Human Bug Daigaku

Every once in a blue moon, there are shows that more than just the typical copy-paste blurb that you see in the current seasonal landscape, takes you to a deeper dive of something that is truly original and stands out on its own. While the most recent case example is last year's Odd Taxi being seemingly an unkempt story about a walrus driving a taxi with the detective mystery plot of twists and turns hiding from within and awaiting its chance to demystify and satiate the audience at every corner. And this Fall, other than the return of Pop Team Epic renewed for Season 2, ... that show is Human Bug Daigaku a.k.a The Human Crazy University.

Human Bug Daigaku tells the story of a lone salaryman by the name of Hirofumi Satake. Accused of a murder that he committed of his fiancée Chie Negishi, the punishment for murder is death, and he is being sentenced just as the justice courts say so. Satake has one particular trait: being known as the "Undead Man", he has outlived all the dangers imposed on his life, no matter how high nor how wide. For that reason, the mysterious research institution, known only as "The Human Crazy University" with the unassuming Professor spokesperson in toll, develops an interest and uses him to seek answers to the mundane human life of miraculous phenomena and the thing we call karma.

Derived from a web manga published by K Contents and seralized online via YouTube with voiced narration and dialogue since March 2019, this is what I can call: the dark side of the web, and seemingly so, because this show is the definition of edutainment. Sprinkling in real-life events, locations and the like in tandem with Satake's situation of finding out who is the mastermind behind this murder case that he obviously did not commit, takes a bunch of truth and facts that it just feels satisfyingly undeniable. In fact, I will go so far as to say that despite studio DLE's choppy Flash animation-like prowess (because the studio DID start off as one) in the veins of one of my favorite anime of all time (Gaikotsu Shotenin Honda-san), it looks out of place and bad, but I assure you that please do not define a show by its animation, when the plot itself is so interesting and has many twists and turns that when you come around to realize it, it has already taken into effect of its own case study.

As an example of creative use, via the Torture Sommelier Shigeo Ijuin, there is actually a YouTube channel dedicating to everything about torture, its many ways of infliction and whatnot that feels like a road trip diving into YouTube's great unknown of entertainment that is seen by the few and hardcore. And adding to that, the magnificent casting of Tomokazu Sugita and Yui Ogura as the main couple, with some unknowns like Professor's VA Hidenari Ugaki adding into the mix, and you'll have one fine web comic that has unlimited amounts of creativity at whatever it desires to showcase.

nano's OP fits the show to a T, and Lowland Jazz's instrumental ED, NGL, is a certified banger. Heck, I would consider this as one of my favourite EDs of the season.

The only sad part: it's tough to recommend a show like this, if you're a very simple-minded person hell bent on criticizing even one aspect that makes or breaks the watching experience. And I tell you, while Human Bug Daigaku is easily defined as a niche anime, it's for the people who can see this from a different view, to take a chance and say: "Man, how did I dismiss such a show like is? Because it's deep, rich and contextual, and it's so engaging." It's definitely a personal preference if you like or hate this show, but if you take a gander, it's really a fascinating one-of-a-kind show that's unlike anything else out there.

Human Bug Daigaku is a pretty unconventional series and destined to be a niche title, I think that, in order to enjoy it, you have to fit into one of these categories:

#1 and most important-You don’t mind watching something with straight up awful animation.

From what I understand, this show adapts a webmanga, but not like a webtoon manga, an actual manga that is published on a YouTube channel, and the adaptation tried mimicking the style. If you thought that the recent slideshow adaptations of stuff like the Yakuza Husband comedy was bad, wait till you see this. Credits where it’s due, the studio nailed the ... aesthetic it was going for. But that still does not change the fact that the artwork and character designs are very meh. There’s hardly any actual animation in here, the backgrounds are so-so, the character figures don’t seem to fit with said backgrounds a lot of the time, they barely even move and don’t have that many expressions. They are more like stuck to one or two poses and hardly even see at each other or at what they are supposed to be looking at, and the special effects are also very so-so. As a whole, although the aesthetics of the anime does resemblance the source material, visually is like watching an early indie visual novel, it feels that amateurish and unpolished.

#2-You are into fun facts and trivia.

Although there is a plot that tides everything together, a lot of the time the anime focuses on sharing information about different topics, from exotic foods to methods of survival, miraculous survivals, diseases, historical events, more importantly, stuff regarding crimes. Since the show is about a guy sentenced to death that survives and then gets into a lot of trouble with different criminals and mafias, the series contains a lot of information about the jails in Japan, causes of deaths, mafias around the world, corrupt policemen, stalkers and hackers, and a lot more. Which leads into the next category.

#3-You like some morbid stuff.

