The "Labyrinth" is an expansive space deep underground where humans live in clusters known as "colonies." Over the years, the surface has become a distant memory—even perhaps only a fantasy to those who have never experienced its wonders.
Making sure humanity survives the harsh conditions of the underground, a colony's citizens can take on a variety of specialized jobs. These include "Workers," who mine precious ore to fuel the colonies, and "Markers," who journey into the Labyrinth's surprisingly lush environment to bring back information that eases navigation. However, humanity also faces a threat to its existence—creatures called "kaijuu" whose sizes range from that of a small child to an enormous building, and are hostile to any human they see. Moreover, kaijuu that are large enough can force their way into the colonies, further increasing their threat level.
Memenpu is a nine-year-old college graduate whose inventions have greatly benefitted the Workers in her local colony. Recently, however, she has been dreaming of a place with a neverending ceiling not bound by bedrock. These aspirations fuel her desire to become a Marker and explore the Labyrinth's vast unknown in search of such a fantastical place. Despite her father Gagumber's vehement disagreement, a certain incident with the kaijuu jumpstarts a dangerous yet exciting adventure that will surely alter humanity's course forever.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
Stark700
Sakugan, is sort of an anomaly, as in the type of show that takes off on an unique adventure in a science fiction realm. It's also unique in that the anime is based from a story contest novel that ultimately became what we see today. From the science fiction category, Sakugan is really something an underrated gem I don't see people talk about much this year. At first glance, the premise doesn't sound too special and seems like something anyone could come up with. A science fiction adventure usually depends on characters that are worth investing into and an imaginative setting. Memenpu and Gagumber are twocharacters that exmplify the daughter-father relationship in fictional stories. Both of them clearly cares for each other but aren't always on the same page. For someone her age, Memenpu has big dreams and is eager to prove herself. Meanwhile, Gagumber tries to prevent his daugher from taking risks that jeopardizes her life. And to make matters more complicated, he himself often gets on the wrong side of the law. Watching their adventure no doubt brings plenty of drama.
With 12 episodes, Sakugan chronicles its science fiction adventure by showcasing the skills of Memenpu. Trust me, she is a lot smart than she looks. Being able to repair complex machines and piloting a giant mech, you should know that Memenpu is what people call a child prodigy. She still has her childlike traits but displays characteristics far above her age. My impression is that there's lots of untapped potential about Memenpu. Watching Gagumber is a different story, as he seems like a womanizer and often getting into trouble. For instance, he managed to find himself being in debt to the thief Zackletu. And that's not all, he also gets into trouble with the law dealing with gangs, gambling, and other sheneingans. At some point in the story, I think viewers should just accept Gagumber for his behavior. He's not exactly a role model father.
For Sakugan to succeed, it definitely need a supporting cast that appeals to an audience. I will admit that the cast can be somewhat of a hit or a miss. Yuri, for instance, is a leader of orphans with hacking skills. Similar to Gagumber, he runs into trouble with the law. But through his interactions with him, Yuri takes on a more relevant role in he show and provide invaluable skills as a hacker. Other characters such as Lynda, Rufus, among others feel less relevant because honestly, it's more of the main cast carrying the show. However, the familial relationship between Memenpu and Gagumber is a major selling point. The anime takes every chance to highlight their relationship and does its best work at capturing their chemistry.
Story presence of Sakugan remains somewhat scattered with each episode. The first half of the show mainly focuses on their adventure but these episodes are standalones, almost like a monster-of-the-week format. The second half's pacing picks up more that focuses on character relationships. It also throws in a otherwordly episode full of peculiar comedy if your stomach is up for it. To be honest, Sakugan's story structure definitely needed more work as it does feel directionless at times. But, it makes it up for the overall sci-fi themes and main character relationships.
Studio Satelight is known for their range of sci-fi works so having them helm the show's production makes sense on a technical level. And because it features an adventure, it's important for the anime to take advantage of its world building. On paper, the worlds and places our main characters journey across doesn't look very complex. But upon a closer look, it's shown that Sakugan is able to define the imaginary creativity of the creators. Indeed, we see corruption and dystopian-like themes spread across their journey and and the art style makes the magic happen. Character designs are also influenced by their personalities such as Memenpu's tactical mind or Zackletu's mischievousness. Nonetheless, I urge viewers to watch the show with an open mind because at the end of the day, Sakugan rides as the sci-fi adventure it wants to be.
KANLen09
In order to understand what Sakugan: Labyrinth Marker a.k.a Sacks&Guns!! is all about, we need to know the origin story of how it's all conceived: Project ANIMA. This is a large-scale project in which DeNA's MangaBox, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, Sotsu Co. Ltd., and MBS (Mainichi Broadcasting System) jointly produce 3 original TV anime series made respectively by studios Satelight, J.C.Staff and Doga Kobo, written by the general public in 3 categories: Science-Fiction/Robot, Alternate World/Fantasy and Kids/Game (you can see the respective studio-genre correlation) that's judged by the various Project ANIMA teams, to help discover hidden talent and help propel the anime industry forward. This is thefirst of 3 Project ANIMA works, and is an adaptation of Nekotarou Inui's Sakugan Labyrinth Marker novel which clinched the runner-up in the "Science-Fiction/Robot" category. Please note that this novel didn't win a grand prize, and in there so, the anime itself, if I was a judge on the team itself, I would have also given this work a runner-up position, because it had a very good concept but the execution is just so-so.
Sakugan's story and plot would be best if you read the extensive synopsis done by the brillant folks of the MAL Rewrite team, but the takeaway is this: it's a father and daughter's journey through an uncharted and hostile underground labyrinth, combining a gritty science-fiction setting, utilitarian yet charming mech designs, and a deeply human tale of love, loss, and family. And that's the case of father-and-daughter protagonist duo Gagamber and Memenpu crossing distant land as "Markers" to explore the deep regions of the Labyrinth, and avoiding the Kaiju creatures which are big enough to put entire colonies on a high alert level because of their destructive capabilities. The case of the 9-year-old daughter Memempu that's a college graduate and a smart aleck all in one, a dream of a place that's unexplored fuels the desire to become a "Marker" to go down to the Labyrinth's vast places and colonies yet discovered to reach to that dream place, that despite her father Gagumber's constant disagreements, starts the journey of a lifetime that will chart new territory and an adventure that will change the course of humanity forever. And no doubt, when you see Sakugan and the environment that it encases, it gives a very similar vibe to both Made In Abyss (for the adventure and emotions) and Deca-Dence (for everything else from world-bulding to characters). I was stoked because I loved both Made In Abyss and even more so highly for Deca-Dence (because it's been only a year since it ended), and Sakugan got the concept right from the get-go.
The characters, as much as the original novel is trying to be ambitious, is the only sin of the entire series of just trying to give some appeal to us the audience to enjoy, but coming up a bit short. Starting off with the father-daugher duo, I have no qualms with trying to make the 9-year-old Memempu sound like she's earned a PhD in every single thing that their underground home colony of Pinyin has to offer. But I'd at least like to expect that Memempu would at the very least present a humble heart like Deca-Dence's Natsume, that despite all the bickering back and forth, she would be able to suck up her ego and not be complacent, even if it feels like she needs to rebel against an adult when it feels right that's depending on the situation at hand. But this kinda obnoxious character is heavily implied because of her tulminous relationship with her father Gagumber. Gagumber is no doubt being very protective of Memempu, seeing that her expanding knowledge will fill her head to more dangerous territory, much more so when it comes time to fill in the position of the "Marker" that unlike Deca-Dence's Kaburagi whom is able to discern what's appropriate and not, Gagumber just is hard-headed and untrusting of his own daughter if it came to the crunch and concern about life and death issues. Talk about a bickering family relationship that had the unintended effect of crossing the threshold of tolerance and being bearable, that sometimes can come off as being toxic. Also, Gagumber being known as "Gale-Force Gagumber" because he has a chip implanted in him with the illegal "Gale" function that acts as a speed boost at the cost of his nerve damage, that section I feel would've best be left out because it wasn't really chimed in much except when there's trouble and action looming.
