Togainu no Chi

Togainu no Chi is an embarrassment.

It is an embarrassment to Nitro+, the producers of the source material. It is an embarrassment to A-1 Pictures, who have proven with titles like Birdy the Mighty DECODE and Ookiku Furikabutte that they can do better. But the most tragic part is how horrifyingly embarrassing it is to the BL genre and its fans. The genre, despite its booming popularity and flourishing diversity in manga and doujinshi, suffers greatly somewhere in the transition to animation—for some reason, the anime industry doesn’t like the genre very much, and even hugely popular titles are treated to adaptations with cut corners and ... tight budgets. This does nothing to improve the reputation of BL, whose detractors dismiss it all as shallow, pandering garbage, insulting and even offensive to actual homosexuals; and its fans and followers as noisy, awkward high-school girls of unrefined taste with no appreciation for the finer points of artistic pornography.

Togainu may be the greatest slight to the reputation of the genre yet.

The story is simple (but don’t let the story know that—it carries itself as though it is the most sobering parade of man’s inhumanity to man since the last time someone made a holocaust film): in the not-so-distant future, a third world war has split Japan into two fractions: one which has been civilised and rebuilt (of which we see very little), and another which is a lawless wasteland. The main character, Akira, is some kind of professional street fighter in the more civilised region before he is falsely accused of murder. While awaiting trial, a strange woman offers him freedom on the condition that he move to Toshima, the lawless region, and participate in some kind of battle royale. The prize is, from what I can gather, leadership of some kind of illicit drug company, which the strange woman wants to take down from the inside.

You may have noted that my plot description is rather vague. That’s because, even after completing the show, I’ve barely been able to string together a series of events. The show is a clusterfuck. Firstly, the backstory—the splitting of Japan—is never mentioned in the series itself. I learned that from the plot summary on MAL. In retrospect, the opening narration of the first episode—delivered by an utterly bored, slow, monotonous and uninvolved Takumi Yamazaki—was probably describing the war and the proceeding division, but if it is, it’s through a metaphor so thick and incomprehensible that it’s completely nonsensical if the viewer is not already familiar with the plot (a point which I’ll return to later). Every episode opens with a similar narration, each slathered liberally with “metaphors” and “analogies” and other such things that the scriptwriter smugly pats himself on the back for remembering from secondary school, and none of them are any more meaningful than the others—and once the character n (pronounced ‘Nano’), who has been providing these narrations, enters the story, the viewer is treated to the same half-assed pseudo-depth in his dialogue.

Speaking of n, let’s take a little break to talk about the characters. Though the show boasts a fairly broad cast, the scriptwriter (or, possibly, the author of the original game) actually only knows how to write three kinds of characters. Akira, n, and Shiki all share a personality (or lack thereof): they are dead-eyed, silent, constantly bored, and rude and dismissive to even their comrades (but it’s okay, you guys, because they all have dark and tragic pasts that are never explained). Keisuke, Rin, and Motomi also share a personality: the ‘team cheerleader’, a ray of sunshine in dark and gloomy Toshima (maybe it wouldn’t be so dark if the animators didn’t airbrush solid black onto every frame). And every other cast member shares the third personality: annoying. Oh, sure, they have little traits and quirks slipped in to make them seem different—Shiki kills people, Rin acts like a twelve-year-old-girl, Arbitro partakes in gay orgies (I’ll also return to that later)—but they have such a lack of real personality, motivation and relationships that they are impossible to sympathise with or really feel anything for.

Shiki is supposed to be an ominous antagonist, but all he really does is wield a sword as opposed to a knife (like most of the cast) and wear black leather. Kiriwar and Gunji are supposed to be fearsome opponents whose quarrels provide spots of comic relief, but they’re so unfunny and so unintimidating that they feel more like a waste of time. And so on and so forth for every other cast member. I’m willing to forgive Akira’s lack of personality, to an extent—though I haven’t personally experienced the visual novel, the role of the protagonist in a BL game is usually little more than a cock magnet. That said, the scriptwriter could have at least tried to be flexible.

