Btooom!

(I try to keep my reviews short and sweet and straight to the point without giving away spoilers with that said lets get this show on the road)


This anime had so much potential to break out from the pack. It could have been another attack on titan outburst. However there are certain key characteristics that makes each anime a work of art.

Story line- The story line is original however was not completed in this short 12 episode anime. It just stopped half way through which was totally disappointing.

Art & Sound were both good

Character- There was no real character development (it's only 12 episodes). ... Also most characters were left as a mystery. Nonetheless, I did understand each character and motivations behind everything they did.

This anime has
Gore (People being blown up/ killed for survival)
Romance ( Nothing to heavy to overthrow the main point of the anime)
Action (Fighting for survival)
HEAVY SEXUAL THEMES (IN CERTAIN POINTS RAPE WAS SUGGESTED)

Reviews if you don't have time.
*SPOILER-FREE*

Imagine a battle royale but instead of bows and swords or guns, the players can only use different types of bombs. Unfortunately, that’s all it takes to summarize “Btooom!”, a manga adaptation with the great Madhouse behind its animation.

As expected, as far as animation goes, it’s a good show. Of course, is not a Madhouse masterpiece but for a show with such a simple and basic premiss to make an impact the animation had to pull the weight and it did. The characters were well designed as were the surrounding and various parts of the space where the competition was ... taking place. The fights were well executed and most important the bombs and the characters actions with them did not seem clunky and seemed rather well done.

Plot wise is not a writing masterclass but it’s not bad or at least is better than many other shows in the genre. The characters are balanced and decently written, and their development is noticeable which reflects on their decisions and actions throughout the show. If I had to point something out is that it falls into a lot of tropes which makes it lose a bit of uniqueness to it, the characters despite well written are not that appealing at least for me and some moments seem to be forced so the plot cam move forward.

Overall, “Btoom!” is a for fun show that delivers a decent plot and set of characters, above average animation for the genre and good fights, where the protagonist actually uses the different types of bombs in a smart way.

- English Review (Translated version)

There are animes which I need a greater effort than usual to write about them. It has nothing to do with the fact that they didn't look like a masterpiece to me, because I also enjoy skinning the ones that seem to me to be real rubbish. Let's say that the more extreme my impression of an anime is, the more fluent the words come to me when I write. "BTOOOM!" has no place there. "BTOOOM!" is part of that group of animes (fortunately small in comparison to the total) that hardly generate positive feelings, but it is not that ... they have anything negative remarkable in itself. Neither their story, nor their characters, nor their technical section tell me anything special. Neither for good nor for bad. *Insert here other similar Spanish expressions without possible translation*.

The main plot is a bit trite at this point. It is in 2019, of course, but it was also there at the end of 2012 when "BTOOOM!" was released. People trapped in an enclosed space who are forced to kill each other in order to survive. The pinnacle of innovation is not that it is, eh? That this is added to the sub-thematic "virtual games that become "real life" of the protagonists", which is the other trite theme par excellence of the anime, does not help anything to that constant feeling of "I have seen this a thousand times before". Anyway, lack of absolute originality apart, the development of the story is not at all bad, within what the initial encortage allows. It is nothing of the other world, but at least it fulfills the role of easy entertainment. But the story doesn't end and it doesn't look like it's never going to end, which makes the already warm impressions a little worse.

It's the same with the characters. It has a relatively interesting squad, full of clichés, but varied. It does, of course, develop very little and give almost no importance to the secondary, focusing excessively on some protagonists who are probably the weakest of the whole. Their love story comes close to ridiculous at times.

The visual section fulfills its role without any kind of boasting. It has good artistic design, without frills. I'm going to avoid the obsession with the physics of female breasts that the author/director/animator seems to have had. Technically more of the same. Good effects, drawings, scenarios... There aren't even any of those awful 3D models that the Japanese have to put in from time to time. Ambient music, though generic, sounds good. The first opening is very decent (there's a second only for the last episode, unfortunately) and the ending doesn't bother.

Little more can I say about "BTOOOM!". If you are attracted to a minimum, the premise will distract you, but it doesn't have much more. It's one of those animes that after a short time you don't remember anything about their story or their characters. But you can see it, at least, that today is more than can be said of others... and some with much fame.


- Spanish Review (Original and faithful version)

Hay animes de los que necesito un esfuerzo mayor que de costumbre para ponerme a escribir sobre ellos. No tiene nada que ver con que no me hayan parecido una obra maestra, porque disfruto igualmente despellejando los que me han parecido auténticos bodrios. Digamos que cuanto más al extremo esté mi impresión sobre un anime, más fluidas me brotan las palabras al escribir. "BTOOOM!" no tiene cabida ahí. "BTOOOM!" forma parte de ese grupillo de animes (por suerte es pequeño en comparación al total) que me generan muy pocas sensaciones positivas, pero que tampoco es que tengan nada negativo destacable en sí. Ni su historia, ni sus personajes, ni su apartado técnico me dicen nada especial. Ni para bien ni para mal. Ni fú ni fá. Ni frío ni calor. Ni chicha ni limoná.

La trama principal hay que reconocer que está un poco trillada a estas alturas. Lo está en 2019, por supuesto, pero también lo estaba ya a finales de 2012 cuando se estrenó "BTOOOM!". Gente atrapada en un espacio cerrado que se ve obligada a matarse entre sí para sobrevivir. El culmen de la innovación no es que sea, ¿eh? Que a esto se le sume la subtemática "juegos virtuales que pasan a ser "vida real" de los protagonistas", que es el otro tema trillado por excelencia del anime, tampoco ayuda nada a esa constante sensación de "he visto esto ya mil veces antes". De todas formas, falta de originalidad absoluta aparte, lo que es el desarrollo de la historia no está del todo mal, dentro de lo que el encorsetamiento inicial permite. No es nada del otro mundo, pero al menos cumple con el papel de entretenimiento fácil. Eso sí, la historia no acaba ni tiene pinta de que vaya a acabar nunca, lo que empeora un poco más las ya tibias impresiones.