The other characters are all walking plot devices and nothing more, which when I look back at Gagumber and Memempu's erratic family relationship, are only meant to serve to the delicacy of repairing the strained relationship between father and daughter. The closest being the new-found outcasts of Zackletu and Yuri: the former is a thief whom has a ransom on her head, saves Gagumber from his usual debt problems, and is the younger sister of his now-deceased former partner, which the former abandoned and left him to die from the Kaiju attacks, hindering his behaviour and regressing into a reckless attitude that caused him to retire being a "Marker". The latter is a hacker with his group of orphans being shunned from the eyes of his own colony, whom Gagumber managed to sever their relations due to the amount of corruption that's rampant. The most obtuse character of them all belongs to Merooro: an agent of the Bureau of Regulation to maintain law and order, and someone whom is the equivalent of a preservationist to protect the "nature" of the underground Labyrinth. The best example of a plot device character would fall to Lynda, Memempu's friend and "partner" whom's a fellow Marker as well as an acting older sister, only to be killed in action for Memempu to prove her case why she should be a Marker. All in all, I believe that the character department could've been done better, instead of just using characters as just mere "anime feelings" to rouse some drama just for the sake of padding the source material, which referencing this back in the eyes of the general public work (as is with Nekotarou Inui), still has aways to go to properly understand how to write some good character development and establish the relative good relationship overall.
In other cases, Satelight's visuals are rather fine for what it is, being one of the few studios capable of producing lots of sci-fi fantasy mecha shows, something that is which of the studio's bread-and-butter business. The only thing worth of note is some of the more notable staff team behind Sakugan: director Junichi Wada (which directed the incredible Spring 2017 show SukaSuka), mecha designer Stanislas Brunet, Kaiju designer Shoji Kawamori, producer Takayuki Funahashi. Going off by the excellent interview done with ANN with these people, it's clear that the staff team were very ambitious with this project, and tries to do something different with what we've come to expect of the usual studio production. And truth be told, Sakugan displays that exact difference with some creative flare, and throughout its production phases, it was a constant work-in-progress so I'd fathom that Junichi Wada and his Project ANIMA team were trying out different methodologies to shape the series as a whole, and I'd think that it worked out good.
Music-wise, I have no complaints at all, but only if it felt like it sounded a bit too harsh sometimes with trying to juggle the always erratic changing atmosphere in the show. This is Kanon Amane (NOT the JAV actress, same name but different person)'s MC debut as the 9-year-old Memempu, and indeed it felt like the sound director Eriko Kimura just gave her the one sole mission: to act as a 2-in-1 child-cum-prodigy. Acting as a prodigy is easy for the highly intellectual girl, but when it comes to displaying her childlike affections, that in itself presents a challenge to portray those feelings when all is stripped away, and I think that for a first effort, the Aoi Yuuki and Rie Takahashi-admiring Kanon Amane did a pretty good and convicing job at playing as Memempu's character. The OST really though was kinda impressive as well, with the action scenes giving the Yuki Kajiura feel. Masaaki Endou of JAM Project fame helms the high-octane OP, and I didn't even realize that he was the face of the band until his voice just shoots the roof. MindaRyn though, really has made a name for herself from Kami-tachi Otoko and TenSura, and this is her 3rd theme song performance which is really the best out of the trio so far. Some pretty good work here, and probably the highlight of the show itself.
If this was the adaptation of a manga like Made In Abyss, it would not have worked out at all. Same "what if" situation if this was an original like Deca-Dence that requires you to not have expectations, then it would've missed the mark too. Either way, Sakugan really has a lot to offer, but just at the behest of it being the work of the general public, that draws the line of profession between established authors and ordinary citizens whom had ideas but just didn't know how to pull them off. Worth a watch just for the beginning, but it made sure to drag on until it loses sight of its original goal, then pull off the rollercoaster plot twist. A decent show all things considered.
deku1997
The show started off strong with an interesting premise and fell completely flat once I realized the writers don’t know what the meaning of character development is. Memempu starts tolerable, quickly turns to unbearable and stays firmly planted in that region throughout the show. Gagumber is barely any better and his dynamic with Memempu is horrendously annoying. It gets no better throughout the season. I only gave it a five because other than hating how the two of them interact the show still had some promise and hopefully season 2 shows us some massive changes to the characters. The other side characters are aight, butnobody is fantastic.
Spirit_Chaser
Sakugan feels like you could watch the first and last episode and not miss a thing because the middle was so meaningless and terrible. It showed promise as being a great emotional journey through mysterious underworlds towards a strange land, and the fun and comedic dynamic of a father daughter duo. Instead, it's silly and bland adventures and a story with not just so many things left unexplained, but meaningless villains that make strange decision that take away any kind of stakes or risks. After a strong first episode it felt like the staff gave up and the series would consistently decline after that. The worldbuilding was there, you could say, but it wasn't explored or shown as good as in the first episode as the cast didn't do much wherever they went besides blowing things up and constantly running away from authorities. A shame because I enjoyed the jazzy soundtrack glossing over the rough looking cities, but the effort to show the world of Sakugan was just suddenly dropped early on.
The animation was average, and the CGI ugly. Big Tony and the rest move in silly ways, and the kaiju's looked ugly and worse. The Lego looking CGI fights didn't help. Nearly the entire cast, the little there is, weren't enjoyable or memorable. Merooro is one of the few likeable ones, but gets reduced to a character who's appearance indicates there will be some plot this time. Constantly, the series decides to add seconds worth a plot at the end of some episodes.
Once this made it clear it was going to be episodic, I knew it wasn't going to end well because episodic anime is mostly hit or miss with their episodes. Even Legends like Dirty Pair have this issue, but it doesn't stray from the fact Kei and Yuri are some of the best and well written characters in anime, and can even carry bad episodes with their hilarious actions. Sakugan took this role, but Gagumber and Memenpu were never near this type of level of greatness.
A lot of what happens just doesn't make sense. One of the cast suddenly tries to kill another, fails, and everyone moves on like nothing happened. Someone might die and they build it up to be emotional, but it turns out everything's fine which takes the emotional meaning out of it. By the end of it, I just didn't find anything emotionally meaningful anymore.
This is a series that desperately needs a season 2 because it failed to explain or conclude anything. That's not to say I'd like for one after the bad performance of the first season. There's nothing really known about the big bad guys and nothing is revealed about what they are trying to do besides acting like mindless terrorists and obsessing over special kids. Oddly enough, when they do try explaining things, it adds more mystery rather than clearing anything up. I really would not have minded if the episodes were at least done well since the plot mostly went out the window. The comedy, that gets worse as the series goes, was really all it had going for it.
somecarrot
I felt like writing a review because I was genuinely disappointed by an anime for the first time in a long while, and while I have a lot to say, I'll *try* to keep it short. I went in expecting something Made In Abyss esque, and the first episode did perpetuate that, a world wider than you can see with mysteries you will unturn. And then... well that was kinda it. As the show progressed, you barely learned about the world and its characters. Mainly just the characters, which I found either pointless or annoying with the only exception being Gagumber. He's a genuine dudetrying his best, he's seen the world and bases his decisions on experience. He's witty, charming, and enjoyable to see on screen. It's a shame that the focus is his daughter instead.
