Anyway, the anime started off good. I was intrigued and it seemed like it'll have some good mysteries, interesting characters, fight scenes etc.
After the first 4 episodes it all started getting pretty boring. Character development of all the protagonists pretty much stopped there and those were all shallow developments followed by some random power ups and grunting like the show couldn't decide whether they want to go full dragonball style shonen or not.
Explanations of everything was rather shallow and I'm guessing some may reveal itself at the last 2 episodes I didn't watch. For example, I just couldn't understand why the people who wanted to leave can't just leave and have people who wanted to stay in the fantasy world stay behind. And surely there were more people in despair in Japan than just those people we were shown? It seemed like there were only a handful of protagonists and antagonists that got sucked into this world and that's just it?
If the show wanted me to sympathize with the musicians (the antagonists) they did a good job. In fact, I ended up rooting for them more than the guys wanting to leave. The protagonists, who were supposed to be on the right side, seemed selfish in my mind by wanting to leave for their own benefit, regardless of whether their action will make someone truly unhappy.
For me, I was really hoping for something like a redemption arc for each antagonist. I studied counseling for a bit, having had mental issues myself with an acquaintance who passed away because of it, I know the deep end of social issues they've pointed. Those antagonists wanting to escape reality had some valid reason. The show took an easy route out rather than making a compelling story about how they have an epiphany and realise their mistakes, they made everyone comically evil to paint them a bad picture. When they killed off one of the antagonists who was a victim of bullying, by having him just fall to his death, I just had my guts full. To me some of those protagonists in fact felt more like the bad guy, the same people who belittled the antagonist and bullied them to the extreme where they seek asylum in a fake world rather than dealing with the issues.
By the way, I just wanted to add that episode 9 was such a piss poor take on "handsome people also have it bad." It also did not explain why Mu made an ideal world for everyone, but made the handsome guy who didn't want to be handsome and popular... handsome and popular -_-
Animation, music and even the fight scenes were alright. The story was just annoying for me.
