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Mar 10, 2019
Minor spoilers follow.
"Kimi wa Midara na Boku no Joou" is a half-decent romp, but fails to live up to its potential as most of its plot points are poorly set up. The work's poor plot setup also hurts the characterization present.
The plot centers around a god who grants our main characters a wish (which allows for their dorm rooms to become conjoined) in return for stealing the female main character's, Subaru's, self-control for one hour every day. This forces her to act on instinct, so for one hour every day, her well-refined facade breaks down and she speaks her true mind, and she unashamedly displays
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her lust for the male main character, Akira.
The plot doesn't always develop very well. To be more specific, when the plot wants to go from Point A to Point B, the manner in which it bridges the gap is usually a little questionable, even when Point B itself isn't all that bad. For example, there's apparently a rule where if you spend the night in another student's room, you get expelled, which prevents Subaru from spending the night at another girl's room when her room is conjoined with Akira's. There are other times in which you'd expect the manga to naturally end up at Point B from Point A, but the plot thread is dropped or skipped over for some reason. A lot of plot points are also just rushed over in general. I'm aware of the meta reasons as to why that's the case, but that doesn't change the fact that it is the case in the first place.
Regarding the aforementioned god, he steals self-control from humans to use as some form of energy or currency -- sure, whatever. The main issue with this plot point is that it, and the rules surrounding the collection of self-control, don't appear to be entirely consistent. For example, as the plot progresses and Subaru begins to let herself go wild of her own accord more often, the god complains that Subaru has no self-control while in her (and Akira's) room, so there's nothing to collect. As such, he'll start to steal her self-control in public places as well (which he hadn't done before out of consideration). This would, on paper, appear to be an escalation of the plot and stakes, if not for the fact that the god had *already* stolen her self-control in public places (and other places aside from Akira's room, such as in front of family members) in previous chapters. When the reader notices this, they will not be pulled in by the increased stakes, but will instead be pulled out of their suspension of disbelief due to this inconsistency.
Another example would be the mechanics of stealing the self-control. At one point in the plot, the god gives the main characters an hourglass and explains that the sand will fall whenever Subaru's self-control gets collected. So, she loses her self-control for an hour one day, and the sand falls a bit. However, at later points in the manga, the sand falls while she's explicitly *exercising* self-control. It then becomes a plot point to have Subaru find ways to exercise a great amount of self-control to make the sand fall faster. But I thought that the sand would fall as the god was *stealing* her self-control? The entire premise is that her self-control gets stolen and she reverts to her primal instincts. Wouldn't it make more sense if, upon exercising immense self-control, the god would swoop in to steal it and then she'd revert to "acting on instinct" against her newly-attained great self-restraint? Or are there unexplained mechanics to all this, e.g. maybe the act of exercising self-control just allows it to (somehow) build up in a metaphorical container which is represented by the sand in the hourglass falling, and then the god collects it after the fact when she stops exercising restraint? Or maybe the god only takes some of the self-control while she's exercising it and that's why she doesn't totally break down. Doesn't really any sense, but at least it's an attempt...on my part. It doesn't really help that the characters seem to understand exactly how the hourglass mechanics work, even though there was nothing to lead them to believe that it would work in such a manner.
Keep in mind that, despite my digressions into talking about the mechanics of the plot in detail, the issue isn't that there's some absurd plot device to drive the romance and comedy along, but that the utilization of said plot device is not internally consistent within the work itself. The self-control plot point is also not the only one in which there are inconsistencies, but it was the one that stood out to me the most.
