It's fine, definitely not one of the worst animes i've seen. but as a big fan of the manga i can't help but be really disappointed. do yourself a favor and read them (there's an english translation on manga rock) before watching this (or just read them and don't watch the anime)
7 Reviews
How is this rated so low?!?
eobeau24 August 2020
I can never seemingly understand how others rate, no...
reviewing_anime_rants5 November 2022
One would think, if anyone is consistent, that if Another was highly received, with all its gore, that this would also be popular... but no, somehow.
Both have gore, that is undeniable, and that by itself doesn't make anime better or necessarily worse (although if it's there for no reason then it's worse rather than better, and this is what I thought happened with Another). Both really tried to up themselves several times throughout the series.... maybe Ou did more, considering the nature of the game, but... that is the point, at least the gore here made sense... happened due to a conscious decision, whether insane or not, whereas with Another it just happened due to some unspecified supernatural force. Not that the 'king' here totally isn't 'supernatural', but there is an attempt at an explanation, whereas in Another there is only history (both do have attempts at understanding these background forces, but only one is 'conscious' per se, and so feels like Ou makes more sense due to this).
So, do people prefer random accidents over deliberate games? I've no idea. But, I certainly prefer Ou, even if it could be slightly more gory in comparison to Another, because it makes sociological sense, and also... there were these sort of cathartic moments in some of the characters' lives... not all, but then Another practically had none of that from what I can remember...
While both can be observed from a sociological 'what if' perspective, conscious games make more frightening sense because this is more likely to happen in real life too. Absolute monarchies still exist, and while they don't normally send messages to people's phones the concept remains the same; people can turn on each other (as in Lord of the Flies too), even if survival depends on cooperation... and would even more likely to not help anyone if survival actually depended on hurting others, even if there might be a chance of collective survival if, in many cases, understanding the cause would resolve it.
Both have gore, that is undeniable, and that by itself doesn't make anime better or necessarily worse (although if it's there for no reason then it's worse rather than better, and this is what I thought happened with Another). Both really tried to up themselves several times throughout the series.... maybe Ou did more, considering the nature of the game, but... that is the point, at least the gore here made sense... happened due to a conscious decision, whether insane or not, whereas with Another it just happened due to some unspecified supernatural force. Not that the 'king' here totally isn't 'supernatural', but there is an attempt at an explanation, whereas in Another there is only history (both do have attempts at understanding these background forces, but only one is 'conscious' per se, and so feels like Ou makes more sense due to this).
So, do people prefer random accidents over deliberate games? I've no idea. But, I certainly prefer Ou, even if it could be slightly more gory in comparison to Another, because it makes sociological sense, and also... there were these sort of cathartic moments in some of the characters' lives... not all, but then Another practically had none of that from what I can remember...
While both can be observed from a sociological 'what if' perspective, conscious games make more frightening sense because this is more likely to happen in real life too. Absolute monarchies still exist, and while they don't normally send messages to people's phones the concept remains the same; people can turn on each other (as in Lord of the Flies too), even if survival depends on cooperation... and would even more likely to not help anyone if survival actually depended on hurting others, even if there might be a chance of collective survival if, in many cases, understanding the cause would resolve it.
Don't watch this!
nodlimax27 November 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Do yourself a favor and don't watch it. I did and after episode 2-3 I was literally only hate watching it. Every new episode I was sitting there and asking "why are these characters so DUMB?"
In fact why was I so dumb to watch the entire show? I don't honestly know, but somehow it was like a train wreck - I just couldn't look away...
The main character talks sensible things and everyone around him just does the exact opposite thing because......reasons....
A female character does a 180 personality wise and turns from "nice girly" to complete psychopath within a finger snap and everyone around her still goes along with what she says. She should've been killed latest by episode 4 but obviously you need a bad "guy" so she had really stupid plot armor.
Anyway - don't watch it. Just look for something better...
In fact why was I so dumb to watch the entire show? I don't honestly know, but somehow it was like a train wreck - I just couldn't look away...
The main character talks sensible things and everyone around him just does the exact opposite thing because......reasons....
A female character does a 180 personality wise and turns from "nice girly" to complete psychopath within a finger snap and everyone around her still goes along with what she says. She should've been killed latest by episode 4 but obviously you need a bad "guy" so she had really stupid plot armor.
Anyway - don't watch it. Just look for something better...
