Sabikui Bisco

In most shows I've reviewed, I primarily focus on the enjoyment and aspects that I noticed when I watched the show. If the show has terrible characters, then I would state that, if it has sluggish animation, I would say that too. However, most of that is put in particular aspects in which anything referring to art would be talked about the artistic backgrounds and designs of our characters.

For this particular case, I want to make a different approach to this anime called Sabikui Bisco and make a full-fledged review, vastly different from what I have written. Without further ado, time to start.

"I love you."

Ah ... yes, Sabikui Bisco. When I first looked at the trailer, I thought I was promised an intriguing world filled with mysteries and bizarre details that caused the world they lived into oblivion. The characters had unique designs and stand out, the soundtrack was also quite bizarre, which took a while for me to settle, but I found it to be quite fitting. If I were to remember, I rewatched the preview about 10 different times, becoming one of my anticipated shows this Winter. As I have said, I was hoping for an enriched apocalyptic world that had something to show other than its competitors. Unfortunately, I am filled with sheer disappointment as every episode that came out, it was getting worse the more I looked at it.

First, we must talk about the story, the synopsis of the story unravels about a post-apocalyptic Tokyo after being poisoned by the plague-like wind of rust. From the first sentence, it's already a problem. Rust is supposedly a reaction that only happens to anything that is mostly pure metal, which the show is also derived from, which led me flabbergasted, as such a thing would never exist to infect innocent people and usurp people's lives. But hey, it's all fiction, why should it matter if the author decides to make rust a plague? It is an issue because there are plenty of things that I feel like that are overlooked by the author when he made this. If such a thing called rust wind exists, then people who are venturing are not wearing armour that is resistant to rust, which I'm not seeing here. Why aren't the people using metal sacrifice to protect themselves from rust? Does the show has never heard of the term 'electroplating'? I believe all the chemist professionals happened to die on that day.

It's not only the fact that it's severely illogical in terms of its setting but how the author decided to introduce a cure right off the bat that can supposedly 'eat' rust, which then again is just a way to turn it into a prophecy. The approach of having a certain cure where there are already things proven to prevent corrosion of metal or even the show's main threat, rust is beyond me. I could not believe it myself.

Enough about the stupid lore, now the story. The story is without a doubt inconsistent and convoluted. In the first few episodes, I was not liking how the show was reluctant on showing us the action, one of the things I was highly expecting. Their exposition of dialogue bored me to death until the last few minutes when something actually happens. A mushroom spawner can make himself fly because, for some reason, it can launch him and grow instantly without any withdrawal symptoms from it. They both met and decided to find the rare 'Sabikui', a mushroom that will cure the doctor's sister's disease that has plagued her body.

Then, when the first few episodes were finally over, it decided to turn into an adventure between a goody-two-shoes doctor and a screaming archer who don't know where they are heading. From what I can discern from that part, the show shows more interest in going for anything that suits the current tone of the story, no matter how inconsistent and stupid it is. I was genuinely furious when Episode 9 came along, like the author thought he was doing good writing by having us shocked but ended up making more plot conveniences than Dragon Ball Z, a show notorious for its story stretching further because of abundant plot conveniences. The show was so focused on finishing the story it started, everything felt rushed the moment Milo decided to assault the main villain.

My next point is about art. There's not much to say about it honestly. The characters from an artistic point are not that bad but their art backgrounds don't practically stand out much. But I realise that the stupid mushrooms spawning out from Bisco's arrows was getting on my nerves as if those are the only things he can do other than screaming and sometimes being a motivational guy when the time is convenient. What had me legitimately done was the Iron Titan, which happened to be the ugliest thing I have seen made in CGI, in which I do not hate CGI animations whatsoever, but damn, I remember the Titan is more disgusting than it being a dangerous threat.

Now to the characters, let's say that I was not quite fond of the characters in this show. Their choice of dialogue is so awkward and edgy most of the time. Character development seemed to be forced for the sake of the plot. The villain of the story sounds threatening but was nothing more than a side villain who completely sucks. Kurokawa was as uninteresting as he was annoying, who existed only to make the main character die, yes indeed it happened.

A prime example of that is Milo, whose personality takes a 180 during the last few episodes after portraying himself as a well-mannered, compassionate and determined person, decided to be like his counterpart who is known to be childish, aggressive and downright dumb most of the time unless the plot decides to make him intelligent. This for some reason, threw me off and had me confused as it doesn’t make any particular sense in the slightest to have this happen.

