Subarashiki Kono Sekai The Animation

Oh boy. This was disappointing. “The World Ends With You” is my favourite Nintendo DS game, so I was stoked when I heard that there would be an anime adaptation. The game oozes style, brims with uniqueness, and tells a touching story about human vulnerability. But considering that adaptations of video game stories have the tendency to be underwhelming, I did my best to lower my expectations...but damn, I should have lowered them further. The pacing of the show is all over the place. The narrative burns through instances of potential character development and stubbornly lingers on moments of meandering. Shiki and Rhyme are really only in about 3 episodes, leaving very little time to grow attached to them. However, far too much time is dedicated to showing Neku, Joshua, and Beat wander around aimlessly for episodes on end. The storytelling priorities are so out of whack; the anime completely fails to capture the spirit of the original game, and worse, fails to be a compelling, stand-alone narrative. Worst of all, though, is the animation and sound. Take any still frame of this show and it looks decent enough, but the illusion of quality crumbles the second it’s put into motion. TWEWY The Animation frequently resembles a lagging video game, looking choppy and stilted regardless of whether 2D or 3D animation is being used. The action scenes are ridiculously hard to follow due to jarring camera movements and poor framing; the screen is often just a cluttered mess of colours and shapes. The music and sound effects are mediocre too, save for the recycled tracks from the game. There’s even a moment about 6 minutes into episode 10 where Beat whacks his skateboard against an enemy and there’s NO accompanying sound effect AT ALL. The enemy just gets launched away in complete silence. It’s all so...sloppy. So yeah, this is an extremely low-quality adaptation that completely lacks the heart and soul of the original game’s story. Whether you’re a fan of the original game or not, I don’t recommend this anime. In fact, I would advise against wasting your time with it. Please...if you want to spend your time meaningfully, just play the game or watch playthroughs online. This anime is not worth your time.

