Subarashiki Kono Sekai The Animation

We always get the answer "Just consume (play, read, or watch) the source material instead" when asked if a certain adaptation is good or not. So that means it's bad, right? Well, most of the time, the adaptation will have a hard time living up to the original, due to various limitations, but it doesn't always mean that adaptation=bad. And that is the case in The World Ends With You: The Animation.

Anime-only watchers might feel detached about the story and the characters, because they'll be introduced to us on one episode and then we get to see them go after two to three eps. They ... had to fit an entire 25-hour game (according to howlongtobeat.com) into a 12-episode anime, so there really is no space for character development and proper storytelling. Video-game Neku is this snobby, unthoughtful loner who's rude to all of his partners because of his contempt for humanity, but they had to simplify his personality in the anime into this kid who just doesn't talk that much and gets along with others faster. The story's pacing is rushed and a bit off as well, but I'm surprised they included most of the subplot/subquests in the anime. Among other things, the Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer arcs were cut off in the adaptation, but there's not much of a use of that here, because the original purpose of that subplot is to introduce the minigame. So, for me, the adjustments and cuts they made are reasonable enough.

Another thing that may probably feel off for those who haven't played the game is the battles. I personally am not a fan of the constant shounen battles, that don't feel different from one another, because they feel empty and repetitive. Then they try to add emotion to these by making the heroes about to lose, but will be saved by the Power of Friendship, or something that anime like Pokemon use as their typical formula on how an episode goes. And the same formula seems to be used here as well, which could've been better if they at least give names to the moves, or show that some of these moves can evolve after a certain time, just like in the game.

"But wait, all of these criticisms, but you didn't rank this anime subpar?" Now let me geek out about the things I like about this show. When I watched the first episode, I'm not gonna lie, I was blown away by how they executed this adaptation. The art direction isn't far from Tetsuya Nomura's original art style of TWEWY (everyone is just not as skinny as they were in the game lmao), and the 3DCG looks just as good and doesn't feel off compared to some anime that use 3D. Even seeing the psych pins' moves, like Pyrokinesis and Piercing Pillar, made me smile, especially when they're battling in an anime version of Shibuya. Then, I got the chills when music from the game's OST, like Calling, Twister, and Underground, started playing, and when I heard some of my favorite seiyuu play as the characters of this anime. I also appreciate additional stuff that wasn't originally in the game, like how they added a scene of Eri buying flowers for her friend.

I may be rating this higher than most people because of nostalgia and my love for the game, but I honestly think The World Ends With You: The Animation is not that bad.

So, is it okay to watch this anime without playing the game first? Go for it if you have the time. Should you play the game? DEFINITELY, especially if you have more free time. It's one of the best video games out there and I'm not even exaggerating, because the game mechanics are very well-thought and the OST is just superb, especially if you're into Japanese rock and hip hop. If you could get your hands to a Nintendo DS or 3DS, play the original DS game for full immersion, but you can play that via Switch too, since that one's more accessible these days.

Many video game adaptations are really bad, but this is a rare exception. It's been a while since I've played the game and I barely remember most of the story, but I do remember having lots of fun playing it. So this is my biased review of this show, as a nostalgic boomer who plays old video games.

Often times if an anime has a video game source, you don't really get to feel any of the gameplay elements or even remotely grasp the atmosphere of the game. And it's to be expected as adapting the interactive parts of a game is difficult when you're turning ... it into a show, where you can't just ask your audience to flick the stylus or do something, this isn't Dora the Explorer.

How do you actually adapt the flicking of a stylus or the pressing of a button into an anime? Well they managed to pull it of, and that to me just by itself is impressive. The animation for game actions like "Psych" or "Scan" is actually really well thought out, and gives you something you don't get to fully see or understand in the original game.

