This anime can be categorized as three things: self-indulgent, disgusting, and stupid. One need not think hard about where this train is heading.
It’s kind of a risky venture when it comes to anime adapted from light novels, because the stereotype is that 99% of light novel adaptations are complete garbage. When I discovered Shimoneta was based on a light novel, I cringed and immediately lowered my expectations; as while a stereotype is a stereotype, for me personally, this stereotype is closer to fact than fiction. Still, I’m somewhat proud of myself when it came to making the decision to finally go through with this anime. It wasn’t the potential for nudity (which is shown) that enticed me, but the premise itself that I found intriguing. A world where all indecency has been outlawed, and a rogue “terrorist” shines through to bring the world back to its horny depths. I figured this would be more of a 1984-esque moral coding endeavor—after seeing this, I can only say one thing to the me who started this early this morning:
“lmfao”
Why even bother to assume this is some wacky parody of why a society should be more involved with their sensual urges? This is a set-up for sex. That’s all it is. That’s all it is. What sells in the light novel world? Fantasy, isekai, sex, and otaku pandering. Why would I even think this was any different from the rest? Honestly, the average rating for this isn’t horrible. A little low, but it’s nowhere near garbage levels. That gave me hope that it may have just been an overlooked pantsu paradise and very few bothered to look under the surface for something more. I was willing to give it a shot. It shot me with its cum.
People think Green Green is low-brow, this anime genuinely disgusted me. More than Green Green? That’s a hard call… they may be even in that regard. What Shimoneta considers “funny” is probably more funny than the jokes themselves. And perhaps the point is that the jokes are low-brow and disgusting, and the charm is in the anime’s commitment to being so vile and dirty. I just wish, y’know, the writing gave any indication that that was what it was doing. It’s really just a sticky, white mess. Literally oozing from the crotch of disappointment. I want my erect penis to go into the ripened anus of my cuddly, blushing kouhai. Haha.
Quick question: Do you want to watch an anime where a big-busted kawaii anime girl continuously attempts to rape the male lead and pre-cum all over his face as she does it? Do you want to watch an anime where a dude literally clothes himself in used white panties and threatens an entire branch of the Japanese government by… being covered entirely in panties? Yeah, sounds pretty fucked up, doesn’t it? It sounds so ridiculous that it may as well be parody. But wait! The anime also preaches that there are good sexual deviants and bad sexual deviants. That society should embrace lewdness because… reasons. It’s better to be a dirty joke than… an asshole… maybe? Again, why even try? (By the way, the examples I gave are 100% real and not exaggerated.)
If I were to explain every leap in logic, every hypocritical point, every plothole and the mere mention of “holes,” this post would be a few thousand-words long. To skip to the “good bits,” this anime just feels like an excuse to show tits. Have a world that somehow passed a law that inhibits “indecency” and make the world squeaky-clean. Then have someone who somehow manages to escape the government at every turn (despite being a normal high schooler) and stock herself with images that are deemed illegal and so well-protected that most of the society is baffled at the idea of sex as an act of procreation, much less as a lustful pastime. Thus, this character hatches plans to teach the world about sex and riot within their destiny to awaken the country’s libido once again.
That’s just the first few episodes, too. Back when the series was tolerable in its quest for lewdness. It wasn’t until about episode four that every episode began to nosedive further and further into the core of the earth. At first it was just a harmless indulgence of trying to educate a school’s ignorant student body of sex. That I can (kind of) buy. Then we end an episode with the male lead accidentally tripping onto the student council president (said big-busted rapist), causing them to kiss (AKJFBSDJKCNSAD,CBLSDCBSDKJHCBSXD), which causes her to go FUCKING INSANE with lust, to the point where she becomes a stock yandere character with nympho-maniacal tendencies. Okay. And then the treasurer of the student council, who is often compared to a gorilla for his large, hairy physique, is implied to be romantically-interested with the male lead because… he saw him in drag? Uhhhh? And then this artist character with an incredibly annoying voice draws porn all the time to help stock the terrorist’s arsenal of porno pictures, because she’s also a nymphomaniac without actually partaking in sex because sex to her is in drawing BL.
I understand that the absurdity of what I’m presenting may make this seem like a “So bad, it’s good” sort of experience, but it’s depressingly not so. The major problem with all of these horrid personalities is that they’re never not showing it. One character has this one disgusting joke, and they keep reminding the audience every five minutes that they have this “indecent” joke persona. Male lead’s the straight man, terrorist cannot stop making sexual puns, artist girl draws BL and keeps “getting inspired” by watching lewd acts between people, S.C. president becomes a yandere rapist, treasurer is a gay ape, and so on. Every character is like this and they never change. If you get tired of their shticks by the first-half of the series, fuck you. They’re sticking to it. It got dull really fast, and when they weren’t trying their best to make me completely revolted, they were trying to develop this “epic” plot that put the state of the world at risk, as if it matters at all.
There is one character that I didn’t hate. The scientist character. Yes, her shtick also got old, but at least she’s not constantly reminding me that she’s a huge sexual deviant. She’s even sharp enough to see past a number of things, though that’s kind of self-indulgent and lazy, but I digress. Her interactions with the cast weren’t normally boring and I even found her mild-mannered voice conflicting with her random and sudden love for BL fairly amusing. Of course, she was probably the least-shown side character, despite being among the first recurring characters to start appearing. It’s like this show is sex or bust… bad choice of words (or appropriate?).
So I made the points clear that this was stupid and disgusting, but I made little attempt to explain why it was self-indulgent. Elementary, my dear reader. The male lead is the only desirable male in the entire show. Aside from the gay ape, who’s implied to want him, too, the cast is full of women, with a few who show interest in him. He is occasionally the hero and eventually has the terrorist, who is essentially the female lead, “fall” for him by the end (she claims to love him as much as dirty jokes). Even under the guise of “rape” and “torture,” this male lead continues to be rather physical with his female cast, putting him into positions many boys his age could only dream of being in (besides the raping, but would it be rape with any other horny teenager?)
However, if we’re comparing this with, say, To Love-ru, my case would be rather weak. Many of the sexual encounters the male lead takes part of are negatives towards him, even if maybe not so for others. Where the self-indulgence becomes more rampant is in the narrative level. These kids, who are kids with no superpowers or strange gimmicks, are taking on trained individuals who are bigger, stronger, and smarter than them, as well as outnumber them by a wide margin, and somehow deal with them easily. They have superhacking skills because whatever and can flee at the pace of Sonic the Hedgehog.
By the end, they get to deliver this big speech that changes how the whole country looks at pornography and sexuality and it was all accomplished because they’re special and can change everyone’s minds by making a dumb emotional spiel. This isn’t just stereotypical light novel writing, this is typical young adult writing, the kind of writing that entices kids into thinking they’re special or entitled to having a voice because they read some pseudo-intellectual filth in The Hunger Games. And I hate that in fiction. It feels so holier-than-thou, lazy, and, ergo, self-indulgent—especially when the characters are basically children. It’s pandering, and that’s all I see it as.
I wished so dearly to drop this by episode eight. I was so sick of the repeating unfunny jokes, the stupid plots for soiling the population, and the increasingly bizarre ineptitude of the Japanese government. Up until now, Seitokai no Ichizon was the only anime I ever played music over because it was the only way to get me to continue with it, since I was so bored. Shimoneta gets to join the list. Scientist girl and the first few episodes save this from the worst score possible, and I really wouldn’t recommend this to anyone.
Final Score: 2/10
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