The series, with its convoluted writing that seems almost as if it’s trying to be harsh and unwelcoming to newcomers to the franchise, appears at first glance to be pandering to the game’s diehard fanbase. Yet, simultaneously, it drives off the diehard fans by stripping the story of all the naked, sweaty man-humping for which it is so beloved. In the anime, explicit homosexuality and eroticism becomes the exclusive property of the antagonists—Arbitro wouldn’t be such a wildly offensive depiction of the ‘depraved homosexual’ if he wasn’t the only character having actual gay sex. In this regard, Togainu fails for the same reason most eroge adaptations fail—when stripped of its sex appeal, the story is left to fend for itself, and it often does not fare well. But the difference between Togainu and a series like, say, Akane-iro ni Somaru Saka is that at least AkaSaka still makes time to denude its ladies and reward the viewer’s patience with gratuitous underthings and bare flesh. The cast of Togainu rarely, if ever, removes so much as a glove.

Which is probably for the better, considering to my next point: the animation. The horrible, awful animation. Togainu is hugely popular within the BL fandom and one would expect it to receive a lavish treatment—which it seemed to, when the PVs and opening animation were released. The opening, set to a Hot Topic-core J-rock number by GRANRODEO, boasts smooth, dynamic animation with thick, bold lines; the promotional videos were montages of exciting, intense, fast-paced fight scenes. At a passing glance, the animation seems, if not cutting-edge, at least impressive and visually stimulating.

Then, the series itself begins: Togainu seems to be funded on the contents of A-1 Pictures’ swear jar. The low frame count and complete absence of attention to detail could pass in a slice-of-life series, but in an action-heavy show where hand-to-hand combat occurs at least once per episode, it’s inexcusable. Backgrounds are plain and lifeless; every scene is deeply saturated in grays and greens and, for indoor scenes, browns. It’s one thing for a series or a scene to stick to a limited palette—it can draw the viewer’s attention to certain details or emphasise a mood—but it’s another thing completely to make every frame so dark that the show itself becomes a chore to watch. Oftentimes a black shadow will be cast across half the screen: sometimes it’s used as censorship, but more often it covers parts of characters’ faces or even (on multiple occasions) the entire screen, leaving only one corner visible. This, combined with the three-month delay in DVD releases, leads me to believe A-1 may be pulling a SHAFT here: Togainu is simply unfinished, and the DVDs will contain retouched and even re-animated scenes.

Character models may as well not even exist for as much as the animators pay attention to them—characters often look unrecognisably different between scenes and even frames. Togainu has one of those particular anime art styles where small facial details such as eyelids and Cupid’s bows are outlined. This style is popular in manga, and it doesn’t feature in anime so much because faces must be very carefully proportioned—when they are not, they look freakishly distorted, as they often do here. When characters experience emotion, they talk or narrate about them rather than acting them out (this is because action costs money). This show is just as fond of Dutch angles as Battlefield Earth and misuses them almost as much. Action scenes are handled clumsily, to say the least: when stabbed or even lightly grazed, characters explosively spurt gallons of luminescent red Kool-Aid. In the show’s grand finale, the animation somehow finds a way to get worse, and awkward angles and slow pans over clouds and cityscapes are set to the soothing sounds of metal scraping against metal and characters grunting in pain. Then, the camera remembers where it’s supposed to be, and cuts back to characters grievously injured or bleeding copiously. “There’s a really kickass fight going on,” the animators reassure us, “but we just can’t show it to you.”

The show’s soundtrack is, surprisingly, one of its strong suits. The show swaps ending themes every episode, and the always reliable Kanako Itou provides no less than three of them. Itou’s numbers are upbeat without losing a dark, mournful atmosphere; the other ending themes are mostly forgettable (but not bad) J-rock numbers. The background music, on the other hand, runs the gamut from listenable, even pleasant, to absolutely grating. One of my favourites is a slow, mournful guitar piece with a soft electronic beat, and I’m also fond of the crunching hard rock that plays during the first fistfight of the show. A good number of the tracks sound like the show is tuned to an early 90’s grunge radio station—whether that’s a good or a bad thing is up to you.

Togainu sports a cast of big-names, but seems not to really know how to use any of them, haphazardly assigning them parts they’re not suited for. Jun Fukuyama as Rin is one of the more upsetting choices, as high pitch is not Fukuyama’s fote. Kishou Taniyama sounds strained and forced as Gunji, and (as I’ve mentioned before) Takumi Yamazaki as n could not possibly sound more bored and slow if he tried. Most of the rest of the cast—Tomokazu Sugita and Hikaru Midorikawa especially—have much greater ranges than the show gives them credit for, and, though they perform competently, it’s a shame they weren’t really utilised.

