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.
Alternative Titles
Japanese: タブー・タトゥー
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
12
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Jul 5, 2016 to Sep 20, 2016
Premiered:
Summer 2016
Broadcast:
Tuesdays at 02:05 (JST)
Producers:
TV Tokyo, Sotsu, AT-X, Magic Capsule, KlockWorx, DIVE II Entertainment, Avex Pictures, BS TV Tokyo
Studios:
J.C.Staff
Source:
Manga
Demographic:
Seinen
Duration:
24 min. per ep.
Rating:
R - 17+ (violence & profanity)
Statistics
Ranked:
#109292
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#844
Members:
288,885
Favorites:
253
Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
Filtered Results: 47 / 51
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Your Feelings Categories Sep 20, 2016
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;
...
Sep 24, 2016
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 ... Sep 19, 2016
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 ... Sep 14, 2016
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 ... Sep 19, 2016
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 ... May 19, 2019
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
Jun 8, 2019
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 ... Nov 19, 2016
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 ... Sep 20, 2016
Taboo Tattoo
Art/Characters: The art style is really solid. There is a little bit of similarity between some of the characters, but they were so minute and so easily distinguishable that if I had just seen the previous character, I would be able to distinguish between the two of them. However I felt that if I had fallen behind that I would struggle to figure out the placement of some characters. The light and the colors that are a theme throughout the show are really nice to look at and even though things get crazy and the lines get blurred. The characters themselves are really interesting ... Sep 22, 2016
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. Sep 21, 2016
I'm not an in-depth reviewer but I felt the need to tell you not to watch this.
Someone told me that a big reason the show can be a bit jarring is because it's influenced by something called "wuxia" (google it). However, the main issue is with the plot. I can overlook the bad comedic timing, bad CG, bad explosions, but someone did not storyboard this show. The plot jumps around so much and is incredibly inconsistent I'm usually left just as confused as I was after the previous episode. Yet I came back every week to see if, just maybe, I'd finally understand something. ... Apr 24, 2023
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 ... Oct 7, 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. ... Sep 19, 2016
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 ... Sep 23, 2016
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
Sep 19, 2016
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 ... Oct 24, 2022
You shouldn't watch this unless you don't have anything else to watch and are desperate for something from this genre.
I hated all the characters. The interesting aspects of the characters were left unexplored. The story was interesting. However, there's no real focus on the story. It's also one of those shows where people survive the most ridiculous events, when they clearly should have died. Then, later on someone will die from something far less lethal, not because it makes any sense but because the plot now demands it. To be clear, I don't know anything about the source material; and, there are good points about the show. ... Sep 20, 2016
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 ... Mar 15, 2017
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
...
Sep 24, 2016
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
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