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The Spring 2016 Anime Preview Guide
Big Order

How would you rate episode 1 of
Big Order ?
Community score: 3.2



What is this?

Ten years ago, little Eiji Hoshimiya made a big wish. At the appearance of a mysterious fairy-like being named Daisy, the foolish little boy asked for something so powerful that it obliterated most of the city and thousands of human lives around him. This event became known as the Great Destruction, and as time passed and more supernatural events came to light, the world would come to fear these wishes that possess their victims, labeling them "Orders." Now looking after his disabled sister thanks to the death of his parents cause by his wish, Eiji is too traumatized to even remember what his younger self wished for. But his powers are still lying dormant, and he'll have to remember how to use them fast if he wants to survive the onslaught of assassins headed his way, starting with the immortal transfer student, Rin Kurenai. With nearly 2,000 Order users in the world today, anyone could be Eiji's enemy, but even though he hasn't realized it yet, the Biggest Order of them all is still resting in the palm of his hand. Big Order is based on a manga and can be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Fridays at 2:10 PM EST.


How was the first episode?

Jacob Hope Chapman

Rating:

Ever wonder what Future Diary would be like if the color design was so muddy that you couldn't see anything, and the animation was so poor that the entire first episode feels like a hallucinated montage? Well, wonder no more! Your Big Order is on the way!

In fact, the production values for Big Order are so dumpy and conservative that there's no way this show should be as entertaining as it actually is. There's definitely something to be said for Sakae Esuno's ability to spin the most quintessential 14-year-old-edgelord stories imaginable. Just like Future Diary, Big Order captures the essence of every rage-filled nihilistic fantasy that acne-riddled middle schooler at the back of the class might be scrawling in his notebook, but unlike Future Diary, Big Order gets to the point much quicker. Through a series of twists, loopholes, and blatant JoJo's Bizarre Adventure ripoffs, Big Order's first episode concludes in a truly sadistic pubescent wet dream. Our "hero" is now in full control of a sexy immortal teen girl's body and mind. As the credits cut to black over the unpleasant whimpering sounds of Rin as she "submits" (ugggh), you already know everything to expect from Big Order going forward. It's hot garbage, but at least the garbage is hot, I guess.

In a strange way, Big Order's embarrassing production values kind of add to its aesthetic. There's no mistaking this wad of masturbatory violence for anything more than what its ugly face presents you with. It has that cheap, easily-discarded, hyperviolent OVA feel to it from start to finish, and even if the hateful premise and rancid execution make your skin crawl, the whole package is so ludicrous and sophomoric that it easily slips into "so bad it's good" right away. I think I laughed and groaned out "oh my goooood" about five times in the back half of this episode alone, so if you're looking for a good hatewatch this season, nothing else comes close to the trainwreck potential of Big Order, even in a Spring season already peppered with iffy kitsch-fests. Check it out if you're a rubbernecker with a strong tolerance for total filth, but steer clear if you're looking for a story with any genuine value or promise.


Nick Creamer

Rating: 2

The easiest way to judge if you'll enjoy Big Order would be to ask if you liked Future Diary. This show's from the same manga artist as that one, and aside from occupying similar genre territory, it's also one hundred percent dedicated to his fundamental worldview.

That worldview is basically where my own engagement with this series begins and ends. This episode moves quickly enough, and looks reasonable enough, and has an interestingly jazzy soundtrack, but shows that embrace this style of faux-grim storytelling are basically my natural kryptonite. Early on, the character who granted protagonist Eiji's desire declares that “self-interest lies at the core of everyone's wish.” In the context of a story like this, that is true - but that's only because this author is so dedicated to seeing the darkness in everything that he can't actually look any further than his own nose.

There's definitely a market for shows like this, or Future Diary, or Akame ga KILL!, where everything is dark and blood and selfishness because “that's just the way the world is.” But personally, I find this style both really childish and just kind of empty. I don't get anything out of violence for its own sake, so none of the various stabbings or mind-attackings of this episode do much for me. It's obvious that every plot turn is going to be “what if everyone here was awful,” and so the opening minutes are just a procession of waiting for Eiji's cute new classmate to turn crazy-eyed, and for his cute little sister to get maimed or murdered. And beyond that, shows like this are pretty much inherently barred from containing interesting characters or ideas, because a dedication to this style of ridiculous grimness means no one in the story will have motivations that resemble those of an actual human being. Shows like this don't gesture towards some fundamental darkness in the human heart - they're basically just the narrative version of a kid frying ants with a magnifying glass, a mirror that only reflects itself.

But if this kind of darkness is your thing, the episode is certainly competently produced. The show seems to be mixing the general fantasy thriller narrative of Future Diary with JoJo's Stands and what's basically the geass power from Code Geass, which is a fine place to go. I found this episode pretty tedious, but if you're less put off by the Hot Topic school of adolescent self-seriousness, Big Order seems like a competent articulation of exactly this sort of thing.


Theron Martin

Rating: 3.5

Review: Not sure what I was expecting from this latest shonen manga adaptation, but what we get is a dark, violent tale of supernatural powers from the same creative mind behind the twisted Future Diary. And boy, does this one have some shades of that one, especially in its penchant for taking pretty girls and turning them into psychotic, raging murderers.

Step back and look at the big picture of this scenario and it already shows numerous signs of fairly typical shonen action structure. We have an environment rife with potential super-powered individuals, threats being made which force the main protagonist to resort to powers he'd rather not use, and a whole council room full of a varied assortment of weirdos who are no doubt going to be future opponents for said protagonist Eiji. We even have the random magical girl (but not in the “cutesy love warrior” sense) going around giving people powers for as-yet-unrevealed motives and showing keen interest in what Eiji might do with his powers. Once he finally reveals his power near the end of the episode, it's not hard to understand why she – or anyone else aware of his powers – would be interested: he can “dominate” a whole area, which can constitute a whole building even with his power limited to 1/10,000 of its normal range. What, exactly, that means isn't made clear by the end of the episode; does that mean that he can effectively geas (i.e., compel) people like Lelouche in Code Geass? He's certainly doing something to Rin, the pretty girl who tried to murder him, at the end of the episode, but it's blacked out so we cannot see what. Whatever the exact effect turns out to be, and however this led to the world being destroyed a decade earlier by a youngster who didn't know what he was doing, it sounds interesting and offers a wide variety of possible applications.

The technical aspects of the first episode are pretty sharp, whether you're talking about the attractive character designs, background art, or the often darkly-hued color schemes. Though it is helmed by a first-time director, the work is done by asread, the same studio who produced both Future Diary and the even more graphic Corpse Party. Hence it probably goes without saying that the content also gets intense and graphic, including a youngish girl getting bloodily stabbed in the shoulder by a sword. The Phantom-like creatures which manifest when Orders use their powers aesthetically remind me a lot of the “black ghosts” in Ajin, but are pretty cool nonetheless. The soundtrack, though, I found to be uneven; it hits strongly in some scenes, but others left me scratching my head over why that musical selection was used.

This may go nowhere special, but at least it's off to a relatively strong start.


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