Taboo Tattoo

Gosh, where do I start...

Right. Taboo Tattoo is like finding a good book with a good summary printed on it, only when you flip it and start to read it, you realize it's horrible. I imagined the creation of this anime started out with a guy who had some sort of checklist.

"How to make a good shounen anime. You need:
- Child protagonist ( )
- The Chosen One ( )
- School setting ( )
- Comedy ( )
- Female fanservice ( )
... - Romance ( )
- Token Loli ( )
- Good backstory for side characters ( )
- Big boobs ( )
- Badass characters ( )
- OP antagonists ( )
- "Nakama" power ( )
- Gore/Death ( )
- Swear words ( )
- Yuri ( )
- Torture, for MC's growth ( )"

And the guy makes sure it's all there. Sure, they are all there, but the pacing of the story is awful. Some episodes aren't entirely linked to the previous, and the anime's pacing can go from serious to comedic in less than a second, destroying the mood. Half of the time I wasn't sure what I was watching. The first four episodes looked decent, and then it started going downhill. It feels like the anime wanted to please many audiences than what it was originally capable of at that point that it became a joke itself. Maybe that was the whole point? In that case the seriousness of the anime didn't justify itself. The so-called "tattoo" that granted people powers suddenly turned the anime into a magical one, where almost everyone is capable of using it. The story is so thinly threaded despite it was to "defeat antagonist". Then they added some pointless gore and death, crossing their fingers that it would make the whole thing better. It did not.

When your side character has more story than your main character, this is where it goes wrong. I relate more to a certain side character that appears for only 3 episodes than the MC who did probably nothing but tried to kill himself (and failed because plot armor) for 12. Sure, side characters need love and backstory too, but I literally know nothing apart of MC's unjustified strong sense of justice, extreme recklessness, and that he's the main character. Though, he finally picks up and became slightly better at episode 9, but he's still a mystery to me. Is he even the main character, I wonder? Some side characters have proven to be more interesting than an empty shell of "Justice" he is.

Nothing much to say about art and sound. They're at least better than what it's trying to convey. The art is pretty good, I must praise it. However, despite how much I can praise it, it will not change how much a mess this anime is.

I was hoping it to at least achieve the bare minimum of average, as a shounen anime that has a decent start. It turned out to be a lot worse than what I was expecting. Just finished it earlier, and towards the end I was dragging myself with the episodes. The ending of the anime was probably a nightmare. That whole thing was hinting for a season 2? Jesus, if that ended up getting a season 2 it would've been a miracle. It was even worse than Charlotte that I hated, because this was so hard to watch, and that it actually gave me hope before it trampled all over it. This whole thing is a mess. Sugar and spice, mix in together, and you'll get this thing called "Taboo Tattoo" - a mess that doesn't know how to fix its own mess, and ended up becoming a bigger pile of a mess.

Never before have I watched through a series on a weekly basis and loathed the day when a new episode came out. That all changed when I decided to continue watching “Taboo Tattoo”. What started off as a generic, but passible, story quickly turned into a barrage of nonsense and a jumbled mess.

Like I just said, the story is nothing out of the ordinary. Boy gains these unknown powers and is thrown into this battle against others with the same powers. The first three episodes weren’t all that bad, but things changed drastically when the next few episodes came around. I can’t describe it any ... other way than “things just happen”. I say that from episode four onwards in when the show starts to go off the rails even when it was already a train wreck. By the time all that happens, I lost all hope for the series (of what little hope I had for it, in the first place). The other thing that jarring is the general tone of the series. It will go from serious, in the over-the-top kind of sense, from cringe-worthy ecchi moments that come out of nowhere. Nothing makes any sense at all, and I know why this is, but I will explain that later.

The only thing worse than having a bad story is having bad characters. Boy, were these characters horrendous. There was not a single person from this show that had a single redeeming quality to them. It’s even hard to say that they had any type of personality. As a minor spoiler, there are people who die, but when they do, I get no emotion out of it. The ironically funny thing about these characters are the stupid names chosen for them. Just to name a few we have: Blood, Wiseman, Iltutmish, Aryabhata, and one of our main characters Bluesy Fruesy. There is even a character named Colonel Sanders. Just what the hell is this show trying to be?

There’s also no use in finding anything great animation wise. The overall aesthetics is appalling and ugly with most of its color palate being either black, grey, or brown. The character designs are hideous-looking, but that goes the same with the designs of the original manga, so it’s neither an improvement nor a downgrade. What’s worse is this is an action series, so there’s lots of movement involved. You can only guess that this is done horribly, like everything else. Even if the story turned out to be decent enough, it still wouldn’t save the show from its visual eyesore. That alone was painful to watch each week.