Con los personajes pasa un poco lo mismo. Tiene un plantel relativamente interesante, lleno de clichés, pero variado. Peca, eso sí, de desarrollar muy poco y darle casi nula importancia a los secundarios, centrándose excesivamente en unos protagonistas que probablemente sean lo más flojo de todo el conjunto. Su historia de amor roza el ridículo por momentos.

El apartado visual cumple con su papel sin ningún tipo de alarde. Tiene buen diseño artístico, sin florituras. Voy a obviar la obsesión con la física de los pechos femeninos que parece tenía el autor/director/animador. Técnicamente más de lo mismo. Buenos efectos, dibujados, escenarios... Ni siquiera hay alguno de esos modelados 3D tan horrorosos que a los japoneses les da por meter de vez en cuando. La música ambiental, aunque algo genérica, suena bien. El primer opening es muy decente (hay un segundo solo para el último capítulo, por desgracia) y el ending no molesta.

Poco más puedo decir sobre "BTOOOM!". Si te atrae un mínimo la premisa te distraerá, pero no tiene mucho más. Es de esos animes que al poco tiempo ya no recuerdas nada sobre su historia o sus personajes. Pero se deja ver, al menos, que hoy en día es más de lo que se puede decir de otros... y algunos con mucha fama.

(Spoilers)

Btooom! is ok anime but it really that entertaining for most of the anime. The story is the only thing that seems interesting but most of the other bits are either ok or just not good

Story 7/10- The Story is somewhat interesting as it is about a guy named Ryouta who loves to play the game called Btooom which is basically a game where you battle others with bombs and he is a pro at it until one day he was taken to an island where he has to play the game in real life meaning he life is at risk so he meets others ... and teams up with of them or finds others who will try to kill each other as they are looking to leave the island. It's an interesting plot to see as is a survival game with players only using bombs for there weapons but there were some that actually had really weapons for some reason but it was still an ok story

Art 7/10- Art was fine as characters design where ok but it felt that most of the character design did not suit their personality but scenery like the background was drawn great so appreciate how that looked.

Sound 6/10- Sound was fine nothing really that special, character voices were ok and the opening and ending where fine but still skipped them.

Characters 6/10- The characters were fine but I didn't really care for any of them. Ryouta, the main characters, is an adult who loves video games and was sent to the island is an ok character but I really didn't care about and he is somewhat of a d*ck to his family as he basically wanted to play games and nothing else which was a bad idea as that why he at the island. Himiko, a girl who was also sent to the island and works with Ryouta to leave the island. She is the same as Ryouta who isn't that interesting and not that helpful for Ryouta. Other characters in this show are also not that interesting.

Enjoyment 6/10- There went that many moments I liked in this anime neither did I actually care for most of them, sure the theme of a survival game with only bombs is interesting but I think there could have been more potential in it and why to have bombs if there are others who had weapons with them for some reason.

Overall 6/10- So the story was ok, the hunger game style was interesting, art and sound were fine, characters were average nothing really special and not really that entertaining.

What a Shit Show

Honestly this was something that is pretty interesting the first 3 or 4 episodes but after that you realize that the show has some major faults.

Firs the things i like.

: The Blonde hair chick ( Himiko) is the only likable character. I honestly love her entire back story and wish the show was about her. I have a couple things i wish they would've done better with her.

: The music for this is pretty good.

... : ........ I got nothing. Only that the Blonde hair chick is a nice character and that it has some good music.

Things i don't like ( Things that i really don't like i'll go into deeper detail)

: How edgy this show tries to be. Like i swear i almost cut myself from how Edgy this is.

: How stupid these fucking characters are. Like fuck sake. I have not seen characters these dumb in years.

With the only interesting and likable character being Himiko ( Blonde chick) Her also being the only one with common sense. It gets hard to watch without her on screen.

I don't even know where to pick to explain the idiocy of some characters. Just know that i am kind of convinced a AI was without any shred of humanity and is only told how humans act was given the job to write the script .

Probably one of the dumbest things is that a fucking game company is behind all this. The reason as to why is also retarded. Doesn't help that the main bad guy is just a bad character and not in the " He's a bad guy" Everything from his design to how he acts is just bad and what you expect out of teenage fanfiction.

The MC is just so generic. At first you might think there's more too him with his past. But no everything about him is generic.

~~SPOILERS~~
The bane of all anime's it seems is the ending. From chapter 9 tell the end is just so stupid. But it really shines at the very end.

Brief description is that they finally have enough chips to leave but decide it's best for both of them to stay. I think it would have been a pretty good ending if the MC sacrificed his chips and sent the chick home. But instead they agree that they should stay on the island tell they kill another 7 people even though the entire show they say they don't want to kill.
~~SPOILERS~~

Two finale things

: One we see in one scene that when they were on a plane being dropped off that there was a small little girl in the back round. I wanted her to be part of the show. I imagine that if she was then the story might be more interesting with the two MC's taking care of a little girl instead of some old man. Them trying to shield her from the violence and gore while also keeping the three of them alive. Making a makeshift family. This would have been so much more interesting then what we got.