Not only that, the side characters of this show other than the main duo just feels... fake. Pawoo, a lady portrayed as a sexy fighter with rusts on her body seems to be there for the fanservice and nothing else, despite being the main reason for the doctor to go on an adventure in the first place. Even as the plot goes on, I cannot indulge myself with the fact that Pawoo is supposed to be a character and nothing more than an image of lust. The only decent character out of them was Jabi, who had something to say for himself, but yet again, he doesn't seem to be anything that amazing where the main character has talked about him. Tirol on the other hand had something, but it was disappointing that she doesn't get much attention other than a few particular episodes. In the end, the characters of the show are incredibly poor and easily forgettable.

In terms of enjoyment, it felt like my time was wasted on this junk, which successfully fooled me into thinking it's an actual good piece of fiction, which it's nothing more than trash. I regretted not listening to others who knew what they were getting into, its tendency of pulling out plot conveniences, contradicting characters, forced character development, rushed storytelling, and illogical lore.

"I'm telling you it's overrated!"

Overall, do not watch this anime in any circumstances. You will regret it. Hence, I end my review about Sabikui Bisco. Also, screw you too, Sabikui Bisco.

No Spoilers

Sabuiki Bisco tries its absolute hardest to be this wild crazy mashup of different Shonen tropes and some random idiosyncrasies added into it. I wanted to enjoy this show that was truly nutty as fruitcake which is why I rated it as high as I did. Then we got the 2nd and 3rd episodes which has led to nothing short of a disaster. This is mainly due to borrowed content and garbage character designs, with its biggest Achilles Heel being the superficial inarticulate mind-bogglingly trivial story.

Story - 3
Dear reader are you interested in a show with a misunderstanding as its main selling point? ... Along with unrealistic viruses, terrible pacing and an unappealing cast of characters? Then welcome aboard. Sabuiki Bisco's world suffers from a rust problem and we are led to believe that mushrooms are the cause of this unspeakable evil. Well if you have an IQ under 70 you might've believed that. Given we are watching a generic Shonen action anime there is no chance for our protagonist to be a villain. So oh wow guys the virus is actually cured by mushrooms! Who would've thought? The plot is extremely shallow which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Take Demon Slayer as an example it had a shallow plot yet it was good enough and interesting enough to keep us glued to our seats. This show removes any intrigue it had by just saying: "Hey so this is basically how the world works stupid viewer, keep watching us weekly now that any mystery available is gone." So apparently this is supposed to be a post-apocalyptic anime and initially I was excited, only to realize that it's literally ordinary Tokyo rebuilt with desert surrounding it...

Art -5
Honestly, not a fan of the art, the character designs look off and everything is pretty poor by 2022 animation standards, I know it's a new studio but there's a certain lack of polish to the actual characters, the cyberpunk backgrounds look alright to be fair. We get a bunch of clowns dressed up in oddly familiar rabbit heads. Oh, gee where have I seen this one before mate? Ah yes, the absolute garbage Doubt manga that was supposed to be scary but just made me laugh instead. That's what the costumes in Sabuiki Bisco made me do. Every character looks off, even the whales in the sky are a ripoff of Re Zero.

Sound -7
I'm indifferent to the OST at times it's great, at times it's normal. The OP is far too over exaggerative for me to enjoy as the singer sounds like she's trying to sing death metal to a pop beat which fails epically and leaves me royally upset. Though I don't dock points off EDs or OPs that was not pleasant in the slightest.

Character - 3
Oi mate you thought the story was bad? Wait till you hear about the characters. The MC is a mary sue with zero personality that can single-handedly take down an entire army with a mushroom bow. The doctor character is this nice guy that only cares about the greater good. And to top it all off the main rival is just the doctor's sister whose whole personality is misunderstanding the MC which is the most overused trope that I despise. The only "good" characters I can speak of are the old man that acts as a mentor and the main villain who actually has a personality.

Enjoyment - 4
I enjoyed the insanity at the start but over time this eroded (get it? Cause of the rus- ok I'll stop) into just slogging through each minute of this dull uninteresting show that tries so damn hard to be different but it becomes different to the point of dullness.

Overall - 4
If it gets better (which I have serious doubts about) I may change my rating to a 5 or 6 at best but right now this anime has been the most disappointing anime of the season so far.

