Story=7
Granted I have seen many versions of this plot but that doesn't stop it from having a unique take on it. I love seeing how there are different situations and how the main characters deal with it even though the solution involves blowing shit up. This is a battle royal style anime with Video games being involved (PC Master race all the way). So we have Sakamoto a NEET who likes to play a video game known as 'Btooom' and boy is he good at it, I mean really good. Heck he ranks number 10 in the world. One day he wakes up on an island to discover that his favourite game is to be played in real life. Although everybody thinking that just because he is amazingballs at the game that he can make this through alright. That is particularly correct he doesn't die or anything I mean what do you expect he is the main character after all. But this is also psychological on the player as in real life killing someone is a hard decision to make in real life than it is in a video game. So seeing that being represented in this anime is a plus instead of them just going for the Shounen route and blowing up each others asses (instead it is there body parts and internal organs :) ). Every character has a backstory to make us feel either sympathy or a fill in into why they would be in this terrible situation so don't expect each character to have backstory because with the amount of characters that we see we wouldn't have one for them but that's not a massive issues as I really didn't like most of them anyways. You will get the occasion fan service (as well as rape on the side but nothing too graphical) which to me doesn't take away from the story I would go far as to say that it helps it out nothing high school of the dead style but still we get boobs with a bra holding on to them (not like we haven't seen enough of those already). Which kinda helps sell the idea of how bad Himiko had it. Overall fast paced for 12 episodes but no too quick that you don't miss out on anything.
The one thing I had bad about it is that is ended on a massive cliff hanger and wanted me too see how our characters continued to progress on wards.
Art=7
Boy did this remind me a lot like the art style in Deathnote oh wait maybe because that guy who did Deathnote also did the art style for Btooom. The contrast in blue and green will not surprise you in why they look similar. The art on the island was up to how anime standards go but I feel like the animation budget went in that than where the characters lived in the city but like we care about the city they live in we want to see the insects and animals and bloody hell a lot of explosions. Aw yes the explosions if you are a muscular man just like myself you will love the explosions but if you want dialect so that the characters do not to kill each other,GET OUT NOW! Back to subject the animation on the explosions look like what explosions would look in the anime world. The design one the characters were generic to the big boobed to a Light Yagami looking mothertrucker (hint look back at beginning to see why)and long angle shots made the trees and plants look more like my sketch book from when I was 7(Hint I wasn't good at drawing) The shading at times was off putting at times but hey I'm crazy so don't bother making sense of it. Animation on the opening was freaking amazing like a child on LSD and went well in partying what we the audience was about to see. Then there is the ending animation which put everything into a calm manner and relaxed us from the epicenes that we had preciously had seen.
BRIGHT FUNNY COLOURS FOR THE KIDS!
Sound=8
Opening song 'No Pain No Game' by Nano defiantly suited it ( I love Nano's work) and made me hyped to see the next episode. This is one the openings that I would not skip but instead watch as the song and the opening animation suited each other in a passionately way, like chocolate and Pepsi (weird combination I know) the rest of the soundtrack created a hyped or dramatic atmosphere and there was never a comedy moment to break the tension (if there was I didn't find it funny) and all music was serous apart from the ending song. As preciously mentioned about the ending animation it applies to the ending song as well making calm and peaceful. They then changed the opening song on the last episode and as many people complain about op songs changing I found this to be to my liking and thought it went really well with it as it was produced by the same band (go check out Nano's works they are good).
Characters=6
Ok before I start writing this I would like to point out that some of the characters DIE or DONT HAVE AN EXCEPTABLE BACKSTORY for me to consider them to be of an importance so if I don't mention them then they haven't really been that important apart from being killed.
Ryōta Sakamoto who is a Neet and depends on his parents money to live and lives with them as well. He is as stated previously an amazingballs player of the game Btooom. During intense battles he can change from his normal self to his I'm going to kill you mode but that doesn't get shown a lot of the time. He started out as a dick but as we progress through out the story we see a much more different side to him (not his I'm going to kill you mode but his caring mode). Sakamoto does not ever leave his friends when they are in danger (but he will if they are injured...weird) and cares for trying to leave the island without killing. It is nice to see such a strong willed character to do so.
Himiko who is a highschool student with a tragic backstory about how her friends hated her (hint has nothing to do with getting them raped) and spends most if not all of her time playing Btooom. She then meets Sakamoto online and the get internet married but when they meet in real life its not the why they planned on meeting each other also as a side note she really hates men and I mean REALLY HATES MEN with a passion but if you saw what she had to go through than you could sympathise with her for doing so. But Sakamoto is the only male she trusts on the island and would protect him to the very end they share a strong love for each other (inset twilight joke here you unoriginal person) but don't know that they are meant to be until the last episode.
Kōsuke Kira
(No Deathnote reference here) Kira is a 14 year old boy convicted of doing terrible terrible things to not only people but his family as well (although what happened with his dad was acceptable as I thought of his father to be an asshole) he plays this game without thinking about human life making him a dangerous person to be up against.
A few mentionable characters are Kiyoshi Taira who is another member in Sakamoto's group who doesn't really serve much of a purpose in the series but plays a big part in the final episode. Then there is Sakamoto's childhood friend Nobutaka Oda who him and Sakamoto had a disagreement on which led to them both being expelled from school and plays no massive part apart from the battle scene with him and Sakamoto but even then it could have been a totally random character and it would still have the same affect although I suppose the writers were looking for some emotional backstory to give Sakamoto and that's why Nobutaka was introduced. Also not going to lie he is one badass mothertrucker.
there's not much I can write now the only negative that I can see in this series is of the characters and the cliff hanger at the end although I here the manga is still continuing so if you want to see how the story progresses go read that. I could only stream this as it is not available on DVD in Britain.
Now remember kids don't stay indoors playing video games all day you might end up just being in one yourself. That has been my review and a recommendation for you to watch it because it is good.
