulged far too deeply into escapism. We get to see everyone be subjected to the most disgusting and aggressive versions of what we do to take a break on our daily life, as characters confront their true feelings and unravel themselves to us. People getting so lost into their music that they go ham on people, people engaging so hard in tea parties that they actually eat the fake silverware and stuff themselves so obscenely, people wishing so hard to become someone else that they end up living a fake life? This shit and more is all here! The presentation of this, coupled with the presentation of how off and disturbing the events are, is all directed strikingly. Even though the writing effectively has to handwaive potentially awkward shit about not perceiving explosions and managing to perforce yourself in a completely different body and life, it manages to work without much explanation. It’s such as shame that some revelations are so detrimental and that there are several asspulls and unexplained actions/circumstances -most of which are concerns with the second half-. Let’s not even mention how the final quarter falls apart until the final 13 minutes, as the way it opens certain cans of worms ranges from interesting to devastating, even more so than the second half already began doing.
However, while the narrative was mostly well-presented, the characters are in the exact opposite scenario. There are a lot of them, both on the protagonist and antagonist side. None of them have distinctly interesting personalities or motivations sans Mu, and the sheer amount means that we have to juggle a bunch of largely uninteresting characters, several of whom don't get explored in interesting ways. Even the ones that do such as Mifune, are not very memorable despite their intriguing dilemmas and breakdowns. The protagonist (Ritsu) is the second closest thing to a real character, and aside from him enthusiastically getting into psychology and sociology terminology whilst presenting them to the characters and audience, there isn't really much to him either. Even seemingly important side/characters take forever to even be introduced beyond what the opening and closing credits show us. I guess it makes it hard to write them inconsistently, as most of them are more like vessels with singular, often abandoned traits. Good writing that does make, and even with the one good character they have, its counterbalanced brutally towards the end with a certain twist villain who’s basically Seryuu from Akame ga Kill.
The dialogue is also sometimes clumsy enough to remind me that the person writing the story with the message likely hasn't entirely escaped the damages a sheltered or escaped reality has on one’s writing, perception of real people, and how they talk. Perhaps some time to iron things out and spend time with these characters experiencing the type of pain and escapism integral to their stories would make them a bit more interesting. Then again, the show is so blunt, even hamfisted about its messages that it almost hurts despite how good they are to hear, and how plentiful the themes used for it are.
Studio Satelight had about as much trouble as the writing, it seems. The character designs -sans Mu- are all a tad awkward and it feels like they had to limit the animation for the sake of keeping the sharp yet awkward (and incredibly pale) character models perfectly in check. Flashbacks galore and some occasionally jarring CGI only worsen the deal, especially when the presentation makes odd decisions like occasionally reducing characters to white or other colored silhouettes, or having them not move during their walking animations sometimes. The fight scenes are pretty terrible too, with Akame ga Kill sound effects and jank as hell animation, when there is any. It all temporarily comes crashing down in the finale -along with the writing-. Shame given that the directing and presentation by Junichi Wada makes several sequences engaging, using static to really sell how off things feel, while constantly showing different visual perspectives and changing up the lighting and colors when things go insane. It's like the direction is doing its damndest to obfuscate the terrible production and only barely succeeding. The visuals for the opening are pretty captivating though, with a more unique filter and overall darker and more mind-bending style.
Speaking of the opening, "Paradigm Box" by Ritsu Shikishima (Chiharu Sawashiro), Shougo Satake (Shunsuke Takeuchi), is one of the better openings of the season, with nice vocals and a somewhat unique feel in places (notably right before the chorus). The ending theme "HYPNO" by Kotono Kashiwaba (Rie Murakawa), Naruko Morita (Ari Ozawa), Mifue Shinohara (Rie Takahashi), Suzuna Kagura (Minami Tanaka) is also a worthwhile listen, even if it feels like forcing it to be 90 seconds stretches it. The vocal tracks performed by Mu are even more fun to listen to, and the lyrics are pretty good at reflecting the overall themes of each song that relate to the show (as well as the RPG game the show adapts). Sure, some get replayed quite often, and the rest of the OST is mostly just decent with the exception of the track "The Fairy of Dreams", but that doesn't stop me from listening to this OST on my own time.
It’s a shame this show isn't as well-received or as great as it could be, since its messages are beneficial, even important for the anime community and Japan at large to hear. If only it was as worth the recommendation I wish to give it, as it was certainly entertaining in its madness and ideals. Regardless, it isn’t bad, so if you prefer the message to anything else, or want something out of the ordinary, perhaps this isn’t a bad choice to consider.
Nayout
Caligula is the adaptation of the videogame "The Caligula Effect" released on June 23, 2016 for Ps Vita and was released in the West by Atlus Usa in 2017. It also has a remake released a few months ago for PS4 with the name of "Overdose "including several playable improvements and even a new route as a traitor by the name of "Lucid " The story is quite simple even in the video game, where what most stood out were his characters and how they manage to overcome their insecurities to escape Mobius, all written by Tadashi Satomi, the father of Persona series. Now entering theadaptation as such, the first thing to mention is that it is not a faithful adaptation to the game, it is an original story based on the events of the game so you can see perfectly without having played the game and even responds better than the game .