The start of Sabikui Bisco promised a relaxing dumb show with a bunch of random stuff that would leave something to care about after each episode. Sadly, the anime ended up being just as dumb, pointless, and insubstantial as anticipated, while also turning in an unintelligible convoluted attempt to evoke emotions out of nowhere, which derived in forgettable climaxes, emotionless speeches, and vain asspulls.

The flaws of the anime are all over the place. The complete premise of it gets denser once it gets further elaborated, being basically the equivalent of a Big Pharma conspiracy, narrating a discourse that not even the most braindead user ... of LateStageCapitalism would eat, and amplifying such flaw by not imposing any sort of coherency to the world, since the whole issue can be reduced to a single entity that happens to be ridiculously powerful for no other reason but mind control, and the government being inherently evil. To be frank, there is absolutely no business on the main antagonist to be an unforgivable piece of shit, but here we are, a world when even the antagonist knows that he is doing extremely unethical stuff for personal gain, totally credible, purposeful, and stimulating.

The characterization issues get even worse, the two main characters are tropes with legs, they can be reduced as a bishounen moral compass that do dumb exposition speeches and a full of testosterone red-haired hero that acts like the embodiment of what is cool for a 5 years old. The conflict between the two characters is as predictable as one could think too, one of the characters wants to make a self-sacrifice to protect the other and the other comes from nowhere to almost save him. The fact that such relation happened more than three times speaks volume about the originality or complexity of the situations, almost as like every single point of creativity was burned to throw darts to the Wikipedia page of Mammals.

The side characters are atrocious too, the anime features Pawoo, a random badass girl that is supposed to be the motivation of Milo and is meant to portray a change of beliefs to propose one of the main themes, skepticism. That obviously doesn’t work, the story completely forgot the importance and weight of the supposed conspiracy to allow her to change her heart in a matter of minutes after watching some character trying to sacrifice itself for the other, almost like the conspiracy itself didn’t have any sort of depth. Another character is Tirol, a plot device that also happens to have a hack sad backstory and a desire to have friends, an extremely relatable situation for the average viewer of anime, point that never get further than a “We are now friends” by Milo. The anime also features Iroh from Avatar escaping from a jail and appearing out of nowhere all the time as a gag (So funny!), and some random kids and ethnicities to portray the variety of the world and the dissemination of evilness, oh lord. At no point of the story these side characters add anything to the storyline other than time filling and creating apparent motivations for the main duo, motivations that could pretty much intactly exist by changing every single aspect of their characterization, and even be better if they stripped down their absurd tendency to appear out of nowhere, they are just terribly irrelevant to any sort of progression.

Not content with the characters being either irrelevant or unoriginal, the plotline starts making less sense as it goes forward. The first episodes created the foundations to a full of energy adventure, with extreme action and ridiculous events. What did we get? A fourth episode where they domesticate a crab, a fifth episode about some orphans and some creepy couple, a sixth episode about a character that have a forced sad backstory and trust issues. While some of the middle episodes had an interesting value as episodic adventures, those three episodes did absolutely nothing for the overall progression, so when the heat comes, we get the most pathetic anticlimactic intent to make something out of thin air, as everything was crammed to the last half. Honestly, if one “I love you” sounds completely out of place then the story obviously failed at building a credible relationship, fact.

To end the mess of a plot, the final episodes had the most room temperature approach to the phrase “You only die when you are forgotten”. To portray that, the anime sequentially uses all the characters that it introduced before and relate them to the memories and values initially enforced by the dead character. While doing that, one of the main characters start to talk like the deceased character to reinforce the idea of our actions having consequence on the others. This sequence of cringe is just pure desperation, the message was conveyed correctly initially, but the approach got ridiculously annoying and redundant after 5 minutes, almost like they didn’t trust the viewers to understand it. The whole episodes turned into a succession of: Fight -> Danger -> Asspull -> Saving -> Next Fight. To add salt to the wound, one of the episodes took notes from Mr. Peak Fiction Isayama and revived the character anyways (Now with superpowers so the whole issue can be solved!), so the whole struggle was just to propose that already badly executed message, thanks!

Happily, the anime is not completely unredeemable. One of the most valuable aspects of the show is that it never feels like it is going in cruise mode, which is potentially a bad thing, because the story sucks, but a good thing, because it spices up a lot some moments. The refreshing dumb action scenes, the diverse, immersive, mood-setting soundtrack, the well-done construction of the scenarios. The effort in terms of being it visually vibrant was achieved, and the CGI was most of the time passable, because the anime doesnt really look that good anyways. If the anime was meant to be able to build the mesh between CGI and 2D from the studio, then it is a good effort, it doesn’t look polished, at all, but at least is an interesting product from that perspective.

