An apocalyptic event has ravaged Japan, leaving nothing but endless sandy plains behind, and a strange rusting disease terrorizes the remnants of civilization. According to the government, the horrific state of the new world is the result of mushroom spores being spread by the likes of Bisco Akaboshi, labeled the "Man-Eating Mushroom."
But Bisco would beg to differ. In reality, he is a "Mushroom Protector," determined to uncover the legendary "Sabikui" mushroom—said to be the ultimate cure for the rusting disease. Joining him on his quest are his giant crab Akutagawa and the kind doctor Milo Nekoyanagi, who is actively searching for a rust poisoning treatment for his sick sister. Despite the prejudice aimed toward him by the common folk, Bisco refuses to give up on his quest to purify the rotting world.
[Written by MAL Rewrite]
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Comentários
SpRayquaza11
Before reading id recommend Watching the trailer, and you'd immediately know whether it's a hit or a miss for you.I can confirm the Soundtrack in the anime is on the same level. this is one of those few times that a trailer is so good that it gives you a proper taste of what's to come and also hype you up for it Sabikui Bisco is a sleeper hit shounen BUT, The final few episodes proved it is STILL a SHOUNEN anime :” D Now, Let me bring up my fucking shounen chart Worldbuilding — probably the best in a very long time Powerup with screamfest? —less
Plot armor? —more than kirito
Nakama no chikara (power of friendship?) —naruto will be proud
Generic power system world and MC starts weak? —no
Main rival? —none
Teacher? —nope
Waifu? — God tier and also legal!
So it is clearly a min-max build xD
A lot of annoying shounen tropes are cut off but the others that are present have a power level beyond 9000!
For those who aren't keen on that please stick around and read the rest.
This anime has the best-built world out of any anime in 2022 so far ….
Machine gun hippos, giant shrooms, slug planes, giant rod wielding hot woman :3. Arrows that sprouts giant mushrooms, suited up mafia with a bunny mascot headgear. And what's worth it is, everything fits right in due to how much of a struggle life is due to the rust wind people adapt, they learn new tricks they change and
am sure the modern comfy world would never allow a slug plane XD.
But for the first project of a new anime studio (even tho they have some great people working there), this seems rather promising, I cant wait to see what else they have in store for us!
The world of sabikui Bisco is really well done so much so that my trash taste in anime wants to even call it a fit for the isekai world. The Post-apocalyptic theme is mostly downplayed by many animes but here, you can tell every day is a struggle to survive, people literally rusting o death, eating what they can find, getting addicted to weird mushrooms, and children wielding weapons just to protect themselves. It's dark, depressing, and full of mystery and yet life finds a way to thrive and so do humans. The music in this anime is really amazing the person who chose and composed the music needs a raise, the music fits so well to the half-dead fallen world which rusts away literally and is magical and sometimes hallucinating levels of weird shit happening all around (the author was probably on drugs).
I’ll get straight into the rating since I want to keep the viewing experience as unspoiled as possible.
Plot (7/10)
Well, it's kind of a generic shounen start, adventure begins to find something (this time it ain't one piece, it's the cure to rust wind). The weakest part of the plot is probably that one asspull that happened, but that will depend on tolerance for that kind of thing. but it certainly has a sense of familiarity when one thinks of other shounen shows.
Characters (8/10)
Milo and Bisco are like JOBROS level of bro story, MIlo may seem annoying at times but he does change for the better towards the middle and the end, Bisco is goddamn best boi something along the lines of a good tsundere guy who isn't flustered at being nice but is just not very used to people,Pawoo develops really well towards the end after everything is cleared up. Tsuda kenjiro and kurokawa are a perfect match (those who know do send FR). jabi and the kids also have a pretty good personality.
Sound and VA(10/10)
The Best I have seen out of any new release, Op is a straight banger, the rumbling is a great blessing to rock fans this will make them cream their pants.ED is JOBRO the ending 100% that is totally the vibe any Jojo fan will feel. Tsuda Kenjiro is totally the best VA one can pick for anti-hero or fucked up villain there is no contention in that regard. The VA of Pawoo was also a great and unique voice, it totally helps reflect her strength and confidence and the rest of the characters didn't stand out that much but are great nonetheless.
Art and animation (9/10)
The Art is so really good, (only akebi chan has a realistic chance of beating it, but it wouldn't be fair since the tone is different for both) although it loses some points in animation, the art is absolutely gorgeous and immediately makes it clear that this is a post-apocalyptic world. The dead tetsujin statue being repurposed into a living space, dark and wild plants that grow and evolve to fight the new environment they find themselves in, a dull but alive city that barely holds on to hope, it's perfect.
A must watch if you loved the trailer, it's surely great to see a new idea being executed this well, it had way more potential IMO but I must say this is still one of the best this season, by all means, Do not let the mediocre score waver you and definitely give it 3 episodes to let it sink in. at the very least, do watch the trailer.
Mcsuper
Sabikui Bisco is a prime example of “You had me in the first half”. What started out as a unique and gritty looking story in the first few episodes, became an extremely convoluted one full of plot holes and errors that made it a drag to watch. The build up to the climax of this show was great, but the climax itself was one of the most disappointing things I have seen in a while, and that’s truly a shame. My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20 STORY: 8.5/25 At the outset, this seemed like an interesting concept. Ina dystopian society called Imihama that was ravaged by rust, we see Milo, our character, live his life by investigating this “rust disease” and treating patients at a clinic. We see the seemingly scheming governor of this society, Kurokawa, who seemed like a very intriguing villain. I was thoroughly intrigued at this point.
After that, Bisco appears, with a bow and arrow in which the arrows make mushrooms grow on whatever they hit, which was an interesting concept. Following a reveal about the true nature of the rusting and its effect on humans, Bisco and Milo embark on a journey.
The rest of the build up you can watch yourself, but the underlying problems are the lack of a general direction of the plot.
*SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH
The climax of the story is where it all fell apart. Kurokawa is the corrupt governor that has a hand in this entire rust issue, and Bisco and Milo confront him, but he proves tough to outsmart. My gripe with this entire sequence of events is that when there’s a clear opportunity to defeat him, Bisco spares him, and it led to more disasters down the road, including the demise of someone, which was another poorly executed “emotional” scene. Anything after that scene was just not good anymore, with the huge monster Tetsujin and all. It became generic and uninteresting.