Since the protagonist has actual canon plot armor, he survives a lot of stuff that most people wouldn’t. Combine that with what I just wrote on the previous paragraph, and the main topics of the anime end up being different crimes and forms of dying. So, if you are into true crime podcasts or YouTube channels, or used to enjoy “1000 Ways to Die”, or follow Creepy.org on Twitter, or something similar, or all of the above, then this is a show for you.

#4-You like weird or crazy stories.

A lot of the stories feel like stuff that you would read about on Internet, like some Reddit forums for example. So if you are a fan of those things, regardless of whether they are true or not, you might like this.

And now that we cleared up the appeal of the series, let’s move on onto its actual execution.

As for the actual writing, it needs to be said that, although they do cross over with the others, the source material follows different characters with their own storylines in a mostly episodic manner, so the anime combining them into one story deserves a recognition.

The pacing is an issue however, as a lot of screentime is dedicated to the trivia parts, slowing down the progression of the core story. Not only that, but also some episodes feel less necessary than others. As I look back, I like the episodes taking place in México the most, but where they really needed? I think you could have the most important events from those episodes taking place in Venezuela, which is the location of the final course of the plot, while taking off some side characters, and you wouldn’t really miss much.

The credibility of the series is very questionable for different reasons. First, there’s not only all the over the top action adventure bits, but also the insane levels of both and bad luck of the protagonist, as he survives stuff with miraculous rates of surviving.

The anime also uses another weak plot device, which is amnesia. Normally in mysteries, you can still work your way around it by revealing information gradually, and having characters with actual personality. Over here, the amnesia is used as a way for the main character to not remember crucial information. Thus not only the backstory is kept in the dark, but also the protagonist remains unexplored and undeveloped, both things until the series is about to be over. Meaning, it is not used well, and most of the time you are following seemingly random fun facts, with occasional over the top action bits around an insanely plot armored character, instead of the actual plot.

And speaking of the facts it discusses throughout the story, I did a quick fact check about Caracas being the actual most dangerous city in the world, as the anime claims, and what I found was it being placed as the third, behind Tijuana and Acapulco, the second which is present in the show. So, either the two Mexican cities killed hundreds of thousands of people in two years (which to be fair is not impossible), or the makers had it wrong. And that is the only example I bothered to check out, there probably is a lot more stuff that is wrong. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but since this anime is tagged as educational, I thought it was worth mentioning out.

The script also has some other minor issues, like why and how the characters end in México, unless they said that they were moving to a facility in another country and I didn’t notice. Even so, as later on it is revealed that the main antagonist was orchestrating everything, it doesn’t seem plausible for the villain to set up different scenarios so quickly, and what was even the point, when he is on a different country and continent.

There’s an explanation actually, but for a series that takes itself seriously, it is very underwhelming. The villain is a one-dimensional sadistic psycho criminal, that’s it.

Not that everything in the script is bad, as it ties several different characters and storylines like I said, and includes a lot of topics through trivia, and does anticipate most important events and characters properly. But it would have been better if the information and plan of the main antagonist wasn’t kept in the dark throughout most of the series, and showed how did Chie escape before the beginning of the story. And also, yes, again, both the story and main character needed to be explored more throughout the show.

There are some good messages and dramatic moments around the important characters, whether if it is worth for them to keep living or not, and the obvious answer being yes, life is worth living and you should keep trying to prolong your path in it, even if inevitably does end in death.

The resolution is strangely built upon but also hard to accept, and that is tied directly with the tone of the series. The characters have such a showdown that is could have been written only by Rian Johnson, yet it is played straight.

The over the top bits are not that different than what you would expect from JoJo or the Indiana Jones franchise, yet here the tone is not comical, there are no supernatural super powers, and the action is interrupted by lots of random information instead of happening in a quick, epic and exciting manner, for you to suspend your disbelief. The resolution is akin to something that happens in Knives Out, the second entry, but again, it is played straight instead of funnily. And also, the dramatic parts are hard to take fully seriously, because of the unserious art style, and all the absurd rest of the script.

The series has meta nods to the original, both with the encounter at the end of the series, which was a nice detail for the fans of the manga, and through an original character in the form of the professor, main narrator and suspected self-insert of the original author.

As far as characterization goes, everyone eventually gets a proper backdrop, but I was still left with the impression that they have very simplistic personalities, despite their eccentric presence. Plus, the information does come way too late in the story. Only the main character actually gets some development about how life is worth living, but since he is a blank passive character for most of the story, it doesn’t feel very impactful.

Finally, the sound is ok as far as sound effects and voice acting go, but the music is pretty good. The opening includes a lot of visual hints to the overall plot as well as nods to the source material, and is an ok jrock song. The ending just has the protagonist running, but the song is a very cool jazz, which would benefit if it was instrumental, as the only lyrics are the name of the anime, but even so it is quite good and catchy.