Now, I would like to explain why the series turned out the way it is. It was all in the production choices. The first three episodes covered volume one of the manga, which is the standard way of adapting the material. Episode four, however, covered a majority of volume two with the next two episodes covered close two or more volumes each. This is the first time I’ve noticed something like this (probably because I actually did research). The manga has seven years of content, a rare thing for it to now receive an anime. Normally, a source would only have one to two years of content before getting an adaptation. My only conclusion is the production team wanted to fit in as much story as they could within twelve episodes, which results in this sloppily-paced mess. Had it not been for that, it would have been more than likely an okay show.

There isn’t a whole lot to say about “Taboo Tattoo” other than it’s something that nobody needs to see. It’s one of those shows where I feel has nothing good about it, but still manages to have an audience that genially enjoys it. I don’t mean any disrespect to those who do, but it’s hard to deny how bad it is. The story, the writing, the characters, the animation, and the production as a whole. All of it is just bad. I’m not sure if I’d recommend the manga because it’s not any better. Perhaps no matter what happened in the end, an anime adaptation was doomed from the start.

I wasted 12 episodes worth of my life based on the best fight scene I've ever seen (to date) in the first episode. It has boring plot that is executed in the worst possible way without any beneficial character development.

The visuals, initial character intro and seemingly interesting plotline might pull you in but don't be fooled. It's one of those anime that you watch going down the drain as it continues, hoping that it delivers on its initial promise only to end up extremely disappointed.

It is not necessarily a bad anime, more like extremely boring. At some point, you realise that anything going on is ... pretty much inconsequential and the outcome is very clear. It starts off spectacularly only to spiral downward after the first few episodes. By the end, I literally asked myself WTF did I just watch. It left me without any feeling of enjoyment or even relief that it had come to an end.

It's basically a poorly done clone of "Charlotte"which I loved and recommend.

Art style, camera work and sound are all good though. I highly recommend you watch the first couple of episodes though, especially the fight scene in episode 1.

Ok this anime is getting a lot of hate but I feel like it is because everyone was expecting something different. Tabboo Tattoo is a cliche anime anyone can tell that. Everyone should have known that by the first episode. People who say it is cliche... THAT IS WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE, so if you say that it was a horrible anime at the last episode then you wasted a huge chunk of your life. If you are into action then this is the anime for you. I personally loved it and thought it was great. The animation was top notch and ... I loved the action. Although I must admit the character development was not good but that is not what the anime is about. It's about action so DO NOT watch it if you need character depth and if you are watching this anime right now and hate it please do not watch it to the end just to comment "I hate this anime". Stop watching if you hate it, keep watching if you like it, simple as that. And to people who are saying this is a bad anime I understand why but that's just because you hate this kind of genre and you should not have been watching it in the first place. So people who are thinking about it, watch the first couple of episodes, if you hate is stop!

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.

This anime starts by showing so much potential, a story that could develop into something good and enjoyable, but after a few episodes everything goes from 100 to 0, maybe even in just 2 minutes, let me explain:

Anime starts by setting the plot and characters very well, you know how the story will go and how thing may develop, but in episode 5 everything is thrown into the void. I don't know if the budget for the anime was cut to a tenth of what it was, but in this episode the direction was awful, I really do think that a first semester film student ... could have done it 10x better and the same happened to the writting, the story turned EXTREMELY cliché, beyond recognition of a serious anime, actually, even WORSE than cliché, I have NEVER seen so much cliché in 5 minutes.

Bad direction as if they tried to clamp two episodes into one and just making a re-cut hoping it works, extremely fast-paced sequences with very open shots, so the spectator can not even follow what's going on, or even the close-ups' duration is so short you can't even process what's going on, unnecessary camera movement and very bad executed dolly out's and changes in "lens".

Simply a disaster, did the writter, director and quality management team quit? Because I can not understand the extreme twist the fifth episode did.

This anime is awful! I can't believe that people were paid money to make something like that or that the story even got greenlit. So why am I so annoyed by this anime?

The thing is that the story is incredibly mainstream. People have powers and others want to take over the world. What is garbage about that is that the powers come from stones that dissapear on contact with the body and generate a tattoo on the person. BUT if you want to use the power you also have to ducking have a special object in your hand that can range from blood to crayons(BLOODY ... CRAYONS?!?!). AND the powers aren't even consistent. Some people can shoot black holes and others can teleport. Like how are those magic stones so different from each other?

Everything here is just plain stupid and even the anime stops caring about holding stuff in your hand by later episodes. The only good point that I could bring up is that at points it has interesting camera angles, that is pretty much it. Also OH GOD the fanservice, it has characters groping eachother in the most random occasions. Why would you think that it is neccessary.

The characters themselves are blander than your floormat. I think the writers even knew that so they gave everybody some quirks, like eating a rock in a certain scene or licking some milk like a cat but that doesn't count as mother effin character developement, you can't just add quirks and expect that to be the character. I mean, my lawnmower has more character by default than those people in the anime.

