Takopi’s Original Sin

Going into the Summer 2025 season, I was ready for the shonen overload. Anime like Dandadan and Gachiakuta were about to burst onto the scene, leaving little room for anything else, much less a 6-episode ONA series that was seemingly based on that adventures of an adorable pink octopus. Well, after experiencing Takopi’s Original Sin this season, I’ve learned that any anime with a cutesy exterior is not to be trusted, no matter how perky the opening is.

I went into Takopi’s Original Sin expecting…well to be frank, nothing in particular. It’s very likely that I would have completely missed this series had it not made a name for itself in the public space after the first episode. What I found after watching it, however, was one of the most profound, compelling, and unflinching portrayals of some of the most difficult topics in fiction. And today, as the mini-series’ final episode airs, it’s time to talk all about it. A brief reminder that this is a spoiler review, so make sure you watch the series for yourself first! Let’s get into our review of Takopi’s Original Sin.

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Takopi’s Original Sin Review

Image by Enishiya

This review is going to consist of a lot of discussion on the underlying themes and messages of Takopi’s Original Sin – after all, that’s what a show like this is all about. With that in mind, it’s best to get through the conventional points of a review at the start, so we can really dive into this series’ real talking points. Takopi’s Original Sin is an incredibly difficult show to watch, and I don’t say that lightly. Each and every episode contains some form of upsetting content, and while the 6-episode run may seem to lighten the blow, Takopi’s Original Sin is so unrelenting in its depiction of gut-wrenching scenes that the 6-episode limit almost feels like a relief. The show is masterfully executed, but it remains one of the most devastatingly sad anime I’ve ever seen.

With that being said, the series is very well-written, and importantly, amidst all of the devastation, author Taizan 5 has paced the story perfectly. Each episode feels memorable, and no time feels wasted or dragged-out. This is not a series filled with blood-pumping action or adrenaline-fueled fights, and yet the story moves at that pace. The animation is also incredibly unique, worked on by the team at Enishiya, a studio that has had a fairly minimal involvement in the anime industry until now, but I see this series catapulting them to stardom. Unfortunately, Takopi’s Original Sin‘s animation often shines during the series’ most difficult to watch scenes, but the emotional whiplash does not take away from each scene’s stylistic integrity. Takopi’s Original Sin is a stunning show when it comes to its composition, and a failure in this department could have easily lessened the impact of the story’s darker elements.

With the clarification that Takopi’s Original Sin is not for the faint of heart in mind, it’s important to look at why this series manages to be as disturbing as it is. Other anime series, like Attack On Titan, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and even some anime films such as Perfect Blue, all explore dark themes, express their messages in gory ways, and touch on upsetting topics. So how is it that Takopi’s Original Sin, a series with such bubbly presentation, manages to trump all of these other projects in terms of sheer heartbreak? The answer lies in Takopi’s Original Sin‘s ability to be graphic in a different kind of way.

Image by Enishiya

Whether you’re talking about Shizuka’s suicide, Marina’s fatal confrontation with her mother, Naoki’s stress-induced mental breakdown, or Takopi’s repeated failures to bring happiness to the world as intended, Takopi’s Original Sin hits so hard because it never flinches in its portrayal of pain when it comes to its cast which is composed almost entirely of children (or Takopi himself who acts child-like). The suffering showcased in this anime is very real – we’re not watching these children fight for their lives against some sort of mythical beast, we’re watching them fight for their lives against a world of adults who have not only disregarded their safety, but often act directly against it. In many ways, the central theme of Takopi’s Original Sin is child abuse, a subject that anime very rarely touches on for fear of insensitivity.

Takopi’s Original Sin, however, dives headfirst into this topic, and all of the nuances that come with it. Thankfully, the series is fairly dedicated to one viewpoint in particular, that being that the adults are the root cause of all of this. Takopi’s Original Sin begins on a note that would imply the villains of the story are the children who relentlessly bully Shizuka at school, particularly Marina. However, the story quickly unveils that its true message is one of the cycle of abuse, how the abuse of a child will lead them to lash out at others, and if that cycle isn’t broken, it will pass from generation to generation. The story, in some ways, reminds me of A Silent Voice, another anime project that touches on bullying. Takopi’s Original Sin, however, is a lot more brutal in its portrayal, and a lot less forgiving to any and every adult within a mile radius of the situation. Shizuka, Marina, and Naoki all have parents that many viewers will come to despise by the time that the series ends, and interestingly enough, all for different reasons.

The three central children in Takopi’s Original Sin, Shizuka, Marina, and Naoki, all act as unflinching portrayals of how children can act when they are mistreated at home, in three very different ways. Shizuka’s parents are absent from her life, leading her to need to fend for herself, with her own survival the only thing on her mind. Whether it’s allowing Naoki to take the fall for Marina’s murder, or bludgeoning Takopi with a rock when he decides to stop helping her, Shizuka is cold and detached when it comes to anyone’s wants outside of her own. Marina’s mother is physically and verbally abusive, leading her to abuse Shizuka in the same ways. Finally, Naoki’s mother constantly deprecates him for not achieving enough at school, which reduces his self-worth to the point that he is willing to take the blame for Takopi’s crime.

