作品紹介と概要
I would add our own trigger warning here and just say, if you've grappled with being bullied or are dealing with depression or thoughts of self-harm,
this is not the anime for you. Seek professional help, get well, and unless you feel ready to re-explore some of those issues, you don't have to watch this.
And if you're not, but you're interested in seeing those types of situations portrayed or experiencing some empathy for people who are going through really gnarly family situations,
then this is a great show that's not what it appears based on the titular character, Takopi. It's really heavy and pretty dark and kind of sad.
Welcome back to 2AM OTTACK! I'm your host Mayu, a born and raised Japanese non-otaku, and...
I'm Cisco, an American otaku.
In this podcast, we share reviews of anime and manga through our distinct perspectives with commentary on Japanese culture, history, and language.
Cisco, this manga recorded the most views as a series on Jump Plus at the time.
Despite all the cuteness from the images and the octopus-looking character, the story is something you wouldn't expect.
That's true.
It's something I think people shouldn't really avoid seeing or talking about, but it's hard to watch.
The good news is there are only two Tankobons in total and only six episodes in anime.
Okay, we're already a third of the way there.
Right, so I think we can do this.
So today we are going to talk about...
Takopi's original sin.
We will introduce about the new anime series Takopi's original sin, including the plot, amazing opening and ending theme songs with some background story and our thoughts, plus today's word of the day.
Before we start, we'd like to hear from you.
Share your thoughts, ideas, questions, or even suggestions that we should talk about.
Send us a message to the email in the description, or you can use Spotify and the YouTube comment section as well.
物語の展開
Okay, Cisco, could you give us a summary of Takopi's original sin?
Like the plot?
The plot.
Okay, so there's an alien from planet Happy who comes to Earth in a spaceship and arrives in Japan in like a vacant lot or like near a playground, I guess.
And the alien encounters a young girl named Shizuka who is spending a lot of time in the park.
And it's about their relationship.
Takopi's mission as a happy alien or whatever is to make people happy.
And Takopi has a range of different magic items to try and do that with.
So kind of channeling some Doraemon vibes in the beginning.
Well, it's definitely Doraemon vibe because Takopi looks like a cute round animal kind of thing, creature.
Right, right, right.
And then the girl's name is Shizuka.
Got it.
And then that happens in the park.
Not only a regular park, but they have like pipes or whatever.
Pipes, yeah.
Concrete.
Yeah, things like so.
And Takopi has like some new tool to use.
So hard Doraemon vibes in the beginning.
Yeah.
Right, right.
And there's a reason why.
Okay.
The manga artists wanted to make something like Doraemon, but it's dark.
And they succeeded.
Yeah.
So like interestingly, this is probably just me, but I was first exposed to this manga artist's work via the Ichinose family's Deadly Sins,
タコピーの登場とテーマ
which was a manga that ran in regular, I think regular jump for, oh, I don't know, 30-ish chapters, maybe a little bit more.
So whereas I think had I come to this manga first, it would have really taken me by surprise.
Because I happen to have seen this manga artist's later work first, I was less surprised by the direction of this anime than I would have been otherwise.
Those like stories are not related.
They're not related.
They have similar titles.
In fact, the titles are so similar that when you first told me about this being an anime,
I thought it might be an animated version of the other manga with like a slightly different title for some reason.
I was like, I don't remember Takopi being in it at all.
But you know, it says like Deadly Sin or whatever.
Maybe it's a similar thing.
So I think and that manga deals with some of the same topics as this one.
So there's clearly like some specific things on this manga artist and writer's mind that they want to explore.
So when you first see this anime, the first thing you see is a disclaimer.
Right. A trigger warning.
Trigger warning.
There's a description of like sensitive stuff.
So just be aware.
Yeah.
So I didn't know anything about this.
Almost every time I watch anime, I don't have any information.
And I stopped watching.
Yeah, you're just like, oh, I wonder what this is.
Exactly.
I thought something like kind of cute thing, but it was like that.