The comedy in the manga is alright, at least, and somewhat makes up for the plot not making a lot of sense. Certain plot points introduced in one part of the manga are played off for jokes in later parts, which is some nice and funny reincorporation to see. The jokes surrounding Subaru's lewdness can be funny, though sometimes her attempts to discretely masturbate in front of others are a bit much. Sometimes she'll think that the other party won't notice, but it's so clear that they can that it's a bit hard to laugh at. And then there are the times where they actually don't notice, despite the fact that she's as conspicuous as she always is. Still, it's not all bad, and there are other times when the jokes are set up fairly well. The comedy was the main reason that I kept reading, though even the better jokes manage to get a little repetitive over the course of a mere 13 chapters. There could've been some more creative jokes with a premise like this, and I think that if the aforementioned "stealing self-control" plot device were better utilized, there could've been better comedy.
The manga did not handle exposition all that well. During the early parts of the manga, the beginning of every single chapter started with the main character narrating his backstory and how he and Subaru ended up where they are today, with the same amount of excruciating detail every single time. I think this manga had a slow release schedule which might explain why this happened, but the exposition was just ridiculous regardless and definitely kills a lot of the potential reread value. One positive about the narration is that during a short portion in the middle of the series, Subaru takes over the narration for a while, and this was a good way to see things from her perspective and to better understand her character.
Speaking of character, the characters are a mixed bag for me. Subaru is a tsundere and pretends to despise Akira at the start of the series, but deep down she loved him and was working very hard to convince her father that she should marry him. I think the joke is that she tried to stay away from him so that she wouldn't be tempted by her lewd fantasies and so that he wouldn't find out about them, but how did she expect to actually get together with him when she completely avoided him and said that she hated him whenever they actually did interact (much to his dismay)? If not for the supernatural elements of the series, they would've never interacted with each other and realized their love for one another. I realize that this is sort of the point, but it's a bit much. Although some of the romantic developments and declarations of love later in the series are somewhat satisfying, it can feel a little out of left field at first due to Subaru's behavior at the start of the series. Akira himself is unremarkable as a character. He was nice to his childhood friend and worked very hard to see her again and be with her, and that about sums it up. There are a few interesting moments where he realizes his own perversions through Subaru's loss of self-control, but it's not much. One of his motivations is to better himself as a person so that he can be suitable for Subaru, and although he does this, it doesn't receive much focus. There is a villain character who is corny as hell and not all that well-written, even as far as corny one-note villains go. We see some other characters who are part of Subaru's family but they're a bit underwhelming and don't leave much of an impression, and are ultimately just plot devices for the story or for Subaru and Akira's romantic development. Despite Subaru talking a lot about how she cares for some of her family, we don't see a lot of it -- so, missed opportunity.
The highlight of the characters is the relationship between Akira and Subaru, but even that isn't all that great. I already talked a little bit about it above, where the initial setup for their relationship is not very well thought out. As far as how it develops, the idea is that Subaru's loss of self-control reveals her true feelings for Akira, and that over time, she'll come to reveal her true feelings for him more and more while she actually has her self-control. It's a fine idea, but it didn't necessarily come to fruition all that well though. Sometimes the story would forget the progress that the two had made in their relationship, e.g. at one point she admits to him that he's the one she wants to marry, then later tries to play it off (in a tsun-like fashion) like she didn't specify that it was necessarily him even though she clearly did (and I don't mean that she only implied it the first time -- it was pretty unambiguous). There are times where Subaru's perverted desires are revealed to Akira and he accepts them because he loves all sides of her, then later the manga acts like this never happened and she's hiding these desires out of fear again. This kind of thing cheapens the development that you'd already built up to that point. There are also a couple of moments where the two characters grow a little closer, but it's not always particularly clear on why they did. Despite a lot of the issues I have though, the romantic developments that are present don't do a terrible job of endearing us to these two characters at times, so it's not hard to see how a reader might root for them to work hard against the forces trying to keep them apart.
One of the ideas presented in the manga is that one doesn't need a (material) reason to love someone, which is a point that comes up whenever Subaru's love for an average guy like Akira is questioned. Although it's a cliche theme that could have been presented better, it led to some of the better and more heartfelt scenes for the couple's romance, so the work gets a few points for that.
