Deatte 5-byou de Battle

The survival game genre feels like a disease that just doesn't seem to go away these days. Sure, they're not as popular in the anime medium compared to the video game industry. Yet, some of them still lands a spot on television. One of them is called Battle Game in 5 Seconds.

Now I could argue that the anime industry has been dominated by the isekai trope in recent years. But once in awhile, there's an anime about survival games. Battle Game in 5 Seconds was chosen to be adapted into a 12-episode anime series despite the manga having over 17 volumes and ongoing. Yes, it ... would for whatever reason, they wanted to showcase an anime about superpowers that draws the line between fiction and reality. And it all begins with protagonist Akira Shiroyanagi.

Akira isn't your typical protagonist as he is protrayed as a prodigy. He's quick to learn on his feet and has a calm composure despite being thrown into a death game along with others. From the first episode, it became clear that Akira isn't a pushover or someone that can easily be intimidated. To add on to his character attributes, he's also got a clever mind and takes full advantage of his ability, the Sophist. With strategic thinking, it became obvious that Akira possesses intelligence beyond his age. When you have a character thrown into a survival game with all these traits, it makes Akira a key figure to watch out for, both for his allies and enemies.

The rest of the character roster consists a wide range of backgrounds. Among the most prominent is Yuri Amagake, a 17 year old girl with a history of bad luck. And by adding her to show, it really brings in the question how much value she can contribute. To be honest, she's one of the most normal characters in the show with a rather abnormal ability (Wrath of God). It would appear the anime wants to show how a misfortunate girl can fight against bad luck and be who she is. However, the anime does a poor job at developing her character beyond the surface level. She's just too normal, with really nothing unique to describe about her.

With those two out of the way, the rest of the character roster starts to stray from normalcy. For instance, the seductive Rin Kashii is introduced in one of the team battles that shows her manipulative nature. Shin, the quiet giant, is protrayed as an enemy of injustice. We also meet the delinquent Madoka who never lets anyone or anything gets in his way. But perhaps the most unusual among the cast is the catgirl, Mion. She plays the role of the administrator for the survival games. And believe me, she's about as cruel as a character can get in the show. Unfortunately, the anime doesn't adequately develop or reveal her true purpose. It's up to the viewers to decide on why she exists and what she truly wants to put all these characters into survival games with their lives on the line. Yes, that is the main drawback of the show. It seems the anime just drops everything to suddenly and expect us to be invested into the story.

Meanwhile, the anime also appears to forgot or never really wanted to develop its character cast this season. Besides Aki and Yuri, most of the characters in the show are overshadowed by them. The overemphasis on Aki's goal as well as the survival theme itself tarnishes the legacy of this show. Given the survival game context, they should at least try to make one other character in the anime more memorable besides our two leading protagonists. Even for the two main leads, their character development is limited and for what's worth, very underwhelming. That it say, this show can easily be described by one word....underwhelming.

Looking back, I never felt the show was visually appealing from the very start. There's obviously some violence and action given the themes of the series. However, nothing else really stood out whether it's the character designs, settings, or even the backgrounds. Somehow, they made a talking cat-like girl the most distinctive character in the series. While you could say the anime isn't about the art, it certainly deosn't enhance the overall viewing experience. Studios SynergySP and Vega Entertainment need to step it up.

Battle Game in 5 Seconds took a hit for the team and I don't mean that as a compliment. It means it took a hit for itself by creating an underwhelming story with an equally underwhelming cast. With a manga running over 17 volumes, this served little more than an advertisement. It practically wants you to throw money at the franchise. Do yourself a favor and save your money. There's better investments you can make.

Battle game in 5 seconds. I haven't read the manga and I came in with absolutely no expectations just hoping for a show that would pass the time. Man it didn't disappoint.

Keep in mind I extremely enjoyed Darwins Game and this season is practically identical to it and it has kept me intrigued this whole time. So from the very start of this series I immediately enjoyed the series. The story is very similar to that of darwins game with people gaining random powers in order to survive the events that are taking place. It's a pretty cliché story but it's one that I tend ... to enjoy quite a lot no matter how much it has been repeated.
Story 7

Mc is cold but kind at the same time so I like him. He's also pretty smart and can understand situations making him an mc that isn't obnoxious or annoying. Side characters are alright I guess
Character 8

Overall always rate with how much I enjoyed the show as my main concern and I so far have really enjoyed it.
Enjoyment 10

I can see why some people might not enjoy it but I sure did
Overall 9
I recommend you at least give it a try

The death game genre has reached a pit of mediocrity in modern anime standards. Most shows in this genre usually turns out to be god awful from the start, or has a decent beginning but crashes and burns in the end. So when I saw a new death game anime in this season, my immediate reaction was “Not another one” a saying DJ Khaled would be really offended by. But I’m honestly surprised to see this show hold up pretty well, enough to get me to watch the whole thing, start to finish…or it did at first. Does that mean it’s great? No, not really.