This game was also among the earliest works to use Shibuya as a full setting. You can actually go and visit the game locations in real life. Of course since then, many other shows and games have also used it, as it is a famous place, but it was memorable to me as it felt like I could visit Shibuya without even leaving the comforts of my home. Unfortunately, you can't explore and search the areas like you did in the game and they do skip some of the iconic areas, but they do well to adapt most of the important locations.

The artstyle and soundtrack are really great. The game has always been praised for its unique artstyle and soundtrack and the show follows suit. I absolutely love the THICK outlines. It breaks the conventional style most anime have and goes for something different. The fight scenes are also really smooth and fluid, well-choreographed. Some would criticize this show for use of 3DCGI but those people are idiots. The use of 3DCGI is actually among the best I've seen in any anime. It's actually amazing how they can use it without breaking the unique artstyle the show has.

If there was anything lacking in the original game, it was that many of the story elements were left to text and it was up to the player's imagination to picture the scenes in their head. With the anime adaptation, we finally get to see many of the pivotal scenes that was just bland text on the screen in the game. That by itself is more than enough reason to watch the show even if you've already played the game.

We're 4 episodes in and so far I'm really enjoying the show. But then again, I'm watching this from my biased nostalgia perspective. So take this with a grain of salt as to me, I see absolutely nothing wrong with the show apart from it being too good of an adaptation for a video game.

While i am writing this review,i do it as someone who has not played the game,

So the plot is exactly as the sypnosis mentioned,its repeated but its done with variations in events as not to get repetitive even though the basics of the plot structure remain the same,althought even though i have not played the game i can tell some events are rushed to fit the 12 episode structure.

The character designs are unique and the art was great,i searched to see how the game designs look and they did very good in being accurate and looking good.There is quite a lot of CGI ... but its done very well and it fits very well with the rest of the animation,which is also good.

The VAs fit the characters very well and the music matched the style of the show and the opening/ending song was on the good side as well.

The main cast is fleshed out really well,moreso the main character Neku,although the villains are on the weak side as they were not fleshed out enough despite having motivations and enough presense.

Overall even as someone who has not played the game i can tell that a lot of things were rushed as you may have guesed from my review but as a standalone i believe the positives outweigh the negatives.

TWEWY is one of my favourite games, and I was initially very hyped for this anime adaptation. So far it's, uh, it's fine. Like most JRPG to anime adaptations it often doesn't do the original work justice, seeing a Tetsuya Nomura esc art style in an anime is pretty dope tho (with a little too much reliance on CG). Anyway, I'm no fancy reviewer, but I can say that all the substance feels watered down, often nessisary for an anime adaptation but it does make me sad. Another possibly subjective bit that bugs me is the selective usage of music, they have a killer OST ... at their disposal and I don't think it's gotten nearly enough milage yet. Still enjoying this, it is rather surreal that this anime even happened. I'm aware there's some opinion bias here, as I've already been exposed to the plot in full and went in knowing the first half would likely be somewhat slow much like the game.

TLDR; Good fun, I like, probably not great objectively but I'm just some jackass on the internet.

One of the anime's my boyfriend was looking most forward to this 2021! Let's get right into the anime basics.