Like a bolt from the blue, here comes Fario-P's Reaper Review... and I need to be honest here. There might be potential game spoilers for anime-onlies, but I will otherwise do my best to express my feelings in my very first anime review as spoiler-free as possible. Please Excuse My Dolefully Angry Statements in advance. "Wake up, shaken up, plastered on asphalt Phones can't block the voices of the masses Seven days left between you and Death Better race, place, Reapers won't give up the chase" This is what's written on the back of the American box art for the best Nintendo DS game of all time. No, we're not counting ports like the Ace Attorney Trilogy and Chrono Trigger (literally the best version to play other than the original SNES version btw) for this achievement, and yes, I do believe it beats remakes like the fantastic Kirby Super Star Ultra and the heartfelt, soulfully made Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver Versions. (Sorry not sorry for the pun.) So I bet you can imagine that I had fairly high expectations for Subarashiki Kono Sekai The Animation, regardless of how many people had tried to warn me about the usual nature of video game adaptations... and I honestly should've completely taken my headphones off at the time. It really was THAT zetta disappointing. I am sorry. I suppose it's best to start off with the aspect that I have the least amount of problems with—the SOUND. It was certainly a pleasant surprise to hear that the original composer and nearly all the voice actors from the original game would be returning for this adaptation, especially Anna Hachimine as she had never voice acted for an anime before. Though there weren't many amazing performances to note, the voice acting in The Animation was decent and I didn't really have any problem with it, other than a minor gripe I had with some dialogue pacing... more on that later. As for the sound directing, it was... passable. I dunno, it was just fine and I didn't find myself thinking much of it while watching the show. Probably the only thing I really remember about it were the extremely loud sounds that played whenever a Badge (Pin for English-version Players) showed up just before the main character attacks... more on Badges later. Now the music... OH, the music. One of the most highly acclaimed things about Subarashiki Kono Sekai that you will never see any diehard fans shut up about—including myself—is its Official Sound Track. Most video game soundtracks are usually comprised of voiceless background music, which is usually all fine and good, especially in Nintendo games other than this former Nintendo exclusive. But the original SubaSeka had some of that IN ADDITION TO mostly original insert songs with a variety of artists and song types... and it is ALL just so zetta good. There is legitimately NOT a SINGLE song from the original game, whether it's BGM or an insert song, that I even REMOTELY dislike. So you can imagine the excitement that many fans had when they heard that Takeharu Ishimoto was returning to compose music for The Animation. I was excited too, but I had also sorta expected that it was going to be mostly new background tracks and not mostly inserts like before... and for better or worse, I was right. The background music that was made exclusively for The Animation seems to be mostly made up of somewhat ambient, mysterious-sounding noise (heh heh). I'm actually listening to some of it while typing this part of the review up, and while the synths and stuff does at least sound like they fit for this plot, nothing actually stands out all that much as anime OST I'd go out of my way to listen to every now and then. I might remember the more somber-sounding tracks, but overall The Animation's BGM sounds fine but not really memorable; though I guess there's the new insert song "Disconnect Me", which had a brief sample released to the public before The Animation aired and was initially known as "Walls" within the SubaSeka community. That song was pretty neat and I kinda wish that there were more tracks in The Animation's OST like it. Added alongside these exclusive tunes are a few of the original game's tracks, though in slightly remixed forms. The first of these you will hear is "It's So Wonderful", which was originally the main menu theme. It's a pretty good remix of the track, but it is used the most out of these select few old tracks (iirc at least four times?) and The Animation honestly doesn't know how to use this piece well AT ALL. The second you will hear is "Calling", one of the most recognizable songs from SubaSeka that is also one of my absolute favorites. It is used ONLY TWO times iirc and first plays as the opening for the first episode, where it honestly doesn't quite fit... though that may be because The Animation's opening was originally supposed to be a song called "Teenage City Riot" by the now-defunct band ALI. Because of a certain factoring hectopascal, the opening had to be replaced altogether by this remix of "Calling" and, from the second episode onwards, a "new" remix of "Twister". This song is another returning track from the original game, this time being the original opening song, and it has gotten so many zetta remixes that the SubaSeka community is honestly kinda tired of it (hahaha). I'm calling The Animation's remix "new" with quotation marks because this remix is literally just the vocals from "Twister Gang Mix" (one of SubaSeka's many in-battle insert songs) plastered with the instrumentals from "Twister Kingdom Mix", which was originally an exclusive remix made for another Square Enix title, Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. I am not kidding. Seriously, look these remixes up and listen to them if you don't believe me. I normally would be thrilled to hear old songs again, but... eh, "Twister (Animation ver.)" is just an "okay" remix for an "okay" anime OST. At least the new end credits theme, "Carpe Diem" by ASCA, is kind of a highlight. Love the new illustrations for it too. Next is the ART and overall visual presentation. I've gotta say, for all the things I have to say about this anime, I cannot deny that the main art style for the characters is spot-on. The Animation's main visual presentation is what you get if you took the urban, street-art-like approach of SubaSeka's art style, used less black and similar dark colors, made the characters less anorexic-looking, and cranked up the brightness, contrast, and saturation levels a notch. While it took a while to get used to the more vibrant color scheme, I do have to admit that there may be some genuine angels over there at the staff behind The Animation. They even kept the original shading style and thick outlines for the characters, which I imagine was not easy to animate...... but alas, here come some more problems. I do like The Animation's recreation of Gen Kobayashi's art style, I really do. But the overall execution in the actual show can get a bit... iffy. I can't quite put my finger on it. On one hand, there are some genuinely great-looking images of the characters and even some cute visual homages to SubaSeka through location title cards and even character sprites... and on the other... well, it's not as jarringly derpy like the timeless "Meduka Meguca" meme, but some parts of The Animation still looks odd at times. There are some shots, especially perspective ones, that look somewhat off-model and I don't mean it in a stylish or even good way. It's so noticeable that I recall some people making fun of stuff like with the main character's arms and legs in some shots and even turned a few of these shots into stuff like emoticons for the lulz while the show was still airing. The backgrounds for The Animation are passable; the iconic CAT graffiti on Udagawa-cho as well as pretty much any other graffiti shown in this show looks great, but I don't really remember the rest of Shibuya standing out in the same way. Maybe that one nice sunset setting was nice, but I don't rem…