Image by Enishiya

Where I truly admire Takopi’s Original Sin is in its willingness to portray these children as truly bad people, because the message is not one of children’s ability to remain pure in the face of abuse, but rather of how abuse does turn children into monsters. Shizuka and Marina both carry out absolutely heinous actions throughout Takopi’s Original Sin, and the point of the story is not to justify these actions, but rather to give context as to why they happen. The most brave and daring example of this is when Takopi murders Marina in an attempt to make Shizuka happy, and for a moment, the show makes you feel genuinely relieved. Marina had been relentless in her bullying of Shizuka before this happens, and so for a moment, it truly feels like the villain of the story had been defeated. Takopi’s Original Sin does an excellent job of making its viewer self-reflect – realising that you just felt brief happiness when Takopi kills a child is a truly sobering experience, and highlights just how much this anime has its viewer in the palm of its hand, especially when we get a deeper look into Marina’s personal life later in the show.

Now, Takopi’s Original Sin is not a perfect show, and I think it’s time we talk about a couple of its weak points before moving further. One of the show’s weaknesses, for me personally, was the fairly unexplored nature of the Happy Planet, Takopi’s home planet. Ultimately, this sci-fi, cosmic element is likely something the author just wanted to introduce as a reason to place a relentlessly optimistic character like Takopi into the horrifying world that is Earth, but still, I wish we learned a little more about how the Happy Planet actually works. This lack of development is even more frustrating when Takopi’s actions are implied to affect the planet after he goes against his mother’s wishes and returns to Earth with his memories in tact in the fifth episode. I would have loved to see how exposure to Earth affected the Happians, and their constant optimism.

My only other gripe with the show, and this is more of a personal thing, is that I absolutely hate when anime does time-travel. Takopi’s Original Sin does use time-travel in an intelligent way by the time you’ve seen the full series, but for a couple of episodes, the whole ordeal becomes incredibly confusing, as our fairly grounded exploration of tragedy and childhood becomes a story of multiple timelines. The introduction of time-travel feels unnecessarily messy for a series like this, and while it does all work out and make sense by the end, its impact on the story doesn’t feel like it justifies how confusing it makes everything in the series’ later stages. Ultimately, Takopi’s Original Sin is tagged as a ‘sci-fi’ on some databases, and I guess this element is why, but I could have done without it personally. Rather than using time-travel to see into Marina’s home-life, I would have much preferred if Takopi just used some other gadget to pull that off, and leave all of the interdimensional, space-hopping out of such an otherwise raw story.

Image by Enishiya

Moving back to the good, I really respected how Takopi’s Original Sin came to an end. Much like the show, the series ended on an indefinite, nuanced, and somewhat controversial note, but I think that as tough as the ending was, it was somewhat hopeful. The ending of Takopi’s Original Sin is bittersweet, as Takopi realises that his radical optimism is somewhat hopeless in the face of such insurmountable suffering when it comes to these children. In the end, he appears to accept what he can and can’t help with, and in a final attempt to make everyone happy, sacrifices himself to go back in time one last time.

What makes the ending bittersweet is not the fact that Shizuka and Marina seem to remember Takopi subconsciously, and shed a tear together over his death, and it’s not the fact that a happier childhood awaits them. Takopi’s Original Sin‘s ending is so impactful for me because the message is that sometimes, a child’s situation is so riddled with trauma, that the only thing they can do is lean on the people around them, and wish for a happy adulthood. After watching Takopi fight to give these kids a happy childhood, there’s a deep sadness in his resignation that all he can hope for is for Shizuka, Marina, and Naoki to have happy adulthoods. In many ways, a happy adulthood is what ultimately breaks the cycle of abuse that the anime had been exploring.

In some ways, this ending may be seen as controversial, but considering how graphic and brutal the entire series was when it came to its depictions of child abuse, suicide, mental health, and more, I doubt that the series is at all afraid of a little controversy. Takopi’s Original Sin was a deeply moving experience, one that I will never forget. Ultimately, what we have here is an incredibly passionate anime with something to say – that ‘something’ is a little controversial, and very hard to watch, and it will make the viewer question themselves many times. However, that type of challenging art is exactly what I like to see put out into the industry. What did you think of Takopi’s Original Sin? Be sure to let us know, and thank you for reading.

See also: My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Review

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Where to Watch Takopi’s Original Sin?

Image by Enishiya

Takopi’s Original Sin is a 6-episode ONA, meaning original net animation. As such, its streaming rights are extensive, and you can catch all episodes streaming on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Crunchyroll, and more! Based on the original manga, and the type of show this is, there won’t be any follow-up series or spin-off, so you can experience the story, in full, right now.

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