Platinum End

Ever since he lost his family in an explosion, Mirai Kakehashi has lived a life of pain and despair. Every day, he endures abuse at the hands of the relatives who took him in. As his anguish steadily chips away at his will to live, he is eventually pushed to the brink. Prepared to throw it all away, he stands on the edge of a precipice and takes the leap. However, instead of falling to his death, he enters a trance where he meets a winged being who claims to be his guardian angel. Named Nasse, the angel offers him two priceless abilities and convinces him to go on living.

When Mirai experiences the marvel of his new powers firsthand, he gets a taste of the freedom that was locked away from him for so long. Armed with Nasse's gifts, Mirai is flung into a showdown with 12 other individuals, one of which will be chosen to become the next God. In stark contrast to when he wanted to end his life, Mirai is now prepared to do whatever it takes to protect his bleak chance at happiness, lest it be wrenched from his grasp forever.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Nasse Main

Ogura, Yui Japanese

Kakehashi, Mirai Main

Irino, Miyu Japanese

Hanakago, Saki Main

Ichimichi, Mao Japanese

Revel Main

Hanae, Natsuki Japanese

Mukaidou, Nanato Supporting

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Uryuu, Kanade Supporting

Ishikawa, Kaito Japanese

Yoneda, Gaku Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Nakaumi, Shuuji Supporting

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Balta Supporting

Midorikawa, Hikaru Japanese

Sokotani, Hajime Supporting

Maeno, Tomoaki Japanese

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Chino, Takatoshi Producer

Hagiwara, Ryousuke Producer

Saga, Hayato Producer

Reviews

Mar 24, 2022

danielsalt

Recommended

To put it plainly, Platinum End is… misunderstood.

There’s a lot to say about Platinum End – its concept and execution, its characters and their quirks and intricacies, its art and animation, its social commentary and outlooks – yet, Platinum End’s biggest flaws are Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata.

The two authors – story and art, respectively – of Platinum End. Chances are that nearly everyone that has read or watched Platinum End did so knowing, or perhaps solely for the reason that these two are the authors of Death Note. Platinum End will inevitably always live in the shadow of Death Note, considering its masterly writing ... and cultural impact - and it simply doesn’t have what it takes to break free from this label. This, however, is not to say that Platinum End should be seen as a successor to Death Note, which is what pushed so many people away from seeing Platinum End as what it is: its own story.

Back on track, Platinum End tells the story of Mirai Kakehashi, our MC, and eleven other god candidates - regular people that for one reason or the other, had given up on life and were on the verge of suicide, only to be rescued by their guardian angels, literally. Before you misread my tone, let me just say that I think the concept of Platinum End is brilliant: 12 people of different ages and contexts, all with their own unique struggles, dejections, and delusions, faced with a predicament of unprecedented severity, as only one of them is set to hold the very future of humanity in their own hands. Perhaps cliché, but brilliantly set up.

As the story goes on, we are presented to more characters and villains, each with different motives and goals, as rivalries and alliances begin to form. Characters like Mukaidou and Kanade give us compelling yet justified perspectives on a convoluted mess, while characters the viewer is more familiar with, like Mirai and Saki, show us a side of the coin which may not be as enthralling, but show a sense of humanity and composure that the average Shonen viewer might not be ready to embrace. Characters’ motivations are often simplistic and one-dimensional, yet they’re cleverly presented in a way that reminds us that humans are simple-minded beings. Nowadays, many shows will try too hard to find glamorous meaning behind characters’ actions, to a point where characters lose their authenticity. However, Platinum End succeeds in telling us an extravagant story, where the characters are nonetheless human.

The category where Platinum End truly fails to bring out its fullest potential, is the animation itself. It pains me to see Obata’s art in Death Note, animated by Madhouse, 15 years ago, look so alluring compared to whatever ‘Signal.MD’ (who?) put together for Platinum End in this day and age. Thanks to Obata, the art and characters in Platinum End look great… as long as they stand still. Not only is the animation subpar, but the studio somehow managed to use every tool in the box to make characters that are on the brink of their demise look even more lifeless than their own rotten souls.

Other aspects of the production of Platinum End are satisfactory enough not to hinder the viewer’s experience. The soundtracks and background art are sometimes somewhat dull, but they complement Obata’s art well enough, and the opening and ending sequences are surprisingly amusing, particularly the opening, with the second ending being an upgrade from the first. The occasional fight scenes are nothing to applaud, but they keep the tension high and are backed by adequate sound effects and soundtracks.