ART: 7.7/10
The overall art style is good, but it looks very grimy, if you know what I mean.
MUSIC: 8.6/10
The soundtrack is pretty good, and both the opening and ending are one my favourites of the season.
CHARACTERS: 5.5/20
Much like the story, the characters felt very interesting to start, but either didn’t play enough of a role (characters like Tirol, and anyone from the children’s fortress come to mind), or didn’t get good development down the road. In the action scenes, they made questionable decisions, and much of the character quality dropped with the story quality, which was a shame. Wish we could also know more about Bisco’s backstory and some more details about mushroom keepers and more about rusting in general. For Milo, the developments he got felt out of place, as characters shouldn’t be turning their personality into something that seems like the polar opposite for their personality, it was just a bit much. As for the villain, Kurokawa, he was way too basic, and his demise was very anticlimactic.
ENJOYMENT: 7.8/15
Enjoyment declined with the overall narrative, but I enjoyed the first part.
THEMATIC EXECUTION: 12/20
This show tries their hand at many themes, and I do think they build the atmosphere nicely, with that dark tone around Imihama, and overall in the story. The adventure element was alright, but the action themes weren’t all that great, especially the last part against the Tetsujin, because of the plot issues there. The emotional side to the story did not pan out due to the tragic situations being clearly avoidable.
OVERALL: 50.1/100
It’s really a shame that the climax wasn’t executed very well, and made the story fall off afterwards, but for what it’s worth, the world had a nice vibe to it, and it was definitely an attempt at an unique concept, but it wasn’t flushed out very well. Last bit seemed rushed, but pacing seemed to be an issue throughout. 8/10 for the first eight episodes, 2/10 for the last four episodes. For Studio Oz’s first anime, it was average, and we hope to see some better things from them in the future.
ZeroMajor12
In most shows I've reviewed, I primarily focus on the enjoyment and aspects that I noticed when I watched the show. If the show has terrible characters, then I would state that, if it has sluggish animation, I would say that too. However, most of that is put in particular aspects in which anything referring to art would be talked about the artistic backgrounds and designs of our characters. For this particular case, I want to make a different approach to this anime called Sabikui Bisco and make a full-fledged review, vastly different from what I have written. Without further ado, time to start. "I love you." Ahyes, Sabikui Bisco. When I first looked at the trailer, I thought I was promised an intriguing world filled with mysteries and bizarre details that caused the world they lived into oblivion. The characters had unique designs and stand out, the soundtrack was also quite bizarre, which took a while for me to settle, but I found it to be quite fitting. If I were to remember, I rewatched the preview about 10 different times, becoming one of my anticipated shows this Winter. As I have said, I was hoping for an enriched apocalyptic world that had something to show other than its competitors. Unfortunately, I am filled with sheer disappointment as every episode that came out, it was getting worse the more I looked at it.
First, we must talk about the story, the synopsis of the story unravels about a post-apocalyptic Tokyo after being poisoned by the plague-like wind of rust. From the first sentence, it's already a problem. Rust is supposedly a reaction that only happens to anything that is mostly pure metal, which the show is also derived from, which led me flabbergasted, as such a thing would never exist to infect innocent people and usurp people's lives. But hey, it's all fiction, why should it matter if the author decides to make rust a plague? It is an issue because there are plenty of things that I feel like that are overlooked by the author when he made this. If such a thing called rust wind exists, then people who are venturing are not wearing armour that is resistant to rust, which I'm not seeing here. Why aren't the people using metal sacrifice to protect themselves from rust? Does the show has never heard of the term 'electroplating'? I believe all the chemist professionals happened to die on that day.
It's not only the fact that it's severely illogical in terms of its setting but how the author decided to introduce a cure right off the bat that can supposedly 'eat' rust, which then again is just a way to turn it into a prophecy. The approach of having a certain cure where there are already things proven to prevent corrosion of metal or even the show's main threat, rust is beyond me. I could not believe it myself.
Enough about the stupid lore, now the story. The story is without a doubt inconsistent and convoluted. In the first few episodes, I was not liking how the show was reluctant on showing us the action, one of the things I was highly expecting. Their exposition of dialogue bored me to death until the last few minutes when something actually happens. A mushroom spawner can make himself fly because, for some reason, it can launch him and grow instantly without any withdrawal symptoms from it. They both met and decided to find the rare 'Sabikui', a mushroom that will cure the doctor's sister's disease that has plagued her body.
Then, when the first few episodes were finally over, it decided to turn into an adventure between a goody-two-shoes doctor and a screaming archer who don't know where they are heading. From what I can discern from that part, the show shows more interest in going for anything that suits the current tone of the story, no matter how inconsistent and stupid it is. I was genuinely furious when Episode 9 came along, like the author thought he was doing good writing by having us shocked but ended up making more plot conveniences than Dragon Ball Z, a show notorious for its story stretching further because of abundant plot conveniences. The show was so focused on finishing the story it started, everything felt rushed the moment Milo decided to assault the main villain.
My next point is about art. There's not much to say about it honestly. The characters from an artistic point are not that bad but their art backgrounds don't practically stand out much. But I realise that the stupid mushrooms spawning out from Bisco's arrows was getting on my nerves as if those are the only things he can do other than screaming and sometimes being a motivational guy when the time is convenient. What had me legitimately done was the Iron Titan, which happened to be the ugliest thing I have seen made in CGI, in which I do not hate CGI animations whatsoever, but damn, I remember the Titan is more disgusting than it being a dangerous threat.
Now to the characters, let's say that I was not quite fond of the characters in this show. Their choice of dialogue is so awkward and edgy most of the time. Character development seemed to be forced for the sake of the plot. The villain of the story sounds threatening but was nothing more than a side villain who completely sucks. Kurokawa was as uninteresting as he was annoying, who existed only to make the main character die, yes indeed it happened.
A prime example of that is Milo, whose personality takes a 180 during the last few episodes after portraying himself as a well-mannered, compassionate and determined person, decided to be like his counterpart who is known to be childish, aggressive and downright dumb most of the time unless the plot decides to make him intelligent. This for some reason, threw me off and had me confused as it doesn’t make any particular sense in the slightest to have this happen.