Most hentai is better animated and better scripted than Togainu no Chi. In fact, Togainu should have been released as a direct-to-DVD hardcore title. It still would have been terrible, but at least there would be cocks involved, and the show wouldn’t get lost in its own pretentiousness so easily. It doesn’t matter what you’re watching the show for—everything’s been done, and better, somewhere else. Looking for a plot-heavy BL series? Watch Loveless. Edgy, bloody, post-apocalyptic action? Highschool of the Dead’s a recent title. Grimdark drama with touches of sci-fi and supernatural? Any (good) Nitro+ adaptation. Togainu no Chi is a slight to its genre and, hell, the anime industry itself.

Watch something else. Watch anything else.

To those who read and enjoyed the manga (which is a thousand times better than the anime), then you might want to think about avoiding this. I loved the manga, so I was really excited about watching the anime. As I finished the anime, I was annoyed at how awful it was.

What they did wrong:
They basically made everyone a pretty boy, even the guy that was supposed to be an old hairy man (though technically the BL game has all the characters very feminine). While the manga had a plot, in the anime they just like threw it all around. I was able to ... understand what was going on since I had read the manga, but I feel for those who didn't they were probably very confused. They basically butchered the plot, and didn't even really develop the characters all too well. I was just very disappointed at how the entire anime was either slight fan service or just flashy bits with loud obnoxious background music. At times I felt like I was watching a soap opera at how much stupid drama was going on.

The Animation:
Okay. So at first I didn't think the animation was too horrible. But when the last episode came around, my mouth was just sort of hanging open. For some fighting scenes, they'd just basically focus up on the sky for a good chunk of time, while you could hear the sound effects of battle. Seriously? Cheap as heck. I also personally REALLY hate closings that are basically just a replay of parts of the episode. The opening wasn't too horrible, but I think it could have been better organized. As I mentioned before they made everyone basically look like a girl. I think I would have at least enjoyed it a bit more if everyone wasn't all sparkly with woman lips.

The only good thing:
I know Togainu No Chi is based on a BL game. In the manga there is basically barely any BL hints in it, so it was nice to see some action in the anime. Other than that, I can honestly say that I found nothing really super about this series.


Final words:
If you read manga, and are thinking of watching this anime. READ THE MANGA FIRST. Please. Or else you will basically think Togainu No Chi is the biggest pile of garbage ever. I am probably going to re-read the manga right now to clear my mind of how horrible the ending of the series was.

Quite simply, Togainu no Chi is the kind of awful show that you just keep on watching. The animation is awful, the direction is sloppy, and the whole thing is just kind of trashy. It also takes itself way too seriously. And, yet, I love it. It's just so bad it's good.

My only real criticism, since all my other criticisms are really just part of why I love this piece of crap, is that the BL is really light. But, hey, maybe it'll get better in that regard.

The word you need to think about when watching Togainu no Chi is potential.

The story revolves around a guy named Akira who is accused of a crime he didn’t commit. He is offered a path to freedom if he agrees to participate in a competition called Igura, and takes down the undefeated Il-re. This is all supposed to take place in the chaotic area of Toshima, where everyone lives by an “eat or be eaten” mentality.

Premise 8/10: Like I said, it had potential. I was based off of the storyline of some pretty popular games, whose plot was pretty solid. The plot, by itself, gives ... off an air of excitement and danger. There’s violence, drug use, conspiracy, etc.

Writing 1/10: It saddens me to say this, but this anime didn’t deliver in terms of the quality of writing. The dialogue was awful in places; really awkward and unbelievable. The pace was not well thought out. In the first few episodes, nothing happens, and then, you can almost see the writers trying to cram the rest of the story into the last few episodes. The writing created noticeable plot holes. If you didn’t know already, the original games did have some male/male content, but the manga did not. A-1 managed to make it awkward for both sets of fans. I lack the ability to articulate/explain to you how they managed to do this, but it really was eye-roll worthy.