Talking open about the whole plot is difficult because any type of information (like the synopsis that has MAL taken from the official page of the game) is to ruin the experience of this by the same thing it is best to enumerate as many their successes as their problems.
-It is not a series to watch without paying attention, the series is full of small details that enrich the plot and not only this, to understand many aspects of these is recommended to see twice the series, it is incredible how many details escape on ose They pay attention for not understanding it since it uses psychology as a fundamental point in these. (Ritsu explaining to Marie in the first episode, the final battle over the Johari Windows, Ritsu's clothes and how it is applied in his behavior, Episode 11 and the use of the baum test to understand his problems). The problem is often does not do well and leaves very ambiguous messages that only cause problems to understand the plot as episode 5 in which although Ritsu mentioned why the episode happens in that place, it is not a direct message.
-Many of the characters are not sufficiently developed by several problems, the first the game only develops by optional events that are outside the main plot, this makes it difficult to treat them without breaking the rhythm of the plot and not only that , without falling into a repetitive structure such as the game. The game and its plot are a succession of dungeons where each musician is hidden with some history while we have a free time to raise the affinity with our friends. This is one of the biggest problems, although he tries to present them and even present the reality of the musicians (something that does not make the game) he feels quite awkward in his execution, but the good thing is that he tries to do that at least let's know who they are and how Mobius affects them.
-The series does a better job representing the world, we present the problems that Mobius is leaving in real life and also mention that it is Mobius in itself something that the game does not either since everything presented about Astral syndrome is something original of the anime and that manages to explain in a more coherent way the narrowness of his world and does not leave the ambiguous message that the game leaves.
-The animation is another big problem but it is not something so annoying from the middle onwards (like the first episode and when they walk to the store Ramen), the good thing is that the art of the game is quite well representing and even makes works beautiful as when Ritsu communicates with U by changing the gray color palette completely or even, the faces of the characters in specific situations (Mifue's face in episode 3 or Kentaro's in the Shadow Knife episode)
Already, musically like the videogame, it is very good, since the Opening is
interpreted by the same characters and that the Ending is interpreted by the girl only reinforces the fact that Caligula focuses a lot on the details. The Insert Song represented by each theme of the musicians and even the original songs like Utopia are perfect and the value they have are mostly for the lyrics, each letter represents the personality of a musician and manages to know more about them with so just read a little of them, is something that for example other universes such as Ar tonelico apply a lot in their soundtracks, is not just music to accompany, it is music to learn and understand.
The whole plot could be difficult to understand even in the middle of the series, but an answer, even many of the problems of this chaotic story are made on purpose although sometimes they do not solve them in the best way it still makes sense. It is a series to see it without stopping, fixing on those details, reading everything. All their problems come for the characters and their development derives from an irregular structure in the video game but manages to present everyone and give them a background even if this is not the best way.
PD:The analysis is done with the mediocre English that I have.
Karhu
Caligula is what White Album 2 had looked like if it had followed its predecessor's footsteps and made its girls more obviously inanimate objects. The story of this masterpiece of nothing is a weird one. Gay man who wears a rose instead of necktie gets stuck inside imaginary idol world where he is surrounded by sad people who all share the same music taste. When their favorite band starts playing, they go berserk and try to kill everyone. The best part is how dramatic this all is. Tables flip over in slow-motion like it's Game of Thrones killing Starks. Guy fails to solve some problem inclass and everyone bullies him like failing in it is the single most embarrassing thing in existence. Girl experiences a mental breakdown at dinner when people glutton and have no table manners. Gotta wonder why everyone is so sad in this otherwise rose-colored world.
All our characters are the practically the worst and most empty version imaginable of Danganronpa 3's cast. The girls are so invisible in the series, I can't even tell them apart despite them having different hairstyles. Outside hyper active megane who someone with low standard could even argue to have a personality, and the little hand doll-sized flying loli, not a single one of them adds anything to the series. The dudes aren't much better. Everyone looks super gay, and the small bro gangs only radiate cringe. Even so, our dudes create the best moments in this series with so overdramatic, over the top facial expressions (which cover roughly 5% of the airing time) that it became the sole reason why I even bothered to finish this series.
In one way, this show is what Jojo's Bizarre Adventure would have looked like if it was made by Brainbase and every single thing about it was the polar opposite of what it is now. Perhaps this show had potential (it didn't), perhaps its source material game was better (it wasn't), but with certainty, I can say that 95% of this series is utter nonsense and there is not a single reason to care about anything that is going on.
The animation. I have but one factor to comment on. Walking. Whenever anyone walks, they don't really walk. They do look like they are walking, but they don't move forward. Moreover, the characters don't even have shadows so it looks like they are floating still in space while trying to walk. Fluid, and beyond hilarious. From the musical noise department, this show is just fantastic. Scenes where our dudeouses get scared and yell like 10 seconds straight, are comedic cold. Not even 4kids has achieved this level of believability, and we are talking about Japanese seiyuus here.
In terms of enjoyment, I laughed few times in situations where you clearly were not meant to laugh. Other than that, this show offered me nothing. The sole best part of Call Igula is how people are recommending it for the fans of Angel Beats due to their similarities and vice versa. By all means, if you are into that shit, watch this too.
dadnaya
I have to confess, the only reason I decided to watch this anime was because of two words: "µ" and "idol", I thought maybe I'd get some Love Live references here. Ha. Well anyways, Caligula was pretty much one huge mess. The concept shown to us in the sypnosis isn't so bad, and indeed the concept of being stuck in another world and trying to escape from it- isn't so bad. But as the story went on, it turned out to be a horrible mess. We barely get to know what really is happening in the series, and as the story progresses we get more twists that mademe even more confused.
