Weiß Survive

Weiß Survive begins with a boy named Takeshi who sneaks into an old library behind his school to get tutoring from his beautiful childhood friend Michi. To his surprise, Takeshi discovers that not only is Michi smart and beautiful, she is also an expert Weiss Schwarz card player. When Michi makes a wish to find an opponent strong enough to defeat her, Takeshi and she get transported to another dimension called the Weiss Schwarz Battle Space, and the only way they can escape is for Takeshi to become the best Weiss Schwarz player. He battles against a trio of girls and a duo of guys ... (who reminded me of the main characters in Kuroshitsuji).

I had no idea what to expect going into this anime, I didn’t even read the synopsis, but my initial reaction was, “Yes! Finally, an anime that parodies card games like Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokémon!” Unfortunately, they didn’t make an allusion to either anime. The only reason I watched Weiß Survive was because people were comparing it to Baka to Test to Shoukanjuu (which I haven’t seen yet) and its 40-minute running time. Each episode is so short (2 1/2 minutes) that there isn’t even an OP or ED theme, which I was disappointed by, because I could only imagine how comical it would’ve been.

Despite the short episode length, I found the characters in this series surprisingly funny, especially the old man. I liked how, in the initial episodes, they broke the fourth wall. Apparently, there are some Persona references, too, but I didn’t recognize any of them, having not played the game.

The animation style pretty is much what you would expect from a concise comedy anime, with the characters going into a cute chibi form during battle; the production values aren’t very high, but it still works for an anime like this.

One interesting fact about the Weiss Schwarz game is that it is indeed a real-life card game that features decks with characters from existing anime, such as Fate/Stay Night, Nanoha, and Lucky Star –– although, we don’t see any of these decks in Weiß Survive’s first season.

If you decide to pass on this series, I can’t say that you’ll be missing anything significant. But if you’re a fan of short series, like I am, and don’t mind Takeshi’s perverted humor, this is a fun comedy to watch.

Weiss Survive is a short anime about a card game by the same name. The male protagonist, Takeshi, is introduced to this game by his popular female study buddy, Michi. Michi loves playing Weiss Survive, but she is tired of being so strong at the card game that she easily defeats all of her opponents. Shortly after stating this fact to Takeshi, the two of them are sucked into another dimension. Takeshi ends up all alone in a mysterious area surrounded by several doors. He goes through one trying to find Michi, but instead ends up finding a bizarre old man. This old man tells ... him that he is the Chosen One and that he must learn to play Weiss Survive and win against several other players in order to return home. Michi soon shows up to teach Takeshi how to play the game and the two of them work together from there in order to turn Takeshi into a true master at the card game.

Takeshi is your typical protagonist who only succeeds and is only even in this situation in the first place due to sheer dumb luck. He's very perverted and tends to caught up in staring at Michi with the old man on many occasions which all lead to him being kicked by her. Michi is your typical tsundere lead who beats up Takeshi many times and is used for plenty of fanservice along with the other minor female characters.

As for the card game itself, it makes absolutely no sense. They never say what the rules are (well they do, but they literally fastforward through it). Basically, there are no rules. None. It makes the original Yugioh anime seem chock-full of rules by comparison. They just send out as many cards each turn as they need to and combine them in whatever ways they want to destroy the other person's cards and get to Level 4 to win. The cards all look exactly like the person playing them except they have different costumes which vary from a shrine maiden to a blatant Persona reference.

The animation is extremely cheap. I can't even count on both hands how many times shots were used multiple times (just the sequence of Michi kicking Takeshi is used more than a handful of times in the first episode or two alone). The character designs aren't bad but they are just used to fit into a clear archetype. Still, it was interesting to see a character included who looked like he fit more into a shoujo anime than this shounen one. The soundtrack is completely unnoticeable, and the show has no OPs or EDs because of it's short length.

This is just a goofy anime. The plot is centered around a ruleless card game combined with some fanservice, a few occasions where the 4th wall was broken, a couple references to other anime, and a typical lucky pervert/tsundere combo at the lead. It's just a short 40 or so minute long anime that you can use to kill some time and nothing more.

The Weiss Survive anime is a show that I highly recommend to all people of all age groups, regardless if you like anime or not.