Character 5/10: They seemed interesting enough when introduced. Each character has gone to Toshima for different reasons, and being kept in the dark about their motivations adds to their mystery. Unfortunately, they are never given much depth, even towards the end of the story. There is also the big problem of characters doing things that don’t seem in line with their personality. There is unjustified character derailment by both the main character and several supporting characters. Plus each character's motive becomes so vague, it's difficult to tell what they're fighting for.

Art 4/10: The art varies from episode to episode. I think the key word here is lazy. Sometimes it’s ok, other times, it’s barely passable. The art for the trailer and opening are lovely. I really wish it was the same for the series.

Animation 4/10: Lazy. Not enough frames, poor transition, bad angles, and many mistakes. Sub-par.

Music 8/10: There is a lot of music in TnC. It’s one of the few things that sells the atmosphere of Toshima. There is a different ending song for each episode, most of which are very good. If you’re into J-rock/visual-kei, you’ll probably like the soundtrack. The opening is nice too.

Overall 4/10: This saddens me because I was really looking forward to this anime, and set out to watch it with an optimistic viewpoint. Fans of the game will be disappointed; anime fans will wonder why they wasted their time; BL fans will lament at the destruction of what had the potential to be a STAPLE within the genre.

When Togainu no Chi was announced, I was put before a tricky choice either to watch it or not. On the one hand, this anime is based on a visual novel created by Nitroplus, the company I mostly like. But on the other hand, it is BL. Well, I considered this issue carefully and finally thought: “Bah, I bore with relationship between von Lohengramm and Kircheis from Legend of the Galactic Heroes, so I have some ‘just do not give a thing’ skill. Let’s roll this party!” Yep, I decided to cross the border and take a light step to the dangerous territory of fujoshi. ... I’m telling you all this just because I want you to understand, that I don’t belong to the target audience of this anime, so my review can be a bit out of place. It’s probably more like a random passer-by telling other random passers-by what to expect here.

And with that matter cleared up, let me start with technical aspect. The soundtrack is done splendidly, with rocky and upbeat background music during action scenes becomes atmospheric and heartfelt when the pace slows down. Each episode has its own ending song, which is great, because this way sorrowful episode cannot be ended with some out-of-place jolly music.

On the other hand, visual part is dreadful. This is not how you do things in 2010, A-1. Distorted faces and bodies, cheapo choppy animation… Togainu no Chi has a lot of this stuff. The show is only 12-episode long, so such amount of *quality* is not excusable.

The plot leaves much to be desired too. It just goes in circles, with their radii changed by dei ex machina: random events happen, characters suddenly go nuts and all other things, which make you wonder, what the hell the script writer was doing instead of his job. (Light spoiler follows here; proceed to next paragraph, if you don’t want to hear it.) For example, one character barely avoids death in one episode only to turn into the furniture, to have no plot significance and screen time and then to be killed in one of the dumbest and meaningless scenes ever. That’s just fascinating.

Another thing I want to say is that Togainu no Chi has a nice cast of seiyū, but still utterly fails in voice acting. Firstly, Shiki voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru-shi. His typical role of bad-ass anti-hero at the first glance, but then it turns out that Shiki has no personality. He just wants power. Why? Because power is cool, dammit, are you dumb or what? And thus Midorikawa-shi had nothing to use his skill for, so it was disappointing. Secondly, Rin voiced by Fukuyama Jun-shi, who has an awesome voice range, which is completely not utilized here. I don’t get what was the point of hiring Fukuyama-shi to speak with high pitch — that could be done and probably done better by a lot of other seiyū. And lastly, Keisuke voiced by Sugita Tomokazu-shi. Well, at least he has his good moments, but his character still prevents him from using his talent to utmost. Concerning other characters, I especially want to mention Nano, the mysterious person who speaks in cryptic lines, which quite possibly are not intended to contain any sense at all. Plus his seiyū uses really weird intonations, so Nano was driving me mad every time he showed on screen. I just hate him.

And two words about BL part. No, really, is Togainu no Chi really based on a BL game? I think it has as many BL scenes as, for example, Code Geass. I mean, there is some tension sometimes, but nothing more. So the whole point of my hesitation about watching it or not was meaningless. Togainu no Chi is definitely safe for work for male audience, and I feel sorry for all fujoshi who were looking forward to this anime. Really, girls, I heard that the original novel is highly regarded in your circles, and I know what the mental anguish dealt by a poor adaptation is, so hold on there, okay?