Story; Neku, our sassy main boy, finds himself in the middle of Shibuya crosswalk. Not remembering a single thing (how he got there, who he is, and why he can hear everyone thoughts) "Noise" start attacking him. Luckily, Shiki Misaki (a strangely positive girl with a stuffed cat) tells him they have to make a pact to survive the "Reapers Game" for seven days or possibly get "Erased" by the noise and other obstacles in their way. Without much of a choice, Neku makes the pact ... with Shiki and is able to use Pyrokinesis and other powers he puts his mind(or pins) to. Along the way, the two of them run into a bunch of bumps in the road(Reapers, the Beat&Rhyme duo and their own emotions/feelings towards their past) but get to learn so much from each other that seven days just seem to fly by. Even after seven games, when the game was supposed to end, it ends up continuing because only one person from the game can move on. How does the story continue, does Neku learn that putting your trust in people isn't a bad thing and what happens to Shibuya?
I'm going to state this first... I didn't grow up with TWEWY game, BUT! I did play with my boyfriend (luckily it was two player on the switch) while watching the anime at the same time. Yes, the anime was missing a lot of content from the game (mainly small conversations, tin pin slammers (THANK GOD), Reaper convos/tasks and going into the shops/restaurants?) but it doesn't mean the anime was lacking at all.
Art; The animation suited the anime SO WELL! It reminded me of the game, and although they used EVERYONE's least favourite thing in the world apparently... AKA, CG... it still ended up looking SICK AS HELL!!! The noise looked freaky, they showed how large they actually were compared to their small human bodies and THE FIGHTS??? How could you not love them? Sound; OST was a beaut. Nothing else to say. Characters; Neku is a sassy turd, Shiki is a positive and sappy, Beat&Rhyme were cute AF and Joshua was his cocky and cheeky self. How could you not love them? Feel emotional when they feel pain, lose a loved one and see death right before their very eyes?
Maybe I loved the characters because I was playing the game alongside the anime (SHIKI WILL E MY FAV FOR LIFE) but I felt the character development was enough... I felt sad, happy and awkward at times while watching them!

Overall, I really enjoyed this anime. I think it was a great adaption of TWEWY game, and it's gotten me interested in watching more anime's that are based off of games! I would highly suggest this anime to anyone who has played the game, or just wants a quick and interesting watch!

Also... this might just be my suspicion, but I feel like they only made the anime now because the new game "NEO: The World Ends With You" is coming out soon (I'm pretty sure you can buy it on the Switch at this very moment). Even if this anime was only made to advertise the new game (or to remind people the game existed in the first place) I'm happy they finally animated such a fantastic story. (^3^)

Subarashiki Kono Sekai or The World Ends with You the Animation is based on the cult classic 2007 Nintendo DS game of the same name that saw a port to mobile, and later Nintendo Switch. The game developed and published by Square Enix was a master class JRPG with a really unique art style (Provided by Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasies Tetsuya Nomura) a gripping and emotional story about breaking out of your insecurities, meeting other people and expanding your horizons, after all; your world ends with you.

After its release in 2007, The World Ends with You garnered critical acclaim and regarded as one ... of the best JRPG's on the Nintendo DS. Which stands to reason? Why is it not that remembered or talked about? Despite critical acclaim, the game didnt do so well in Japan or worldwide for that matter because of its really polarising but unique combat system that requires FULL use of the DS's touch capabilities as well as controlling two characters using each screen. Besides the mobile port in th early 2010s and cameos in Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, The World Ends with You became a dormant franchise until the Nintendo Switch Port in 2018 and now after 13 YEARS a Sequel was announced as well as an Anime Adaptation of the first game, something fans have been clamouring for since the series inception. Now that Anime has finally arrived, so lets take a look at it :)

I have followed the development of the Anime Adaptation since its announcement, the project has been overseen by the original executive staff of the game and Tetsuya Nomura. There has been a lot of love put into this adaptation, all of the original voice cast has returned after all these years, the original composer of the video game has returned to score the anime too. Unfortunately, like most Anime Adaptations of Video Games, the show has only been given the standard single cour (12 Episodes) of run time as its just there to promote the video games. Which for a JRPG is usually not good. Looking at you Persona 5 The Animation and Danganronpa The Animation...

However, it is clear to me that this adaptation is different. There is clear love behind it, attention to detail and a solid attempt at trying to make the best possible adaptation under budget and episode count constraints.