And Netflix, the rating is 18+.
Yeah, that feels appropriate, honestly.
That makes so much sense.
So like as you start watching, it's pretty dark and then depressing from the very beginning.
Yep. I'd say that's true.
It's just like heartbreaking to keep watching.
And the first episode is not 23 minutes or anything.
It's like about 40, like close to 40 minutes.
It's long.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And a lot of stuff happening, including appearance of Takopi, who is an alien from other planet.
Try to make happy.
Try to make people happy.
And he is a knowledged alien, but he doesn't necessarily have...
No, you wouldn't say that.
No, I think given that this alien species is capable of interstellar travel,
they like spent shocking little time studying the rest of the universe
and trying to figure out what like other intelligent life forms were like.
You know what I mean?
Like if you were an alien and you could travel from like between the stars,
don't you feel like you would also be able to be like,
okay, like we're on a mission here.
We're going to do like some intelligence gathering before we just jump in.
Yeah.
To me, Takopi is like a plain paper.
Like he can talk, he can understand language, but he's like a common sense
or like what's happening on Earth is like plain paper.
He doesn't have much information.
Yeah.
I think the phrase you're looking for here is blank slate.
Blank slate?
Yeah.
Instead of plain paper, I think what you mean is blank slate.
Like he doesn't have any experience or like knowledge yet.
Right.
And so he's learning everything.
The more correct term in Latin is tabula rasa, but that means blank slate.
That's like the English translation is blank slate,
タコピーの葛藤
but it means like not having any prior experience.
Okay.
So Takopi is blank slate and he doesn't have…
I guess the planet that Takopi lives in is like really, really happy
and then there's no bad things happening.
So like Takopi seems very pure.
Right.
And don't know anything about what's going on on Earth
or like human relationship with society.
Yeah.
Which is like, I don't know, like it's hard to watch.
It's frustrating.
Like Takopi, come on.
Like this is common sense.
You gotta do something better.
Yeah.
I find Takopi frustrating, right?
Because Takopi does seem to be able to like understand
expressions of happiness and sadness,
but like he's very slow to like correctly categorize
how the humans around them are feeling.
Right?
Yeah.
Cause like Shizuka just gets basically beaten every single day
and Takopi is trying to solve the problem,
but Takopi is not doing anything better.
Yeah.
Except not killing her.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Takopi is kind of useless in at least the first two episodes.
So you have to keep watching.
Like Shizuka gets kicked by the girl.
What's her name?
Marina.
Marina.
Yeah.
And it's hard to watch.
And even with how every word she says is like really hurting.
You know, little kids don't talk like that
unless their parents talk like that.
I mean, yeah.
Sometimes they pick it up from like other things in culture
or people.
Yeah.
I mean, I think her parents do talk like that.
And that's why that's where some of that's coming from
for her specifically.
But yeah, you know,
kids pick up like influences from lots of different places
and we don't know that much about Marina's story yet.
So it sure seems like it's coming from her parents,
but it could be from other places too.
Yeah.
The good thing about this story is like they include
not only Shizuka main girl,
but also Marina's background story
we're about to unwrap.
And then I think most of the case,
a lot of the like actual bullying and police cases,
there's like something going on there in their family.
Yeah.
Sometimes it's for sure a reason kids bully other people
is because like they're expressing
like their own inner turmoil
and trying to take it out on somebody else.
But I don't know that it's always that.
Sometimes bullies are just insecure
for like kind of no good reason
and are horrible to other people
without like a defensible explanation.
Yeah, there will be only six episodes
and then we watched already two of them.
And then after watching the second episode,
we don't know what the story is going to go.
Because like a big thing happened
at the end of second episode.
Yeah.
I mean, already the series has taken
some pretty big twists, right?
Where you're like, oh, I didn't see that coming.
And so it's definitely not a show where you watch it
and you're like, oh, this is pretty much what I expected.
It's got a lot of moments where
you're sort of taken by surprise
and then things develop in a way
that you didn't see coming.
