I initially decided to watch Mayoiga because it was advertised on the site as a horror anime, and after watching the first episode I was curious if it might be similar to Another, one of my favorite horror animes because of the large cast of characters and the strange mystery of Nanaki Village that reminded me of Yomiyama North. I was sorely mistaken, but I stayed nonetheless, with hopes that the story might redeem itself. I suppose it could be considered family-friendly horror, if there is such a thing. The story had a lot of potential, and some would say if the anime had been longer the writers would have had more room to expand on that potential. I both agree and disagree for the fact that, much of what happened story-wise was unnecessary in my opinion. If the writers dropped out the unnecessary bits and instead expanded on the points that people actually cared about, you could still have a satisfying anime in only 12 episodes. From the beginning there's a mystery to the story, which is what is part of the charm at first. However, as developments are made, some new out of place mystery pops up. This happens over and over again to the point the mystery is just exhausting. As someone who writes and enjoys mystery, there are better ways to keep the audience hooked. The sense of urgency and panic seemed to escalate far too quickly, showing just how poorly written the story was. The writers almost make it obvious they were grasping at straws by making the characters do exactly the same.
It wasn't anything I would write home to my parents about, in fact certain scenes the animation was downright cringe worthy. For the most part though it was just average. It didn't really look much different from the average modern animation style. I wasn't really expecting much from it as far as art and animation goes, although it's always disappointing in a way when things don't exceed expectations. One scene in particular toward the end of the anime really makes it look cheap, because of the obvious use of poorly done CG. It's possible the CG had been used prior to that point, but I don't recall noticing it. The points where the art really could have been made much more eye-catching, well
Almost none of the soundtrack left enough of an impression on me to really even remember what it sounded like. In my opinion music is a major part of setting the mood, and I while I feel the music did follow the mood, it didn't set it if you get what I'm saying. In anything horror-esque the background music or lack thereof is what really turns my blood cold, sends chills down my spine, and gets me jumpy, any good soundtrack horror or not should invoke some kind of emotion. The soundtrack for Mayoiga didn't really do that for me. As far as the OP and ED go, well I suppose the OP should have been my first hint this wasn't really going to be a horror anime. Now, I'm writing this having never seen the English translations or listened to the full tracks for both songs. I'm not entirely sure I can express what my impression was from the OP without actually spoiling the true premise of the anime that you don't learn until later in the story, so I'll say is it just sounded out of place from the start. The ED is not really any different from a lot of other EDs from various genres of anime, slow paced and melancholy, nothing to brag about. Really the OP is the only thing that stands out as far as the soundtrack of this anime, only because it sets a different mood from the majority of the anime.
Mayoiga sets up a vary large cast in the first few minutes of the first episode, introducing us to everyone and making them all seem at least a little important because of the seemingly diverse archetypes, and well they all have names so that makes them important too right? Ah, yet again hopeful me was wrong. Without giving spoilers I will say over half of the cast doesn't even matter, they are a bucket of poorly written fillers so that it's not just a story about a handful of equally as mediocre characters. The main character is barely tolerable in most moments, but then again I can say the same for most of the characters. A good deal of the characters are written to be so outrageous and extreme it makes me want to claw out my own eyes. We're led to believe everyone has a heart wrenching backstory that led them to leave their pasts behind, yet we don't even get to find out what half of those pasts are. I wish I could say that only occurred for the part of the cast that was basically irrelevant, but a few of the characters that had quite a bit of screen time or seemed the most developed that I was wondering about the entire series never got a backstory. I feel though, had the characters that actually mattered to the story been written better, I wouldn't have felt the need to bore you with talk about fillers.
I had high hopes for Mayoiga right up until the very end, but each episode left me either feeling disappointed or unsatisfied right up to the very end. From trying to come off as a horror when it's not really a horror, to the mediocre at best characters, I'm amazed to say I still enjoyed it to some extent. And, I believe the reason for that is Mayoiga had so much potential, that had it been met it would have been an excellent story. It took me several months for finally finish the anime because of the poor writing, but I still found myself wanting to finish just to find out what would happen in the end. I also can't say I wasn't happy with the ending, just not satisfied with the amount of information I was left with. I won't try to sway you from watching Mayoiga, because it's not the worst of animes, and if you're like me the potential alone makes it worth the shot.