As a conclusion, the anime lacks any kind of overarching intent, it is just a set of fluff being put one after another where the viewer is supposed to infer that something happened in the in-betweens to make some sense about the behavior of the character. The best way to summarize this anime is “hippos mounts, big mushrooms, so random XD”

The best thing about Sabikui Bisco is the trailer which makes your imagination run wild and raises up expectations for the show.
If we don't apply logic to the premise itself Bisco has a good concept in it's core, but this concept is wasted at poor execution and a plot that makes as much sense as an acid trip.

You might have some fun been reminded of the wonky 80's budget sci-fi movies with tits and Dinosaurs shooting laser beams, but authors didn't have enough balls or talent to keep that level of stupid fun. Unlike Kill La Kill (which is a mediocre show, but was ironically ... throwing jabs at clichés of common Seinen anime of the time), Sabikui Bisco generally treats itself seriously as if anyone could seriously empathize with this nonsense. It literally goes as far as creating its' own little lamplight NON-ironically (in 2022, imagine that).

You would assume from the trailer that it's an action packed show with explosions, and you will be wrong. Generally fights are short (budget issues maybe?), one dimensional and have no sense of danger, like a theme park ride. An enemy appears, they shoot mushroom arrows at it and it explodes eventually. 6 episodes in and that's all it ever was.

Are the characters any good at least? Of course not, they are so cliché it makes me cringe. The typical tropes are all here in full health.
The angsty angry red haired protagonist with super powers, the shy quiet kind feminine partner and the quirky rogue-ish girl to help them out in a pinch.
While they have tried to add growth to them, dialogues are a choir to listen to and nothing memorable happens.

Generally I feel like it could be a show similar to the 90's Trigun and it has EVERYTHING for that comparison, but the execution is poor and where Trigun has plenty of actually funny moments, while still making you feel attached to the characters and their deaths, this show misses the mark too much to have anything redeeming for itself.

As someone who likes post-apocaliptic stories, movies and anime, which frankly are somewhat rare, I still dropped it as I had the feeling of wasting my time.

If the Studio and those responsible keep growing, they have potential in the future to create an impressive product, but sadly this one is not it.

Sabikui Bisco is a very mediocre and recycled show and I find that disappointing.

I can't think of an anime in the last ten years that has evoked this kind of emotion from me and not in the way they intended it. I feel so angry and disappointed, disgusted and appalled. I hate that I'll never get all those hours I spent watching this show back. I literally got to the 10th episode and I just had to stop cause I couldn't keep forcing myself to toll with the bullsh*t. Literally 2 episode left to the end and I physically couldn't force myself to keep going cause it finally clicked that this anime isn't gonna get any better. ... Trust me the moment you find yourself telling yourself to push on and that it'll get better down the line, stop cause it won't.

The writing and plot progression is honestly the worst I've ever seen. All the characters literally have the IQ of a walnut. At moments where even a squirrel could figure out what the best course of action would be, the characters constantly choose the most braindead actions and then you're expected to feel shocked or surprised or sad when their dumb choices come to bite them in the ass in the end.

Minor spoilers ahead. Like I've never seen a villain as easy to kill that somehow lasted as long as they did. Literally all four of the main good guys have the power to end the villain with a whistle but at every possible turn when they literally have him on the ropes and coughing out gallons of blood, when he's literally at his most vulnerable while they're still pretty ok, THEY LET HIM GET AWAY. And of course this causes them issues in the future. I honestly thought maybe the villain was pulling a bondrewd and had multiple bodies so even if you killed one he'd show up again but nope, every single time he was right in front of them it was the real him and I couldn't for the life of me understand just why they couldn't just get rid of him.

The characters themselves are so bland and generic it's almost impossible to fall in love with or take any sort of interest in them. They're all just a mosh of all the generic tropes you can think of. And not even the good ones. I hate that the show leaned so much on quite possibly the worst trope in existence: the misunderstanding.

