Reviews

I will never understand this era’s obsession with "misery porn"..... stories saturated with trauma and suffering and the critical acclaim that often comes with it. Takopii no Genzaiis the latest in a long line of these works. I understand the story. I understand the message. But let’s be honest: this is far from the best narrative out there, and the fact that it's scoring near 9/10 across the board is wild to me.

Storytelling has always been about more than just suffering. But ever since the 2010s, there's been a shift—more and more stories seem to rely solely on bleakness to create the illusion of depth. It's the laziest form of writing. When everything becomes tragedy, nothing hits as hard as it should.

Let’s talk about *Takopii no Genzai*. The first episode’s writing could easily be lifted from a children’s book: a down-on-her-luck girl meets a quirky alien. She’s closed off. The alien wants to help. Turns out, she’s being bullied. Cue a dramatic, emotional reveal, and suddenly the alien is her savior. That’s not inherently bad, but the story disguises its simplicity by being extra graphic and dark—because dark equals mature now, apparently. 9/10? 10/10? Really?

This isn’t new. These short-form, trauma-packed stories exist because they’re quick to consume, shocking enough to trend, and forgettable soon after. Their short length is a feature, not a flaw—bite-sized heartbreak that demands no long-term investment. It’s the same logic that helped hollow out Hollywood and neuter streaming series: shock over substance, and spectacle over storytelling.

What frustrates me most is that these narratives are often praised as deep or subversive when in reality, they’re surface-level stories wearing an R-rated costume. They rely on pain to trick people into thinking they’re profound. But suffering isn’t a shortcut to good writing.

Japan can explore these themes in more meaningful ways—they have, in fact. But this current direction, especially with Netflix backing many of these kinds of projects, feels like a trap. If this trend continues, I genuinely believe the anime bubble could pop the same way the MCU bubble burst this year. Overexposure to hollow, trauma-driven stories will burn people out.

I'm not here to gatekeep anime or say everything has to be light and fun. But the overdependence on shock and misery needs to stop. There's still time to turn away from this path. There's still room for emotional depth *without* turning everything into trauma bait.

Please, Japan—do better. You’ve done better. Let’s get back to stories that mean something more than just "this made me feel bad."

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