Rbastid

It’s an anime, about a game, that feels more like a game, than an anime, and it actually works!

Story - 8/10

So in my review for The Ones Within I had mentioned that I haven’t watched too many, or possibly any, “High Stakes Game” type anime. I enjoyed that show, but was disappointed by the abrupt and pointless end, so when I went to move on to my next anime to watch and review, I thought Darwin’s Game would be a good choice, as so many people had compared the two.  

Much like all these shows, the main character is still someone who was not planning to be in the situation he currently sees himself in. After receiving strange messages from a missing friend during the night, Kaname Sudou accidentally activates a new game app on his phone, one that recruits him into an ongoing game that plays itself out in reality. He only learns of this after he’s attacked by a man in a Panda Mascot outfit from the local baseball team, and upon being saved by his friend he’s told of his new predicament.  Though unlike most phone games, this one has real life consequences, which he finds out when that friend soon dies. 

After another in game battle, Kaname learns that the best way to survive in this game is to have friends, so he starts a clan, and just in time too, as Darwin’s Game is running its first treasure hunt event. This is the best part of the show, as it not only acts as the clan building portion of the series (something that takes multiple seasons for some shows *cough* Danmachi *cough*) but also incorporates great story and character building, as well as some much needed action. This treasure event takes up a large chunk of the show’s time, but unlike other shows it doesn’t come off as just useless filler.

With only a few episodes to go most would think this is where the show just coasts to its conclusion, but they’ve got one more story waiting for us, and this one will change Kaname and his path going forward. 

One thing I really enjoyed about the show was that they kept it from becoming a Isekai. It’s much easier, creatively, to just have our group travel off to an imaginary land, where the game master has control of everything and can add even more outlandish aspects to the game. But instead, having it occur in Tokyo, with an A.R. aspect, allows things to be a little more complicated, as events within the game still affect the city and the people within it, and that means innocent bystanders can just as easily become victims.

The writing was also quite surprising. They could have easily just made this show about nothing more than characters slaughtering each other to stay alive, but they made sure to spend a pretty significant amount of time on dialogue between all players, as well as adding some puzzle elements to the game itself. Finally, unlike many shows, they didn’t treat the viewers as little children, they made the game and the choices of players have consequences that weren’t always pretty, and each character is given moral dilemmas that change who they are.

Animation - 7/10

The art design, and execution, is similar to pretty much everything in the anime world today. Everything looked beautiful, and everyone looked familiar, but surprisingly there didn’t seem to be any cut corners or choppy action scenes as we’ve also become use to. 

Sound - 5/10

I keep coming across series where it seems like I know the English V.O. actor from somewhere, but then upon looking at the different databases I can’t find a connection, or at least one I would have thought. So many of the characters in this show sound like very similar characters from the previously mentioned The Ones Within. The one that most stood out, but which has no performer listed for English, is the Game Master, who sounds exactly like the game master Paca from the other show.  The voices are all done very well, they just aren’t very original. 

The opening song was very much an action anime opening theme if there ever was one, not great, but it certainly would get you in the mood for the show. The ending of the show sounded like, well sort of the opening theme. Another song that’s just okay, and easy for me to skip through. As for background music throughout the show, I honestly can’t remember any as it was so insignificant.

Characters - 4/10

While I did tend to like the characters, they weren’t even the least bit original. Every single character was swiped from another series, with maybe just the smallest tweak, but that’s what we’ve basically had to learn to accept from anime; it’s like the early days of fighting video games where every game had the exact same style of character with just a different name and slightly different outfit.  

Kaname Sudou is the unwilling participant in the game, who now just wants to get out alive, while not having to kill anyone.  Being our hero he’s of course has no idea that he’s also highly skilled and a natural at the game, as they always are. This gets worse as time goes on and he acquires even more powerful upgrades that allows him to go from a decent character to a typical overpowered main character. They put some thought in to Kaname, as he might be someone who wants to get through the game without having to hurt anyone else, he soon realizes that’s not always how life works, and unlike some other famous anime pacifist who tell themselves they’re pure and holy while watching people get slaughtered, Kaname figures out that sometimes inaction is much more evil than action.

Early in the episodes we’re introduced to the show’s equivalent to the super powerful, sword wielding schoolgirl, who will be used both to easily wipeout villains, and wipeout any chance at a PG rating with her nude scenes.  Like all beautiful girls in anime, she at times goes from ruthless killer, to drooling lovebird for our super awesome main character.  She had the potential to be a lot better than she was, but they were all over the place with her as a character.

The other characters more or less are there to fill up our hero’s new guild. There’s the gun wielding madman, who in reality is a nice guy just trying to get revenge for his brother’s death. Next is the squeaky four foot tall girl who contains all the knowledge in the universe. The final long-ish term member is a child with split personality disorder, due to the death of the brother in this twin pairing. They all do their job within the show, with Rein, the aforementioned squeaky little girl, adding the most to the story, and actually being a much better character than our main.

The villains are all as cliche as they get, with most not even making it past two seconds on the screen before someone eliminates them. The only one of any prominence are the members of the biker gang who now use the game as a way to further their criminal empire. Likewise all other friendly characters are also pretty boring and insignificant, but hold some potential for future seasons.

The one thing that makes all the characters special is the powers they obtain through their “sigil.” This is where the writers went from having the characters be copied from many different shows, to having them be unique to Darwin’s Game. While some powers did feel like they were from a fighting video game, others had an interesting twist that had them play in to the storyline. It might have been a little more interesting if the powers had some rhyme or reason, as they all just seemed random, and gave people a huge advantage over others, but it’s not something that will make you really change your opinion of the show. 

Overall - 8/10

This show really held my attention, and for the first time in a while I found myself watching multiple episodes, and looking forward to the next to see what happens. The characters might not be great, but they are covered by a good plot and storytelling. They also don’t treat the viewers like children, where everything has to be happy and neat at the end, which is another rarity in anime of the last decade or so.

The only disappointment was that the show was so short. But again that seems to be the industry today, where series are just given a small episode order, and maybe they’ll get a second season to actually finish up plots, or they may never be heard from again. I miss older shows, like Trigun or GTO, where they were given the time to make their entire show, and they’d just run for a year straight if they had to, but now the game is all about creating content, so they need to rush stuff out as soon as possible.

I hope we get a second season, as the way things are written, it seems like they could have a great finish, and actually be able to get it done in just another twelve episodes.

Positive Reasons for Score:

 * A change of pace from your typical Isekai gaming anime.

 * Giving the game actual consequences, and showing us right away that everyone won’t be a winner.

 * The character’s have real moral dilemmas, where they realize even the good have to do bad things in order to make things better.

Negative Reasons for Score:

 * Very unoriginal characters, from the way they look to the way they act.

 * Like so many of today’s shows, so much is left unfinished.

 * Even here they needed to add un-need ecchi, but at least kept it to a minimum.

Ways to make the show better:

 * While a complete season, the pacing of the show made it feel like it wasn’t, since they only dealt with a small little portion of the game.

 * Tone down the over powering just a bit, especially since our MC gets even stronger by the end.

 * Give a bit more insight into the game’s mechanics, and the method to the game master’s madness.