Not only that, the side characters of this show other than the main duo just feels... fake. Pawoo, a lady portrayed as a sexy fighter with rusts on her body seems to be there for the fanservice and nothing else, despite being the main reason for the doctor to go on an adventure in the first place. Even as the plot goes on, I cannot indulge myself with the fact that Pawoo is supposed to be a character and nothing more than an image of lust. The only decent character out of them was Jabi, who had something to say for himself, but yet again, he doesn't seem to be anything that amazing where the main character has talked about him. Tirol on the other hand had something, but it was disappointing that she doesn't get much attention other than a few particular episodes. In the end, the characters of the show are incredibly poor and easily forgettable.
In terms of enjoyment, it felt like my time was wasted on this junk, which successfully fooled me into thinking it's an actual good piece of fiction, which it's nothing more than trash. I regretted not listening to others who knew what they were getting into, its tendency of pulling out plot conveniences, contradicting characters, forced character development, rushed storytelling, and illogical lore.
"I'm telling you it's overrated!"
Overall, do not watch this anime in any circumstances. You will regret it. Hence, I end my review about Sabikui Bisco. Also, screw you too, Sabikui Bisco.
Uji_Gintoki_Bowl
A horde of ripped hippos with military artillery mounted on their backs stampede across the screen, making aim at a spiky haired archer riding on a colossal crab. An elderly man in the background takes aim and one-shots a hippo, causing the growth of a massive mushroom to rupture its skull. One phrase comes to mind: "What the fuck?" Sabikui Bisco is a hyper-crack acid ride that's inexplicably attractive because of its gritty and insane portrayal of a post-apocalyptic world. I don't want to divulge too much about the premise in light of the fact that there's no point; the entire point of a show like thisis that it takes the viewer by surprise in how "out there" it is. Premise aside, it was really just one hell of a ride the whole way through. Though there were problems present with pacing and there was a small (and quite annoying) retcon at the end, the entire vibe of the show kind of enticed me into overlooking "the small things". Normally, I think things like this may have presented a larger issue, but because of the nature of Sabikui Bisco, there is really no reason to severely detract from the show here.
The audiovisual quality of the work was insane. A funky jazz + metal fusion feel for the OST did perfect justice to the inexplicable absurdities occurring on the screen, and a grainy feel accompanied by CG and a bright color palate further added to the immersion that I felt in following the series weekly. Overall, it was an experience that I won't forget for a long time because of its perfect shot at my sweet spot for "funky" settings. I don't smoke or anything, but if you're doing some semi-legal things and you wanna watch some anime, I think this might be the one.
Stark700
Whether you accept the standards of today's light novel adaptations as they are, we should at least all agree that Sabiuki Bisco attempts to try something different. Rather than high school romances or about a protagonist out to save the world, we get a protagonist trying to find a legendary mushroom with capabilities to devour all rust. This may sound confusing at first but trust me, as the story unfolds, it becomes more clear why Bisco is motivated by his actions. But first, we must ask ourselves if this type of story is worth a follow. Apparently, the light novel series have been quite popular, asit topped rankings on the Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! list. Watching Sabiuki Bisco gave me a peculiar impression at first because the show itself does have a fascinating world setting. It looks like something out of an apocalyptic video game. What's more curious is Bisco's role of attempting to reverse the land to its previous form with his unique talent. Joining him on his quest is young doctor named Milo Nekoyanagi. If this was described as a two-man party in a game, then Bisco would be the main fighter while Milo acts as support with his invaluable creative medical skills and knowledge. The two may be not alike but their roles compliment each other. It's also shown that deep down, Bisco truly cares about Milo's well-being, more than just for the sake of survival to accomplish his goal.
With such a premise, this journey takes our characters across a desolate land filled with dangers. Among the earliest threat they face is no other than Milo's sister, Pawoo. With a strong sense of justice, she is known to track down mushroom terrorists in her line of work. Unfortunately, Bisco is branded as a terrorist despite his real intentions. You can put the pieces together and realize that he's practically a target on her hit list. Indeed, Bisco not only has to deal with just finding the legendary Sabikui but to simply survive. It's no easy task when you realize his reputation and he has to adapt with every circumstance. The anime establishes himself as a survivor who relies on clever tactics, his trusty bow, and natural skills to survive. In retrospect, the anime structures the story as fantasy adventure tale with sci-fi elements and survival concepts.
While Bisco is the main protagonist, we can't forget about his loyal companion Milo. With a kind heart and gentle personality, Milo serves as the medic. Trust me, his skills are not only invaluable to Bisco but others they encounter on their journey such as Tirol. He helps the helpless and is the type of person just about anyone can trust. This contrasts a bit compare to Bisco because his reputation has been tarnished. There are very few people he can trust in this story. Unfortunately, the anime's character cast is rather thin in numbers and character development is also limited. We don't even get much background storytelling. There are also some characters that can either excite or irriate you. Tirol falls in this example with her somewhat childish personality. Pawoo also entered the anime with an ambition to hunt down Bisco but you may be surprised her change in attitude later on toward him.
Watching Sabiuki Bisco doesn't take a lot of thinking to understand the story. The premise speaks for itself while we follow the journey of two characters on such a dangerous adventure. What may catch you off guard later on in the show is a big change of Bisco himself. It may even provoke the question and fate of the anime altogether. I won't spoil it but do be prepared. However, also do be aware that with 12 episodes, the anime scratches more or less the surface of the story. The anime pulls the trigger to get the most important elements of the story in while not adapting a full tale to tell. It's a common trend in light novel adaptations and I think at this point, we just need to learn and accept it.
Alright, I admit. I had to actually look up the studio in charge of handling the adaptation. OZ seems to be a brand new production studio and this serves as their first solo project. Watching this show did impress me on the animation front for the unique quality of its production. It sets the feeling of an apocalyptic world with its barren landscapes and harsh environments. Monster designs are also made to look menacing and something you'd expect in a post-apocalyptic world. Human expressions are also captured with care when watching the emotions of the cast, especially for Milo. Finally, the anime makes a clear point abut rust with its character designs. Bisco is the most prominent example for its crude look that gives him the impressions of a rebel. Having said this, I believe OZ made a strong impression with their first project and look forward to their future.
