This was a good anime with a pretty decent premise. I enjoyed watching it, and I could probably watch it again if I wanted to. However, this really isn’t the best of the all of the survival game animes out there. And this anime probably could have been better if it weren’t for a few things.
Story: 6.5/10
With survival games being so damn popular and so overdone, you really need to do something new with it if you want to make it into something special. Sure, having a bunch of people who have earned the hate of people they know be nominated for a deadly survival game is a great idea, but what’s the point of such a large cast if you’re not going to do anything with all of them. I hardly know anything about most of the characters and I REALLY, REALLY wanted to learn more about them! Like there was this one kid who liked to kill for fun. He didn’t care about life and would snap at any adult who tried to talk sense into him. He was very interesting and I wanted to see more of him. I wanted more insight into what he was thinking and I would’ve wanted to see a little more of his past. I also wanted to know more about Ryouta’s family so I could understand better where things went wrong. Also it may just be me, but it seemed like halfway through the show, they changed the rules on when you can use the bombs so I got kind of confused at some point. It also amazed me how quickly the two leads forgot about their comrade just for the sake of fanservice. They also ended it in a terrible way. The people who made the game claim that there is wrong with the island that the nominees are playing on, and then they just end it there. I wanted to know what was wrong with the island. I wanted more insight on the characters. You see, this is the problem with twelve episode series. FEW stories can be fully told in just 12 episodes! I wish they would’ve provided an explanation of some sort or actually went through with making a second season. So much build up, and yet so much letdown.
Animation: 7.5/10
The character designs were all very interesting and unique. I liked all of them. However, sometimes the background seemed really blurry. I’m not sure if this was done on purpose or not. Anyway, all of the fights scenes were done well and were pretty exciting.
Sound: 8/10
Not much to say here except that all the characters sounded great. I will say however, that this was my first time hearing the voice of Kanata Hongo (Ryouta’s seiyuu) and he sound really cool! They should really give him more roles in more anime. I think that the kid who liked to kill for fun sounded a little older than he probably should have, but it didn’t bother me that much. Besides that, the opening and ending themes were good.
Characters: 8.5/10
Whenever a new character wasn’t being introduced or returning for another appearance, Ryouta was pretty much responsible for holding the show up. He was a very likeable guy who spoke out when he disagreed with something and made good plans and stuck with them. He also had some really great character development. I liked him a lot, he was very relatable and I was rooting for him the whole time. Unfortunately, Himiko was pretty bland most of the time. She never really did anything helpful and just needed to be rescued most of the time. And when she was rescued, she was usually very ungrateful. Of course, all of this was blamed on her androphobia. Now, she has a perfectly good reason for her androphobia but for whatever reason, they liked to pass it off as humor. There would be scenes were Ryouta would ACCIDENTLY see her naked and she would go all Louise from Zero no Tsukaima and Taiga from Toradora! on him! And I would just stare at the screen and go REALLY?!?!? REALLY?!?!?! CAN’T YOU GUYS TAKE THIS A LITTLE SERIOUSLY?!?!?!? NUDITY IS NOT ALWAYS FUNNY AND BESIDES, HIMIKO KNEW IT WAS AN ACCIDENT!!! SO KNOCK IT OFF!! Anyway, besides the kill-loving kid, I also liked the lawyer, the defense force officer, and the doctor. There were other interesting characters too but I won’t talk about them here. But, I will say that they all deserved more screen time.
Overall: 7.5/10
This really was a good show, but it is in desperate need of a second season.
