Caligula (TV)

Everyone has a different form of perception, how they see reality, and everything in it. We can see a show or movie and have different reactions to it and notice different things in it. We can have different political opinions, views on society, or subject preferences. Once you think of it, it's quite fascinating, and in many cases, outright chaotic.

After dressing itself up in psychology and philosophy Caligula is a fascinating and musically endearing, if awkward, convoluted, and questionably executed foray into just how fucked perceptions are. It jumps off from its premise to deliver a unique experience in the name of establishing the credibility ... to tell you something: don't get too attached to escapism, and accept reality.

Just think about it. It's antagonists -Mu and mediocre cronies services mostly for their themes- are well-intentioned extremists who have indulged far too deeply into escapism. We get to see everyone be subjected to the most disgusting and aggressive versions of what we do to take a break on our daily life, as characters confront their true feelings and unravel themselves to us. People getting so lost into their music that they go ham on people, people engaging so hard in tea parties that they actually eat the fake silverware and stuff themselves so obscenely, people wishing so hard to become someone else that they end up living a fake life? This shit and more is all here! The presentation of this, coupled with the presentation of how off and disturbing the events are, is all directed strikingly. Even though the writing effectively has to handwaive potentially awkward shit about not perceiving explosions and managing to perforce yourself in a completely different body and life, it manages to work without much explanation. It’s such as shame that some revelations are so detrimental and that there are several asspulls and unexplained actions/circumstances -most of which are concerns with the second half-. Let’s not even mention how the final quarter falls apart until the final 13 minutes, as the way it opens certain cans of worms ranges from interesting to devastating, even more so than the second half already began doing.

However, while the narrative was mostly well-presented, the characters are in the exact opposite scenario. There are a lot of them, both on the protagonist and antagonist side. None of them have distinctly interesting personalities or motivations sans Mu, and the sheer amount means that we have to juggle a bunch of largely uninteresting characters, several of whom don't get explored in interesting ways. Even the ones that do such as Mifune, are not very memorable despite their intriguing dilemmas and breakdowns. The protagonist (Ritsu) is the second closest thing to a real character, and aside from him enthusiastically getting into psychology and sociology terminology whilst presenting them to the characters and audience, there isn't really much to him either. Even seemingly important side/characters take forever to even be introduced beyond what the opening and closing credits show us. I guess it makes it hard to write them inconsistently, as most of them are more like vessels with singular, often abandoned traits. Good writing that does make, and even with the one good character they have, its counterbalanced brutally towards the end with a certain twist villain who’s basically Seryuu from Akame ga Kill.

The dialogue is also sometimes clumsy enough to remind me that the person writing the story with the message likely hasn't entirely escaped the damages a sheltered or escaped reality has on one’s writing, perception of real people, and how they talk. Perhaps some time to iron things out and spend time with these characters experiencing the type of pain and escapism integral to their stories would make them a bit more interesting. Then again, the show is so blunt, even hamfisted about its messages that it almost hurts despite how good they are to hear, and how plentiful the themes used for it are.

Studio Satelight had about as much trouble as the writing, it seems. The character designs -sans Mu- are all a tad awkward and it feels like they had to limit the animation for the sake of keeping the sharp yet awkward (and incredibly pale) character models perfectly in check. Flashbacks galore and some occasionally jarring CGI only worsen the deal, especially when the presentation makes odd decisions like occasionally reducing characters to white or other colored silhouettes, or having them not move during their walking animations sometimes. The fight scenes are pretty terrible too, with Akame ga Kill sound effects and jank as hell animation, when there is any. It all temporarily comes crashing down in the finale -along with the writing-. Shame given that the directing and presentation by Junichi Wada makes several sequences engaging, using static to really sell how off things feel, while constantly showing different visual perspectives and changing up the lighting and colors when things go insane. It's like the direction is doing its damndest to obfuscate the terrible production and only barely succeeding. The visuals for the opening are pretty captivating though, with a more unique filter and overall darker and more mind-bending style.

