Big Order

Episode 7

One of the things that's made Big Order so hard to write about on a week-to-week basis is its inconsistency. Even bad shows are usually pretty easy to find a groove in critiquing them, since their flaws tend to be predictable. Big Order is an unquestionably bad series, but it's bad in such wildly different ways that I have to completely reassess how I approach it every week.

The first two episodes were such a tonal and developmental mess that I struggled to make heads or tails of it. Episode 3 struggled and failed to deliver some semblance of an identity for the show, while the following week provided a fake-out of barely acceptable quality. Episode 5 dug right into the off-putting sexual themes between Eiji and the women in his life, while also throwing revelations at the viewer that caused everything to make less sense than it did before. Last week was so bad that it ended up making a full 360-degree revolution into being wildly entertaining. Going into this week, I didn't know which of these Big Orders I was going to end up with. As it turns out, the Big Order we got this week might be the most disappointing one of all:

This week, Big Order was boring.

That isn't to say nothing happened. In fact, this could very well be the most plot-heavy episode we've gotten since the first. We learn all about how Hiiragi worked with Eiji's father, Genna, at a research lab 11 years ago. We witness his inexplicable transformation from mentor figure to cackling villain. Not only do we confirm that DAISY as an artificial life-form, we also find out that she was created by Genna, though for what purpose, we don't yet know. New Orders were introduced, attacks were launched by both sides of the conflict, and Sena is finally unveiled as the master manipulator she was hinted to be back in Episode 5. All in all, you could say that this episode was positively stuffed with twists and turns, revelations that should propel the plot even further along towards its conclusion.

The problem with that plot is that it's been so mismanaged up to this point that it almost feels broken. The driving conflict of the show seems to completely shift gears every week. At first, it was about Eiji and the other Orders declaring war on the world, and then it was about finding a cure for Sena's disease, and this week it turns out that Genna is the bad guy, and everything is predicated on stopping him. The final shots of the episode also imply a dark undercurrent to Sena's motivations, so next week could reveal that she's the real threat. After all of that waffling around to find the plot, how much weight can a twist like that even have? I don't mind not knowing answers to questions like these; a carefully curated flow of information is essential to any suspense story. The problem is that I don't think Big Order knows the answers to these questions, at least not on any big-picture level. It honestly feels like the story is being made up every week as it goes along.

Now, because of those narrative failures, our protagonists' motivations have become more and more difficult to track. How are we supposed to know what any of these people want or how they might go about getting it, if every single week the stakes are completely reshuffled? It isn't for lack of trying. Almost the entirety of this episode is devoted to people talking to each other, explaining their plans or providing crucial bits of exposition. Hiiragi explains his history to Eiji, Sena reveals her feelings to Rin, and multiple members of both Order teams describe their plans of action in intricate detail. Despite all of the chatter, I don't actually know if I could tell you what exactly happened this week, or why it happened, and I watched the whole thing through twice. Some stories can get away with keeping the cards in their hands as mysterious as possible. In Big Order's case, it just results in a frustrating viewing experience.

That inherent failure to develop its narrative and characters is what makes Big Order such a slog to get through this week. I genuinely don't know what this show is trying to do anymore, and it isn't giving me any relationships that I can invest in. When the show is being over-the-top and ridiculous, it entertains and baffles in equal measure. When it tries to hunker down and be serious about telling a story, it winds up being an absolute bore. I'll take baffling over boring any day.

Rating: F

Big Order is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

James is an English teacher who has loved anime his entire life, and he spends way too much time on Twitter.