I am sorry about so many pointless words in the review but just thinking about Taboo Tattoo gets my knickers in a twist.

You can check out anime reviews on my channel on YouTube at MudanTV. Any feedback is greatly appreciated. <3

Wow where do i even start for this...execution? Story? The awful animation in the later episodes? Or how about the direction of this train wreck and where it went wrong...

Story = poo emoji (5)
Normally when i watch a series that's trash I almost never take it serious. Basically like J.C. Staff(studio behind this series) who never took this series seriously from the very beginning. It becomes evident when the direction of the series' story sorta fell apart with the introduction of the princess and her lackeys.

Art ...How? (4)
...How? how do you go from one of the most visually appealing series of the season to the ... worst? I understand having budgeting issues and a quality drop. That normally happens but this was just awful. When you get slashed in the face and permanently lose your eye sight, I want to see gashes on where your eyes used to be. I don't want to see this fucker with his eyes closed as if he gotten something in them -_-
*sigh* Blood stains...So i'm thinking these guys are magical when I don't see blood on their clothes after they heal...I mean it's the simple little things dude...J.C. really went lazy with this simple shit...

Sound(7)
In the midst of mediocrity, there is a glimpse of decency within the music. Other than sound effects taking a break every so often...The music was well used and OP and ED songs were pleasant to here...I feel so bad for May'n's song "Belief" being used for such a train wreck series...this OP was amazing and I loved it. The OST served its purpose for the specific points and "key moments" for the series

Character just...no (2)
Seigi's character just screams plot convenience...
Seigi who "conveniently" knows martial arts "conveniently" saves a man who gives him a power known as a tattoo which inevitably throws him into this entire situation...
Everyone else however falls into the category of incomplete for me. Little to no character depth just about all of them. Just a bunch of cardboard cutouts, this even applies to Touko (Seigi's childhood friend) who's only known for her feelings toward Seigi. But of course they also needed to drag her into all of this:
Reader: Why?
Me: Idk ask the mangaka >_>
Mangaka: *shrugs*
Me: ...gtfo -_-

Anyway, You'll see how everything goes for her if you decide to watch this.

Enjoyment(5)
If anything i found subtle enjoyment from the stupidity of the ending episodes...If shounen has their share of powerup bullshit, so does seinen and yes this is listed as a seinen well at least the manga is -_-.

Overall(5)
Really I anticipated this series, and it had tons of potential but just decided it wanted to be trash, nothing we can do really. But hey if you're still inclined to check it out, by all means knock yourself out

i rarely write a review, but i write it for guide if you cannot decide watch it or not.

if you a fans of martial art, it may suitable for you, because so many martial art showed every episode and you never bored watch that part. but i must warn you if you looking for a good show because so many thing doesn't support the art itself.

i can say the story is a fatality, unstable pace and some part doesn't connect with the other part may the main reason to drop it and there so many unnecessary fanservice which disturb the enjoyment of the show.

for ... the character, rest than Izzy is a bad development, because i can't get the charm of main character and so many twin character, it make me confused.

for me enjoyment depend to story and character development, so it became a mediocre show. i would put 6/10.

the conclusion don't watch it unless you just looking for martial art and has low expectation from the show.

Anime Genre Roulette 🎰 Review 10 🎰 Super Power

This anime looks like it is the definition of 2000s edge lord
From the aesthetic to the OST to the... titty gags?

Anyway, that should be a good(ish) recipe to potentially be a fun watch to turn your brain off to, right?

Unfortunately...

No no no just NO!!
...
Any minimal redeaming qualities this show might've had gets flushed down the toilet in a matter of mear seconds

Bluesy is a complete and total creep! I don't care if you're trapped in the body of a 17 year old, you're a grown-ass woman and groping a teenager is fucking inappropriate and absolutely disgusting! You're not a schoolgirl comparing sizes, learn some goddamn boundries

Well that's what i would say to Bluesy's face, thing that Seiji doesn't even seem to flinch at knowing Bluesy is quite a damn bit older than them. God these scenes make me so mad

Ever wanted to see a middle school boy take on a perverted princess bent on taking over the world by using military weapons? Now is your chance to see exactly what kind of chaos follows.
Seigi, a middle school martial artist is gifted with a strange tattoo that begins to change his life. He suddenly develops super natural strength, healing, and an ability to eat up all molecular matter. He is then whisked away from middle school and into a branch of the American military called the Tattoo Retrieval Unit. The military is at war with a fictional Kingdom ruled by lewd Princess Aryahbata who wants ... to claim all tattoo weapons for herself.