The art is not all that note-worthy. It's not bad, it's not great, but it gets the job done. The characters are drawn well enough, and Subaru is cute (if a bit generic) looking. Things like the surrounding environment generally look fine, but sometimes drawn in such a way that the artist could avoid needing to draw too much detail (I assume). One cool thing about the art is that in the early chapters Subaru was drawn in different attire when in Akira's room to illustrate a difference between her refined facade and her true self, but this idea was dropped pretty quickly and she just dons her 'good' look for most of the subsequent chapters.
This manga ultimately feels like a bag of mixed opportunities for me. The premise is an interesting one, but the story tripped over itself in attempting to handle it. The romance is decent at times, but then a later event will cheapen the developments up until that point. The main characters aren't awful, but they could've gotten better development and their motivations could've been better explained. The minor characters are mostly plot devices, which wouldn't have been too bad if they didn't so blatantly feel like plot devices and nothing more. The comedy was the best part, but it was hit-or-miss and could've been more creative. To sum things up numerically:
Story: 3/10, the premise was poorly handled and the exposition was grating.
Art: 5.5/10, it's fine.
Characters: 4ish/10 or so...on their own they weren't great and there were a lot of missed opportunities. The romance could've been better, and a lot of the better aspects were squandered in some way.
Enjoyment: 5/10 or something, I didn't quite love or hate any part of this series, though I appreciated the comedy a little more than I disliked other aspects, and for a quick read it's not bad to look at.
Overall: I'll call it a 4/10 or around there. It's not really a BAD read (honestly, you kinda know what you're getting into), but not my cup of tea.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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Aug 20, 2016
Mangaka-san to Assistan-san is a show about a perverted mangaka with a bunch of female assistants, who does perverted things and then gets away with it because he's "nice" and...that's about it, really.
Already it is a bit difficult to buy into the premise, but good execution can make all sorts of things work - so, how is the execution? This is supposed to be a comedy, and it is by no means an ambitious one. That being said, I probably only genuinely laughed once or twice throughout the whole thing. I understand that humor is subjective, but the jokes were just not very well-crafted. It
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is easy to see most punchlines coming from a mile away, which would not be as big of a problem if it wasn't applicable to almost every joke in the series, but sadly that is not the case. If you've seen one episode, you've seen almost all the jokes.
For instance (I just realized that I don't remember anyone's name - time to look those up!): Aito says or does something perverted. Sahoto, his assistant, not amused by his antics, tells him off in some way. Aito asks something to the effect of "do you not like me?" or "do you think I'm creepy?" and Sahoto responds that, yes, she finds him or his act to be creepy/perverted/annoying or what have you. Aito freaks the fuck out. Sahoto calms him down.
This kind of thing happens all the time and there is almost never any interesting twist on this joke, or any of the other uninspired, repetitive jokes. Usually if there is, the joke just becomes uncomfortable instead of funny (like a certain breastfeeding scene). Not that I have a problem with "uncomfortable" humor in and of itself, but the tone and characters of this series do not lend itself to that kind of humor, as it generally attempts to stay somewhat grounded (unlike, say, Prison School).
Speaking of the characters, they are not anything to write home about. Aito is a pervert obsessed with panties who often acts incredibly childish for a 20-something year old, and he's also a really nice guy who says nice things. That about covers it. Sahoto's personality is sort of deadpan and blunt, but she also has a bit of a domineering side to her. Mihari is an abrasive tsundere with a soft spot and the only one who gets any sort of development, although the way they presented her transition into a more abrasive personality in her backstory was a bit silly (it just kinda happened after she realized she had to leave personal feelings out of a work environment because she...stayed over at Aito's and, uh, did nothing in a situation where she could do nothing?) - perhaps the point of that was to be comedic, in which case it's no surprise that that may be lost on one not sold on the show's comedy. I don't expect development that's particularly meaningful from a 1-cour comedy with 10-minute episodes, but it could at least be interesting in that department. Sena is basically the same character as Mihari, sans backstory, but she also acts more childish and is weak. Sena and Mihari both have a crush on Aito for whatever reason, by the way. Rinna is a super cute girl who is completely incompetent and instantly loves Aito for no reason, and we are supposed to enjoy her stupidity because it's cute, apparently.
