Japan’s post-apocalyptic wasteland replete with dust can only be saved by one thing—fungus. Bisco
Akaboshi, a wanted criminal and skilled archer, searches for a legendary mushroom, known as Sabikui,
said to devour any and all rust. Joining him on this epic saga to save the country is a giant crab and
a young doctor. Can this unlikely trio find the fabled fungi and save the land?
(Source: Funimation)
Sabikui Bisco is a prime example of “You had me in the first half”. What started out as a unique and gritty looking story in the first few episodes, became an extremely convoluted one full of plot holes and errors that made it a drag to watch. The build up to the climax of this show was great, but the climax itself was one of the most disappointing things I have seen in a while, and that’s truly a shame. My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20 STORY: 8.5/25 At the outset, this seemed like an interesting concept. In a dystopian society called Imihama that was ravaged by rust, we see Milo, our character, live his life by investigating this “rust disease” and treating patients at a clinic. We see the seemingly scheming governor of this society, Kurokawa, who seemed like a very intriguing villain. I was thoroughly intrigued at this point. After that, Bisco appears, with a bow and arrow in which the arrows make mushrooms grow on whatever they hit, which was an interesting concept. Following a reveal about the true nature of the rusting and its effect on humans, Bisco and Milo embark on a journey. The rest of the build up you can watch yourself, but the underlying problems are the lack of a general direction of the plot. *SPOILERS IN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH The climax of the story is where it all fell apart. Kurokawa is the corrupt governor that has a hand in this entire rust issue, and Bisco and Milo confront him, but he proves tough to outsmart. My gripe with this entire sequence of events is that when there’s a clear opportunity to defeat him, Bisco spares him, and it led to more disasters down the road, including the demise of someone, which was another poorly executed “emotional” scene. Anything after that scene was just not good anymore, with the huge monster Tetsujin and all. It became generic and uninteresting. ART: 7.7/10 The overall art style is good, but it looks very grimy, if you know what I mean. MUSIC: 8.6/10 The soundtrack is pretty good, and both the opening and ending are one my favourites of the season. CHARACTERS: 5.5/20 Much like the story, the characters felt very interesting to start, but either didn’t play enough of a role (characters like Tirol, and anyone from the children’s fortress come to mind), or didn’t get good development down the road. In the action scenes, they made questionable decisions, and much of the character quality dropped with the story quality, which was a shame. Wish we could also know more about Bisco’s backstory and some more details about mushroom keepers and more about rusting in general. For Milo, the developments he got felt out of place, as characters shouldn’t be turning their personality into something that seems like the polar opposite for their personality, it was just a bit much. As for the villain, Kurokawa, he was way too basic, and his demise was very anticlimactic. ENJOYMENT: 7.8/15 Enjoyment declined with the overall narrative, but I enjoyed the first part. THEMATIC EXECUTION: 12/20 This show tries their hand at many themes, and I do think they build the atmosphere nicely, with that dark tone around Imihama, and overall in the story. The adventure element was alright, but the action themes weren’t all that great, especially the last part against the Tetsujin, because of the plot issues there. The emotional side to the story did not pan out due to the tragic situations being clearly avoidable. OVERALL: 50.1/100 It’s really a shame that the climax wasn’t executed very well, and made the story fall off afterwards, but for what it’s worth, the world had a nice vibe to it, and it was definitely an attempt at an unique concept, but it wasn’t flushed out very well. Last bit seemed rushed, but pacing seemed to be an issue throughout. 8/10 for the first eight episodes, 2/10 for the last four episodes. For Studio Oz’s first anime, it was average, and we hope to see some better things from them in the future.