Sigh. Putting aside the music, the best part of Togainu no Chi were Mahō Shōjo Madoka★Magica advertisements aired within it. And when actual show is outrun by commercials, you know immediately: this is a bad show. It is terrible, disgusting, detestable, repulsive and every other synonym one can come up with. And that is what Togainu no Chi is. The worst thing I’ve seen for a long time, and even 4 points I gave it were probably too much.

When Togainu no Chi was first announced, I can honestly say I was incredibly excited. What more could I possibly ask for? There is nothing quite as satisfying as watching attractive men fighting each other and engaging in a wide array of homosexual actions.

Unfortunately, the only thing this anime has to offer is mind-numbing direction and plot, as well as the most uncreative and dull color palette seen in anime since Death Note. If you ever feel the desire to watch this, you had better have an unnatural love of the colors red and gray.

To be honest, I feel a bit ashamed giving Togainu no ... Chi the generous score of 2. The only good thing this series had going for it was Jun Fukuyama, although it is sad that his career will ever have to carry the red and gray shit stain of this anime.

You should not watch Togainu no Chi. If you are looking for homosexual subtext, there are plenty of anime that do it much better. The characters are bland and annoying. The soundtrack was entirely forgettable. The animation, when there was anime, was so hilariously terrible and awkward I felt embarrassed while watching it. The show was riddled with off-model character shots I sometimes felt as if I was watching something drawn in Microsoft Paint. Don't even ask about the story, because there isn't one.

If, for some ungodly reason, you decide to watch Togainu no Chi, I suggest you drink plenty of alcohol and stock up on a myriad of recreational drugs, although I cannot guarantee they will make the experience any better.

I have to say, Togainu No Chi really got me hooked at the first two/three episodes but as it went along, the storyline and everything started to fall and I have never hated a finale of an anime so much than TnC's episode 12.

At first, I really liked how they introduced Akira and the beginning of the storyline. It was decent and could be caught up quite easily for those who have never heard of the game or visual novel before. When Shiki appeared, I had a good feeling that the anime will be a great hit. The first episode got me so interested and ... thus, I really supported the anime. After watching around, 6 episodes I saw that the storyline had gone a little…out of control. Well, it’s like it is too fast at one part and it wavered too slow at another. I started to doubt the success of the anime but I kept hope in it since I still have my attraction towards the main character and all. But as the anime reached its climax, I had a really bad feeling starting from the creator inserting too much attention at Akira’s friends rather than his enemies. There was also the abrupt change of personality in Akira which I will explain later on.

Let’s start with the storyline.
As I’ve stated above, I loved the beginning. It went on in a nice pace and the mood of the anime could be easily seen. All the business about Akira being sent to Toshima was handled nicely. As we ventured into Toshima, we can feel the intense craziness from the berserk drug addicts and the fighting scenes were good enough to be presented. Shiki’s appearance was at a nice timing and to leave a small cliff-hanger at the end of episode 1 was actually a good idea to keep viewers interested in the story. In the second and third episodes, the presentation of the other characters was done in the same nice pace. Episode four was rendered to almost become my second favourite episode as I watched it. The fighting scene between Shiki and Akira was well-made in my opinion and we can see the protagonist and the antagonist’s beginning of rivalry. As I reached episode seven, the anime began to run downhill. Akira’s abrupt change of personalities caught me confused in whether he was an emotionless all-cool guy, a serious idiot to let a friend turn into a drug addict or he has split personalities. The business with Nicole Premier, the military and the entire project that Arbitro explained managed to get the mood going on but as I met the second last episode, I realised the pace had totally changed and I felt as if I wasn’t sure of the actual storyline anymore. I hoped for the best for the finale but hope was destroyed in the most horrible way as they ended it in a cruel cliff-hanger for fans that have been waiting for a serious Shiki VS Akira showdown. At first, they told us that peace had come but there will be a storm after the calm. I became excited as the sense of a final battle was near but they abruptly ended the episode by a clash of swords and utter tension. All I know was that the ending crushed the hopes of fans like crushing a grape with a jackhammer. I hated it and I felt that it was the worst anime ending I’ve watched yet. The only way I can take back these words is if they make a second season to continue the cliff-hanger that they have scarred into our heads or remake the entire series piece by piece.