You might notice that the characters' personalities, sans Rinna, are a little inconsistent. This is not a bad thing on its own, but the problem is that we fail to see how the different aspects to each characters' respective personalities feed into one another. That is to say, it is not so much that the characters have many facets to their personalities as it is that they feel like different people when the situation calls for it. The characters' personalities were not handled with much finesse in this regard.
To the show's credit, it did at least show the audience that writing and illustrating manga is no easy task. Aito often has to pull all-nighters in order to get his manuscripts done (I don't get how he pulls off playing gal games for 10 hours on certain days though). Sahoto also has to try over and over to make her debut as a professional mangaka (I wonder how Aito managed, though, with how incompetent he often seems in the storytelling department). As you might guess, however, the execution still leaves much to be desired and it doesn't succeed in giving the show any flavor. Also, since the focus is on the comedy, this aspect ultimately isn't even that important.
I watched the first two episodes with some folks on that rabbit streaming thing very late at night, and I watched the rest of it a few days later when I was half-asleep at 4 a.m. and felt that I wouldn't be able to comprehend anything else I tried to watch. I would only recommend this show under similar circumstances to those, but even then, there are still better options out there. I did not expect much, but I still felt underwhelmed in my semi-braindead state.
Note: I said nothing of the audiovisuals in this review. That is because they are just unremarkable and therefore not worth mentioning. But I guess I did mention them after all, so there you go.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Feb 21, 2016
Another is tagged as a horror and mystery. The show, however, often feels like a parody of the former and lacks much of what is necessary to be classified as the latter.
Another's attempts at unnerving the audience are clunky, to say the least. Creepy dolls, dark colors, dreary music (which actually sounds a bit boring and sometimes ridiculous) – it's too cliche to take seriously. The atmosphere created wasn't outright terrible, but it certainly didn't achieve what it was going for. Next, we have the gore, and this is where the anime borders on (read: damn near spills over into) hilarious, parodic elements. To call
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the bloody deaths over-the-top would be an understatement. It seems that P.A.Works exaggerated the brutality of the deaths in order to up the shock factor, but this achieved almost the opposite effect. The deaths are, simply put, funny, in sort of a campy way. Despite how explicit it was, a scene in which the teacher of Class 3-3 spazzes out like crazy while making weird noises before he viciously stabs himself, complemented by a musical piece that almost sounds like it's TRYING to make fun of the creepy feel that Another is going for, is a perfect example of how overdone the gore can be in this show.
What about the mystery? Firstly, what's the mystery even about? Well, 26 years ago, a student named Misaki died partway through the school year – this student attended the same middle school and the same class as the main characters of Another, but the students and faculty refused to believe it, and acted as though Misaki was still alive. Ever since then, every year, a strange phenomenon occurs in which students of Class 3-3 and their relatives die mysteriously every year. So, the class is cursed. Enter the protagonist, Koichi Sakakibara, who is a transfer student and works to solve the mystery behind Class 3-3.
...Except that he doesn't. The rules of the curse are infodumped to the audience early on, erasing any tension for the duration of the show. The audience knows what the curse is as well why it's happening (for the most part...), so any attempts to surprise the audience or put them on edge falls flat. The story plays out predictably and character deaths can be seen coming from a mile away. The character deaths, incidentally, are what the show focuses on the most since the mystery aspect of the show is eviscerated early on.
There are only two things that have any sort of mystery-feel to them. First, there's the identity and purpose of the mysterious eyepatch-chick, Mei Misaki, who sits in the corner of the class, ignored by others, and is oft accompanied by a spooky backdrop of shadows and dolls. A little bit of time is dedicated to figuring out who she is, but the result of this mystery is ultimately underwhelming, and so the time allocated to this portion of the series feels like a waste.