Memenpu is a child genius... who acts like a moron. Oh, she foresaw this situation happening and did adjustments to a big mech beforehand? Pretty cool. Oh, she was incapable of putting 2 and 2 together to realize the outcomes of her actions? Real smart. She's supposed to be a child, so I guess this is excusable, but she doesn't give off the aura of a child, just a small adult who is horrible at understanding cause and effect. She's also just a huge dick to her dad for literally no reason. The most charming part of her character is when she has to repeat multiple times how smart she is to the audience. Do mal reviews do /s? I don't know, this is my first one.
There are 2 side characters later on that join the gang, being Zackletu and Yuri. Zackletu is interesting until a twist happens, the twist being she just throws a tantrum for no real reason. She doesn't do much before the twist, and not a whole lot after, which leads me to wonder why there even had to be one. Yuri is... there? His small goals are accomplished in the episode he's introduced from what I remember, and he wants to continue them on a larger scale. So he joins the main crew and completely forgets his goals, as you do. However, he did have 1 honestly hilarious scene in the last episode, and I can forgive him for that.
The main crew is between good and evil, having experiences with both sides. Let's talk about the good side first. We meet what is effectively the CIA of this world, and by the CIA, I mean one singular guy. He dumps some exposition on the characters in a board meeting, where I shit you not, Gagumber asks "why are you telling us this" and his reply is "because I want you to know what is going on in the world". Expert storytelling if I've ever seen it. Despite appearing very powerful, this CIA has no foreplanning at all. They just react to the villains.
The villains of this world make no sense. They are extremely disorganized, and not in a comedic way, more of a "how did you not fall apart within 2 months of forming". They have clearly defined goals... except those goals have literally no purpose. They won't achieve anything and the only motivation seems to be that they want to do x because x is unnatural and the world needs to be cleared of it. That gets thrown out the window however when the main villain shows "mercy". What happened to "they must not exist in this world"? Mind you, the main villains only showed up in the last couple of episodes, so I was left thinking whether the main baddy even cared about the goal. Did he show said mercy to all of his other targets? We don't know, because the anime never mentioned it.
Despite having 12 episodes, the meat and potatoes were on the first and last couple of episodes. Whatever I watched in between was a pointless slog of one-offs that led nowhere. The ending is also a cliff-hanger, implying a season 2. Do I want to watch another 12 episodes of a slice-of-life pretending to be action/adventure with 3 annoying characters and 1 good one? Not particularly. Maybe it was my fault for coming in with expectations of Made In Abyss, but the amount of squandered potential here is excruciating. I was basically writing my own story with this world in my head as just about nothing was happening on screen for half the run time.
Oh uh music and visuals are aight. I can't really complain much about it. Though I was playing sudoku on my phone through a majority of the middle section of the anime, so maybe that was just out of sight-out of mind.
HeadcanonCultist
SAKUGAN IS A COMEDY SAKUGAN IS A COMEDY I REPEAT: SAKUGAN IS A COMEDY FIRST AND FOREMOST. And a rather funny one at that. The first couple of episodes are misleading. This is not a Made in Abyss clone, it's a wacky adventure show with a distinctive "Satelight" vibe. Gagumber, Memempu, & Co. spend most of the show traveling between colonies and clowning on one another; the kaiju are largely a non-factor. Don't hate it for what it isn't. Enjoy it for what it is. Yes, the main plot is stupid. No, you aren't supposed to take it seriously. Just turn your brain off and laugh.
botaz
Characters: Let us start strong, the characters, each of them are unique, have different personalities traits and flaws. They all represent something in the world. Most of them have certain values they try to fullfill. Voice acting is great and makes them seem like real people. 9/10. Art: The art is absolutely amazing, everything look alive and the art style is great. The only flaw, but that can be said about most of Mecha animes, are mech's themselves or maybe i just don't udnerstand how they should look like. I was in love in the art and it was one of the main reason for me to watchthe anime. Fight animations aren't as good but, we don't see a lot of that.
9/10.
Sound:
The sound track is great it's not the best since it's repetetive, but over all it is enjoyable in it's moments. The voice acting is top tier, feels like characters are very much alive. The sounds of enviroment and other are also pretty good, some combat sounds could be better but there is not a lot of it.
8/10.
Story:
This is sadly the worst part of this anime, it just doesn't present the story in the right way, feels to chaotic, not logical at times, lacking some parts of it, it just feels like they tried to push to much of it in those 12 episodes and had to cut it a lot, thus we get this mess of a story that doesn't explain anything well, and feels like skips all kind of stuff. Also we get a filler episode at least i feel like it, your typical OVA episode on the unhabitted island.
So that is what's all bad about the story, what is good tho? The characters make the story itself much better with their strong presence and how great of a job voice actors did. The comedy part is pretty much in it and is the main point of what is good about the anime and what is holding it's score from falling down for me.
3/10.
Overall enjoyment and score for the anime.
For me it was enjoyable to watch but, the story was lacking, even tho the characters made up for it, in my case. It still felt good to watch, but not for the story rather what will characters do next.
Enjoyment: 8/10 Overall 7/10.
diet_koma
I like this show but I feel like it should've had more episodes, I'm not talking about a second season (even though it also needs that), I think season 1 should've been around 14-20 episodes. The first two or three episodes are well-paced and invest in Gaganber's and Memenpo's relationship as a parent and child who are complete opposites of each other. Still, by episode 6 it becomes clear this show moves too fast for the themes and ideas it presents. I do hope we get a second season but seeing as it's not too popular I kind of doubt we'll get one unless thisshow gets a sudden boom in popularity.
andiabrudan
Oy, Hollywood, you dropped this garbage on your way to the d̶u̶m̶p̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ cinema. Sakugan must be the worst anime I've seen this year, and I've seen some big stinkers. Don't let the budget fool you, this thing is the equivalent of "The Acolyte" or "Madame Web". Good for it that it came out in 2021, cause it would be thorn to shreds today. To shreds, I say. Where do I even begin with this? I guess we have to address the elephant in the room, so we'll start with the characters. - Memenpu is one of the most unlikeable protagonists I've ever seen. Arrogant, dumb, extremelyannoying and a Marry Sue to boot. I haven't seen a "Childcare" themed anime waste so much potential since Usagi Drop.
If you're expecting any heartfelt moments between father and daughter here, you're knocking at the wrong door. Memenpu will literally ruin every moment she is on screen.
There will be times where you're going to say "this is the perfect moment for some good old domestic violence". I swear the show is actively baiting that feeling out of viewers with how Memenpu is acting, but it delivers 0 slaps across the little rat's face (or gigantic forehead).
- The father, Gagumber, I nominate for worst father of the year. At least it's realistic how little he cares about Memenpu, despite the show drilling into your skull the complete opposite. Honestly, he's just there to entertain the audience and act like a plausible plot point on why Memenpu is allowed to do whatever she wants at 9 years old. He's nothing more than a pet on Memenpu's leash.
- Yuri. Who the hell even is this guy? He kind of just drops in one episode and sticks around like a pesky thistle.
- Zackletu. Ah, Zackletu. Honestly, I can't even write anything here because it would just probably be every swear word in the dictionary stringed together. The story of Zackletu isn't something that can be defined with words; it has to be experienced. Like a nausea, vertigo and migraine at the same time. The one thing I can say is that episode 8 must be the stinkiest turd ever crafted by a human mind.
