Taboo Tattoo

Genericism is a very interesting thing. Shows we label “generic” are almost always inferior, so it is only natural to wonder why every season, without fail, there is an overabundance of them. One of the most common symptoms of genericism is that you can easily predict more things than should be predicted simply by taking a glance at the synopsis or poster. You might take one look at Taboo Tattoo’s poster and promptly dismiss it as generic, but I’m here to tell you that it is not. It may seem like it, it may start of like it, but no, I assure you, it isn’t; ... nay, it is much, much worse than anything you’ve ever dismissed before as “generic”. If you would be oh so kind to indulge me, let me explain to you to the glorious calamity that is Taboo Tattoo.

Taboo Tattoo is the asinine abomination of a show produced when a poorly written, generic sub-par show tries to make fun of itself; it’s like if Sword Art Online tried to be Konosuba. It tries to be self-aware and become a parody of other shounen action anime but relies way too heavily on the tropes and clichés it is trying to subvert—it just feels like it doesn’t know what it wants to be. Now once you top it off with over excessive incessant fan service and wish fulfillment and drastic changes of tone and atmosphere multiple times in an episode, you get the worst show this season. The worst part is, unfortunately, that this show is not bad enough to be considered good.

The show’s beginning is as generic as it can get, seemingly nothing different from anything else you’ve seen before. It’s got your starter pack of shounen action anime tropes

Begins with unexplained fight scene ✓
Beta-male randomly given mysterious power ✓
Said power is the strongest one ✓
MC is the “perfect match, almost like a god-sent” for that said power ✓
Childhood friend (with obvious crush on MC) MC must protect ✓
Evil organization after MC’s power ✓
Killer lolis ✓
Fan-service (massive bouncing boobs, panty shots, low angle shots) ✓
Yuri action ✓
Tentacle groping ✓

But from this bland and overdone setup the show manages to transcend itself above the descriptor of “generic” and enter a new realm of inferiority that is rarely ever reached in the medium. There are an innumerous amount of things that make this show difficult to consider “good” let alone “mediocre”, I’m not even sure where to begin.

The plot progression is unreasonable with oddly placed fight scenes and illogical character motivations. The events that happen are so bland and simple that it’s paradoxically difficult to suspend my belief. The main character, Seigi, really just gets his Taboo Tattoo power after saving Dr. Wiseman (yes, that’s really his name) from getting beaten up by a couple of thugs. How and why was he getting beaten up? Good question, never answered. Why does Seigi defend this man and potentially risk his life? Good question, thinly answered.

The show then proceeds to nonchalantly introduce a country that doesn’t exist in real life, and not once does it ever expand on it in a more meticulous fashion, because who really cares about world building? The Tattoo power is explained using convoluted logic that boils down to “it’s magic” that is so unimaginative in nature that the show would actually have been better off leaving it unexplained. New abilities of that Tattoo power are suddenly introduced with little explanation and things just escalate into ludicrousy of epic proportions.

The wish fulfillment aspect of this show cannot be emphasized enough; everything that happens is some sort of wish fulfillment or the other. Without spoiling anything, there is literally a scene where Touko, or how I like to call her, BigBoobs-chan, goes to meet Seigi, or MC-kun. MC-kun is passed out in his Grandfather’s dojo and BigBoobs-chan sits next to and watches over him. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a pale red blush overtakes BigBoobs-chan’s face as she promptly muses to herself “it is a woman’s shame to ignore a man offering himself!” and proceeds to lean over MC-kun, confining him between both her legs and arms. What BigBoobs-chan (who is a middle schooler, mind you) was trying to accomplish, I can’t for the life of me figure it out. Anyway, naturally, MC-kun wakes up at this time and says “BigBoobs-chan?” another blush, this time maroon red, invades BigBoobs-chan’s face and she, in embarrassment, stops leaning over MC-kun and sits down. But where does she sit down? Of course, it has to be on MC-kun’s groin! Because who really cares anymore? This is just one of the scenes I have mentioned, there are even more titillating and salacious scenes throughout the show as well (token tentacle groping scene included), so if you’re into this kinda thing I’ll just tell you to go for it.

This unrestrained wish fulfillment naturally leads to an overabundance of fan-service. Now, of course, as present in almost every single anime, there is fan-service. The only reason I am discussing it is because of how abundant it is. Literally, there will be at least a couple dozen fan-service scenes per episode. Yeah, you read that right, per episode. The worst part? It is never limited to solely basic fanservice stuff like panty/butt/cleavage shots of likes, no, it is more like straight up girl on girl action. Of course, there is a difference between “fanservice” and expressing a character’s “sexuality” but nobody behaves like our Yuri-loving princess antagonist, Aryabhata. She will straight up grope her loli companions out of nowhere, randomly getting prepared to sleep with them numerous times throughout the show. Again, if you’re into this kinda thing, I’ll just tell you to go for it.

It is nearly impossible to review the characters because they barely qualify to be called so.

Seigi is just a distressingly bland “I want to be a hero of justice” archetype with zero personality outside that; in short, he is a self-insert. The only development he receives is contrived and at the cost of reducing other characters to plot devices.

Touko is the “I want to be with my childhood friend no matter what!” archetype, and outside of her big boobs, she is nothing but the waifu for the self-insert.

Bluesy Fluesy—I kid you not, that is really her name—is just a trained and skilled soldier trapped in a middle schooler’s body, because this show wouldn’t be complete without an underage female who’s prepubescent panties we will never see enough of.

Blood Blackstone (or BB), the only decently written character in the show (not saying much). Compared to the rest of the cast he’s more complex than a labyrinth and more deep than than BigBoobs-chan’s cleavage. His character backstory is engrossing enough to keep you invested as well (one of the better episodes of the show).

One of the antagonists, Aryabhatta, is a prideful princess who’s also a lesbian and sexually promiscuous, as she readily and regularly gropes her loli companions in good fun.

I suppose I should also mention how this show degrades their female characters, not that many viewers really care, but I feel obligated to mention it.

