Review of Darwin's Game

Darwin's Game is no King's Game: The Animation, but clearly surpasses Mirai Nikki. Ok LA might be putting Darwin's Game to a pedestal but what Darwin's Game has going for it, LA can at least bring it to a moderate degree. Darwin's Game is about Sudou Kaname voiced by Yuusuke Kobayashi who gets unwittingly roped into a mysterious mobile game app, but the game has literally his life on the line, but to counterbalance that, he's given a superpower in order for him to survive. Darwin's Game works in alot of ways like most mobile game "events and news" but again with the entire survival real lifegame aspect to it, everything is on the line and with how not only charismatic Sudou is but his entire drive of just wanting to survive without killing, brings a sorta unique take on these survival death game anime.

Yes people might see Sudou as the pacifistic, harem gaining white knight Sudou but no actually, Sudou attracts his core cast of the anime thanks to his charismatic and drive to want to survive no matter how bad his opponent is, no Sudou drives the plot and him wanting to stop the mastermind behind all this and his bravado drives the plot forward along with the rest of the cast that joins him.

On speaking of which, Shuka Karino voiced by Reina Ueda is a top player of Darwin's Game and she latter joins Sdou's cause for good reason with some ulterior motives. Alot of people has said Shuka is similar the classic yandere Yuno Gasai. Again no, Shuka has her own goals and Shuka isn't really romantically interested, she more or less are in friendly basis to Sudou and in a ways use Sudou to further her own ulterior motives but in a good perspective in Sudou's gang. Latter on Rein Kashiwagi voiced by Nichika Oomori, Ryuuji Maesaka voiced by Taku Yashiro, Sui voiced by Yumiri Hanamori joins Sudou to survive the game. Rein is the info broker of the core cast and Rein was LA's favourite character throughout the anime as much like Sudou, she was roped into the mysterious mobile game by happenstance and her stoic nature was actually charming and like Sudou drives the plot forward. Ryuuji at first a bad guy, latter turned good has beef to one of the gang leaders that's in the game and lastly Sui like Ryuuji once a bad guy, she latter "doesn't want to kill".

If there was anything Darwin's Game does well is tension at the situation at hand but more importantly, character development and the character interactions itself is one of the best strengths in the anime.

Darwin's Game does quite well in terms of giving tension to the survival mobile game aspect of the anime to which LA says in the direction of giving the core cast ALOT of obstacles not only from the opponents the core cast needs to surpass (and sometimes can't) but doubling that with the games rules added to it drives the stakes even further to the aspect to drive the tension of many of the encounters Sudou and his gang goes through, be it an escape plan, joining Sudou's gang or endgame, really lots of blindsides happen in this anime (sure Sudou and Shuka have some plot armour) but nonetheless, Darwin's Game does tension well and for a survival game even better.

Darwin's Game...the mobile game itself has a mystery towards who created it and how Sudou wants to stop it as well as allowing his members to survive at all cost. The mobile game "game" does work in a realistic "mobile game" game like having events and in gaining points and the like but with the process having to kill people as a result, to this defense the creator during Sudou's time in the game allows for killing but killing doesn't ALWAYS equate to gaining points. So it's a nice new perspective of the "mobile game" survival game.

The animation done by Nexus was actually pretty decent right down to the character designs, battles and background work. The animation doesn't really do many derps at that. Nexus did pretty well outright from the character designs as well as the battles itself, so if there is any contention to watch for the animation, then Nexus did great in terms of animation and consistency.

The voice cast were pretty good, from Yuusuke Kobayashi as Sudou, Reina Ueda as Shuka to Nichika Oomori as Rein. What LA made this voice cast GREAT was that Dio happened to be in this voice cast and no LA won't mention who he's voice. Nonetheless Reina Ueda as the femme fatale Shuka was done pretty well what with her cadence given to Shuka. Nichika Oomori as Rein also deserves some praise in her role as she got ALOT of good screentime to show her chops in voice acting. Lastly is probably Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Wang of the Eighth channeling his Betelgeuse as a gangster and HAMMING IT UP. Yeah to say LA REALLY liked this voice cast is an understatement.

So Darwin's Game has alot of positives to it, from the solid characters and their development, the tension of the many situations Darwin's Game was thrown at the core cast, good to great production value. So you can kinda see why LA put Darwin's Game on a moderate pedestal.

Darwin's Game endgame pretty much challenges Sudou's pacifistic beliefs and nature in facing off with one of the most unbashful asshole villains in the anime that was building up throughout the anime and sure this detracts from the entire mystery of the creator of Darwin's Game but since the entire feud with Sudou and Wang of the Eighth started quite early on, LA can see why they focused on that. It's a "Read the manga" ending essentially to this end.

All in all, Darwin's Game isn't that bad of a survival mobile game anime adaptation, from having a main character you can root for WHILE having some white knight tendencies but not as annoying, good core cast with ALL it's members having a role throughout the anime and with good production from the voice casting to the animation done by Nexus. If you want a decently mature and slightly edgy survival anime then Darwin's Game is your anime and LA enjoyed LA's experience especially with it's core characters carrying the anime throughout.