Speaking of the opening, "Paradigm Box" by Ritsu Shikishima (Chiharu Sawashiro), Shougo Satake (Shunsuke Takeuchi), is one of the better openings of the season, with nice vocals and a somewhat unique feel in places (notably right before the chorus). The ending theme "HYPNO" by Kotono Kashiwaba (Rie Murakawa), Naruko Morita (Ari Ozawa), Mifue Shinohara (Rie Takahashi), Suzuna Kagura (Minami Tanaka) is also a worthwhile listen, even if it feels like forcing it to be 90 seconds stretches it. The vocal tracks performed by Mu are even more fun to listen to, and the lyrics are pretty good at reflecting the overall themes of each song that relate to the show (as well as the RPG game the show adapts). Sure, some get replayed quite often, and the rest of the OST is mostly just decent with the exception of the track "The Fairy of Dreams", but that doesn't stop me from listening to this OST on my own time.

It’s a shame this show isn't as well-received or as great as it could be, since its messages are beneficial, even important for the anime community and Japan at large to hear. If only it was as worth the recommendation I wish to give it, as it was certainly entertaining in its madness and ideals. Regardless, it isn’t bad, so if you prefer the message to anything else, or want something out of the ordinary, perhaps this isn’t a bad choice to consider.

I have to confess, the only reason I decided to watch this anime was because of two words: "µ" and "idol", I thought maybe I'd get some Love Live references here. Ha.

Well anyways, Caligula was pretty much one huge mess. The concept shown to us in the sypnosis isn't so bad, and indeed the concept of being stuck in another world and trying to escape from it- isn't so bad.
But as the story went on, it turned out to be a horrible mess.

We barely get to know what really is happening in the series, and as the story progresses we get more twists that made ... me even more confused.
Just because there are twists and psychological quotes every episode doesn't make it automatically good.

We get all the backstories dumped into us, making us "feel" the characters, but at the very least we had diversity in the characters.

Oh, and then there are the bad guys, the Musicians, who like the imaginary world but they have to kill the ones who want to escape from the current world- just because.

We've gone for 12 episodes without a clear direction, and only once in a while there was a clash between the "good" and "bad" forces, with no meaning behind.

For some reason, whenever µ sang, everybody went wild. Pretty weird concept to make the enemies "awaken"...

The OP/ED were nice.

The artstyle (on purpose?) was made to be grim, Using the colors of gray, brown and black, you can see the whole anime being "lifeless" and... unappealing.

Conclusion: This anime seemed like an advertisment for µ songs. And no, these aren't "µ's" the idol group from Love Live, but this is just "µ", the inferior idol.

5/10 Feel free to skip it.

For those who just want a quick and simple answer to the question "Should I watch this show?" I'll answer that right off the bat before expanding on it: Probably not unless you've played the game it was based on and really enjoyed it.

The Caligula Effect: Overdose has the advantage in terms of pacing, story structure, and character development simply by the virtue of being a game. The story is just a bit too dense to fit comfortably into a twelve-episode anime without losing a lot of great character moments and nuance. So, if this series interests you, I'd highly recommend picking up the ... game first and deciding to watch this adaptation based on whether or not you enjoyed the original.

Now, I say "adaptation," but when I watched Caligula I was quite surprised by what I got. The anime doesn't feel so much like it's trying to tell the same story as the game as it feels like the game and anime are two different interpretations of a hypothetical third source material.

It delves into the plot with a very different approach than the game does, juggling several major plot-points that occurred in linear succession in the game simultaneously. While this ensures that fans of the Caligula Effect will probably get to see their favorite moments from the game without having to abandon other, equally important parts due to time constraints, it also results in a lot of the more meaningful moments for individual characters being widdled down to their most simple parts and rushed.

Overall, the only thing that Caligula does better than The Caligula Effect was also what I expected the least: the protagonist. While a sucker for blank slate, [Insert Yourself Here] main characters in games, Shikishima Ritsu is actually a much better protagonist for this particular story than I could ever be. Unfortunately, you'll probably only appreciate how perfectly he works as the story's lead if, say it with me now, you've played the game!

In conclusion, just go buy the game instead. It's actually pretty good and the soundtrack is utterly fantastic.

No this isn't about the crazy Roman Emperor, but a video game adaptation...and you KNOW that those three words are easily a curse in an anime adaptation.

Caligula gets it's name from the "Caligula Effect", referencing the desire to see and do prohibited things, so can guess what most of the characters will go through.