Secondly, we have the identity of the "Another" – an extra person in Class 3-3 who is actually dead, but has kinda come back to life for some reason and is the driving force behind the curse (there's also the question of how to stop this driving force, to which the answer is fairly obvious – get rid of it, so to speak).
The problem with this part of the mystery is that, aside from being just a small chunk of what could've been something more, it wasn't handled as a mystery at all. There's hardly any semblance of piecing clues together to deduce who the culprit is. In fact, Mei knew who it was all along, and yet Koichi never really tried to pull an answer out of her. After showing us a bunch of gruesome character deaths and dedicating maybe two or three scenes to (barely) advancing the plot, Mei just tells Koichi who the extra is after some shit hits the fan towards the end of the show. One of her explanations was actually that she SAW the extra die before this person actually came to be the extra – a random, coincidental occurrence thrown in in order to conveniently sway Koichi into believing her, while slapping the so-called "mystery" of the show in the face.
The biggest problem with all this is the fact that Mei said nothing for 12 episodes. Now, could she have prevented all the deaths that occurred? Probably not all of them, no. Would the class have believed her? Maybe not immediately, no. But is it accurate to say, as Mei put it, that it "wouldn't have done any good"? No. Her reasoning behind not saying anything to Koichi or the class is somewhat understandable, I'll admit, but it's very much a handwave and overly dismissive, and she's let off the hook way too easily. In essence, one of the only mysteries the show had to offer was solved from the start – the only thing left to figure out was how to stop the curse, and the answer to that was conveniently presented randomly to our protagonists in one episode after several others full of little more than gaudy deaths.
What about the characters? They're not much to speak of. The vast majority of the animated humanoid beings in this show could not be called characters, as they resemble cardboard more than they do people. I don't expect the supporting cast or all the dead people to be well-developed, but at least some personality (beyond the occasional idiocy) would've done them some justice. Koichi, the protagonist, is as bland as it gets. All the audience ever really learns about him is that he's frail and kind. The show could've had at least one decent moment towards the end when an internal conflict arises in his character, but this was glossed over and there's no real aftermath to speak of. Mei was a bit more interesting, as she came off as a bit mysterious at the start, but she ultimately doesn't do much besides talk cryptically to Koichi early on, infodump to him occasionally, and withhold other information. She has a bit of a backstory, but it doesn't do much for her and it's hard to think of her as anything more than a bland character who falls under the Rei Ayanami Expy.
Another isn't worth watching. It's not a creepy, scary, or unnerving horror. It fails on every level as a mystery. Even the silliness of the deaths doesn't quite make it worth slogging through this tripe, since it's so out of place, but if you did want to watch it then that'd pretty much be the only reason to. As mentioned a little here and there, the music didn't do much to help, as it either came off as generic or too over-the-top just like the deaths, often sounding like it'd be more fitting in a haunted house attraction for kids than a horror show. I award Another with 2 pie slices out of 10, and I'm afraid that it doesn't deserve much more than that.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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Feb 21, 2016
A person being forced into a game of death and having to cope with the moral dilemma of killing others sounds like it could make for a fairly compelling psychological story, but Btooom! managed to turn that concept into a shitshow instead. Btooom! tried to deal with ideas of trust, morality, and despair with this plot synopsis, but it ultimately squandered its potential.
The first episode showed promise, as Ryota's NEET life and unhealthy, otaku-like obsession with the game is immediately shown in a negative light as opposed to being glorified, and it gives us a taste of Ryota's moral dilemma to come when he kills
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one of the "players" of the death game in self-defense. However, a setup like this isn't difficult to achieve, and problems begin to arise quickly.