The rest of the supporting characters aren't even worth mentioning as they're unidimensional and just help the story move along.
Speaking of the story, it's bland. If I had to summarize it as a food, I'd say oatmeal.
It's a shame, really. The setting almost gives you Made in Abyss vibes. And with a Father-daughter theme? *mhua* Chef's kiss. Easily could top the charts. But it's all so bland.
- There is no monster variety. The monster you see in episode 1 is the same as you'll see across the entire show.
- There is nothing to the world. We travel from city to city and most of the plot will happen within the confines of a city or another. I think there's a total of like 2-3 episodes that happen outside and even then it's bland.
- The world setting is poorly crafted. We're supposed to be underground, in a strange world, but this is literally just Earth environments with a cobblestone skyblock. You got a forest, a desert, a frozen biome, all exactly as you would expect them on the surface... just underground. Compare this to MiA where, when you hear Riko say "Whoa!" you know you're going to see something strange beyond human comprehension.
The animation is quite good. I wish we'd give this kind of budget to stories that deserve it. The CGI is, unfortunately, quite in your face. If it's a monster or a mech, it's going to be CGI. But I'll say it's not the lowest quality; maybe one or two ranks above it. The overall colors are nice and bright, the characters are all animated properly and the fight scenes would be ok if they weren't badly choreographed.
In conclusion, this anime gets Memenpu/10 points from me.
PyraXadon
I’d like to imagine that the boardroom meeting when deciding how to write this show went something along the lines of “But what if we did THIS thing too?” and the other members just shouted “Write that down! Write that down!” because it sounded like a good idea at the time. Story: In the underground world of the labyrinth exists different colonies that’re interconnected by the various tunnels that allow the people of the colonies to export goods and mingle with one another. In the colony of Pinyin lives a father and daughter named Gagamber and Memempu who help excavate the mines as a means to bothmake ends meet and contribute to the colony. But Memempu wants something more. After discovering a secret stone that might lead to a tower that she’s repeatedly seen in her dreams, Memempu tries to get her father to let her go on this journey to find this place somewhere in the labyrinth. When mysterious beasts named Kaijuu (because that’s real creative) attack the colony, Gagamber finally, after much whining from his daughter, finally lets her with him in tow go on the journey that she so desperately wants.
Marketed as a daddy/daughter journey through the underground, Sakugan feels more like a melting pot of genre ideas that in spite of the what the showrunners probably thought, really does not go together all that well. Every episode within the show’s 12 episode runtime focuses on a completely different subplot from anything that came previous to it. What this leads to is a plot that’s incredibly disjointed, and a narrative that either just bandages everything before it as a means to move on from that situation, or just forget it altogether in favor of doing this cool new thing that’s most definitely relevant to the plot.
So what do we get from this? Well, we get stories like toppling the local government, to parodies of castaway, to wanton terrorism, and the mako factory in Final Fantasy VII where we have a casual teatime because I honestly couldn’t imagine a better thing to do when you’re trying to spread the idea of environmentalism. Because of this, nothing really matters in Sakugan. Practically everything happens without much substance, and the narrative trying so hard to squeeze in little stories that have some form of relevancy ends up doing more harm than good. Complete character motivations just disappear in the blink of an eye, consequences really have no meaning at the end of the day since the characters just run from everything, and the plot to find this mysterious tower in a hidden part of the labyrinth has no narrative weight because 80% of the show completely forgets that that was the entire point of the show to begin with. It almost feels more like a starting gun to jumpstart the plot in the right way instead of anything that mattered narratively to the plot.
To the show’s credit though, I will give it the fact that it has style. Sakugan at least at face value, has a lot of rampant screaming, dumb moments, and bouts of character via constant arguing that’s oddly charming to watch. Yes the bickering can get annoying, but considering it’s the one part of the show I genuinely enjoyed because it’s a bunch of idiots travelling in this underground world, I can get behind that. Of course we could’ve had that AND a half-decent story, but I guess that’s asking for too much, huh?
So, while the amount of character bickering does make up for some of the show’s shortcomings, ultimately the story is largely disappointing because it both fails to provide a decent narrative and just has too much shit clogging its gears to keep everything running smoothly. If this was advertised as more of a colony hopping journey, I think it might’ve turned out better. But as it stands now, especially with the ending giving a non-answer to the entire conflict as a whole unless a second season happens, the story is laughably bad and at best a confusing mess of mini-plots that feel like putting a round peg in a square hole.
Characters:
I’ll get started with our titular ‘daughter’ here because god there is just so much to say about her. Memempu is a 9 year old college graduate and is regarded as a child genius. A fact that the show will routinely tell you is part of her character on account of how little everyone wants to shut up about the fact that she graduated college at a young age. Memempu is both the best and worst parts of the show, as her character borders the very fine line of being a good and competent child character while also being a terribly written character because the show always seems to want to make it seem like she’s right. I would like to believe that the initial idea that the showrunners had was to take Memempu on this journey in order to give her more of a perspective on the lives of other people in order to learn, grow, and expand her horizons in order to mature into a well-rounded person. Sakugan is not about that. Instead, the show uses Memempu to bully her shallow-minded ideals into the lives of other people, especially her father, only to prove that her way of thinking was correct all along, and Gagamber is just an old geezer who can’t understand that we have to stick it to the man, or get people to think freely. As if her privilege can be easily spread amongst everyone she encounters. It’s irritating to watch since her character consistently does this, up until the last few episodes where the show rushes her development to the point of making it feel fake and contrived. It’s not all bad though. In relation to her father’s bad habits I do find her to be the better character in that regard, but the amount of scolding and outright toxic behavior she has towards the man who’s just trying to keep her safe and learn that things aren’t always so black and white is tiring and genuinely unfun to watch simply because of how little she learns from her experiences even after being in several life or death situations and getting kidnapped like twice or thrice.
Gagamber by contrast is a much better character, but is specifically thrown out of the spotlight in favor of his daughter in spite of his drastically better character traits that should’ve been utilized more. As a previous Marker, Gagamber has past experience with travelling the labyrinth and has a history of life experiences that give him a more mature and veteran mindset in contrast to his daughter’s more closed-minded thought process. He’s cautious, always thinking about her safety, and makes sure she that learns the same lessons that he did before tragedies happen. He has some bad habits like gambling and women, but for the most part he tries to be the father figure that she needs. And what does the show do? Say to his face that he’s wrong and that Memempu’s reckless behavior is the way of the future because nothing’s going to happen unless you go at it guns blazing. Which is just an awful way to write your daddy/daughter combo, especially in regards to just how much time is dedicated to making Gagamber save his daughter and clean up after her mistakes, which is like the most obvious way of showing “I told you so” to the audience. Like for fucks sakes, use that supposedly smart brain you have for once, kid.
The other two members of their party, Zack and Yuri, are not very interesting characters because their character development/setup are for the most part about one episode each. Zack is a bounty hunter/criminal and Yuri is a hacker who wants to stick it to the man. They don’t offer that much to the show as a whole because of their lackluster traits, and really only come along for the ride in order to fill up the team and add in some specialties, whatever that may be. In truth, I think the show could’ve really done without them, and nothing of value would’ve been gained or lost.
Similarly, the sidecast is full of a bunch of one-off characters that lose relevancy rather quickly. Meroro, who’s the show’s designated bureaucrat, is probably the only notable member of the cast because he seems to show up everywhere and makes the main cast do his environmentalist work for him. And then there’s Shibito, the antagonist terrorist organization that have motives so vague that 144p makes clearer pictures than they do. Shibito hardly shows up over the course of the series, doesn’t really do anything aside from spout some random propaganda about a ‘dead world’, and just says things that have apparently have relevance in spite of the fact that none of what they’re saying has any prior connotation whatsoever. In short, a very badly written evil team that feels like they were thrown in last minute as a way to try and give the show an ultimate antagonist without doing any of the work needed in order to make them read like a proper, genuine threat.