The ... premise is pretty straight forward like most death games. Kill or be killed situations, surviving a platoon of super powered people and be the last man standing. It starts off with a giant, 8 foot crocodile ass looking man attacking our mc. Our mc manages to escape his assault and trap him in an abandoned building and manages to kill him. A bit unrealistic, as the more typical reaction would be to shit your pants when you’re attacked by a large menacing figure than to go full Tom Cruise mission impossible on the guy. He then proceeds to get transported by an overtly annoying cat girl with a top hat, and brought into the death game, where he’s given the full explanation of things. Sort off at least.

The remainder of the story we see our mc in various fights and precarious situations. The premise is straightforward and not gunna lie kinda boring. The death battle genre is one that I rarely like, but even without personal dislike, it doesn’t have any uniqueness to it, or any factor that sets itself apart or grabs your attention. The powers and in this show feels unrealistic in the sense that there’s so much flexibility in them. There’s no borderline for how overtly unusual powers could be, and since we as viewers are in the dark about several rules of the game, it gets frustrating to see one dumb power coming out of nowhere. There’s no balance in that sense which leaves you confused and kinda annoyed.

You feel a slight repetitiveness in the shows storytelling. It revolves around a problem being created, mc using his intelligence to solve the problem, everyone else losing their shit tryna figure out how he did it. There’s no opposing force, there’s no “L” to our mcs “Light”. This sets up a rly plain sailing plot with no added tension or suspense. You see a situation occur but you already know it’s going to get resolved with no added consequences. Although, I was dumb to expect proper storytelling in a death game so it’s honestly bad on my end

The best part of the show is the mc. Most death games either have a mc who’s a complete whiny annoying character who’s scared shitless all the time, or someone who’s over confident, unusually strong and has will smith I am legend levels of smartness and survival tactics. The mc here is minimally intelligent and knows how to use his intelligence properly. He dosent have the whole “I can beat you, cause my friends are relying on me” bullshit. He knows a serious fight, plans ahead, and uses his brain to win rather than the friendship rocket launcher. His power compliments his intelligence a lot, which is one of my fav aspects of the show. Since it’s so vague what his power actually is, it gives him the liberty of experimenting and slowly figuring out the limits of his abilities, which is quite entertaining to watch.
Other characters such as Ruri is a recurring presence in the show. She’s a girl with a troubled past, due to lack of parental affection, and she finds solace in caring for her little brother. She has a decent backstory but we don’t see that implemented into her character that much. She’s always cheery, active and loud. We rarely see her past effecting her personality. It would have been refreshing to see her all quiet and anti-social initially, but Akira helps her come out of her shell and makes her bright and cheery.
We also have Walmart Bakugo, blue haired Joe Exotic, nerdy gamer girl, manipulating red head milf and a lot more. There’s an abundance of characters but all of them are super generic and extremely forgettable. They have their own parts to play but feel more like an NPC out of Skyrim than an actual character. The villain has the classic “Im the bad guy, I’ll kill everyone” look and leads the gang green gang of annoying misfits. The only character that’s remotely decent is the glasses guy that looks like he’s paid the subscription for every Onlyfans model in existence. His cunningness is somewhat amusing to watch in the last arc of the show. Besides that, forgettable, generic, annoying side characters.
But we all know the best character is the banana head man

The art in this show is not consistent. It starts off with a fairly vibrant art style, which was one of the things that made me curious about the show. But as more time passes, you notice CGI being used in most places. And if you’re wondering yes the CGI is horrible, almost comical. Im really wishy washy about CG in anime. When it’s well done, it’s actually pleasant to watch, like Beastars. When it’s awful, or combined with animation, it feels disgusting, like an unholy amalgamation of good and evil. It’s like oil and water, it just doesn’t mix. That’s the long term problem in this show, as even main characters start getting CG’d more often than animated. The fight scenes also has more CG than animation in the later parts, and most parts are covered with flashy lights, big explosions or smokescreens to avoid putting effort into their show. Like bruhhh, if a show that has “Battle” in the title dosent have its fight scenes properly animated, it begs the question “what is your budget going towards?” Characters also have their rough times, with disproportional facial animations that makes them look like something outta Resident Evil, and not even the good Resi games, like some shit outta Resi 6.

Not going into details about the sound. OSTs are fine, OP & ED was fine, and voice acting was generic yet well done. Although the cat girl was super annoying, like enough to make my ear drums bleed levels of annoying.

Even with its amplitude of flaws, I honestly think it’s one of the better death games out there. It’s not a good show, but it out runs its predecessors in most factors which is something I can appreciate. It was more like a rocky ride than a constant downhill that I felt watching Darwins Game. The mc is the highlight of the show, and outshines most characters and was the only reason I came back to the show weekly. Fun show overall.

So, to keep it short, the dynamic of the show was: bad premise, quite good continuation, and gradually getting worse second half. Despite having one of the most stereotypical and bad premises out of there (and also character introductions), the following episodes got way better and actually interesting, only for the growth to be completely thrown out of a window later, with the story becoming stagnant, typical, and boring. The characters don't really help either, not even the interesting back stories being able to save the show. The fact that it loses its realistic factor, that made the characters feel human, only makes it completely ... ruined.

