Review of Big Order (TV)

TL;DR: If you're interested in this because you liked Mirai Nikki, read the manga first. The anime makes very little sense if you haven't read the manga first, sadly. I really wanted to enjoy this anime because I loved Mirai Nikki and I had already read the manga. It was immediately alarming however that this was a 10 episode anime, as the manga had a lot of material. The only way this would work would be if this was a season 1 that covered the first part of the manga, but alas, that was not the case. It is apparent to anyone who has read the mangathat in order to fit everything into 10 episodes they cut everything they didn't deem 100% necessary for plot progression, such as explanations for the characters' powers and character development, which is why it feels like things are going too fast, there's just no downtime. They even cut 2 entire arcs for some reason.

I could forgive all of this, honestly, but they didn't even freaking manage that either - the anime ends at the end of the manga's part 1.

This next section will contain spoilers.

Manga readers already know who the characters are, how their powers work, the reasons behind some of the things that happen that were never explained due to a lack of time, etc, so it was passable to us - despite being an enormous clusterfuck to everyone else, of course.

What really can't be forgiven though is that despite all of the sacrifices they made, essentially turning the anime into a very long "last time on Big Order..." sequence that makes no sense by itself, they still failed with completing the story in those 10 episodes and went with the oh-so-hated choice of an anime-exclusive ending, finishing the story at chapter 32 - and the manga goes on for another 16 bloody chapters.

All of the show's build-up falls short because of this. Rin's inner turmoil over being wrong about Eiji and dealing with her emotions, Iyo's rivalry with Rin and maturing as a character, Sena's... anything really, Sena didn't even get her moment of glory when she was debating Gennai trying to convince the world that Eiji was innocent - they cut that to save time herp derp - so they could have at least given her part of the character development she got in the manga, - nope, not even that. I won't even get into the not-so-minor characters such as the Group of Ten and Hiiragi in particular.

One could even forgive that they messed up twice like that, but no, the new ending is just horrible. Big Order was never big on coherency but the anime ending takes the cake here - in the span of 2 minutes they introduce the "God" character, establish her invulnerability, and then get rid of her. And following this, we are taken to the next arc of the manga, where Eiji, Rin and Iyo are attending school together... except no, because it ends here with a bittersweet happy ending and no closure on anything.

Honestly anime adaptations like these serve no purpose and would have been better off left unproduced until a respectable budget can be attained. It's a disservice to Esuno Sakae and the fans of Mirai Nikki otherwise.