: I wish we got too just see Himiko as the main character and her trying to live. No companion besides the little girl like i just mentioned. I would love to see more of her home life and how people are reacting to her disappearing and the group of children who signed her for the survival island thing.

I think that her entire story is wasted on this. I would love to see something similar without it being about a overly dumb survival island and just have her disappear cause of her former group of friends. Throw in the kid i keep mentioning and have it just be her and the kid trying to escape X. Then have a couple episodes about the people reacting too it and whether or not she forgives her former group of friends.


Overall a story with tons of wasted potential that it ruins it.

Btooom! is an anime that boasts a Hunger-Games type of scenario, backed up by great animations and good sound.

However, the show falls flat on its face due to the incredibly poor main cast and excessive Deus Ex Machine use.

The so call main character is your standard NEET type, except this time around there are a flat zero redeeming qualities. The so called "best in Japan" gamer is an absolute train-wreck of a person.

Criminally abusive towards his family, a complete social reject, struggles stand up for himself in any way, to the point of basically being willing to die in order to avoid killing anyone ... else, utterly incompetent most of the time, naive beyond belief, stupid beyond belief. Just straight up unbelievable such a character was ever written.

The heroine of the story is hardly any better. A complete female nutcase. You hear about people like her in viral social media posts, but you don't really think they exist. But here you have one right in your anime. A complete fruitcase who ignores all shapes and forms of logic and reason, both incompetent and paranoid at the same time, making her as useless as can possibly be.

It's crazy how the only characters that make sense are the secondary side-characters who despite a few nutcases, are generally way more reasonable and capable. I spent the anime rooting for them, more than I did the MC's.

Now, I'm sure those who've seen the anime might argue that it's all intentional, that they're written to be this way to showcase the mental issues of the NEET lifestyle and traumatic events or whatnot, but for gods sake - there's a limit as to how broken you can make the MC's be.

Nobody who's in their right mind can relate to these characters. And I refuse to believe there's a demographic of mentally broken people that's big enough to justify this anime.

And the plot armor in this anime is just ridiculous. Bombs in identical uses always kill a "bad" guy but barely even injure the main characters. It's frankly ridiculous and makes the show lose any suspense. You can't really feel scared for the MC's when they take several bombs basically to the face and always get away with nothing but dust on their face, while their enemies get one shot.

But I guess the action was pretty cool overall. So if you can tolerate the characters, there are worse things you could watch.

After finding himself trapped on a mysterious island armed with several grenades that bear a great resemblance to his favorite video game protagonist must fight for his life in a death match to decide who deserves to return home.

Btooom takes the overdone idea of being trapped in a game and gives it a slight twist, making it a reality tv show that is strikingly similar to a popular game. The show was very short and the plot doesn't really go anywhere thanks to its "read the manga ending" but luckily it was very easy to transition to the manga after completing the series. I wouldn't ... really recommend it unless you really like the idea of trapped in a game series but if you do plan to watch it don't expect much of any plot, character development or a special ost, just decent animation and fun violence. Also rape. Lots and lots of rape.

I didn't have much hope before starting the anime, but it got off to a good start with the first episode. It didn't take long for me to see the anime cliches in the next episode, but it wasn't that bad. Of course, I ignored it as it was only the first episodes. In the third chapter, we learn that about 20-30 people were gathered and taken to an island to fight in a battle royale style. The plot wasn't bad, but it could have been better. We saw some solid fights in the sequel of the anime.

As you continue watching, you understand very well ... what the main theme of the anime is. In fact, people are brought to the island to be punished for being hated or for mistakes they made in their previous lives. I liked that they were brought in for this purpose. Logic errors continued to increase. I was starting to see more and more logic errors in each episode. It was bullshit that people who were supposed to die didn't die somehow. Every time I got closer to the end of the anime, I started seeing worse logic errors. For example, getting rid of the bomb 1 second before the bomb time, not dying despite the explosion of many bombs.

While I thought it would be fixed in the next chapter, I was a bit disappointed to see more logic errors added. One episode before the finale, I saw one of the most absurd events in anime history. This was when she stopped the bomb with her breast.

And let's come to the last part, I really liked this part. They explained very well the problem of trust, which is one of the biggest problems of people. Unfortunately, I learned that the anime is not over and there is no sequel. No matter how illogical it was, it was an anime that made you watch it.

OVERALL : 6

This doesn't stand out much.

From what I recall it's similar to "BATTLE ROYALE". Folks of various backgrounds are pitted against each other as entertainment for some sketchy rich organization.

Some contestants decide to work together to increase their survival while others take advantage of unleashing their inner demonic desires.

I think Battle Royale did it better. This is just a mere imitation alteration to me. If you want to just scratch the itch of watching something similar to Battle Royale then add this to your arsenal. Other than that there's not much else to say.

I can barely remember any of the characters besides the ones that ... are shoved down our throats to see. That's how bland this was. I think there was a couple of side characters who pulled a heroic stunt, but I wasn't attached to any of the characters.

This is the first anime I'm actually writing a review for and it's done so as a warning to anyone who might want to watch.
At the time of watching I was fairly new to anime, and thought, "oh wow a nice 12 episode show I can watch this in a few days." DO NOT fall into the same trap I did.

Story (5): The story is average. That's all there is to it. Nothing super exciting, some plot twists and storyline but not very thought provoking. I couldn't write this review without mentioning the MAIN reason this shows story didn't get higher number. SPOILER: there's ... a scene when fighting the main villain where the girl deflects a bomb perfectly with her boobs. If this show was meant to be funny I would've appreciated it, but there was dead serious music and dialogue during this scene. Honestly laughable how bad it was to end a fight scene like that

Art (6): The style and animation is honestly one of the better things this show did, and as you can see still only got a 6 so that's saying something.
Sound (6): Good soundtrack, and sound effects, kind of expected for a show about bombs.

