The first episode showed promise, as Ryota's NEET life and unhealthy, otaku-like obsession with the game is immediately shown in a negative light as opposed to being glorified, and it gives us a taste of Ryota's moral dilemma to come when he kills one of the "players" of the death game in self-defense. However, a setup like this isn't difficult to achieve, and problems begin to arise quickly.
Firstly, the plot often lacks suspense and tension. The game, despite trying to add variety with different kinds of bombs, is very simplistic, which is problematic when the show tries to focus on tactics. For example: the main characters are under assault by an enemy, who is using a homing bomb that detonates only when it reaches its target. A character who isn't being targeted intercepts the bomb and disables it, then decides to take the next bomb while protecting the original target. Given the situation, you'd think the assailant would now switch gears and switch targets. I came to this obvious conclusion almost instantaneously, but the show has the main character figure it out in an overly dramatic, Death Note-esque manner, absolutely shocking the other characters present. There were times in which the tactics were a bit more interesting, such as one case in which wind was used to the characters' advantage (and it was noted that this was a difference between the game "Btooom!" and the real version), but these moments are few and far between.
On top of the boring tactics, the two main characters are protected by an unbelievable amount of plot armor that sucks the tension out of many moments. Expect scenes in which one of them dramatically reveal that they either "threw the bomb away at the very last second" or "jumped into a hole in the ground in the nick of time." One time a girl was saved because the bomb bounced off her boobs. Sometimes the show won't even bother with that. A bomb might be thrown near a character and the character will simply fly back when it explodes, emerging unscathed in the aftermath. It's hard to take the show seriously as a result, especially when there are other ludicrous aspects lumped in that make things feel more silly than dire – Komodo dragons, anyone? How about Ryota's twisted smile when it looks like he's about to break and sacrifice someone, when two seconds later he manages to come up with a plan to save everyone (how edgy)?
Speaking of edge, Btooom! falls into the trap of taking an attempt at depth and turning it into (what has become quite the buzzword among anime fans) "edginess," a word that has come to be defined as something that occurs when a story tries too hard to be dark or deep and fails, potentially coming off as unintentionally funny, campy, or in-your-face. The show often portrays the majority of humans to be very corrupt, which serves as a plot device for characterization or a contrast to the main characters, but the problem is that this "all people (or just men in Himiko's case; more on that later) are kinda scum" trope is too overused. Granted, an island full of psychopaths may not be too out of place given the premise, but many of these people were thrown into the game for being dicks, not psychos. The show's presentation of the idea feels hamfisted rather than meaningful with all these "edgy" killers and rapists coupled together with funny shots of sadistic smiles and lifeless faces and other overdone instances of creepy, freaky nonsense, all of which contribute to the "edginess." This kind of presentation makes it feel as though Btooom! is beating the viewer over his/her head with its themes and messages.
The characters are arguably the show's biggest weakness. Ryota's character feels contradictory. On one hand, he is the chivalrous heroic type who is unbelievably kind and wants to save everyone, but on the other hand, he is portrayed (in flashbacks) to be a complete asshole who cares only for his game and has no issue with shouting at and even physically hurting his mother and stepfather – this, incidentally, is why Ryota got thrown into the game. A rocky relationship with one's parents compared to others can be understandable, but the contrast here in particular is too great to be believable. Ryota did act more amicable among classmates when he went to school, but this was before he became the obsessive NEET that we now know him to be; he is also shown to be acting very polite with representatives from the company that made "Btooom!", but it's only natural that he would suck up when he's trying to get a job doing something related to the only thing he cares about. As such, there's nothing in Ryota's flashbacks that could hint at his nature in the death game, or vice versa. It isn't as though one should expect Ryota to be a heartless killer in the game, but had he shown more of his bad personality in that setting, there could have been actual progression in his character from asshole to nice guy as he learns the value of having a friend he can trust and protect by meeting Taira (the person he partners up with in-game) and Himiko, thereby redeeming himself for what he did to get thrown into the game in the first place. Instead, Ryota is left inconsistent and bland. There's actually a scene at the end in which Ryota says that he shouldn't have looked down on people so much and should've learned about the value of caring for others besides himself, but this only fits with his flashback character – it goes contrary to the Ryota we see on the island who was nice and caring all along. It's like the author had the right idea at the start, but wanted to make Ryota more likable at the same time by making him nicer on the island, and so we're left with this confusing character.
