Butareba: The Story of a Man Turned into a Pig - Reviews

Not even like halfway through the first episode, I choked on my food at the things being said and absolutely died on the inside. I'm the type of person who would watch or read the most mundane, the most random-est of things, but I did not think that out of all the things I've seen so far, this afflicted me with so many incomprehensible emotions, you would not believe how I squealed like a pig at what was happening in the show. If you're the type of person who are too stubborn to just drop something you probably don't like and want to see it to the very end, this is the perfect, I mean, the most perfect media for a test of endurance~! I genuinely can't tell how I'm supposed to feel about this story, because this really make me go "what in the hay did I just watch?" ANDDDD I just know that when I finish this show, my friends will have to deal with me frothing at the mouth about how peculiar this story is.

Its plot may be grim and tragic, but it's a tragedy done wrong (story-wise) because if you do intend to check this show out of curiosity, then you will see what I mean. Regarding the characters, the pig says some out-of-pocket things, you know those comments that you see on social media where the stans talk about how they want X to crush them or something like that? Well, there you have it! Because it's literally something said in the show. This character reminds me a bit of Hifumi Yamada from Danganronpa, they both kinda act the same (although this show's MC is less obnoxious-sounding and more of a goof you can't really take seriously), so if you're familiar with that franchise, then the comparison would probably make more sense of what type of character they are. Jess is the other main character and she is just unusually nice. She has this urge to take care of the pig, because I guess plot device, and would be willing to do anything for her pookie pig (she doesn't actually say that, but that's the vibes I got), even if that means you have to see her do/say questionable things that I cannot say according to AnimePlanet's review guidelines.

Other than that, the animation quality seem to decline over time, because I noticed they were reusing the same scenes over and over. The opening and ending songs are not that bad though. It's just a shame it was used on a lackluster storyline like this. The last episode shifts dramatically in tone though, it feels a bit weird to me.

In conclusion, I will give it a 3/10 stars, an extra point just because it did make me laugh out loud at how absurd it was in the first few episodes, although it lose its charm and starts to become boring and confusing. The other extra point is because the opening and ending songs are not too bad. This would be something I rate 1/5 star based on my personal rating system on this site though.

This anime can be described with 1 word and that word is betrayal and no, I am not talking about the betrayal in the anime/story, but the betrayal I felt while watching and finishing this train wreck of a show, or shall I say "Slide-SHow"? , I mean to be honest calling this an "anime" is kinda much as well, since animes are supposed to be... you know... animated!

The beginning of this "anime" had a lot of potential and actually interesting and somewhat unique concepts, especially the mystery aspect was really strong and the main factor why it made me and many other people keep watching it... but by the end... my god the end...

From a promising decent anime to a Slide Show of suffering, boredom, and regrets... I highly do not recommend anyone even to start watching this... It is literally a trap, making you feel bad for the main 2 characters and wanting to see them succeed only to be heavily disappointed by the end... I would like to call it "The Feels Trap" 

 

What other gentlemen had to say that i think makes a lot of sense also:

VassalOfTheNight

15 days ago

Disappointing, which is really unfortunate. I trusted that this series, while short on talent for animation, had a truly good story to offer but it fell short, time and time again. Plot points always started out strong but gradually got weaker and worse as they progressed. Pig didn't come through with being honest to himself that he wants to stay with Jess, when it mattered most. He failed himself and her. He yielded himself to the idea of his own inferiority, believing that he doesn't deserve her. I would accept that if he at least committed to the thought and either remained as he was or used that to motivate himself, to try and become a better person. He did neither of those things. He didn't change, he didn't improve upon himself to be worthy of Jess but he still decided to go back to her. What was the fucking point of refusing initially then? What is different now? Pig is not different. He's still unworthy by his own standards and he's not trying to get better. Should I take it that he refused Jess' offer initially for no reason then? Despicable.

Feels like the whole idea of returning was just forcing an optional season 2 which i truly hope doesn't see the light of day. The only strong points of this story were the aspect of mystery that was being gradually unveiled and the relationship between Pig and Jess. The mystery has been unveiled - the cat is out of the bag, we know what is Mesteria, what are Yethmas, why they're persecuted etc. This plot point has been used up. The second one is also not great, because of the things i mentioned before.

5/10 out of respect for what this could've been.

Reply

sonicmerlin

15 days ago

Yeah I literally can't understand this character. The girl is sobbing and begging him to stay. And he... has such a deep inferiority complex he thinks he doesn't deserve it? What kind of trash is this? It suddenly becomes clear why the author inserted a near-NTR scene into the story. This type of self-hate is pathological. I feel dirty just watching it..

This show is one of the sleepers of this anime season. It's definitely not what you are going to be expecting. It's not a top 10 show, but it's enjoyable and fairly well executed.

Yeah, no... this show was absolute dog... I mean pigshit. Laughable paper thin plot (if you can even call it that), half-dimensional characters, cringe inducing dialog written by a child, fanservice that felt totally out of place and tacked on... This thing has no redeeming qualities. The studio gave up on it midway where the animation just died. Not that there was much of it to begin with. Bottom tier HOGwash is what it is.

Review from a point of view of:

Watched Subbed

Binged

Introduced by the Manga

Liking Fan-service&"plot" (including lolis)

Open-minded morality

 

Story:

What a hilarious premise! It deserves at least 7 points for not making the protagonist overpowered. This is a dark fantasy. The best kind of fantasy. But the story seem to take itself too seriously while having too much obvious fan-service which tells me that the author wasn't competent enough to tell a engaging story without them. But the biggest sin is the fact that they didn't commit to the fan-service either. In the Manga you see much more graphic fan-service, but the anime decided to dodge most of them as if it wanting to make a more serious version of the story. The story is s#!+ anyway, so why not at least make it as raunchy as possible??

 

Animation:

The animation is so badly done that it takes away from the moments in story. The first episodes were acceptable, but as it goes on it gets too obvious that the animation staff no longer had any heart in their efforts. It is absolutely comedic at times where you could tell that the author wanted a more serious tone. It also committed the most unacceptable sin of slide-show animation, especially towards the latter end of the series. They really stopped trying, which is a shame.

 

Sound:

The sound design was passable at best. I got sick of hearing the river at the beginning of almost every episode, as if the staff couldn't be bothered to make the smallest effort of transitioning into the story.

The VA's were the only ones that appeared to give any effort to this anime. So much so that I feel like their efforts were wasted. But you could still tell that not every VA was invested in their roles, and many were only giving the bare minimum to be expected of a professional Japanese VA (which is still pretty f"€&!ng great).

 

Characters:

The MC's personality reminds me of the "honest of one's desires" parts from the MC in 【Rascal Does Not Dream Of Bunnygirl Senpai】 (but wasn't handled as well). The main girl of the story is a typical bland doormat character, but the story at least tries to justify it by giving her a understandable situation and low social standing.

 

Overall:

Overall, the rating would be 5.5/10, but I'd like to give another 3.5 points to promote more stories like this one. Although the execution was poor, if we promote stories like these we can have future creators who will follow suit (and hopefully some would be great!).