Anime Review: Kokkoku

Common Name: Kokkoku

Alternative Names: Kokukoku, Moment by Moment

Score: 4/10, 1/5

Length: 12 Episodes

Genre: Thriller, Drama, Mystery, Action, Supernatural, Super Powers

Summary: By all appearances, the Yukawa family are absolute social failures. Juri has been unable to land a job due to her flighty nature and childish behavior. Her older sister, Sanae, is a single mother who has little choice but to let Juri care for her son, Makoto, while she works tirelessly to make ends meet. Her father, Takafumi, and brother, Tsubasa, are nothing but hindrances to the family's well-being, content to laze about and play games all day like the NEETs they are. Needless to say, there is no end to the grief Juri and her retired grandfather put up with to keep this family functioning at all. Things go from bad to worse, however, when Makoto and Tsubasa are kidnapped and ransomed for 5 million yen, all that's left of their grandfather's savings. As it turns out, though, there is a solution to both this kidnapping and all of the Yukawa family's financial problems. Things go from worse to just plain strange as the grandfather reveals that their family possesses an ancient secret and a power he feared his family would abuse if they learned of it. Given their circumstances, though, he's forced to teach them how to freeze time and uphold the rules of Stasis so that they might save their family and protect themselves from the beings that guard the Stasis without any problems.

Review: In spite of its fantastic OP and initially encouraging premise, Kokkoku has to be the biggest waste of potential I've ever seen in an anime. There were so many cool and interesting things this show had going for it in it's first few episodes that just kinda fell flat as the show tried to explain every minute detail about its worlds (yes, plural), characters, and the laws that govern both was explained to the point that couldn't be bothered to care anymore. Now, don't get me wrong, I love world building, but it needs to be done right and used on the right medium. For instance, fantasy titles that possess a world distinctly different from our own are classic cases where world building and explanations are necessary. I'm even fine when it's used to explain a rule system of magic in a world that isn't all that different from our own, a la Fullmetal Alchemist. Kokkoku is, however, a supernatural thriller, a prime example of a medium where details are more likely to kill interest than help understanding.

Christ, the show even seems to understand that point in the very beginning,

so I don't know how or why it decided to ignore its own advice.

If the Yukawa family's ability to stop time some kind of crazy, new idea, I might have been willing to give its desire to explain things a pass, but stopping time is actually kind of trite at this point. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, Dragon Ball, Shakugan no Shana, Darker than Black, Madoka Magica: the list of shows, movies, and games that have used this concept, in one form or another, is practically endless and nearly every one of these titles didn't explain the ability beyond claiming "X has the ability to stop time." To Kokkoku's credit, however, it tries to define stopped time as if it were a different world in of itself. Like a fantasy world, there are rules to the place that are different from our own due to the consequences of time being stopped. Even so, the cool little interactions with the world are better left shown than told, since the general implications are actually pretty simple and believable.

In case I wasn't being clear, though, simple things being explained

unnecessarily is kind of this show's thing.

Unfortunately, the main premise of the show being explained to death isn't the only thing I have an issue with when it comes to Kokkoku. Put plainly, the main plot itself is kind of a garbled mess filled with characters who I either can't be bothered to remember or are so insufferable that I wish I could forget them. The characters of Yukawa Juri and her grandfather (given no name outside of "grandfather") are pretty much the only people in this show I can actively tolerate. Juri, as a fairly young adult struggling to find a purpose in this world, is likable because her experience and frustrations are highly relatable. She knows what she wants but is barred from entry into proper adult life because she's not seen as mature or reliable enough to be given a chance--a feeling any millennial trying to get a job in this day and age would easily connect with. Her grandfather, on the other hand, is just kind of an amicable old cuss who does what he thinks is right for the good of his family. Were it not for his age, it's doubtless that he'd be looking for a means to support his family the same way Juri is, even if he'd likely get turned away for similar reasons. So, from the very beginning, we are made to understand that Juri and her grandfather are flawed but good-intentioned characters.

Too bad the rest of her family are little more than walking, talking wastes of space.

Outside of these two main characters, the only other member of the Yukawa family that isn't obnoxious is Juri's nephew, Makoto. The only reason he isn't lumped in with her dad and brother in the "characters I wish didn't exist" category is simply because I accepted he was going to be a generic child character who had little chance of being important in the first place. The most good I ever expected him to serve was his role as an initial dramatic hook, getting kidnapped by an entire faction of nobodies I somehow manage to hate even more than the rest of the Yukawa family.

Maybe the world thinks that because you actually are a cult. The cult of same-faced, scumbag NPCs.

Whenever they're not busy stealing, killing, or raping things in the world of Stasis, the "Genuine Love Society" is usually hard at work serving as a vehicle for the show's plot and the dead weight that drags down that same plot whenever they show up. There's honestly little point to them outside of their role as generally unlikable antagonists who have been driven into a frenzy by the actual antagonist of the show, Sagawa Junji (a less-than-subtle reference, to be sure). Where the rest of the "Genuine Love Society" are basically just Team Rocket Grunts, Sagawa is the Giovanni of this league of supernatural evil people. Having learned that the Yukawa's possess a special magic stone that allows them to freeze time, Sagawa is the one who orchestrates the whole plan to kidnap a member of the family in the hopes of forcing them to use said stone to stop time. Crazy as that might sound, the Yukawa's triggering Stasis is planned in such a way that the Society's lesser magical stone will carry them into the world of Stasis as well, thus giving Sagawa the ability to study the fabled world of stopped time his organization has apparently worshiped for a few odd centuries.