The genre is a mesh of action, comedy, supernatural, and mecha/military types. The plot for this series remained extremely jumpy, full of holes, and unnecessary attempts at comedic one liners. Seigi goes from training to being thrown into full battle scenes where he almost always nearly dies and has to be saved by someone. America’s military is constantly being beaten by the Kingdom, and the Princess’s random crudeness and fondness for her underage soldiers makes her more of a joke than a serious villain. I had a hard time staying focused on this anime because it jumped around so much itself from scenes to characters to unimportant deaths of soldiers on both sides of the war. The overall plot could have been much more thoroughly developed.
4/10

The artwork and animation of this anime are some of the most redeeming features about it. The action scenes animation coupled with the j-pop music worked out much better than I would have normally expected. The gore scenes are honestly very well done and always kept me engaged. Some of the best scenes of this series are of someone dying.
5/10

Everyone who’s watched Taboo Tattoo and liked it agree that the set of characters is one of this show’s strongest points. The main character is not all that interesting at first, although eventually he becomes quite the badass, but the rest of the cast are worth watching. We have the sexy and badass girl who works for the US military, the main character’s well-endowed childhood friend who is super cute and has a crush on him, the middle aged otaku agent who triggers most of the jokes, a very lewd and sadist bad guy obsessed with sex and penises, a dozen buffed American soldiers, the badass guy who men want to be like and women want to be with and an absolutely charming yuri queen who’s just as evil, pervert and wicked as delightful. Yes, Taboo Tattoo certainly has a lot of characters for a 12-episode show and that undermines character development a little bit. But still, these characters make the show cool, sexy and funny, and that’s pretty much all there is to Taboo Tattoo. Sometimes a bunch of stereotypes put together can really work, at least sometimes.
5/10

Overall, the show’s not entirely bad and it does manage to be entertaining, which is probably the most important thing to judge. As long as you don’t expect a powerful and compelling story, you’ll find the fun you’re looking for on Taboo Tattoo. This show is what happens when you just throw superpowers, jokes, an improvised story and boobs into the mix; the result won’t be good but it’ll get the job done.
Overall: 4/10

Ever Since the first the very first episode I was thinking "What an expected storyline, characters and advancement". Every episode I watched made me think "why the hell am I even watching this?"
The plot forcefully adding erotic scenes at the most inconvenient places ever in a pathetic attempt to make the anime appealing to some. The scenes came at very stupid places where they were totally unnecessary. For once I found very pedophiliac as well, that might be my own opinion though.
What annoyed me most is that the fights and story were not logical at all and felt like were being fast forwarded. The ... protagonist lacks the purpose to back up his reason for joining the fights to begin with, just a teen who wants to become strong for no obvious reasons. Let alone the fact that someone so close to him dies and he lacks the empathy to actually prioritize that person. Meaningless and very absurd characters

This anime is good but what bores me is that the MC doesn't use his powers to kill I mean it's bland asf also justice? lmao the f*ck with this mc what his backstory besides his father dying?? It's your typical super power anime shit where someone get's hurt then you go to rage but you don't kill the enemy causing more deaths of innocent lives because you didn't put an end to the problem thus causing you to rage yourself once again like heck I've seen that a hundred times already.

Also the scenes where the girl fondles another girls breats is cringy asf this ... is why in general anime isn't that safe to watch in public.

Anyways that's all moving on..

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.

So, again, writing the review again and making it shorter this time so I don't waste too much time.

This series is pretty harmless when it comes to a story standpoint. You have a male lead and a female lead who will obviously get together or at least end up being extremely close. It's generic and while it was airing people were saying it was really good. As time has gone on it people have seen it as pretty bad to decent with an overall rating of 6 here on MAL, though you could probably already see that.

What really made me drop the series was the ... fact that during various scenes it was obvious that they just edited in 3D CGI over the 2D CGI and it's honestly extremely jarring to see 3D blood spewing out of a 2D character making it look like an abridged series. Now whereas people like Purpleeyeswtf does this, he does it on purpose for a more random comedic effect when it's very obvious that this anime doesn't use it for the same reason.

That and the already really bad characterisation of the main characters mixed with everything else being mediocre and the series having a decently racist undertone towards America brought the series down from my original writing of 4 to 2.

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.

I’m torn about this one. In the beginning, I understood that Taboo Tattoo was going to be cliched and predictable. But the were all the right cliches so I thought it would be a fun guilty pleasure. A bit of graphic violence, some fan service with a hint of comedy. and it was for the first eight episodes. But in the last four suddenly this incomprehensible story develops and Seiji’s one note character shifts from hero of justice fighting for what's right to...well, I’m not going to spoil it here. I’ll just say his character develops in a way that I thought was inconsistent with ... his character (is it just me or does that sound redundant?). On the other hand, it’s nice to see characters having to change and grow with the situation they’re in. The art, character design and sound are good, so technically it’s a hit. But the story drowns in itself towards the end. Like it’s 24 episodes of material only greenlit for 12. So they completed the first eight episodes, skipped the next eight and compressed the rest into the last four. I hate to review anime by comparison but I’m reminded of Big Order (both were fanservice heavy and granted people powers with little explanation in order for them to battle one another), an anime I like FAR less than Taboo Tattoo, so it has to rate higher than that. But was Taboo Tattoo really any good? If someone were to ask me should they watch it, I’d reply, “Only if you don’t have anything better to watch.” But is that fair? It’s not like it was promising anything more than it delivered. So I guess, it is what it is; average at it’s peak.

