I had no idea what to expect going into this anime, I didn’t even read the synopsis, but my initial reaction was, “Yes! Finally, an anime that parodies card games like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon!” Unfortunately, they didn’t make an allusion to either anime. The only reason I watched Weiß Survive was because people were comparing it to Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (which I haven’t seen yet) and its 40-minute running time. Each episode is so short (2 1/2 minutes) that there isn’t even an OP or ED theme, which I was disappointed by, because I could only imagine how comical it would’ve been.
Despite the short episode length, I found the characters in this series surprisingly funny, especially the old man. I liked how, in the initial episodes, they broke the fourth wall. Apparently, there are some Persona references, too, but I didn’t recognize any of them, having not played the game.
The animation style pretty is much what you would expect from a concise comedy anime, with the characters going into a cute chibi form during battle; the production values aren’t very high, but it still works for an anime like this.
One interesting fact about the Weiss Schwarz game is that it is indeed a real-life card game that features decks with characters from existing anime, such as Fate/Stay Night, Nanoha, and Lucky Star –– although, we don’t see any of these decks in Weiß Survive’s first season.
If you decide to pass on this series, I can’t say that you’ll be missing anything significant. But if you’re a fan of short series, like I am, and don’t mind Takeshi’s perverted humor, this is a fun comedy to watch.
