Ranked #3809

Bus Gamer

Well its a good idea for an anime since i've seen it done in American movies like 20 times (Smokin Aces and any other B-movie involving a mysterious company to fund human death matches) Unfortunately this anime isn't a very good example.

The story, standing at a whopping 3 episodes it's surprising to see how much action the managed to fit in. The side story apart from all the action is very poor at best. I couldn't tell if it was emphasizing more on seriousness or comedy. Regardless, the idea of an unlikely team to survive human death matches didn't translate so well. (Mediocre)

The characters are pretty ridiculous in my opinion. It's almost comical when the viewer tries to tell them apart. "No-eyes, one-eye, and two-eyes" is probably the best way to tell them apart. And their personalities go from 'hard-boiled, to less-boiled, to comic relief. Nothing real impressive it might have been cooler if they replaced the comic relief for a cooler type. (Decent)

The art is of average quality, think of Saiyuki as a decent reference in terms of art and animation quality. It's made in 2008, but looks like its from 2001. Lots of pointy hair and poor color quality. (Poor)

Sound is pretty non-existent. The fight scenes are just alot of thuds and thumps and swipes and such. Although the girls might like all the grunting and groaning thats in the show. And the background music is pretty forgettable. What is even worse is the rock and roll op and ed. For future reference, organs and rock music don't mix (ref: OP theme). (Poor)

Overall its an unimpressive anime but the pain watching it isn't so bad since it's so short. Maybe (thats a big MAYBE) if it was longer it could be decent. Personally I think another production studio should try this untapped style of storytelling. read more

Story:
The story of Bus Gamer isn't a bad idea, but three episodes was definitely not a sufficient amount for the story to develop. As you can read from plot synopses, these three guys come together as a team to participate in a dangerous underground (not literally) game between companies to earn money, the ultimate prize being 1 billion dollars. They all are steadfast in their desire for the 1 billion, but...well, I don't want to spoil anything, so let's just say the ending leaves you totally hanging as to if they achieve that goal or not. This definitely should have been 13 episodes, not just 3. If they allotted more episodes, story would've gotten an 7, but since they didn't and decided to end it abruptly, it gets a 6.

Art:
Nothing special here. It's not terrible or anything, but I believe it could have been better. Still, it's not really something to complain about, since I suppose there is worse. No more comment on the art really, that about sums it all up.

Sound:
Most people seem to enjoy the OP and ED, but that's all the music category's got going for it. The background music is really just standard, average, whatever you want to call it. It's just nothing special. Sound effects are just standard and normal, as expected. The voice acting, again, is just standard. The music section doesn't really stand out in anyway, so really I was gonna give it a 6, but because of the OP and ED themes, I believe it is worthy of a 7.

Character:
Characterization was a disappointment, seriously. As far as the character designs go, that was okay, because they did display three pretty differently styled people who would probably never be friends. However, the problem is really the similarity between Nakajou and Mishiba. When you just have three central characters that the whole story revolves around, they need to have contrasting personalities to make them likable (take Samurai Champloo for example.) Saitou was very different than Nakajou and Mishiba, so he's in the clear. But the other two are practically mirror images of each other, personality wise. Also, they tried throwing him some of the characters' pasts into the mix, but it really just didn't work because they were just small clips that revealed close to nothing.

Enjoyment:
After all that, I still gotta say it was at the least fairly enjoyable. The action is by no means the best I've seen, but it was different because it's not like the main characters had any sort of super powers or anything, it was just straight up street fighting really. You can also get a few chuckles out of it, not many though. You'll probably be disappointed at the end that it was only three episodes, but for just three episodes, it was pretty enjoyable. read more