Spoilers ahead potentially
Then the asspulls oh my god it's what got to me in the end. Oh is a giant mecha robot that's been dead for decades running rsmpant in your town? Don't worry here's a pristine fresh off the press manual that details everything about it. Oh are you a frail petite skinny city boy doctor that's probably never done any intensive exercise in your life? Don't worry in tw weeks you'll be shooting arrows through a fly's butthole, mixing potions and scaling towers, all things I supposedly had to undergo gruesome training for but don't worry you won't have to do all that, it'll just come to you. Oh are we stranded somewhere we've both never been to? Don't worry I'm sure there's a convenient clean cottage out here on the plain with a working gas cooker and television so we can hear the bad guy's public broadcast where he publicly tortures an officer of the law and threatens with death publicly.

Don't even get me started on the animation. Literally 2022 and an anime that came out in the 90s has better animation. And you know that's what i was coming for. I didn't expect it to be the next aot or anything, i just wanted something like demon slayer with a basic plot and some good fights to keep me watching but all I got was garbage

The show is a contrived, convoluted mess. I've always been able to force myself to finish an anime I didn't like but this one honestly takes the cake

At first I thought this colourful anime was decent enough involving a actual realistic crab as useful transport to battles, a badass female lead, a mushroom hot tempered keeper dude and his cute sidekick who’s supposed to be a doctor. Not to mention the ending song was personally nice enough hearing the two main characters voice actors. However I just felt the pacing was off like you are made to feel something exciting will happen but completely misses the mark at becoming interesting. It feels like a copycat of shounen already been done but more confusing to what the characters were doing. I have to ... say also that the opening song was just irritating to listen every single episode, I’ve heard better rock opening songs from anime than this tbh.

Overall it’s not great but pretty watchable for some.

I really didn't want to write a review for this show, considering that this would mean that I would have to spend even more time thinking about it.
Beneath all of the perspectives of the timelines that you're shown in the first episode, the spontaneous sprouting mushrooms that shows mystery, and the "man eating" main character that's only hinted at, but never shown is an utterly disgraceful excuse of a story and cast of characters.
The doctor is essentially a smart, but still generic "kind, strong, and fights for his friend" sort of character. Oh, pair him up with Bisco, who is an OP mushroom protector who ... also is strong and fights for his friends, and you got a really good story! Watch as they topple governments and armies, fight for justice, and also get the cure for the plague that rots the world, all in a 12 episode series! Even with time to spare for useless side story episodes that just seem like filler.
There's no real story. Yes, there's some interesting ideas, perhaps, but it's all tossed away to find the cure for the plague that we all care about, and is the sole driver of the story and character interaction. Yet, the only characters you see are Milo and Bisco, and sometimes, Pawoo, who is also a romantic interest for Bisco and also the older sister of Milo. Oh yeah, she's also OP as hell and fights for her friends, too!
Tirol is probably the only fun character, but it's too bad she isn't the main character, and she shows up for like, ten minutes in the entire show. What a shame. The writing for Tirol has more depth than Bisco's and Milo's relationship despite the entire show being about it.
Some minor spoilers ahead, but do you really care? It's shounen trope city. Uh oh! Bisco dies! But wait, he's the main character, so he just comes back to life. Wow, what a riveting story.
So yeah, don't watch this show unless you're the type of guy to read and watch the same shounen story and character tropes over and over again.

This anime is horrible. This anime is an example of an amazing and unique concept, with an actual living world that the characters inhabit, TAINTED by the story and it's characters.

It would be easier to point out what the anime did okay, and that is it's world and it's OST. The world that the anime is set in is genuinely unique and captivating, it feels like there's genuine care put in to show and tell a world that is full of the breath of life. The OST further complements the world, and it's genuinely enjoyable. Neither of these are masterpiece material, but ya know, it's ... alright.

Suspension of disbelief only works for so long, and the viewer can only accept so much before they call BS on the work. The characters go from doing Infinite IQ moves to being dumber than a piece of floating algae in the ocean. The story has ZERO IDEA how to keep the show going without resorting to the characters being absolute potatoes, and alongside the HORRIBLE PACING and the shitty forced one liners and cliche tropes it turns a unbearable cast of characters into a TORTUROUS experience.

When the viewer starts questioning everything the characters do, it's when you fail as an anime. They are no longer immersed, they are no longer emotionally attached to the plot, they are simply there to watch the Hindenburg crash to the ground.

Don't watch this anime. Just don't.

Minor spoiler but it won't affect your viewing experience.