Tragically, Sabikui Bisco falls under that pile of anime that I wanted to like because of how interesting and weird it started out. I was won over by the soundtrack and how easily it elevated any fight scene it got used in. Bisco is a hot headed protagonist which is better than the usually morally obsessed crybaby main character that is often seen instead, and yet there wasn't really much to any of the characters. The antagonist was annoying, and only appealed to me because he was graced by the voice talent of Kenjirou Tsuda. Honestly, they should have just gotten rid of him early on and introduced a better threat. It sort of pains me to dig into this series this way, but I can only take so many obnoxious fake out deaths that felt they dragged on the story, and character models getting rocked back and forth rather than being adequately animated. By the end, the finale didn't do anything for me anymore. Though I really do like the soundtrack to this and the way it's used, I can't let it gloss over the fact this adaptation has a lot of problems. The writing in this is laughable, sadly so. The main antagonist could have at any point towards the end easily kill the entire cast if he really wanted to, but conveniently did not go for a show of power when it came to attacking them nearly every time. The amount of damage some of these characters can take and still be able to go on is comical. Besides the great soundtrack, I appreciate how this series tried to be interestingly bizarre. From organic planes to weaponized animals, to giant worms with human limbs and giant floating man eating pufferfish, I did enjoy how out of there they went with this. Milo and Bisco's friendship was fine though often borderline felt like a boys love relationship done on purpose. The romance in this felt laughably unnatural. I liked how the world building started out because this is an interesting post apocalyptical type setting. Despite that it didn't feel satisfying how it was explored. They rushed through places and monsters, and the viewers were left with lots of questions. Milo's character itself isn't anything much besides some typical nice guy who happens to be a doctor. That's what makes him trying to look tough later look forced and not work. More than that it just gave me second hand embarrassment. At first I enjoyed the arrows and their mushroom spawning abilities. Towards the end it felt like a broken skill as nothing really felt like a threat anymore despite Bisco and Milo going up against literally world ending monsters. This adaptation felt too questionable. A shame because it had potential in the beginning.
Before you ask, yes, I too watched it after seeing that one scene from the trailer. (ʘᴗʘ✿) This show is pure madness. No logic, no explanations, if it looks crazy & awesome, it will do it. I tried to find any patterns between the different elements in this world, but I failed miserably. So, it's set in post-apocalyptic Japan, where a "rust" wind is causing a disease that slowly corrodes everything, including people. The story is a quest for a mushroom called "Rust Eater" (Sabikui) that has the power to cure this rust disease. Our main dude's job is to find that mushroom and make the medicine to cure the disease while the government is chasing him to death. There are no limits to what might appear in this show, huge crab that can run faster than most military vehicles - yes, arrows that can shoot exploding mushrooms- yes, ~!huge helicopters with mouths- yes, kids with guns- yes, moving crab mountains- yes, hippos as military vehicles- yes,!~ cute anime girls- yes. Even with a world so crazy like that, it managed to keep me interested in it until the end. The story kinda went down-hill in the last few episodes. But the first few episodes are the best this show has to offer. It doesn't have a super complicated, highly detailed plot, it's just two guys fighting together to protect their people. The fight scenes are one of the strongest points of this show along with the soundtrack that fits perfectly with the weird stuff happening on screen. The story was very interesting even after the first few episodes, the world building was nicely progressing until the last 3 episodes. It had fun moments, awesome action scenes that are pure adrenaline madness. But, let's talk about the end. I had really high expectations for this show after seeing the first few episodes, but I have to say, it didn't quite meet them. It just felt like it created an immediate threat ~!tetsujin thingy!~ out of nowhere to end the show with a huge fight. But it felt very unnatural when it decided to escalate quickly ~! I mean the appearance of Tetsujin after Bisco's "death", like the powerful dude is died just now, who the hell is going to kill that damn thing!~. And the last 2 episodes continued to make the end as satisfying as possible, but couldn't quite do it. But, the last episode didn't feel that bad, it was good compared to the ones just prior. I'd say it managed to make the end feel like an actual end without cutting the story halfway through. ~!rant: and Akaboshi coming back to life felt like complete bullshit, they made him give a goodbye speech to Milo just to bring him back after 2 episodes, honestly, this made me feel like those "goodbyes" are completely worthless!~ Solid story with great potential, a bit flawed execution. I wish there's a second season where all these flaws could be corrected and make something truly memorable.
