I like the survival game genre because it has tension, with creative rules that result in interesting situations (one example is Life is Money, a manga about a survival game that has the players kill each other by yelling and cursing, the setting is hilarious but creative), unfortunately Darwin's Game has neither of those, it feels like the writers are afraid of adding any rules because it'd make writing the show more difficult, they did add a few mechanics like getting points and using them to buy weapons, and gave the characters super powers, but nothing is explained with a set of rules, everything is kept vague so the writers can do whatever they want.
Just like most modern anime Darwin's Game has to follow certain cliches for no reason, the protagonist is an ordinary highschool boy just because, it's just mentioned for no relevant reason (you could make him an office worker and literally nothing would change), and the trigger for the supernatural elements of the show is a mysterious gaming app that's installed on his smart phone (which I've seen happen many times in other shows), also the heroine falls in love with the protagonist for no reason, and of course the protagonist's parents are non-existent.
The only reason they add these cliches is because they apparently make the show relatable for the target audience, I guess everything teenagers in Japan like is gonna turn into a cliche' at some point.
These problems make the setting mediocre, but what about the production value?
The art style is ugly and the face expressions are exaggerated, it's hard to tell if it's intentional, but even if it was it doesn't make it cool or interesting, just uncomfortable to watch.
The animation quality is also lacking, it's average at best, the character poses and movements are weird and have mistakes that I expect from a show from the 90s, not the new decade.
The soundtracks are forgettable, I don't remember any of them, and the voice acting is the same as most other shows, it's not bad but there isn't a single character with a unique performance, you could check the lists of each VA from this show and find other characters that sound exactly the same and belong to the same stereotype.
Speaking of characters, just like any other anime, we have a bland protagonist and a heroine that stands out in comparison both in personality and design, you gotta make the protagonist relatable and give him a waifu, right? That's more important than having actually interesting characters, who needs those anyway when you have stereotypes?
A few episodes in you'll start to notice that Kaname (the protagonist) wants to protect his friends and doesn't want to kill anyone, even his enemies, why? For no reason, the guy was supposed to be a blank slate for relatability's sake, but now he has one of the least relatable traits ever, and has literally no background or clear motive that makes sense of it.
Wanna know the funniest part? His power revolves around mass producing weapons, he fights by spamming machine guns and grenades, and it's not like the writer did this to make things more complicated, no, he goes all out but somehow he manages to win without killing anyone, he even had a one on one friendly fight against a guy who only uses his own fists, and Kaname used machine guns and grenades like there's no tomorrow!
That's not the only irritating thing about Kaname though, everyone around him acts as if he's some great leader, but literally neither of his allies had any reason to join him, they start as enemies and suddenly change their mind and follow him, and it's not because he has charisma or the ability to persuade others with words, no, he wins a fight with nonsensical plot armor and somehow everyone's impressed.
Now let's talk about the fights, to give you more reason why I'm not being harsh on this show.
You know the feeling when you watch someone who sucks at videogames playing a difficult game? Watching this show can be as painful sometimes, the characters act in ways that lack any common sense.
In episode 1 after Kaname has the app installed, he's targeted by another player, now imagine yourself in his opponent's place, your prey is sitting right in front of you, he's unaware that he's taking part in a killing game, his guard is lowered, there's no one around, you have a knife on you, and you have the power to turn invisible, what would you do?
Of course you wouldn't be stupid enough to pull out the knife in front of your target, point it at him, and walk slowly towards him, giving him enough time to realize the situation and run away, right? Sadly I can't say the same for the first antagonist of this show.
And how did Kaname win the fight? A car came out of nowhere and crashed into his opponent! It was so bizarre I thought at first that maybe Kaname's power is to summon cars and crash them into people! The writers unapologetically had the first antagonist die in a car accident in the middle of the fight!
In conclusion Darwin's Game is not worth your time, maybe unless you are one of those people who can "turn off their brain", but even then I can think of at least 100 other shows that are worth watching over this one.