In conclusion, Human Bug Daigaku is a stand out show as far as the medium goes. Its nonlinear narrative of different storylines, plot points and characters could be compared with the likes of Paranoia Agent, Ghost Hound and Odd Taxi, the mix of action and gourmet could be compared with Golden Kamuy, and the action adventure bits could be compared with JoJo, yet its plot is nothing like any of those. At the same time, there are good things in it, and being able to tell a story, considering its source material, is worthy of praise.

Yet, when I look back to it, I feel like its episodes are more worthy and interesting on their own, instead of as a part of a proper story, kinda like the stuff that I mentioned at the beginning of the review, and I was left with the impression that although each part is kind of decent on its own, the sum of all of them together end up being quite weak. Part of me wants to say it is decent and worth watching, and another part of me does not, so, if I doubt myself whether if something is worth or not, I think it makes sense to choose the latter. But for anyone that wants a break from generic stuff and to watch something truly different, this is a half decent option to kill some time.

Oh, and for the makers, from the country which has mafias around and the highest suicide rates of the planet, to show other countries as dangerous, particularly those from Latin America, based on sources that strangely never include places at war, more likely than not from the country with also mafias, high crime rates and record in mass shootings, that never appears in said rankings, they can go fuck themselves.

Now for some excused scoring

Visuals 3/10

-Artwork 1/2 (nailed the aesthetics but it is very weakly put together)
-Character designs 1/2 (they look like chibis even when they are not, but they are not bad on their own)
-Backgrounds 0/2 (they look like stock images)
-Animation 0/2 (plain pathetic)
-Special effects 1/2 (they are really bad but the main aesthetic was accomplished)

Audio 6/10

-Voice acting 1/2 (Ok)
-Sound effects 2/4 (Ok)
-Music 3/4 (Good)

Story 6/10

-Premise 1/2 (Interesting but it uses bad plot devices)
-Pacing 1/2 (Slow and chaotic)
-Complexity 2/2 (Lots of topics, storylines and characters tied together)
-Credibility 1/2 (Things are anticipated and explained but nothing really makes sense)
-Conclusion 1/2 (Ok and fitting but it is not believable)

Characters 6/10

-Presence 1/2 (Simple)
-Personality 1/2 (Simple)
-Backdrops 2/2 (Everyone has them and most of them are interconnected)
-Development 1/2 (Only the main character has it and it is not very organic)
-Catharsis 1/2 (Everyone has it but it feels just ok or incomplete)

Value 6/10

-Fame 2/3 (Mostly unknown in the West but quite popular in Japan)
-Memorability 4/4 (So unique to the point of becoming unforgettable)
-Rewatchability 0/4 (It relies completely on mystery boxes and there is nothing to revisit in the plot or characters)

Personal enjoyment 4/10

I liked two episodes and the opening and ending, but was bored by the rest.

Recommended stuff

-True crime podcasts and YouTube channels
-Creepy.org on Twitter
-Wikipedia (Or better yet more reliable sources)
-1000 Ways to Die
-The original Indiana Jones trilogy
-Odd Taxi
-JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders
-Knives Out and Glass Onion

Crazy Boring University.

Crazily enough I was slightly looking forward to “The Human Crazy University”. From what had been shown through promotional material this would be a fun, absurdist comedy told through a 1960s, minimalist animation style about a death row inmate surviving his death sentence and recovering his memories. And it is that… minus the comedy… and the absurdity… and any reason to continue watching it….

The biggest problem this show has is how seriously it takes itself despite its goofy premise. The first episode is told completely straight-faced from start to finish, setting a strangely sombre tone that overstays its welcome. Even the introduction of ... the Professor halfway through the first episode feels very underwhelmingly sane for a character with a mad scientist vibe.
That’s not to say the show doesn’t have its moments where a chuckled at some of the character quirks, and the mystery around Satake Hirofumi's circumstances is well told and somewhat interesting, but there's nothing that will immediately grab you as a viewer and hook you into watching more (expect the ED, that song slaps).

I think the show would benefit from a shorter episode run time instead of the standard 20-22 minutes to speed up the pacing and make each episode more engaging. Series like “Pop Team Epic” and “The Way of the House Husband” which also used minimal animation benefited greatly from this approach and their episodes felt more like fast-paced comedies rather than drawn out and full of exposition with a few gags thrown in. It is hard to watch literal static, wooden characters talk for 20 minutes about things when most of the time there's nothing to focus on.

Overstaying its welcome is the overall impression I get from “The Human Crazy University”. It doesn’t take advantage of its art style, its pacing is sluggish and although I do think it has an interesting narrative it’s just not all that funny for a comedy. Now I know comedy is different for different people, but… should this be labelled a comedy MAL?

3/10 Wasted Potential.