STORY AND CHARACTER:
The setup is that a group of high school characters and a couple of extras, are accidentally teleported into a pocket dimension. That's as far as I can go without giving spoilers. The progression of the plot is very haphazard and scattershot. There is essentially no plot here, it is just sequences going one after another with no rhyme or reason. The decisions characters make, are completely irrelevant because none of these characters are established and thus, we have no expectations from them aside from what little we can surmise.
No. The story is just a backdrop for the events that take place. There is no story, there are no characters. No one is setup or established to subvert or match our expectations.
ART:
This is where the anime shines. The entire point of this series is to show off it's extremely brutal, gruesome and inflinching art. Characters will literally be ripped apart in plain view; characters that would otherwise be "Immune" or "Protected" are tortured to death in graphic detail. It truly has no pity or forgiveness. The detail upon which certain characters are just massacred is almost breathtaking. From torn flesh, to blood, to entrails being spewed, to a characters face being ripped apart from the inside, it's all lovingly rendered for the viewer to ingest.
I found it both repulsive and fascinating. This is the draw of the series, this is the one thing it has going for it; from a fairly psychological and intriguing first episode, it completely goes off the rails in the 2 - 4 episodes where the writers cannot wait to find a new messed up way to dismember or otherwise disembowel the characters in their show.
This series is not for the faint of heart or the squeamish, I can safely say I have never seen a more gruesome gorefest than this... and I've seen a lot of gory media.
ENJOYMENT:
I found enjoyment in the first episode from the despair of the characters trapped in an isolated area, it is wildly different in tone and execution as episodes 2 through 4. So the first episode had that going for it... the rest had unflinching, brutal gore to an extreme degree. This is what I enjoyed.
OVERALL:
Since it's a short series, I can very confidently state that I recommend this to absolutely everyone that is even remotely interested in horror, gore and violence. It is short enough that even if you don't like it, it will be over very quickly and you will have treated yourself to one of the most extreme helpings of the genre.
To summarize;
If you like deep and complex stories, this is not for you.
If you like well developed and interesting characters, this is not for you.
If you are weak or frail of mind, this is not for you.
If you like gore, absolutely watch this.
If you like horror, absolutely watch this, you cannot miss this.
That is all.