Terrible, just Terrible
danielcavaiani30 October 2021
Its complete and utter garbage. Spare your eyes and mind from needless suffering. It is a challenge to watch this show all the way through. It actually could have been good if the writer didn't include random turds in the story.
It's not great, I'll give a few suggestions if you're looking for something like this
mark-300809 June 2022
Anime that do it better:
Future Diary
Darwin's game (more of an action one, but same premise)
Danganronpa:if you haven't played the game this one is worth a watch. If you have them the game has more detail, I find games like it so boring though.
Tomodachi Game.
I looked into the manga a lot because the anime is kind of all over the place. Didn't read the manga, just synopsis of all of them. So there's like 4 different mangas all following the same plot, no real character development, and since the main character has already played before the level of suspense that these types of anime usually supply is gone. There's a lot more of these that are better. It's also unnecessarily perverted, I guess in like the 3rd manga they explain it as "The King is a Pervert" but I'd say half the tasks are forcing some girl to sleep with some guy, or some girl will use sex for leverage, or it'll force a guy to grope her. They're all high schoolers too, I know that's not a surprise for anime really. But I find it tremendously uncomfortable. Also everyone but the main characters have no individual thought process. It seems like it's just the person that the episode is following and the main character have any persuasion, everyone is just really dumb.
Tomodachi Game.
I looked into the manga a lot because the anime is kind of all over the place. Didn't read the manga, just synopsis of all of them. So there's like 4 different mangas all following the same plot, no real character development, and since the main character has already played before the level of suspense that these types of anime usually supply is gone. There's a lot more of these that are better. It's also unnecessarily perverted, I guess in like the 3rd manga they explain it as "The King is a Pervert" but I'd say half the tasks are forcing some girl to sleep with some guy, or some girl will use sex for leverage, or it'll force a guy to grope her. They're all high schoolers too, I know that's not a surprise for anime really. But I find it tremendously uncomfortable. Also everyone but the main characters have no individual thought process. It seems like it's just the person that the episode is following and the main character have any persuasion, everyone is just really dumb.
A never ending nightmare
ham-ma24223 August 2019
This anime is pretty gruesome and as my title says it's never ending. It's a very intense trip through many characters who either gain hope in the hopeless situations or loose it all and perish. People were constantly challenged and pushed towards their limits by fear of death of this unknown game master.
It's interesting how it seemed like there were 2 seasons of the anime put into one, because of two stories intertwining with the main character and there was a lot of details instead of just flashbacks to give the general idea of what happened. Also it kept me thrilled and interested to continue the episode after episode, yet I got triggered by the gore, I still wanted to watch it. It was repetitive of course and it just seemed that there was no hope for the characters in the anime, because of how the game master (king) was just beyond reasonable and over-pushing them.
I truly wanted some good outcome, but the good outcome was always there with the hope and inspiration from how people were dealing with the given tasks, it shows that even though humanity is a rare case in most humans, but it still exists and will never cease.
P.S I guess the rating is that low because people got triggered and disgusted with it. Ironic, as in the anime, people got killed because of the influence by their imbalanced emotions. Also it seems that most of the viewpoints were "if I were this then I'd do that", it's always easy to say that when you're not actually participating and also it's the plot of the anime instead of a game where you decide how things go, people cmon. Enjoy what this anime is instead of trying to make it into something that it isn't, or make a reboot of it so others would do the same to your anime xD.
It's interesting how it seemed like there were 2 seasons of the anime put into one, because of two stories intertwining with the main character and there was a lot of details instead of just flashbacks to give the general idea of what happened. Also it kept me thrilled and interested to continue the episode after episode, yet I got triggered by the gore, I still wanted to watch it. It was repetitive of course and it just seemed that there was no hope for the characters in the anime, because of how the game master (king) was just beyond reasonable and over-pushing them.
I truly wanted some good outcome, but the good outcome was always there with the hope and inspiration from how people were dealing with the given tasks, it shows that even though humanity is a rare case in most humans, but it still exists and will never cease.
P.S I guess the rating is that low because people got triggered and disgusted with it. Ironic, as in the anime, people got killed because of the influence by their imbalanced emotions. Also it seems that most of the viewpoints were "if I were this then I'd do that", it's always easy to say that when you're not actually participating and also it's the plot of the anime instead of a game where you decide how things go, people cmon. Enjoy what this anime is instead of trying to make it into something that it isn't, or make a reboot of it so others would do the same to your anime xD.
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