Just because there are twists and psychological quotes every episode doesn't make it automatically good.
We get all the backstories dumped into us, making us "feel" the characters, but at the very least we had diversity in the characters.
Oh, and then there are the bad guys, the Musicians, who like the imaginary world but they have to kill the ones who want to escape from the current world- just because.
We've gone for 12 episodes without a clear direction, and only once in a while there was a clash between the "good" and "bad" forces, with no meaning behind.
For some reason, whenever µ sang, everybody went wild. Pretty weird concept to make the enemies "awaken"...
The OP/ED were nice.
The artstyle (on purpose?) was made to be grim, Using the colors of gray, brown and black, you can see the whole anime being "lifeless" and... unappealing.
Conclusion: This anime seemed like an advertisment for µ songs. And no, these aren't "µ's" the idol group from Love Live, but this is just "µ", the inferior idol.
5/10 Feel free to skip it.
somaisbatman
TL;DR it's bad. But if you want some convincing, here you go. I was going to ignore Caligula entirely, until I heard that Tadashi Satomi was tangentially connected to the project. Satomi is a scenario designer who used to work at Atlus. He’s responsible for Persona 1 and the Persona 2 duology, which happen to be some of my favorite games. Caligula seems to be his current project, at least Caligula the game. That’s right, this show is a video game adaptation, which is never a good sign. Anyways, this show is particularly frustrating because for a while, it straddles the line between a flawed showwith potential and a total slugfest. I had to keep watching not because I enjoyed it, but because I wanted to see if it would ever get better. It didn't...
The first episode is vaguely interesting in how off everything is. Seriously, things are just wrong. The main character says his lines and is repeatedly ignored by everyone, like he never said anything. Characters repeat lines and actions multiple times. The audio levelling is busted, with one female character in particular being significantly louder than everyone else for no apparent reason. These aren’t the signs of a totally broken show like Hand Shakers, they’re a little more subtle, and I’m still not sure whether they were intentional or not, because it would thematically make sense and these problems never show up in later episodes. Either way, the protagonist’s rose-colored high school life is a lie, he learns he’s trapped in a fake world Truman Show-style, and he tries to outrun his mysterious pursuers and figure out what’s going on. This second episode is, unfortunately, probably the best the show ever gets. It’s the only time there’s a real sense of desperation, as afterwards our protagonist forms a resistance team and everyone gains superpowers.
In order to introduce and flesh out some of the more important characters on this resistance team, unfortunately named the Go-Home Club, Caligula opts for character-specific episodes, where one character in particular meets face-to-face with one antagonist (oh yeah, there’s an entire antagonist team called the Musicians). The idea behind these episodes is to have the antagonist act out their personal philosophy, and then either have the protagonist explains why it’s wrong or have the philosophy just collapse upon itself. These episodes are where some of Caligula’s worst aspects bubble up.
Caligula has bad politics. There’s no other way to say it. And this matters a lot in a show that frames itself around philosophy and trying to be “deep”. At its core, most of the Musicians have flawed ideologies because they focus too much on self-indulgence and isolation. In action, however, this plays out in increasingly baffling ways. The first antagonist is an obese dude who didn’t take care of himself IRL, so with the powers of this virtual world, he pretends to be a cute petite girl and have dainty little tea parties. For once I’m going to ignore the potential trans subtext (the only intent seems to be to further demonize and condemn). This is such a textbook message for a show that prides itself on being interesting and philosophical. A guy is fat so he pretends that he’s not, and that’s why he’s the villain. Was this really the most pressing thing on Satoshi Tanami’s head? For reference, Persona 2 also has an arc about fat-shaming, but it goes the complete opposite route. It ties fatness to bullying and guilt, and concludes with the positive message of loving someone no matter what they look like.
The second arc is even more nonsensical. It features a shut-in antagonist convincing the protagonist to hide herself away in the library forever, and cut off all her friends. During this conversation they bond over psychoanalyzing Gollum from the Lord of the Rings. To me that doesn’t seem like isolation, that seems like making a new friend over shared interests. Watching the two get along pretty well kind of defeated the message of the episode for me.
Episode 5, however, is where the politics go from underwhelming to actively regressive. Unsurprisingly, it’s the gender politics episode. Our antagonist is a woman who runs a speed dating service: all the girls feign interest in the guys, and then take them to the bedroom, where they proceed to drain the men’s energy or brainwash them or something sinister like that (this show is surprisingly hard to follow). The gender reductionism really hits hard. Every single man in this episode is a lustful sexual beast who only wants to be stepped on by women, while every single woman is a succubus who manipulate men into these situations and suck their lives and memories away. This is a crappy generalization to make, and it only gets worse once our protagonist escapes her role as a seductress, gains free will, and challenges the antagonist to…a beauty contest. Even after gaining agency, the only way she can defeat her foe is through male worship.
The show gets bored of character episodes for a bit and starts making ensemble cast episodes after the halfway point. These are the worst ones, unbelievably slow, stupidly unfocused, and the blandest cooking in any anime. And there’s two in a row.