Characters (3): THE ABSOLUTE WORST PART of the show. Main character is forgettable, has no personality, typical edgy kid. The girl in this show is by far the most underdeveloped character I've ever seen in a show. They all get a few seconds of backstory here and there, but her personality is so dry it drags when she in on screen.

Overall (5): Wouldn't recommend unless you've watched every good anime that has ever come out and you need something else. Even then I would suggest rewatching something you've already watched. This show was the only anime I've watched that I didn't feel apart of. Just bad.

This anime is quite enjoyable, but nothing outstanding,

The initial story line is quite ok but the anime tend to stick and rely too much around this initial plot, characters lack a lot of depth, lacks logic and consistency, feels almost "artificial/ unnatural" in their actions and are difficult to relate/ identify to,

In my own opinion this anime tend to rely too much around it's initial storyline, the island, the game, the bombs, enemies everywhere etc... but side aspects of the story are set aside, unnatural character construction, patterns and behavior etc etc..

I make it short here, you wont get a masterpiece that will move ... you here, but something ok that you can enjoy,

[Very minor spoilers]

Short review, well if you even call this a review.

I believe there's a limit on how much you can use the same trope over and over again and frustrate the watchers.

Btooom is one of those animes where the concept is well plotted despite it being rather simple. Now the problem is that the 'rape' trope being so overly used that it's just irritating to keep watching any longer. They bring out the same shit over and over and over again, for what ever reason when you can use a different approach to progress the story.

And also the MC is dense as hell, like ... i literally can't relate to him one bit. Although the last few eps is when he finally realizes that he's naive and undergoes some progression, it still doesn't erase the fact that how he was in 80% of the show

Now to the positive sides. Despite feeling uneasy about the trope used and the MC as I just said, I still had the urge to finish the show, which I believe shouldn't be the case when you already did not like how the show was taking its turn (well usually you would just drop it right?).

The art and sound are also both pretty good, well since it's Madhouse, there's no need to talk about that really.

And finally the concept. This is what i believe greatly boosted my ratings up to atleast 6. The use of only bombs in a battle royale type of feat survival game or whatever you wnna call it, is pretty genius and intriguing tbh. The simplicity of the sonar + bombs, simple but still manages to bring out what it needs to.

Really just hoped that it was written better.

Its ok, but its a survival game power fantasy which had committed the cardinal sin of releasing the same year as Sword Art Online so it got overlooked. It pulls a deadman wonderland and leaves off in a place where you really want to continue but the chances of this getting a second season are as good as a pleasant smelling anime convention.

It has quite a full inclusion of genre tropes: amnesia, childhood friend (who wasn't good at the actual game but is supposed to be on the team with the best player in the world?), attempted sexual assault, op mc, and a few ... more.

Overall its average and if you want to see the ending you better buy the manga

"We All Chose You To Disappear".

How would our world be if such a game really existed?

Ryota Sakamoto is a NEET, "NEET= Not educated, employed, or trained", he likes to spend his time on online survival games, and one day he wakes up dangling from a tree to find out he is now a participant in a real-life survival game in a remote island.

Everything in this anime gives me mixed feelings. Survival games are an attractive idea for an anime but it has to be executed with high quality, otherwise, it'll flop. The story is interesting and can make you watch it in one session, but ... that's not the case here.
I watched this anime in three sessions in three days and can assure you that the second part (EP.7-12) is more fun to watch.

Here are some pros and cons:
- You will experience a lot of naivety and credulity through the 12 episodes, it really doesn't take you that long to realize that you are in danger and morals will not help you here, the strong eats the weak, that's the main rule in the jungle and you can trust no one but yourself.
- We didn't get to see A LOT of things, such as, who are these people in charge? And why they are doing it? Is it just for fun or is it a business? Will Sakamoto's idea of leaving the island be valid or will it collapse? Do people need a real reason to send people they hate to that island or does it only take a signature?
- The manga isn't that good which means that we probably will never see the ending of that story as an anime.
- The diversity in the fighting styles was well presented.
- This anime gives me Bollywood vibes with all the fake standards that apply to the main character, it's almost impossible to kill him and it's really annoying.

Ratings:
Story: 7.5/10. The story is so basic but unique. At the time of the anime release, we haven't yet seen a lot of survival game animes.
Plot: 6/10. Not much can be said about plotting this story, It was unique as I said but so predictable.
Main characters: 5/10. Super naive and basic. I know Sakamoto is a top Btooom player but when you go to the field you can't just become a jungle hero with a military training background.
Secondary characters: 8/10. One of the best things about Btooom is the differentiation and diversity in the characters.
Music: 7/10. Good opening and ending, and not bad OSTs and background music.
Fight scenes: 7/10. Fun and intense, but basic as a rock; the main characters always win and never get hurt and damage is minimum to them, while the same damage is fatal to the enemies.
Enjoyment: 7/10. Enjoyed it in general and have no regret for watching it and hope the next season drops soon
Overall: 6.5/10. Fine - Good

this anime had the biggest spoiler at the time, absolute bs. now i'm being told to write a longer review so i'm just waffling at this point so that i can submit this review without it saying please submit a longer review try.now i'm being told to write a longer review so i'm just waffling at this point so that i can submit this review without it saying please submit a longer review trynow i'm being told to write a longer review so i'm just waffling at this point so that i can submit this review without it saying please submit a longer review trynow ... i'm being told to write a longer review so i'm just waffling at this point so that i can submit this review without it saying please submit a longer review try.

