Reviews

Jun 21, 2022
Mixed Feelings
Honestly pretty disappointed with this. As a fan of the manga not only did this adaptation fuck up the anime, it also ruined my image of the manga. (More specifically helped me see the weak writing)

First issue that both the anime and the manga fall in, they don't build enough exposition for the characters. They just throw u into the story believing that some half-assed introductions to the main characters is enough to get us invested. It's not. Then they throw the characters into the game and waste half the episode going back and forth just talking about dumb pointless shit, specifically wasting half the episode over what the author seemed to believe how a group of teenage kids would react to being kidnapped. Clear pacing issues there.

Oh and like I implied, very unrealistic reactions btw, from the people who just got setup, tased, kidnapped, and forced into illegal gambling as minors, you'd think the author would resist making them react like shonen protags but nope. There's the constant useless one liner's of their inner thoughts and reminders of the game's rules and stakes. The author keeps fucking dumping the most irrelevant information about the character's traits as to make up for the zero build up. So many pointless tedious conversations take place and it feels like I'm fucking watching robots recreating how humans interact.

The first game they play shouldn't even exist, it's just there to create shock value and set the tone for the anime. It fails embarrassingly bad and the only real use it serves is the reveal of a traitor existing and even that was pretty anticlimactic.

Then the very forced and horribly written reveal that the main character is some super genius based off of his personality breaking and then him just passing the game with some half-witted bluff. Well it works but that really was not remotely enough to showcase that the mc is smart. Thing is I did end up like the mc's personality and he is shown to be actually smart in future manga arcs, but the first 2 games is just lazy writing on their part despite being actually creative.

The second game comes in and it's even worse in terms of how the characters react and interact with each other. Every shocked reaction is just some ugly freeze frame, so, bad cinematography. It spends far too long making the characters expose each other's secrets and far too long on some drama about their friendship. While that boring ordeal was going on, the main character was cooking up his plan to flush out the traitor. All cool except for the fact that the anime chooses to explain his plan through the conversations between the two women that are supervising the game watching in a security room.

Every time something confusing happens, it just cuts to them to explain it. Or it cuts to yet another shocked reaction from the supervisor and she gives the equivalent of the author telling us "Keep watching some plot twist just took place now but we can't explain it just yet.". They were just spoon feeding us a whole lot of information that we already know. While it wasn't exactly hard to keep up, it was sure as hell boring. They do this for about 3 more games in the manga, and it's so fucking annoying. The supervisor woman always hinting that he has some master plan under his little guise of being the underdog with a disadvantage. She sucks his cock dry the whole time until he wins and proceeds to spoon feed us the whole damn plan.

A recurring theme is the value of friends over money, it cuts to a monologue every now and then about Yuichi's moral dilemma of the teachings from his mother. Thing is, it's a cool and a more or less original theme, but not when they rely on the mediocre drama between the characters to make us care about their dumb friend group breaking apart. This anime seems to be under the impression that we're somehow invested in their friendships that they took like 2 minutes to nurture. Do I have to spell out that I do not give a flying fuck about their friendship. The kid mascot Manabu is always reminding us of the stakes of the games as if that'll shake me in my boots. And honestly they weren't at all high enough. Yeah sure that's a lot of money but none of us really give a shit, it's just a fucking number to us. The author especially relies on the friendship breaking as high stakes, but due to the lack of exposition, no one gives a shit still. The anime couldn't at all set the tone intended.

Pretty bad adaptation overall. The animation was pretty lazy and uninspired, it couldn't pull off the simplest of actual animation. For example, take someone getting punched. Rather than animating it, it's just another still frame with punching sound effects the whole time like it's a comic book. The animation is just so damn awkward, they keep trying weird angles and filters and POV's, all they accomplished was making it look like a fucking Bollywood movie. The sound is equally as lazy, sounds like some music I can find in a third rate roblox horror game. The voice acting is alright at best but mostly meh. The directing is horrible btw, they reaaally suck at setting the intended mood, I just end up cringing.

