After 12 grueling episodes, I am relieved that Taboo Tattoo is finally over - that is until the end credits show what appears to be scenes from Season 2. Either that or they (the animation staff) are merely trolling.
Before I give my final thoughts on this anime, a full disclosure that I have NEVER read the manga, which the anime is based off on. So I cannot compare the two. I will only judge the series from the anime only.
As I said before in my first impressions review of this series, Taboo Tattoo is based off the seinen manga of the same name by Shinjiro, with the animation done by JC Staff, who have a number of successful animes under their belt, such as Slayers, Ikkitousen, and Food Wars. But when it comes to Taboo Tattoo, what seemed like a cool concept and having a lot of potential to be a great series among the likes of Attack on Titan and One Punch Man, ends up becoming one of the WORST animes I’ve seen in recent memory.
It wasn’t always like that, initially. The first four episodes of Taboo Tattoo show a lot of promise with its setting and plot - Two factions, America and the Kingdom of Selinistan, battle over Tattoos that when applied to a person, gives them superhuman powers. Caught in this conflict is Seigi Akatsuka, a martial arts guy who has a strong sense of justice, hence his name, as "Seigi" means "Justice" in Japanese. In fact, Seigi's name is supposed to be read as the English word "Justice".
While I'm aware it's a common trope to give Japanese Pun names, this one doesn't seem to work at all, and for the sake of simplicity, Seigi's name is just that - Seigi, and never "Justice".
And that's just the start of one of the many problems with Taboo Tattoo, but we'll get to that in a bit.
Going back to Seigi, for a guy who is named "Justice" and a strong sense of "Justice" (you can see what Taboo Tattoo is trying to portray here), Seigi's martial arts skills leave much less to be desired. That is until he was given the Tattoo known as the "Void Maker", considered the most powerful Tattoo of them all (how cliché), that allows him to create black holes to disintigrate anything it touches totally. You'd think for a guy who can create black holes, he'd be a force to be reckon with against other Tattoo users. But noooope! Seigi gets his ass kicked and impaled so many times you wonder how the hell he's still alive through all that.
But the point where Taboo Tattoo becomes, and I will dare say it, an "absolute piece of sh*t", was in episode 5. Sudden cut to back and forth scenes that totally ruin the pace, the tension and build up ruined again and went down the hole when a gag is thrown in the middle of the fight, and then it just stops and the second half acts as though the first half of the episode never happened, and it's a slice-of-life comedy now. Worse, Aryabhata, or Arya for short, who is seen as a bloodthirsty, cruel, Mary Sue antagonist, pops out of nowhere and flirts with Seigi, and all of sudden it becomes a harem anime!
Am I supposed to laugh when they introduced Colonel Sanders in the show? I kid you not! There is a character named "Colonel SanderS" and even looks the part. In fact, not one episode of Taboo Tattoo even made me perk a smile with its comedy, as it's just bland and all over the place!
And then all that fan-service thrown in there for no good reason other than to say "Hey look at how sexy and cute these girls are! They could be your waifus!"
Let me tell you that I did a search if anyone have even made a doujinshi of the girls of Taboo Tattoo and guess what? It doesn't exist! Zip! Nada! Not a single one!
And then we get to see a bunch of side characters left and right, and the show expects us to care for them just because they showed up and then get offed shortly thereafter? It made wonder if JC Staff thought that because Derpy Hooves was such a popular character in My Little Pony, despite being a background character, they think they can do the same with their cast of characters.
There is simply nothing in these characters that makes them anywhere likable. I will dare say that even if by some miracle, a hentai version of Taboo Tattoo ever existed, nobody's gonna care about it. All these characters in Taboo Tattoo? They're nothing more but empty shells without charm, or even a soul.
And Arya, the main antagonist, is an example of a really, REALLY badly written Mary Sue character. Mary Sues are very much frowned upon, but it can work if written exceptionally well. Just ask Batman and Saitama.
But Arya? She's like "Oh, I'm so perfect, you ain't got sh*t on me! Oh you got something to defeat me? Well f--k you, because I knew you were gonna do that and I even have a power-up to beat your ass!" God, it made me wish Saitama was there and punch her to oblivion because she is THAT annoying and hateful, she deserves to get even the cruelest of fates.
But no! Even in the final episode, she didn't even get her comeuppance. She just fled. That's it! Show's over! WTF?!
As for the plot, what is there to say? It's a mess and totally nonsensical. If this were a comedy like Inferno Cop, it wouldn't be so bad. But this is an action anime. And again, not a single part of the comedy is ever laughable.
I can only think that the reason this anime adaption of Taboo Tattoo ever existed is because it has lots of female characters, so JC Staff thinks letting these girls bring their melons and buns in all their glory, would easily attract that of the Otaku Community. I can't blame them since they did Food Wars, Slayers, and Ikkitousen, and they had a fanbase and doujinshis and all that stuff. But for Taboo Tattoo, it just fails to attract even the most hardcore of Otakus.
The only positive thing about Taboo Tattoo are its visuals as it's nowhere as bad as Berserk or Dragon Ball Super, by any means. But with its awful direction, writing, plot, and characters, Taboo Tattoo is just absolute garbage even a zombie wouldn't dare watch it even though the opening theme by May'n is not bad. If there ever was an award for Worst Anime of The Year, I would pick this one. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give Taboo Tattoo.....a minus 2. Seriously, don't watch this anime. It's that awful.
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