(This review has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

“What is it? What is it? Show us!”

Our class clamored. Mr. E, the best fifth-grade teacher this side of elementary school, was loved by everyone. Students and teachers alike. Clean-cut hair, green polos, khakis. Alongside his beaming smile, he always looked professional and cool.

And he also hid a secret on his left bicep.

“Maybe once you guys and girls graduate and go on to sixth grade. Until then, no deal!”

We always wondered what kind of tattoo he had. Something personal about himself? Something naughty? Something he accidentally got? Throughout all of fifth grade, from the class ... trips to the assemblies held in the main hall of the school, we tried sneaking peeks to see what it could possibly be. But to no avail.

Thankfully, Mr. E kept his promise. The mystery he professionally and cooly hid for the whole year was made known to us during one of our last days as his students. It was Dopey from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. He was walking down a sidewalk, a lamppost in the background and a careless expression fitting his face, wearing his usual green robe and purple hat.

I speak of Dopey and tattoos today for one reason only: Taboo Tattoo. For this show is as fun as Dopey – and perhaps intentionally half as smart.

STORY

Taboo Tattoo starts on the streets of an inconspicuous city. Seigi, a high-school teenage boy, saves a local homeless man from danger, and, in return, the man uses a strange crystal stone on Seigi’s hand that imprints a bizarre-looking tattoo. When this piques the interest of a foreign beauty, Seigi finds himself thrown into the midst of an international terror plot.

Sounds cool, right? For the first three or four episodes, the anime is cool. Some hard-hitting, one-on-one martial arts. Crazy abilities like voiding space and possessing people. Attempts at establishing cute characters and even some themes on justice that, while most certainly not groundbreaking, at least put its mind in the right place.

But perhaps its best trait is its comedy. When Izzy turns into a cat when drinking coffee with milk or when Tom’s intestines fall out (all censored), the anime manages to strike that hilarious tone despite the blood and the action that surround them. In fact, that contrast is partly what makes it so funny to begin with.

With episode five, though, the anime goes bonkers.

Taboo Tattoo always had the serious-but-not-really approach, but episode five pushes its comedic roots to the limit and then some. By choice, the anime throws out both continuity and reason, creating a smorgasbord of events.

Minor happenings, like gobs of blood disappearing or Seigi randomly getting advice from Tom on how to beat Iltutmish (by closing his eyes), are already odd. But the show takes it further. That one-eyed cat mauls Seigi out of nowhere. Tom pointing out the cliché setting (cute childhood friend next door, beautiful transfer student living nearby, chosen one, parents away from home). BB, a brand-new character introduced at the end of the episode, asking Seigi if he wants a piece of gum.

Yet the best moment from the episode follows Touko and Arya’s “intense” table-top match.

The princess won, so, per the stakes, she was permitted to fondle Touko’s massive boobs as much as she wanted while Arya spoke with Seigi. However, all throughout their talk, which is completely serious with topics spanning wars and fighting, Touko’s moans escape. The scene becomes entirely goofy since it cares more about Touko’s background pleasure than it does the plot itself.

This sign is the first major one that argues the anime is purposefully presenting itself in a negative light. Which is weird because, honestly, what show would go out of its way to make itself look bad?

But it gets even better (or perhaps worse, depending on where one stands at this point).

The next two episodes feature the gang chasing after the princess and her squad to a remote island. There, the silly attempts at American cursing, the lead colonel not caring all that much that he had his pupils sliced shut, and Touko literally wearing a shirt that has the word “flag” on it (a flag she set with her watermelons and that she triggered with her death) bolster the argument that, yes, the anime revels in its absurdity.

All the while, the anime is basically nonsensical. Characters prattle on about justice and power in long-winded monologues. The contrived plot involving ruins, consumption, and power. The ridiculous developments like Iltutmish becoming a giant lion-tiger beast and Seigi getting nailed to a stone slate in some makeshift crucifixion. Touko even being there in the first place.

Taboo Tattoo doesn’t stop. Episode nine is entirely dedicated to BB’s “defection” to the kingdom, showing what he did to get the information he found on tattoos. However, it’s hastily put together. Inane subplots on secret clones, an odd focus on the king’s gay lover, and the ultra-convenient getaway train continue the show’s dive into narrative death.