THIS REVIEW MAY HAVE SPOILERS BUT THEY WILL TRY TO BE AVOIDED

BTOOOM! or just Btoom! as described above is about a 22 year old who plays a game and one day comes to find out this game he plays is real.

To start off, in all honesty this story is kind of a drag. The main character is on another level of "mediocre". He is a coward through most of the show and refuses to hurt anyone unless he absolutely has to. Now aside from the moral implications, he is almost killed a handful of times and almost gets others killed just as much. He for ... sure has his moments but those only come in twice maybe three times.

This show doesn't look the best but you have to remember that compared to anything recent or of its time its a night and day difference. This show was probably one of the better looking ones back in its time but In all honesty watching it early 2022 was painful on the eyes at some points.

Sound was very good, well as good as it can be the sound does not help the show much if at all. The explosions are nice and the natural and character sound design are amazing as well but it can only carry this anime so far.

Characters, oh god don't get me started. the main character is such a drag and once again as stated above does not do anything at all through the show unless his hand is forced. The secondary, character. is a highschool girl who is plagued by PTSD and mental trauma. Which is something that was rare to come by around then. Then the third character was just comic relief and literally loses his mind by the end despite having no screen time he makes a big appearance at the near end, the anime didn't give me enough time to have a huge emotional moment like the mc did.

Enjoyment overall was very slow and boring. there is a lot in this anime that doesnt need to be part of it or shouldn't have been added. Every moment can be considered important but this show just had unnecessary scenes and made it hard to watch with lack of any action in some drawn out parts.

Overall this shows premise is good but if remade today would not have survived long despite being known well by some people. I think that the anime would have needed some more polishing and story revisions before making it out.

To sum it all up, people may think this show is good, some may think its bad. but give it a shot. maybe youll like it maybe you wont. This is just my thoughts

[ The following review previously contained spoilers. They have since been edited out. ]
The following is an excerpt from the Deep Dive project:
- Btooom!
- Watched March 2022
- TV, 12 episodes, subbed
- Recommended (just barely)

What a journey this was. It’s been years since the last time I watched Btooom, and coming back to it was both pleasantly nostalgic and intellectually distressing. Can’t say I’ve ever had a rewatch go quite like this.

Watching Btooom for the third time for review/analysis purposes was a much greater undertaking than I could have ever predicted. I forgot some of the most egregious issues with the show and in essence, ... had rose-tinted nostalgia goggles on prior to this viewing.

Let me make one thing abundantly clear: many aspects of this anime’s production are amateur at best and insufferable at worst. I had completely lost it by the end, crying out in ironic laughter because I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Yes, it was so bad it came back around to being good, but that does not excuse the dumb anime bullshit on screen at the time. I’ll elaborate further in the spoiler section.

To begin, let me explain the surface details of the rather odd anime production that is Btooom. Visually the show is wildly inconsistent, ranging from good hand-drawn animation and good environmental detail to blatantly budgeted everything. Shot composition is below average most of the time, with a few notable exceptions in the anime’s better scenes. Overall the visual elements are barely passable, reaching some pretty epic low points as well as some moments of decent production.

Action scenes are all over the place, too. Many are decent or even good, others are just flat out bad and anticlimactic. These scenes are where the budget went though, and you can tell because suddenly Btooom starts looking really damn good. Nothing super standout here, but plenty of enjoyable moments with good animation and crazy mind games. I like most of the action in Btooom.

Also worth mentioning is the art style, specifically the character designs: they are excellent and in particular the way characters’ faces are drawn is interesting. In this show characters are decidedly less anime than usual, with smaller eyes and more realistic body proportions. It’s a good style that feels right at home in a gritty action anime. I am uncertain if this style was inherited from the manga, but I hope so; that gives the manga some appeal based on artwork alone.

Plot-wise, Btooom is above average, thankfully. The source material gives a good impression when viewed through this adaptation. Story beats are pretty good, characters are well-written overall, and the premise is strong enough to make for a compelling narrative. The anime’s best moments are the ones undoubtedly ripped straight from the manga. Much of the characterization in Btooom hits home, with moody, sublimely lit flashbacks conveying the defining moments of characters’ lives. Well-written internal monologue helps fill in the gaps for the audience, with key moments being greatly enhanced by this feature.

Unfortunately, decent source material is not enough to save a troubled production, which this anime undoubtedly had. Both main protagonists are inconsistent throughout the show, especially for the latter half of the anime. By the end it had become a running gag for me that main guy legitimately had brain damage due to head trauma. People just keep trying to kill him and he just keeps on refusing to kill them. It’s a bit of good guy syndrome, and I didn’t care for it at all. None of this broke his character for me, but I can see the inconsistent character writing driving more observant viewers completely nuts.

Main girl is no better. She makes a couple of questionable calls, does a bad job of having her partner’s back at times, and just generally is less than reasonable for most of the show. Our blonde heroine is a tsundere, too, but I do have to give credit to her being one of the better written tsunderes I’ve seen. She stays pissy for too long in my opinion but overall she is likable. Several of her moments are excellent, with good writing and character motivations. I appreciated the nuance to her character; she struggles a lot with her own demons, in a way that is believable. More on her, later.

Finally, as a last note on the characters, a word of warning: there is some fan service in this show. It’s not frequent but it is pretty extreme, as well as some darker themes of sexual assault also being explored in the narrative. Btooom is often gritty as all hell, so if you are a sensitive viewer you should probably pass on this show entirely.