The story starts with an arrogant loner gamer boy that's extremely intelligent and thinks other people are not worth his time (that's definitely the first time we hear of this, right?) getting attacked on the street by a buff mummy that gets out of a car right in front of him and starts chasing him. Luckily, because he's smart and an ace at playing games (including startegy games), he manages to defeat him, and a quircky evil catgirl with a high picthed voice abducts him. Where does she take him? In a room full of people where she explains that they are part of a game now and were granted super powers. A set of games, to be precise, with more stages, that put their lives on the line. Pretty basic and used so many times before, isn't it? But here comes the good part: our (male) MC's super power. That's where it starts to get better.

Unfortunately, the good part ends when we have to watch a single stage of the game go on for half of the episodes and it becomes all just a mind game that should have been impossible, actually. It has a little supsense, but not enough and it loses part of its meaning anyway, but I'll stop here for the sake of not giving that many spoilers. Point is, in my opinion the focus in the second half wasn't on what it should have been to make it a good show.

Oh, and the characters. Aside the annoying male MC that I already described, (that gets a little more tolerable after a bit but still could have been a little more original), that has the typical appearance of a brown haired boy with brown eyes as well, we have the female MC that looks exactly like Rei (Highschool of the Dead) and has pretty much the same personality. Her backstory was pretty interesting and her character is tolerable, but her design kinda pisses me off tbh. There are also some interesting characters, and their backstories are pretty interesting most of the time (even for the more boring ones).

To top it off, at the end the animation gets pretty bad on some parts (around episodes 11-12), especially when it comes to fighting scenes and one particular character, where the CCG is pretty obvious and doesn't fit well with the rest of the animation.

The sound is okay, the sound track not exactly what I would listen to. However, I'd say the ED went especially good with the anime.

Well, that's pretty much all I had to say. Too bad it had to go like this, the anime had potential at some point.

This will be one of my first reviews so I'll be blunt and the reviews may contain spoilers. The anime tells how our protagonist Shiroyanagi Akira and other individuals find themselves in this classroom with a mysterious character who explains what happened after losing outside the room (this is a guess that he takes as "proof" what happened to the MC) and after killing a person and explaining the situation each player is taken to their respective rooms to reflect on what to do and to understand how their superpower works and also to test it. It all comes in a mysterious way and in ... that place killing is an option, the thing that intrigues me is the upcoming challenges and how the MC and other people will deal with them. I like the drawings and later MAYBE we could see the MC backstory. The anime does not stand out for its originality because a similar anime is released in 2019 entitled The Ones Within with almost the same mechanics but with cryptic characters. I recommend it for those who like anime in which the intellect is the winning factor and for those who like characters with superpowers.

“Battle Game in 5 Seconds” is what happens when You have a pretty nice idea to put a twist on a survival game genre but get lazy almost as soon as You show it off for the first time.

The plot follows one Akira Shiroyanagi. One day when he was out and about he got attacked by a mysterious humanoid. Keeping his cool and using his intellect and love of games, he manages to kill it. As a reward he gets killed.
He wakes up, fully healed, in a mysterious place, surrounded by other people, where a sociopathic catgirl declares that everyone there was chosen to ... be a part of a game. They are given powers and force to take part in fights. Now… no one tells explicitly that people have to kill each other but let’s be honest, it wouldn't be a survival show if everyone played nice. And so our not likely hero finds himself in a death game and it turns out he takes pleasure in being there. Even if he doesn’t admit it out right.

To be honest there are only two characters in this show I actually gave a damn about. They are:

Akira Shiroyanagi - our MC. A 16 year old high schooler who is bored to death. When we meet him he contemplates finding a new game to play and immerse himself in. Well… be careful what You wish for. He ends up in a death game and has to fight to survive.
His intelligent, knowledgeable about sociotechnics (although the show never calls them that for some reason) and able to keep a cool head. Unlike most anime protagonists he has something that could be considered a seed of personality. He’s not a Goody Two Shoes and doesn’t let others push him around. But that’s about it. His main drawback is that he talks a lot. Specifically about what he has done to conquer his opponent. Instead of keeping quiet he just has to brag, and his bragging is cringe af. The fact that most of his plans work is thanks to the fact that he has plot armour thicker than a bowl of oatmeal makes him annoying at times.
He has one of the most interesting powers I’ve seen in a survival game genre. His power is… anything that the other person believes him to have. Pretty cool idea. Shame it’s not utilised more creatively.

Mion - a sadistic, violence loving, cheerful and weirdly sexy cat girl. She appears to be the host of the death games. Having a weird obsession with Akira, she watches him diligently and even sometimes intervenes to help the kid out. Something totally out of character for someone who gets off on violence and death. Yes, she’s a side character but she’s far more interesting than the “love” (and I use this term loosely) interest of the MC.

Seriously, Yuuri Amagake is pretty boring as a character. It appears she develops a crush on Akira after just one joint venture. She has one of the most OP powers in the show, only eclipsed by the MCs power. She can multiply her physical abilities by a factor of five.


Let’s be honest the survival game genre doesn’t exactly have much room for innovation. You take some people, give them some kind of power or gear to make things interesting and just let them go to town. The main way that these kind of shows keep You invested are the way it handles fights between the competitors and the characters themselves.
One of those is handled… adequate. The second one… yeah… mediocre at best.

