Stills from ‘Takopi’s Original Sin’ and ‘April’
| Photo Credit: Crunchyroll, MUBI
Whether you’re an old hand at arthouse or just dipping a toe into the rising otaku subculture of anime aficionados around the world, this column lists curated titles that challenge, comfort, and occasionally combust your expectations.
This week’s picks for Ctrl+Alt+Cinema couldn’t be more different on the surface — one’s a six-episode anime about a pink alien octopus trying to spread joy, the other is a stark Georgian drama about a rural doctor under scrutiny for her role in a botched delivery — but both are crushing portraits of what happens when the structures meant to care for people fail them.
From the drawing board
Takopi’s Original Sin sounds like the kind of show you’d expect to cheer you up after a long day. It’s got a smiling alien octopus from Happy Planet, here to help a little girl with magical gadgets and good intentions. But before the end of the first episode, it’s quite clear that this isn’t that kind of story.
The show follows the titular tentacled alien, whose naivety and earnestness bump up against a world far more complicated than it can afford to understand. Shizuka, the girl he wants to help, lives with a sadness that no gadget can erase, and Takopi will not stop at trying to make her smile once more.
A still from ‘Takopi’s Original Sin’
| Photo Credit:
Crunchyroll
Streaming now on Crunchyroll and already breaking viewing records, Takopi is the surprise anime triumph of 2025. Adapted from Taizan 5’s manga and helmed by Made in Abyss director Shinya Iino, this six-episode gem weaponises its cute camouflage, only to peel it back towards something deeply, disturbingly human.
Like Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Monster (2023), Takopi explores the ways children are shaped and sometimes shattered by the choices of adults. Fans of Wonder Egg Priority, BoJack Horseman, or even Requiem for a Dream will also feel right at home (or rather, right on edge).
What makes Takopi remarkable is how deftly it binds character, form, and feeling. The gorgeous art shifts from childlike sketches and chiaroscuro dread, while the writing threads together multiple perspectives into a tightly wound gut-punch. If you’ve ever loved something like A Silent Voice, or found yourself undone by the emotional honesty of Look Back, this is the anime to sit with.
Foreign affairs
While most films about abortion tend to frame the issue as a binary of choice and consequence, Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April is after the emotional weather of female agency under siege. It also begins with one of the creepiest, most unsettling opening shots you’re likely to see this year.
Currently streaming on MUBI, the film follows Nina, an obstetrician-gynecologist in rural Georgia, who performs abortions in secret and who comes under malpractice investigation after a botched delivery. Dea, whose 2020-film Beginning announced her as a major voice in Georgian cinema, now returns with greater maturity and restraint. It’s a slow, unsettling portrait of a woman pushed to the edges and Dea’s direction is exacting and spare.
A still from ‘April’
| Photo Credit:
MUBI
What makes April especially important right now is when and where it arrived. The film openly portrays abortion and the desperation of women seeking it, which is a rarity in Georgian cinema. Even though abortion is still legal in Georgia, the film has been inexplicably banned there, likely because it dares to speak openly about a subject that the majorly orthodox population still wants to keep hidden. It also comes at a time when reproductive rights are under a global siege, and sits with the weight of what it means to be a woman trying to make choices in a world that keeps trying to restrict them.
If you appreciated the slow, painful revelations of Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always or the moral complexity of Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, April belongs on your list. It’s not easy to watch, but in this moment, few films feel more necessary.
Ctrl+Alt+Cinema is a fortnightly column that brings you handpicked gems from the boundless offerings of world cinema and anime
Published – August 09, 2025 11:49 am IST