The bombs that give Btooom its name are a grievance as well. They’re called BIMs, and they are the most inconsistent weapons imaginable. For the most part they aren’t very powerful, with a few exceptions. Small blast radius and low lethality at distance means that these explosives only work well at point blank range. Due to the difficulty of securing a kill, most players suck at Btooom. I guess that’s better than having people constantly trade and end up killing each other, but it’s a bit odd and leads to a lot of near-miss moments.

Moving on to my biggest complaint with the entire anime; the pacing. As stated earlier, I had a hard time with this rewatch. I am sensitive to bad pacing, and wow are about half of the episodes in Btooom amazingly slow. The amount of material that Madhouse decided to adapt into anime was just not enough, and the viewer is reminded of this fact frequently. Many scenes are elongated far too much, with several dialogue scenes being hit particularly hard. It’s a shame, too, because the script isn’t bad; just everything else surrounding it.

Btooom can basically be summed up as an experiment; one that went wrong in several areas. The experiment was using a woman named Kotono Watanabe as the director for the show. This was her first ever role as director, according to MAL, and I fully believe it. Unsurprisingly this was also the last anime she ever directed, as of writing.

Far as I can tell, that was for the best. Most of the issues with Btooom can be traced back to the direction. It’s hard not to place most of the blame on Watanabe when she is the common element in so many of the show’s problems. From bizarre shot composition to incredibly poor pacing all throughout the animu, there are too many instances of questionable directing to not submit the novice director as the core problem; especially given that around this time Madhouse was putting out some phenomenal releases in a similar vein to Btooom. All signs point to success, which just makes it all the more tragic that we got a lukewarm adaptation of some decent source material.

Brace yourselves, because I am a fan of the narrative but I despise the directing and production of this show. Btooom had so many good elements; heck, to the novice viewer it was even good! But just like sword art online, as soon as you start paying attention to what’s actually happening it all just crumbles between your fingers like sand. The directing here is so damn bad that it makes the show almost irredeemable. Almost. I still like Btooom. I just couldn’t bear to give it a five, even after all I’ve seen.

Ho boy do you see some shit in this show, too. [redacted spoiler] This is not kid stuff. [redacted spoiler] Yeesh, talk about extreme. Nobody tried to burn down crunchyroll in twenty-twelve when this anime dropped, but if it dropped today it would be goblin slayer’s release all over again; likely even worse.

I am never bothered by these scenes; not when they’re well-written and thematically relevant. It’s only when the assault is pointless that it gets nasty, for me at least. I always try to warn sensitive viewers, ‘cause there are an awful lot of them watching anime these days, for some reason. I think the outcry is mostly just happening because it’s trending. I’ve never seen a sexual assault scene I thought was bad enough to be pulled from television. That said, this is some R-rated shit - which crunchyroll said nothing about, by the way. There are hate threads somewhere, I’m sure. I just hope they’re not hating the show for what crunchyroll should have a content warning about. Weird climate in the community these days.

Hopping off of my tangent there, I really need to point out Ryota’s inconsistent character. He is the protagonist and a pro Btooom player from the video game itself. This dude [redacted] and he seems out of it for the rest of the show, ‘til [redacted] him back to his senses. It really felt like that to me, and was a running gag by episode eleven.

The heroine is a different story. Himiko is good overall, but there are a few flaws in her character that should have been ironed out during the adaptation to anime. They weren’t; nothing is ironed out. In fact, the manga is undoubtedly better than the anime, and I would go as far as to say that everything good about the anime was probably copy-pasted straight from the manga. Not a good showing for the staff of this production; Kotono Watanabe in particular. If she was a competent director the show wouldn’t have most of the problems it does. Everything should have been cleared by her, as the director. The other major staff are to blame as well, since they could have pushed to do a better job. These are Madhouse guys; they know what they’re doing on an individual level. As a production team they’re an appalling mess, however.

Himiko is likable to me. She was really the highlight of the cast, due to her being the first tragic heroine I’ve seen in ages that I actually thought was well-written and justified in her brokenness. Her tsundere makes sense, and the original author clearly thought about her character a lot. She’s traumatized from [redacted paragraph]

Her struggle throughout the show is fairly well done. [redacted] It’s tragic but also beautiful to watch someone fight so hard to overcome their past and get better. [redacted]

Some side characters are a bit cliche. Doesn’t really matter much though, since their time on screen is very limited. Taira is well done all the way to the end. He represents what a bad situation can do to a good person, and all of his character moments hit home.

The original author did have some trouble writing the narrative as a whole, however. The observant viewer can tell that the manga was written without a plan; in other words, without outlining the whole narrative in advance like an author should. Characters only enter the scene when they are relevant to current events; not as naturally as they could be introduced. There are a few flashback scenes later in the show that are awkwardly placed in the narrative, and would have made sense far earlier. Nothing terrible, but I did notice I was only being clued in at the last possible moment. It happened several times, during the final arc of the show. This, combined with the pacing, made for a rough viewing most of the time.

A notable issue with the writing itself is in the world building, specifically regarding [redacted paragraph]

[redacted paragraph] [ To read the full unedited review, please visit my profile. Otherwise, just be aware that this version of the review is incomplete.]

By now you’re getting the picture; Btooom is all over the place. It looks good for some action scenes, and looks terrible whenever the production team thought they could get away with it. Character writing is strong overall but inconsistent moment to moment. Both protags make bad decisions a couple of times each, which should have been avoided by the narrative since most of the time they’re not idiots. Ryo gets lucky too many times. There’s even a minor plothole in the form of [redacted]. All in all this is the most ‘read the manga’ anime I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t have a proper ending, and unbelievably they even set it up hoping for a season two. Not enough effort, guys. It wasn’t gonna happen.