重いテーマと感情
I think this is divided into two.
Like some people say, oh, this is like, you know,
great anime and the manga.
Other people are like, this makes me feel sad
and sick.
I don't even want to watch or read.
Yeah.
Kind of similar vibe as like fire, what do you call it?
Grave of the Fireflies.
Yeah.
No, I'm sorry.
Nobody watches Grave of the Fireflies
and is like, that was great.
Can I watch it again?
I mean, it's a great story.
Yes.
It's a very important movie.
And it's a very moving, emotional film.
But it is not like no one is watching
Grave of the Fireflies.
That was so fun, right?
No.
Some people are like, I can't even bring myself
to watch this because it's so depressing.
And other people are like, it's so sad, but it's good.
But no one is like, that was fun.
Like, I love this movie.
So I'm telling you, it's the same as this,
like Takopi's original sin.
I don't know.
It might become happier after the second episode.
I doubt it.
I mean, I don't think I can predict
where this is going to go, but it would be like
truly bizarre for the first two episodes
to be this heavy and dark.
And then for episodes three through six
to be like, and then it all worked out
and we went to an amusement park and just had fun.
That would also stun me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I was thinking if I was watching this
and I'm a little bit younger,
maybe 10 to 20 years younger than my actual age,
I would be just furious.
Like, just mad, mad, mad about Marina.
Like, how dare I can't believe.
And then now I'm older.
I just get frustrated.
More sad side.
More than like, how dare you, this girl.
Like, I can't believe.
I'm trying to see in a big scale.
And then Marina, in this case,
has some story going on with her own parents.
Very complicated story.
And that makes me sad, too.
Totally.
Her life is also very depressing.
I think I'm probably in the boat of being like,
this isn't forgivable.
I don't care that your life is messed up.
You can't abuse other people around you.
That's not okay.
I don't know that my reaction to Marina is like,
rage or anger, exactly.
But it is like, disgust.
And I acknowledge that she's having a hard life.
And her family situation is also very bad.
And she should definitely get some help.
But I don't think that translates into sympathy
for her taking those feelings out on other people around her.
But I don't know.
I also feel like I have a pretty low threshold
for tolerance of bullying.
It's one of those things that really sets me off.
Yeah.
All right.
Let's talk about the theme songs,
which I like.
Both of them.
Oh, wow.
I am shocked to hear you say that about the opening, honestly.
I know.
Because it's by Anno-chan.
There's a reason.
Okay.
The opening theme song is Happy, Lucky, Chappy.
Yeah.
And performed by Anno-chan.
She wrote and made the song.
You know, she's a little bit famous
for being bullied when she was in middle school.
Really?
Yeah.
歌詞の解釈
She stopped going to school for like a year or so.
Why?
I mean, getting bullied.
But what was she bullied about?
I'm not sure the details.
But that's why she said she was bullied.
And she also joined bullying other kids
because that was, I think, easier.
Right.
But she got disgusted by the fact,
like the whole bullying stuff.
So she stopped going.
She knows how it feels to be bullied.
Sure.
And then I like her lyrics a lot,
especially the chorus part.
It says,
The earth is rotten, so it's hard to walk?
Yeah.
It's not your fault.
You can't walk properly because of you,
but I think it's because of the other parts,
like surroundings.
Got it.
Your interpretation of those lyrics is her saying
it's not the fault of the person who's depressed
or getting bullied,
that it's hard to be alive.
It's the world around you that's causing that problem.
Yeah.
So I like that one.
And I don't think she released a music video for this yet.
And on the other hand,
the ending theme song is called
Can you translate this?
It just means the glass lines.
Okay.
It's sort of not clear.
I'm having trouble understanding
what kind of glass lines we're talking about here.
Is this an etching of a person's face?
Is it a literal glass, like a cup,
that's got some lines in it?
Is it a stained glass window?
That's sort of unclear from the title,
and the music video did not fully clear it up for me.
