Series Overview

Big Order (ビッグオーダー) is an action-mystery series by the author of The Future Diary. And because of its connection to The Future Diary, it’s weird to think that Big Order aired in 2016. Sure, that’s 6 years ago at this point. But, it feels like it’s from an older generation of anime.

2016 featured anime like Konosuba, Re:ZERO, My Hero Academia, Mob Psycho 100, and March comes in like a lion. You know, anime that I’d still consider modern at this point. Do you know what I wouldn’t consider modern? The Future Diary.

Now, I’m not saying that Big Order feels older than it is because of how it looks. It’s more that the writing of the series doesn’t fit in with other anime of its generation. Like, when was the last time you watched an anime with a yandere female lead? That feels so dated as a concept.

With all that said, what’s Big Order actually about? Some event occurs that gives people supernatural powers based on their wishes. These people are known as Orders. One of these Orders is Eiji Hoshimiya, who as a child caused the “Great Destruction.”

In an instant, the Great Destruction destroyed the entire country of Japan. Millions of people died in the catastrophe. And, Eiji has been hiding his involvement ever since. But, his secret comes out, and now Eiji must fight against other Orders backed by the United Nations. Obviously, the U.N. wants to prevent another Great Destruction.

Basically, the series is a lot of action with Orders fighting Orders. And then there’s the mystery of Eiji’s wish thrown in. He doesn’t remember what he wished for that caused the Great Destruction. Also, there are a lot of twists and random happenings. It’s a wild ride.

Main Characters

Eiji Hoshimiya is a pretty boring protagonist. That’s not unique to Big Order, though. A lot of anime, especially action anime, have boring male protagonists. But, it’s worth mentioning that his younger step-sister is his motivation. He wants to create a world in which she can be happy.

Speaking of Eiji’s step-sister, her name is Sena Hoshimiya. She spends her days in a hospital suffering from some rare form of cancer, or something. Sena is also 13 years old — she turns 14 at the very end of the series. Keep that detail in mind. It’ll be important later.

Rin Kurenai is the female lead of the series. She’s this series’ pink-haired, yandere girl. If you think she sounds a lot like Yuno Gasai, you’re on the right track. But, Rin is a lot more watered-down than Yuno is. And part of the reason for that may be the length of the series.

The Future Diary had 26 episodes to craft Yuno’s character. Big Order is only 10 episodes long.

Despite Rin being the female lead, Iyo is arguably the best girl of the series. She’s a miko (shrine maiden) with the power of divination. She also gets pregnant if someone touches her ribbon, for some reason. I’m not sure why that’s a thing.

Yoshitsune Hiiragi is the leader of a faction fighting against the United Nations. Rin and Iyo are also members of this faction, and Hiiragi recruits (blackmails) Eiji to join, as well. He’s pretty much the antagonist for the first part of the series.

The last character I want to mention here is Kagekiyo Tairano. While there are battles between Orders before she shows up, she’s the first real villain. Her ability lets her create giant, stone golems. And she has a pretty good design.

JoJo’s Meets The Future Diary

Something I wasn’t expecting when I started watching Big Order is its inclusion of Stands. I’m going to assume everyone reading this knows what a Stand is. Even if you haven’t watched JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, you should have a basic idea.

From what I remember, the abilities in Big Order don’t actually have a name. They might have been called Orders. But, the people who use them are also called Orders. So, I’m going to continue calling them Stands. Hopefully, that will be less confusing.

Eiji’s Stand is Bind Dominator. It allows him to bend anything it touches to his will. If Bind Dominator touches the ground, anyone within a radius of Eiji falls under his control. Or, he can dominate individuals by touching them directly with his Stand.

Bind Dominator has a physical appearance, as do many other Stands. But, that’s not the case for them all.

Rin’s Stand (I only remember the name of Bind Dominator) is one that doesn’t have a physical form. Her Stand gives her the powers of a phoenix. She’s immortal and can heal wounds by touching them.

I already mentioned Kagekiyo’s Stand, which is the stone golem. Iyo’s Stand has to do with her divination. She can receive a prophecy about the future. And Hiiragi’s Stand lets him alter the truth of the world. If he says something didn’t happen, then it didn’t happen.

There are plenty of other Stands, too. One can stop time for up to 3 objects. One can use beams of light as attacks. And one allows its user to control water. The title of this section isn’t a joke. Big Order really is a cross between JoJo’s and The Future Diary.

Oh, and also Stands can combine like mechs in this series.

Big Censorship

Big Order has both censored and uncensored versions. Originally, I was watching the censored version, which is on Crunchyroll. But, once I hit the bathhouse episode, I made the switch to the uncensored version. I actually didn’t know there was an uncensored version until that point.

If there’s an uncensored version of anime, I’m always going to choose that over a censored version. But, that doesn’t mean there’s an inherent issue with censoring nudity in anime. There are plenty of anime that do it fine. Big Order isn’t one of them.

Now, the censoring in this series could have been fine with one, small change. As you can see in the image below, it uses beams of light to censor things. Sometimes, there’s a lot of light, as pictured. But, the issue is actually that there’s no in-universe explanation for the light.

I get it. We all want to see anime boobs. Why do you think I swapped to the uncensored version? But, I actually wouldn’t have minded the censoring if there was a reason behind it. And, there’s a perfect in-universe explanation — it just isn’t used.

Mari Kunou, the character in the foreground of that image, has the ability to control light. Her Stand literally shoots beams of light. So, all the series had to do was establish that she was the one causing the censoring light. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen another series use an explanation like that.

Sure, that doesn’t solve the fact that anime boobs are being hidden from view. But, to me, it makes the situation better. I don’t like when censoring happens for no reason. And the fact that a reason was right there and not used makes Big Order’s censoring pretty bad.

The Incest Twist

There are a lot of twists throughout Big Order. But none are as funny as the incest twist. Why? Because the others at least affect the plot of the series in some way. Revealing that Eiji and Sena regularly engage in incest adds nothing.

Okay, so technically it isn’t incest because they’re step-siblings. They’re not related by blood. But, they’ve been living as siblings since childhood. Sena was 4 years old when their parents married. And as I mentioned toward the start of this review, she’s 14 at the end of the series.

The first hint at there being a sexual relationship between Eiji and Sena made me do a double take. It came out of nowhere. There was a scene of Eiji leaning over Sena’s bed. And then the next shot shows a trail of their clothes on the floor leading to a bathroom with the shower running.

At that point, I was pretty sure about what was going on. But, it wasn’t confirmed just yet. Later in the series, though, we got confirmation. Eiji and Sena have had sex at least once before (other than the shower scene) and it’s implied that it’s more than once.

Also, let me reiterate that Sena turns 14 at the very end of the anime. We never get an age for Eiji that I know of, but he seems like he’s 15 for the main part of the series. So, he’s 2 years older than Sena.

We don’t know how long their sexual relationship has been going on. But, even if it only started in the past year, that’s not good. She was 13. I don’t know why the author added this to the series. It’s not an imouto anime. It’s an action anime with a random siscon twist.

Conclusion

Big Order is a 4/10. It’s a bad anime. But, it’s also entertaining because it’s so wild. If you’re looking for an anime that doesn’t require much brain power to watch, this could be for you.

I also considered whether Big Order would be better if it had more than 10 episodes. Based on the start of the series, it would seem that the answer would be yes. But, it went so off the rails by the end that adding more episodes would probably just make it more of a mess.

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