When it comes to fight choreography… yeah… 90% of the time it’s bad. Not horrendous but bad. Despite having some awesome powers to play and make them fight each other, most of the fights are really generic. Either the fight is over in seconds because someone has a skill that can kill or incapacitate his enemy in an instant, or we get the same boring shit that we’ve seen a million times - screaming, running and waving weapons without a real plan. Even when we get to see a fight between two swordsmen who have the same skill we still don’t get a proper fight. It’s… disappointing. The fact that some powers are more common than others doesn’t help.

The writers got lazy pretty fast. I think episode 3. Instead of finding creative ways for Akira to make use of his powers he just uses the fact that most people know that he has one power and uses that. It makes his fights predictable and boring pretty fast. I get that he fights trash mobs mostly but that’s still not a reason to get complacent with the plot. As long as there is someone who knows that he can use a canon power he can just “tap” into that person (even if it’s an ally) and just shoot the place up. It gets old pretty fast.

The characters aren’t much to write home about but their interactions are pretty fun to watch. The inner monologues in Akiras head give a sense of secrecy, suspense and importance and watching people trying to guess each other's powers and how to get an upper hand in a fight isn’t as tragic as I was afraid of. The problem is that those kind of mind games are reserved for… 2 fights in the whole show.
Another thing that rubbed me the wrong way is that, despite being in a death game, a lot of people just trust him and tell him things they really should keep to themselves. Even when the leader of a faction he joins is wary of him he is still trusted enough to fight alongside their members. Pretty irresponsible.

At the end of the day this show isn’t a tragic one. The interactions between the characters can be fun to watch and moments when Akira manipulates others are pretty entertaining. Even if a lot of those “manipulations” are pure ass pull and some are done retroactively.

It can be enjoyable if You don’t have high standards for writing.

really liked this anime and enjoyed i was shocked when I saw its rating here I was hoping something of 8 but everyone have its opinion
the idea of the anime is old but its only for 2 to 3 epis that u feel that way but after that, u really see the difference
it was a continuous thriller u can expect anything to happen MC usually win but how he wins against strong opponents really matters for the anime and this anime exactly shows that
MC has a very sharp and insightful personality but it doesn't look a bit overboard
I highly recommend watching this ... anime if u slightly dark theme with bit of seriousness

In terms of the anime's story, it's actually unique because every time there is a fight scene they immediately fight after meeting for 5 seconds. The strength of each character is quite unique. The battle scenes in this anime rely on strategy so I don't get bored while watching them. The opening song in this anime is a banger. For the ending song, I think it's normal and nothing special. What makes this anime less good is the animation that looks stiff and lacks detail so that the battle scenes that should be epic and exciting are now ordinary. Perhaps this is due to rushed ... production and short deadlines. What a pity

What makes a good battle royale show? Is it the story of where and how it all started? Is it the crew of characters that each and everyone of them have their wishes fulfilled? Or is it...a death game where if you die, you're dead forever both in-game and IRL (like in SAO)? For Deatte 5-byou de Battle a.k.a Battle Game in 5 seconds, truly in 5 seconds, you'll come to see that this show is just purely "All according to Keikaku." the Animation in all of its average drabness across the entire anime's run.

Death-perception game shows are nothing new in this day and age, ... the most recent example being of last year's Darwin's Game, and that by itself is a fast and frenetic death game that doesn't take its sweet ass time to develop the settings and such. It just infodumps you right in without any explanation, and does it only after the fact. Think of Hunter X Hunter in the early stages, but there are notable differences across the board once you can start putting two and two together. Deatte 5-byou does just that, but for some reason, executes it a whole lot worse with mangaka Saizou Harawata's writing that does start decently, until it goes straight into "Battle Royale" mode which is a blatant copy-and-paste tactic that fails to measure up to Darwin's Game in both the predictable story and the forced plot (I'll leave the animation part later on).

The "Light Yagami" of this story is the MC Akira Shiroyanagi, the self-proclaimed smart gamer with an ailing health, and that's all he does: play games each and everyday without a care in the world. Just suddenly, a bandaged buff-lord man etches out of a vehicle, catching this 16-year-olf boy by total surprise and having to evade death in 5 seconds. Being someone who's totally out of league in this death battle in both power and physique, Akira just manages to escape at the slightest shave, but yet could not evade death by getting killed from this catgirl loli Mion. In comes this gaming experiment of a death game, and this protagonist (just like Darwin's Game's MC Kaname Suou) more than being forced and hauled into this, vows to destroy this organization for taking his (and others) lives hostage for their fun.

You want to know how bad Deatte 5-byou de Battle can be? Here are the facts:
Aside from coming in with the notion that I (and some of you) have watched Darwin's Game before, I just can't shake the fact that the characters are written TOO simple, more than just having 2 essential things: a goal/objective to get out of this death game, and a personality that lets us be sympathetic to their backstories, no matter how depressing they can be. For one, taking the protag Akira by example, he's just a stone cold-faced boy who tries to act and sound mature, but at times feel disconnected by his actions and words that are meant to be a play on his character. Being the big brain-er of a strategist, you would at least expect him to have some humanity, but nope, he's just a human with a robotized brain. At least the other main character who's standing toe-to-toe with him (Yuuri Amakage) exhibits the human trait, but I just can't help if the author decides to have a fetish that a boy-girl pairing is a must not only in close calls of trusted camaraderie, instead inciting the hints of romance as well (which there're some). The other characters are a complete joke.

