Otokogi

Before I begin this review, it's worth noting that I am the first to review this title on MAL, and even the first to give it a score at all. It is my belief that every anime deserves at least one proper review, deserves to have its content engaged and reckoned with. No matter how obscure it is, and no matter how long ago it was made, an anime still represents the creative passion of its creators, the hopes and dreams of the team that made it, and as such, I will give this one a fair and honest accounting here. Otokogi is a fairlytypical yakuza crime drama, languishing in the very furthest reaches of near-total obscurity for the last 35 years at the time of this writing. Watching and subsequently reviewing this title therefore has a kind of liminal quality to it, like being in an empty school or exploring the ruins of some once-busy locale. As for the anime itself, while its general production quality is somewhat lacking, and the confused, over-wrought story gets ahead of itself a lot of the time, I've definitely seen worse titles out there. Beginning with the story, it's a complicated tale with many moving parts and a whole army of characters to keep track of, while simultaneously being a thoroughly average story about a high school thug-turned-yakuza tough guy that beats up his rivals in violent and over-the-top ways. This genre was definitely overrepresented in the 80s, so seeing an example in the early 90s makes sense. It's clear they're going for an almost Shakespearean quality with the tangled web of motivations and characters, but they generally lacked the execution to really make it work, and as such it ends up falling flat. Keeping track of whose mistress is whose, which clan is seeking revenge against which clan, and how an electric company CEO with a missing daughter slots into this complicated criminal underworld power struggle, makes for a messy viewing experience that, at the end of the day, is barely worth keeping track of at all, That's because the protagonist, Kyosuke, knows just what to say, who to fight, and who to shoot to save the day. He discovers this Gordian Knot of a story and just slashes right through it. Perhaps that was the point all along, but it makes you wonder why they went through all the effort to to make the story so complicated in the first place. As for everything else, there's little to say by comparison. The art has this gritty yet colorful aesthetic that fits its theme quite well, while the overall animation quality is rather low. Indeed, the production quality on display here is more reminiscent of the 80s, or perhaps even the 70s, rather than the 90s. It feels sloppy and definitively behind its own time in this regard, with stuttery animation and a general lack of variety among character designs, which adds to the overall confusion the story offers up to the viewer. The sound is subpar, offering grainy, melodramatic voice work and distinctly artificial sounds of life, and while the music is pretty good, it is hardly present, leaving the show with this bizarre and awkward silence for the vast majority of its runtime. The characters are fine, fulfilling their roles within the story, even if their actions and motivations make little sense. In a story like this one they'd typically be completely controlled by the story, ordered from place-to-place as the plot demands, but since their actions don't really follow logical paths, it seems like they're completely unmoored from the story, doing as they please in a way that adds to the scattered feeling this anime gives off. Overall, Otokogi is just kind of boring at the end of the day. It's not the worst thing I've seen, but it tries to be this hype action anime and this complex Godfather-esque crime drama at the same time, and as such fails to really live up to either goal. However, if you're particularly into this specific genre and want to say you've watched something almost nobody has seen, then Otokogi could be right up your alley. I'm convinced that this anime is a good fit for the right audience, however small, that could take it up as some kind of obscure cult classic. The crazy fight scenes and corny dialogue are more than enough to make that reality. Still, I'm not a part of that audience, and as such found it to be a distinctly underwhelming experience.