At this point, Seigi is worthless and BB is dead. Naturally, then, the anime time skips a whole year. Seigi, Izzy, and a few others hide away to improve and prepare for the final fight – all while the bad guys lazed about without doing much.

They show as such in the video they send which, per usual, calls into question Taboo Tattoo’s purposeful negative presentation. For, when one of the newest side characters triggers multiple flags for his death in the coming final mission (that his girlfriend and the background red-flag bearers corroborate), it solidifies its intentional ineptitude.

The final few episodes, though, contain more head-scratchers and more unfathomable decisions than the rest of the episodes combined. The whole genetic-ascension deal with the princess. The random pill-taking that poisoned Seigi (but not actually). Him and Izzy floating in midair. The nuclear bomb that doesn’t go off. The souls of Izzy and BB linking when Seigi swallowed up Izzy just to give the two a final moment together.

To give Taboo Tattoo its due, it has two “worthy” writing moments.

The first is Arya’s kiss with Seigi. It acts as a connection between her and him so that he could become the giant mutant. It’s at least a callback to that earlier comedic bit in the show, meaning it’s not totally out of nowhere like most everything else the show tries to sell.

The second is the whole personal revenge versus selflessness angle. Seigi losing sight of his justice mindset, causing him to become something he wasn’t and not letting him accomplish what he wanted to, demonstrates the anime had its thoughts in the right place.

Not to say that these moments are handled with grace let alone execution. Because they’re not. Regardless, they are overshadowed by the repetitive Lisa-kidnapped subplot, the forgetting of important characters like Iltutmish and Touko, and the unbelievable need for Seigi to declare that he will protect Arya despite all that she’s done.

So, is Taboo Tattoo intentional in its silliness? Probably. But is it also horribly written, ignoring any sense of cohesion, logic, or basic plot development?

Yes. Without a doubt.

ANIMATION

Taboo Tattoo had some quality animation near the start of its run.

More specifically, Seigi’s duel against Izzy is only as cool as it is because the choreography and, indeed, the animation kept up throughout it. A flurry of kicks, punches, and throws, ending with a downward knife strike. Pretty rad.

The anime manages to keep up for a while. Not to the same extent as in the first episode, but Seigi’s brawl with a possessed Touko and the later escapades in the freighter area are not devoid of animation.

And, to its credit, the character designs can be nice. Izzy’s silver hair and pink bow, Arya’s twin tails and smug face, and BB’s all-black outfit are some combination of cool, sexy, and cute. Not all of the designs are praiseworthy; Seigi’s is too plain and Touko just has her chest. But at least they remain consistent without any noticeable dips.

Beyond the first few episodes and the character designs, though, the anime goes downhill into a grave of its own making.

Scenes like Touko’s death where it’s a series of frozen cuts or the show’s increased reliance on “fast” backgrounds start to make many of the moments and fights less interesting since movement is masked (or sometimes not even present). So, what gets depicted isn’t what’s actually happening.

To try to compensate for the lack of animation, Taboo Tattoo incorporates many sweeping shots with the camera. Rather than the characters moving, the camera does, following up-close, far away, or all around. It would be nice if it was fluid, but, since it’s all so janky, the scenes are cobbled together as these near-still frames.

The art itself also doesn’t do it any favors. Many of them suffer from not-enough-noise syndrome. I.e., everything that’s shown feels conveniently away or scarce on life. A side alley, a row of houses, and a remote island are so bland and so boring to look at that it makes the fight’s location irrelevant.

Not to mention, the coloring and artistry is just not present. Everything is some shade of brown, orange, dark green, or grey. Sure, it places the show in a dreary mood which, admittedly, fits the overall tone of Taboo Tattoo. But when it all starts to blend together as this same-y mess, it becomes less than appealing.

Increased CG usage also reduces the visual appeal of the show. Rigid bodies and undetailed objects are the norm, and even the explosions start to rely on the CG effects. Their stark contrast with the already low-quality hand-drawn material makes it that much harder to watch.

The combination of all three in the final fight, though, is deplorable. A couple of shiny, mutant monsters fight in hand-to-hand combat with complete disregard for visual accuracy or even a sense of control. Frames are repeated, entities “move” on-screen, and the whole inner-thoughts moments dominated by purely black or purely white backgrounds end it on as low of a note as possible.

Though perhaps its biggest error is one that it (coincidentally enough) makes intentionally. The opening track features a woman whose right eye is stitched shut. BB, during his flashback episode and as he does in the OP, squares off against her. However, the anime chooses to reuse some of the exact same frames for her art and animation. The only difference being the lighting.

Very few anime would include some of their OP visuals shot-for-shot, and fewer still only do so to avoid animating a particular segment. Taboo Tattoo falls into this latter camp – and it perfectly sums up its incompetence.