By now we’re in the endgame episode-wise, and yet the show is still trying to throw new minor antagonists at us? I guess that would make sense in an RPG game, but it’s nonsensical for a show to do it so nonchalantly. Even weirder is that fact that our new villain of the day is just a flat up torture-fetish murderer instead of being motivated by petty self-interest like the other villains. It’s a strange change of pace, especially when they lurch into the lighthearted that same episode to talk about how bullying isn’t okay.
Watching Caligula was an act of emotional labor. Not that it was intense and draining, instead it was so shallow and boring that it felt like a crappy day job. I had to force myself to sit down and shove these episodes into my eyelids. I don't want to do this to myself. At this point I’m phoning this review in as much as Caligula feels phoned in – a lot. Please understand.
Tadashi Saotomi, what happened to you.
DrGabe
For those who just want a quick and simple answer to the question "Should I watch this show?" I'll answer that right off the bat before expanding on it: Probably not unless you've played the game it was based on and really enjoyed it. The Caligula Effect: Overdose has the advantage in terms of pacing, story structure, and character development simply by the virtue of being a game. The story is just a bit too dense to fit comfortably into a twelve-episode anime without losing a lot of great character moments and nuance. So, if this series interests you, I'd highly recommend picking up thegame first and deciding to watch this adaptation based on whether or not you enjoyed the original.
Now, I say "adaptation," but when I watched Caligula I was quite surprised by what I got. The anime doesn't feel so much like it's trying to tell the same story as the game as it feels like the game and anime are two different interpretations of a hypothetical third source material.
It delves into the plot with a very different approach than the game does, juggling several major plot-points that occurred in linear succession in the game simultaneously. While this ensures that fans of the Caligula Effect will probably get to see their favorite moments from the game without having to abandon other, equally important parts due to time constraints, it also results in a lot of the more meaningful moments for individual characters being widdled down to their most simple parts and rushed.
Overall, the only thing that Caligula does better than The Caligula Effect was also what I expected the least: the protagonist. While a sucker for blank slate, [Insert Yourself Here] main characters in games, Shikishima Ritsu is actually a much better protagonist for this particular story than I could ever be. Unfortunately, you'll probably only appreciate how perfectly he works as the story's lead if, say it with me now, you've played the game!
In conclusion, just go buy the game instead. It's actually pretty good and the soundtrack is utterly fantastic.
WeeabooWaifu
Caligula's story line is dense and has an underlying issue with a static sense in mind. The question of "happiness" is referring to psychology the whole entirety of the anime. Yes, it has interesting perspectives but if you've never been associated with a psychology class in your life, you better get ready for some research. This is a detrimental part of the storytelling, for instance in the first episode they bring up Sigmund Freud and his school of thought and their explanation feels absurd and irrelevant until the very end of the show. However with this sense of story telling, it seamlessly envelopes you withquestions about not only your life but others as well. This anime is supposed to bend your perception on reality aiming towards ideals you experience in your everyday life. I cannot admit to this being a terrible or bad anime, because it is not. It's not the best I've watch but is undoubtedly good, simply because it is relevant to our current era of not only thinking but technology. Everyone wants to escape from how they live, hence the large amount of people that read and watch to somehow escape from external stimuli only for a limited amount of time. The Caligula Effect offers an escape that seems boundless, however machines will never be able to comprehend what happiness truly is because happiness varies person to person. That's the most beautiful part of the anime only shown by a lengthy explanation.
AnimeSpaceBR2
- Finally my review of Caligula, beginning with the story, which is simply the most incredible story I've seen in an anime this year so far; the story of Caligula is simply spectacular, with several mensanges and reflections on life, and best of all is that it is performed in a sensational way, with some moments of tension and excellent emotional moments or just dialogues between the characters; is very interesting how the anime can make you reflect on life only with a dialogue between two characters; without doubt the history is the strongest point of Caligula. - Now about the technical part, unfortunately is notthe best, it is a very simple technical part, nothing that stands out, neither in its animation nor even in its visual; now what really stands out in the series is the soundtrack that is simply magnificent, perfectly matching the proposal of the work; another thing that deserves attention is his direction that did a sensational job, especially if we take into account that it is an adaptation of a game, in short, the direction is simply excellent.
- About the cast of characters, which is the weakest point of the work, not that the characters are bad, far from it, but certainly could have been better developed and could also be more charismatic; in general, the cast I rate as Ok.
- Conclusion, Caligula is simply my sci-fi anime / favorite action of this year so far, the anime has a simple but functional technical part, an Ok cast, an excellent direction along with a great soundtrack, however what really stands out in Caligula is its story that is absurdly deep and interesting, possessing diverse messages and reflections on the life, undoubtedly one of the most interesting stories that I have seen in an anime; I certainly recommend Caligula to everyone, a really great anime !! 💜😍🌹 !!
- My favorite song by Caligula 🌸 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xQA5LtRAew
- My page about animes on facebook 🌹 : https://www.facebook.com/pg/AnimeSpaceBR.050/posts/?ref=page_internal
💜😉🌺 !!