Sabiuki Bisco is a show that I can recommend to others even if it seems unorthodox at first glance. It takes on an unique setting that explores the effects of a hazardous environment. Bisco experiences a journey like no other, especially with the obstacles that stood in his way. With every episode, it felt like the anime kept me at the edge of my seat. So sit back, grab some popcorn, drinks, and enjoy the show.
Gween_Gween
The start of Sabikui Bisco promised a relaxing dumb show with a bunch of random stuff that would leave something to care about after each episode. Sadly, the anime ended up being just as dumb, pointless, and insubstantial as anticipated, while also turning in an unintelligible convoluted attempt to evoke emotions out of nowhere, which derived in forgettable climaxes, emotionless speeches, and vain asspulls. The flaws of the anime are all over the place. The complete premise of it gets denser once it gets further elaborated, being basically the equivalent of a Big Pharma conspiracy, narrating a discourse that not even the most braindead userof LateStageCapitalism would eat, and amplifying such flaw by not imposing any sort of coherency to the world, since the whole issue can be reduced to a single entity that happens to be ridiculously powerful for no other reason but mind control, and the government being inherently evil. To be frank, there is absolutely no business on the main antagonist to be an unforgivable piece of shit, but here we are, a world when even the antagonist knows that he is doing extremely unethical stuff for personal gain, totally credible, purposeful, and stimulating.
The characterization issues get even worse, the two main characters are tropes with legs, they can be reduced as a bishounen moral compass that do dumb exposition speeches and a full of testosterone red-haired hero that acts like the embodiment of what is cool for a 5 years old. The conflict between the two characters is as predictable as one could think too, one of the characters wants to make a self-sacrifice to protect the other and the other comes from nowhere to almost save him. The fact that such relation happened more than three times speaks volume about the originality or complexity of the situations, almost as like every single point of creativity was burned to throw darts to the Wikipedia page of Mammals.
The side characters are atrocious too, the anime features Pawoo, a random badass girl that is supposed to be the motivation of Milo and is meant to portray a change of beliefs to propose one of the main themes, skepticism. That obviously doesn’t work, the story completely forgot the importance and weight of the supposed conspiracy to allow her to change her heart in a matter of minutes after watching some character trying to sacrifice itself for the other, almost like the conspiracy itself didn’t have any sort of depth. Another character is Tirol, a plot device that also happens to have a hack sad backstory and a desire to have friends, an extremely relatable situation for the average viewer of anime, point that never get further than a “We are now friends” by Milo. The anime also features Iroh from Avatar escaping from a jail and appearing out of nowhere all the time as a gag (So funny!), and some random kids and ethnicities to portray the variety of the world and the dissemination of evilness, oh lord. At no point of the story these side characters add anything to the storyline other than time filling and creating apparent motivations for the main duo, motivations that could pretty much intactly exist by changing every single aspect of their characterization, and even be better if they stripped down their absurd tendency to appear out of nowhere, they are just terribly irrelevant to any sort of progression.
Not content with the characters being either irrelevant or unoriginal, the plotline starts making less sense as it goes forward. The first episodes created the foundations to a full of energy adventure, with extreme action and ridiculous events. What did we get? A fourth episode where they domesticate a crab, a fifth episode about some orphans and some creepy couple, a sixth episode about a character that have a forced sad backstory and trust issues. While some of the middle episodes had an interesting value as episodic adventures, those three episodes did absolutely nothing for the overall progression, so when the heat comes, we get the most pathetic anticlimactic intent to make something out of thin air, as everything was crammed to the last half. Honestly, if one “I love you” sounds completely out of place then the story obviously failed at building a credible relationship, fact.
To end the mess of a plot, the final episodes had the most room temperature approach to the phrase “You only die when you are forgotten”. To portray that, the anime sequentially uses all the characters that it introduced before and relate them to the memories and values initially enforced by the dead character. While doing that, one of the main characters start to talk like the deceased character to reinforce the idea of our actions having consequence on the others. This sequence of cringe is just pure desperation, the message was conveyed correctly initially, but the approach got ridiculously annoying and redundant after 5 minutes, almost like they didn’t trust the viewers to understand it. The whole episodes turned into a succession of: Fight -> Danger -> Asspull -> Saving -> Next Fight. To add salt to the wound, one of the episodes took notes from Mr. Peak Fiction Isayama and revived the character anyways (Now with superpowers so the whole issue can be solved!), so the whole struggle was just to propose that already badly executed message, thanks!
Happily, the anime is not completely unredeemable. One of the most valuable aspects of the show is that it never feels like it is going in cruise mode, which is potentially a bad thing, because the story sucks, but a good thing, because it spices up a lot some moments. The refreshing dumb action scenes, the diverse, immersive, mood-setting soundtrack, the well-done construction of the scenarios. The effort in terms of being it visually vibrant was achieved, and the CGI was most of the time passable, because the anime doesnt really look that good anyways. If the anime was meant to be able to build the mesh between CGI and 2D from the studio, then it is a good effort, it doesn’t look polished, at all, but at least is an interesting product from that perspective.
As a conclusion, the anime lacks any kind of overarching intent, it is just a set of fluff being put one after another where the viewer is supposed to infer that something happened in the in-betweens to make some sense about the behavior of the character. The best way to summarize this anime is “hippos mounts, big mushrooms, so random XD”
Spirit_Chaser
Tragically, Sabikui Bisco falls under that pile of anime that I wanted to like because of how interesting and weird it started out. I was won over by the soundtrack and how easily it elevated any fight scene it got used in. Bisco is a hot headed protagonist which is better than the usually morally obsessed crybaby main character that is often seen instead, and yet there wasn't really much to any of the characters. The antagonist was annoying, and only appealed to me because he was graced by the voice talent of Kenjirou Tsuda. Honestly, they should have just gotten rid of him earlyon and introduced a better threat. It sort of pains me to dig into this series this way, but I can only take so many obnoxious fake out deaths that felt they dragged on the story, and character models getting rocked back and forth rather than being adequately animated. By the end, the finale didn't do anything for me anymore. Though I really do like the soundtrack to this and the way it's used, I can't let it gloss over the fact this adaptation has a lot of problems.