The superpowers (or abilities rather) given...are a complete Darwin's Game rip-off. Each and everyone has unique abilities that are only secret to their own unless they decide to tag team and share it across with allies, but even to the point of Akira's ability, none of them have the coolness factor of said series that are just subservience to service the plot. I mean, just to give you an idea, Akira's ability is the Sophist: "Whatever your opponent thinks your power is." which definitely means that there're lots of possibilities to experiment with it. Sadly, it's as best as what you'd think: for example if Akira can <insert your guesses here>, then he will exhibit that according to your POV. It only is a one-trick pony to play Survivor through a death game that requires battle wit, brawls and even brains just to keep your allies alive for your ultimate use. In the end, it's everyone for themselves.

There's the abominable animation, which is the biggest sin of this show. Why in the world would you want to produce a modern-day show when it looks like it came from more than a decade ago? For context, putting this in comparison with the classic Initial D, the first season aged very badly, but subsequent seasons did have better production values that gave the series justice. Compare that to Deatte 5-byou, and I'd reckon that it came out in the mid-2000s with old studios SynergySP (which did Initial D 5th and Final Stages that looked even worse than Studio Gallop's 1st Stage) and Vega Entertainment (which their last work was the IMO abominable 2005 OVA Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru). Studio A-CAT handles the CGI portion because these 2 studios didn't have the capacity to do that for a modern touch, and it's the same thus far I've seen of badly produced works done. Putting all of that together, and "OK boomer" fans that had this show as their first taste of a battle royale...I'd be like Steve Carrell playing The Office's Michael Scott to shout "No God, Please No!".

I have no sympathy for the music either, because while it fits the themes of this show, it quickly become white noise to me. For one, the OP which was VA Akari Kitou's like what, 2nd or 3rd solo, Tonikaku Kawaii's OP is a certified banger, but Deatte 5-byou's OP just instantly made me think that she CAN act, but she CANNOT sing solo. Thank god for other shows she has done before with others that mask her nice voice though. And also, I'm not the biggest fan of Seiko Oomori, and this ear-blasting ED is a sentiment that only cuts deep to give my ears a good bleeding. Just so bad.

Bring all of these facts with a production team that clearly does not have the experience or talent to back it up (and honestly, having series composer Touko Machida is a foresight that shows will fail under her supervision). With the pacing of the anime faster than the hare can outrun the tortoise, and Deatte 5-byou de Battle is a show that for the Average Joe who, in the words of a good friend: like battle-shounen that pretends to be deep, this might be what you are looking for. Other than that, there is hardly anything unique about this manga. Perhaps, I have been hoping to see something much better than that. So my advice to you is to start reading it, hoping to watch just an average anime. That way, you might enjoy it.

As for me, the prelim reviews are a complete troll of a joke to say that y'all clearly helped people to give Deatte 5-byou a try, but have only your opinions to back it up without years of experience, so why make reviews that are clickbait, algorithm-worthy when clearly the final product shown proves otherwise? (Alright, alright, I'm kidding, but this show is NOT worth higher than a 7.) This show is just average overall, and now I have to go re-watch Darwin's Game again just to refresh my brains of this wack material. It's not pathetic to the point where some will like it, and you do you, but it just is a pain to watch this from start to finish.

This plot for this anime seems pretty generic, for now it reminds me of the tournament arc in Hunter x Hunter with some aspects of Deadman Wonderland. In this anime, each person is given a unique power and they have to undergo a series of challenges for an unspecified reason. I'm very interested in seeing what the main character can do considering his interesting power, so I will be looking forward to each of the new episodes.

Not sure how many episodes this can be, but from the looks of it, this is the type of show where either a lot will go wrong and ... the plot will have too many holes in it, or the ending will be pretty interesting. Obviously I'm hoping for the latter, but I don't have too high hopes for this show. In any case, I will be watching the full series and for now I have enjoyed it, so I will rate this show as 7 - Good for now.

On a side note, this show seems to not be very popular, maybe due to the two animation studios working on it not being very popular or maybe the manga itself isn't very popular. The art and sound are all done pretty well and I think in terms production quality alone this show is better than I would have thought coming into it.

MILD SPOILERS AHEAD (Episode 2, 3)

Story: 7
From someone who very much enjoyed Darwin's Game, I have to say that the story also resonates with me. I find myself in these types of situations often, and I'm glad they made a show to reflect that part of my experience. I think the story flowed naturally and had an interesting, unique chronological structure. If Quentin Tarantino directed an anime, this would have to be it. The story does have its shortcomings, especially with ability limitations. For example, how come Akira doesn't ask Yuri to summon a nuke for him? Or make him immortal, like Vegeta from DBZ? ... Some things don't make sense, but you have to give Tarantino the suspension of disbelief.

Art: 2
The art sucks ass. I liked the part in the second half of the anime where the main villain (the big guy) was completely animated in CG. Even in scenes where everything else is 2D-animated, he's in CG. What's the lore behind that? How does that work? I found that it broke my immersion often. The 2D animation is also not very good, but Yuri looks cute and has nice boobs. So that's why it's a 2/10.