Next I’ll bold out the characters.
As a fellow fan of BL, I’ve seen a lot of the types of guys in a BL anime/game and my favourites had to be Shiki and Akira. At first sight, Shiki seemed as the insanely strong typical cold-hearted ruthless and attractively seductive seme and while Akira is a strong fighter but naïve on the inside uke; perfect for my taste. My interest in them grew by every episode and I was always looking for these two characters but I did not miss out on the others. Keisuke was my least favourite type of character: clingy and makes stupid decisions for their…loved ones. I was enraged as Keisuke actually took the Line and boasted on strength and all the crap and I’ll give credits for Akira’s sudden loyalty to friendship but this was the part that drove my interest in the characters of course. Akira suddenly changed from being ignorant to putting his comrades as first priority. Okay, I can accept this kind of change but it was this change that had me bored of all the characters. The producers seemed to be focusing on Akira and Keisuke’s relationship at these episodes but it was focused a bit too much that I found almost nothingness in Motomi and a little bit of Rin although Rin showed a bit of growth at the last few episodes. I was hoping for a complete relationship growth in, at least, all of the comrades but I can only see Keisuke in Akira’s head. True, he is Akira’s loyal friend and all but I don’t like it that he gets too much attention and to the fact he loses it all in the end. Then comes Rin and Motomi and well, I don’t think these characters were served enough justice at the middle but I guess they were well presented and I find it hard to dislike these two. I have nothing much to comment on these two. And about the supporting characters such as Arbitro, the dog and the Executioners, in my opinion, they were pretty much just small fragments to cover up holes in the series but I like them as well. The entire downfall in my eyes was just Akira and Keisuke’s complex relationship in which brought down my hopes for the complete relationship growth. Although this may be redeemed as favouritism I obviously am not satisfied with Shiki’s character in the story. He remains as the prime antagonist, the shadow the kills in Toshima and the vengeful power-craving jerk but to the way I see in the gameplay, I think Shiki deserves much more scenes even if it is only in the end but like in every episode, he appears in at least one minute and disappears after a fight, kill or mere confrontation. I hoped for more of his growth in the end but it was mere illusion to think it would actually end according to my guessing.

Art style? I found it decent at first but it looks as if the producers got some sort of inspiration-block in the end and it was horrible at a few scenes. The details of backgrounds were great but I prefer it if they would take at least a quarter of that focus to the characters. The characters sometimes seemed so plain and it was hard to get into the style of art they put the characters up with. But I managed to accept it in a way. The art style for me was below average but was not all that bad. I can still watch it without my eyes being burnt into crisps.

I love the opening. I just love the opening so much that I would actually replay it 3 times while waiting for the episode to load. The soundtrack used was really good and it managed to get the feel of the situation out and reach the viewers. All I can say about it is that it was very good.

Overall I think the story deserved a 4 or 5 out of 10. I truly did thought it would manage to get a 7 but the ending in my opinion was the worst downfall of the series turning bad to worse and from interesting to shocking in a bad way. It was cruel to end the hopes of fans that were waiting for a good ending. Cliff-hangers are good to catch audience’s attention at the last part of an episode but not in a finale. If the anime doesn’t come out with a second season or so, I deem that the anime had the worst ending downfall I’ve ever watched.

[I’m terribly sorry if I put up way too many spoilers but this is one of my first reviews and I am still learning on how to make good reviews. And as for my advice on those who wants to watch it, it is your choice. You might enjoy it. But for those who wants to set high hopes for the anime I recommend you not to do so.]

If you are looking for a shounen-ai anime with strong chemistry between well developed, interesting, and complete characters wrapped up in a clever plot, then you'll do yourself a favor by not watching Togainu no Chi.

Story: 3/10 (poor)

The plot of Togainu no Chi might not have appeared so pathetic had it been held up by better writing, characters, and art. I mean, fair enough, Japan is divided, run by drug lords who find it entertaining to watch people kill eachother. In itself, it's not anything appalling, but not anything original or particularly fantastic either. What made it embarrassing was the way the plot progressed, and ... the way the writers were clearly busting a bollock to make it seem deep and symbolic. I found myself crying inside at the cringeworthy monologues that started off the episodes that turned out to come from a character that was so clearly intended to be all-knowing and mysterious it was obnoxious. The way the character of Arbitro was written and the role he played in the story was incredibly irritating also. His 'pets' seemed an entirely unnecessary part of the story, simply there to make everything seem a bit more disturbing or messed up.

