Review of Darwin's Game

Darwin's Game has two major problems in the anime form. First of all does the intro spoiler some character details and twists from the very start, automatically reducing the potential enjoyment of those twists. Secondly, the major antagonist for season 1 is extremely bland. In fact, the blandness issue is fairly prominent in this anime. The lead character, Kaname, is dragged into this murder/killing game by one of his dying friends and then has to deal with the consequences of that friends decision. His whole mindset was to quit the game because he don't want to kill other people. In the established context of this gamewhere killing is winning it creates a simultaneous bland and different take on Batman. This becomes especially prominent when the game masters decided to hold a puzzle battle royale style event. This event is the major arc of this season and even the final episodes deal with the aftermath of that event.

At first, the focus of the arc becomes apparently clear for the viewer when Kaname declares that he don't want to kill anybody and still win the event. It is this event the intro spoilers as it becomes quickly clear that not all new allies will survive the long term. And while it is contexted as a heroic last stand, the character in question dispatched many other gamers without any remorse. And this is a running feature in this anime. As long as the humans are at least 50 meters from Kaname, they are violent killers without any regards for human life. But as soon as they enter his vicinity, they become cooperative allies with their own usefulness.

However the antagonist of this season, Wang, seems to be immune to this. Wang is a gang-leader. I would like to write more, but that pretty much is it. Everything about this character is derived from this statement. He is violent, a sadist, likes to get money, likes to be in a superior position and becomes a coward when cornered. There is really no interesting take and his sole purpose is to drive Kaname over the edge. After completing this objective he was killed off and potentially will never be seen again in the series.

The characters, and subsequently the story, are by far the biggest let-down of this anime. It partially has some nuances to difficult psychological topics, but they mostly are thrown under the bus right after picking them from the bouquet this anime holds. Some of the fights are well animated and choreographed but still fall flat in the context and the predictiveness of the characters.