STORY OVERVIEW (Spoiler Free as possible)

The World Ends with You follows a 15 Year old boy, Neku Sakuraba in the Tokyo district of Shibuya. Neku wakes up one day in the middle of Shibuya's Scramble Crossing with no knowledge of who he is or why he is here. Neku wakes with a black skull pin with him signifying he is a player in the twisted Reapers Game. Soon after waking, he realises nobody can see him, he is trapped at Scramble Crossing/Statue of Hachiko; surrounded by forcefield like walls at every exit. He receives a text message on his phone,

Get to 104, you have 60 Minutes
Fail and Face Erasure
-The Reapers

A timer imprints onto Neku's hand, counting down till the expiration of the allotted mission time.
Neku soon gets attacked by frog like monsters that he cannot fight back against until a strange girl runs into him telling him he needs to forge a player pact with her to be able to fight back against the Noise. The story follows Neku and his game partner through the 7 days of the Reapers Game, completing missions, battling the Noise and the Reapers, and discovering the true nature of why they have been chosen to participate in the Reapers Game.

I know this doesn’t sound like a particularly original premise, and it’s not. There are plenty of anime and games since 2007 that have used the 'Death Game' format; but there is a lot more depth and complex themes The World Ends with You tackles as it goes on that are not apparent at the beginning of the story.

STORY (Anime Adaptation)

Lets address the elephant in the room, the pacing. Hooo boy this is a doozy. Of course, 12 episodes means that things will be rushed, it is a given. However, I have minimal issues with the pacing thus far, is it a little jarring? Yes, absolutely. The entire first 1/3 of the game is covered in 3 episodes. While the first 1/3 of the game is shorter than everything that comes after, there is a lot of missing context and nuances that are unfortunately missing; however, in my opinion, that does not make this show outright bad by any stretch. The structure of the story has undergone some significant changes to make the story better flow within an anime format and for the most part, I think it succeeds.
Obviously, like with pretty much all video game adaptations into any other medium, the original source is the way to go if you want to experience the full story with all the detail and nuance. The way the anime has been handled so far I think has been pretty good, especially considering the constraints. It does a good job of making the story make sense while also providing all the key plot details for any newcomer to get a solid understanding for if they decide to jump into the new game coming this Summer.

As of Episode 4 the pacing has become MUCH better. Really the only terribly affected episodes of weird pacing are the first 3 that comprise of the first arc of the anime. This arc in the game was largely a tutorial and significantly easier as such, this was the arc to receive the most edits or cuts to give more time for the complex stuff later on. Episodes 4-8 have been pretty smooth and the final arc from 9-12 has been pretty good too.

ART/ANIMATION
The art style of the video game is highly celebrated for its unique art style that has not yet been truly replicated. The unique art was a number one concern by fans on if they would be able to translate it to anime and I am SUPER HAPPY to report that they have done a phenomenal job in replicating the art style. The anime is super colourful, each characters design is really distinct, locations have been brought to life and the characters retain their signature bold black outlines that make them stand out. The 2D animation looks fantastic, but the main concern is the amount of 3D CGI used.

CGI is used A LOOOT in this show and it’s easy to understand why, the unique and detailed character designs don’t lend themselves well to being drawn in chaotic battles in a timely manner for a TV Anime budget, as such for battles heavy used of 3D Character models are used as well as the Noise Monsters being completely 3D CGI.
Personally, I think the CGI for the most part is great, the CGI used for the human characters is phenomenally done, they still look like their 2D drawn counterparts and retain their great detailed designs. The Noise are creatures not from this world, they are meant to look weird and uncanny, and the CGI portrays that really well. Does it suck they are not drawn? Yes. But they could look a whole lot worse than they do and with how well the games style has been replicated I don’t have a problem with the CGI. It looks pretty good and the dynamic camera movements during battles also help to disguise any potential shortcomings of the 3D models or the animation itself.

SOUND
The World Ends with You has a PHENOMENAL soundtrack, anybody who has heard it will agree, it has so many bangers that still hold up over a decade later. The soundtrack was designed to reflect the current musical trends of Japanese Teenagers and Young Adults in and around Shibuya in the late 2000's and it shows even in the Anime. The original composer for the games has returned to score new tracks and remix old game tracks for the anime adaption. We have heard the tracks 'Its a Wonderful World' and 'Calling' (For the new OP in episode 1) used from the game. (I have a Archive Thread for what happened to the original opening 'Teenage City Riot' you can go read). With Twister taking the position of OP from episode 2 onwards. The opening is absolutely stunning in my opinion. It oozes the essence and style of The World Ends with You with every frame and despite this being another version of Twister to go along with almost 20 other versions, it is still welcome and as said before, its super befitting of The World Ends with You.