We always get the answer "Just consume (play, read, or watch) the source material instead" when asked if a certain adaptation is good or not. So that means it's bad, right? Well, most of the time, the adaptation will have a hard time living up to the original, due to various limitations, but it doesn't always mean that adaptation=bad. And that is the case in The World Ends With You: The Animation. Anime-only watchers might feel detached about the story and the characters, because they'll be introduced to us on one episode and then we get to see them go after two to three eps. They had to fit an entire 25-hour game (according to howlongtobeat.com) into a 12-episode anime, so there really is no space for character development and proper storytelling. Video-game Neku is this snobby, unthoughtful loner who's rude to all of his partners because of his contempt for humanity, but they had to simplify his personality in the anime into this kid who just doesn't talk that much and gets along with others faster. The story's pacing is rushed and a bit off as well, but I'm surprised they included most of the subplot/subquests in the anime. Among other things, the Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer arcs were cut off in the adaptation, but there's not much of a use of that here, because the original purpose of that subplot is to introduce the minigame. So, for me, the adjustments and cuts they made are reasonable enough. Another thing that may probably feel off for those who haven't played the game is the battles. I personally am not a fan of the constant shounen battles, that don't feel different from one another, because they feel empty and repetitive. Then they try to add emotion to these by making the heroes about to lose, but will be saved by the Power of Friendship, or something that anime like Pokemon use as their typical formula on how an episode goes. And the same formula seems to be used here as well, which could've been better if they at least give names to the moves, or show that some of these moves can evolve after a certain time, just like in the game. "But wait, all of these criticisms, but you didn't rank this anime subpar?" Now let me geek out about the things I like about this show. When I watched the first episode, I'm not gonna lie, I was blown away by how they executed this adaptation. The art direction isn't far from Tetsuya Nomura's original art style of TWEWY (everyone is just not as skinny as they were in the game lmao), and the 3DCG looks just as good and doesn't feel off compared to some anime that use 3D. Even seeing the psych pins' moves, like Pyrokinesis and Piercing Pillar, made me smile, especially when they're battling in an anime version of Shibuya. Then, I got the chills when music from the game's OST, like Calling, Twister, and Underground, started playing, and when I heard some of my favorite seiyuu play as the characters of this anime. I also appreciate additional stuff that wasn't originally in the game, like how they added a scene of Eri buying flowers for her friend. I may be rating this higher than most people because of nostalgia and my love for the game, but I honestly think The World Ends With You: The Animation is not that bad. So, is it okay to watch this anime without playing the game first? Go for it if you have the time. Should you play the game? DEFINITELY, especially if you have more free time. It's one of the best video games out there and I'm not even exaggerating, because the game mechanics are very well-thought and the OST is just superb, especially if you're into Japanese rock and hip hop. If you could get your hands to a Nintendo DS or 3DS, play the original DS game for full immersion, but you can play that via Switch too, since that one's more accessible these days.

Before I begin this review, it's only fair that I make a brief reference to the game this anime is based of. Every once in a while I used to try and play it but for whatever reason I never enjoyed it. Despite this, I was pretty excited when this anime was announced because it meant I would get a chance at getting to know the story. Animation: I was really into the visuals up until CGI got introduced. I'm very against CGI usage in animes and this one didn't change my mind about it. It looks awful and breaks immersion. Sound: 1) The soundtrack is okay 2) Many of the seiyuus cast have a vast experience and some of them have worked together on many other shows. Although the game was voiced, Hachimine Anna (Shiki) was the only one reprising her role. You can definetely tell it was her 1st anime appearance and hopefully she'll get more roles and improve with experience. Even if she didn't perform as well as her fellow colleagues, I appreciate the continuity they were going for with her character and would've liked to see the same with the rest of the original cast. 3) there were a few instances where the dialog and animation were out of sync and that's something that will always have an impact on the overall enjoyment 4) Sometimes you'll notice the soundtrack and sound effects will be much louder than dialog Story and characters: I was into the story up until the 5th episode where I felt the plot and action were getting dull and boring. The characters felt a bit too empty for me to truly care after a certain point. It needed a bit more character development and more substance over the course of the story and the plot twists. It had a promising start for me but as it kept moving towards the end, it kept losing its charm. The battles were incredibly repetitive with no new moves or strategies and adding CGI to them, it was the worst part of the anime for me. If you enjoyed playing the game or the first few episodes intrigue you, you'll probably want to watch this and not regret it. However, if you find the start of this anime a bit dull, you can drop it because in my opinion, it does not get better. It's a 6/10 for me. It's fine to watch it on a weekly basis but definetely forgettable.

What a shame. I had high expectations from this anime although I already knew from the first episode that it would flop hard because I know it's going too fast. And hold and behold, the fast pacing and non-existent character development ruined this anime. Even though it had the potential to be good. It just needed at least 20 episodes in order to fix a lot of the main problems this anime had. The story is definitely there. It had some decent mystery (who the MC is, who the composer, what the f*ck is happening, etch.) but because of the fast pace of this anime, the reveal of these mysteries are kinda lackluster and definitely not as good as I was hoping for. The characters are all underdeveloped and basically cardboards. I just hate the cast because of how one-dimensional they are. They made stupid choices that shows how much of a cardboard the characters are. And that's partly because of the pacing's fault. If the pacing was more normal, the characters would have more time to monologue or does something that would show the audience how they feel in certain moments because the problem in this anime is that things happen just because. There's no breathing moment that would allow the audience to bond with the characters. Instead, by the time we would remember the character's names, they'd either die or be forgotten. It's a real shame because the characters have some quirks and some good designs that I'd probably like them if they were develop. The animation is pretty decent. The first few episodes had some great CG-blending techniques to the stylized art style. It's great to look at. It's fluid and there's no boring fight scenes because of how great it is... until the latter episodes happened. By that time, the direction completely became sh*t because of how uninspired it is, and the 60fps before became like 5fps. Also, the great CG became really jarring to look at, that even I had to look-away when a fight is happening in the screen. It just got worst. The music is pretty meh. I didn't like any of the tracks nor the opening. But the ed is somewhat decent so I had to give ponts to that. Overall, just an anime with high potential but was ruined by how garbage the pacing is.

