First Impressions – Mayoiga

What could go wrong..?

A show about 30 people who dislike their lives and want to find utopia? Sounds like a good set up to me.

I just can’t resist a good horror anime. Even the bad ones can’t keep me away. Want to know how Mayoiga fared…?

The start of the season can bring some interesting combinations amongst the big names in the anime world. Sometimes these combinations work out, sometimes they don’t, and sometimes having a name on the series doesn’t really denote much involvement by that person. So how does a series with some of my favorite names attached start out?

We have thirty passengers on bus, all strangers, brought together under mysterious circumstances, going towards an equally bizarre destination on a literal “dark and stormy night”. To say things are strange is the understatement of the year….

Ten little Indian boys going out to dine,

One choked his little self and then there were nine.

Nine little Indian boys stayed out very late,

One overslept himself and then there were eight.

-Agatha Christie, “And Then There Were None”

The beginning part of the episode was pretty interesting, despite just being introductions. It kind of gave off the same vibe as the suicide group from NHK ni Youkoso! Though perhaps that has to do with the situation where a bunch of young people are sick of life and want something new, and so they decide to treat it as a fun situation as opposed to the reality that they’re running away from their lives. The characters in Mayoiga don’t seem that interesting in suicide (or at least they weren’t like TAKE ME NOW during the bus situation) though. There are more characters than I could possibly remember the names of after 20+ minutes of meeting them, but they seem like a pretty diverse cast and all of them have some kind of issue in their old lives. I’m sure they’ll delve into most (if not all) of these problems later in the season. …Though I’m kind of hoping that at least a few die off over the course of the season so I don’t have to keep track of such a large cast.

It was interesting that the bus driver was trying to kill them all one moment, but ended up still going along with things once the situation diffused. I guess what it was getting at (or at least what I took away from it) is that people may be a ticking time bomb as the show put it, but in the end, people are still human and can be reasoned with. I’m curious as to if this will be a running theme (though probably not), since there seem to be a few other ‘time bombs’ in the cast already. If they can somehow work past their problems though, maybe they can create that ideal life that they’re searching for. Or probably not, since no one can really run from their problems, but it should be fun watching their bubbles burst I suppose. Characters can get of hand in anime (…like said bus driver) and seem to have only one dimension to them, but maybe this will try to make them something beyond that…? Though the bus driver’s rant was uh, rather overdramatic (and they let him drive again afterwards!!) so I’m not sure how well that approach would work out in the long run. Especially with such a large cast, the portrayal of human nature might just end up being melodramatic as opposed to heartfelt.

…Not to mention that the circumstances around the village seem pretty unrealistic. Not to mention that all of the lore or theories behind the village seems to be ridiculous as well. However, the song that Koharun sang seemed pretty morbid, the BGM is all fairly eerie, and there have been other hints of morbidity as well in the vibe of the group (like the hippopotamus song or the suicide note). So maybe this story can head to darker places as well.

I vaguely recall the beginning of Battle Royale taking place on a bus, where the entire class of students were casually introduced one-by-one. Knowing they would all inevitably die one way or another, I wrote a list of all the characters and the traits described in their introduction, and then crossed them off my list as they died. It was the only way I could possibly keep track of them all. Sometimes characters would die gruesomely and I didn’t care because I couldn’t possibly develop emotional bonds to so many characters in a short span of time. Having a large cast means you have the tension of not knowing who will die, crack under the pressure, or go on a killing spree. However, it also means that it’s difficult to really give a damn when one of them kicks the bucket. Mayoiga suffers from this same blessing and curse.

The bus is so chock-full of delusional teens that 3 of them have the same online handle and have to be reassigned new names. That’s how bad it is! I can barely remember them all. Literally any of them could be the first one to die and it wouldn’t even matter. However, the sheer number of cast members also makes it so much harder to tell who will be the ones to watch out for. Everyone seems to have at least a dash of insanity – some just hide it better than others. Our “main character,” Mitsumune, seems to be secretly a lot more unhinged than he lets on. Lion points this out after Mitsumune casually says none of them will ever become friends, as if he has lost the ability to genuinely form bonds with people. I wouldn’t be surprised if he actually has no empathy and his caring behaviour is just him going through the motions to appear more humane.

Truth be told, we have a delightfully colourful cast of characters, all with their own baggage that I’m curious to know about. Not a single character doesn’t have their personality dialed up to 11, and just about every line from their mouths is hyperbolic. My favourite is the guy who says that ALL adults are liars who ALL WANT TO KILL KIDS. ALL OF THEM! Anyways, although it’s hard to get a reign on 30 characters at once, they all have at least one distinct trait that makes things a little easier. While having a cast this whacky could be a downfall later on, I’m enjoying the campy factor so far.

I mentioned there are some big names in my intro, and in the case of Mayoiga, those names are Tsutomu Mizushima and Mari Okada. I’ve enjoyed just about everything from Mari Okada (well, if I’m being honest, except when she’s delved into the worlds of mecha shows), and while Mizushima’s oeuvre is so broad that there’s going to be shows that you don’t like, he’s also been in charge of some of my favorite shows. And those shows that I’ve liked so much have been with all sorts of different studios, including Actas, PA Works, and JC Staff. So the fact that they’re working with Diomedea for Mayoiga is not really indicative of anything, except for the possible issue of some obvious corner cutting in some of their previous shows.