The music still holds up albeit sometimes not fitting but for reasons I mentioned in my archive thread thought that’s not really the fault of staff under the circumstances. Also the anime original tracks except maybe 'Walls' leave a lot to be desired compared to the games. There is an over reliance on a few tracks that becomes very noticable, I would name drop those tracks but the OST hasnt released yet. None of them are bad and they fit very well, but compared to tracks from the game like, Twister, Someday, Transformation, SHIBUYA, Detonation etc. They dont really hold a candle.

CHARACTER
For those asking why Neku doesnt come across as more assertive and dickish in this adaptation at the beginning? It is because in Japan, Neku is a lot more reserved than the english localised version. So far though, the anime is struggling with character moments. We are missing Neku's internal monologues which have so far made Neku come across as really boring and completely disinterested, like he was a person cast for the main character of a show despite his complete lack of interest in acting. This is purely because of the lack of time, Neku will improve as the show goes on, but his character is clearly going to seem a lot more disjointed in this adaptation. However, I understand why they have gone this route with Neku. Because Neku in the game is so shut off and disconnected it would not make sense with the runtime of the Anime for him to be as he was in the game to the same degree. It would be major whiplash for Neku to undergo such character change meant for 8-10 hours of game time plus, to be squashed into 1hr of Anime time. It would seem like majorly poor writing and unnatural character progression. Instead in the anime, Neku starts off more in the middle of his growth from the game, which while it makes sense for reasons mentioned, it still dilutes his character from the early 3-episode portion as he does not really have much room to grow or change, because he's already where he should be (Day 7 in game) just from Day 1 Episode 1.
Neku definitely becomes better as the show goes on but character is definitely not the forefront of this adaptation, thats not its goal. The goal is to tell the story for people going onto NEO who dont have access to the full game, remember, the anime is NOT replacing the game.

Shiki was great, the attention to detail with her was great, they directly used poses from her game sprites in her animation and it was wonderful to see. Shiki is her normal cheerful and bubbly self; her minor hero tendencies still show through. However again due to time, her character tick of always being in her mobile phone/deep in thought or just generally protective of her phone has been lost. The anime has handled Shiki's story as well as it could have imo and in some ways really improving on the emotion simply because unlike the game, we can experience all of these events in motion.

Beat and Rhyme are pretty good, their personalities have come shone through really well as well as the supporting cast of Reapers from what little we have seen so far. Episode 2 and 3 really helped showcase Beat and Rhyme in ways the game could not which was really nice to see and in particular Rhyme. Anyone who has played the game (or seen up to episode 3) knows what I mean with Rhyme, and my god the Anime has done such a wonderful job with her. Beat really gets to shine in later episodes and his personality is nailed, he's such a joy to watch.
Everyone's character designs are absolutely on point and are near perfect adaptions of their game counterparts.

ANIME ORIGINAL CONTENT
So far the anime has had several different scenes that did not appear in the game to ANY extent. Unlike a lot of other adaptations, in my opinion these all have been extremely welcome and fit the world of the anime adaptation very well. Bonus scenes with Uzuki and Kariya on what they do in their downtime or seeing Eri’s reactions to events I wont spoil. Even Minamimoto got a FANTASTIC anime original scene as his entrance to the Reapers Game as well as his battle being an absolute visually stunning sequence with a great mix of 2D and 3D Combat sequences. The anime original content featured has been some of the highlights of this adaptation as it builds off of things touched upon or not delved deep enough into with the game. Loving it so far.

