Written by: Sihan W.
Introduction
Tatsuki Fujimoto is a 33 year old Japanese author born in Nikaho in 1993. He is also the author of notable works such as Chainsaw Man, Look Back, Fire Punch, and Goodbye, Eri. The series Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26 is a collection of short one-shots he made between the ages of 17 and 26. It is available on Amazon Prime and started airing this November. It is not complete yet, and still has one episode left to be released. In my opinion, after viewing it, I would give it a 5.5/10. I only liked two episodes and thought the others were boring. It is definitely not as great as his more popular works, at least for me!
My Favourite Episode and Moments
My favourite episode from the series was called “A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin' In The Schoolyard.” This is the first episode and was definitely my favourite, written by Tatsuki when he was 17. It takes place in a world where aliens have taken over Earth. They commit genocide on humans, but stay because they like human culture. The idea is that aliens love eating human flesh but hate eating chickens, but they’re terrible at recognizing faces. So two humans, Yuuto and Ami, who are still alive, put on chicken masks and pretend to be chickens at a school.
An alien regularly comes by to give them rice balls, but he finds out they are human after seeing them talk when they think no one is around. Fortunately, this alien is actually a good guy, and he tries to warn them. There is a new transfer student with a different culture, who does eat chickens. Yuuto and Ami try to replace their masks and claim they are cats, but when the transfer student arrives, he says he eats cats too. One of their masks ends up falling off, and the rest of the students realize they are human, so Yuuto and Ami begin getting chased.
The good alien and the two humans run, but a giant police officer alien squashes the good alien. Then, there is a plot twist; one of the humans was actually an alien all along! In a flashback, a human asks him how it would feel if the shoe were on the other foot, so he decides to experience it. And then he fights the police officer. The ending is pretty ambiguous, but most people agree it ends with the characters dying.
I thought this episode was funny! The plot twist was unexpected, and I think it was well done and the highlight of the episode. I would give this episode an 8/10. To me, it is a story about empathy, not being a bystander, and blindly following what others do!
Here is my overall episode ranking: (1) A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin' In The Schoolyard, (2) Nayuta of the Prophecy, (3) Woke-Up-as-a-Girl Syndrome, (4) Sasaki Stopped a Bullet, (5) Mermaid Rhapsody, (6) Love is Blind, (7) Shikaku, (8) Sisters.