Hm? What’s that? “What about the other characters?” Nah, these are the only “characters” that are involved in this show. One thing I can compliment the show for is that it isn’t afraid to do stuff other action shounens wouldn’t normally do, like killing of major characters and severely injuring others. Even this is done in a forced way (killing characters in stupid ways) but I have to give credit where credit is due; the removal of certain characters certainly made things a little bit more interesting.

This show is also very ostentatious. Taboo Tattoo tries to explore ideas concerning “justice” and how it is perceived differently depending on position of the person; this leads to the show suddenly humanizing comically evil villains in a very heavy handed approach. The show is never subtle with its themes, moments are contrived in an obtuse manner just to culminate in a preach given by a character on the “delicacy of justice” and how “I won’t stop others from their own justice”. And again, as I mentioned, the show also tries to be satirical and often pokes fun at regular storytelling tropes—so how can it try and have resonant themes about justice? The two just don’t click together.

Literal forced drama, never seen emotional catharsis from characters in a show more contrived than this. Characters that are seemingly unrelated suddenly reveal to be in strong platonic or romantic relationships with one another and expel more cringe inducing lines of dialogue like “you never change” out of nowhere. The jarring tonal shifts in the show are consistently present in here as well, as one moment will be some serious (yet boring) exposition scene and suddenly the music accompaniment changes to slow, sad piano music as one of the characters suddenly talks about how much he/she missed the character.

Drama and problems that arise in the beginning episodes (and are resolved) suddenly come out of nowhere during conversations because the writer doesn’t know how to form real dialogue between characters. “Is it okay if we stay together?” is said multiple times throughout the show, for no reason other than to contrive some unnecessary and predictable drama between characters that achieves nothing. There are no character dynamics whatsoever, every conversation bounces between either exposition or some unfunny joke.

The animation is unremarkable, the character designs are generic and bland, the colour palette is unnecessarily monotonous, the fight choreography is annoyingly inconsistent, yadda yadda yadda. It has its moments with insane CG cinematography where the camera pans around in all sorts of degrees, but those are few and far between.

Enjoyment: 4/10

If you liked the abundance of action scenes, the Tattoo as a superpower, and the whole concept of good vs evil organizations clashing, then I’d point you to Bungou Stray Dogs. It’s far from exceptional by all means but does everything Taboo Tattoo tries to do a bit better, which unfortunately isn’t saying much but overall Bungou Stray Dogs is the better version. If you enjoyed the moments when the show pathetically tried to be satirical, then I’d point you to One Punch Man (but let’s be honest, who hasn’t seen this already).

Overall: 2/10

Taboo Tattoo is very impressive in its own right. It is honestly difficult to write a show that can pierce this untapped sphere of atrocity, not even inexperienced and first time authors can write shows this bad. It feels like the writer of Taboo Tattoo was intentionally trying to create a story that was B-level, schlock entertainment, but like I said in the beginning of the review, this show is just not that bad enough to be considered good. Maybe if it didn’t take itself so seriously, or it was more consistent with its self-awareness and poking fun at action anime tropes, then it would have been a great satirical parody of the shounen genre; but no, unfortunately Taboo Tattoo is just the perfectly well-rounded package of trash.

I hope this review was informative and helpful.

Taboo tattoo is a kind of show that I have high expectation once,it went well in the beginning.However,things started to go in a wrong direction and finally become a train wreck.

Story(3/10)(35%)

The beginning of Taboo Tattoo is very easy to follow,it started with a rich introduction about the story and also the characters,which is a solid start.

The actions are also impressive too,characters using different skills to fight against enemies.I have no complaint about the actions.Its exciting and fun to watch.

However,things started to turn worse in the later episode.The pace of the story is kinda fast and rough.It feels like the story is rich and full of ... elements but at the same time,there's too much to talk about.Therefore,the anime decide to use fast pace and weird transitions in order to do so.However,this may affect the story process and you may miss some of the important information.

Also,because the later episode is mainly fights.Fanservice and comedy elements are misplaced,therefore,the story is lacking of depths and the overall feeling is weird.They had to get away from that and replace them with much more useful content instead of fanservice and comedy.

The worst part of taboo tattoo is the plot is starting to off its original rails,which is totally unacceptable.In later episodes,after characters died,they put back stories about them,main characters are being abandoned afterwards,which the plot seems to be going to nowhere.It seems like Taboo Tattoo just give up in halfway.such a shame.

As expected,the ending ends up in a rush...

Animation art (8/10) (10%)

This anime pays a lot of efforts on battles,you can see that characters use different items (e.g:smoking bombs) during battles with diversified skills and techniques.

Characters also have different decisions because of their personalities and weaknesses during the battle.Therefore,the whole screen of the animation is rich and realistic.

If the quality of the graphics is better,such as:using more colourful visuals,it would be more splendid.

Sound (7/10) (10%) (including music)

This anime also pay a lot of efforts on sound effects during the battle,which contains characters conversions with a lot of details (hitting the wall,injures)

The op seems to fit the theme of the story too.Its filled up rocky-style music.However,if they able to add some more background soundtracks and sound effects inside,it'll be better.

Characters (2/10) (25%)

As I have mentioned,the story has a rich story introduction and the story is well bonded with the characters.

Unfortunately,this is the only best thing for characters development.

Characters is lacking of depths because the whole anime is mainly fighting in the later episode,I hardly feel any kind of emotions when characters are having struggles or tragic events.Maybe because of lacking of back stories,which shows this anime fails to deliver any emotional moments to the audience and affects the overall enjoyment and the characters development.Touko,for example,is just a bunch of fanservice and a mental support girl to Seigi but none of her backstories are told.

Other problem is the character design,the naming of characters is weird.the MC is called Justice or Seigi (Seigi means Justice in Japanese) and the other one is Bluesy Izzy,maybe they want to let us easy to remember the characters name.However,it's still unacceptable because they are too simple.

