Btooom!

Ryouta Sakamoto is unemployed and lives with his mother, his only real achievement being that he is Japan's top player of the popular online video game Btooom! However, his peaceful life is about to change when he finds himself stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere, with a small green crystal embedded in his left hand and no memory of how he got there. To his shock, someone has decided to recreate the game he is so fond of in real life, with the stakes being life or death.

Armed with a bag full of unique bombs known as "BIM," the players are tasked with killing seven of their fellow participants and taking their green crystals in order to return home. Initially condemning any form of violence, Ryouta is forced to fight when he realizes that many of the other players are not as welcoming as they may seem. Teaming up with Himiko, a fellow Btooom! player, they attempt to get off of the island together, coming closer and closer to the truth behind this contest of death.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Sakamoto, Ryouta Main

Hongo, Kanata Japanese

Himiko Main

Mimori, Suzuko Japanese

Kira, Kousuke Supporting

Sawashiro, Miyuki Japanese

Taira, Kiyoshi Supporting

Ookawa, Tooru Japanese

Oda, Nobutaka Supporting

Nakamura, Yuuichi Japanese

Date, Masahito Supporting

Narita, Ken Japanese

Natsume, Souichi Supporting

Futamata, Issei Japanese

Akechi, Mitsuo Supporting

Mamiya, Yasuhiro Japanese

Kinoshita, Hidemi Supporting

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Miyamoto, Masashi Supporting

Kuroda, Takaya Japanese

Nakamoto, Kenji Producer

Fukuda, Jun Producer

Yoshida, Yuuki Producer

Okamura, Takema Producer

Reviews

Nov 29, 2025

Scanerior

Recommended

The series starts with an average episode, where we follow a typical video game "addict" who wakes up alone on an island one day with a bunch of explosives in his fanny pack and slowly discovers that he has fallen into a deadly dangerous game. Surprisingly quickly, however, the series adds other interesting characters, the main character himself turns out to be a nice guy, the players are given engaging backgrounds and the game can start in a big way! Each episode throws one bomb after another - the players have well-thought-out strategies, there are nice twists and turns and the whole thing is simply ... engaging and in the end quite a hit. 💣

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Dec 30, 2025

Patrxaa

Mixed Feelings

Running partly simultaneously to SAO, Btooom! was airing at a good time where people seemed to love shows of this genre. But while SAO ended up becoming one of the most popular anime of all time, Btooom! didn't get anywhere close. There is no season 2, and the attempt of reviving this series through the release of a mobile game in 2017 has failed too. Yet, it has to be said, sitting at #220 as of writing this review in popularity on MAL is no small feat. That way it is close to other very popular anime and pushes up to 1 million users somehow ... having this on their list.

Btooom! for me is what I call good anime slop. Looking from today, the premise, the characters, the way everything plays out is pretty stereotypical for an anime like this. It's predictable but yet entertaining. And unfortunately, and that is sad to say, Btooom! had a lot more potential for what it was.

Characters 4/10:
In Btooom! you'll get to know most of the cast in the first 3 episodes. And if I had to give these 3 episodes a title, I would name them "Trauma dumping montage". Each and every character has been through some pretty traumatic stuff. And the anime is not doing anything else than to introduce you to these characters through their trauma. It tries to be as disgusting and f-ed up as it possibly can be. For me, that makes most characters feel kind of incomplete, like their entire existence is based on some traumatic event. The worst for me, though, was that the MC behaved in a very inconsistent way just for the sake of the plot, and the character development was close to non-existent in that way — or maybe, to describe it better, the character development was ignored.

Story 5/10:
It's hard to go on about the story when there isn't much to say. It would have been more interesting to talk about the story if there was a season 2, because season 1 leaves some questions as to why this death game is played in the first place. It only gives some hints. Other than that, Btooom! mainly focuses on one of its stronger points, and that is the action and the fights. In the anime, characters have various types of bombs to fight with. Each of them can be used differently. Each of them has their strengths and weaknesses, and it makes for some strategic fights. Especially in the middle part of the show, the anime makes use of that. The way the characters use these weapons against their opponents and in combination with the environment is pretty interesting. The combat system of Btooom! is honestly pretty good, with some nice tricks being played out. It gives so much potential, but unfortunately, most of the time the fights are still wayyyyy too predictable. It's not better when the anime then goes forward to explain things to the viewer that are blatantly obvious if you even just put 10% of your full attention to what is shown on screen.