I think this means just how fragile
if you make a line by glass.
Okay.
So that's my interpretation.
Isn't there something with
like, you know,
the fingers are following the glass lines?
Where are the glass lines leading?
Or why are the glass lines?
Like, yubio tadoru can mean
putting your finger along a drawing line, right?
Follow the line with your finger?
Follow the line with your finger.
And so often that's when there's a drawing or something.
And so that made me wonder,
is this like a sculpture made out of glass?
Or like an etching
where like there are lines in glass
where you're sort of touching the glass
and like following the lines in it?
Or, I mean, you know,
sometimes you'll have like a cup
that's got some designs or like some lines on it
that you can kind of like, you know,
trace your finger up and down.
And there's a glass is featured
sort of prominently at the end of the music video.
So I was like, oh, maybe that's the connection.
But yeah, that part is, I think, deliberately unclear.
音楽ビデオのスタイル
This is by Tele, T-E-L-E.
And it's a solo, like a one person project.
I like the music video.
It looks like old time, like 80s, 90s,
like home video style and handmade music video.
Oh, definitely. Yeah.
It feels like someone shot this on like,
not even their iPhone,
like their dad's camcorder when they,
in like 1991, you know, with like camera shake.
And then there's a lot of like printed out
pieces of paper stuck everywhere.
That was interesting.
I liked that actually.
It was a, I mean, it was, it's so low budget.
It's like, it's like they didn't have a budget.
They were just like, we're not going to,
so the record label was just like, sorry,
like we're not going to give you any money.
But like, if you want to shoot your own music video,
like, I guess we'll like post it or something.
It looks like a, like a high school band
or like indie band in 90s
try to make their own music video.
Yeah, that's exactly what it looks like.
The highest.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's, it's a, it's like a real throwback vibe.
And it goes well with the feeling of the song.
Definitely.
Yeah.
So check those like songs out on YouTube
and I can put music on Spotify.
So if you go to our Spotify page and scroll down,
you'll see the songs that you can play from there too.
All right, let's do today's word of the day.
いじめの定義
Otaku, word of the day.
Today's word of the day is,
I think we should do ijime.
Okay, sounds good.
Yeah.
What is ijime?
Ijime means bullying.
And Japanese bullying is a little different
than American bullying,
although whatever, all bullying is bullying, I guess.
But it can take some specific and unique forms in Japan.
Whereas I think like American bullying,
like the classic idea of what that looks like
is someone being like, give me your money
or I'll beat you up.
Or like, you know,
somebody just like saying a lot of really bad things
about somebody else,
especially like behind their back,
like maybe to their face,
but like mostly behind their back
or like starting rumors and stuff.
Like those are all forms.
Well, I don't know.
The rumors thing is like,
sometimes I'm not sure it's all the way to bullying.
It's just people being in a fight with each other, right?
If like everybody is doing it against a particular kid,
then it feels like it's more like bullying.
Whereas like, I think a lot of times,
maybe this is just the context that I'm in,
one kid will say a mean thing about a kid to another kid
and the kid that the thing was said about
is being like, I'm being bullied.
And it's like, no,
like you're in a fight with somebody
and like both of you are saying mean things
about each other to your other friends.
Like bullying is like if all of your friends
all of a sudden decide to shun this one person
or like they're getting like beat up
like after school by like a crowd of people.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like I think that's American bullying looks like that.
Japanese bullying is often pretty subtle.
Like it'll just be a lot of people ignoring someone
and sort of giving them the silent treatment
and like refusing to admit that they exist.
Which is like weirder and kind of like more hardcore, right?
And like very, I don't know.
There's a lot of like, it's usually like a group activity.
And I think in the Japanese educational system,
it can be like hard for kids to kind of be upstanders
for each other in the way that like
that's really taught in America.
So when someone's being bullied,
it's kind of rare to see other kids like step up
and like call out the bullying
いじめと教師の役割
and like do stuff about it, right?