Sound: 8
The sound was actually not too good in the show, but it's passable. The voice actors delivered their lines exceptionally poorly, without any sense of realistic human emotion. It just didn't work. The soundtrack is also bizarre and will leave you disoriented. However, the ED is very good, and I must recommend you listen to it.

Character: 4
My favorite character was the pedophile guy who could smell the status of any girl's virginity (that was his special ability). But the writers killed him off in episode 2, leaving us with boring characters. Another excellent character that was wasted was a man with an incredible ability—to turn buttons into strings. He was also a big pervert. Unfortunately, he was brutally murdered for no real reason in episode 3. I think the writers are killing off all the interesting characters just to emotionally drain the audience, which works sometimes. But they didn't have to kill those two—they did nothing wrong and were lovable, innocent, pure-of-heart characters.

Enjoyment: 1
I did not enjoy this show.

Overall: 4
Don't watch this show.

this was a master piece in its on. i wonder if their is a second season. i was on the edge of my seat the whole time. the part where they ended up back home had me thinking how wicked and weird.
I wonder if he negotiated with neon to let them all go back home and be free but still participate in the game. since the game gives them a thrill and different form of life they were all searching for. truly loved this. i like how their where parts of the scene that looked like the game. and i also felt bad for ... most of the players because of their background story. but at least now they can be at rest. it truly was a beautiful anime with a true story about how we are all trying to survive life and find out place in the world. and how sometimes we lose ourselves to where we no longer see value in this life. we just have to find that special moment or thing that brings value. it funny how it always takes a disaster in order for us to find that value. but this story inspires me to truly value everything whether i found my true calling or not and also i am only human so i will take my own hands and pave a way to what makes me happy.

This anime has been on the low probably because of his visuals and his overall aspect in my opinion visually didn’t look so bad even tho it looked a bit oldish.

But I’ll start by saying I think he deserve a mid 7

Even IF:

Sure the story is a déjà vu and the main character act as if he was the kid from kirito on SAO and light yagami in DEATH NOTE.

I feel like the anime is getting a lot of low notes from people who doesn’t see all the work behind an anime and can’t get another look from their first impression

Because sure the Art doesn’t ... help especially in combat where it sometimes look like you’re having 10 fps

But their is still a good enough effort to make it over the average anime now when you see notes like a 3 or 4 people are just out of their mind,the overall ambiance was putting you in without getting you bored.

The musicals choice and the voice acting was GOOD!

Sure I can understand some people putting a lower notation because there is already a lot of anime of the same genre and it’s nothing new you can clearly see the inspiration in some characters.

and the flow of anime is a very HUNTER X HUNTER like especially in the fights scene where they love to pause and explain you all the bullshit but you can’t penalize the anime for his genre it’s whether you like it or not.

When I’m comparing him to anime of his genre the visuals and easy path in the story can’t make him above a 8 cause it is to low in my opinion but I can respect A 8 cause the anime I’m sure can be very enjoyable especially for newcomers

That is for the high note and I couldn’t like a note lower than 6 cause the music voice acting the effort in the rythm the consistency in the script and story can’t put him near the trash levels 4 and under but I could agree that he is average or above

So low note 6
high 8
Easy pick i just go with 7 I think it is fair for the work put on the anime, what made it rise above averageness to me was the fact that I could watch the 12 episode while still being captivated not bored and could watch a next season.


I’ll always say about every anime all depends on what style you,like give it a try and make your own opinion.

This review was adjusted/corrected

Here I am again, reviewing another anime of the season.
Anime: Deatte 5-byou de Battle/Battle Game in 5 Seconds

An anime with a not so good story, I believe it is for the mediocre, for the lowly. The way the premise is approached, I found it very uninteresting and the way it is done, makes me want to go to sleep and say "I watched it, but I didn't understand it, lol", but also, depending on the point of view, the story is very superficial and makes you join a disinterest and watch it just for or for the protagonist having a relatively high middle ground and ... knowing how to do such a thing within the anime (I confess that I'm only watching it because of mc, lmao).

Ok, the animation in the beginning was ok. Nothing too "wow", but the guys put me in a horrible CGI and poorly planned. I was very disappointed about this.

The sounds are good, the voices don't make me want to scratch a blackboard and think this is better than listening to a character's voice (except for Mion's voice, which makes me want to scratch my throat or listen to a fax machine for an hour). The opening, in a way, is good, a strong point so far, and finally, the ost's didn't hold my attention, I found it very weak and sloppy.

The characters are good, I confess I love the mc for being minimally intelligent and knowing how to use his intelligence, not a sloppy mc who is intelligent and doesn't act like it. The other characters are interesting, not so charming and not so mediocre. Each with their own life stories and goals. The characters are well introduced and from the beginning you already know a little about their personalities and goals (apparently, however, I may have made a mistake).

Overall the anime is interesting and a great pastime (this is when the anime is finished being released), it's not bad and it's not very good, if it wasn't for the story and animation, I would give it an 8/10, but I stuck with 5/10. That's it, I hope you found this review useful.