Let's start with the story: Weiss Survive brilliantly portrays clashing forces between asian highschool students and the struggle to maintain their mental capacity in order to escape a dimension that they have created for themselves. The story was very creative and I give it a 10/10

Now, Art: There was boobs and a beautiful old man. 10/10

In the sound department: Hearing the main character getting abused as well as the sexual innuendos that symbolize the struggles of communism was very enriching. ... The music was made by Hans Zimmer. That is a definite 10/10

Character-wise: All characters had looks and personalities that intertwined. In order to progress the story, the interaction between them all was vital and the struggle within their hearts was a 10/10 struggle

How much did I enjoy it? As much as masturbation. 11/10

Overall: Weiss Survive is a must watch series for everyone on the planet. The themes and story are great and character driven, and the show in general is very fun and amusing to watch. If I had to choose between a stripper and Weiss Survive, I'd choose Weiss Survive.

Final Verdict:
9001/10

Thank you for your time.

"Huh, where the hell is this place?"
The whole plot of Weiss Survive is a story about a boy named Takeshi who is whisked away into a world where he is forced to play a card game with his childhood friend Michi who is an absolute tsundere. With this anime being two minutes each, it does a fairly well job at explaining the story, however this anime is too quick paced and at times I don't understand what the hell is going on. Basically each episode is like a roller coaster slowly rising to the finishing point. The anime does an amazing job at keeping ... its viewer from dropping the whole thing like a bag of trash, but it can somewhat be boring to watch. Weiss Survives tries its very best at making the whole anime a total comedy act, while adding a touch of fan service and a tiny hint of seriousness. Even though the the storyline of Weiss is not the best, the people who drew this anime must have been fantastic manga artists because they did an extremely good job at creating the animation. It had exceptional effects throughout the entire anime.Its perfect use of shadowing, coloring, and detailing makes the art quite a sight for sore eyes. Well, I cant say much about the sound category because there really is not music or background music throughout the anime, theres not even the opening or ending intro, just plain old anime thats 2 minutes each. Well there was a very small music video in the anime that lasted about 15 seconds, but the singing was absolutely horrid to my ears. The characters main characters in Weiss Survive are Takeshi, Michi, and a peverted old man. Takeshi is often known as the "chosen warrior" amongst the people he battles along the way, he is your normal teenage boy who easily gets 'excited.' Michi is your average tsundere who is of course flat chested because you cant have a real tsundere without them having small boobies!And like all tsunderes she often abuses Takeshi in each episode. The peverted old man is technically an old fart who just guides and watches over Takeshi's battles, while dancing horribly and staring at the girls disgustingly. The characters in Weiss survive do not go through any type of character development throughout the anime. I really did enjoy the anime no matter how stupid it looked. So if you are a big fan on card games and comedy than I greatly recommend this anime for you.

Have you ever encountered a show that was difficult to rate because you didn't know what it was trying to be?

This is what I experienced with Weiss Survive.

As a commercial for the game Weiss Schwarz (which I love), it does a solid job of making you want to play the game. It isn't a Yu-Gi-Oh! quality story, but given that the entire "series" lasts 30 minutes that isn't surprising.

As an instructional video for the game, it fails miserably. They try to stick to the real rules somewhat, but they do such a horrible job of explaining what's happening that I'd be even ... more lost than I was when I started playing. Using Yu-Gi-Oh! as a reference, the best card game shows tweak the rules to make a children's game epic; this show just leaves rules out.

As an anime, it's...fine? I laughed quite a bit from the references to other shows and other gags, but most of the jokes are repeated in all 16 episodes and by the end just aren't funny anymore. I found it to have the right amount of ecchi (if such a thing exists).

Overall, I give this a 6/10. There are far worse ways to kill half an hour.

With only two minutes and thirty seconds worth each episode it starts out on a bad foot. Not that it gets any better from there. There is a plot however there really is no story, all it really is is just a general progression of events with scenes that have little substance to them. The premise is for a young boy to be pulled into an "Alice in Wonderland" realm, that is just as nonsensical, and to be some chosen worrier in battling via a card game that he has never played. He has his childhood friend Michi there to help him, who ironically is ... some master of the game. Now throughout this whole ordeal you watch them play a dueling card game against bazaar opponents, but at no point do you ever get and understanding of what the rules of the game are. Then at the end they wake up as if it were a dream. I sorry but the little time I spent watching this I want back. It was as pointless to watch as it was as a show. Chose any other card game based anime and it would be better. "Battle Spirits", "Card Fight Vanguard", "Yu-Gi-Oh", all better. Don't waist your time on this.