Story: It was a 'good' story. The whole premise of them becoming the best in Japan at survival games was interesting, and kept me in it for the long run. What I didn't like is how they kept speeding things up further than they'd need to, they squished a lot into one 12 episode anime leaving me somewhat unsatisfied.
Art: Possibly the strongest point this anime had. The action scenes were what kept me watching this, and the creepy close up shots on many of the characters faces made the show have stunning visuals (like I said above). The designs of characters and more specifically the secondary characters uniforms were really cool. I mean, it wasn't gurren lagann level of fantastic art, but it was really SHINY.
Sound: The sound felt out of place to be honest, there was too much elevator music. It's literally what you would of listened to waiting to get to the floor of your hotel room. It seemed too jazzy for the show, as no one really had a jazzy personality. Not even Mattsun had that spunky of a personality. The music didn't match the story. Regarding the intro song, it was fun to listen to. So the whole soundtrack wasn't a whole miss. And it wasn't making my ears fall off or anything. The voices were just okay. I thought midori's voice did a good job highlighting him being very sadistic and Yukki's voice matching him as being pretty dull/interested in perverted things.
Character:
I kind of wish this was a shounen-ai so instead of deliberately hiding that the main character is a girl most of the show, they'd of just had her as a him. The main 'girl' is pretty unfeminine and looks more like a uke to me.
If you like that the main character is a justice freak, well, you'll have a ball, but she falls a little flat in development. Not just physical (budum bum).
I liked the dynamics between the secondary character team and the first, but the characters really weren't developed any further than just being a tool to the action of the story and humor. It was ALL about the survival games and the friendship that made no sense to of been made (besides sharing an interest) and the loss of friendship. If you're okay with characters having no individuality past being 'sadistic' 'masochistic' 'bloodthirsty,' or 'mundane' then I guess you can watch it.
Overall:
It wasn't a BAD show by any means. It had great action, the art was spectacular, and it COULD be interesting at times. So it's a good action story that doesn't take up much time, and it's about a game that some of us play, and the passion that comes with it. I guess don't knock it till you try it?