Aesthetics:
Satelight’s work with Sakugan is honestly something I really like from a setting and creativity perspective. The underground caverns while kind of generic with the whole ‘secret world underground aesthetic’ does still look good and pleasing to the eye in spite of the show’s confusing plot. There’re a surprising amount of different setpieces in this show, ranging from the mako factory I mentioned earlier, to the various nature backgrounds in the tunnels, as well as the different colonies idolizing certain ideals in order to make up the appearance of the architecture and culture of each place that the characters visit.
Character design is also something I’m a fan of here, more for the daddy/daughter combo since we have Gagamber dressed in a mining work uniform with his daughter by comparison looking more like a scrappy mechanic that gets her hands dirty no matter the situation. It’s a nice little dynamic they have there with orderly vs. disorderly, and it works for their characters quite well.
What isn’t so nice though is the CGI that she show uses. The mechs in particular I think can be excused on account of the actions that they take flying through the air and zipping around, but the kaijuus… Man, the kaijuus do not look good. They look cheap as hell and move way clunkier than the mechs do. Which I think is a testament to how little they cared about the kaijuus seeing as they basically didn’t show up or were even a conceivable threat for a majority of the show. Which again, why is that? Did they just forget that the kaijuus were a thing?
Masaaki Endoh’s “Koukotsu Layrinth” should not slap as hard as it does. The energetic rock and style of this OP makes it one of my favorites of the shows I’ve watched this season, and for some reason hits that right tones for me for a daddy/daughter adventure. It’s a memorable piece for the me that sticks hard in my mind as something that you’d put on when driving in the car. MindaRyn’s “Shine” on the other hand hits too many generic notes for my taste, and is made worse by the fact that this song usually comes up after the show just kind of throws shit at the wall, as if we’re supposed to be happy after the absolute fuckfest of an episode finishes. By itself though, it’s ok. Not fantastic, but not bad or jarring either.
Final Thoughts:
When I started this show, I thought it was just going to be a fun mecha romp with a daddy/daughter combo. And the first episode kind of promised that with story potential that could’ve been at least a fun show to watch. What we got instead was a show that promised absolutely none of that and instead went on a rollercoaster adventure of ideas that were flung at a wall without any care or thought with how any of it all matched with one another. Stick it to the man? Sure, let’s do that. Beach episode? Sure, let’s do that. Gang violence? Sure, let’s do that. Wanton terrorism with a group that up until that point had a grand total of 3 minutes of screentime to show that they were any kind of conceivable threat? Sure, why not? Let’s do that.
Can you tell I didn’t enjoy this one? I’m a firm believer or sticking to pretty much only one cool thing in your stories because in doing so, you get the opportunity to turn that one cool thing into an overarching narrative that can engage your audience. Trying to squeeze in a cool thing every episode only makes the whole very messy, especially if you have a starting gun of an idea that just almost never shows up or has relevancy past the first episode or two. The kaijuus, any corrupt government in past colonies, any small mysteries that the characters discover, almost none of that matters because the show decided that it had already done/shown it, so there’s no reason to go back or explore it more. Because of this, the whiplash I got from watching Sakugan made me care less and less about the show and made me want to hope that it was going to end faster. And in the end, it stumbled its way into an ending that I’m sure even the showrunners don’t know if it’s the ending or not because of the cheeky shit that they pull off there.
I think if they had cut away all of the fat, focus itself back into one thing like using Shibito as the looming threat and not just arbitrarily shoehorn in stuff like the “Rainbow Children” at the very end like the revelation had any real weight, then it could’ve been a decent narrative with character, style, and motives instead of using Memempu’s desire to find the tower in her dream as an arbitrary reason to go to the next colony and fuck up things over there. Seriously. Like the millions of dollars in property damage that’s caused really doesn’t seem to matter in the long run given how often entire civilizations are destroyed in the process of Memempu and Gagamber just moseying on through town.
My resulting recommendation for this show really is to just not to consider this one as a list contender. Sakugan has far too many narrative issues that I’m willing to let slide, made even worse by the fact that Memempu’s infuriating character traits make her a less than stellar protagonist that the show infuriatingly tries to make seem indomitable in her ideals and can do no wrong. Which if I have to deal with that, as well as a revolving narrative that never stays on one idea for more than 10 minutes, then it’s not worth a watch to me.
heycoolbook
first of all, i wanna start stating the good: the art direction: i liked the mech designs, character designs, the characters that mattered really looked unic, you could telll a lot about their personalities just looking at them. And the world, seemed interesting to look at, but i prefered the outside locations rather than the cities, the cities were nice, but i feel the art direction shined more on the outside designs. the animation: it wasn't something that will knock your socks out, but it was a solid work throught out the 12 episodes. the mechs were 3D, but the nice 3D, it blended well enough with the 2Delements.
the soundtrack:
there were a couple of tracks i know i will add to my playlist that's for sure, the op and ed were meh tho (for me at least).
now, that the good it's out of the way, let me say that after the first episode i was really looking to were the history would go, but it kinda goes nowhere, there are like 4/5 episodes i think that i feel moves the plot forward, and the other episodes were self contained ones, and i don't have a problem with that, but you gotta commit to one or the other, considering that this is a 12 episodes anime, so you gotta decide if you wanna have a linear history, or an episodic one, not the two, if they were aiming to have the two, this needed 12 episodes more at least, to have a good blend of plot and characters exploring the world, and having more development, the history felt like it didn't know what wanted to do with the world and characters.
talking about the history, there were 2 episodes, that really pissed me off, i think it were episode 5 and 6, where they were traveling, then they eaten some mushrooms and got intoxicated, to which gagamba decided that the best path to the group was look for a city with a hospital, to which memepu got mad at him, for suggesting such a thing, how dare him, her father which promised they were gonna go where she wanted, but after they were looked by a doctor, and then the rest of the group proceeded to ask gagambe what was he waiting to apologize to her daughter, excuse me, apologize? apologize for what? for taking a little detour to be sure they weren't gonna die for poisoning? i know memepu it's 9, and most of the critisism toward her could be dismissed just by saying she's a kid, but come'on, at least give me a believable reason to which they're gonna get mad to eachother. yes, she was having nightmares about her father dying, and that's why she was so eager to go to the place of her dreams, just to know if that's true or not, but do you expect me to buy, that she got mad because her father wasn't going fast enough to the place of her dreams, just to know if he really dies or not? what? wouldn't you be glad that you're getting away from the place where he's supposed to die? why are you getting mad at him? poor man it's ill, and just want to see a dr, and you get mad at him because he's not going to the place where he's gonna die?
these episodes really annoyed me a lot.
and then there was the antagonist group, they were present in 3 episodes, why introduce an antogonist group, if you're not gonna make use of them? they tried to kidnap memempu once, the second time they succeded, but it was offscreen (from episode 11 to 12, felt like a lot happenned, episode 12 begins with memempu already at the hands of the enemy, i was waiting for a flashback, to explain how that happened, but nothing, i don't know if there was an episode 11.5 in the blurays, if that's the case, that's an stupid decision, if there was not such episode, then it's an akward decision to start the last episode, an make feel the expectator, that they skippped a whole episode), and then there was the antagonist group, they were present in 3 episodes, why introduce an antogonist group, if you're not gonna make use of them? they tried to kidnap memempu once, the second time they succeded, but it was offscreen (from episode 11 to 12, felt like a lot happenned, episode 12 begins with memempu already at the hands of the enemy, i was waiting for a flashback, to explain how that happened, but nothing, i don't know if there was an episode 11.5 in the blurays, if that's the case, that's an stupid decision, if there was not such episode, then it's an akward decision to start the last episode, an make feel the expectator, that they skippped a whole episode).
this anime it's weird, it had such much potential, but it went nowhere, what a shame, also gagamba, was the best character, i wish he were in a better anime.