Religate
This anime is a mess, but a good mess at that. The anime is based on the video game The Caligula Effect, which was directed by a member of the Japaneses rock group, The Oral Cigarettes, Takuya Yamanaka. The story very confusing from start to finish, there are a lot of loopholes, and a few plot twist which didn't really fell like they were needed. 8/10 The art of Caligula was very good in my opinion, both the colors and the art style looks great. Although the last few episodes fell kind of rushed, and therefore doesn't look so great until the last bit of episode12. 9/10
The sound and music of Caligula is my favorite part of the entire anime, the opening, the ending and the ost were incredible well done, especially the songs made by µ. I find myself listening the music on a daily basis. 10/10
The character development seem a bit weak, they include a cast of 16 characters that all need some backstory, which just made them seem rushed and overall kinda blank, the only character development I like are for Ritsu and Shougo, and that's because they are the protagonists, so they get all the time they need to explain the characters. 7/10
After the first few episodes of confusion, i finally got to understand the plot a bit, and it made me really like this anime more and more, waiting every week for a new episode. 9/10
My overall thought of this anime is that it's one of the best animes from this season, this easily makes it into my top 10 favorites of all time, and I would overall give this anime a 9/10.
ReyvinHill
This is a review of the anime only. I have not read the manga. Like a lot of the single season anime the past couple years, this lacked that punch that makes it memorable and makes me fall in love with the characters. This was another series where I didn't get attached to anyone. That used to be rare. What I liked about it: 1. It was pretty. 2. It started off with a lot of mystery and action. 3. The issues the characters had were relatable.What I didn't like about it:
1. I never got attached to any of the characters.
2. It got melodramatic and whiny.
3. The ending felt lackluster even though it wrapped everything up.
4. There was not a single moment that pulled an emotional reaction from me.
This anime had enough mystery and interesting characters to get me over halfway through it before I started to lose interest but by then I felt committed and wanted to find out the truth of things so I finished it.
This is a story that is better understood and appreciated if the viewer has a good understanding of Japanese culture and the pressures and expectations on the people within it. Even with that, it gets melodramatic and whiny. The story here really is one of self-discovery and coming to terms with yourself, what you can and can't accept, what you can and can't forgive - in yourself and others. It's not my thing, honestly. I would have liked it better if it was more straightforward and less existential.
It becomes apparent fairly quickly that the characters aren't individuals as much as archetypes of people in the world. This makes it difficult to get attached to them. They're exaggerations and become more and more so as the anime progresses. I was disappointed, to be honest. The one character that was truly interesting, Shougo, became a quivering mess by the end for no real reason that I could discern and that really turned me off. Other characters did 180s as well with no build up or lead into the change so it was just ... whaaaaaa? None of them were complex enough to get attached to, but I'm not sure we were really supposed to.
The singing got really repetitive and distracting. Having the subtitles for the song in the background and the speaking in the foreground was a lot to try to process. I also didn't like her voice.
Overall, this was an okay anime, somewhat disappointing, mostly because of the expectations I had of the story and the characters from the early episodes. I don't feel cheated out of my time but I don't feel it was the best use of my time either.
Mushroomhoues
So, you want to study psychology? Well, here’s an anime that’s yet you do nothing but watch a guy go on about it for the entire first part of the series! The main character, as it is very apparent in the first episode, is a fanatic for philosophical theories, concepts, and debates. The problem, however, is that the first few episodes are all a bait. This isn’t what you were expecting, and now the whole show flipped and turned into a fighting anime. -Minor spoilers below the line. Nothing big and mostly a couple of dialogue references. And a reference to a scene here or there.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, I watched the first episode, began to understand what kind of anime Caligula was, and thought “hey, this might be a bit interesting.” But then, the twist happened. Now, in a lot of first episodes, twists are methods of hooking the viewer, defining the genre of that anime, and overall attracting attention to the series through surprise and delight. It was used and executed well in “Gakkou Gurashi,” “Sankarea,” “Space Dandy,” and a couple of others. However, there are occasions where an anime utilizes a twist in the wrong way, leading to the alienation, confusion, or complete disinterest of the viewer. This show dipped into both the good aspects and the bad of plot twists. For one, it certainly surprised me, as I thought it would be another high school anime, but it also left me confused and semi-disinterested. I didn’t expect it to be an isekai battle anime (yes, by definition, this counts as an isekai anime) with superpowers. I also didn’t want it to be an isekai battle anime. By including tons and tons of philosophical ideas, it attracted a more tranquil, patient audience and turned away the shounen battle freaks through its focus on dialogue and not action. However, the complete gear shift from profound thoughts to punch-outs then alienated the audience it had appealed to in its first three episodes. In fact, after episode 3 or 4 (I can’t remember) the heavy focus on psychologic philosophy disappeared, and all that was left were a couple of references spread out in the following 8 episodes.
If battle type anime are your cup of tea though, have at it. The show is basically misfits of the real world desperately trying to return to that world which cast them aside. This review is simply my opinion of the show, and in from my POV, it was borderline decent. There’s nothing else I feel like writing out in a paragraph, so here’s a pro/con list:
Pros:
1.The songs are nice.
2.There a one really cool looking fight scene that I won’t forget.
3.The artistic expression of µ was beautiful.
4.µ behaved like an actual open-learning AI, giving off a slight sense of realism.
Cons:
1.CG characters as background characters.
2.Half the battles are the protagonists shouting “I wanna go home.”