Enjoyment(3/10)(20%)

If you are an action anime fan,this anime Taboo Tattoo should suitable for you because it has a lots of actions.

Otherwise,I wouldn't recommend Taboo Tattoo because plot is going insane afterwards and it's disappointing.

I'm feeling bad for the solid start....Taboo Tattoo really once give me a great impression to me,but sadly it turns it to a train wreck at the end.Its painful to rate this anime with low score honestly...

Overall (3.65/10)(F)(Dreadful)

Lelouch's dad once said, "Notto disu shitto agen." Well, that's exactly what i was thinking while watching Taboo Tattoo.

Justice! Heroism! Friendship! And middle schoolers!? In a battle to save the world, our middle school justice-loving protagonist conveniently receives the most powerful tattoo. This Tattoo has the power to create black holes and, of course, Seigi uses it for justice and protecting his loved ones... But what actually happens in this story when you put a naive middle schooler and his powerless childhood friend in the middle of a war to save the world...? Well, my friend, people die.

Ah yes, Taboo Tatoo: an anime where the ... main protagonists are cliché, enemies are crazy in addition to being cliché, and cliché female characters bombard you with a huge amount of fanservice. Take those elements, add in a dash of "mediocre plot", a pint "stupid protagonists", sprinkle on the "plot conveniences, and then put it in the oven for 12 episodes. VOILA! Oven baked and ready for viewers.

Story: 6/10
Walking down a street at night you see an old man being harassed. Normally you have several options and would probably choose to either call the police or keep walking, but not if you're our 15 year old cliché martial artist justice-loving protagonist. That's right, you've gotta "save the old guy". Unfortunately, this is where our protagonist goes wrong. That old fart then forces a super rare "Tatoo" upon him that grants him the power to make black holes, and we all know that Tattoos can't be removed easily.

Now it's time to talk about Bluesy Fluesy... Firstly, who the hell named her that? I'm thinking that some douchebag was probably just shitting down on the toilet thinking "Meh, she's American... Whatever, ima just call her fcking Bluesy Fluesy." Anyways, the main character gets his ass kicked by her and becomes wrapped up in a secret world-wide battle to collect the Tattoos from those who misuse them. (Pretty Mediocre of a Premise) The battles often cause people to lose limbs, so I guess you could say it's relatively graphic.

The comedy made me laugh occasionally throughout the anime, that's definitely a plus.

The pacing was... okay... we get a rather slow start that gives you a shounen feeling, but then... SHIT SUDDENLY HITS THE FAN and there's a time leap. From a busty super-sexual royalty girl villain to a loli schrodinger's-cat-like character, this show has it (fanservice) all. Overall, I felt the story itself wasn't really that interesting there's only a few ways these type of stories can go. Train, power up, overcome, maybe fail once or twice, win or lose in the end. There's nothing special here, but the battles were good and there were interesting character relationships.

Overall, I think it's a good enough story that killed my boredom. 7/10

Characters: 4/10
Besides the main character, and massive amounts of cliché archetypes, the characters were actually pretty good... I absolutely loved when the enemy characters got screen time (Arya and BB were the best chars in this series), but you most likely won't be getting any new favorite characters from this anime unless you're a new watcher. Arya, the main villain girl, was the most interesting character in the show with a decent amount of depth behind her character, with reasons that were actually pretty logical. Really didn't enjoy "naive-middle-school-hero" Justice or "this-useless-dumbfuck-wants-to-be-by-him-even-during-life-threatening-danger" childhood friend. Cliché protagonists. Everywhere. 4/10. But--- The villains were an interesting 7/10, so it averages as a 6/10 in my books.

Art: 8/10
The art was actually pretty good. I genuinely enjoyed watching the fight scenes because of the art.

Fanservice. There's a lot of fanservice. Arya even randomly gropes boobs and engages in lesbian sex. There are also a ton of low-angle shots where you can get a nice view of some Bluesy ass.

Although there's no nudity. Some people argue that it takes away from the anime, others are straight males (jk) but i don't think it really interfered that much. Well-drawn scenes, okay animation, and great special effects so it's good enough to give an 8

Sound: 6/10
As a musician, I'm always listening to an anime's background music. Honestly, I only slightly remember the piano piece and liked the main theme, the rest weren't unique or noticeable. The fighting sounds and music definitely enhanced the exciting moods that they were trying to convey. The sound was okay...

Enjoyment: 7/10
Although I disliked most of the protagonists, thought the entire series was cliche, and not much happened that I didn't expect, I actually did enjoy watching this series. As an action and supernatural anime fan, my expectations were met while watching it. Fanservice was a plus for me, but it may be a minus for you. It helped kill some time for me :).

Overall: I give it a 6 overall. It's a decent recent anime that's good enough to kill some time, but has annoying characters everywhere and takes itself way too seriously. Some of the characters were so stupid that it felt like their deaths felt kind of comedic in nature.

But in all seriousness, I wouldn't want to watch disu shitto agen...

I'd probably watch a season two if it came out though~

(if you agree or enjoyed reading, let me know by clicking helpful or commenting on my page~ thanks~)

With a riveting cast including:
A teenager named Justice
A childhood friend with big tits
A middle aged lady who still looks 14
An otaku assigned to care for the middle aged lady who looks like a teen
Big tough guys claiming to be american soldiers
A guy obssessed with snakes and dicks
A girl who thinks shes a samurai
A loli with yuri tendencies
A holier-than-thou silver haired princess
... A guy in a black coat with a brooding and gruff attitude

This show is just as original as they come.

Overall the story suffers from its usual tropes, and its one redeeming episode was so far in and disguised by so much garbage that it doesn't shine so much as flicker and die like a candle in a collapsing cave.