Surprise! He learns that a world where a single moment in time

is captured and frozen indefinitely is freaking weird.

Have I lost you yet? If so, you're in for a trip as this story just gets weirder and weirder from here on in. Shortly upon entering the world of Stasis, it is revealed that there are a few unsaid rules that are expected of all who enter this supernatural space. Most notably among those rules is the simplest rule of all: Don't try to kill any bystanders who are frozen in the world of Stasis. Seems pretty simple, right? It basically just boils down to "don't cause any lasting damage to the world outside this frozen point in time." Well, as I've stated already, the "Genuine Love Society" isn't exactly filled with fine, upstanding citizens, so we learn pretty quickly what the downside to breaking that one rule is.

The consequences are death by mild exertion from eldritch horror, by the way.

I say the Herald/Hander of Stasis is an "eldritch horror" because it kinda is, but the show somehow manages to make this sick ass Bloodborne boss as lame as humanly possible. I'll spare you the details just so you hold out hope that there's something cool about this cool-looking monster, but suffice it to say that the show goes so far as to explain what these things are. Worse yet, it rationalizes them in such a way that all the coolness they possess is instantly sapped away while the show moves on to explain that the Handler isn't the only thing in this world with superpowers.

Suprise! Apparently, Juri was a member of the Hyuga Clan all along.

Ah, what better way to make a thriller less thrilling than to give your main character superpowers specifically designed to make them nearly invincible in this supernatural world. Imagine what would happen if a Lovecraft story gave one of its protagonists the ability to just unmake any one of the Elder Gods. That'd kinda defy the point of the threat of iconic beings like Cthulhu, right? Well, that's pretty much the direction Kokkoku takes as time goes on. At the request of the only female member of the "Genuine Love Society," who has decided to defect for pretty obvious reasons, the Yukawa family just kinda decides to go full anime protagonist. Rather than, you know, worrying about getting out of Stasis and surviving the functionally endless supply of Society goons that are out to kill them, Juri just decides that it'd be a great idea to take on a side quest that would probably be titled, "Hey, could you kill some gods for me? Pretty please."

Yep, this wasn't a bad idea on any level.

So, this show doesn't have anywhere to go but up, right? Yeah, no. While some of the action sequences that dot the series from here on in are pretty cool and have a certain amount of creativity put into them, things just end up going from semi-coherent to drug trip levels of crazy. More characters gain powers just as stupid and crazy as Juri's. Sagawa basically decides to become a god. Rather than being one of those gods who are weak to Juri's abilities, though, he decides to be a super badass god who can totally kill a "god killer" just because his staggering levels of willpower and sociopathic tendencies let him do that, apparently. Of course, all that means nothing to a god killer who can kill gods as well as Juri can. But having Juri "kill" him was all part of Sagawa's plan to become a wondering conscious. Of course, Juri still finds a way to ruin even that part of Sagawa's plan. On and on, the show flows like this until it is left with no other choice but to call it quits with one of the biggest asspulls I've ever seen in an anime.

Let's just say it involves Juri conveniently bumping the one, true god of Stasis.

As if all this shit I've been rattling off wasn't bad enough, I'm inclined to take even greater issue with this on a fundamental level because it practically wreaks of sexism. As I've said before, I'm rarely ever comfortable or sure of myself enough to make that claim since I am not a woman. It's hard to ignore that feeling, though, when this show is filled with moments that are blatantly and unnecessarily focused on appealing to the male gaze. The show's entire ED is basically turned into a regular means of objectifying of Juri and the show's other main female lead, Majima Shouko, as they either stand around in their underwear or glance at the camera and each other with smoldering expressions. To make the matter all the worse, the show pretty much does a 180 toward the end that nullifies all the badassery we've come to expect of Juri up to this point by turning her into a mother figure. I'm not trying to say that being a mom isn't badass, but the show essentially forces this idea that Juri's character arc can only be completed and the question regarding her purpose in life is can only be answered when she has a baby literally thrust into her arms. Now, perhaps I'm reading into things a little too much and was looking any reason to be offended with this show by this point, but that kind of shit just screams sexism on a level I can't even rationalize. Considering how screwed up the rest of the show is at this point, the sexism issue is little more than another drop of water in a vast ocean of problems.

Credit where credit is due, though, we finally get to see Juri act childish in the manner

she's normally perceived through a standard Groundhog's Day montage.

So, is this show bad? Yes. Whether or not its intolerable is entirely up to whoever is watching it though. I was able to push through all this mess and enjoyed it from time to time, but it's nothing to write home about one way or the other. At best, it's nonsensical and a bit generic. At worse, it's boring and a bit offensive. Does that mean I wouldn't recommend it? Probably, but I honestly can't bring myself to wholly recommend or damn Kokkoku. I suppose my malaise is a solid indicator in of itself though. So, watch it if you want but don't say I didn't give you fair warning.

#Review #Thriller #Drama #Mystery #Action #Supernatural #SuperPowers #KillItWithFire