Firstly, the plot often lacks suspense and tension. The game, despite trying to add variety with different kinds of bombs, is very simplistic, which is problematic when the show tries to focus on tactics. For example: the main characters are under assault by an enemy, who is using a homing bomb that detonates only when it reaches its target. A character who isn't being targeted intercepts the bomb and disables it, then decides to take the next bomb while protecting the original target. Given the situation, you'd think the assailant would now switch gears and switch targets. I came to this obvious conclusion almost instantaneously, but the show has the main character figure it out in an overly dramatic, Death Note-esque manner, absolutely shocking the other characters present. There were times in which the tactics were a bit more interesting, such as one case in which wind was used to the characters' advantage (and it was noted that this was a difference between the game "Btooom!" and the real version), but these moments are few and far between.
On top of the boring tactics, the two main characters are protected by an unbelievable amount of plot armor that sucks the tension out of many moments. Expect scenes in which one of them dramatically reveal that they either "threw the bomb away at the very last second" or "jumped into a hole in the ground in the nick of time." One time a girl was saved because the bomb bounced off her boobs. Sometimes the show won't even bother with that. A bomb might be thrown near a character and the character will simply fly back when it explodes, emerging unscathed in the aftermath. It's hard to take the show seriously as a result, especially when there are other ludicrous aspects lumped in that make things feel more silly than dire – Komodo dragons, anyone? How about Ryota's twisted smile when it looks like he's about to break and sacrifice someone, when two seconds later he manages to come up with a plan to save everyone (how edgy)?
Speaking of edge, Btooom! falls into the trap of taking an attempt at depth and turning it into (what has become quite the buzzword among anime fans) "edginess," a word that has come to be defined as something that occurs when a story tries too hard to be dark or deep and fails, potentially coming off as unintentionally funny, campy, or in-your-face. The show often portrays the majority of humans to be very corrupt, which serves as a plot device for characterization or a contrast to the main characters, but the problem is that this "all people (or just men in Himiko's case; more on that later) are kinda scum" trope is too overused. Granted, an island full of psychopaths may not be too out of place given the premise, but many of these people were thrown into the game for being dicks, not psychos. The show's presentation of the idea feels hamfisted rather than meaningful with all these "edgy" killers and rapists coupled together with funny shots of sadistic smiles and lifeless faces and other overdone instances of creepy, freaky nonsense, all of which contribute to the "edginess." This kind of presentation makes it feel as though Btooom! is beating the viewer over his/her head with its themes and messages.
The characters are arguably the show's biggest weakness. Ryota's character feels contradictory. On one hand, he is the chivalrous heroic type who is unbelievably kind and wants to save everyone, but on the other hand, he is portrayed (in flashbacks) to be a complete asshole who cares only for his game and has no issue with shouting at and even physically hurting his mother and stepfather – this, incidentally, is why Ryota got thrown into the game. A rocky relationship with one's parents compared to others can be understandable, but the contrast here in particular is too great to be believable. Ryota did act more amicable among classmates when he went to school, but this was before he became the obsessive NEET that we now know him to be; he is also shown to be acting very polite with representatives from the company that made "Btooom!", but it's only natural that he would suck up when he's trying to get a job doing something related to the only thing he cares about. As such, there's nothing in Ryota's flashbacks that could hint at his nature in the death game, or vice versa. It isn't as though one should expect Ryota to be a heartless killer in the game, but had he shown more of his bad personality in that setting, there could have been actual progression in his character from asshole to nice guy as he learns the value of having a friend he can trust and protect by meeting Taira (the person he partners up with in-game) and Himiko, thereby redeeming himself for what he did to get thrown into the game in the first place. Instead, Ryota is left inconsistent and bland. There's actually a scene at the end in which Ryota says that he shouldn't have looked down on people so much and should've learned about the value of caring for others besides himself, but this only fits with his flashback character – it goes contrary to the Ryota we see on the island who was nice and caring all along. It's like the author had the right idea at the start, but wanted to make Ryota more likable at the same time by making him nicer on the island, and so we're left with this confusing character.