The show itself cant decide wether it wants to be a comedy, or a serious show and proceeds to do neither well

A good concept followed by a sputtering failure

TL;DR at the end

~Contains Spoilers~

The reviews for this show are far to generous. Even this one, is far to generous, and I haven't even wrote it yet. If you enjoy cliche shows, then that's fine. But it doesn't change the FACT that this anime takes itself way to seriously and becomes one of the hardest things to watch in anime history.
________________________________________
STORY: 1/10

Though I will admit the timeskip episode stirred a slight bit of emotion inside me, a fraction of my fiber that harbors a forbidden love for this type of anime.... the rest of it had me throwing up inside my mouth. There is ... a lot of character death in the series, which I can't understand why was a remotely good idea, seeing as I cared about two or so of the characters anyway. To make matters worse, for some reason, at least half of the episodes have some sort of sexual scene for LITERALLY NO REASON RELATING TO THE PLOT. IT MAKES NO SENSE. I haven't even gotten into the main plot yet. You know what, I don't have to: It's bad. Really bad. That's all you need to know.
________________________________________
ART: 4/10

While Taboo Tattoo is left with some very satisfying fight scenes and magnificent shading and tone left by the animators, some of the scenes are just disgusting. I don't know how many times we've had to tell Japan that CGI DOESN'T WORK, and yet they've kept it up all these years... Though a minor problem, as these events are few, it's still extremely aggravating to watch. Though, like I said earlier, the art is good, the dark colors sometimes make it hard to see what's going on, which wouldn't be as much of a problem if the movements of characters weren't so choppy at times.
________________________________________
SOUND: 4/10

The opening theme, wile cliche'd, is still good. The ending as well. It doesn't matter though, I was too busy crying manly tears for all the poor headphone users out there who forgot to minimize their volume before the episode. I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to use ear rape as an explosion sound effect, but if the motive was to drown out the OST and voice acting completely, then, well, it worked
________________________________________
CHARACTER: 1/10

The only characters I remotely liked were the comedy relief characters. The rest were abominations of cliches and I'm glad most of them end up perishing in the end. That's all I can say without completely blowing up in a rage fit about how atrocious these characters are.
________________________________________
TL;DR: 3/10

+Decent fight scenes
+Decent color
+Decent OP/ED
+Decent comedy relief characters
-Everything else

Taboo Tattoo is... no. I have no words. If you've ever seen an anime before, and if you don't adore cliches, then I can't recommend this to you.

I really love Taboo Tattoo. The way the characters powers work was very interesting. Getting powers through a tattoo. The powers themselves was also very interesting and cool. I really liked the fight scenes, filled with plenty of satisfying action and outcomes. In my opinion the battles was balanced with the whole "good guys win, good guys lose" thing. The characters are pretty good as well. I think they have good development. The story was very interesting although I think they could've gone into more detail about the Tattoos and the characters backstories. Overall I think this anime is very interesting and awesome

Basically
The starting episodes from 1 to 5 was really good. But then the ending episodes just sucked pure and utter ass. The opening and ending songs are really awesome, since I discovered this anime through osu.
The anime started off with a strong beginning, strong buildup in episode 1, so it got you into the anime.
But then, from each episode to the next, you're absolutely lost, you have no idea what happened because they don't start from the scene from the previous episode but from a scene which is 3 days after that scene. The timeskip from episode 10 to episode 11 of 1 year was ... stupid.
The anime was rushed, the story wasn't allowed to develop since it didn't have the episodes needed to develop, it was too rushed. If developed properly, this anime would have been a great enjoyment to watch.
I also hated the fact that put in jokes within serious scenes, what is the point of that?
The ending episodes and their CGI animation, absolutely horrible.
A great start finishing with a terrible ending.

I have no idea what's wrong with some people. cliche? spare me with this. there were other worst cliche animes out there and somehow you pick on this one. It was good, an original story,good art,decent sound and had most of what people search for. a lot of hate but the anime was very good.
Overall i gave it a 10 because it was very good. I started it on 19:00 telling myself i'll watch 1/2 episodes and then go to bed as i had school next day morning yet the anime was so good that i stayed till 4 am just to finish it.
Season 2 ... was announced in the last episode.still waiting for it

This anime had so much potential but fell very fall from my liking after the first 5 episodes. It's just so confusing to watch, they don't explain jack in taboo taboo. on almost every episode i had to go back to the previous episode bc i was confused on what was going on , but even after going back i couldn't figure what was going on. It moves to fast, and doesn't elaborate very well. If they went back and re did it like full-metal alchemist i would be happier with the result. I still don't know what is going on

Pretty average anime to be honest. It started of interesting, with main character being just a normal guy who is minding his own business until he gets a tattoo which gives him a unique ability called void maker.

Near the end of the anime it is kinda boring, what makes it worse is when you reach the final episode you see the main villain is defeated then on last few minutes she is shown as alive... It brings the thought into your mind, "what the fuck was all that for then?"

Overall just "meh" type of anime, not bad but not good either.

got recommended as "fire" anime, this anime should be thrown into fire

"this review need more information"
-should watch paint dried instead
-the art is okay
-the characters not round, its square
-''how the character react''. in the anime we should sexual harrass other people
-"do other will enjoy or dislike". watching cat eating more entertaining.