CHARACTERS

It’s no stretch to say that Seigi of Taboo Tattoo may be one of the worst characters ever written.

He’s what’s known as a do-nothing character. He may have dialogue, and he may take part in the various festivities, but he does nothing worthwhile. Either for himself or for the events at large.

His name being “Seigi”, which translates to “justice” in English, should already indicate how lame his character is (even if it is arguably the anime making yet another intentionally bad joke). He refuses to kill anyone, believing that such justice is not right. Plus, he has one memory of his dad, about reaching out his hand as a metaphor for reaching out for what’s in front of him.

For some reason, he almost never understands what’s going on, asking the same types of questions: “What are you saying?” “What are you talking about?” It’s meant as him being unable to comprehend everyone else’s ideas of justice and righteousness, but, when he spouts almost nothing but these questions, it makes him into an intolerable person.

When it comes to the fights, he barely contributes. Izzy and the others of Taboo Tattoo explicitly tell him that using his void tattoo is, in fact, taboo, so he rarely does. That leaves him and his martial arts which almost never help him. He loses his first duel against Izzy, Touko steps in during his fight with Iltutmish, and, even after all his training with BB, he doesn’t do anything on the faraway island to the point that Touko gets killed.

This outcome causes Seigi to do even more nothing, forcing him into a deep depression and a sense of worthlessness (which he arguably already had). Cue a one-year time skip that doesn’t show how he came to improve his skills, and, when asked how, he responds that he just “knows” what to do. Yikes.

Yet that doesn’t help him in the final fights. Against Kar, he gets beat constantly until BB’s spiritual presence causes Kar to hesitate. And, when he squares off against Arya for the first official time, she destroys him because, apparently, his conviction for revenge is too selfish (as opposed to her “saving” of humanity which is just a backwards way of saying that she wants everyone to die).

However, the kicker is their second official fight. Right as she is about to lose and Seigi is about to deliver the final blow, she screams, “Don’t think you’ve beaten me!”, and she escapes. In other words, right up until the end of the season, Seigi does nothing, solidifying his do-nothing status for all eternity and his spot in the hall of shame as one of the worst characters of all-time.

The rest of the cast are almost not worth talking about, but, for completeness sake, they will be.

Izzy started out as someone of intrigue. She could hold her own, and she had an interest in Seigi’s tattoo. So, when she recruits him, it’s done both as an act of protection on her part as well as a means to understand more about him and what he was capable of.

Taboo Tattoo gives her a high cute status very early on with her catlike drinking of coffee. And, once the anime learns that her young looks are the price she paid for wielding her tattoo, she becomes the explainer of sorts. How tattoos are used, what people do with them, where they came from, and so on.

She has close friendships with Tom and Lisa, indicating that she isn’t just some hardened warrior but a person who cares deeply about those around her. Which is especially evident when she does what she can to save Lisa from the clutches of the enemy (twice).

As such, and early on, Izzy is not much more than a passable side character (despite her main character status). For the anime largely ignores her: no improving of her relationship with Seigi, no personal conflicts she must overcome. She has her comedic moments and her action moments, but, as a character, she is super average. Perhaps slightly less.

Come the halfway mark, Taboo Tattoo tries to make her more relevant. BB’s previous relationship with her and the loss of her left arm provided some interesting outlets for the anime to explore. But all that’s given about her connection to BB is one aside under a bridge and single, measly flashback where she twirls his hair. As for her arm, she gets a biotic one to replace it, and, beyond Seigi catching her before she fell to the ground, it does not play a significant part in the events thereafter.

Izzy is arguably the best character the anime offers – which isn’t saying much at all. Thus, looking at the rest of the cast is a chore in futility.

BB acts as Seigi’s role model, but he has nothing else known about him besides his cool-guy status.

Iltutmish was once a street urchin taken in by Arya, but her opposite personality whenever Arya was around is her only memorable quality.

Touko exists to potentially lose as the childhood friend (since it could have gone either way given Seigi’s acceptance of her and Izzy’s own romance with BB), provides some sexual relief (given how much focus her breasts receive), and introduces a pointless forehead-tattoo conflict (which gets resolved immediately upon her death).

Kar had romantic feelings for BB that were technically her downfall, yet their foundation is just a couple of small exchanges he had with her during his brief stint in the Kingdom.

Wiseman is an evil scientist, the homeless man that originally gave Seigi his tattoo. He researches them and double-crosses the main gang. That’s it.

The weirdest character, though, is Ajita. He’s the man who wears a wide-brimmed hat and a monocle. In the OP’s visuals, he has a monster sprout from his eyeball, yet despite this and his meager introduction during BB’s past-depiction episode, he only shows up right at the end. He turns into a giant bee, distracts the helicopters for a bit, then blows up into a purple gobstopper.

