The appearance is deceptive in an anime from 2025. Because behind a cute facade lies drama, darkness, and emotional destruction.
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The variety of anime has grown significantly in recent years. So much so that it is nearly impossible to follow all the series when you have other hobbies or social obligations. Therefore, I often have to filter what I watch.
In 2025, the anime “Takopi’s Original Sin” completely slipped past me. I only took a glance at the cover image, saw some small, cute creature with a somewhat childish drawing style, and thought to myself: Yes, just skip that one.
Only through the YouTuber “Gigguk” did I become aware of the anime again. Gigguk’s videos are always a way for me to look back at the past quarter or year and discover series that I might have missed. When he included “Takopi’s Original Sin” in his Top 10 from 2025 on YouTube, I knew I couldn’t ignore it.
I was still not very impressed with the drawing style, and the pink fluffy monster on the cover clearly told me: This is not made for you.
However, the series was rated for ages 16 and up, so I figured there must be a dark core. One that would probably remind me of anime like “Made in Abyss.”
Because the series only has 6 episodes, I thought to myself last night: “Oh, I’ll watch one more before going to bed, and if it’s not good, I’ll stop.”
Well, what can I say: 3 hours later, I had watched all the episodes and now regret it only because I am missing far too many hours of sleep.
An alien that wants to bring joy and suffers
The story of Takopi’s Original Sin seems trivial and easy to explain at first glance – here come a few spoilers from the first episode.
A small, cuddly alien from the planet “Happy” wants to bring happiness to humans on Earth and make everyone happy. However, on Earth, it becomes an easy prey and has to hide. Only after a few days does it come into contact with the girl Shizuka Kuze – who notably smiles very little, but cares for “Takopi,” as she names the alien.
Takopi tries to make Shizuka smile, but that proves to be exceptionally difficult. Because at school, she is bullied. Her desk is smeared with messages like “Die” and “Rot in hell,” and every day her school notes are stolen, and she is frequently beaten and harassed by her classmates.
The alien knows nothing about human culture at first. When Shizuka is mistreated by her classmates, it is even happy because the children are talking to each other – and “talking to each other” is a good thing for Takopi to solve problems.
When Takopi finally realizes that Shizuka is continuously bullied by a girl named Marina, it pulls out a “Happy Gadget” – a long friendship cord that connects two friends and is meant to ensure happiness.
Shizuka accepts the cord with vacant eyes and wants to use it, which makes Takopi very happy – only to discover the next morning: Shizuka has hanged herself in her apartment and has died. The anime very clearly shows the possible consequences of the cruelty that children experience; this is something you should be aware of before watching.
And that, my dear friends, is just the first roughly 15 minutes of the first episode. This is just a small taste of what awaits you in the series. Because when one believes: “From now on, it has to get better” – No, it will not.
What makes Takopi’s Original Sin so good? The story is tremendously gripping. Even though I rolled my eyes multiple times in the first 5 minutes because Takopi’s overly cute manner got on my nerves, it is precisely this contrast between cuteness and the cruelty of the emotional world of children that is absolutely fantastic.
However, Takopi’s Original Sin is not light fare. Behind every child in the series is a trauma of brutality, child abuse, or emotional destruction. Each seemingly unfounded act of bullying or suffering is just a reaction to already existing pain. It is everything but a “feel-good” series. The complete hard break between the cute, naive Takopi who neither understands people nor the life on Earth and the children who are facing emotional destruction in the next moment creates a lump in the throat.
If you have a few hours to spare in the coming days and want to experience an emotional, deep, unsettling, and strangely beautiful story, then watch Takopi’s Original Sin – the series is available on Crunchyroll. By the second episode at the latest, you’ll definitely know if you want to follow this journey to the end. Because what Takopi’s namesake sin actually is, one can’t even guess yet…
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