Speaking of the ending; it was mostly good but ultimately got soured by the worst directing I’ve ever seen. Watanabe and crew made some bad calls up to this point. Ryo had an unexpectedly good monologue; too bad it was soured by erratic, shitty directing. Several earlier scenes were just flat out uncreative and low effort. But what happens during the ending takes the cake.

[redacted paragraph]

This finally broke it for me. I started crying out, first in disbelief but ultimately in laughter. It was just too stupid for my critical mind to handle. Watanabe just couldn’t let me get away without finally outright ruining a scene for me, and ultimately, the entire adaptation.


There’s so much to like about Btooom. I still like it, even after all that. I do still recommend this show, but only to those who know what they’re getting into. This adaptation ain’t great. It’s troubled by frequent budget animation, bad directing and poor pacing. The high points are enjoyable; the lows are inversely just as terrible. If you are willing to give it a shot and aren’t afraid of sexual assault in fiction, give Btooom three episodes and see what you make of it.

For recommendations, well, there aren’t a lot of good death games in anime. Go watch the first 26 episodes or so of Death Note, if you haven’t already. It’s less action and more thriller, but if you like death games you’ll probably enjoy it. Basilisk is a solid death game featuring two shinobi clans. Bokurano is a thriller with a hell of a twist that fans of death games will likely appreciate. Danganronpa and Gosick are both mystery thrillers, but if you enjoy tension and mind games in your anime these two will likely be enjoyable. If you still need more recommendations, go to my profile, click anime list, then click on the ‘thriller’ tag on anything I mentioned and it’ll show you every thriller I’ve seen. Good luck, especially if you’re a death game fan.

BTOOOM! seemed like the psychological aspect would work in the beginning, but it ended up being a power fantasy that barely makes any sense. For a show that is supposed to bring game logic to the "real world" and let the characters deal with the whiplash, it sure is lacking in realism.

Apparently, the main character, despite sitting around and gaming all day, is fit and very resilient. If there was any hint towards him exercising, I would let it pass, but there isn't. Despite that, he throws like an athlete with amazing aim, and can dodge as if he'd trained martial arts his whole life. ... There is a difference between aiming in a video game and throwing in real life, so it doesn't make any sense why the show tries to make it his main selling point.

His actually advantage in this situation would be knowledge of strategy and the mechanics of the game, not physical prowess. That would actually be interesting to see; how can he utilize what he knows about the BIMs, predict his opponents' moves, use tricks he'd learned during the countless times he'd played? Can he use experience to balance out his physical mediocrity and survive?

Instead, he goes on to be as oblivious as if he had only played the game that one time five years ago - very slow to grasp the simplest of rules, with irritating amounts of plot armor being the only thing keeping him alive. Genuinely, the sequence where he runs from the first enemy is painful to watch. It could've worked to explore the character's psychology in that situation, but it drags on for way too long. The viewer already knows what's going on and has to wait for the character to catch on - which leads to impatience and frustration, especially with how dragged out the segment it. That is some easy-to-spot bad writing.

I actually thought they were on to something interesting with the female character, but most of that is just fan service. The show sexualizing a character who hates being sexualized for a very real reason is pretty uncomfortable to sit through. On top of that, the show wasn't subtle with the "gamer meets his online girlfriend who is as hot in real life and they get together" thing. If they at least tried to work it into the plot, fine, but it was just more characters being idiots and not making obvious connections.

The show tries to be realistic with its psychology, and the characters are flawed which I usually like a lot, but if you combine that with bad writing and a general lack of realism, it makes it very hard to enjoy. There is no tension, all opportunities for actual drama and interesting concepts are squandered, and the plot is painfully predictable. Frankly, it's just boring, and not worth your time if you came here for the psychological aspects and a thrilling plot.

Overview:
"Btooom!" falls into the somewhat lesser-known genre of survival anime, where various people compete in an every-man-for-himself game where the only goal is to, well, survive, namely by killing all of the other contestants. Unfortunately, as far as examples of this anime I've watched go, this one ranks among the bottom of the list, with there being very little here to make it stand out from other anime of its kind, even if it's still not terrible by any means.

Story (6/10):
"Btooom!" revolves around a death game based on the titular fictional combat video game, where contestants have to kill each other using various bombs supplied ... to them, and take chips embedded in the bodies of the ones they kill. Why would anybody do this? Well, because they've all been forced onto a remote island, and it's only by collecting 8 such chips that they will be allowed to leave and return home. The protagonist of the series is Ryota Sakamoto, a 22-year-old NEET and one of the top players of the "Btooom!" video game, who suddenly finds himself on the island with no memory of how he got there. Soon after, he discovers that he's been nominated for the real-life version of his favourite game, and the person who sent him to the island was none other than his mother, who was tired of his unwillingness to do anything with his life and wanted to teach him responsibility. What's more is that pretty much every contestant was sent to the island because someone had a grudge against them, and this is apparently not the first time something like this has happened! Anyway, shortly after arriving on the island, Ryota bumps into a teenage girl called Himiko, who unbeknownst to him, is his fellow "Btooom!" player and in-game wife. While Himiko starts off distrusting Ryota (for reasons outlined in the Characters section below), the two ultimately decide to team up and find some way to get off the island while also killing as few people as possible.