3.They overly villainize the so-called villians, even though the show is based on expressing that everyone was a victim of society.
4.There is no explanation for the chibi character. “I am similar to µ” is the only explanation we get, and her whole presence feels out of place.
5.A lack of explanation as a whole for certain scenes and occurrences. Leaves the viewer often confused.
And if you wanted one of those summary lists that everyone does, here it is:
•Music: 7
•Characters: 3-7 (depending on the character)
•Art: 6
•Plot: 5
•Enjoyment: borderline 6
•Overall: 6
EXStephen
Now this was a genuinely surprising anime for me. From the very beginning, something about Caligula had me hooked. It’s not that I found it to be amazing or anything, but I found it infinitely interesting. I was excited to see what would happen with each passing week. Thankfully, that feeling stayed with me until the very end. Caligula is far from an amazing anime, but I’ll be damned if I say I was invested in it. The main premise alone interests me enough to look forward to how things will play out. An AI program creates this digital world where everyone is happy becauseit provides those that are trapped inside with whatever they want. The AI lets me run away from their grievances of reality to live this false world. There are people who are fully content with living out these glorified versions of their perfect world and perfect selves, but the main cast all want to escape. They all had their reasons for coming into the false world known as Mobius and the anime does an amazing job of slowly building that up and revealing it. We get to see this cast full of flawed individuals actively go against a world that fixes their flaws for them. While the anime doesn’t give as much focus to each and every character, it gets the basics of their personality and history across enough for you to understand their reasonings. Caligula relies heavily on these characters, how they act, and what they’ve been through. It also relies on the dialogue and interactions between all of these differing characters. This anime had some AMAZING dialogue exchanging between people of opposing viewpoints. While the story itself is a bit hard to follow at first, the writing is consistently good. The action scenes weren’t anything impressive, sadly. If the anime gave more focus to some of the cast and had amazing action sequences, this would’ve been an easy 9 out of 10 for me. The anime is a bit too ambitious with how it goes about presenting certain plot points, so the story can feel as if it’s progressing too fast or too slow at times. Some things aren’t explained very well. Despite all of that, Caligula still managed to make me get invested into the plot and the cast. There are plenty of insert songs in each episode that serve as wonderful background songs. The animation also looked really good at times, nothing special at others. This was a surprising gem of the season that I honestly wouldn’t mind watching again in the future. It’s based off of a JRPG, so maybe that’s worth looking into...
Unconfidence
This is an anime which delved into some really interesting concepts and plot points, but in the end failed to truly explore the depth they had available. I'm a huge fan of vocaloids, so the plot premise hooked me instantly. However the characters were exceedingly lackluster past their visual design. I found myself struggling to keep up with the three separate white-haired bishounen, and the only female character of note was Naruko, and only because her personality was glaringly bad. They had so much room to work with using the theme of the Johari Window, but instead they just made itreally surface-depth and seemed to care more about cramming nice visuals into twelve episodes. I liked a lot of the visual sequences, especially in EP5 and 6, and I loved μ's character design throughout the show. But that couldn't save the show from itself. All around I'd recommend spending your time on another series.
zvenx
Well this show was certainly a ride am just gonna say right off that bat that if you are watching this for just the action you aren't gonna enjoy it, and it's that that holds back the show not to say it's bad the story is incredibly enjoyable however I feel at points the action in the scenes are disrupting the story but all the charters are in general understandable and likable however as the series draws to a close it gets a bit jumbled which is what also made me decide to give it an 8/10, it has a great story but at timesa bit confusing and the action is a bit off putting at times but if you want to experience an emotional and fun unique ride with some cool charters I would recommend you check this anime out.
LegendAqua
No this isn't about the crazy Roman Emperor, but a video game adaptation...and you KNOW that those three words are easily a curse in an anime adaptation. Caligula gets it's name from the "Caligula Effect", referencing the desire to see and do prohibited things, so can guess what most of the characters will go through. Caligula involves around Mobius, a perfect digital world run by μ, a virtual idol program that gained self awareness and has given the wishes to the humans in the digital world to quell their suffering. However a group of rebels break free and see what Mobius truly is and tries to getout it.
Caligula is by the by, a character-focused anime about these group of rebels and their sufferings in the real world while they try to get out of Mobius while having to deal with the "Musicians", guardians of u who ALL have some link to each of the main cast. LA didn't really mind the character-focused episodes all that much as again, it makes sense in terms of the title and what the motif of this anime is and it does it well.....for the most part.
In terms of characters, the majority of the main cast and "Musicians" gets something of a joint character development together as the main cast gains their new powers brought by Aria voiced by Asami Shimoda to be able to fight the Musicians and in the process we see some similarities to each of the main cast and the Musicians' reasoning of staying or wanting go to the real world. The problem for LA is the pacing of it and sure LA can easily say this but Caligula DOES have this problem as although LA gets the formula of "action-packed episode then a breather" makes sense, some scenarios however do not, mainly that one episode where they essentially talked about their backstory, some we KNOW in full detail about but regurgitated again for the sake of filler.
The battles are decent enough though it's mostly white noise most of the time as it's a more verbal and narrative focus plot for most of the characters, the action is fine, but with all the excessive battling and the such you kinda get numb to it, not to mention Mobius itself making many of the destruction moot at times.