This is a simple review. I'm not a reviewer; I'm simply a normal anime fan. Although this anime has a unique story, the execution and logic are both average. I decided to stop watching after Episode 8. So, in Episode 8, they knock out the enemy boss but don't confirm his death; instead, they chitchat and then the boss appears and attacks after a few minutes(at the very least, the Producers could have made it more realistic by having another character revive or heal the boss with some strange mushrooms, or something that's logical). I'm a guy ... who sees logic in animes, and my appreciation for it has grown after watching "Cautious Hero," which is full of logic, cautiousness and then there is "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure," which has the worst logic. So, if you don't mind the logic and want to experience a unique story, you can try it.

I really, REALLY tried to watch Sabikui Bisco in one sitting. I couldn't. It took me FOUR MONTHS to go through this and I lived to tell the tale..

.. of how shit this show is.

While Bisco is pounding that Panda bussy, let's reflect on the good times.

There weren't any good times.

This show started with a interesting setting but a incredibly stupid premise. A guy fighting "rust" with mushrooms. They are really running out of ideas in Japan I tell ya. I tried to do quick research on "Mushrooms and Rust" and ended up with results primarily from game Rust and people telling others to not ... eat them in Rust.

I was hoping to find some connection between Mushrooms and Rust, since I can't, I'm assuming the writer and director were high on shrooms when they came up with this stupid idea.

Art is acceptable. I liked the setting, visually. It kinda rips off Mad Max, but that's fine. Sound, Music is actually interesting. I found Music to be good but more suitable for some other setting than a stupid Mushroom story.

Characters are just fucking terrible. They come out of nowhere, and are forgotten until they are needed for a scene. The merchant girl with a pointless backstory and 2-3 episodes dedicated to her is a good example. Milo (Panda Doctor) is another fucking annoying character that is so weak that he manages to train and perfect archery enough to defeat MC in one episode (drugs were involved). Oh and Panda is ready to give up his bussy for Bisco, he's in love.. like in the last 5 episodes (it isn't a spoiler, that's how it looks from start, even episode is named after it).

Speaking of last episodes, they were excruciating to sit through, more than the rest of the show. 12 fucking episodes are never enough to create a world, when you have a new setting, and it shows here perfectly. They rush through setting and characters, rush through their training, introduction and move on. It's never worth getting invested in, even the fucking main characters are pretty much just there without any backstory. What is the giant alien thing destroying Japan with Rust? Where did it come from? Where are Mushroom people coming from? Why the fuck would anyone hate them when they obviously are saving people? (they tried to explain it, but it was so stupid) Is Bisco a fucking superhuman? That's the fucking impression you get until Panda, a regular human, starts acting like him and taking down giant aliens while being thrown against walls at mach-5. NOTHING IS EXPLAINED OR MAKES SENSE.


2/10

2 for the Pandussy and art.

I suppose this review won't be much different from others.

The concept of this anime is really good, the world has a lot of potential. Sadly the story was butchered and left to bleed out on the street.

Myself i love the art and sound in this anime and was probably the only reason i have finished it, the art and sound are to good to skip it. The voice actors are great too. If only they put more effor into a story. This is like you would play an alpha version of a game that has amazing graphics and sound, but has no ... story at all...

The story feels bad for 2 reasons, it is strongly rushed and also it has many plot holes, but the plot holes come from the fact that it is rushed i don't know how the source material presents itself so i can't speak about it, maybe it is not rushed at all but how the story was told if so then the creator should have spent more time polishing it.

But we see more and more animes that are just pushed and rushed yet recive great graphics, feels like a waste of resources, i hope the trend changes with time.

I watch anime with a friend of mine and this anime finally made us establish a hard and fast rule that if we aren't having fun by episode 3 we need to bail. Suffered through this anime just so I could say it was finally complete.

Honestly, don't have much to say about the anime. The story was ok in the beginning, but the way in which characters develop, the way the story unfolds is just all over the place. It never becomes a fun ride and that is one of the frustrating elements of the show. I wouldn't recommend watching this anime.

The animation was ... spotty, and while it was colorful and vibrant there were a lot of moments where the quality dipped quite heavily.

