Takopi’s Original Sin Review – The Cutest Pain You’ll Ever Feel
There are some stories you walk away from with a smile. And then there’s Takopi’s Original Sin.
An anime that looks like it’s made for five-year-olds but hits you like a truck full of unresolved trauma, complex moral decisions, and broken children trying to survive in a world that doesn’t care about their feelings.
Very rarely does a season so stacked with big-name adaptations like Lord of the Mysteries, Dan Da Dan, Kaiju No. 8, My Dress-Up Darling Season 2, get quietly outshined by something so short, so niche, and so devastating. And yet, here we are. Takopi’s Original Sin crept into the 2025 summer anime season and ended up being the one show that actually stayed with me… haunting me in the best and worst ways.
So what is Takopi’s Original Sin, really?
On the surface, it’s the story of Takopi, a happy-go-lucky alien from the “Happy Planet,” who comes to Earth armed with doodle-looking gadgets and one goal: spread happiness.
That’s it. No secret villain arc. No big galactic twist. He’s just a cute blob trying to do his job.
But the world Takopi lands in? It’s anything but happy. He finds himself trying to help a girl named Shizuka, who’s living through emotional neglect, severe bullying, and the kind of loneliness that most adults can’t even begin to process. And Takopi, in all his naïve optimism, decides to fix it.
What follows is not what you expect.
This isn’t your typical “alien learns about humans” story
We’ve seen variations of this trope before, an alien or robot comes to Earth, misunderstands emotions, learns love or pain, cue emotional ending. But Takopi’s Original Sin leans into something more brutal. It doesn’t just show Takopi slowly understanding human sadness, it forces us to see how layered that sadness can be when it’s experienced by children who don’t have the words or space to process it.
Takopi has gadgets that can make people happy. He can literally erase memories, create time loops, or clone objects. And yet, even with all that power, he cannot understand why humans do the things they do. He doesn’t grasp trauma, manipulation, or the crushing weight of guilt. He just wants his friends to smile. That’s it. That’s all he’s trying to do.
And it’s heartbreaking, because every time he tries, something else goes horribly wrong.
Children shouldn’t have to carry this much
The core cast, Shizuka, Azuma, Marina, are all children. But the world around them is cruel in that real-world, stomach-churning way. Bullying, divorce, abuse, neglect, pressure to be perfect, it’s all here, not as plot devices but as daily realities for these kids.
And yet, the show never feels like trauma for the sake of shock value. It’s uncomfortable, yes. Painful, deeply. But every episode feels like it’s grounded in some harsh truth about the human condition. About how kids internalize pain. About how cycles of trauma continue when no one steps in. About how sometimes, even when you want to help, you just don’t know how.
Takopi doesn’t fix the world. He just… exists in it.
What hit me the hardest was the realization that Takopi never solves anything. He doesn’t magically make the adults more responsible. He doesn’t stop the bullying permanently. He doesn’t even understand what “death” or “sin” truly mean.
He just tries. Over and over.
And that’s where the brilliance of this anime lies. The final episode doesn’t offer clean closure. Instead, it focuses on the lingering effect of Takopi’s presence — the idea that maybe, just maybe, trying to be kind even when you don’t understand everything can leave a mark. That a smile, even a confused one, can ripple into something larger.
The alternate timelines, the repeated loops, the shifting decisions, they all show how pain echoes. But so does kindness. And sometimes, that one small act of selflessness can be enough to shift the trajectory of someone’s life, even if only a little.
The art will fool you. Let it.
Let’s talk about the animation. It’s deceptively soft, round character designs, pastel lighting, gentle motion. At a glance, it looks like a Saturday morning kids’ show. But that’s what makes it hit harder.
The contrast between Takopi’s round, cuddly appearance and the dark, emotionally charged world he stumbles into makes everything more jarring. When he smiles, it feels like hope. When he cries, it breaks you. When he starts to realize the limits of what he can do and you see that slow unraveling of innocence… it’s devastating in a way few anime achieve in just six episodes.
That ending though…
I won’t spoil the final moments here, but if you’ve watched it, you know. The sixth episode doesn’t pull punches. It’s emotionally raw, morally gray, and soaked in sadness. And yet, Takopi’s Original Sin ending doesn’t feel hopeless.
Takopi doesn’t fix everything. He doesn’t even fully understand what happened. But the people around him, those who are still left, start to understand each other just a little more. There’s no neat bow, no magical reversal, no reset where everyone is happy.
But there’s growth. Quiet, painful, necessary growth. And that’s more honest than any fairytale ending could ever be.
Final thoughts: Why this review was hard to write
I won’t lie. Writing this review wasn’t easy. I loved Takopi’s Original Sin, but revisiting its details stirred up a lot more than I expected. It’s only six episodes, but it leaves a mark that’s hard to explain and harder to forget.
But maybe that’s the point.
Not all stories exist to make us comfortable. Some exist to show us the cracks, the ones we hide from others, or even ourselves. Takopi’s Original Sin does that, through the eyes of a childlike alien who just wanted people to smile. And for what it’s worth, he made me cry instead. But I think that’s okay. Because sometimes, feeling deeply is the first step to healing even if it’s in the form of an anime.
Rating:
If Takopi’s Original Sin left you reeling too, drop a comment, let’s talk about it. We’re all still recovering here. And if you’re into anime that hits hard, heals slow, or just leaves you staring at the ceiling at 2AM, we’ve got more coming. Till then catch Takopi’s Original Sin on Crunchyroll.
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