bruh review anime in this website is harder that my bank security, my investment account and my national trading account
...
U.S. forces and allies
Justice "Seigi" Akatsuka (赤塚 正義 (セーギ), Akatsuka Jasutisu (Sēgi))
Voiced by: Makoto Furukawa[7] (Japanese); Justin Briner (English)[8]
Seigi has a strong sense of justice and ends up receiving a mysterious tattoo after rescuing a homeless man from some thugs. Seigi has trained in the Akatsuka-style of jujitsu since childhood under the supervision of his enthusiastic grandfather. His Power Crest, "Void Maker", allows him to create black holes and regenerate from injuries; it's also one of the few tattoos which does not require a trigger like the others. Due to his parents having "weird ideas" when he was born, his given name is written in kanji but pronounced as the English word. Seigi preferentially goes by his nickname, the traditional Japanese pronunciation of his given name.
Bluesy "Izzy" Fruesy (ブリージィ・フルージィ (イジー), Burījii Furūjii (Ijī))
Voiced by: Mikako Komatsu[7] (Japanese); Monica Rial (English)[8]
Bluesy, aka "Izzy", is a mysterious girl who appears before Seigi. Izzy has overwhelming physical power thanks to her Power Crest, which gives control over air. She's a U.S. Army lieutenant in charge of recovering the tattoos in Japan. Despite appearing to be of high school age, Izzy is older than Tom, a side effect of her Power Crest stopping her aging. She later loses her left arm during a battle with Cal.
Tōko Ichinose (一ノ瀬 桃子 (トーコ), Ichinose Tōko (Tōko))
Voiced by: Chika Anzai[7] (Japanese); Jad Saxton (English)[8]
Touko is Seigi's classmate and childhood friend, she also has a not-so-subtle crush on him. Her most distinguishing feature is her well-developed body compared to other girls her age. After being possessed by Iltutmish, she accidentally gets a Power Crest in her forehead which (like all Power Crests) increases her physical abilities when activate. She is later killed and devoured by a monstrous Iltutmish causing Seigi to fall into despair.
Tom Shredfield (トム＝シュレッドフィールド, Tomu Shureddofīrudo)
Voiced by: Tomokazu Sugita[9] (Japanese); Chris Bevins (English)[8]
An otaku with a love for moe characters working as Izzy's subordinate. He possesses a copied Power Crest known as "Noise Canceller" which allows him to negate the powers of other tattoo users. Because of his lacking fighting prowess, he's often ends up injured after every confrontation.
Lisa Lovelock (リサ・ラブロック, Risa Raburokku)
Voiced by: Eri Kitamura[9] (Japanese); Jamie Marchi (English)
The commander of the Curse Unit of the U.S. Army and a good friend of Izzy. Nicknamed "Foxfire", her Power Crest allows her to create fiery explosions using the components in the air, she often teases Izzy about her small bust.
Colonel Sanders (サンダース, Sandāsu)
Voiced by: Tesshō Genda[10] (Japanese); Christopher Sabat (English)
A Brigadier General in the U.S. Army who prefers to be called "Colonel", he's a patriot as well as the leading member of the tattoo program. Even after losing his right arm, both legs, and even his vision in the fight against Cal, he refuses to let his disabilities hold him back.
Souha Tamaki (玉城 走破, Tamaki Souha)
Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese); Ricco Fajardo[11] (English)
A soldier from the Japan Self-Defense Forces and one of the few Japanese Power Crest users, he offers to help Seigi and his group. Much like Tom, Tamaki's also an otaku and the pair quickly become friends. Later on, he proposes to his girlfriend (who's also an Otaku) despite knowing that could rise death flags. Nicknamed "Bull Demon", his Power Crest allows him to warp dimensions around himself to accelerate at incredible speeds, ignoring all possible damage to his body.
Independents
Brad Blackstone "BB" (ブラッド・ブラックストーン, Buraddo Burakkusutōn)
Voiced by: Toshiyuki Morikawa[9] (Japanese); J. Michael Tatum (English)
A highly skilled combatant whose motives are unclear. He's an old acquaintance of Izzy and a defector from both the U.S. Army and Kingdom. Like that of Seigi, Brad also possesses the Void Maker, but Brad's Power Crest is killing him slowly. He becomes a mentor of sorts towards Seigi, but later on sacrifices himself in order to save Seigi and Izzy, with his soul and memories being transferred over to the former.
Professor Wiseman (ワイズマン, Waizuman)
Voiced by: Show Hayami[10] (Japanese); Jeremy Schwartz (English)
A renegade American scientist who absconded the country with a number of Power Crests, one of which being Void Maker which he latter gave to Seigi as thanks for saving his life. He also helps Brad Blackstone in order to access and modify the source code of his tattoo.
Kingdom of Selinistan
Aryabhata "Arya" (アリヤバータ, Ariyabāta)
Voiced by: Akari Kitō[12] (Japanese); Carli Mosier[8] (English)
The princess of the Kingdom of Selinistan. A nationalist who desires world domination, she seized power in a coup d'état which killed both of her peace-minded parents. Aryabhata wishes to change the world to suit her own ends, regardless of what others may think or feel. She strikes a beautiful figure, and comports herself with dignity, but her love of games is unequaled. Like Seigi, her Power Crest doesn't require a trigger, Arya's Power Crest allows her linked to the source of all other Power Crests, thereby allowing her to utilize any other power at will. Created as a tool to control the Power Crests, once she found out about the abuse and cruel experiments perpetrated by the king, her resentment towards humanity drove her to want to rewrite the world.
Iltutmish "Il" (イルトゥトゥミシュ, Irututumishu)
Voiced by: Shiori Izawa[12] (Japanese); Sarah Wiedenheft (English)
A girl member of Brahman, who has pledged her allegiance to Arya. Nicknamed "Schrödinger's Cat", her Power Crest allows her to possess others as well as phase through matter so long as someone acknowledges her presence. She and Lurker have a pet capybara named "Mickey" and later on adopt a one-eyed kitten they find on the street. With Arya's power, Il can also turn herself into a giant, black smilodon.
Cal Shekar (カル・シェーカル, Karu Shēkaru)
Voiced by: Hitomi Nabatame[9] (Japanese); Rachel Robinson (English)
A loyal servant and close aide to the princess, Cal's the Vice-Commander of Brahman. Nicknamed "Aegis Armadillo", her Power Crest allows her to create powerful barriers that can be used to block incoming attacks as well as cut nearly anything, she's also a deadly swordswoman as well. Despite her serious demeanor, she's easily frustrated by Arya's antics. She also admits to being in love with Brad but he turns her down in favor of Izzy.
R.R. Lurker (R・R・ラーカー, Āru Āru Rākā)
Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda[12] (Japanese); Andrew Love (English)
A sadistic, whip-wielding man working under Arya, Lurker is a member of Brahman. He later develops an obsession with Izzy because of his Lolita Complex and the fact she blasted off two of his fingers. Nicknamed "Behemoth Viper", his Power Crest allows him to increase the mass of his whip (and possibly other items), allowing him to rip apart rock and metal as easily as he can flesh and bone.
Kujuri (クジュリ)
Voiced by: Ai Kayano (Japanese); Tia Ballard[8] (English)
One of Arya's "clone" sisters who doesn't hate humanity like her. She explained BB the origins of Arya and why she wants to remake the world.