Back to characters and oddly enough for such a character-focused narrative, LA didn't exactly feel investment in the majority of the characters and no it's not because most of the cast are terrible or done terrible things in the real world, LA just couldn't get invested period. There was only TWO characters LA liked and they were Naruko Morita voiced by Ari Ozawa and Aria. Not even the character LA was more relatable to (that being Suzuna Kagura voiced by Minami Tanaka) didn't make LA budge. Really LA just couldn't get invested in these characters to the point of not remembering their names cept maybe the main character. On speaking of him, yes it makes sense that Ritsu Shikishima voiced by Chiharu Sawashiro has a stake in the plot and has something to do with μ, but most of the other characters carry him throughout the anime that even he himself who is SUPPOSE to be the main character is being utterly carried by the supporting cast members of his own anime.
In terms of animation by Satelight, was decent for the most part from the back grounding and character designs as well as decent battle animation but all things considered, Caligula's animation was par for the course but not much else in LA's opinions, it wasn't greatly detailed nor was it a error-filled production, but LA will say the animation was just "meh" all round, and this is Satelight we're talking about, they give flourishes and crazy amount colorful detail and adrenaline fueled battles but Caligula is definitely NOT that.
In terms of voice acting, well LA was just a bit lackluster with it all round, not too annoying like Asami Shimoda as Aria nor too hammy like from Shougo Satake's voice actor Shunsuke Takeuchi. Even with some actually hammy performances from the Musicians at times especially from Emi Nitta as Sweet-P, Souma Saito as Ike-P and Yuka Ootsubo as Thorn...it was "ok". The only decent voice actor LA got from Caligula would have been from Reina Ueda as μ. Voice acting department was a bit lackluster but also nothing to write home about unfortunately even with the hammy performances we get.
Caligula though LA has been harsh about it's characters, the plot especially concerning the world building and nature of μ and Mobius itself by the end of it made ALOT of sense and along with the themes of the Caligula Effect just clicked and made sense in terms of the plot.
Caligula for LA falls into the basic trap of not having enough drive or flourish to of kept LA interested, sure at times it did and it conveyed the themes of the "Caligula Effect" to it's characters pretty well, but overall Caligula easily feel to the wayside for just not having LA's investment in the plot and especially it's characters and LA WANTED to get invested in these characters, it was like the anime adaptation had no drive and was basically on autopilot on it's character developments and expected the crazy amounts of white noise destruction and fighting to make up for it, when it just didn't need to, especially considering this is a character-focused narrative and it felt like even then it threw all that away for cheap sentimental fights that amounted to...not that much.
LA won't say that Caligula's anime adaptation goes into the "horrible video game adaptation" bin at all, LA just felt like Caligula was misguided in it's attempts to get us invested and it at least TRIED to do something with it's plot and characters just not that greatly executed was all. LA thinks the best way to sum up Caligula's overall verdict is the typical saying of Caligula, "LA isn't angry at you, but disappointed".
Narumeh
If you are wondering as to keep watching it, or if it'll be interesting enough, just give it a try. It's based on the JRPG developed by Aquria. Story was written by Tadashi Satomi, the same guy that has written the scenario for Digital Devil Saga and Persona 2. Story is the best part of the game, along with the astounding OST, so you'll sure be entertained or not , if you'll decide to watch it. For the confusing part....the whole episode I don't know how to put this but the anime have majority of things you don't understand which is too complicatedto me or more like the plot is being more scrambled.
HENCE, The series is confusing but you'll understand enough the plot (if you want to re-watch it). I was expecting more actions but meh kinda not satisfying for me. But overall Love the characters, designs, their caligula effects on every character is dope. Not to mention I absolutely love psychology so I might be a lil biased but oh well it defines happiness to me so yeah a fair series to me.
JiangHaoyi1979
Another cyberpunk genre anime has ended, and as much as it annoys me , it has that same vibe of SAO Alternative Gun Gale, where people finds escape from the reality of life into the virtual world, except in SAO the character can go offline, while in Caligula the characters were trapped in what can be called as Astral Syndrome that was created by some company who were responsible for creating Mobius. Now , the story was very good since it wasn't always that we get to see a story plot where a group of rogues, aka Go Home Club members wanted to go backto the real world and face the reality of life rather than running away from it, were it's either that they realize that the virtual world of Mobius was fake and that they were unwilling participant or they're tired of all that rewind since they always find themselves repeating the same high school life that there is no excitement anymore and they'd be better off going back to the real world. Either way such story plot does provide some kind of uniqueness, where them Rogues weren't just gonna be allowed to go back without the Musicians who acts as some kind of corrections offices who will prevent them from escaping so, watching this can be compared to the movie "Escape Plan 2" where it stars Sylvester Stallone and Dave Batista. As for the art, the school uniform may have the same color style, like Grey Coat , white shirt and black trousers for boys and skirts for girls, but that's not always the case, as usual illustrator would alter the styles of the characters uniform design according tho their personality, like that of Suzana's pencil cut long skirt with a slit on the side indicating her reserve character, Naruko's plaint skirt that indicated her bubbly personality, but then again the differences as to how the character wore their uniform really does matched their characteristic to the tee, but unfortunately there were a lot uf over the knee type of stocking around here. For the sound, I really don't give a shit about the characters voices but I do like the closing theme "Hypno" which was sung by them girls of the Go Home Club and the opening theme "Paradime Box" which was sung by Sawashiro Chiharu and Takeguchi Shunsuke, when it come to the character, I was taken a back when the casts' true identity in the real world were revealed, like Satake Shougo who was already in his 30's, Tomoe Kotaro who is the youngest in his early teen, Kawashiba Kotono who is a single mom in real life amd the one who has given this anime it climatic impact was the Ritsu Shikishima... who we thought at first he has abandoned his fellow Go Home Club when we see him waking up from his home, but it turns out that he isn't Ritsu Shikishima and the real one was actually a loner who has difficulty of interacting with his workmates, who is the main guy who has created Mu and Aria and the very guy (I Think), who has cause the Astral Syndrome and quite frankly the character who we thought we knew , has some thing unexpected and that has add to some excitement, so here's my take on this.