Art: 4/10 (decent)

This series was not difficult to look at. It was, however, nothing spectacular, and there was nothing really unique about each different character. The way the blood was practically neon was an eyebrow-raiser. Coupled with the desperate, pathetic attempt at colours appearing symbolic in the story, this was irritating and not subtle whatsoever. There wasn't really anything to praise in the art.

Sound: 3/10 (poor)

The OST for this series was nothing particularly evocative or tactful. The voice acting was also quite unspectacular.

Character: 1/10 (pathetic)

In the end, the plot of any anime, film, book, etc. can be as action packed or mild as you like - the most important element to keep a viewer interested is the characters and their personal conflicts and the way they relate to eachother. If the premise was the only thing that mattered, Slice of Life anime wouldn't exist. I think I could have forgiven the other elements of this anime for being so uninspiring had the characters grabbed my attention. They were all one-dimensional. The infinitesimally small amount of character development, dare I even call it that, felt forced and sudden, yet completely predictable. I didn't find that I cared about or rooted for the characters at all. I find it difficult to see how it successfully creates a believable relationship between characters whatsoever, and in an anime that is listed as a shounen-ai, this is confusing. The relationship between Keisuke and Akira just seems arbitrary and unexciting and barely develops whatsoever in the 9 episodes I've seen. Unless I have dropped the series before any real romantic development - though I fail to see how a convincing romantic relationship can be shown in 3 episodes out of 12.

Enjoyment: 5/10 (mediocre)

There is nothing special about this anime in my opinion, but somehow, I stuck through it for 9 episodes. It's really more of a time killer. It wasn't like I couldn't stand to watch 30 seconds of it, but I wasn't hooked on it either.

Overall: 3/10 (poor)

There is no real point in watching this anime in my opinion. If you want to kill time, there are plenty of less embarrassing anime in this world.

Skimming through anime series as I usually do to watch, I decided to watch this after reading the brief synopsis of it, not to mention that with a name like this, I thought it was going to be an excellent series. However, just as looks can be deceiving, the same can be applied to the names because although the name oozed awesomeness, the series itself was a total disappointment.

STORY 3/10
The story follows a young apathetic man named Akira who is blackmailed into participating into a tournament to defeat a drug lord and stop the spread of drugs in Toshima. There was no actual fighting in ... this tournament which was supposed to be a focal part of the anime thereby it defeated the entire purpose and was uninteresting and dull.

ART 8/10
The drawings were very detailed and the background animation was crisp and clean. The colours used depicted the mood of the anime, which was ominous and full of emptiness. The character movements were fluid and the camera angles and shots were picturesque. The costuming of the characters also reflected their personalities as well.

SOUND 9/10
The musical pieces in this anime were mostly rock but there were well placed in the scenes, which were a reflection of the action taking place at that moment. The opening song was not all that bad but the musical numbers within the anime itself were excellent. The voices of the characters were also very clear and audible.

CHARACTER 3/10
There was no significant development of any of the characters in this series. Shiki was an underutilised character although he had some excellent lines. Nevertheless, there were no noteworthy changes or effects in any of the characters from the beginning of the series till the end.

ENJOYMENT 4/10
At the start of the series, it displayed some potential as being a really good one but as it progressed, the realisation hit that that potential was just an illusion. There were moments that I wondered why was I still watching this anime and then it hit me. It was only because of Shiki and his awesome lines since there was no development of plot.

OVERALL 5/10
Honestly, I do not know if the writers believed that they were going to make it to twenty four episodes and hence did nothing to progress the nonexistent story since there were no fights in a tournament that was supposed to be about fighting. The best character in the series, Shiki, was not given enough screen time to display his skills which appeared to be colossal. Akira was just as weak as Keisuke because his skill level was as near to a rabbit compared with Shiki. This series was totally uninteresting and not worth wasting four hours of your life to watch even though Shiki’s appearances and lines is the only highlight of the entire series.

