Taboo Tattoo

タブー・タトゥー

5.0(1)

Otaku Den

5.7(133,169)

MAL Score

Ranked #12494

Popularity #924

Action
Fantasy
Urban Fantasy

Episodes: 12
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Jul 5, 2016 to Sep 20, 2016
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

Seigi is an ordinary middle schooler with a strong sense of justice and solid martial arts skills, always ready to stand up for someone being bullied. After he rescues an elderly homeless man from a group of thugs, his good deed is repaid in an unexpected way: a strange tattoo is seared into the palm of his hand.

The mark isn’t just ink—it’s a hidden weapon coveted by dangerous forces, including a formidable girl who bears a tattoo of her own. Thrust into battles against opponents with powers far beyond what training alone can handle, Seigi must uncover what his tattoo can really do if he hopes to survive what’s coming.

Otaku Consensus

Takashi Watanabe and J.C.Staff deliver a striking pilot and an energetic opening stretch, with brisk pacing, martial-arts-driven fights, and an accessible tattoo power system carrying roughly the first five episodes. The consensus collapses in the back half, where rushed escalation, predictable writing, uneven effects, and a poorly received ending turn the series into a trainwreck—albeit one chaotic enough to retain cult appeal.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Taboo Tattoo if you want a short, aggressively paced urban-fantasy brawl rather than a carefully layered epic. Its strongest stretch is the opening five episodes, where J.C.Staff pairs hand-to-hand choreography with supernatural weapon effects and keeps exposition moving between fights. The tattoo-based power system gives each clash an immediate visual identity, while May'n's opening provides a forceful musical hook. It scratches the same itch as Akame ga Kill!'s lethal escalation and A Certain Magical Index's occult city warfare, but finishes in 12 episodes. This is best for viewers who can enjoy abrupt tonal and pacing swings as part of the spectacle; the back half is not disciplined storytelling, yet its increasingly chaotic choices have made it a genuine trainwreck-watch recommendation rather than merely a forgotten 2016 action title.

Key Characters

J
Justice Akatsuka(VA: Makoto Furukawa)
Justice is a deliberately straightforward action lead whose earnest heroism and martial-arts confidence make him both the series' moral anchor and a frequent target of criticism for genre familiarity.
B
Bluesy Fluesy(VA: Mikako Komatsu)
Bluesy supplies the sharper edge of the central pairing, contrasting Justice's idealism with the composure and physical authority of someone already accustomed to supernatural combat.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
J.C.Staff produced the series under director Takashi Watanabe, and contemporary commentary singled out the pilot's delivery as superb even when later episodes drew much harsher reactions.
2
The combat combines martial arts with a visually explicit superpower system rather than abandoning physical technique once supernatural abilities enter the equation; AniList users tagged both Super Power and Martial Arts at 80%.
3
Its 12-episode structure creates a pronounced critical divide: reviews repeatedly identify episodes one through five as the effective buildup, followed by a back half criticized for rushed escalation and an unsatisfying conclusion.
4
The audiovisual identity is unusually staff-specific: May'n performs the opening theme, Hideki Tachibana storyboarded the opening, and Yoshiaki Iwasaki storyboarded the ending as well as episodes one and two.
5
Its reputation extends beyond ordinary negative reception. Reddit discussion has framed it as a 'complete trainwreck' worth watching precisely for its chaotic entertainment value, giving the series a distinct bad-but-compelling afterlife.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Taboo Tattoo adapts the work of original creator Shinjirou, with Mayori Sekijima handling series composition and Shinya Hasegawa designing the anime's characters.
Fun fact 2: Chikara Sakurai storyboarded episode eight and later directed the twelfth and final episode, while Hiroshi Yakou served as animation director on episodes seven and eight.
Fun fact 3: The series aired from July 5 to September 20, 2016, completing its entire television run in 12 episodes.
Fun fact 4: Its reception is consistently low across major databases rather than being confined to one community: MyAnimeList records 5.73/10 from 133,127 votes, while AniList records 53/100 and 438 favorites.
Fun fact 5: Despite ranking #12439 by score on MyAnimeList, it sits much higher at #924 in popularity, showing that its visibility substantially exceeds its critical standing.