Iceman598
I'm going to introduce you to one of the most boring anime of this season: Sakugan. But before we go into explaining what makes this anime so boring, we need to first present the positives. Already, the first episode and in particular a certain moment really hyped me. The sequel could be great, and following the fragile relationship between a father and daughter during this adventure promised drama. I also suspected the presence of "comedy" in the work in particular present in the rivalry between father and daughter which is the central element of the story. But despite its promises, from episode 2 the anime was already starting tolose its interest, the characters do every episode, things having nothing to do with the story and one wonders what is the main plot. We also follow at one point, the past of the father which I must admit was quite interesting to follow but it was the last real good moment that I spent in front of this anime.
This episode also introduces us to two new characters that are useless when this part of the story is over.
The rest of the story will only be uninteresting stories serving to increase the number of episodes, especially with the woman, a star who is being sued. The story then has nothing to do with the basic plot and we do not care. The last two episodes returned to the main plot which is to find the origin of the dream of Memempu, the girl.
I am clarifying the plot only now because at no time in the first ten episodes will it be used for anything. I am going to skip episode 11 because it is quite messy and episode 12 finally explains the truth to us that I will not spoil despite the fact that the revelation is extremely bizarre and that it is told by an unknown villain who does not 'will appear in any of the first ten episodes.
The fact that most of the episodes are useless to the plot and half of the characters are so uninteresting made me have a bad time watching this anime that I do not recommend.
4/10
Pyro81300
Y’know normally I’d start off a review sorta giving a brief talk about what the anime I’m reviewing is, but that’s the thing with Sakugan. Neither I nor the anime itself have a clear vision of what it wants to be. The things I can say that are in Sakugan are mecha, adventure, familial themes, commentary on corrupt governments, kaiju, mystery, drama, SoL, and more, but the anime itself never really keeps to one main idea and you often ask yourself “why is this even an element in the show in the first place? ⅓ of the eps might as well be filler, ⅓ aresemi related to the overall plot but feel disorganized in execution and not well paced, and the last third actually being the main plot but are still wack in execution and pace and just have some questionable writing overall.
The main story starts off with an incident that causes Gagumber to join his daughter Memenpu on an adventure to try and find this tower in her dreams. The first 3 eps are actually a pretty good start, and we get some good action and in general well done moments. Ep 4 and beyond though is when it gets worse. A lot of these middle eps are very mixed in quality. Some are one offs that maybe introduce a new character or element of worldbuilding, but really just exist only to do that. Yuri’s introduction ep is a whole “rebels against le bad government” arc in one ep, and has the worst pacing of any ep in the whole series. What about ep 8 where Zack tries to get revenge on Gagumber and even kidnaps and threatens to kill Memenpu where Gagumber has to just about kill himself to save her, but right at the end he’s immediately ok after an off screen surgery and they both just forgive Zack as if nothing serious happened? She also continues to travel with them for no real reason other than “plot reasons”, and really it felt like this should’ve happened sooner in the series. Yeah in general not at all good pacing. Ending wasn't even remotely satisfying imo.
Ok what about the themes? Well ig it has some half-baked commentary on like controlling government vs free society, protecting the environment, blah blah, it’s rushed and not done well. Oh but what about the main theme of family and a father/daughter relationship?
I’ll have to dive more into the characters for that. Characters in this show are…mostly annoying. Our main duo here feel like they never truly grow even though they have multiple chances too throughout the story. I know that’s…actually a bit realistic knowing how humans can be, but there’s a way of write that without it being annoying and also I feel like that’s not even necessarily what the show is trying to go for. So like, let's start with Memenpu here.
I don’t mind kid characters in anime. In fact the more “realistic” ones that people find annoying or even hate (e.g. the kid trio in eureka seven), I don’t really mind too much. Meme here though just doesn’t work for me. I’m supposed to believe this 9 yo child prodigy that is in college and is shown to be the “smart leader” of the group most of the time, is also this incredibly immature girl that regularly makes reckless and dangerous decisions? You’d think after maybe the first or second near death experiences she’d learn to try and listen to Gagumber a bit more and try to work with him more, but nah even on ep 10 she’s still STILL being stupid reckless.
Ok what about Gagumber? He’s not as bad as Meme, in fact if anything the anime has this weird tendency to absolutely dogpile on the guy. Like yeah sometimes it’s deserved, but a lot of time it crosses the line and just brings down my general enjoyment of the series. There are also times when he could afford to listen to Memenpu more or at least act like a proper dad, and he just doesn’t unless it’s extreme circumstances.
My main point here is that Sakugan are trying to portray these 2 as like “yeah they don’t get along too well, but they still love each other because they’re family”, but that’s not really the vibe I get. More what I see is an incredibly unhealthy, if not outright toxic relationship between these two that’s sometimes interrupted by them seemingly being close together. So no I don’t really think Sakugan handles its familial themes well either, and at worst can maybe even teach the wrong lessons.
As for the side cast, Yuri is a fairly one note anarchist teenage redditor that often does more harm than good. He’s supposed to be the comic relief, but I pretty much just found him annoying. Zack has nothing interesting to her outside of I guess being the attractive action girl, and a poorly done revenge arc that lasts one ep and goes nowhere. Merooro is…actually he’s ok. I mostly liked him, he’s funny a few times. The antags are incredibly generic terrorists that have some incredibly vague, generic goal that tbh I forgot what even was cuz it barely felt like it even mattered.
So is there anything good about Sakugan? Well I can’t really complain about the animation and music. They’re not great, but are pretty consistently good. The mecha design are nice, and cgi animation for them is goodish. Backgrounds are pretty consistently nice, and I feel like I never saw the characters go off model. Kaiju are…ok cgi I guess. VA performance is good, they do the job. The overall soundtrack is good, with a really good OP and alright ED.
Ultimately, I can’t dislike Sakugan too much. It’s sometimes good, mostly average or bad, but it’s ok overall. If anything it’s nice to have another mecha show along with the various others this season. There was an attempt here to make something good that just unfortunately got dragged down by what feels like very amateurish writing. I mean tbf the non writing parts are good enough at least. Sakugan is an average watch, but I will say 2 things if you’re interested in watching. Don’t expect a lot of mecha action, and your enjoyment of the father/daughter relationship may vary.
SanaeK10
If there's one thing I hate, it's "Read the Novel!" endings. Especially so considering this is from a competition where the winning novel would have been animated, so you'd expect at least the production committee to fully animate the damned thing. At the time of this writing, no sequel season to Sakugan has been announced, so I am gonna dock it for not bothering to end conclusively. That said, even taken as it is, ignoring all the plot elements, Sakugan is still a blast. The show is largely an episodic romp/road trip through various locales with a dad-daughter tag team plus two extra party memberswho join later on, and it is a fun time. Even the penultimate episode is set up like a regular episode of the show, and the mini adventures Gagumba and Memenpu find themselves in are always a treat.