Ho boy here we go. I knew one day I was going to actually write out a review for this lovely piece of work, and today is that day.

For a little background on this piece, this anime is based off of the first BL visual novel released in 2005 by a branch of Nitroplus called Nitro+CHiRAL. This visual novel then got a manga series in 2006, and finally this anime came out in 2010. This anime was supposed to be the 5th year celebration of this game.

Instead of being a celebration though, this anime right here is the perfect example of ... what not to do with a visual novel. There are just so many things wrong with this anime that it is just mind boggling.

Let's start with the story first. Now the anime tries to follow the story of the visual novel in a way, but it ends up becoming a jumbled mess with a lot of omission/slapping in stuff from different routes in random places that it left me scratching my head wondering "What the heck is going on?" I already know the plot now and yet even as I go back to watch it I still find myself being left confused for how poorly they play out the story here. What's even more damning is one particular point in the anime that literally breaks a whole plot-point if you know exactly what it is. I'll try not to spoil much, but it involves a bag.
I'm not saying the story in it's original form is a masterpiece, but the anime's version of the story is just plain awful.

Moving on to art, I just have no words other than enjoy staring at buildings. Because this anime loves to show you buildings! There are even points in the anime where you can hear action going on and instead you get shots of just buildings. I almost thought the anime was screwed up, but instead that's actually how it was made. No video mess ups, just created to where you will hear action and fighting and instead get an image of buildings or walls, only for it to cut back after the fight is over and assure you that some serious business went down by making sure you see vast amounts of liquid that should be blood but comes out looking like red dyed corn syrup.
Not only that but the character designs are just terrible. I know that the anime and the visual novel/manga can't have the same kind of graphics, but some of the choices in designs are questionable, especially with Keisuke(the main character's friend) later on.

Speaking of characters, even though the characters in this series weren't too deep in the original format in the anime they just seem as lifeless as Arbitro's boy toys. And sometimes completely out of character (here's looking to you Shiki).

The only two good things I can point out about this is that the music can fantastic to listen to (ending theme has the tendency to change and that's cool) but it's kind of forgettable and that eventually I found myself laughing at everything wrong with this anime.

In the end though, I really wouldn't recommend this anime to anyone unless you were gathering up things to watch for a bad movie/anime marathon. And even then I would probably try to steer it away from you.

I came to this anime expecting BL, and instead found a lot of misery, death, bloodbaths, more misery, senseless character deaths, quasi-existential yammering, more death, more blood, and a feeling of dissatisfaction and pointlessness.

I haven't played the BL game or read the manga and I suppose I should have checked the reviews before watching this so I could have avoided this exercise in anime-watching masochism.

There is literally no emotional pay-off to watching this. At all. The good guys don't win. The bad guys don't lose. The bad guys also don't really win. Nobody really wins or loses, everything is miserable. The one character development ... arc that had a little potential gets cut short (haha... ha..) with some more senseless death. I keep trying to care about the characters, but the anime won't let me; it doesn't give me any reason why I should. Most characters are either apathetic jerks, ~mysterious~ figures who know more than they let on, psycho killers, or just dead. Did I mention there is a lot of death?

I kept watching this because I suppose I kept expecting things to somehow improve and for there to be some kind of point to all this, but I think maybe Togainu no Chi the anime is intended as an exposure of utter nihilism. Everything sucks! Nothing really matters! As the annoying narrator keeps reminding us of, it all just goes to hell anyway, post-apocalyptic Japan is terrible, and don't drink anyone's blood, kids.

If you are still thinking about watching this, just don't. The soundtrack is kinda cool. That's about it. I want my 288 minutes of time back. I haven't been this disappointed and depressed by anime since Le Chevalier d'Eon and at least that one taught me something about French history.

Well,what made me feel like watching this anime was the artwork and the inital story plot i thoguht it should be.
At the very first episode,I was like'Okay so he gets into a game which he can't escape from unless he kills the best man.And as i saw shounen-ai as one of its genres i thought that there would be some shounen-ai but to my disappointment i guess...
In the first few episodes,I knew what the story was but then as the story followed on,I lost track.Everything became like a very slacked work(Other than the fighting scenes which could actually be done better)So if you expected a ... good anime,this is not something you'd wanna look for :(