Review of Big Order (TV)

The reason I decided to watch Big Order is because of it’s reputation : the insanity and sheer stupidity of the show is pretty well-know and I wanted to see if it was earned. Spoilers, it is. Now, if you only watch the first episode, you’re probably gonna think it’s just another bland, « edgy » poorly written anime like many other anime and you would be so wrong. The true nature of Big Order only shows his ugly head after the first episode and after that, it never tries to hide it again. This show has one of the most nonsensical story I haveever witness with a constant need to contradict itself every two seconds with the dumbest thing ever, to the point that I believe that Big Order is a parody. It has to be. No show can be that stupid and not doing it on purpose.

Let’s start by talking about Eiji, the main character who represents very well the experience that is Big Order. First, he is seriously the real vilain of the story to the point where he actually fights to destroy a world where everyone could be happy. And don’t get your hopes up people, the serie and the rest of the cast still treat him like a hero, even if he is the complete opposite of it. But what make Eiji really special it’s how he literally makes no sense at all as a character : he is, at the same time, a wannabe rapist, shy in love, a guy who want to save the world, a guy who don’t care about he world, an idiot who don’t understand anything, a smart guy who understand everything, a nice guy who saves people, an asshole who tortures people, someone who wants to protect his sister, someone who has sex with his sister (yes), someone who wants to create a perfect world for his sister except when he has the actual opportunity to do it… And no I am not making any of this stuff up, he really is all over the place and make no sense at all, like the overall crapfest that is BO.
Also he is one of the hateful MC I have seen in while : not only he is a r*apist (and no one cares about it of course) but he screams « Senna » at least 20 times per episode in the most irritating way possible, to the point that even Snow from FF XIII would ask him to shut it. You can stab him, cut his arms or legs, Eiji will still be screaming « Senna » over and over... And poor Morita who had to voice such an awful character… And by the way, even his powers don’t make sense : sometimes he is overpowered and sometimes he isn’t. No explanation is EVER given of course because that’s how Big Order rule : exit logic, only insanity and stupidity are needed here.

Really, the show is all over the place, makes no sense in the slightest and love to forgot things it just introduce. For example, out of nowhere, we have actual gods who show up but don’t worry our Eiji doesn’t even care about them (he actually ignore them even if they are the one who can actually save his sister) and then 5 minutes after, the gods disappears completely from the story with no explanation. Classic Big Order ! Another example ? Well, the show introduce Rei Ayan- I mean Iyo, a girl with a red ribbon. Eiji touchs her ribbon and she become instantly pregnant : she cries but Eiji promise that he will take responsability. Five minutes after, Iyo is gonna give birth to the baby except after that, the plot completely forgot about the existence of the said baby. Iyo is suddenly no more pregnant anymore and except for three throwaway lines that don’t explain ANYTHING, the baby like the gods disappears completely from the story. Again, I’m not making any of this stuff up.

What about the rest of the cast I hear you ask? Hahahahaha, fools ! If I can give Big Order one thing is that the show is consistent : the « cast » is as bad as the rest of the show.
We have Rin, who is basically a parody of Yuno from Mirrai Nikki. She has a decent backstory but the story take a massive dump on her everytime it can : she gets her ass kicked constantly and is one of the biggest idiot of the show which is an statement someone cannot make lightly. She wants to kill the man responsible for the death of her parents except when she doesn’t want or forgets about it. Her relationship with Eiji ? Simple my friend : She hates him because she thinks he killed her parents but suddenly she actually likes him now for no reason but no back to hating him, no she is loving him again… Again no explanation for this behavior.
Then, we have Senna, the sister of Eiji. While they are not blood related, she is, like her BIG BRO, an awful character. She is a naive girl, except when she is evil but sometimes she is nice… You know the drill by now, she also doesn’t make a lick of sense.

The show also introduce the Ten, a group of powerful orders (people with powers) and they seem to be very important for the plot. Except they aren’t. Only Iyo, Rin and White Hair matters. We kinda get to know three others, Glasses Girl, Rip-Komamura-Off and Fran but they barely do anything for the plot which is kinda sad since Fran is the only character of the all show who seem to be a decent guy. The rest I hear you ask ? Well, nothing. While two of them have interesting design, I can’t even call them characters. They will show up at random, at best throw two or three meaningless lines that changes nothing and that’s it. It’s a shame because I really wanted to see more of « Big Wood » and sadly, he doesn’t even speak. And Big Order loves do that by the way : they introduce many, MANY characters but refuse to do anything with them and ultimately, forget about them completely. Some were clearly created for the BIG fan service moment in episode 5 (almost 10 minutes devoted to a woman harrassing others women in a bath and yes, it's awful) but the others ? I don’t know. They created at least 15 characters who have no purpose, probably for the hell of it.

Again, Big Ordeaaaah is a parody. It has to be. Not just because I refuse to live in a world where this shitshow was made legit but also because I quickly checked the manga. And yes, the manga seem to be way less awful : Eiji is no more a wannabe rapist and there is no incest-pedo relationship with his sister. Now, I haven’t read that much and yes, the manga doesn’t seem to be very good but it seems to try in telling a coherent story unlike the anime.
So my guess is that the anime was made terrible on purpose for some reason. And that’s why I’m giving a 5 : because when you accept that Big Order is a Big Joke, it’s kinda fun. I actually laugh a couple of time while watching it (the ending of episode 2 was fantastic) and it’s almost a « so bad it’s good» anime.. It’s a trainwreck that deserve a watch if you’re into that kind of stuff : it has to be seen in order (hahaha) to be believed. However, unlike masterpieces like Samurai Cop or Miami Connection, Big Order is still annoying a lot of the time because of how unlikeable the leads are.

Ah yes , I almost forgot to tell, there is barely any fight scenes in this anime and all of them are mediocre anyway (because of poor animation). Some characters have interesting powers but of course, they barely use it at all.

If I had to end on a positive note, I will say that the OST is good, even if they love to place some songs at inappropriate times because of course they do, that’s the way of Big Order.