The writing in this is laughable, sadly so. The main antagonist could have at any point towards the end easily kill the entire cast if he really wanted to, but conveniently did not go for a show of power when it came to attacking them nearly every time. The amount of damage some of these characters can take and still be able to go on is comical.
Besides the great soundtrack, I appreciate how this series tried to be interestingly bizarre. From organic planes to weaponized animals, to giant worms with human limbs and giant floating man eating pufferfish, I did enjoy how out of there they went with this. Milo and Bisco's friendship was fine though often borderline felt like a boys love relationship done on purpose. The romance in this felt laughably unnatural. I liked how the world building started out because this is an interesting post apocalyptical type setting. Despite that it didn't feel satisfying how it was explored. They rushed through places and monsters, and the viewers were left with lots of questions.
Milo's character itself isn't anything much besides some typical nice guy who happens to be a doctor. That's what makes him trying to look tough later look forced and not work. More than that it just gave me second hand embarrassment.
At first I enjoyed the arrows and their mushroom spawning abilities. Towards the end it felt like a broken skill as nothing really felt like a threat anymore despite Bisco and Milo going up against literally world ending monsters.
This adaptation felt too questionable. A shame because it had potential in the beginning.
KANLen09
Anime can be anything it desires: fun, excitement, unhinged, and vice versa, that showcases itself as an intriguing enigma that goes left, right, center and out. That's even more so for shows that have cool and creative post-apocalyptic worlds that are a dime a dozen, especially for those Mad Max-esque sand-blast wasteland worlds from Trigun; Now and Then, Here and There to the more recent hit of Deca-Dence. And to properly describe what newbie novelist Shinji Cobkubo has done with Sabikui Bisco, is anything BUT simple. And being the very first LN to rank No. 1 in Takarajimasha's Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! a.k.a "ThisLight Novel is Amazing!" annual guide book back in 2018, it's safe to say that an anime adaptation of this is pertinent at any point, and we got it, courtesy of some very notable people that I'll explain down the line as we go.
If you look at ANN's interview done with creator Shinji Cobkubo, series composer Sadayuki Murai and director Atsushi Ikariya, it's actually very interesting to know how Sabikui Bisco was conceived and brought to life by some of the most talented people in the staff team. Shinji Cobkubo states that this is his first time writing a novel, and being an amateur, he's gotta weigh all the factors when considering the story and the world-building that's never yet seen before, but striving in all ways to give the comforting feeling of “something you haven't but also have seen before” with the sense and joy of discovery. He also knows that plotting and narrative structure are his weak points, and thus the anime prominently showed where Cobkubo himself have faltered (more towards the final stretch). But more than anything, he never once felt agnoized about it and the reception that it would receive, and where the story went, is how Cobkubo will drive that narrative despite of the issues. And for someone being raised by timeless stories like Makoto Shiina's sci-fi novel Ad Bird, Buronson's Hokuto no Ken a.k.a Fist of the North Star and Hirohiko Araki's Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, his work that was perceived as as a "counter" to the trends. That presented an opportunity for him to concoct a story that while "counter"-ing trends, respects the stories that use that narrative to run for years on end to create fun for the readers, which yes my man indeed, Sabikui Bisco IS the definition of fun.
But let's hold up and go back to the beginning of Sabikui Bisco's foundations. Set in a post-apocalyptic world of sand dunes and most particularly Rust, a plague-like wind that decays everything of contact from items to humans, and the origin for this is said to have come from mushroom spores, and unforuntately, people like Mushroom Keepers are mistakenly maligned for being terrorists because they were believed to be the source of the epidemic. And one such Mushroom Keeper goes by the name of Bisco Akaboshi, an archer whom shoots arrows that instantly grows mushrooms, is well-known in the Gunma-Imihama Prefecture with a price on his head. Bisco's the infamous Man-Eater, which adds notoriety to his name, and everyone wants a piece of the reward pie for capturing this criminal. On the other side of the spectrum in the city of Imihama, we have Milo Nekoyanagi, a mild-mannered doctor whom does the duties of a doctor of serving the people and finding out the reason for the Rusting disease by cutting deals with the government and secretly buying mushrooms on the black market to save the Captain of the Imihama Watch, Pawoo, who's his older sister, also infected by Rusting. The two meet out of coincidence, and amidst all the propaganda made from concealing information with a territorial mindset with closed walls and border inspections, and as such, together with another Mushroom Keeper (Jabi) and Bisco's transport animal Actagawa the crab, set out on a journey to find the legendary Rust-Eater (Sabikui) Mushroom, which is said to be the All-Cure to this lingering disease.
And for two, how Shinji Cobkubo develops this story and narrative, there's a lot of references to be had. There's the obvious tense of religious depiction, and Cobkubo places both Buddhism and Hindu mythology as a motif to drive the story, which actually complements sci-fi and fictional religions, and is a cinch to create. That's why the anime displayed many of these such motifs from the animals and creatures used as weapons, something that is very unconventional for AniManga standards.
In terms of characterization, Bisco and Milo have a relationship that is dubbed hot-blooded "Shonen manga" like quality, so the idea of love is something that at first glance, seems like an odd choice of input, that gradually turns into character traits all on its own. Going back to the religious motifs, Bisco is his own man, he trusts himself with the actions he's done, and that's how he values his own "faith". And on the topic of love (as seen in the anime's final quarter), this may look off-putting, but it actually derives from Shinji Cobkubo's own life experience, where human beings decide to sacrifice their lives to attain something greater, that is their most shining and beautiful moment, and deep from his heart, this is his moment of extol to signify that "love". And nowhere is it more prominent than Bisco and Milo, more than treading though every trouble at corners loose, their bonds ever growing as the series progresses on, embodying that "love" as a sacrifice and protection of all the things they hold dear. Even to the antagonist that is the Imihama Prefecture Governor Kurokawa, his fight as means of a stranglehold on the region with an iron-clad fist, employng bunny-masked enforcers to carry out his will, that is also "love", even when faced with adversity to confront Bisco and Milo, knowing that all the power and control that he had was just a pretense of an act. This also trickles donw to other characters like Pawoo, Jabi and Tirol, they are tied by strong love as partners, teacher and disciple, and siblings, with responsiblity at their necks as they act according to their own principles. It's certainly a work of art that's different from what you'd expect to see.