Himiko doesn't fare much better. In a strange backstory in which her friends wish the worst upon her (i.e. elect her to be thrown into the death game) because she ran away and "betrayed" them while they got raped (that selfish bitch ran to go get the cops...!), we learn that Himiko is very distrustful of men, and a similar experience on the island solidifies her belief that men are scum. She showed potential to be a strong female protagonist here, but the show wastes no time in turning her into a damsel in distress who soon becomes entirely dependent on Ryota, a trope that should've been avoided. Learning that not all men are so bad is one thing, but the presentation of Himiko's character is something else altogether. The portrayal of her character is even worse when examining all of these rapey scenes that Himiko is thrown into, which seem to be presented in a fanservicey way; they give off the impression that the animators are also trying to flaunt Himiko's body at the audience for sexual appeal, which is very out of place and awkward (there's a problem when you're not sure if a scene is supposed to be appalling or erotic).
The side characters mostly serve to present various psychological aspects of being thrown into death games. One character, Taira, puts his trust in Ryota on the island, but when the he's left alone several times after being injured, his mental stability begins to falter. There's this woman who trusts a man she loves (who, by the way, had already betrayed her once before), and was betrayed later when he took her chip. There's another guy who used to know Ryota from school, and he was used as a device for Ryota's characterization at the end. The concept isn't bad, but they all end up as one-note characters who are forgettable, although the dynamic between Ryota and Taira was sometimes decent, especially with the two of them expressing their fears in putting their trust in complete strangers in the environment of an "every man for himself" death game. The antagonist is shown to be a manipulative person who acts nice before he betrays those around him and reveals that he's a super evil prick (muhahaha...ha) – it appears that he's just super evil to act as a foil to Ryota's integrity. He comes off as a mere caricature, mostly, and is forgettable.
Character stupidity is a bit rampant. At the beginning of the death game, it took Ryota numerous tries before he realized that the bombs he was granted had timers attached, despite the fact that he'd already made the connection between the online and death games, that the bomb was identical to the timer bomb in the online game, and that the bomb had numbers counting down on it to signify a timer that Ryota had seen even before coming to his realization. Also, when Himiko voices her concerns regarding a certain bad guy's loyalty when the latter's tricking them, Ryota dismisses her suspicions, despite the fact that she had good reason to have them, and that he had learned before not to be so trustworthy; even when the totally-not-a-bad-guy acts very suspicious later on by asking Ryota if he trusted him out of nowhere when nothing prompted the question, Ryota doesn't feel as though anything is off. Moments like these are prime examples of how NOT to handle dramatic irony, and they're very frustrating to watch. It isn't as though Ryota was always foolish as fuck – as was mentioned prior, he's come up with a few decent strategies – but when he is, it really breaks the immersion.
Moving on to aesthetics, the art style is passable, albeit lackluster. The character designs look uninspired. Ryota is a thin guy with Light Yagami-styled hair, Himiko's a cute blonde with big tits, and so on. The designs serve their purpose, but little is done to make them stand out from other characters in other anime. The setting looks decent, but the most positive thing that can be said about it is that it works. The animation is nothing special for an action anime like this. The camerawork is poor, although the bombs' explosions look decent enough. The soundtrack is unmemorable and boring, but it usually isn't unfitting. The OP is exciting to listen to and serves well to pump you up for an action-packed gorefest, though the fact that it overshadows the anime could be seen as a bad thing as well.
Btooom!, in trying to be mature, ends up beating its audience over the head with its attempt at dark themes. The characters are either cliche, inconsistent, or serve only to portray a trait or idea as opposed to a real character. The game is boring and lacks the tension that a survival game needs to be exciting, resulting in underwhelming fights and ridiculous escapes from dire situations. The anime doesn't even have a proper conclusion, ending off with a shitty cliffhanger after the main characters finally hook up, with no second season in sight. Btooom! is a prime example of what not do to when trying to make something gritty, dark and meaningful.
Reviewer’s Rating: 2
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