If i was 12 and not very bright, i'd probably think this show is super awesome. It's another one of these series that spends every moment of its existence trying to be cool, without caring if anything makes sense or if any character is acting rationally. Silly mechanics are constantly introduced at the drop of a hat and never really explained. Just another Guilty Crown style train wreck of a plot that surely only appeals to children. It also tries to do comic relief, but manages to fail spectacularly because it's just too fast. You'll go from dead serious to ... a 1 second joke and then back to dead serious. Very clumsy.

The characters are generic and generally unlikable. Bluesy's design is pretty good but that's about the only strong point. The music sucks too.

We have to mention the "artistic style" of this shit. For some reason there is an absurd amount of color bleed applied 24/7 which makes it look like the characters are being hammered by a 1000 watt spotlight. In nighttime scenes, you will have white shirt that look like LED bulbs. If it's supposed to be artistic, it is horrendously executed and violent to the eyes.

For the positive points, there was one nicely choreographed and animated fight scene in EP1 with interesting camera angles. That's about it.

I tried watching it ironically and enjoyed it a bit, but it wasn't enough to finish the series. Reserved for elementary schoolers!

Overall this show wasn't bad. The characters were unique and fun to follow. That was what I thought until the last few episodes. The pacing became horrible and the time skip ruined a lot of character development. The pacing felt really rushed, like they only planned half of the show all the way through. The show was trying to be too many things at once. There was romance, humor, action, revenge, and all this other stuff. But none of it was really fleshed out throughout the story. The characters had a lot of potential (Izzy), but was ruined by bad writing. I was hoping for ... more when I started this series. When I finished was was left in a pool of disappointment.

Want an anime about 'Murica? You got it! This show is all about americans going to Japan to gather tattoos. As dumb as that sounds, it's actually the whole idea of the series.

Now, you might think this series is an action-packed series with spectacular graphics and compelling story line. Yes, it has spectacular graphics. Yes, it's action-packed. But if there's one thing this series doesn't have, it's a good story. The series focused so much on action that plot-building hardly occur in the show. And when they do, they shorten the fighting scenes and add fillers. In terms of plot sequences, this anime didn't do ... a good job.

To make up for that, however, it had characters that stood out more than it should. The side characters in the series were quirky and strong despite not having much to do with the advancement of the story. I also liked how they didn't discriminate/look down on female characters. Both sexes had equal roles in the story.

To be honest, I didn't enjoy it that much. Sure, there were scenes that really blew my mind. But along the way, I was just watching it and asking, "What the heck is going on right now?". If you're into anime filled with action, then I recommend this title. But really, it's just an anime about tattoos containing powers and stuff.

Let's start with: This is the kind of series that will tempt you with a good concept and then will disappoint you with a lame development. And if you manage to watch it to the end, you will keep thinking: "Why didn't I throw it after the third episode?"

Now, as I say the concept is good. A story based in these mysterious tattoos that give super powers to the ones that get them is quite attractive and the battle scene are good enough to get you curious.

However, with the introduction of "the villians", the main characters began to seem extremely weak. Since that moment, you ... will keep watching them being defeat by so overwhelming antagonist, that it's hard not to pity them, while you also hate them by how they keep their childish stubbornness till the very end.

The incapability of maturing of the characters is so marked that even the cliche dialogs lost their weight by the subsequent events.

Also, I'll point that this is one of the best examples of how the fanservice should not be added indiscriminately; since, instead of giving it a little spice touch, it ends being just tastless and even vulgar.

Overall, this is a poor series. It has lame characters, a structureless development (it was as if there was an idea for the start, an idea for the end, but one knew what to do in the middle), a mundane fanservice, a barely good art, and an incomplete end.

But if I have to rescue something... The Opening, maybe everything in this anime is a waste of time; however, the opening is really catchy and deserve to be listened... Though it would be better to do it at Youtube without wasting energy in an anime that doesn't deserve it.

Have you ever seen an anime where you saw such great things coming from it's premise but left coming out of the anime like it nearly utterly betrayed you by the end of it?...well LA just didn't say that statement for no reason -sigh-, let's get this over with.

On the outset Taboo Tattoo reminded LA of the To aru Majustu no Index premise, with humans with superpowers (Espers and Tattoo users) of some kind and are at war with each other (Indexes multiple faction battles etc. and Aryabhata Region vs. USA) and LA really liked it because of it and really wanting to know more ... about the Tattoo's and how they function really intrigued LA.

The last bastion of good Taboo Tattoo had was it's animation done by JC Staff and really from the good looking character designs to the awesome battles were done to polish and shine throughout the anime and LA really didn't see much of animation errors. The animation and it's early episodes (like to Episode 4 or 5 or so) is some of the only good things about Taboo Tattoo.....the problems with Taboo Tattoo...well *ahem* this is gonna be sit...

