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Mayoiga (Anime) add (All reviews)
Mar 14, 2017
Mixed Feelings
I am obligated to warn you that Mayoiga is incredibly flawed. Not a single aspect of it, be its story, art, or characters, was without its problems. However, I would argue that Mayoiga scrapes a pass based purely on the positively valiant (if ultimately unsuccessful) effort expended by its producers to create something ambitious and different.

Story
Mayoiga’s premise was extremely interesting. It almost seemed to pay tribute to Silent Hill – both featuring an abandoned town full of monsters representing your deepest, darkest fears. And whilst Mayoiga had a promising start, leaving me wondering what had happened to the village’s inhabitants and what could be making that horrific noise, the following issues soon became clear: the plot twists bordered on the ridiculous (wait… was that a giant penguin?), very little actually happened within the show’s course, the rules by which the town operated were too vague, and the show ended too abruptly with no real sense of resolution (as many of its cast were not shown battling their demons). In other words, Mayoiga lacked all of Silent Hill’s masterful storytelling and subtlety.

Characters
Mayoiga also struggled in terms of its characters. It was far too ambitious, cramming 30+ characters into just 12 episodes. And whilst Mayoiga did – bravely – try and give as many characters as possible backstory, these characters had it shoe-horned in with no prior build-up and seemed to be bestowed the privilege randomly. Some of the most unimportant characters were given backstory, whereas more important ones were not. This show also wasted no time emphasising what a cast of unhinged weirdoes it had, making that plain during the very first scene. This made it painfully clear that things were not going to go to plan for the group right from the beginning, leaving no room for a gradual increase of tension. Finally, Mitsumune, the main character, was too agreeable, wanting to believe in everybody, no matter how implausible their story. This meant that he often lightened a scene’s tone where I would have preferred to see it become darker. Mitsumune would have felt better placed in a light-hearted shounen rather than a horror story.

Art and Music
What distinguishes Mayoiga’s art from that of other shows is its hideous CGI. It would cram horrific CGI monsters, the likes of which wouldn’t be out of place in low budget Syfy films, into scenes with otherwise attractive art. This dramatic contrast is likely to produce one of three responses: amusement, derision, or revulsion. I like to think Mayoiga was aiming for the third response. The CGI was so unnatural-looking and sometimes so deep within the uncanny valley that I often found myself saying “Oh, God, what the hell is that!?” And shuddering with disgust. Given that these monsters were manifestations of the characters’ deepest, darkest fears, this was a good response to have. You, however, may respond to it differently.

Mayoiga’s music was alright, but I felt that the choice to use techno during fast-paced, tense scenes was out-of-sorts with its rural setting.

Overall Enjoyment
Mayoiga’s plot twists were laughable, it bit off more than it could chew in terms of the number of its characters and their development, and dished up some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen, but I couldn’t help but find myself endeared to and entertained by it. It was like a child giving you a shit crayon drawing, it was hard to tell what I was looking at at times, it wanted to be so many different things, and there was absolutely no rhyme or reason to it, but, boy, did the producers try their best to create something. Would I recommend it? Hmm… Probably, but try not to take it too seriously.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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