The Human Crazy University

If you think anime shows are about beautiful or flashy visuals, then do not try to watch Human Bug Daigaku. However, it is not always about visuals. I have always disagreed with people that put animation over anything else; actually, I think what makes an anime good is “that something”. Human Bug Daigaku has many “somethings”. It is a show with plain art and almost non-existent animation, that does not take itself seriously when that is not needed. But it knows how to entertain its audience very well and includes comedy – which I find hilarious - combined with a well-built, intriguing mystery. Also, itis an educational anime since there’s brief random trivia analysis in every episode, usually mixed with comedic scenes. Some may not know that Human Bug Daigaku is an anime adaptation of a YouTube web manga series of the same name. The web manga is long, and includes many stories – one of them is the story of Satake Hirofumi. Surprisingly for non-Japanese audiences, it has millions of views and is very popular in Japan. That’s another point to be made when I explain why Human Bug Daigaku is such an unjustly unpopular anime show, and it deserves more attention despite its poor animation quality; it makes it clear that it's not just a random anime. Now, let’s go to the story. Satake Hirofumi is accused of murdering his wife and sentenced to death. Surprisingly, despite being hung, he gets out alive. We learn that he is generally the luckiest man in the world, and that’s how the mysterious story starts. We do not know the truth, we get to meet many suspicious individuals, as we start to like and root for a, now amnesiac, Hirofumi. A man who sets on dangerous adventures and – somehow - always survives. Something very strong in this anime is how most of the characters Satake meets are interesting and easy to remember, as they all have their unique character, backstories, and relationship with him. In addition, the show takes place in many cities and even different countries, which makes the experience more amusing. But what’s most amusing and memorable about it is how it keeps its light-heartedness from beginning to end, and even when things get dangerous, there is always love and optimism. The comedy might not be for all audiences, but it includes a unique, goofy sense of humour, it is well-combined with the story progression, there are many inside jokes created as the show progresses and is faithful to what it is. On the other hand, even if we know that the main character is invincible in a way, the mystery is always there, and week by week I was agonizing over what may happen next. There is ingenious plot progression, and you never know how things will turn out. As much as I love the writing of Human Bug Daigaku, I also love its voice acting cast. Tomokazu Sugita performs splendidly once again as the main character, but there are many other great performers to be mentioned: Hidenari Ugaki as the crazy Professor, Takehito Koyasu as the torturer Shigeo, and more. Opening and Ending songs are both pluses for the anime. The OP is a typical nano anisong, and nano is usually loved by anime fans. The ED is a totally different thing, though. Catchy as hell, retro-ish and playful, Bad City/Bug Human by Lowland Jazz is a great fit for the show’s vibes. To conclude, I only want to say that I wrote this review to make more people watch Human Bug Daigaku, and to express my approval of animated series with plain animation. I did not put much effort, but I hope it is enough to persuade some of you to give anime like this a chance. Because Human Bug Daigaku is a fun show to watch when you’re happy, when you’re sad, when you’re bored, when you’re eating, when you’re trying to sleep, or when you want to give a hard laugh with your friends. Basically a successful show, as far as I’m concerned. Thanks for reading :)

This is 100% a hidden gem. It certainly took me by surprise how much I ended up enjoying this one since the art initially was a turn-off. But I got used to the art and actually ended up appreciating it, especially as a fan of the Archer series -- the animation is similar and the main character even resembles Archer, although their personalities are totally different. I found myself looking forward to every episode to find out where the story amd characters would go next. I'm not entirely sure if the tidbits of information dropped every episode is actually legit, but it was certainly entertaining.The characters were also interesting and I grew to really enjoy them over the 12 episodes, which made following their shenanigans a worthy investment. I know the art is weird -- but give it a shot. This anime is a wacky but fun ride.