Caligula involves around Mobius, a perfect digital world run by μ, a virtual idol program that gained self awareness and has given the wishes to the humans in the digital world to quell their suffering. However a group of rebels break free and see what Mobius truly is and tries to get ... out it.

Caligula is by the by, a character-focused anime about these group of rebels and their sufferings in the real world while they try to get out of Mobius while having to deal with the "Musicians", guardians of u who ALL have some link to each of the main cast. LA didn't really mind the character-focused episodes all that much as again, it makes sense in terms of the title and what the motif of this anime is and it does it well.....for the most part.

In terms of characters, the majority of the main cast and "Musicians" gets something of a joint character development together as the main cast gains their new powers brought by Aria voiced by Asami Shimoda to be able to fight the Musicians and in the process we see some similarities to each of the main cast and the Musicians' reasoning of staying or wanting go to the real world. The problem for LA is the pacing of it and sure LA can easily say this but Caligula DOES have this problem as although LA gets the formula of "action-packed episode then a breather" makes sense, some scenarios however do not, mainly that one episode where they essentially talked about their backstory, some we KNOW in full detail about but regurgitated again for the sake of filler.

The battles are decent enough though it's mostly white noise most of the time as it's a more verbal and narrative focus plot for most of the characters, the action is fine, but with all the excessive battling and the such you kinda get numb to it, not to mention Mobius itself making many of the destruction moot at times.

Back to characters and oddly enough for such a character-focused narrative, LA didn't exactly feel investment in the majority of the characters and no it's not because most of the cast are terrible or done terrible things in the real world, LA just couldn't get invested period. There was only TWO characters LA liked and they were Naruko Morita voiced by Ari Ozawa and Aria. Not even the character LA was more relatable to (that being Suzuna Kagura voiced by Minami Tanaka) didn't make LA budge. Really LA just couldn't get invested in these characters to the point of not remembering their names cept maybe the main character. On speaking of him, yes it makes sense that Ritsu Shikishima voiced by Chiharu Sawashiro has a stake in the plot and has something to do with μ, but most of the other characters carry him throughout the anime that even he himself who is SUPPOSE to be the main character is being utterly carried by the supporting cast members of his own anime.

In terms of animation by Satelight, was decent for the most part from the back grounding and character designs as well as decent battle animation but all things considered, Caligula's animation was par for the course but not much else in LA's opinions, it wasn't greatly detailed nor was it a error-filled production, but LA will say the animation was just "meh" all round, and this is Satelight we're talking about, they give flourishes and crazy amount colorful detail and adrenaline fueled battles but Caligula is definitely NOT that.

In terms of voice acting, well LA was just a bit lackluster with it all round, not too annoying like Asami Shimoda as Aria nor too hammy like from Shougo Satake's voice actor Shunsuke Takeuchi. Even with some actually hammy performances from the Musicians at times especially from Emi Nitta as Sweet-P, Souma Saito as Ike-P and Yuka Ootsubo as Thorn...it was "ok". The only decent voice actor LA got from Caligula would have been from Reina Ueda as μ. Voice acting department was a bit lackluster but also nothing to write home about unfortunately even with the hammy performances we get.

Caligula though LA has been harsh about it's characters, the plot especially concerning the world building and nature of μ and Mobius itself by the end of it made ALOT of sense and along with the themes of the Caligula Effect just clicked and made sense in terms of the plot.

Caligula for LA falls into the basic trap of not having enough drive or flourish to of kept LA interested, sure at times it did and it conveyed the themes of the "Caligula Effect" to it's characters pretty well, but overall Caligula easily feel to the wayside for just not having LA's investment in the plot and especially it's characters and LA WANTED to get invested in these characters, it was like the anime adaptation had no drive and was basically on autopilot on it's character developments and expected the crazy amounts of white noise destruction and fighting to make up for it, when it just didn't need to, especially considering this is a character-focused narrative and it felt like even then it threw all that away for cheap sentimental fights that amounted to...not that much.

LA won't say that Caligula's anime adaptation goes into the "horrible video game adaptation" bin at all, LA just felt like Caligula was misguided in it's attempts to get us invested and it at least TRIED to do something with it's plot and characters just not that greatly executed was all. LA thinks the best way to sum up Caligula's overall verdict is the typical saying of Caligula, "LA isn't angry at you, but disappointed".

