This show is exactly the reason why I go into shows blind. Based on character designs alone I was ready for a yu-gi-oh/digimon/beyblade level of seriousness and the drop when it revealed the deathgame was absolutely stunning. And, as the episode unfolded, the show didn’t stop surprising me. I was watching with a friend and early on mentioned we’d almost certainly get a murder at some point mid-season, and when the one kid pulled out a gun and it turned out we didn’t need to wait even an entire episode to get to that point… perfection. Only topped by the final scene where our main character dies.

So many parts of the storytelling here were baffling, making the plot and action hard to follow at times. The plot itself made so many bold choices I honestly couldn’t tell if it was fully incompetent or if it had something more interesting up its sleeve; after some reflection, I’m pretty sure it’s the former.

Overall, a truly fascinating mess of a show, and I will be back next week. I usually like to give ratings, but this one depends entirely on if there ends up being method or just madness, and only time will tell.

Umm okay…

Deathgames are fine, but the main problem I see is that in this game, the characters don’t seem to have much agency.

At least not so far.

A seemingly random A or B choice question shows up on a screen, and the characters live or die.

I’m sure this didn’t get the umpth most requested anime adaptation for no reason though.

A few more episodes to really be able to judge this…

@rikka@ani.social