Given director Atsushi Ikariya's effort on this as his first directorial debut from being character designer and animation director of acclaimed series like Fate/Zero and ID:Invaded, Shinji Cobkubo's light novel was certainly something else, more akin to a Mad Max-like premise. Add to that, there's the lore of unique things from mushrooms to huge creatures and even pseudo-fusions of machine and organism (i.e. escargot aircraft), which adds nonsensical WTH moments that only adds to the fun. Animals are notoriously difficult to animate, and Ikariya has to consult newcomers to actually help him realize the vision of the series on screen. Not to mention that Sabikui Bisco is rife with a lot of real life references, such as the Black Hawk helicopters drawing experience from war films like Black Hawk Down, handguns from Italian mafia films, and even Terminator references (the most famous one will be the iconic "I'll Be Back" catchphrase). Along with series composer Sadayuki Murai's solid scriptwriting to avoid confusion for the viewer, and technically Shinji Cobkubo's story is mostly untouched with almost all of the settings intact, translated into anime of the fullest potential.
Also, while new studio OZ was commissioned to produce this show, most of it actually came from the co-production from another studio, NAZ. Remember that I mentioned about ID:Invaded? That series is completely produced by NAZ, and it's no wonder that some staff came back to help produce this show, from the likes of color designer Emi Chiba, animation director Ai Asari, key animator Daisuke Mataga, to even director Atsushi Ikariya himself. Needless to say that Atsushi Ikariya really made use of all his experience to flesh Sabikui Bisco out as this weird-rando post-apocalyptic world of endless possibilities that doesn't detract and betray the source material.
This high-octane action also delivers in the music category, and it's a bomb blast of insane proportions. Sound director Kisuke Koizumi is a man of insanity, having produced music for series like The God of High School and Shadows House, and his role in Sabikui Bisco is nothing short of amazing. While JUNNA's OP song does fit the overall narrative, on its own I find it to be a bit lackluster and something that is not of her standards, so this is a miss for her. On the other end of the spectrum, we have Bisco and Milo's VA-centric ED song, and that is really where the banger goes to make such a compelling ending song that retains all of the tension of the episodes. And if you think that wasn't enough, there is a version of the ED with just Milo's VA Natsuki Hanae's vocals, and that was purposefully made for a section of the anime that had death flags thrown boldly and wittingly.
Even with its missteps, Sabikui Bisco is a source that is very ambitious in what Shinji Cobkubo is trying to concoct, that with the anime, Atsushi Ikariya makes this ambition grow exponentially times infinity. And when will be the end of that madness, we will never know since the LN for this is quite the ride that's still ongoing, and with the anime, people are noticing that this work actually exists. If anything, I hope that this won't be the last time that we'll see of Sabikui Bisco, the one true dark horse of the season that is one hell of a roller-coaster ride. Definitely gonna slide into the LN to see what the hoopla is all about, and see if this holds up. It's an acquired taste for sure that feels niche, when it's not.
d_rkie
Aah, the first 9 episodes are worth the watch for art and whimsy alone! This could have been more than a 7/10 anime but the plot sort of imploded on itself and lost it's way around epiosde 9. I didn't finish for a long time after watching episode 9 but came back to finish the last 4 episodes at 1.5 x speed just to say I finished it. The last four episodes were as dissapointing as I was expecting them to be, and really lacked the whimsical elements of the first 9 that had me hooked at first. Best thing about this anime wasthe world building. Again, the first 9 episodes are worth the watch just for that alone. Not only was I intrigued by the Mushroom Keeper fighting style, but the slug planes, giant desert crabs, flying fish, and machine gun strapped hippos added so much whimsy to this world, I was hooked. I came for the art, and stayed for the art.
A post-apocolyptic Japan where a disease causes organic matter to 'rust' plagues the population, but our main characters look for the cure-all to the disease despite being ridiculed by society for being 'Mushroom Keepers'. Mushroom keepers are bow wielding warriors that can sprout giant mushrooms wherever they shoot their arrows, which aids them in battle allowing them to do super human things like fly into the air, drop from crazy heights, etc. Bisco is your traditional shounen protagonist, pure at heart, puts his friends first, and has an 'I won't stop until I die' sort of attitude, akin to characters like Naruto and Luffy.
I recommend this anime if you're into whimsical worlds with a little bit of action, a good soundtrack, and giant crabs!
DarkGamerA
fu**ing awesome anime if you are looking for something to have fun and watch, without being a critic and trying to check every flaw , u will get anime worth your time .. super enjoyable . great story, emotions, characters ,music, animation , world building, SWAGnStlye, voice acting,top tier bromance, no bs romance. sure it has major writing flaws like pink girl hurting jabi and then getting forgiven without explaination/dialouge, villain having plot armour and not dying easy senseless character decisions that led to unwanted, easily avoidable troublebut the amount of entertainment and adrenaline this brings is enough for me
SPOILER WARNING:
and that kiss makes it 10/10
GenocideLatte
This anime is horrible. This anime is an example of an amazing and unique concept, with an actual living world that the characters inhabit, TAINTED by the story and it's characters. It would be easier to point out what the anime did okay, and that is it's world and it's OST. The world that the anime is set in is genuinely unique and captivating, it feels like there's genuine care put in to show and tell a world that is full of the breath of life. The OST further complements the world, and it's genuinely enjoyable. Neither of these are masterpiece material, but ya know, it'salright.
Suspension of disbelief only works for so long, and the viewer can only accept so much before they call BS on the work. The characters go from doing Infinite IQ moves to being dumber than a piece of floating algae in the ocean. The story has ZERO IDEA how to keep the show going without resorting to the characters being absolute potatoes, and alongside the HORRIBLE PACING and the shitty forced one liners and cliche tropes it turns a unbearable cast of characters into a TORTUROUS experience.
When the viewer starts questioning everything the characters do, it's when you fail as an anime. They are no longer immersed, they are no longer emotionally attached to the plot, they are simply there to watch the Hindenburg crash to the ground.