Of course, this comes at a huge cost: Pacing. The two most plot important episodes, i.e. Zackletu's motivation and the final episode all come out of nowhere with little to no buildup and get resolved just as quickly with no future bearing on the plot. It's pretty bad when the main antagonists aren't even revealed until very late into the show. I know this is all based on some novel, but I am reviewing this show for what it is, not what it is adapting. And on that front it fails to build up its antagonists or even have them interact meaningfully with the protagonists.
Plotwise, the show is also guilty of establishing series-spanning mysteries but with zero resolution, or even a hint of resolution to any of them. The final episode throws us a bone by revealing very little about Memenpu, but again, it's all just "Read the Novel" bait with zero actual impact on the plot.
If there's one thing I love in this, it's the dialogue. The dialogue flows so well in this and no character seems out of place in terms of their speech or how they talk to other characters. It may seem like faint praise, but ho believe me it is so rare to have a show where the characters talk like actual people and not character archetypes/exposition dumps. In turn, all the characters (well baring the Shibito who get zero characterization) are very likable and exude a great charm to them. In fact, you have a few episodes where there is no action at all and everything is just reliant on the characters getting into dumb or fun situations together and yet these episodes turn out to be the most memorable in the series. The action sequences themselves are fine, but ultimately it's the characters being in them that makes you engaged in the scenes themselves.
Sakugan is hard to recommend. While its episodic nature means that the show mostly can be enjoyed without caring about its plot, the fact that it leaves so many major plot threads unresolved even by its finale leaves a very unsatisfactory taste at the end of the day.
6/10
AnimeEnjoyer420
Recommendation: An infuriating mess of a story that goes nowhere while pissing you off every step of the way with a horrendously unlikeable cast. This is the worst show that I watched in 2021. Contains spoilers for episode 1 and vague spoilers for the end of the series. Story: Genius 9 year old Memempu dreams of a tower and venturing out of her colony as a Marker, someone that explores their dangerous underground world in a mech, to find it. Her father Gagumber tries to dissuade her, but ultimately realizes he's fighting a losing battle and goes along as her partner to protect her.Whatever promise you think this idea contains, I can assure you that the show wastes it. It goes off the rails early, with Memempu's friend Lynda and her dad Walsh being incinerated by a random kaiju literally falling out of the sky and landing on them at the end of the premiere in one of the most unintentionally hilarious cheap shock deaths you'll ever see. It's clearly meant to show the viewer that this adventure is dangerous and death can come at any time, but the show fails to follow that up with any actual peril for the characters. Not a single other named character in the series dies or is really ever even in what feels like serious danger.
But that's really not the worst thing about the plot in this show. The thing that absolutely kills this series dead is the way it just spins its wheels without doing anything. The writing is embarrassingly sloppy and it actually feels unfinished in spots. Like someone wrote an outline for a script and then never actually wrote the rest of it. Lore elements like "towers" and "princesses" are introduced as mysteries and then simply never explained, not even by the end of the series. Characters are vaguely gestured at being evil but then the show just forgets to show them actually doing anything evil or explaining why they're bad There's no forward momentum to the plot, the characters just fuck around doing side quests in various nearly-identical looking colonies, which makes the adventure part of the series seem aimless and uninteresting. By the end of the series, nothing has been resolved or explained since the series wasted its entire runtime on irrelevant side stories that had nothing to do with the main plot of Memempu seeking the tower. After 10 episodes of doing nothing, it eventually drops the entire plot on you all at once in one of the most graceless infodumps imaginable, involving the characters literally sitting in a theater and watching another character give a powerpoint presentation about the main conflict that had been lightly teased a few times in earlier episodes. The final battle is resolved by Memempu crying a bunch and making the villain feel bad so he just leaves and it ends on a screen that might as well say "please buy the light novel" in all caps. It's a complete, irredeemable mess from start to finish.
Audio: The only positive thing I have to say about this entire series is that OP slaps.
Visual: It actually looks pretty good in a few spots, especially the last episode, but the lack of creativity in the writing leads to boring scenery and backgrounds, and the CGI for the mechs and kaiju ranges between "barely acceptable" and "low poly PS2 graphics".
Characters: It's pretty rare to see a show where every single major character annoys the hell out of you, but Sakugan manages the feat. The series leads, Memempu and Gagumber, spend the overwhelming majority of the series bickering with each other like children and I spent entire episodes just wanting to scream "shut the fuck up" at both of them through the screen. They are so hateable that I couldn't get emotionally invested at all in the father-daughter relationship that it tries to make the heart of the series. Memempu is a precocious and arrogant brat and Gagumber is an idiot manchild who's even less mature than his 9 year old daughter. Far from wanting to see them grow and understand each other as people, I instead wanted a falling kaiju to take them out like Lynda and Walsh so I wouldn't have to listen to their shit anymore. Zackletu and Yuri are also there, but have very little personality and contribute even less to the story, mostly getting sidelined any time there are plot developments or major scenes. Merooro is the closest thing this series has to a good character, but he appears too infrequently and the series is too invested in keeping him and the Bureau of Regulation shrouded in mystery to do anything interesting involving him. The story is bad, but the awful characters are really what elevates this from being a standard mediocre anime into one of the worst things to come out in 2021.
Vaguelyweebish
Sakugan is an example that shows that no matter how good a story's worldbuilding mixed with top-tier production values is, good characterization is the absolute base necessity for it all to mesh together. After all, stories are supposed to be about PEOPLE; but Sakugan seems more concerned with smashing together as many cool elements as possible while doing the absolute bare minimum with character writing. What's most disappointing about this series is that it had the potential to be the next mecha icon along with landmarks like Gundam and Gurren Lagann. The art and animation mixed with the jazzy, catchy soundtrack offer hours of splendor todrink in, and the mech designs are some of the most distinct and visually pleasing I've ever seen--particularly the series' unofficial face Big Tony. But all of that gorgeous attention to detail is constantly interrupted by the series' grating main protagonist, Memempu, and a slew of plot points that zip around all over the place if it will create some kind of conflict. Character motivations and attitudes will shift to absurd degrees even to the point of getting deadly, but then the character that character was after somehow manages to survive such a horrible injury and they both forgive each other like there was never any bad blood just because the target admitted that he had been in the wrong.
Then there's the problem of the dynamic between Memempu and her father, Gugumber. There's a quote by Jesse Ventura that says, "I'd rather my kids have an average intelligence and common sense instead of being geniuses who have no common sense." Memempu is the embodiment of that phrase. For as knowledgeable as she is about physics and the like, she may be one of the stupidest anime protagonists ever written. Her father is supposed to be the logical foil to her. He's a drunk and a bit of a failure when it comes to his own life, but he's got the common sense where it counts to care for his daughter and get everyone through the Labyrinth safely.
Too bad he's constantly lambasted by every other character for his shortcomings even when he is so obviously in the right, while Memempu is simultaneously praised for being so smart and driven despite her actions sometimes landing them all in hot water. The last few episodes are actually surprisingly good, at least, with a profound message in episode 11 and actual character development for Memempu, which naturally leads to a huge climax and revelation in episode 12 and the true depth of Memempu's and Gugumber's familial love shown in earnest.