Overall, I think Platinum End deserves credit for giving the viewer a story that surprisingly manages to keep them on the edge of their seat, with well-timed cliffhangers and skillfully maintained tension throughout the length of the show’s run. Some aspects of its production weaken its impression but are backed by solid story writing and well-founded characters and contexts that keep the story fresh, and the viewer engaged.

Story: 9
Art: 6
Sound: 7
Character: 8
Enjoyment: 9
Overall: 8

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 21, 2023

spectre699

Mixed Feelings

Ok so unlike most (if not everyone) who watched this, I didn't see a single episode of death note when I was watching this, I just know the characters and the "write the name of the one you want to die in the notebook" trope, so I don't really have any idea or expectation when I was watching this, there's nothing I can compared it into.

Like the other guy said, I see most people diss this just because of death note but that's not the case for me, I enjoyed it and in the first part of the series, I was seriously considering this as ... my anime of the year, then the second half disappointed me but I still enjoyed it, it's just that I kinda don't like the ending that's why I put this in mixed feelings even though I rated it this high.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Mar 24, 2022

Mcsuper

Not Recommended

It seemed interesting, that’s the attitude I had towards Platinum End when I decided to watch this show. Now that’s it’s done, I’m probably better off to be honest. This had some promise early on, but quickly that sentiment left. Despite having a comparatively stronger second half, the ending does not make it worth it. Unfortunately, there isn’t much good to say about this show, so we’ll briefly go over it.

By the way, were you expecting something as good as Death Note? Ha ha.

My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

STORY: 2.5/25

The narrative started out pretty interestingly, ... but it quickly became very dry after that. If we’re talking about plot points, everyone probably expected most things to happen, and were correct. The things we didn’t expect to happen are plot points that just don’t make much sense. The entire God Selection process was not explained very well, as it seemed like they made a lot of things up on the spot for plot conveniences, and that does not sit well with any watcher.

The pacing… let’s talk about that dumpster fire. In my opinion, this show could have been over and done with much quicker. Some episodes and fights last WAY TOO LONG, especially the one of Metropoliman near the end of the first half. We’d have entire episodes of fighting, then just get left at yet another cliffhanger. The numerous episodes of build up usually amount to not a whole lot, and that’s just tough to see.

ART: 3.5/10

Some parts look good, but most look very below-average to me, the art style just isn’t very well done in general.

MUSIC: 8.8/10

Practically the only thing I enjoyed was the music, especially the opening and the two endings, as those were nice high quality tracks. Yuu Miyashita’s ending was amazing and if you haven’t listened to it, go give it a listen.

CHARACTERS: 2.6/20

I know everyone hates our main character Mirai, but he’s not even my least favourite character. I suppose I will talk about him first. Yes, he’s indecisive, has weird morals, talks and thinks for too long, but he doesn’t do anything inherently bad. It’s the inability of writing interesting characters in general that brings this show down. The female characters were especially poorly written, especially Saki and Yuri. I have no idea what Saki even did in the story except give doubt to Mirai’s every move, and exist as a cheerleader. The romance between Mirai and Saki felt so forced as well, as I couldn’t really pinpoint any reason behind it. Yuri was so annoying to watch, but relatable in the sense of some people, but the things she says… so tough to listen to.

It’s not all bad though. The characters that were at least interesting to watch would be Mukaido and Yoneda. They have good ambitions and interesting dialogue, and kept my attention to the show at least a little bit. Their morals and goals at least kept this show watchable.

The angels were fun to watch, but they didn’t have much of any solid dialogue to keep things interesting.

ENJOYMENT: 2.5/15

Little ups, huge downs. At least the second half improved a bit.

THEMATIC EXECUTION: 2/20

They called this a drama, psychological show? This show does those themes no justice, and I checked out very quickly because of that.

OVERALL: 21.9/100

Probably one of the worst shows I’ve watched in 2021 and 2022, as it’s a poor showing of what a psychological anime (a genre which I usually enjoy a lot) should be like. Tough to recommend this one to people, I wouldn’t even say it’s so bad that it’s good. It’s just plain and simply not enjoyable.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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