Don't watch this anime. Just don't.
1List2RuleThemAl
I really, REALLY tried to watch Sabikui Bisco in one sitting. I couldn't. It took me FOUR MONTHS to go through this and I lived to tell the tale.. .. of how shit this show is. While Bisco is pounding that Panda bussy, let's reflect on the good times. There weren't any good times. This show started with a interesting setting but a incredibly stupid premise. A guy fighting "rust" with mushrooms. They are really running out of ideas in Japan I tell ya. I tried to do quick research on "Mushrooms and Rust" and ended up with results primarily from game Rust and people telling others to noteat them in Rust.
I was hoping to find some connection between Mushrooms and Rust, since I can't, I'm assuming the writer and director were high on shrooms when they came up with this stupid idea.
Art is acceptable. I liked the setting, visually. It kinda rips off Mad Max, but that's fine. Sound, Music is actually interesting. I found Music to be good but more suitable for some other setting than a stupid Mushroom story.
Characters are just fucking terrible. They come out of nowhere, and are forgotten until they are needed for a scene. The merchant girl with a pointless backstory and 2-3 episodes dedicated to her is a good example. Milo (Panda Doctor) is another fucking annoying character that is so weak that he manages to train and perfect archery enough to defeat MC in one episode (drugs were involved). Oh and Panda is ready to give up his bussy for Bisco, he's in love.. like in the last 5 episodes (it isn't a spoiler, that's how it looks from start, even episode is named after it).
Speaking of last episodes, they were excruciating to sit through, more than the rest of the show. 12 fucking episodes are never enough to create a world, when you have a new setting, and it shows here perfectly. They rush through setting and characters, rush through their training, introduction and move on. It's never worth getting invested in, even the fucking main characters are pretty much just there without any backstory. What is the giant alien thing destroying Japan with Rust? Where did it come from? Where are Mushroom people coming from? Why the fuck would anyone hate them when they obviously are saving people? (they tried to explain it, but it was so stupid) Is Bisco a fucking superhuman? That's the fucking impression you get until Panda, a regular human, starts acting like him and taking down giant aliens while being thrown against walls at mach-5. NOTHING IS EXPLAINED OR MAKES SENSE.
2/10
2 for the Pandussy and art.
mbarseru
Honestly, one of the most disappointing anime of its time. The absolute hype train that was this anime's trailer and YouTuber reactions, especially Garnt's, which surfaced around the time when I first found out about the anime. And yet, after watching episode 1, you will either feel how stale these mushrooms are, or you will be high enough to keep on watching. Garnt's First Reaction (this is a YouTube video of a YouTuber reacting to a trailer of the anime) Again, I am one of those people who truly believe that there is no bad anime, as every anime has its own very few people who trulybelieve their socially rejected anime is a 10/10, which is simply beautiful.
I just feel like my personal disappointment is leading to me being as harsh as I am. I do feel like it at least deserves a 3/10.
That said, everybody else can rate it that, but not me...
Userman
Except the final part of the anime, where asspull reigns supreme, Bisco is a great anime with a unique story going for it. Also very pleasant animation for the eyes, with its unique style. Character wise, some are cliched characters, tropes seen in many animes, but there are also other unique ones. Bisco, the main character, isn't anything new, but Milo, Tirol and Jabi are. Not fully new, but they have unique characters that seperates from the common mass of the tropes. Opening and ending ost, great. The problem with the last part is it seemed the author didn't know what to do with the two main characters.Many things that could have been handled a better way, so in the story they would make sense as well, but they were not coherently put together. Also i hate when, for plot reason, they dumb down characters.
spectre699
When I was watching this, the score for me, changes from time to time, it's either 6 or 7. I was actually enjoying it until episode 10, in episode 10, some bullshit happens then episode 11, even more bullshit happened, without those 2 bullshit plot, this is easily a 7, come on they'd put a somewhat logical plot here then throw it all away in the last episodes, I don't know if that's what really happened in the Light Novel and manga versions. I somewhat love the characters, probably around 6 to me, some characters are inconsistent, my favorite character in the series doesn't evenhave a script, it isn't even human, yeah it's Actagawa.
If you're familiar with the "they'd pull off a fairy tail" then you know what BS I mean.
botaz
I suppose this review won't be much different from others. The concept of this anime is really good, the world has a lot of potential. Sadly the story was butchered and left to bleed out on the street. Myself i love the art and sound in this anime and was probably the only reason i have finished it, the art and sound are to good to skip it. The voice actors are great too. If only they put more effor into a story. This is like you would play an alpha version of a game that has amazing graphics and sound, but has nostory at all...
The story feels bad for 2 reasons, it is strongly rushed and also it has many plot holes, but the plot holes come from the fact that it is rushed i don't know how the source material presents itself so i can't speak about it, maybe it is not rushed at all but how the story was told if so then the creator should have spent more time polishing it.
But we see more and more animes that are just pushed and rushed yet recive great graphics, feels like a waste of resources, i hope the trend changes with time.
Rat8526
*UPDATED AFTER COMPLETING IT* This is my first ever review, so just a heads up if I don't do it as well as other people. I will start off with no spoilers and then head into spoilers in a separate paragraph. -NON SPOILERS- The show starts off with incredible mystery in both the plot and in characters. It does a great job in the early episodes of giving you teases and glimpses into the truth of the show. As the characters begin to explore outside of the initial city, you get to see the truth unravel more and and it starts to get real interesting. However, episode 8 thestory goes off the rails and plot points just happen because the writer needs a "twist" to happen. To sum up my feelings in a word, it is 'disappointed.' I will continue to watch this since I'm only 2 episodes from the end, but I will likely be making fun of it every second of the final 2 episodes.
-Updated After the Final 2 Episodes (Non-Spoilers)-
The show slightly redeemed itself at the end. There was a plot point, that I get into in the spoiler section, that did piss me off and was a fearful prediction that I had, but the final episode and the final fight was very entertaining and made up for it. I still don't think there is anything crazy coming from this show, nothing that makes me say "Yes you need to watch this!" but there are some decent points in this show that I can say it's an average watch. If you got time and nothing else to watch, give it a try.