WARNING: Contains mild spoilers

Story: 8/10

The concept of this anime is really nice but it is not very well presented. I feel like the story is interesting and some of the fight scenes are quite enjoying to watch. The plot twists in Battle Game 5 Seconds is nice too. Even though the pacing might be a bit fast, they explained the plot well enough for me to give it an 8/10.

Art: 4/10

5 episodes in the anime the art was pretty decent. The art style is definitely unique from other anime you can find out there. However, the CGI is trash. I feel like ... the CGI usage in this anime is trash. From episode 6-11 there is this arc where 3 teams would come to battle in order to advance to the next round. One of the leaders in the other team, THAT GUY, the animation on my boy is awful. Some of the fight scenes looks lazy and I feel like the animators could have did more work on him.

Sound: 8/10

The soundtrack of this anime is actually not bad. The sound effects in the fight scenes are decent but overall the sound usage in this anime is not bad. The credit song (ED) slaps though, not gonna lie.

Character: 9/10

I love the main character of this anime. Akira is a pretty intelligent character and I feel like he is very suitable for this show. I feel like Akira could have been a little more cunning and evil but I think his character now is good. The side characters are not bad too. Yuuri has a great synergy with Akira. I feel like the character depth for some of the other side characters can go deeper but I wouldn't complain about the characters right now. 9/10

Enjoyment: 7/10

This anime is decently enjoyable to watch. The CGI and the pacing ruined the enjoyment for me. Despite that, I actually love looking at some of the parts of the anime. I feel like anyone would enjoy it if they do not bother about the trash animation, sadly.

Overall: 7/10

As of now this anime is pretty much well rated. I would recommend this anime to anyone who just wants to enjoy the characters and the concept of the anime.

Negatives +
After 5 episodes this anime has had some incredibly mediocre moments. Mostly a backstory which has gore, sex, child abuse and other things. It's not that I don't like the backstory because of those things, but I'm not amazed by the creativity or happy when those are the only things that were told so far, -1 point for me.
The other thing that I still find lacking though I'm only at episode 5 is the game element in the show. There's been quite a few very powers that aren't exactly new and the game where the characters wasn't explained at all, so when ... I'm thinking about how some parts of the anime feel like they weren't followed through, I'm skeptical about what the future holds.

Positives -
So far it's been a lot of negative but there's also a lot of positive. Even if it's a game genre it's still interesting. I can feel how the story is building up little by little and there's also a lot of unique powers which keep it interesting and the game I assume they are playing is also progressing and there's always something happening. The games played in the game are also starting to get much more interesting at ep 5 where I'm at right now.
There's also some funny jokes that are sometimes missing in these game animes. Characters don't feel very out of the ordinary yet but they aren't bad or annoying and there are some that are actually quite unique and fun to see.


Conclusion:
That being said opening and ending are way above average and I like them both. It definitely feels like an upgrade of BTOOM!!! so far, so If you enjoyed that I would recommend this as well. Or anyone who's into game animes.

This one was tough to rate. I feel like it has a great premise and story, but that it wasn't executed as well as it could have been. Having not read the light novel / manga, I won't know if this is just an adaptation issue.

The battle royal and how it's executed are pretty great. You have straightforward villians and a protagonist who isn't afraid of getting his hands dirtty and both of those combined keep you engaged.

The problem is just that sometimes the plot trips over itself trying to be clever and throw in twists. I feel like it's a bit too "clever" for ... it's own good. Where this gets the most frustrating is around the character's abilities. They seem extremely poorly designed and the author gives a lot of latitude to make the abiilites all seem to do whatever they want sometimes. It can be frustrating because as a viewer you don't know the rules so it just seems like stuff is just happening.

Other than that though, it keeps me coming back for more if only because the MC is interesting and engaging. Definitely worth checking out and I hope it gets another season.

Deatte 5-byou de Battle does nothing innovative with the death game genre. If you're into these types of shows, then you'll find it acceptable, and if you don't, then you'll think it's trash.
I don't think Darwin's game is anything innovative or anything, but Deatte 5-byou de Battle doesn't even try with it's pilot episode. It's pretty clear that the author wanted to get the beginning out of the way so the death battles can begin. An extremely intelligent and convenient MC is shown in the very beginning, is which he's trying to "immerse himself in a game to escape reality" is coincidentally, given an ... opportunity to immerse himself in a game to escape his current reality. Wow! Usually, you're also given a sort of mystery as to why people got abducted and placed to fight each other in weird games, but this show just flat out tells you: "we're testing new abilities, fight to the death!" Again, it's a very vanilla beginning, and the most dull one I've seen so far.
I think that other than the beginning, the story arcs are alright. The fact that the MC has a pretty OP but interesting ability is cool, and you're driven to want to see how he gets past his obstacles in every stage. Of course, things just go too well for Akira for me to really root for him and care about the story, but it's good enough to pass the time. Again, the charm point of this story is how everyone has a unique ability, including Akira. Pair these with different battle settings and scenarios, and you got a fun little death battle survival story.
What really gets me, though, is not even the boring beginning. I love the genre, and I was not expecting much anyway from the transition from regular life to death game. It's the animation. This show is on a hella small budget. Everything is so poorly animated. There are little to no backgrounds, the studio uses every trick to animate fights with as little budget as possible. In the very few frames where there are fights, they use crappy CGI instead of actual animation. It's a very low budget show clearly, and there's nothing good about it. I'm not even too picky, but to have a show about fighting and using CGI or just poorly animated fights is just too much. Backgrounds are just solid colors half the time, closeups are constantly shown to avoid as much animation as possible, no details are shown, characters have unnatural limbs and bad proportions, etc. Pair this with the fun flashback montages that were already shown in order to save animating anything, you a really low quality show in the art department. Zoro's voice actor playing Kirisaki was a good surprise, but not nearly enough to salvage this show.
Story wise, it's actually not bad, but the bad animation is just too much. I prefer anime over to manga, but I really suggest reading it instead...there's no salvation for this animation. I'll be doing the same