Exactly how the death game works is explained well enough. Each contestant is given various supplies, with their main weapons being special bombs called BIMs (hence the name "Btooom!"). Each contestant is given one type of BIM each, though nothing is stopping them from collecting other people's BIMs after they kill them, meaning that overtime Ryota and Himiko are given access to more types of bombs in addition to the ones they start off with. What's more is that the chips embedded in their hands, in addition to serving as the very thing they need to collect in order to win, act as sonars which they can use to locate other players, either to stay clear from them or to set up ambushes. The pacing is also quite decent, with the first two episodes detailing Ryota and Himiko's home lives and them ending up on the island, as well as telling us the basics of what kind of characters we're dealing with. From there, the series generally doesn't stay in the same place for too long, with most opponents being defeated in no more than an episode or two.

If there's a serious problem with the story, it's that there's ultimately so little to it. Everything I highlighted in the first paragraph of this section pretty much sums up the entire plot, as there are very few twists and turns or things you don't see coming. In a way, it feels very much like the games of old, where excuse plots were the norm and the only goal was to kill everything in you path. All in all, even with the various backstories of the characters, the story never feels like it's anything more than a way to pit various people against each other and have them kill each other with bombs. It doesn't help that the various questions you'll almost certainly be asking yourself are still left unanswered even towards the end, like who the sponsor of the death game is, what he could possibly gain from doing all of this, and exactly how he and Ryota know each other.

Art & Animation (8.5/10):
"Btoom"'s visuals are definitely the best thing about it. The characters and environments are all very well-drawn, the animations are consistently smooth and the fanservice is basically non-existent give or take a few moments, of which include the rather infamous "Bim-Booby Bounce" scene. It's not amazing-looking, especially when you compare it to the likes of "Hunter x Hunter" or "Parasyte", but it nevertheless meets the standards that I've come to expect from Madhouse.

Sound & Dialogue (8/10):
"Btoom's" soundtrack is barely even there a lot of the time, and it's not uncommon for there to be long periods without any music at all. What's worse is that the music that is there isn't all that notable, and even the opening is passable at best, though the ending theme is a fair bit better. The only truly memorable track I can think of is the song that plays at the start of the final episode, "Exist", which just made me wonder why that wasn't the opening for all episodes. Similarly, the voice acting is good, but not fantastic. Tyler Galindo does a respectable job as Ryota, as does Brittney Karbowski as Himiko, and the dub has a decent cast all around, though nobody I would rank among my favourites. In short, everything about the sound design does the job it's supposed to do and little else.

Characters (6.5/10):
When we’re first introduced to Ryota, he comes off as pretty unlikable, being a selfish loser who spends all of his time cooped up in his room playing an online game and acting cold and indifferent towards his mother. Nevertheless, it’s clear as early as the first episode that he does have some morals, as when he first comes to the island, he’s horrified by the idea that he has to kill people in order to survive, as while killing people in a game is one thing, actually doing it in real life is quite another. As such, Ryota tries his hardest to avoid killing his opponents, generally resorting to disarming them or putting them in a state where they can’t harm him. Overtime, he grows to realise that the way he lived before coming to the island was just his way of running away from reality, and he makes steps to sort out his life, becoming a lot more selfless and mature as a result, as well as more pragmatic when it comes to fighting enemies. Ultimately, however, while I did like him (more so than any other character in the series), there isn’t really anything that stands out about his character, since many things about him have been done both before and better.

Then there’s Himiko, who can easily be described as Ryota’s opposite. At home, she is shown to be a friendly, if somewhat shy and reserved, girl. However, unlike Ryota, Himiko has no qualms with killing in order to survive, even saying at one point that everyone on the island is her enemy, especially men. This is due to the fact that shortly before meeting Ryota, she had to put up with men forcing themselves on her TWICE, once right before coming to the island and once after arriving. As such, she is understandably wary of Ryota at first, which certainly isn’t helped by the pretty bad first impression he made, though she does warm up to him overtime. That said, I often found myself very frustrated with her character, as her competence seems to zig-zag all over the place, with her being a badass one episode and a helpless damsel the next. And hey, if the idea of a romance between a 22-year-old man and 15-year-old girl sounds off-putting, I don’t blame you, because I personally found their romance to be kind of forced, especially considering how people act online is often nothing like how they act in real life.

Other than the main duo, there isn’t an awful lot I can say about the cast of characters without giving away spoilers, other than the fact that it consists mainly of a whole lot of villains, some sympathetic, others total psychos. And while these villains are given decently developed backstories, it means that you’re given hardly anybody to root for besides Ryota and Himiko, who as I already mentioned can be quite unlikable themselves. All in all, even with a fair amount of character development and good drama, the cast of characters never managed to get any higher than “average” for me.

Enjoyment (6.5/10):
“Btooom” can be quite thrilling and entertaining, especially with the variety of bombs making for a number of creative fights. Still, it’s obvious from the very beginning that the series is not for the faint of heart, what with Himiko being forced on twice over the course of a few days and a number of characters having really dark and depressing backstories. And while it doesn’t take away too much from the series, one must wonder what the characters hope to gain from escaping the island, since it’s shown that there’s nothing stopping them from getting sent back there if they piss off someone else.

Overall:
“Btooom” is definitely not one of the better examples of the survival genre. While the animation quality is great and the fights can be quite entertaining, the actual story is thin and underdeveloped, the characters are often hard to like and the sound design is nothing remarkable. Ultimately, I’d say it’s worth a look if the premise sounds like something you’d enjoy, but if you go in expecting any real depth, then you’d best be prepared to be disappointed.

Score:
6+8.5+8+6.5+6.5=35.5/50=7.1/10