-SPOILERS-
Story (3/10)
Yay, I can now talk about the shit show that Sabikui Bisco has become. Like I said in my non spoilers section, this show started off great, and I was thinking that this could rise to my favorite "small show" series of this Winter (this was battling with Strongest Sage for my favorite "small show" this Winter). I loved the episodes in the city, where Bisco is being called a man-eater and is being hunted, but in reality Bisco is just trying to spread the truth. I also loved how crazy he was because he was liking the fact that, even though it was all a misunderstanding, people were hunting him down. I also liked the look into the kid's village and even the rust eater was cool. But man the moment that they go save Pawoo from the office and leave Kurakawa there instead of killing me, that is the moment this show lost me.
There was no legitimate reason for them to not kill him there, it was just the fact that the author wanted the plot to continue. I also still have no idea why Kurakawa is keeping any of them alive. He is depicted as a psycho, but in reality he just an idiot. He leaves Jabi alive twice, he leaves Pawoo alive for too long, his decisions just make no sense. Can we also talk about that fact that in that same episode Panda and Bisco are escaping, get shot multiple times, and are some how just fine the next episode. Did the agents not chase them down and make sure they were actually dead?
Unfortunately that is not the end of my disappointment, because in the very next episode Bisco literally dies for no good reason. The author first doesn't kill off Kurakawa for no good reason, and then kills off your main character for no good reason. For the people reading this, thinking that Bisco's death was done well, I heavily disagree. Kurakawa was in a very weak state, a weak enough state that Bisco in his weakened state could completely overpower him and tackle him into the burning rust. You know what else he could have done? Bisco could have just kicked or shoved him into the burning rust and then still lived. It is ridiculous, so much so that I wasn't even sad when Bisco died, I was just confused.
Then this most recent episode came around and me and my roommate are just laughing at how ridiculous the story telling of this show has become. I also love how this show all of a sudden turns into a Michael Bay movie with all of the explosions that randomly occur. As I talk about the art, sound, characters, and enjoyment, I will keep them short, as I did go long on the story portion.
Art (7/10)
The art is unique in this, and works well with the action. I don't think I have seen an anime yet that reminds me of the art style. It just fits the whole theme of the show.
Sound (8/10)
This has been the only redeeming factor of this show besides the art. The opening is fun and gets me hyped up for some good action, and the music during the show adds to the tension and action sequences during the episode, even if the tension is pretty terrible due to the poor writing.
Character (5/10)
This score isn't necessarily because I see the characters as bad, because I like the main 4, and I even like Tirol, even if you only see her for a couple episodes. The main reason for this score is because the development makes no sense. Panda, who is just a freaking doctor at the start of this show and has had zero combat experience is now just as strong as a Mushroom Keeper by episode 10. The progress in the character skills just make no sense.
Enjoyment (4/10)
Because of how random the plot points go, and how random the character strengths go, I just struggle to enjoy this show. The only reason I enjoy this show at all it to make fun of how ridiculous it is.
-Concluding Thoughts- (4/10)
It is a shame how far this show has come from the the beginning. It went from battling for my top Winter anime, to being the lowest anime I have rated I have completed since The Promised Neverland Season 2. Who knows, they may somehow redeem this show in the final 2 episodes, but if they actually do bring Bisco back to life like my roommate is predicting they will, I will hate it even more...
-Updated Review After the Final 2 Episodes-
Alright so the final 2 episodes came out and I watched them, and sure enough my fear came true...Bisco came back. Bisco coming back felt so forced, but guess who else came back, KURA-FREAKING-KAWA!!! Like how many times they gotta fucking die! The revival of Bisco felt terrible, but I would be lying to you if I wasn't enjoying the final fight. Something that shook me was the fact that they actually confirmed the relationship between Pawoo and Bisco. I had shipped them, but had seen so many other people shipping Panda and Bisco, but NOPE, Pawoo kisses Bisco right before the final fight. The show ended well, and as much as I hated the show overall, the final episode slightly redeemed it. I still cannot rate it any higher than a 5 because of all the plot issues throughout, but it did raise my score up 1 from a 4 to a 5.
Al-Asma
i love the idea of this fiction story, but i think it needs more background story to show. this will be great if at least netflix or any make this anime as a live action, hoping that the cgi will help to improve the visualization even better. i like the storyline, giving a clip of flashback, not much. but not how the flashback goes on. character development is good at the biginning. going from mid-end, i'm hoping for more expectation, but it didn't reach my expectation i dont like the ending, its still unacceptable for me. i'm hoping for more rational ending
cat_coffee
This show is unique. It's like watching a little kid cheer that he got his story about snail helicopters greenlit for an anime. I was worried that the "random animals coming out of nowhere" gimmick would get old. It did. I'm surprised it managed to last that long - two thirds of the show - before it got stale. Not sure why people didn't pay attention to a Yu Gi Oh card game in the middle of the show, but the writer tries to make it crystal clear that he is willing to sacrifice plot points and believable character interactions for funny fights, cool lines, anda sprinkle of hot romance. This entire show is about saving the best for stuff you like and leaving the rest to rot. Did they pick an inexperienced animation studio because of this? You gotta admire the commitment.
There are two scenes towards the end where the characters are put through a ton of pain. Or so we are led to believe, as it's jarring how unconvincingly these characters act. Perhaps the writer was uncomfortable with the viewers getting a thrill from seeing such horrible situations. That would have been a great message, if the writer had alluded to this. But as it stands, these two scenes stick out and drag down an otherwise great experience.
The second to last episode drags out a fight for half of it. Normally, I'd overlook this, but after the Yu Gi Oh gamble and the climax, another mess up makes it three unenjoyable episodes in a row. What annoys me most is that the episodes leading up to the ending can't be skipped, so everyone that picks up this show is going to have to sit through a slow, painful death. Until it picks up for the ending! Bisco nails the ending.
The show starts off confusing, but doesn't stay that way. And if an idiot like me can understand it, the storytelling can't be that bad. Music is phenomenal, voice acting is great (especially Kurokawa's!), post-apocalyptic art is sexy, originality and coolness are off the charts. It'll probably be a decade until people can appreciate the cheesy 3D though.
Overall, it's an ambitious project that doesn't end up being the cult classic it wanted to be, despite its optimistic start.