And whereas like America has mandatory re-reporting laws,
I guess, I don't know if Japan
has mandatory reporting laws or not,
but like there's definitely a trope in anime
and particularly in this one of like teachers not caring
and just being like,
I'm not going to do anything about this situation.
Sometimes that's explained by like teachers thinking
that students have to work out their problems themselves
or this like cultural attitude
that like the group has to solve the problem as a group
rather than like the individual teacher weighing in
and like fixing the problem for the kids,
which is just, I don't,
I don't think that is how most American teachers feel.
Like I'm sure there are bad teachers in America
who might see bullying happening
and not do anything about it.
But I think particularly
in like an elementary school classroom,
American parents are really likely to be like,
I insist that you do something about this situation
and like get the administration and stuff involved.
And like at a public school or with busy parents,
like they may not be able to handle that.
But like in that situation,
if someone's especially getting like physically abused
and the teacher should be able to see that
and doesn't take it to Child Protective Services,
like they can go to jail.
So it feels like the amount of response
is kind of different to this issue
in the two different countries.
アニメの警告とテーマ
So bullying is isime,
and isimekko is how to say it in English.
Is that the person who's being bullied?
No, who bullies.
Or the bully.
Okay, so that's the bully.
Isimekko, yeah.
Isimekko is someone who is being bullied.
Yeah.
Okay.
So they're a little bit different forms.
All right, before we end,
would you like to add anything?
I mean, I would add our own trigger warning here
and just say, you know,
if you've grappled with being bullied
or like, you know, are dealing with depression
or thoughts of self-harm,
like this is not the anime for you.
Like seek professional help, like get well,
and like, you know,
unless you feel ready to re-explore
some of those issues,
like you don't have to watch this.
And if you're not,
but you're interested in seeing
like those types of situations portrayed
or experiencing some empathy
for people who are going through
like really gnarly family situations,
then this is a great show
that's not what it appears
based on the titular character, Takopi.
It's really heavy and like pretty dark
and kind of sad.
Yeah, I agree with you.
If you want to understand Japanese bullying,
I think, and like the forms that it takes.
Right.
And then there are more elementary school kids
in Japan who commit suicide every year.
Wait, really?
The number is going up?
The number is going up.
Wow.
Because the number of Japanese elementary schoolers
is going down really fast.
Yes.
So the fact that the suicide rate is going up
among a population that's already decreasing a lot
is like very troubling.
That's true.
Yeah.
So, yeah.
いじめと内面的葛藤
This anime is not for everyone,
but I'll keep watching.
Me too.
I want to know what's going to happen
and how the anime wants to describe
about this social matter.
Yeah, I think seeing how it gets resolved
is also going to be really interesting
and whether it takes sort of a traditional
Japanese resolution to this type of situation
or whether it contests
the typical narrative of what happens
after bullying, essentially.
Yeah.
Oh, I forgot to tell you,
but not only the story tells the bully's side
of the story, but also Takopi
kind of faked Shizuka.
Takopi was like,
everything's going to be okay.
I just need to have a conversation with her.
And then Takopi gets beaten.
And then after that, Takopi was like,
can't move, can't say anything
because Takopi was terrified.
And then kind of telling people
what was happening in people who are bullied.
Then Takopi was telling that in the story.
Yeah, I think it's sort of an interesting question
as to whether Takopi is meant to be
Shizuka's own sort of inner self.
Imagination, yeah.
Well, I wouldn't go as far as imagination exactly,
but whether Takopi is meant to represent
her sort of inner feelings
of like not being able to sort of stand up for herself
or whether Takopi is a stand-in
for actual other people in society
who are too afraid to be upstanders
because they don't want to get targeted themselves
or who like have the experience
of trying to like upstand for a friend
and then just get smacked down
and are like, oh hell no,
I'm not experiencing that again.
Like, I guess I'm not going to defend this after all,
you know?
Okay, yeah.
Well, I hope to talk about this
at least one more time.
Yeah.
Okay.
Let's do it.
エピソードの締めくくり
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