To be fair, the premise is good. OP, ED and ost are very good. Unfortunately it just felt cheap and was done poorly. Too much powers from nowhere, screaming and nonsense. It feels like this anime was made just to advertise the music and game. There are moments I found downright cringeworthy. The anime sort of drags through until everything plot related happens in the last couple episodes.

Again, it felt like the anime was made just to have somewhere to dump songs and ost. At times it felt like it was based on a game and seemed lacking in plot and impact. They shove some ... philosophy in there but I question why Caligula was even made in the first place. But nonetheless 10/10 for ost. I quite enjoyed the soundtracks.

In summary, it felt like a difficult grind even though it was only 12 episodes. I mostly watched because of the ost and trying to figure out what's going on with Ritsu. The ending is too predictable. I hoped the story would end differently because ending the way I predicted was too obvious to be true. But it was true and I was surprised. I would even go as far as saying that you can make an educated guess about the entire story based on the first episode.

Overdramatic and cringeworthy but I thoroughly enjoyed the music. Worth watching? Maybe. You decide.

edited to remove excess ranting

This is a review of the anime only. I have not read the manga.


Like a lot of the single season anime the past couple years, this lacked that punch that makes it memorable and makes me fall in love with the characters. This was another series where I didn't get attached to anyone. That used to be rare.

What I liked about it:

1. It was pretty.
2. It started off with a lot of mystery and action.
3. The issues the characters had were relatable.
...
What I didn't like about it:

1. I never got attached to any of the characters.
2. It got melodramatic and whiny.
3. The ending felt lackluster even though it wrapped everything up.
4. There was not a single moment that pulled an emotional reaction from me.

This anime had enough mystery and interesting characters to get me over halfway through it before I started to lose interest but by then I felt committed and wanted to find out the truth of things so I finished it.

This is a story that is better understood and appreciated if the viewer has a good understanding of Japanese culture and the pressures and expectations on the people within it. Even with that, it gets melodramatic and whiny. The story here really is one of self-discovery and coming to terms with yourself, what you can and can't accept, what you can and can't forgive - in yourself and others. It's not my thing, honestly. I would have liked it better if it was more straightforward and less existential.

It becomes apparent fairly quickly that the characters aren't individuals as much as archetypes of people in the world. This makes it difficult to get attached to them. They're exaggerations and become more and more so as the anime progresses. I was disappointed, to be honest. The one character that was truly interesting, Shougo, became a quivering mess by the end for no real reason that I could discern and that really turned me off. Other characters did 180s as well with no build up or lead into the change so it was just ... whaaaaaa? None of them were complex enough to get attached to, but I'm not sure we were really supposed to.

The singing got really repetitive and distracting. Having the subtitles for the song in the background and the speaking in the foreground was a lot to try to process. I also didn't like her voice.

Overall, this was an okay anime, somewhat disappointing, mostly because of the expectations I had of the story and the characters from the early episodes. I don't feel cheated out of my time but I don't feel it was the best use of my time either.

i dont know but this anime is ok not so much fun but also fun.
if u not a game fan or no other action special power anime to watch this anime is ok to watch

Story : 3 pretty bad i think. just fighting and no charm to this anime
Art : 9 is great the animation is pretty good. The fighting screen is great
Sound 8 : is very good maybe because form game
Character 3 : is awful very bad. i dont know but i cant remember the name of any character no charm
Enjoyment : so much special power anime better than this
Overall : ... 6 just watch if u not have special power anime to watch