Himiko doesn't fare much better. In a strange backstory in which her friends wish the worst upon her (i.e. elect her to be thrown into the death game) because she ran away and "betrayed" them while they got raped (that selfish bitch ran to go get the cops...!), we learn that Himiko is very distrustful of men, and a similar experience on the island solidifies her belief that men are scum. She showed potential to be a strong female protagonist here, but the show wastes no time in turning her into a damsel in distress who soon becomes entirely dependent on Ryota, a trope that should've been avoided. Learning that not all men are so bad is one thing, but the presentation of Himiko's character is something else altogether. The portrayal of her character is even worse when examining all of these rapey scenes that Himiko is thrown into, which seem to be presented in a fanservicey way; they give off the impression that the animators are also trying to flaunt Himiko's body at the audience for sexual appeal, which is very out of place and awkward (there's a problem when you're not sure if a scene is supposed to be appalling or erotic).
The side characters mostly serve to present various psychological aspects of being thrown into death games. One character, Taira, puts his trust in Ryota on the island, but when the he's left alone several times after being injured, his mental stability begins to falter. There's this woman who trusts a man she loves (who, by the way, had already betrayed her once before), and was betrayed later when he took her chip. There's another guy who used to know Ryota from school, and he was used as a device for Ryota's characterization at the end. The concept isn't bad, but they all end up as one-note characters who are forgettable, although the dynamic between Ryota and Taira was sometimes decent, especially with the two of them expressing their fears in putting their trust in complete strangers in the environment of an "every man for himself" death game. The antagonist is shown to be a manipulative person who acts nice before he betrays those around him and reveals that he's a super evil prick (muhahaha...ha) – it appears that he's just super evil to act as a foil to Ryota's integrity. He comes off as a mere caricature, mostly, and is forgettable.
Character stupidity is a bit rampant. At the beginning of the death game, it took Ryota numerous tries before he realized that the bombs he was granted had timers attached, despite the fact that he'd already made the connection between the online and death games, that the bomb was identical to the timer bomb in the online game, and that the bomb had numbers counting down on it to signify a timer that Ryota had seen even before coming to his realization. Also, when Himiko voices her concerns regarding a certain bad guy's loyalty when the latter's tricking them, Ryota dismisses her suspicions, despite the fact that she had good reason to have them, and that he had learned before not to be so trustworthy; even when the totally-not-a-bad-guy acts very suspicious later on by asking Ryota if he trusted him out of nowhere when nothing prompted the question, Ryota doesn't feel as though anything is off. Moments like these are prime examples of how NOT to handle dramatic irony, and they're very frustrating to watch. It isn't as though Ryota was always foolish as fuck – as was mentioned prior, he's come up with a few decent strategies – but when he is, it really breaks the immersion.
Moving on to aesthetics, the art style is passable, albeit lackluster. The character designs look uninspired. Ryota is a thin guy with Light Yagami-styled hair, Himiko's a cute blonde with big tits, and so on. The designs serve their purpose, but little is done to make them stand out from other characters in other anime. The setting looks decent, but the most positive thing that can be said about it is that it works. The animation is nothing special for an action anime like this. The camerawork is poor, although the bombs' explosions look decent enough. The soundtrack is unmemorable and boring, but it usually isn't unfitting. The OP is exciting to listen to and serves well to pump you up for an action-packed gorefest, though the fact that it overshadows the anime could be seen as a bad thing as well.
Btooom!, in trying to be mature, ends up beating its audience over the head with its attempt at dark themes. The characters are either cliche, inconsistent, or serve only to portray a trait or idea as opposed to a real character. The game is boring and lacks the tension that a survival game needs to be exciting, resulting in underwhelming fights and ridiculous escapes from dire situations. The anime doesn't even have a proper conclusion, ending off with a shitty cliffhanger after the main characters finally hook up, with no second season in sight. Btooom! is a prime example of what not do to when trying to make something gritty, dark and meaningful.
