Btooom!

A more gory, brutal, adult themed Sword art online anime I would say.

The story is that a lot of people, including the protagonist, find themselves on a deserted island where they are forced to play an exact real life version of a popular online game. It was interesting enough to get me hooked and anticipated for every next episode.

The protagonist was good, in a way that they didn't made him too strong or something, but didn't made him a complete wimp too, kind of a balanced type which you normally don't get to see. But they just had to include an annoying girl with big boobs to add fan service and romance.

The action was decent, layered with gore and brutality.

The problem though is that firstly, the anime ended without any resolution or anything, it just ended in mid way. Secondly, even the 12 episodes felt cramped up. So many characters could have been fleshed out more.

7.3/10

The animation was quite good, and the anime mostly followed the original manga story, sadly only for the middle of the 1st arc, which is the best of the story for me.

The only minus point would be the censorship of some of the original scenes, and the fact that the anime end early, so if you want to see what happen after,you need to read the manga.

Ihmo, it's a nice anime/manga for the survival fans, even if others like Darwin games are even better.

Plot

A young man gets transported into a video game he plays called Btooom. A plot is uncovered involving an organization that aims to conquer the world by dominating the virtual world.

Cast

Unfamiliar with anybody involved.

Verdict

I've never read the original Btooom! Manga so I have no basis for comparison, I took it for what it was and it is a very mixed bag.

It starts strong on account of the premise being fairly interesting, being a gamer I doubly appreciated it and I was engrossed however it's quite goes from decent to average faster than you can say Call of Duty is overrated and though I was interested in the direction it was going I found myself thankful it was only 12 episodes.

The anime is dark, there's no goofy voices, over the top expressions or standard anime tropes here which I appreciated as I despise that stuff. It was gritty and hard hitting, but something was missing.

Then there's the perviness of it all, there are a couple of very eye brow raising scenes. You know the ones, the stuff you'd never see in anything American yet seems the standard in Japan, perverse and creepy for the sake of it, even the hero who we're supposed to be rooting for gets in on this action.

And then the biggest flaw? Yep that's right, the show gone cancelled on a cliffhanger so Btooom! Is an unfinished story rendering it a quite pointless watch.

Could have been a memorable enough anime, the ignorance and selfishness of the creators doomed it to mediocrity.

Rants

As an avid gamer since the mid 80's I appreciate stuff like this, especially when it's clearly made by gamers (Unlike most Hollywood efforts). The trouble is gaming has changed so much over the years, the primary change being the online element. I miss couch coop! Modern online gaming is offensively toxic to the point I find it best to mute everyone the moment I go into a new game. Whether it be League of Legends, Call of Duty, the worst community of all time Town of Salem or Among Us which wow just use the Pride banner in there and see how that plays out! You think people are vile behind their keyboards on social media? They're worse behind a controller.

The Good

Solid premise Surprisingly decent characters

The Bad

Inconsistent quality Ends on a cliffhanger Some senseless perverseness.

Ignore the negative reviews because of some ecchi scenes But it has good plot and charactorism The only different between squid game is the money issue😅

I watch a lot of anime, when I mean a lot I can proudly say I have covered about 50 different series at the least. This one ranks up there, with the suspense, difficulty and tactical awareness of the game, and the whole bringing out the crazy in normal people plot. A must watch. I rate this on similar lines as death note, dead man wonderland, Mirai Nikki, high school of the dead just to name a few.

If you are into anime series that constantly keep you at the edge and do have a sense of realism and plausibility all through the story or 'world' that has been created, then this is for you. If in turn you like more fantasy heroic idol worshiping anime's as bleach and naruto or one piece, then you should look else where because this is some serious stuff.