I'm not going to lie that I'm actually interested in seeing a second season, because there are hints that things could get better provided the author of the novel recognizes his own narrative shortcomings later on, not to mention this underground dystopia is one of the most fascinating anime worlds I've ever seen. But unless that necessity becomes so, this has just been another crapped-out light novel adaptation from a steadily stagnating industry that is more concerned with making money off of the current disposable season of anime rather than making a modern classic that will be remembered decades from now--no matter how sexy Zackletu's abs and legs are.
ren0080
Slight spoiler ahead. You have been warned. This is one disappointing anime. It started off pretty promising with Gurren Lagann-esque feeling in it's first few episodes. But it quickly fell off because of how the direction of the story went. It got too episodic with it's plot which is a turn-off for most people. It also didn't help that with each episode, every cast seems to revert back to their initial personality every time just for them to "develop" at the end of each episode. It makes the cast and their relationship feels fake and forced. It's not a very good way for episodic format. Another oneof this anime's problems is how inconsistent the narrative is. It also left off on a pretty lackluster end with how they f*cked up with their "mystery" aspect. Shouldn't have revealed everything to the audience if they're not planning on ending 12 episodes. It just gonna feel rush and out of place considering the other episodes wasn't really building up for that "thing" to be revealed in just 12 episodes.
The animation is pretty good with just a little off-models here and there, but overall still good. The CG is pretty iffy though, but it's not bad. Just... it could be better.
The music is pretty good. Nothing really to say about it. The OST wasn't mind blowingly good or anything, just serviceable. The opening and ending was also just fine.
Overall, it's an anime with a lot of promise, but I dunno what happened, maybe it tripped before the finish line.
(5.2/10)
PurpleMagic
Oh Sakugan, you had a promising first episode and then you slowly dissented into an absolute mess. The show started off with a cute drama filled father-daughter dynamic. It had a simple goal of a Memempu finding the place of her dreams. Then it started adding new characters with wacky comedic hijinks. It became more of journey type show where the team go to one location, something really bad happens, and in the next episode they'd briefly mention it and move on. The show got more and more predictable plots and kept delivering stagnate humor. IDK how else to explain it, the show a boringmess with missed potential. Watch if you want but your not going to get that same delicious taste as in the first episode.
monsta666
Story/characters: The opening for this series throws quite a lot at the viewer as it sets its stall in establishing its premise not to mention showcasing action and some dramatic moments right at the end. It is solid but there are some concerns as some of the CGI used is of questionable quality. The second episode also follows with more action set-pieces but again the weak CGI is there for all to see. It actually made me a little apprehensive going further but if you have fears of this CGI animation stifling your enjoyment, I can gladly say that this fear is largely unfounded as thecomputerised imagery is toned way more after the first two episodes.
The next segment after these episodes is what I consider the weakest part of the anime as while the show wants to highlight the sense of adventure that this world offers, the lack of an overall narrative really does hurt the enjoyability of this show. It can be a slog especially if you are not keen on the character of Memempu but if you persist then you will be rewarded.
This is because Sakugan is largely an anime of two halves as the first half is largely episodic with no real discernible plotline. It is the main weakness of the show and will likely cause a lot of viewers to check out which is unfortunate considering the second half was far better when the story finally gets going. For example, we get some further character drama with the often-turbulent relationship between Gagumber and Memempu. It is not just drama though as scattered across all these episodes are plenty of decent battle sequences.
For all the strength these arcs possess there is one issue and this comes from how the proceeding arc begins. The transitions between arcs are clumsy as the shift is both jarring and the reactions from the characters misplaced. It is not a showstopper but it is enough that it can draw you out of your immersion. Still due to the quality of what happens next it is a flaw that was easy to overlook due to the strength of the escalating tensions both in the drama and story narrative.
Naturally this drama and action all reach a climax in the season finale were many of the earlier plot points are pieced together and we get the most emotionally charged scenes of the series. It was a good send off for Sakugan although I will say it still left a lot of things hanging by opening itself up for a sequel. That could be a reason to drop for some but there was enough closure in this one that it left me both satisfied and added to my overall enjoyment. Like most things in Sakugan it is a good point but with a caveat attached.
Speaking of caveats one of the potential pitfalls I see will come from the characterisation of the main characters particularly Memempu. The girl, while intelligent is very headstrong, stubborn and is prone to rage and impulsive actions. Like a lot of kids, she is slow on the uptake on interpersonal issues and she will have you wincing with the stuff she says to her father. Not everyone is going to like it especially when you consider her reactions after some major arcs. To me, I felt it was decent way of conveying the difficulties of a child particularly a teenager but it is a point worth mentioning. People can find her irritating if you are inclined that way.
Gagumber is not without his problem either as there were moments of frustration I had with him who seemed, at times to be prone for moments of madness not to mention being given the idiot ball for no good reason but to add drama. In fairness several characters do pick up on these traits but still, it makes for difficult viewing. As for the secondary cast, they are all pretty decent and they do their jobs well enough but are not particularly noteworthy save for one who does play a major part in one plot point.
Animation/music:
The standard of animation in Sakugan is decent but there are several scenes littered throughout when the quality does take a noticeable dip. Moreover, the CGI sequences are glaring and poorly integrated to the main animation making it a bit of an eyesore. Things do improve in this front as the CGI is deployed less frequently after the second episode and what CGI we do get is integrated in a more effective manner.
The biggest strength Sakugan has though is the animation sequences with both the opening AND ending sequences which I felt was fantastic. Often, I skip over these scenes after watching them a couple of times but because of its quality I couldn’t get enough of it! It’s not just the great animation but also the accompanying music which was both catchy and enjoyable. These OP/ED could perhaps be the best this season has to offer! The opening song is "Koukotsu Labyrinth" by Masaaki Endoh while the ending track is "Shine " by MindaRyn.
Summary:
The big problem plaguing Sakugan is that of pacing. It takes quite some time for this show to get going but once you get to the half way point Sakugan really ups its game. If there is one main weakness in this second half it would be the transitions between the arcs which was executed in a rather clumsy fashion on account of the character reactions. Still the amount of character drama, action and good storytelling with good use of foreshadowing means this weakness is easy to overlook.
The other point of contention will come from the character of Memempu who does have an abrasive/arrogant personality that can rub people the wrong way. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but she is not a simple tsundere archetype meaning she is a somewhat original personality and is therefore more engaging. A degree of patience is needed but she does grow and has a greater understanding over her feelings that she has trouble containing/expressing.
If you like shows with character drama then Sakugan will be for you as there is plenty of that going around. The fact this drama centres on a father and daughter combination means the character dynamic is somewhat unique especially if you consider the world background. Outside of the mains there is joy to be had with the environments as each colony is different and has its own character keeping things fresh. In the end this a good series that was hampered with a few flaws; if it was not for those shortcomings this would be a series I would recommend.
Story 7 – Chief problems are the pacing issues and the way this series moves from one arc to the next. On the positive side the opener is a banger of an episode and if you can manage to reach the second half of Sakugan then things really do pick up. The ending is also good and emotionally charged but caution should be exercised on account the ending begs a sequel. Despite this opening ending you are left satisfied and not frustrated.
Characters 7 – Memempu could be a little too hot to handle! She is a handful and can turn off viewers. However, the character dynamic between Memempu and her father is novel enough to keep people interested. There are ups and downs with this tumultuous relationship so prepare to be given the run around! It doesn’t end there as a secondary character also steps in to create further drama. If you like character drama then Sakugan has it in spades!
Animation/music 7.5 – The standard for the series on a whole is probably closer to a six with numerous scenes suffering from a deterioration in quality. It is the great opening and ending sequences that elevates this score as not only is the animation great but the music was also stellar as the tracks are worth listening to repeatedly!
Overall 7 – A potential recommendation that fell short because of flaws in its storytelling. Outside the opener the first half of Sakugan is a bit of a slog but things do improve noticeably after that point. If you like adventure series sprinkled with a heavy dose of character drama then this is one to recommend. This counts double if you like Memempu due to her spirited nature which could be a potential pain point for some.