Let's start with the characters, the characters in the early episodes were cliches to say the least, from the main protagonist Seigi "Justice" Akatsuka voiced by Makoto Furukawa, who is the headstrong, naive and reckless hero, Bluesy Fluesy (no really, it's her name) voiced by Mikako Komatsu the maniac pixie girl who introduces Seigi to the world of Tattoo's along with her bubbling otaku assistant Tom Shredfield voiced by Tomokazu Sugita and Seigi's love interest Touko Ichinose voiced by Chika Anzai, but what utterly cripples the character section in Taboo Tattoo is their utter mismanagement to the characters and LA can easily say that Taboo Tattoo's plot is also mismanaged due to this. For the most part Taboo Tattoo really tries to give backstories and development and majorly fails in that district, why?, well as much as they try to give character development and backstory to the characters that matter, the majority of the characters motivations are either too confusing or too generic, the main villain of this anime Aryabhata voiced by Akari Kito's motivation is essentially world domination because of her abusive father's corruption, but her "world domination" scheme just doesn't make sense or even needed in that sense, as for our heroes they are even worse as Taboo Tattoo likes to kill off main to minor characters (good or evil) without a care in the world. By the halfway point they start really getting into this and really it forcibly makes our naive headstrong Seigi into "hero material" over a cheap death. On the villain side, the deaths were more or less one note with their "tattoo power" = personality, but ultimately it leads to LA saying..."is that it?...", the only exception to the minor villain mook list is Iltutmish voiced by Shiori Izawa (for a little while) and Kar Shekar voiced by Hitome Nabatame with her backstory to Brad "BB" Blackstone voiced by Toshiyuki Morikawa. On speaking of which, the most mixed character development given to was BB as he becomes Seigi's mentor to be hero material, well why?, LA won't spoil but add these hints together and you'll get it; "utter mismanagement to the characters", "Taboo Tattoo likes to kill off main to minor characters (good or evil) without a care in the world" and "MENTOR", as for Touko (yeah forgot about her), she gets one of the WORST plot twists and "development" in the series case in point "Taboo Tattoo likes to kill off main to minor characters (good or evil) without a care in the world". The characters good or evil have terrible mismanaged characters and developments to them and most of the minor characters are nothing but "heavy mooks" to "red shirts" and by the end of this anime the closest character LA ever came to like was Bluesy Fluesy by default.

Ok, characters are mismanaged to all hell, the plot isn't much better...

The plot is infected with tonal dissonance to generic shounen fair to one of the worst points to the anime....it's rushed to no end. The tonal dissonance didn't start round the latter half of the anime, just bringing up comedic and rather sexual moments completely out of nowhere to make the "comedic moments" something of "development" to the fair few minor characters, Aryabhata also gets this as we were meant to taken her a HUGE threat but gives us misplaced fanservice just to be "edgy" what with her molesting Iltutmish to Aryabhata being the shameless fanservice girl of the series in a different kind of way and it doesn't help make her threatening or a force to be taken lightly, sure her battles ALLOW her to be actually threatening but the awkward fanservice with Aryabhata becomes as tonal dissonance and she's the biggest cause of this. The generic shounen fair mostly comes from the entire good vs. evil with the good being USA and their Tattoo users vs. Aryabhata Tattoo users, it also adds in Aryabhata again as her entire "world domination" schtick is prevalent to this flaw as well, ohh the heroes also gets this too ESPECIALLY Seigi. Finally Taboo Tattoo's rushed pacing is the nail that ruined the series for LA and how so, what with rushed character development throughout the board, from Seigi's rushed personality from naive hero to "actual hero", BB's rushed backstory and how he adds into the plot in which his investment becomes nil by the end of it, Aryabhata's rushed backstory although her backstory is detailed for the most part, it's just that her generic and rather confusing "evil just to be evil" through world domination scheme is mixed for LA but in execution it failed anyways for LA to get invested in it.

Taboo Tattoo's voice cast was partially ok, though LA thought Akari Kito who voiced Aryabhata was having some semblance of fun in voicing a villain, Seigi's voice actor Makoto Furukawa was ok, with the shouting in battles to his "speeches" he has was ok. LA thought that by the final episodes that it even felt that most of the main voice cast just didn't care anymore and just wanted to get it over and done with, most prevalent being Mikako Komatsu and Toshiyuki Morikawa and Tomokazu Sugita. LA's favorite voice actor would go to Mikako Komatsu by default though.

The ending, for all the backstory on both sides (Aryabhata and Seigi to be precise) really didn't help things and all the beliefs and decisions that lead it down to this final battle devolved into nothing but "good vs. evil" scthick with good beliefs with a literal "justice" beast and evil beliefs of Aryabhata beast making it a rather boring sit to watch, sure the battle was awesome, but with the devolvement of the battle it lead it down to...it was boring and a rather big copout by the end of it all. The final scenes hints at a second season and really if it was greenlit for a second season, LA is really gonna say this to the first season of Taboo Tattoo, if it got a second season, then the first season SHOULD have been managed better than this and spread the plot in a more detail way, instead it's this cluttered mismanaged mess of an anime, a second season would either dampen and reinforce what LA thought of this series or have a small bright spot for it being better, but considering what LA said about Taboo Tattoo as of now, LA wouldn't like it and would mostly be afflicted with sequelitis.

Taboo Tattoo if there were two words LA could say about is that it's such "wasted potential", where it had a good premise albeit generic shounen but was shot down and ruined by the end of it with mismanaged characters and their developments, battles LA didn't care about and motivations on Seigi and Aryabhata were either too forcible to confusing why they were doing this "just because justice or world domination" and really not even JC Staff's polished and shiny character designs and battles couldn't help LA be distracted by the blatant character and plot flaws and dumb highly polished battles and LA being a JC Staff fanboy just wasn't enough to pull through into being good. Taboo Tattoo, LA WANTED to like you but like LA said at the start of this anime review, you betrayed LA's expectations and slowly but surely became LA's worst anime of Summer 2016...

