Reviews

I'm caught between giving this series a 7 or an 8. I'm leaning towards 7 and I'll tell you why. At the time of writing I've only watched this season, not ni kai, ni rei, etc. Some background the structure for this show. The story is told through short arcs, each arc focuses on a main character, and each arc is a retelling of the story from that characters point of view, albeit the plot changes through each. Each arc has its focus character go insane and tells what would happen from there.

The show starts out in Keiichi POV, as he meets the characters and they are introduced. After a few episodes the plot starts showing up.

The story is told very well with each arc, or better referred to as iteration of the story, developing it further. After 2 or so arcs the stories begin to intertwine. This is the point that starts subtracting from its points.

The arcs are very short, ranging from 6 or so episodes at the most and 3 at the least. Some characters arcs like Satako's and Rena's feel rushed, while others like Rika and Keiichi's feel dragged out. Satako's also seems to end rather abruptly.The story would have a lower score would it not be for Shion/Mion's arc, which is probably the longest arc.

It takes care two characters, Mion and her twin sister Shion. It does a great job telling the backstory of both and has alot of twists to make thing interesting. The torture scenes in it are not just there to add more blood. Alot of story is told there and by far is the most entertaining arc. They try to throw in a cheesy love plot between shion and another protaganist's brother, but its rushed and just glue to hold the episodes together.

The Art is well drawn and the gore is also, whats shown anyway. Part of the creepiness of the game (inspirational for the show) was that it would just play grotesque sounds and your mind would do all the work imagining what was happening. The Anime stays true to this by just showing a character stab at something off screen and play impact sounds of flesh opening and bones splintering. Other than that the art isn't anything ground breaking and typical of any medium-high production value anime. That wraps up both art and sound.

In short the story is good, if a bit rushed, and the end doesn't give a satisfactory explanation, but that for later seasons to do. The art is not anything special and the sound is creepy as we've come to expect. Characters are well developed and its worth watching if just to please the sadistic part of every person. Also for those of you wondering, the dub is very well done and worth checking out.