~~~__!Not without spoilers!__ This review has personal and objective scores, but I base the overall score objectively.~~~ ~~~Have you ever imagined a world filled with rust where even you can fall to the red iron oxide? Well, here's an anime based in said world. The story follows two young men, Bisco Akaboshi and Milo Nekoyanagi, who adventure Japan in search of a rust-eating mushroom. This anime has a lot, giant crabs, crazy corrupted government officials, epic archery, and a slew of interesting animals and people. It's interesting, adventurous, and you're never going to know what's going to happen next. _Sabikui Bisco_ isn't without it's faults, but it's definitely something to put on your watchlist.~~~ ~~~__Plot__~~~ Personal score: 8/10 Objective score: 6/10 One thing is for sure, this is a series of events that you won't be able to predict. One day the characters will be running from a walking temple, the next they'll be arrested by a bunch of kids. Personally, I found the plot to be really interesting. Even though it tapered off towards the end, I watched every episode with excitement. Their journey to find the Rust Eater was clear and they made it. I didn't find the plot to be too bad even though, yes, there are a lot of flaws later on. Objectively, the plot is alright. Because they find the Rust Eater in the middle of the anime, the rest is spent in a very long fight (I won't give too much away don't worry). They had a clear goal to find this miracle mushroom and made some stops along the way that would help them get there. After they find it, however, I can't say it's too impressive. Suddenly our main characters find themselves in a dog fight with Kurokawa over the Rust Eater because, of course, he's a corrupted official with money on his mind. While this isn't a bad plot point, it drags on for a very long time. __And during this fight occurs the most fatal scene__ in which ~!Bisco dies and then comes back to life.!~ __While this isn't a terrible thing in itself, because it isn't explained__ how Bisco ~!comes back to life,!~ __the story suffers quite a lot.__ Since this occurs at the end and I'm expecting a season 2, I myself didn't really have any qualms about this. ~~~__Characters, Development, and Relationships__~~~ Personal score: 6/10 Objective score: 7/10 These scores are pretty much the same because I think it's clear that some characters are poorly written and developed, and the same for their relationships. From an objective standpoint, Milo and Bisco are great characters and Kurokawa is the perfect villain, while the side characters serve their purpose as helpful friends and family. However, many characters are not written well, the most obvious being Pawoo. Here we have a strong woman who is the leader of a city's police force, which is great, except for the fact that she is very two-dimensional. For most of the story, she pursues Milo and Bisco in order to kill Bisco, and throughout this you see is her headstrong rage and a whole lot of strength. And that's really all she is, headstrong, and her only purpose is just to give Milo a reason to return to Imahama. She isn't the only character, Tirol also has her flaws. We see her tell Bisco and Milo about her mistrust and her former jobs, but this is a sudden development that seems to be there just to give her a dramatic reason and it's not elaborated on. Now, I said Kurokawa was the perfect villain, but every villain needs a backstory, something we get very little of. If they had shown his rise to power or his past evil deeds, this would make him a much more fleshed out character that isn't just really hard to fully get rid of. What is one of the best selling points of this anime is the relationship Bisco and Milo develop. They are best buds, an inseparable power duo, and you get to see how that is formed throughout the show. And here's where I go on my little tangent about how gay they are even though they are canonically not gay (this is a very personal opinion). Both of them get very intimate with each other, one of them even telling the other, "Aishiteru," which is a pretty deep form of love. And yet, the author decides to deviate from this romance and puts in some Pawoo x Bisco action. This leads me to my point about the very forced and sudden relationship between Bisco and Pawoo (back to objective). After Pawoo realizes she was wrong about spending a large portion of the story manhunting Bisco, she's suddenly very into him. Then, despite their lack of interaction and intimacy, she gives him a smooch in the last episode. While this could have been a fun romance to watch, it wasn't well written and felt very forced, as if the author was told to make their