Review of Darwin's Game

On the surface, Darwin's Game is another addition to the battle royale genre, akin to King's Game and Mirai Nikki, but soon after starting it you begin to see that you were correct in your original assumption. Darwin's Game presents nothing new to the genre, it is quite a waste of time to watch. It will not enlighten your life, nor will it teach you an important lesson. While it is a waste of time to watch, if you're the type of person who has time to waste, then this rant-review will inform you of the ups and downs of the show to decide ifyou really want to waste your time on it.

Story (5): We start with Kaname Sudou as a regular teen who was invited to D-game by his friend who panicked before death and sent him one of those annoying Facebook Candy Crush invitations that your relatives keep sending you, even though you've never played Candy Crush in your life and don't intend to. Kaname decides to actually accept the invite, which propelled him into a game of hell. From the first episode it is apparent that there will be a few story issues with this show. Why on earth did Kaname's friend send him an invite right before he died? Surely he knew he'd be inviting an average joe to a fucking deathmatch, and in the rare case that Kaname immediately adapted to it, he STILL wouldn't be able to come to his friend's aid right at that moment, so Kaname was basically dragged into the game by his dying friend for absolutely no reason at all. This is the biggest problem early on with the story. Another major problem is that about nine of the thirteen episodes in the first season take place entirely within one arc, the Treasure Hunt arc. A lot of the show's relationships are built within it, including Kaname's decision to make his own clan, but I personally was not expecting it to take so much time to get through the arc. By the time it was over, the season had three episodes left. Other than those problems, the story was alright. The twist on the Treasure challenge was interesting to watch and the ending of it was enjoyable.

Art (7): While the show certainly doesn't break any barriers with it's animation, it didn't make the mistake of using CGI or something weird to portray powers, they were animated regularly. Since it avoided the mistake of Big Order, it's doing good already in the art department. The show also doesn't unnecessarily use auras or anything of the sort for powers either, their eyes just glow slightly to indicate they've activated their sigil. It really was a nice call to not wrap Shuka's chains in red mist or some dumb shit, so I appreciate the art direction. Of course, we gotta talk about the look of the characters too. Shuka's design is quite nice, her twin tails match her chains which is slightly ironic. Kaname on the other hand looks completely regular. Later in the show they do some weird shadowing with his body. Like his entire left arm and leg is dark even though he's standing in the light, it's weird.

Sound (6): I'm not a big sound fanatic so I usually just rate on opening and ending, unless there's something to note about the character's voices. I watched in dub and didn't notice anything peculiar about their performances. Then again, Alexis Tipton, my favorite voice actress, voices Shuka, so I'm always pleased with her performance. The opening was bearable to listen to, but nothing I would listen to on repeat or add to my playlist. The ending song was generic, in my opinion. Not good or bad, I just feel like it's what you'd expect from an ending. I skipped it a majority of the time once I heard it a couple of times.

Character (5): It's not easy to talk about the characters in this show without focusing on their flaws. Kaname acts like an idiot while also being smart at the same time, it's unbelievable. He has a great battle sense, but no sense in every other area. He wasn't even convinced D-game was real until the latter half of the second episode, despite his best friend telling him over and over again it was. He's a typical wimp, more obsessed with learning how to end the game than survive it, as if you can easily back out. Has he even seen Sword Art Online? His character does do a 180 once he gets comfortable with the game, with a fair amount of affirmation. He still has his idiot moments though, like when he was given the chance to talk to the creator but instead of having a meaningful conversation, he shouted and was aggressive for a few minutes before calming down and having a civil discussion with him.
One of the most charming characters is the plant man introduced in the tower. However, though about three episodes of the Treasure Hunt arc focus solely on him, he has no place in the opening or ending theme. Why? He is treated as just another adversary to defeat and move on even though he was much more than that, but I won't spoil anything. I do like the powers of the main cast, other than the machine gun man. They all compliment each other nicely, and where Kaname can't cover, another character can come and do it for him, for that is the power of friendship!

Enjoyment (8): Despite my complaints, I enjoyed the show quite thoroughly. It didn't provide much suspense during fights because Kaname wins every. singe. time. in true protagonist fashion, but I did like seeing how he bested his enemies. Each plan was more cunning than the last, and even the adversaries he faced had competent abilities, ones that weren't easily overpowered but did require some ingenuity to beat. I watched the show relatively fast, there were no plot holes that made the show unwatchable and each episode was action packed and made me want to immediately move on to the next one to see what dilemma Kaname and his band would face next.

Overall (6): To reiterate, the show does nothing new. It's barely memorable other than in title. There is some enjoyment to be found while in the moment, but you won't finish the series finding something out about yourself that you didn't know before. If you truly enjoy watching battle royale anime, by all means, watch Darwin's Game. If you're looking for an actual show to make you feel good inside, then look elsewhere. Big Order had a bigger impact on me than Darwin's Game did, but that show is infamous for being bad while this show is just average and won't be going down in the history books any time soon.