End of a Journey, Maybe

Anitwitwatches has been a major part of my mondays for a long time. It was something that I enjoyed being a part of because originally, every monday, I watch episodes of a show I haven’t seen before. Then soon after, post about it on twitter with other people. For a while, that’s what it was until it started becoming “I want these people to watch my favorite shows”. Besides one show that I hated from the beginning, I skipped out on a few shows that I’ve watched because I didn’t think I would gain anything. At the same time, it just wasn’t fun for me because I don’t like rewatching shows so soon compared to other people apparently. It’s tiring for me to do so. 

Big Order is a show that ended anitwitwatches, at least for the moment, on the terms I joined it. Mostly. I have only watched the first episode of Big Order before dropping it while it was airing because the first episode was bad. It was time to take up that challenge of Big Order from the horrible reputations and other details for it too. So yeah, the expectations of it were obviously low going in but I feel like that color my experience of the show itself too. This was a really good send off of this fun event and while I miss it and it might come back, it was a little harder to join this now than it was when it started a couple years ago. I will join if it comes back, but on my own terms. 

Serving Up A Big Order (I Had To)

Big Order takes place ten years after a cataclysmic event. As far as we know in terms of vague terms, the world was apparently destroyed during that time. Yeah, it just totally takes up to ten years to just reconstruct and repopulate the entire world. (Some visuals would have sold this then just being told that it happened.) At the center of this event was apparently a young boy named Eiji Hoshimiya who caused it with his Order powers. His powers of absolute control that can cause destruction if he wished for it. Also, apparently he did it for his non related little sister Sena. Plus, the world hates orders and of all people, him, for it too. It’s that kind of series.

Big Order really does dig hard into the edge lord sort of tropes in anime which can be fun. At the same time, it has a lot of characters that have some good interaction with him and others that are just there as a waste of space. For instance, Eiji is taken in by the Dazaifu group of ten in order to take over the world once again. A group that sends Eiji on missions and tells him absolutely nothing so as an audience member we are disoriented. I do have to mention that Kurenai Rin is made important too as a character. She is immortal and wants to kill him, but ends up in a more complex sort of relationship there too. At least that is something.

Well…

I’m just going to go out and say it. Big Order is a big mess. At ten episodes in length, this show just doesn’t have enough time to do everything it sets out to do well. The key word is “well”. It has a much bigger cast then it needs AND it doesn’t really understand how to place its cast in more efficient ways to at least make them feel like people. To be completely blunt, they need to be something other than absolutely morons. There is something deeper in this show’s writing that it wants to say. Something about Eiji coming to terms with the reality of his life that he is trying to uncover. Same with coming out from the protection his dad tried to push on him because this could be a coming of age story. It still is, but you know what I mean right?

It also doesn’t help that there is some kind of an anti intellectual feel with the show or just sort of tone with the show. It doesn’t help that a lot of it is nonsense already. Still, characters hearing something that is complex for them, despite it being at a middle schooler’s level of thinking at best, and then deciding to attack doesn’t help anything at all. So that kind of mood and mindset doesn’t help these facts when Eiji is going on these quests he doesn’t understand in situations he doesn’t know at all. This show’s dedication to not understanding anything at least put me in a situation where I was just watching a lot of stuff happen and I had no reason at all to care. You know, at some points.

But…

Once again, there are some good elements of this show that I have to mention because not many people will mention them. My favorite episodes or moments revolve around only small amounts of characters being together. It could be Eiji and Rin going through a vent and then Rin dies, but creates light as she revives so Eiji can see what’s in front of him. A hilarious looney tunes moment. The relationship between Eiji and Rin is the best part of the show because it actually goes somewhere. First it’s Rin trying to kill Eiji, then there is the middle where Rin is under Eiji’s control and can only try to lead things into killing Eiji, but the final moments when Rin is not under Eiji’s control and wants to help him in the finale is really good.

There are other moments and episodes too. Eiji and Iyo together are always an interesting duo. I mean, it’s obvious that Iyo wants to do a lot of things to Eiji and get him to recognize her. But seeing that happen and play out is a highlight. Same with the three stage play that happened in the final episode between Sena, a mysterious figure I will not name, and Eiji. So there are plenty of those moments which made Big Order feel like more than it was. Possibly because these portions of the show were never over crowded and actually let characters breathe for more than five seconds before the muddled mediocrity occurred. These are the moments where you know that the mangaka or author actually had something they wanted to say. You can almost feel it.

If Only…

It could be better? Have more time? Have some silly moments instead of the forced edgy things? It could it have been a comedy? Cut down its cast or make a more efficient use out of them? Or maybe if it chose a direction it wanted to go. I know that it’s silly because JoJo is a thing that exists, but it could have been more economical and ridiculous instead of doing that then being shoved into a screen of garbage. If you are going to have a series where people can turn things from fact into fiction or the reverse, have an idea? Especially since this is a series where cutting off limbs and stabbing through people’s bodies doesn’t do anything. Once you establish that, the real stakes that Big Order wants to have completely disappear. 

I guess that I should also mention some of the visual aspects of the show because it really did have some creative designs and a lot of good animation at times too. It almost feels like a waste considering how much garbage there is in the show itself. But yeah, that was a thing that I watched. I will probably forget about this show very soon. Not because it was bad like so many people have said, but because it wasn’t bad enough in interesting ways to even push into that mindset. It was a show that some people seem to hate. I just don’t have any feelings for Big Order at all. I’m honestly surprised that I got to write as much as I did in this post about this show. Have a fun time, guys. Watch good anime.