Overall, this entire anime was such a serious trudge and I'm really upset we watched it all the way through. We definitely won't make that mistake again

*Spoilers in this review*

This is the first time I'm reviewing a show I've dropped. Most shows I drop, I drop pretty early, and why bother talking about it further when the process of watching it was a huge waste of my time. But Sabikui Bisco, oh Sabukui Bisco, how dearly the hatred in my heart runs for you. Never before has a show made me so genuinely angry and frustrated, and I don't even know if it is truly your fault.
Here's the thing about tropes, tropes are not inherently bad (real groundbreaking stuff here). The entertainment of the tropes you are using in your creation ... relies on how you can best convert those tropes into your own unique style or take. When a trope is done well, it can even subvert your expectations and turn the entire story in an interesting new direction. Now in Sabukui Bisco, two polar opposite dudes, the unassertive, caring, and soft-spoken Milo, and the brash, sarcastic, and insanely strong Bisco, team up and go on a bizarre adventure through strange lands to find the mystical MacGuffin Mushroom which will save the world. I'm sure you can identify the tropes within that description, and now the question is "did this show pull off these tropes well?" The answer to that question is very subjective from what I've seen so far, but to me, it pulled it off well enough by having the duo be mostly entertaining in their interactions with each other and some of the side characters. The dialogue could be witty and funny, and the world in which the characters were traveling in was incredibly interesting, filled with strange mutated animals sometimes converted into weapons or vehicles similar to the old young adult book series "Leviathan." Then came Episode 8 and the reintroduction of our main antagonist.

Kurokawa is a man almost annoying as he is uninteresting. I think he is like an example for aspiring fiction writers on just how abundantly horrible characters can be when you don't subvert or try to change previously established tropes. A man who is practically the incarnation of evil because he just is, working to do evil things because he just can. He checks every god damn box there is, the mustache-twirling monologues, the mocking of the downed hero so his hubris can be his downfall, the comedically over the top performance, the 70 gazillion deus ex machina level aces he has up his sleeves to he can keep getting back the upper hand when he is on the verge of defeat, a verge he is in almost every 5 FUCKING minutes. He literally survives getting shot in the eye with an arrow and then falling 50 feet onto a steel slab without explanation just so he can get into a final confrontation with Bisco and so they can both *tragically* kill each other. Episode 10 is one of the worst pieces of fictional media I have ever watched, a trainwreck from beginning to end, so incredibly frustrating that the death of the main character just fills you with anger rather than sadness because his death has no logical reason for happening besides a dramatic finish with a villain I wish never even existed.

Now you might be wondering, why is this sole complaint the reason I dropped this show? This isn't just a complaint of one aspect of the show overall, this is a complaint about the final third of this show because I am not kidding around when I say that 3 whole episodes are dedicated to this ridiculous conflict (and hour of your time btw) and 90% of those episodes are just Kurokawa ranting about how he is eviler than satan himself, how he enjoys torturing puppies and children, how he the architect behind every single bad thing to ever happen in this show because why the fuck not? Three whole episodes of this, with occasional breaks for when he nearly dies so he can then pull his UNO reverse card out of his ass and then goes back to his ranting. It is all I can talk about because it is all I can remember, all the goodwill I felt towards this show just evaporated into thin air when I finished episode 10, and I honestly don't care if Bisco comes back through the power of friendship or whatever, his resurrection would be as meaningless as his death. Here's the thing about tropes, when you lean into them as much as Sabikui Bisco does, all you've shown is that you've run out of ideas.

I was extremely excited and anticipated this anime because of its amazing producers like Flying Dog, Kodakawa, Frontier Works, and more.
At first I was blinded by my enjoyment, but I truly gave it a chance. The best way to watch this is by having a couple of drinks and knowing this is just a fever dream with absolute no sense. Id say this is the worst anime this year due to its high reputation (producers) yet low quality work.
Story: 3
The whole story is about mushrooms (rust) which is affecting the community. Rather than focusing on this problem, a cure is created off the ... bat and it turns out that Bisco (the mushroom man is actually trying to save people). Mind you this is within the first episode!
Characters: 4
The anime tries to handle several different characters at once and each characters problem is magically resolved. They fail miserably and everything is rushed or is given so little time that you wont care about the plot.
The whole plot can be described as a kid playing with toys and deciding that his main character solves problems, and defeats enemies on a whim.
Bisco defeats enemies with his OP bow which shoots mushrooms.
At some point Bisco and Milo(blue hair) become prisioners of some poor kids, which is very anticlimatic. Biscos giant crab is ignored! The crab can easily provide cover and destroy enemies and the kids arrest Bisco and Milo without being fazed by this giant crab. Within 3 min milo is released as a prisioner by a girl who thought he was cute.... withim 5 min Pawoo (milos sister, trying to get his brother back) is introduced to a married couple, which blames mushroomman for destroying their city. Except that in the very next scene the couple turn out to be bad, fail at killing Pawoo and suicide. Again, 5 or less minutes! action scenes are solved in 1-2 hits. Oh theres a giant spider! STAB. problem solved. Oh there is flying puffer fish coming to the city filled with kids! no worries, Bisco got rid of his chains and decided to destroy them all with his arrow.
what bothered me the most is the fact that during Bisco being prisioner he asks if he can have a kids harpoon. The kid develops this emotional story about his dad and has the harpoon as a memorial. Bisco steals the harpoon and uses it to kill Giant puffer fish. Then, at the end the kid decides to give his harpoon.
If you read this and thought it was a bit non-sensical, it is exactly how the whole anime is. Weak and unintreresting story and characters.
Sound: 7
The music is okay and it would be very good if the whole anime was better. It would add much excitement to the anime but due to its poor excecution, it only become and after thought.
Enjoyment: 3
I can enjoy bad anime or mediocre anime but this is as bad a the CGI berserk anime. My displeasure comes from the amazing producers of this anime, this really broke my expectations in the wrong way.
Overall: 4
Unless your passively watch this, you wont enjoy this. I would only watch this as a background anime while I work on homework. Dont let the newer looking animations trick you into thinking this is a good anime.