OVERALL
This show is CLEARLY plagued by time contraints, like most game anime adaptations. If this is your first experience of The World Ends with You, it will do you well enough to use as a catch up for the main story beats leading up to the Sequel, NEO The World Ends With You this summer. However, if you are even remotely interested in this show and have not played the games? I IMPLORE you with all my heart to go play it if you can and give this series a proper chance. The series has a small but super dedicated fanbase and its taken us over a decade for it to truly come back and its too unique of a series to see go dormant again for yet another Final Fantasy or yet another Kingdom Hearts. (Development of the sequel was halted several times because staff were pulled to work on other FF and KH titles). BTW the demo for Neo The World Ends with You is OUT NOW for FREE on Nintendo Switch and PS4. It gives a good 2hrs with the game and fantastically introduces you to the character and style the games offer that the anime lacks. Its 100% worth your time and its free! Please give it a go if you can!

So far the anime is super solid and most of everything fans have wanted thus far, it hurts to see it rated so low because given the circumstances this is probably the best possible adaptation we could have ever gotten and there is clearly so much love with trying to translate the unique look and sound of the game to animation despite low episode count or budget constraints. It hurts seeing people compare this show to the likes of Danganronpa The Animation and the Ace Attorney adaptation because as a fan of all these series, its clear to see that Subarashiki Kono Sekai is a step above all of those adaptations and even still its rated lower than all of them.

I think fans of The World Ends with You in particular have set themselves up for disappointment because for an attempt at squeezing the game into 12 episodes, this has done a really great job at making it work so far. Were people really expecting a 12-episode Anime to showcase Reaper Creeper? Were you all really expecting it to show the memes scene when the whole shtick of the Anime is to bring the story out of the mid 2000s and into the modern day? Some people were seriously expecting information from the Secret Reports to be covered also? Like really? What were you all expecting? Even Tin Pin would have been a boring recreation of Beyblade, It works in game, not in the animation. The moment this was revealed to be 12 episodes, expectations should be in check. This adaptation could be a heck of a lot worse, and you all know it. Its jam packed with fanservice and even seeing all of these moments animated has been such a pleasure. Could it have been better? Absolutely! But I dont think a (currently) 5.96/10 is fair for the effort that went into adapting this as well as it did. This show deserves at LEAST a 7/10 in my eyes.

Anyways. Thank you for reading. Verdict so far...
With my TWEWY Bias 9/10
Without my TWEWY Bias 8/10

The World End With You is a game that originally came out for NDS and that game is a masterpiece in every way. This anime adapts this game, but with cuts in the plot and a CGI of more than questionable quality. For the rest, the characters, the soundtrack and the plot (leaving aside those cuts), remain almost as good as in the video game.

Honestly, I think that this adaptation is aimed more at those who have already played the game and want to see certain animated scenes, than at people who have not played it (and even less to those who do not know ... it).

This is why I choose to give it a 7/10. (The game is 10/10)

tl;dr: An anime that hits all the story beats it needs to, but in a pretty shallow manner.

Subarashiki Kono Sekai, known in English as The World Ends With You, was originally a DS game released by Square Enix in 2007. It didn’t sell all that well, but was a cult hit, and eventually that dedicated fanbase resulted in another game in the series being announced, NEO. There’s ports of the original game for mobile and Switch, but as someone who strongly dislikes touch control in games, especially action games, that’s not really an option. Thankfully, Square Enix also greenlit this anime adaptation. Thus, this review ... is from the perspective of someone that going in had little knowledge and no attachment to the franchise, but was interested in the newest game and was watching this essentially in preparation for it.

The story is centered around an anti-social boy named Neku who wakes up in Shibuya, but not normal Shibuya, rather something known as the Underground. This is where people who died in Shibuya are given a chance to participate in what is known as the Reaper’s game where teams of two participate in missions over a seven day period, wherein if they complete all the missions they have the opportunity to revive. However, Reapers and monsters they summon known as Noise stand in the way of said players. Furthermore, each player has whatever is most important to them taken as an entry fee into the games, which in Neku’s case is his memory.