So, you want to study psychology? Well, here’s an anime that’s yet you do nothing but watch a guy go on about it for the entire first part of the series! The main character, as it is very apparent in the first episode, is a fanatic for philosophical theories, concepts, and debates. The problem, however, is that the first few episodes are all a bait. This isn’t what you were expecting, and now the whole show flipped and turned into a fighting anime.
-Minor spoilers below the line. Nothing big and mostly a couple of dialogue references. And a reference to a scene here or there. ...
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So, I watched the first episode, began to understand what kind of anime Caligula was, and thought “hey, this might be a bit interesting.” But then, the twist happened. Now, in a lot of first episodes, twists are methods of hooking the viewer, defining the genre of that anime, and overall attracting attention to the series through surprise and delight. It was used and executed well in “Gakkou Gurashi,” “Sankarea,” “Space Dandy,” and a couple of others. However, there are occasions where an anime utilizes a twist in the wrong way, leading to the alienation, confusion, or complete disinterest of the viewer. This show dipped into both the good aspects and the bad of plot twists. For one, it certainly surprised me, as I thought it would be another high school anime, but it also left me confused and semi-disinterested. I didn’t expect it to be an isekai battle anime (yes, by definition, this counts as an isekai anime) with superpowers. I also didn’t want it to be an isekai battle anime. By including tons and tons of philosophical ideas, it attracted a more tranquil, patient audience and turned away the shounen battle freaks through its focus on dialogue and not action. However, the complete gear shift from profound thoughts to punch-outs then alienated the audience it had appealed to in its first three episodes. In fact, after episode 3 or 4 (I can’t remember) the heavy focus on psychologic philosophy disappeared, and all that was left were a couple of references spread out in the following 8 episodes.
If battle type anime are your cup of tea though, have at it. The show is basically misfits of the real world desperately trying to return to that world which cast them aside. This review is simply my opinion of the show, and in from my POV, it was borderline decent. There’s nothing else I feel like writing out in a paragraph, so here’s a pro/con list:

Pros:
1. The songs are nice.
2. There a one really cool looking fight scene that I won’t forget.
3. The artistic expression of µ was beautiful.
4. µ behaved like an actual open-learning AI, giving off a slight sense of realism.
Cons:
1. CG characters as background characters.
2. Half the battles are the protagonists shouting “I wanna go home.”
3. They overly villainize the so-called villians, even though the show is based on expressing that everyone was a victim of society.
4. There is no explanation for the chibi character. “I am similar to µ” is the only explanation we get, and her whole presence feels out of place.
5. A lack of explanation as a whole for certain scenes and occurrences. Leaves the viewer often confused.
And if you wanted one of those summary lists that everyone does, here it is:
• Music: 7
• Characters: 3-7 (depending on the character)
• Art: 6
• Plot: 5
• Enjoyment: borderline 6
• Overall: 6

I couldn't stomach anymore episodes after 10 so I don't know the ending. Maybe the story got really good in the last 2 episodes, but right now, I'm sick of it and I don't even want to know.
Anyway, the anime started off good. I was intrigued and it seemed like it'll have some good mysteries, interesting characters, fight scenes etc.
After the first 4 episodes it all started getting pretty boring. Character development of all the protagonists pretty much stopped there and those were all shallow developments followed by some random power ups and grunting like the show couldn't decide whether they want to go ... full dragonball style shonen or not.
Explanations of everything was rather shallow and I'm guessing some may reveal itself at the last 2 episodes I didn't watch. For example, I just couldn't understand why the people who wanted to leave can't just leave and have people who wanted to stay in the fantasy world stay behind. And surely there were more people in despair in Japan than just those people we were shown? It seemed like there were only a handful of protagonists and antagonists that got sucked into this world and that's just it?
If the show wanted me to sympathize with the musicians (the antagonists) they did a good job. In fact, I ended up rooting for them more than the guys wanting to leave. The protagonists, who were supposed to be on the right side, seemed selfish in my mind by wanting to leave for their own benefit, regardless of whether their action will make someone truly unhappy.
For me, I was really hoping for something like a redemption arc for each antagonist. I studied counseling for a bit, having had mental issues myself with an acquaintance who passed away because of it, I know the deep end of social issues they've pointed. Those antagonists wanting to escape reality had some valid reason. The show took an easy route out rather than making a compelling story about how they have an epiphany and realise their mistakes, they made everyone comically evil to paint them a bad picture. When they killed off one of the antagonists who was a victim of bullying, by having him just fall to his death, I just had my guts full. To me some of those protagonists in fact felt more like the bad guy, the same people who belittled the antagonist and bullied them to the extreme where they seek asylum in a fake world rather than dealing with the issues.
By the way, I just wanted to add that episode 9 was such a piss poor take on "handsome people also have it bad." It also did not explain why Mu made an ideal world for everyone, but made the handsome guy who didn't want to be handsome and popular... handsome and popular -_-
Animation, music and even the fight scenes were alright. The story was just annoying for me.