characters straight to avoid backlash. ~~~__Animation__~~~ Personal score: 8/10 Objective score: 10/10 They did a killer job on the animation. OZ, the studio, did really well by blending together CGI and normal animation together as seen with Actagawa, the giant crab. The main action of this anime, the archery, was flawless and the mushrooms popping up was such a satisfying visual. The scenery had me in awe and there was so much to see. I personally didn't like how they drew Milo or Pawoo, and since they were important characters, this really affected how I score this section. ~~~__Voice Acting__~~~ Personal score: 10/10 Objective score: 10/10 This was amazing. I think all the voice actors and actresses should receive awards for this anime. Natsuki Hanae (Milo) and Kenjiro Tsuda (Kurokawa) especially. The emotion they were able to convey was clear and made it feel more real. Milo's VA did a really good job voicing the despair and anger Milo felt during certain scenes. Kenjiro Tsuda made Kurokawa sound like a bone-chilling villain and even when special effects were applied to his voice he still made him sound vengeful. ~~~__Overall__~~~ Personal score: 8.5/10 Objective score: 7.5/10 This was a really fun and interesting anime and definitely something out of the ordinary. I really enjoyed this despite how long it took for the final fight to conclude and other flaws. It's not perfect and maybe a little confusing, but it has adventure and fun written all over it. If you haven't watched this yet, you definitely should. There's just so much to see and enjoy for a 12 episode anime. ~~~ ~!Feel free to give me any feedback about this review. I try to make these as appealing, fun to read, and relatable as possible. I was also really on the fence about writing this review, so let me know if you liked it or not. No insults please.!~ ~~~
hey guys this is Anerion or Joe, welcome to my second Anerioc review, did i say before how hard it is to write a review, on anilist, it is very hard, Anyway, this time, we will talk about _"drum roll sound"_, __Sabukui bisco__, yeah i just finished its 12 episodes series, 24 minutes in a single episode full of details so lets go and review its 5 majors. Which are The Story, The Characters, The Visuals, The Music, and Finally The Enjoyment. - __Story:__ Sabikui bisco has a well written story, kinda fast pace story progress, good plot twists, and to be fair, also some plot holes. but as long as it satisfied me so why not, in the end, nothing is perfect, right? (◕ᴗ◕✿) the story has some comedy, a little bit of drama, a main dish of action, great fantasy/post apocalyptic ideas, and a stable world ? so we can say, well done. the anime is 12 episodes so it doesn't contain any filler episodes obviously. - __Characters:__ if anyone asked me, what is the best thing about sabikui bisco? i will say the characters development, yes ladies and gentlemen, i really loved the characters development, from the start to the end, all the characters got enough screen time, had their own time to shine, and served the story, how they should. the side characters were great as well, every story we saw, left us with a mark, as well as our protagonists. add on that, the antagonist of our anime, is just great, simply, the voice actor is an genuine genius, i even put the antagonist as a profile pic so yeah, he was really cool. - __Visuals:__ okay, lets talk about the visuals and graphics, hmmm, okay, i don't really have a lot to say, don't get me wrong, the visuals are great and a really breath taking, and i really liked it, but i just don't want to be that kind of review guy who say everything is either good or bad, so simply beautiful. and add on that the animations of movement was very satisfying so yeah, well done. the drawings are very clear, and the colors are beating with life. - __music:__ the ending music is a masterpiece, the opening is not that bad, the ost in the anime are good, the voice actors are a great cast, and the sound effects are good. yeah that's it, i am not an opera singer, Don't expect a llama musical review. sorry that was the opera llama typing, lets finish this review, before the rust ears me, anyone want a serving of mushrooms? - __Enjoyment:__ How much times did i say the word "__satisfying__" in this review, just 2 or 3, and you already was searching the number, anyway i really enjoyed that show, despite it being not very attractive in the beginning but i don't think i will forget about it soon. that was my second Anerioc review on sabikui bisco, wish you liked it, and if you have different opinions then me, text me and i will enjoy having a talk with you, this was the greatest in this multiverse, Anerion or Joe.