Story-Very good 8: like I've said it was the fact that the story plot about a group of people wanting to go back to the real world was something else.
Art-Good 7: since the style as to how each character wore his school uniform matches their personality , but , there were too many over the knee stocking around, also underware service was only on Sweet P.
Sound- Very Good 8: For the closing theme Hypno and Paradigm Box the opening.
"Aihan suru kanjou wo sutete shimaitai yo
gensou ga shinshoku shiteku bokura no kokoro wo
unmei no shinfonii kanaderareta senritsu yo
kasou sekai no yoru wo koete narihibike!"
Character- Very good 8: I maybe pisssed about the deception about the characers whom we thought we already knew, but an unexpected comes when we thought we knew them. Like Ritsu who we thought is that one who we thought to be was not who we expect. And Marie Mizuguchi was we thought is sweet but is actually a crazy yandere unabomber bitch.
Enjoyment- Good 7: It was exciting, but the fact as to how this astral syndrome came to be was confusing. Also, why did Ritsu refer to Aria as Mu.
Overall-Very Good 8: This is one anime that I can say that is better than a game, cu'z it has a very good clean ending. So feel free to watch it.
Pineapple154
This anime was an emotional rollercoaster from the start. I've been confused, scared, amused, in pain and grieved with the characters and now that I've seen the last episode I'm not sure how to feel. Caligula makes you think about your own life and what happiness is to you. The first 4 episodes are confusing but if you continue watching you're rewarded with something good. The characters aren't really introduced until episode 10 of this (I think) and after they introduce themselves so much falls into place that had you confused at first, even though they give you some glimpses before. I would still saythis anime needs Trigger warnings for literally everything except SA, which is why I chose "mixed feelings" for this.
EdensBallad
This review will contain mild spoilers and it's a little long, so beware. As you all may have already guessed, Caligula is an anime based off the JRPG with a similar title: The Caligula Effect. I don't recommend looking up the reviews for the game, since most of them call it a "Persona ripoff" when, after playing the game myself and watching the anime, they really aren't comparable at all. The only similarities are the "power of friendship" theme, the main cast are high schoolers, and the gain powers from getting in touch with their inner emotions, all of which are nothing new in a JRPGand has been done plenty of times before AND after Persona came along.
While I wouldn't say that this is the best anime I've ever seen (far from it), it was definitely enjoyable. It has strong philosophical elements and psychological themes that may seem head-scratching at first glance, but it starts to make sense as the episodes move along.
Unfortunately, as we reach the end of the anime, it starts to bring up more questions than it answers, and it becomes very obvious that because this anime is only 12 episodes, they REALLY had to try and cram as much information as they could in the last half. The animation quality and story quality suffered immensely, too, since it shafted most of the characters' development and they had to pull an Evangelion to fully flesh out their characters-- by that, I mean they had an entire episode dedicated to everyone just talking about their traumas.
It becomes far more evident that they were on a time crunch in the second half because the philosophical elements it had in the beginning become far more heavy-handed. On top of that, many events happen that aren't clearly explained: How did Ritsu get back to the real world? Why did certain characters get powers despite not being shown going through a catharsis? What were Kage-P's motivations for joining? How do the Musicians maintain Mobius and why weren't they too concerned with trying to stop Mu's breakdown if they love Mobius so much? How exactly DO the Musicians maintain Mobius? Where do they get their powers? What makes them Musicians? What was Marie's reason for betraying everyone? How did Shogo survive, while it doesn't seem like Thorn did? What happened to Ritsu's supposed coworker? How did Aria get all of her powers back? Why didn't Aria even try to stop Mu if she supposedly got her powers back?
There's a lot of questions that are left unanswered and a lot of inconsistencies, but what it DID do right is the music. The story is enjoyable, too, and really not difficult to follow: Mobius is a world created by Mu where everyone can be happy, a group of teenagers in it realize they've been stuck in Mobius for god knows how long and they want to get out, but Mu and the Musicians don't want them to because they have everything they want in Mobius. It's very cut and dry and while it has complicated elements, it's not as hard to follow as people think. While the anime is definitely not the greatest game-to-anime adaption out there, it's at least decent in the sense that it outlines the game's basic plot fairly well.
I feel like if this anime was just a few episodes longer, it could have fleshed out its characters much better and had better writing, but for what it COULD work with in 12 episodes, it was ok. Not great, not fantastic, but not terrible, either.