I hate long reviews. And mostly review for future self-reflection's sake.

short
MC is an avid reddit user on r/im14andthisisdeep sub. After another casual day of living the privileged life but being too deep and misunderstood by world, he skips school, opting instead to spend time as his heroes do, wandering the streets and being a public menace. He gets kidnapped so badly animated Squid game x X-men death match can start. Plot doesn't progress anywhere, gives no reason to sympathize with any of characters and series viewer base is based on cliff hanger addicts.

plus
Ignoring the execution, idea of random people having knowledge of having a ... super power which needs to be discovered seems fun (Gantz, Btooom! vibes). The archetypal trope of villainous/ethically gray protagonist, can serve as a great medium for dissecting traditional values.

minus
Animation is cheap, all 'mind games' have an ending, but seem to miss quite the important bits of beginning and middle parts. Basically only after something is uncovered are clues relating to how it could have been predicted shown. Animation is really bad. Characters are at best one dimensional - the big muscular guy, the hot psychopath girl, the wise old man etc.

Recommendations of similar anime:
Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor - detective with layered characters thought out plot, actually good mysteries, high stake gambles (not typical action scenes), bizarre/memorable animation.
Psycho pass - dystopian future sci-fi with underlying detective story, smooth and exquisite animation, high level animation.
Btooom! - similar to Deatte 5-byou de Battle but far better execution. Story starts to lag as it progresses, not so much in anime as it simply ends abruptly, but quite evidently so in manga.
Gantz - similar to Deatte 5-byou de Battle but far better execution. Anime stays truthful to source, and manga never promises more than what it delivers, which is pure eye catching gore and epic illustrations.

I was surprised when this anime was first announced. I thought the survival game / battle royale genre has been left far behind in the early 2010s, since we are deep into the isekai era right now (for better or, probably, for worse). So while the key visual and PVs for this anime did not inspire much excitement, I was cautiously expecting an at least somewhat average palate cleanser with a hint of nostalgia. Well, that's pretty much what I got.

I have not read the manga, so I will judge this purely based on the anime. This is pretty much the bog-standard death game anime ... you would see bouncing around the seasonal charts a decade ago (with art and animation quality to match). What makes this somewhat more intriguing is the mystery element - whereby the participants in the death game appear to be recruited as part of a broader conspiracy, instead of having straightforward goals and defined rules from the get-go. This mystery is used to a decent effect to drive tension in the early episodes but unfortunately fades over the course of the show's runtime in favor of more bombastic action setpieces and hastily written and poorly executed character backstories.

Speaking of, I would highlight Akira, the MC, as the standout character in the series. Sure, he isn't anything too unique as far as death game MCs go (and at the very least he isn't a sigh-inducing weakling or idiot as these MCs tend to be). His aptitude for tactical and strategic thinking makes the "big brain" moments in the show's climaxes entertaining to watch. The way he uses his unique ability to gain an edge over the various enemies he encounters is a consistent highlight of the show. Unfortunately, the more mysterious elements of his own backstory receive no attention during this anime's runtime, but I am satisfied with what we got. The other characters are rather bland and uninteresting, and the villains are comically evil with uninspiring backstories. There are slivers of romance in this anime, especially in relation to the female lead, Yuuri, but it never takes away from the core narrative of the show (which I appreciate). Yuuri is plays a more important role as a critical part of Akira's plans, and her spunky personality forms a good complement to Akira's otherwise stoic persona. The focus is directed towards the action and Akira's thought process, from which where most of the show's core entertainment value is derived.

There isn't too much to comment on from a technical standpoint. The art and animation aren't anything to write home about, with terrible CG used during demanding portions of certain action sequences. The music was mostly forgettable, though the OPs and EDs were catchy and fit the theme of the anime well (though I would probably forget them by the time next season rolls around).

All in all, Deatte 5-byou de Battle was a bit of nostalgic fun, a throwback to the heyday of death games in the early 2010s, and a fresh change of pace from the isekai drab that muddies every season these days. You would get some enjoyment out of it if you prefer more "brain" than "brawn" in your survival games. If you are getting bored of the style of anime we are getting these days, this could be worth a casual watch if you can make room for it on a crowded seasonal watchlist. But if you really wanted a good survival game/battle royale anime to scratch that particular itch of yours, I would recommend checking out classic examples of the genre which have stood the test of time, and potentially some more interesting ones in upcoming seasons.