Art & Animation 7/10:
As expected of Madhouse, the whole production value of the show is quite decent, but for a show from 2012 I would say that it is not more than decent. The art is more on the "realistic" side of things for an anime, and it fits quite well with the overall military vibe of the show.

Soundtrack 7/10:
The soundtrack is supporting what is shown on screen in a fitting way, but personally it is nothing to really remember for too long. It has 2 pretty good fight OSTs that I really liked and that got me going.

Enjoyment 6/10:
As said at the start, Btooom! is nothing special apart from the potential that it presents with its combat system. However, in the end it doesn't make much of that potential most times in comparison with other shows with a good combat system like World Trigger. This anime plays out exactly the way you think it is going to. It has no insane plot twists or turns. It doesn't get you to feel much for most of the cast. But it is a nice casual watch with the overall production value if you like shows of this genre, the military vibe, and some gruesome, gory moments.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Dec 20, 2025

Caeruleus_CCXVI

Not Recommended

3.5/10 ~ Light Yagami plays a Death game while Rimuru cries in the corner

I will start by saying that I do not recommend to watch this as it was canceled over 10 years ago, and the show doesn't even end on a cliff hanger, its just half finished, so its a bit hard to be objective when this is the case, but ill try my best.

Being released in 2012 this was a different time: sword art online was just airing, death games were a new and up coming thing and not beaten to death like they are in 2025, it was socially unacceptable ... to watch dubbings from most of the community so no one cared if the ENG dub was bad, In your face fan service was necessary for mid anime to make its way over to the states, and most smaller anime never knew if they were going to get a part 2 or a continuation, it was a bit of a "throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks".

- BTOM's Dubbing was simply horrid, and the script was almost as bad
- the action scenes were so-so
- infinite plot holes, and story arcs left to rot from the show being half done
- not sure about 2012, but in 2025 the NEET MC that is Light Yagami clone makes me just want to puke
- whoever wrote this has a weird look at Sexual PTSD, but honestly the way it was done was a bit hard to watch which might actually be weirdly the point so this is a subjective +/-
- hearing Rimuru's ENG VA be in the role of a winey 16yo was odd to say the least, obviously years prior to Slime coming out lol
- the MC out smarting everyone was so lame every time
- the death game didn't make any sense
- the video game the death game was based off of was poorly explained
- amnesia to exposition drop was old in 2012
- I spent the first 5 episodes contemplating just turning it off, but I being sick while watching this just needed something on in the background and I already started
- 100% a 1.25x speed Anime

I watched this because several people talking to me on here had this anime in their top 10 favorite anime of all time, first of all not to yuck anyone yum, but my god what is wrong with you if this is your creme de La Creme. I'm assuming just omega nostalgia or extreme lack of variety of things watched. But this anime in 2025 is about as obscure as it gets at this point so exposure doesn't really make sense for more then a few people lol

Honestly tho the biggest demerit this show gets is being unfinished, if this continued at the upward trajectory it was slowly having it would probably be anywhere from a 4/10 to possibly a 5/10, so for that assumption ill give this anime the extremely rare round up of score here on MAL. This show really showcases my grading system vs the general community, where my average tries to be around a 5/10 (because you know that's how averages work) but ends up really being about a 5.5/10. Where the average MAL user has their average score at about a 7/10 which always baffled me. so if you just add +2 points /10 to any of my scores up to about a 8.5/10 then I am usually in line with the community and anything from 9+ is truly just subjective on peak/perfect.

we cannot simply grade this show based on how it sat in 2012 frozen in time, as the anime bar gets raised higher and higher year after year this must come down if the ceiling stays at a 10/10. Even back in 2012 this objectively was probably a 6/10 at best if it was finished, but it was not and we've come along way especially with ENG Dubs. but at the end of the day scores are all completely opinion based and this was just my two copper. with that I wholeheartedly do not recommend you watch this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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