But what about the actual show? I found this first episode to be pretty engaging, although there was a lot of talking in circles. The premise of the show is betrayed somewhat by eye-rolling issues, like if they’re heading for this mysterious village that noone knows about, why is there a paved two-lane road with a fancy bridge to it? And if there’s this village with other people in it, why do these boneheads who are trying to ‘restart their life’ think that they’re going to move in and have some chance at being in charge? There is this air of naiveté that just fills up the entire bus, and it’s not helped by the young people who are on this trip. Most of the people claiming they want to ‘restart’ their life have barely started the life they had. Sure, many of them feel like they’ve been overly influenced by the people around them, but that’s because they haven’t had any opportunity to be outside of that influence. So I think a big theme of this show is going to be watching that wave of naiveté crash and fizzle on the rocks of reality.

Atmosphere is the key to this series. It’s all about setting and overall tone. It’s the atmosphere, the suspense and tension that makes a whodunit work, and makes mysteries worthwhile. Christie’s famous “And Then There Were None”, which has a very similar feel to Mayoiga, works because of the ambiance and the very spirit of the series that makes you feel claustrophobic and tense, the fear of the unknown and being trapped with that unknown, is what makes the story work.

In Mayoiga, we get the title of this mysterious village, but that village is really the least of our worries. Right now, we have to worry about the fact that we have a huge cast of 30 characters, and there is something not quite right about any of them. As of right now, we have three “main” characters so far that we’re going to have to watch. Honestly of the three of them (and really among the whole darn group), straight man Speedstar is probably the most normal and the most interesting. The main character boy and girl both are SOOO strange that they border somewhere between obnoxiously annoying and weirdly fascinating. I’m game to find out the mystery behind Mitsumune and what’s hiding behind that awkward, shy boy-next-door personality. Masaki is a little more on the “annoying side” rather than “fascinating” as her character doesn’t seem nearly as complex and feels like it should be in the latest visual novel harem romance, then in a psychological mystery, but we’ll have to see.

This bus of pathetic crazy beings are all on this trip to run away from their problems rather than face them. The more ignominious their reason is to run away, the less sympathetic they become until you begin to realize that but for a couple of people, there’s really no one to root for or empathize with. There’s a lot of names here, but you know you’re not going to be anymore attached to them than you are the characters of the game, Clue. At that point, you also realize what type of series that you’ve gotten yourself into and you’re now just waiting for the bodies to hit the floor. Like with each character in Christie’s masterpiece, rather than sympathize with their situation, you want to toss them all in a room, lock the door, throw away the key and see what happens.

This is an original work, so that’s a good thing. No chance of things getting spoiled that way. And I’m interested in if this will be simply a murder mystery, or if there will be a supernatural part to it. I honestly hope not. Sometimes the scariest monsters are ones that have the appearance of a human being. What was the significance of Mitsumune’s nightmare? Was the Hippopotamus song (which is probably the most catchy song this season) similar to the Ten Little Indians tune in that it is being used as a foreshadowing device for events to come? Did the PR staff hide clues to future events in the promotional art? Who out our large cast will be the first to bite it? I’m intrigued enough to continue to ride along with this crazy bunch and find out.

To be honest, I’m here for the angst. This episode didn’t really have angst (minus the bus driver, who should probably get some professional help), but there seems to be a lot of dissatisfied people hiding underneath the sing-alongs and smiles that went on this episode. And what better set up for things to blow up later than that? This was an interesting first episode for introducing characters, and while it was hard to get a solid grasp on everyone, it certainly introduced the mood of the group as a whole. Now I guess what’s left to see is where they take this scenario. I’m hoping it goes somewhere darker.

Mayoiga turned out to be a lot less creepy and a whole lot more quirky so far. It’s just not scary when everyone is so chuunibyou you want to cringe in secondhand embarrassment. The only brush with danger they had was the bus driver trying to kill them, but his rant about not making enough money while it was going on was so hilarious I couldn’t get into the moment. The moment also ended with him getting thoroughly barfed on…before continuing to drive them. Yes, after almost killing them all, he is allowed to drive again (and he even agrees to!). Mayoiga is full of these corny and unbelievable moments (who paves a main road to a hidden village complete with truck stops?), but at the heart, there is an interesting concept that keeps me engaged. What kind of crazy stuff is going to happen in the village? Who are these demented children? Mayoiga has such a powerful hook than even the cheesy delivery starts to feel charming. I simply cannot stop watching until I get to the bottom of all this!

I thought this first episode was good enough to keep going. With Okada and Mizushima, I’m willing to give them quite a bit more rope, and there wasn’t anything in this episode that was just bad. I can understand some people finding it a bit tedious, especially with the constant talking and positivity in the face of any knowledge of what they are doing. I think some positivity is good, but I think we’re going to find that the people on the bus are, in trying to escape the perceived constraints of their previous lives, are going to find some real constraints that they are blithely looking past on their trip.

This series is being done by Mari Okada and Tsutomu Mizushima. I haven’t seen Mizushima’s Another, and I wasn’t impressed by Okada’s M3. Yet, I’m still willing to give both of them a chance here to do something interesting with this set up. Next week looks like it exchanges the darkness, fog, and rain,for sunny, cloudless skies. If a writer is talented enough, they can build suspense, tension, and unease, even in a setting that would normally put us at ease. I’ll be watching this for at least a little while to see what direction they decide to take this series. There has been some interesting mystery series out these last few seasons. Let’s see where Mayoiga is going to stack up.

Now to cross the mysterious (yet maintained) bridge to paradise.

About Tag Team

We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.