Unfortunately for the cast, they do not come off as intentionally poor in the same way that the story does. They’re just poor. Meaning, they’re wholly problematic without any of the fun.

SOUND

Taboo Tattoo’s music and sound are by no means stellar. Most likely not even passable. But, besides the comedy, it’s better than almost everything else the anime has on offer.

The opening track does not try for anything fancy, but it has its merits. The drum beat and piano work well both together and individually, and the vocalist keeps up with the pace as well as belts out her notes when needed. The sound dropping in the middle of the track and the somber tone despite the swiftness also work in its favor. Again, not an amazing track but not an abhorrent one either.

The ending track is filled with piano, guitar, and drums. Harmonized signing accompanies the composition, and another somber tone dominates the air. It’s a forgettable piece through and through. Same goes for the original soundtrack with its little slice-of-life tune with a bunch of xylophones and its mysterious techno jam.

As for the voice acting, it’s acceptable. Shiori Izawa as Iltutmish takes the top spot with both her quieted and energetic voices for the young girl. The rest, though, do not provide anything special.

ENJOYMENT

This show has a crazy amount of writing problems in the second half that severely hamper anything it tries to do. The protagonists have next to no strengths, and the villains are laughable. What little plot it crafts brings a lot of action without substance.

Despite these large problems, I was entertained. More so than I maybe should have been. Each time I thought the anime could not get more ridiculous with its developments, it managed to one-up itself on a per-episode basis.

That’s not to say the anime’s actual cute or comedic moments were not so. Because they were. Tom backwards spider-crawling up the side of a house and Touko straddling Seigi had me laughing quite hard. Episode five deserves another shout-out. It was absolutely hilarious and easily the highlight of the whole season.

Plus, the yuri. The sweet, beloved yuri. Arya may be a horribly written villain, but I can get behind all her lewd female-only antics all day, every day.

I can’t say that about the entire anime. Because it’s still way too riddled with issues for me to see as anything but problematic. But I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a lot of fun throughout this wacky experience.

Taboo Tattoo starts off in a rough spot and only gets rougher the further along it proceeds. From the weak story to the even weaker characters, from the wonky animation to the bland musical choices. It’s like a regrettable tattoo: fun in the moment, but, in hindsight, a completely wrong set of decisions.

SUMMARY

Story: Bad, the asinine writing destroys the narrative into smithereens, but, arguably, it does so intentionally

Animation: Terrible, bad artistic direction, below average actual animation, poor visual choices, and okay character designs

Characters: Terrible, Seigi is unbelievably and abysmally written, and the others are just as poorly handled, given no attention, or both

Sound: Bad, okay OP, bad ED, bad OST, and okay VA performances

Enjoyment: Good, comedy, yuri, and the wackiness of it all made for a surprisingly entertaining time

Final Score: 2/10

The anime doesnt know how to pick a tone and stick to it. Its all over the place.
One point its serious and brutal. And then the next its ecchi cartoony comedy. The tones are constantly clashing.

The anime also tries to play mind games as to who is really supposed to be the bad guys. But its just not that interesting.
The main villainess is always monologuing some eye-rolling pretentious philosophical BS. And is easily the worst character in the show. (+1 point to her for providing the ecchi stuff i suppose).

The other characters are actually not bad. They are good characters in a bad story.

The ... story is about a boy named Justice who has a strong sense of justice. Who gets a special tattoo after saving a supposedly homeless man.
But he's not the only one with a tattoo. Others also have these marks that grant them special powers. And these tattoos will lead to a war between the US and a South Asian country the Kingdom of Selinistan.
The story does start off promising at first.

My biggest issue is just the lack of consistency. I dont understand what im watching. I dont understand how im supposed to feel. Is this a comedy? And i supposed to be laughing? Or is this supposed to be serious and tragic? Just pick a tone. Sometimes it feels like a parody.

There is alot of potential here but it feels like the writers decided they wanted to troll the audience.

The worst anime I ever had the displeasure of watching.

Never had to witness a more poorly written and generic anime in all my years of watching anime. It makes you wonder if they just picked up a random person off the street and asked them to write something real quick. This show is generic, taken to the absolute extreme. Years later, I still randomly get reminded of this anime and how it robbed me of my time.

From basically the first to second episode, all you are thinking is, "Is this some prank on the industry? Can an anime really be this bad? Are they ... doing some money laundering with this by losing on purpose?" The anime also didn't age really well at all.

The CG animation at the end is just a final insult to everyone still watching. It felt like J.C Staff knew the source material is just bad and then went and put 0 effort into the show. Can't really blame them all that much. I would feel offended having to animate this too.

The whole virus story just makes no sense at all and of course isn't explained because the author didn't even think about it when making it. The story had so many loose ends.