Review of Darwin's Game

tl;dr: An urban death game anime with a heavy emphasis on the growth of it’s protagonist. Darwin’s Game is an anime centered around players playing a death game of the same name that’s run entirely from a smart phone app and may start anywhere and at any moment. There are different mechanics that come and go, but at it’s core it’s a game where each player is given a supernatural ability known as a Sigil which they must then use to fight others, often to the death. If they win they receive points from the loser which can be exchanged for various items or incredibly highamounts of cash. However, the penalty for losing all of one’s points is death. There’s some foundation for a larger overarching plot regarding the mysteries behind the game itself, but this season is primarily centered around random conflicts with the goal of establishing the protagonist.

The protagonist is a high school student named Sudou Kaname, who ends up getting roped into playing the game without having any idea what’s going on. Still, half through luck and half through persistence he manages to survive long enough to figure things out. Kaname I think falls into my favorite type of protagonists because he’s overpowered, but more due to mental strength, will power, and wits then just straight up being really strong. His Sigil is pretty strong in and of itself, but the only reason he’s able to go toe to toe with high ranked players immediately is that he’s the one wielding it, which the anime makes sure to convey pretty well.

He also goes through pretty strong character development over the course of the series. This character development is interesting because it feels less like his core personality changing, but more so that due to being put in extreme situations his true self is becoming more and more prominent. For most of the show his change is temporary and only present when in said extreme situations, but eventually it does click due to particularly extreme circumstances and it becomes very clear he’s changed tremendously in a way that feels pretty satisfying as a way to close out the series.

Beyond the protagonist there’s a decent sized cast of characters, what with clans being a core aspect of the game and Kaname both assembling his own clan and having to deal with others. Kaname ultimately manages to assemble a small but really powerful clan. This felt somewhat forced because despite that they originally got together entirely due to the plot necessitating it, the skill sets of the various members compliment each other incredibly well and furthermore they just work well with each other at a social level. Still, as a group they’re really cool, especially in the ending, so I’m okay with it.

Most of the cast at an individual level outside of Kaname aren’t focused on that much and thus don’t feel important enough to feel much of anything about yet. There are two major exceptions to that though. The first is Shuka, a girl that pretty much instantly falls in love with Kaname after losing to him. The romance isn’t that prominent but what there is is pretty nice and I found her and her adoration for Kaname combined with her Queen like personality cute, and thus I think she’s a pretty likable character overall.

The second is the complete opposite of her, the main villain in this season, Wang. He’s the type of villain that’s a completely awful person without any redeeming qualities with the narrative not trying to flesh him out or give him any depth at all beyond that. He’s really simple but really easy to hate. What I like about him is that I like it when despicable villains like him get their just desserts in a really painful way that completely breaks down their arrogant character, which this anime manages to mostly handle really well.

The art and animation are overall pretty solid, but it’s also somewhat inconsistent in that there are definitely areas where there’s a noticeable quality drop. The character designs are pretty good and fit well with the characters and world. The art style works well for the tone and atmosphere. The OP and ED are also pretty great at matching the tone and atmosphere of the series, and thus work well as insert songs. The soundtrack outside of that had a few moments where the tracks fit the scenes incredibly well, but outside that the soundtrack was just okay.