Human Bug Daigaku is a pretty unconventional series and destined to be a niche title, I think that, in order to enjoy it, you have to fit into one of these categories: #1 and most important-You don’t mind watching something with straight up awful animation. From what I understand, this show adapts a webmanga, but not like a webtoon manga, an actual manga that is published on a YouTube channel, and the adaptation tried mimicking the style. If you thought that the recent slideshow adaptations of stuff like the Yakuza Husband comedy was bad, wait till you see this. Credits where it’s due, the studio nailed theaesthetic it was going for. But that still does not change the fact that the artwork and character designs are very meh. There’s hardly any actual animation in here, the backgrounds are so-so, the character figures don’t seem to fit with said backgrounds a lot of the time, they barely even move and don’t have that many expressions. They are more like stuck to one or two poses and hardly even see at each other or at what they are supposed to be looking at, and the special effects are also very so-so. As a whole, although the aesthetics of the anime does resemblance the source material, visually is like watching an early indie visual novel, it feels that amateurish and unpolished. #2-You are into fun facts and trivia. Although there is a plot that tides everything together, a lot of the time the anime focuses on sharing information about different topics, from exotic foods to methods of survival, miraculous survivals, diseases, historical events, more importantly, stuff regarding crimes. Since the show is about a guy sentenced to death that survives and then gets into a lot of trouble with different criminals and mafias, the series contains a lot of information about the jails in Japan, causes of deaths, mafias around the world, corrupt policemen, stalkers and hackers, and a lot more. Which leads into the next category. #3-You like some morbid stuff. Since the protagonist has actual canon plot armor, he survives a lot of stuff that most people wouldn’t. Combine that with what I just wrote on the previous paragraph, and the main topics of the anime end up being different crimes and forms of dying. So, if you are into true crime podcasts or YouTube channels, or used to enjoy “1000 Ways to Die”, or follow Creepy.org on Twitter, or something similar, or all of the above, then this is a show for you. #4-You like weird or crazy stories. A lot of the stories feel like stuff that you would read about on Internet, like some Reddit forums for example. So if you are a fan of those things, regardless of whether they are true or not, you might like this. And now that we cleared up the appeal of the series, let’s move on onto its actual execution. As for the actual writing, it needs to be said that, although they do cross over with the others, the source material follows different characters with their own storylines in a mostly episodic manner, so the anime combining them into one story deserves a recognition. The pacing is an issue however, as a lot of screentime is dedicated to the trivia parts, slowing down the progression of the core story. Not only that, but also some episodes feel less necessary than others. As I look back, I like the episodes taking place in México the most, but where they really needed? I think you could have the most important events from those episodes taking place in Venezuela, which is the location of the final course of the plot, while taking off some side characters, and you wouldn’t really miss much. The credibility of the series is very questionable for different reasons. First, there’s not only all the over the top action adventure bits, but also the insane levels of both and bad luck of the protagonist, as he survives stuff with miraculous rates of surviving. The anime also uses another weak plot device, which is amnesia. Normally in mysteries, you can still work your way around it by revealing information gradually, and having characters with actual personality. Over here, the amnesia is used as a way for the main character to not remember crucial information. Thus not only the backstory is kept in the dark, but also the protagonist remains unexplored and undeveloped, both things until the series is about to be over. Meaning, it is not used well, and most of the time you are following seemingly random fun facts, with occasional over the top action bits around an insanely plot armored character, instead of the actual plot. And speaking of the facts it discusses throughout the story, I did a quick fact check about Caracas being the actual most dangerous city in the world, as the anime claims, and what I found was it being placed as the third, behind Tijuana and Acapulco, the second which is present in the show. So, either the two Mexican cities killed hundreds of thousands of people in two years (which to be fair is not impossible), or the makers had it wrong. And that is the only example I bothered to check out, there probably is a lot more stuff that is wrong. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue, but since this anime is tagged as educational, I thought it was worth mentioning out. The script also has some other minor issues, like why and how the characters end in México, unless they said that they were moving to a facility in another country and I didn’t notice. Even so, as later on it is revealed that the main antagonist was orchestrating everything, it doesn’t seem plausible for the villain to set up different scenarios so quickly, and what was even the point, when he is on a different country and continent. There’s an explanation actually, but for a series that takes itself seriously, it is very underwhelming. The villain is a one-dimensional sadistic psycho criminal, that’s it. Not that everything in the script is bad, as it ties several different characters and storylines like I said, and includes a lot of topics through trivia, and does anticipate most important events and characters properly. But it would have been better if the information and plan of the main antagonist wasn’t kept in the dark throughout most of the series, and showed how did Chie escape before the beginning of the story. And also, yes, again, both the story and main character needed to be explored more throughout the show. There are some good messages and dramatic moments around the important characters, whether if it is worth for them to keep living or not, and the obvious answer being yes, life is worth living and you should keep trying to prolong your path in it, even if inevitably does end in death. The resolution is strangely built upon but also hard to accept, and that is tied directly with the tone of the series. The characters have such a showdown that is could have been