Another thing, for a psychological anime it's alright but its really missing an antagonist / a real opposing force. For now in the anime the "psychology" they rely on is the main character finding loopholes in the games and such. That's the most lackluster way to move the story along, and it's definitely not entertaining psychology. Even if the games are well made and creative, it still really needs good antagonists. The manga does get better, a lot better actually, and I can actually call it psychological in later arcs, but for now in just the anime, it's just a high schooler simply winning the games by finding loopholes. Essentially, it's missing a clash of who can outsmart the other.

The third game was rather fine but still weakly executed because of what they show us VS what actually happened (basically they fumbled the plot twist reveals). The anime did not pull that off right. The main character read his enemies and used the weaknesses in their personalities to achieve his preferred outcome. That's kind of psychological but the presentation of that information was not executed well either. Yet another failed attempt at making us feel that the mc is some genius manipulator. Oh and the first half of his plan was pretty dog shit.

When you make every one of his opposing enemies an idiot, obviously he'll stand out as much smarter than the rest. Every other character is just one dimensional and badly introduced, the third game just introduces a new crew even blander than the original one. It's so fucking stupid how it took one girl to make Yuichi's plan succeed. His 'master plan' that the supervisor hyped up was breaking their friend group apart using one hot girl. Ok yeah the took advantage of the weakest enemy team member to win that's cool but not when you make the enemies absolute idiots who are only capable of thinking using their wieners. It's not a very interesting to way to make Yuichi win a game in which his odds of winning were near zero. He was out numbered and at such a huge disadvantage, only to win the game using one female as simp bait. What a fucking joke.

Well to be fair the second half of his plan was actually fine and sort of enjoyable to see unfold, but the execution of the plot twists were disappointing, and the enemies fell for it so unnaturally. The two or so hurdles in his plan weren't enough to make it realistic or intense or even satisfying for me, they still were lured in too unnaturally. It was a really well made game but the enemy group needs a rework.

It went too smoothly and I believe they should've been written to be more engaged in not letting his plan work so easy. It's just disappointing how easily their relationship faltered by using one girl. It was such a forced plot and it felt lackluster because the battle of wits that we were supposed to experience was very one-sided because of how smoothly it went.

Basically I'm trying to say that in the third game, the enemy group was at such an advantage, they underestimated Yuichi and his plan worked way too well. He used the guise of being the underdog to win, and lot's of animes do this to be fair but that just makes it not engaging to the audience. This anime thinks that fully hiding his plan from the audience is entertaining but it's actually kinda counterproductive when they're just dragging out the reveal. They do this so many times in the manga except the antagonists get progressively harder to outsmart thankfully. It was such a lame way to see him win that's all.

It's really not until later arcs (only in the manga) that I reconsider my initial impression of the MC and believe that he actually is smarter than the rest.

Overall thoughts are (summary):

Art: 3/10
Lazy is the best way to describe it. Can't show emotions or reactions properly, and they didn't actually animate anything violent.

Sound: 3/10
Catchy OP but the soundtracks are music you'd find in a roblox game.

Plot: 6/10
Genuinely sort of creative but horrible execution and lazy writing in crucial aspects. Glossed over important things a lot and mostly presented very pointless information. Plot twist reveals were completely fumbled. Also lacking in actually high stakes and good antagonist(s).

Characters: 3/10
Mc and another future character are top tier in the manga but for now in this anime, the main crew are so unbelievably bland. It feels like I'm watching fucking robots trying to recreate human conversations. Also all of mc's opponents are morons so it's not exactly rewarding when the mc outsmarts characters with an IQ of a 5th grader that's hard wired to fall for his plans.

Enjoyment: 4/10
The psychology factor is missing a lot of things. We have Ms fucking obvious in the security room reexplaining everything that's taking place every 2 minutes like we lack eyes and ears. Every argument that takes place between the main crew makes me cringe without failure. The adaptation was horrid and the only thing that makes the show even slightly enjoyable are how creative some of the games can be. Still they executed the games horribly and it really ruined what had much more potential.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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