The core of the plot at first involves just completing missions, but as it goes on it gets more complex, with a lot more going on behind the scenes. A good amount of this involves the systems for how the world functions and other background lore, though even in the end things were overall left incredibly mysterious. Solely in terms of the plot, it felt solid enough in terms of general flow with decent enough usage of surprises and twists surrounding the Reapers and the Underground. It wasn’t all that complicated in the end, or at least in terms of what was revealed in the anime, but it was decent enough.

An important element to note is that the anime felt like it was trying to show off Shibuya itself, but just didn’t put in enough time to do so well. There are a lot of mentions of landmarks and such and it also describes aspects of it’s culture, but it felt like it was mostly glossing over things. This is an issue because one of the core themes of the plot is that Shibuya is a place where lots of different people and viewpoints meet and whether that’s a good thing or not. But because it never really showed off that aspect of Shibuya, the conclusions reached regarding that question, which felt like it was supposed to be a pretty important moment, just didn’t have much impact.

More so than the plot or wide reaching themes, the focus seemed to be on characters and relationships. This aspect felt incredibly rushed in that it relies way too much on things like internal and external monologuing to convey character’s personalities, backgrounds, and motivations. There was a very strong sense of telling instead of showing. As a result of that, it’s really easy to understand the characters and why they’re acting the way they’re acting so it does convey everything it needs to, but it doesn’t do all that good of a job at getting the viewer emotionally invested in the characters, and thus things like character or relationship development don’t have as much impact as they should.

Despite the anime feeling like it was rushing in core aspects, it still felt kind of slow overall. The main reason for that is the action and how that entwined itself with the plot. Pretty much every time something important happens, there’s some sort of fight, even if that isn’t strictly necessary from a story point of view. I’d assume that’s something that was preserved from the original game, where game design in general tries to tie important story moments to important game play moments. But the thing is that the action is also really rushed. There is very little explanation given for how any of the combat works, and there’s essentially no emphasis given to ability growth or unlocking of new powers like you would find in a battle anime. As a result, a lot of the anime is just really quick really shallow fights which in general aren’t that satisfying or interesting.

The art style is pretty unique and as far as I can tell reflects the art style of the original game really well. The character designs and general atmosphere were also really solid. The art quality overall was also pretty good at using all this. The animation felt only okay though, and there was an over reliance on CG, especially during the action portions. The OP visuals are solid enough, but I’m not really much of a fan of the song. As far as I understand it, they had to replace the OP pretty much right before it aired due to a scandal with the artists behind what was originally going to be the OP song, so I guess it kind of makes sense for the OP song to not be that great. The track used is a new version of a track from the original game but the original was definitely better than the anime version, though I think the Dream Drop Distance version is the best one. The ED I thought had a pretty great song and decent enough visuals for an ED, though the difference in art style was kind of jarring. The soundtrack overall I found only okay, which surprised me as the soundtrack was supposedly a major part of what made the original game so good. Calling is pretty great, though Walls did nothing for me. Nothing else stood out as particularly memorable.

Should you watch this instead of playing the game? Hell no, the game is a masterpiece and this does not spend the time to fully capture the game. It would need around triple the episode count to be able to fully express how good the game is.

That being said, this anime is pretty. If you have played the game and love it, and are okay with watching a very pretty looking recap this is great.

My ratings are how the anime on it's own handles these various categories; the overall is how I think this anime is if you played the game, love it, and know ... what you're getting into.

I will make it short, this is a pretty mid adaptation

It feels really rushed compared to the game, and the ending is different and disappointing compared to the game's

However the animation is really good, the artstyle fits the characters well and the english dub, while not having the original VAs is still very good
It's an anime you'd watch for the animation, not for the plot as it's overall not a really good adaptation

It's still some great fanservice for fans of the game like me

Would recommend if you played the game and want to see some sick moves