Summary- Teenager Seigi saves a homeless man from thugs, only to be given a special tattoo which bestows on him special powers. This leads Seigi to meet Izzy a lieutenant of the U.S army who's in charge of collecting people with tattoos. This pulls Seigi in the middle of a conflict between the U.S and the Kingdom as both are collecting these tattoos for their own countries

Story- they're is so much wrong with this anime's story that it's hard time find anything right. the pacing is way too fast that it goes from one thing the the next with no real sense of direction. ... it's so filled with cliche and fan-service that when it tries to take it's self seriously it just end up being silly and boring. why bother with anything in the whole story when we can be busy groping breasts and showing panty shots. the changes of tone are so drastic that it seems it's not sure what it wants to actually be
the show also tries to make fun of said tropes as well as add some referential humor, only for that to add nothing to the story as a whole.
the powers don't even make sense they are just some magical tattoos that happened to be their. How are they unique? they aren't they are there to serve the plot when needed from being simple enhancements to giant monsters just cause. not only that but it seems that our MC has the best of all these tattoos.
1/10

Characters- all the characters lack any sort of depth. the most notable characters are the two from the summary Izzy and Seigi and even than are both 2-dimensional characters. they just do and react to things as the plot goes along and stay like that till the very end.
the rest are just one dimensional characters including the antagonist. theirs Touko the insert Childhood friend , and Tom some weeb subordinate under Izzy. the antagonist Aryabhatta is a prideful princess who’s also a lesbian and sexually promiscuous, and is trying to obtain power just cuz.
1/10

Soundtrack- everything was just meh. from the voice acting and the soundtrack. opening was ok, but everything else was forgettable
4/10

Animation- it was average to below average. everything looked so bleak and empty. the characters were mostly average with the exception of Izzy because she's a adult trapped in a kid's body thing going on. the fight scenes were like the one's you would see from ufotable, but way worse.
4/10

Enjoyment- not much there may have been moments, but they're too few to remember. .5/12 episoedes

conclusion- Shit story, shit characters, below average animation, meh soundtrack and voice acting.
2/10
final statement- it seems their might actually be a season two of this.......fuck

The idea of this anime was good, but with a poor execution. It had no sense much of chapters, linking random things.

The study in charge of produce the series is: J.C.Staff, producer of others great series as Shokugeki no Soma, Toradora, Shakugan no Shana, Ikkitousen, Zero no Tsukaima or Slayers, so I'm very sad because I had hopes with another great production of this studio.

Pick up typicial ideas of any anime in his genre: rampant action, a school with teenagers, and supernatural powers to defeat an almighty enemy.

Althought the battles are very exciting with a good moments of action, all of them are cut by ... the same pattern, so you lose the emotion to the half of the series.

I don't understand how having made series so wonderful as Slayers and then produces this. Yes, ok...is entertaining cause you see much action and you enjoy with the powers and martial arts. But please, just take a little rest of this type of content always in each anime.

My best point is for the opening, an amazing deployment of voice by part of the singer May Nakabashi, better met as "May'n". Is really really exciting since start until the end, a masterpiece of music.

In general, this series is good to entertain-self some days, but nothing extraordinary knowing the study that there are behind.

Taboo Tattoo is one of those shows that starts with promise and then gets devastated by a poorly fitted pacing. The first few episodes set up a fun, if not hugely original, superpowers-and-conspiracy premise with more than enough material for 12 episodes, but gradually, and then faster and faster, it starts complicating things and rushing the exposition, frequently showing you things you have no hope of understanding and then slipping in the explanation for them later in a single line of dialogue or a flashback. If a good show sets you up with mysteries and anticipation, this one gives you FOMO - cause if you ... blink you're going to miss it.

By the end of one cour, the power levels have inflated 100-fold, every situation is fate-of-the-world-hangs-in-the-balance ungrounded in substance, and the running time is oversaturated with fight sequences. Characters enter, are seen doing things, and subsequently die with too little time for character development or understanding of their contributions to register. The cast is quite large and while it does manage to set up character relationships, they are tenuous. At times it feels like a PV of something that was more properly developed, with a lot of stuff happening set to music or voiceover.

And it's too bad. There is a lot of good material here that doesn't add up. The fights are well-made and can usually be followed pretty well. The detail of the animation only gets a little bit impacted towards the end, and there are a lot of cool character moments to be found. Some of the soundtrack, along with the setting's shadowy conspiracy and top-secret research, gave me a "Deus Ex" vibe. And it has a sprinkling of fanservice, which could have been done pretty well but like everything else is incredibly rushed, often being inserted directly into the middle of one of those high-stakes fight scenes.

This is a perfect example of how trying to fit a 25+ chapter story into 12 episodes can lead to catastrophic results.

The premise behind this series is quite good, but it never reaches its potential due to wanting to do too much in too little time. I'll illustrate with some examples:

- Fight scenes: these have the potential to be amazing, that is, if fights had enough time to flesh out. Four fights happening simultaneously in the same location? Too bad, we have to close this shiz in one episode, so let's just show two blows, loser gets dismembered, winner says some snarky remark about their ... clear superiority, and quickly transition to the next fight happening, we have 20 minutes ffs.

- Character development: you'll have no clue of what some characters are talking about half the time, due to background information about said characters only existing in the minds of the series' creators, they don't have the time to explain it in the series proper. There's a particular secondary character who appears in like... three episodes. He gets like 2 minutes total screen time, says approximately 6/7 lines, and for how powerful he's supposed to be, you don't even get to know his name.

Other problems about this series include the main protagonist feeling like a total wimp who has no idea of what he's doing half the time and only stares in awe while his opponent pummels the shit out of him.

There's also a problem with fight development: most other series give you a general idea of what a character can or can't do in combat, be it by showing their training or having a roughly cohesive thematical identity, so you can expect some attacks and be hyped for their potential to be untapped, and so on. Yet here, because of the same reason I've been repeating all along, it's all very sudden and you can't get hyped by anything.

I have the impression the studio had planned a longer series and had to change plans in the middle of actually making it, because the action and characters in the first few chapters are way more fleshed out and overall interesting. It's kind of like the infamous Gantz's final chapter, where they suddenly throw everything out the window because they learned they wouldn't be continuing the story along with the manga and they wanted to give it some closure.

The few redeeming qualities of this series are good looking art, a pretty good OST and sound effects (I'm a sucker for the WOOOOP of the Void Maker), and a huge amount of fanservice which doesn't feel too out of place. I'd totally watch a 26 episode version of this series, and I'd probably rate it higher than this.