Honestly, one of the most disappointing anime of its time.

The absolute hype train that was this anime's trailer and YouTuber reactions, especially Garnt's, which surfaced around the time when I first found out about the anime. And yet, after watching episode 1, you will either feel how stale these mushrooms are, or you will be high enough to keep on watching.

<a href="https://youtu.be/1zwg4r5WR3Y?si=DgD91wnq4h8CPDdT">Garnt's First Reaction</a>
(this is a YouTube video of a YouTuber reacting to a trailer of the anime)

Again, I am one of those people who truly believe that there is no bad anime, as every anime has its own very few people who truly ... believe their socially rejected anime is a 10/10, which is simply beautiful.

I just feel like my personal disappointment is leading to me being as harsh as I am. I do feel like it at least deserves a 3/10.

That said, everybody else can rate it that, but not me...

My girlfriend and I really enjoyed this show when it first started. A vaguely gay distopian story with hints of Trigun and some Cowboy Bebop esque Episodic storytelling? Sounds like a great time!

Where it lost us was in its villain. Its villain is the achilles heel of the entire series. The following will be an exhaustive breakdown of everything wrong with the villain that contains spoilers from episode 8 onwards. Thats really where the troubles began.

The villain goes from being the Darth Vader to the Emperor in about two sentences. What I mean by that is- initially he is introduced as feeling similar to just ... a high level henchman ala Jaws from James Bond or the Aforementioned Darth Vader. When in Reality he turns out to be the Uber BBEG of the series in the vein of the Emperor or Zuul from Ghostbusters (Idk why I couldnt think of anyone else- dont @ me).

Not only is the Villain literally a massive capitalist dickweed by wanting to monopolize the only life-saving medicine available for a world that has been plagued by this disease. BUT he is also the asshole who made everyone hate the protag by spreading rumors about the hero's sacred order AND he also used to be one of them! Realizing now that the emperor comparison is really apt given their backstory... ANYWAY! The villain then completely turns into not a cold, calculating badass who is confident in his every breath, but a complete whiny baby who freaks the fuck out whenever anything even slightly goes haywire in his halfassed plans. Part of this is on the blame of the animators I feel for making him too expressive in these moments, but most of it I think has to do with the writers and the VA for just completely hamming up his performance and dialogue.

After episode 8 most of the logic that was present in the series kind of goes out the fuckin window. So much so that the hero and villain (SPOILERS SPOILERY SPOILERDOO) both die in the 9th episode, and both come back to life by the 11th episode. But now they have god powers and immortality and shit.... yeah its just... yeah...

The only saving grace is that the ending goes SUPER gay like.... these guys might as well go around summoning rainbows everywhere, but the mushroom allegory kinda gets the same point across so its fine. But im not kidding, the second the villain is defeated, the show goes back to the same show that my girlfriend and I loved beforehand. So- if you're looking to be edged in terms of satisfaction derived from entertainment this is probably a good bet if you feel up to binging it.

Overall Id say this show is a fun distraction if you feel up to it. The animation isnt great most of the time but when it slaps it really does. And the ending makes me think a season 2 might not be AS bad. But I reckon that this show will more likely be remembered for its homo-eroticism than anything so if anything it'll probably just provide context for all those horny fanfics you might see on AO3 for the next few months.

4/10 needs more gay