Takopii no Genzai Notes

Tagged: anime-ramblings, takopii-no-genzai

TW: Child abuse, violence, suicide. But if you're reading this and know of this show, I'm sure you already know that.

#1

If you know me at all, you know that this is a far cry from the types of shows I gravitate towards. There's a reason why I always watch the most bubbly, sugary sweet shows. I love crying at shows—watching shows like Doremi has given me many of those cathartic, happy cries that I have been so longing for in my own life. But, that's not realistic. That's not life. Life is cruel, and so many times people are born into horrible circumstances through no fault of their own. It's something that resonates stronger than ever to me as a gen-Z millennial who's long since become disenfranchised with the world around me. I realized as a teen that I was born into an unjust world. And I've realized as a young adult that my parents were also born into that unjust world; that every single person in the world was, and is forced to deal with these burdens that they didn't ask for. That, although happiness should be a universal human right, it's something that has to be fought for.

Some people, like Marina, fight to the very end for that happiness. But in a situation like hers, though the source of her misery is a very tangible one, she's in a completely powerless situation. Abusers take the power and agency away from their victims. It's a blinding fog that warps the mind in cruel ways—they too want a semblance of that power, and they'll take it from wherever they can find it. Shizuka is a very obvious target (and scapegoat) as the child of the one who stole her father away. The cycle of violence continues—the abuser steals the agency from their victim, and that victim scrambles for that agency from elsewhere in the only way they've been taught how: by stealing it from others.

Other people, like Shizuka, shrivel up at the thought of standing up for her own happiness. And in its cold, candid depiction of the end of her path that refuses to shield Takopii's eyes (and by extension, the viewers') from the gravity a situation like this deserves, we see how the cycle of violence ends in the most tragic manner possible. Takopii gave that ribbon to Shizuka with zero knowledge of her life. It could have been the seed of kindness that could break this cycle. But a kindness as empty as Takopii's in that moment means nothing to a child who's been broken as much as Shizuka. And so, that seed of kindness instead served as the catalyst for Shizuka's death.

Takopii is the innocence that was robbed from these children—we've seen some of the bullying from Shizuka's perspective, but the decision to keep the truly traumatic event that caused Shizuka's suicide shielded from Takopii's eyes until he gets a taste of it for himself is an incredible way to make this show's goals clear. It's nothing near the magnitude of what Shizuka goes through every day, but still, I love the way it only played its absolute worst cards to Takopii, the equal parts cloying and unrelenting force of innocence of the episode. To see that innocence get torn from us in the most brutal way possible. Kindness means nothing without true compassion and understanding. Takopii should never have been exposed to this cruelty, but...perhaps it's a way for his kindness to actually mean something. After all, by the end of the episode, we got a scene like this:

Shizuka, the girl who has gone through what we've just seen every single day of her life, showed a genuine, honest-to-god smile. Even though everything Takopii did was wholly misguided and ineffective (arguably making things worse in the process)...these smiles would never have happened if Takopii hadn't been there to express his genuine care for her. No matter how trivial, no matter how small of a part Takopii played in Shizuka's life in the few short days this episode takes place in—it meant something to Shizuka.

After everything we've seen, the sight of this stupid-ass round pink ball should feel like an insult, and the juxtaposition between these polar opposite elements will have no doubt pushed much of this show's audience away. It's certainly kept me from watching it while it was airing. But I have the utmost trust in a team like this to balance these elements in a meaningful way. Nagahara's take on these designs is wholly unique, but the expressions of these drawings are as much of a window into these characters' psyches as his KyoAni roots would suggest.

An enduring innocence, not by means of ignoring all the trauma, but by pushing through and choosing to smile at the end of it all, to value the presence of those who care for you, and thereby motivating you to be there for others. Just as violence and cruelty has been taught to these children, that the cycle of violence has the potential to be endless, the same holds equally true for the cycle of kindness. Even in the lives of these children that are so devoid of that kindness, we see that kindness come from the most meaningless of sources as a stupid octopus blob alien creature. Takopii, for all his magic gadgets, is so obviously powerless in a situation like this. He knows nothing about Shizuka's life, nothing about what she's been through. He never can. Could a force as tiny and insignificant as Takopii break that cycle of violence? Can kindness really be born out of nowhere? Can that small bit of kindness truly spiral into something that can rival the overwhelming cruelty that these children have endured? I don't expect this show to have the answers to these questions. I'm hoping for a happy ending, of course, and I expect this show to have those cathartic happy cries I so crave by the end of it. Even in the midst of this episode's misery, we can see brief glimpses of genuine optimism that can be gleaned by the end of it. But this episode also makes it clear that it isn't afraid of showing its audience some of the absolute worst humanity has to offer. Whether we like it or not, happiness has to be fought for. Happiness is worth fighting for.