written only by Rian Johnson, yet it is played straight. The over the top bits are not that different than what you would expect from JoJo or the Indiana Jones franchise, yet here the tone is not comical, there are no supernatural super powers, and the action is interrupted by lots of random information instead of happening in a quick, epic and exciting manner, for you to suspend your disbelief. The resolution is akin to something that happens in Knives Out, the second entry, but again, it is played straight instead of funnily. And also, the dramatic parts are hard to take fully seriously, because of the unserious art style, and all the absurd rest of the script. The series has meta nods to the original, both with the encounter at the end of the series, which was a nice detail for the fans of the manga, and through an original character in the form of the professor, main narrator and suspected self-insert of the original author. As far as characterization goes, everyone eventually gets a proper backdrop, but I was still left with the impression that they have very simplistic personalities, despite their eccentric presence. Plus, the information does come way too late in the story. Only the main character actually gets some development about how life is worth living, but since he is a blank passive character for most of the story, it doesn’t feel very impactful. Finally, the sound is ok as far as sound effects and voice acting go, but the music is pretty good. The opening includes a lot of visual hints to the overall plot as well as nods to the source material, and is an ok jrock song. The ending just has the protagonist running, but the song is a very cool jazz, which would benefit if it was instrumental, as the only lyrics are the name of the anime, but even so it is quite good and catchy. In conclusion, Human Bug Daigaku is a stand out show as far as the medium goes. Its nonlinear narrative of different storylines, plot points and characters could be compared with the likes of Paranoia Agent, Ghost Hound and Odd Taxi, the mix of action and gourmet could be compared with Golden Kamuy, and the action adventure bits could be compared with JoJo, yet its plot is nothing like any of those. At the same time, there are good things in it, and being able to tell a story, considering its source material, is worthy of praise. Yet, when I look back to it, I feel like its episodes are more worthy and interesting on their own, instead of as a part of a proper story, kinda like the stuff that I mentioned at the beginning of the review, and I was left with the impression that although each part is kind of decent on its own, the sum of all of them together end up being quite weak. Part of me wants to say it is decent and worth watching, and another part of me does not, so, if I doubt myself whether if something is worth or not, I think it makes sense to choose the latter. But for anyone that wants a break from generic stuff and to watch something truly different, this is a half decent option to kill some time. Oh, and for the makers, from the country which has mafias around and the highest suicide rates of the planet, to show other countries as dangerous, particularly those from Latin America, based on sources that strangely never include places at war, more likely than not from the country with also mafias, high crime rates and record in mass shootings, that never appears in said rankings, they can go fuck themselves. Now for some excused scoring Visuals 3/10 -Artwork 1/2 (nailed the aesthetics but it is very weakly put together) -Character designs 1/2 (they look like chibis even when they are not, but they are not bad on their own) -Backgrounds 0/2 (they look like stock images) -Animation 0/2 (plain pathetic) -Special effects 1/2 (they are really bad but the main aesthetic was accomplished) Audio 6/10 -Voice acting 1/2 (Ok) -Sound effects 2/4 (Ok) -Music 3/4 (Good) Story 6/10 -Premise 1/2 (Interesting but it uses bad plot devices) -Pacing 1/2 (Slow and chaotic) -Complexity 2/2 (Lots of topics, storylines and characters tied together) -Credibility 1/2 (Things are anticipated and explained but nothing really makes sense) -Conclusion 1/2 (Ok and fitting but it is not believable) Characters 6/10 -Presence 1/2 (Simple) -Personality 1/2 (Simple) -Backdrops 2/2 (Everyone has them and most of them are interconnected) -Development 1/2 (Only the main character has it and it is not very organic) -Catharsis 1/2 (Everyone has it but it feels just ok or incomplete) Value 6/10 -Fame 2/3 (Mostly unknown in the West but quite popular in Japan) -Memorability 4/4 (So unique to the point of becoming unforgettable) -Rewatchability 0/4 (It relies completely on mystery boxes and there is nothing to revisit in the plot or characters) Personal enjoyment 4/10 I liked two episodes and the opening and ending, but was bored by the rest. Recommended stuff -True crime podcasts and YouTube channels -Creepy.org on Twitter -Wikipedia (Or better yet more reliable sources) -1000 Ways to Die -The original Indiana Jones trilogy -Odd Taxi -JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Stardust Crusaders -Knives Out and Glass Onion

First a summary of the plot: Satake Hirofumi is sentenced to death. He is accused of killing his fiance and another man because he thought she cheated on him. He then lost all his memories of the past. After that he even survives the execution. The police isn´t sure what to do now so he is left alive as an interim solution. He now tries to get back his memories and quickly realizes that he already survived many unusual situations. When you watch the first episode you´ll definitely notice that the animation is awful. At first it kinda bothered me but I quickly got usedto it and accepted it as the shows own style. The story isn´t deep but this anime doesn´t really need it to be. At first it´s a pretty episodic series but later on the plot becomes more coherent. In every episode they tell a funfact that is pretty well implemented into the story. It´s not supposed to be some deep, dramatic story (or at least I hope so because otherwise it completely fails). The characters also aren´t that complicated. They just have one trait that is usually pretty cool and unique (one guy is absolutely crazy about trying out all different kinds of food and local specialties) but that´s it. There´s no big development of them throughout the show but just like with the story they don´t need to be deep or anything. Apparently the original web manga was published on youtube (the manga panels and a voiceover) and that doesn´t surprise me because this show feels more like a youtuber project than a TV anime. If you expect just that this anime definetly won´t disappoint you. Otherwise even the first episode will be a absolute pain to sit through.