Some video games just aren't meant to be anime, and this is one of them. The World Ends With You (TWEWY) is one of my personal favorite games from my DS days. When it was released, the game was ahead of its time, combining amazing gameplay, appealing art styles, and a killer soundtrack. Unfortunately, none of what made TWEWY special translated properly into the anime. The pacing was awful, the soundtrack appeared in scenes that didn't fit, and the switch between 2D animation and 3D CGI is not pretty. The characters that I love so much didn't get a chance to shine and I honestly feel a little robbed.

While i am writing this review,i do it as someone who has not played the game, So the plot is exactly as the sypnosis mentioned,its repeated but its done with variations in events as not to get repetitive even though the basics of the plot structure remain the same,althought even though i have not played the game i can tell some events are rushed to fit the 12 episode structure. The character designs are unique and the art was great,i searched to see how the game designs look and they did very good in being accurate and looking good.There is quite a lot of CGI but its done very well and it fits very well with the rest of the animation,which is also good. The VAs fit the characters very well and the music matched the style of the show and the opening/ending song was on the good side as well. The main cast is fleshed out really well,moreso the main character Neku,although the villains are on the weak side as they were not fleshed out enough despite having motivations and enough presense. Overall even as someone who has not played the game i can tell that a lot of things were rushed as you may have guesed from my review but as a standalone i believe the positives outweigh the negatives.

I will make it short, this is a pretty mid adaptation It feels really rushed compared to the game, and the ending is different and disappointing compared to the game's However the animation is really good, the artstyle fits the characters well and the english dub, while not having the original VAs is still very good It's an anime you'd watch for the animation, not for the plot as it's overall not a really good adaptation It's still some great fanservice for fans of the game like me Would recommend if you played the game and want to see some sick moves

The World Ends With You is an anime adaptation of the video game of the same name. The story follows Neku who wakes up in the middle of Shibuya Crossing, with no recollection of how he ended up there. It turns out that he is caught in the “Reapers Game” and he has only 7 days to survive in order to make it through the end. The only way he can survive in the Underground Shibuya is to partner up with someone, which is extremely challenging for Neku as he is very anti-social. There were some callbacks to the original game like syncing and fusion attacks. Like in the game you could also see the scene transitions with the location names being written in graffiti style. Also, episodes ended in the same graffiti style chapters ended in the original game. You can see they also borrowed the sprites from the game and implemented in the anime as another nice visual callback. The missions are the same as is in the original game where players have to reach certain area in a limited amount of time or else they would get erased. Like in the game, players use pins to fight “noise” which are the enemies and the anime includes much of the pins from the original game which is a nice touch. Something that wasn’t in the game was bigger noise feeding off smaller noise to become more powerful so that could also be seen in Neo The World Ends With You. The edgy graffiti inspired artstyle as well as the character designs were superb. Shibuya looks much more modernized as times have changed since the game came out, but it still feels and looks familiar. Smartphones have replaced flip phones like back in the late 2000s. All of the locations and names of the game still remain the same. The glitchy visuals was nice new touch to the anime. The same composer from the game returns to make the music in the anime. Twister was used as the opening just like in the original game but it would have been really nice to see Teenage City Riot, the original opening be used in the anime. The anime did not utilizeother songs from the game like “Someday” or “Deja Vu”. The atmosphere of Shibuya is just the same as the game. Unlike the game, the anime does add moments of blood which is pretty unique. The anime also introduces a player vs player scenario where they must fight each other to survive and this concept is going to be used in Neo The World Ends With You. The anime had a day and night cycle and weather cycle which provided some variance. The anime has its downsides. The humor from the game was missing in the anime and this was a big negative for me. The anime missed the chance to use the infamous “pants off scene” from the game. The video game was dark but it had some comedy while this anime is darker than the original game with blood and on screen deaths of other players. While the anime added a couple of new noise like Spiders and Fish, many other noises were neglected from being added to the adaptation due to time constraints. There were some things missing from the game in the anime. Because of the fast pace, characters were not fully defined and the chemistry between them was not the same. Characters that had some interaction in the game were missing in the anime. Neku’s monologue in the intro wasn’t in the anime which was very much a wasted opportunity. Neku was also much more polite, outgoing and more trusting in the anime. (Also in the Japanese version of the game as well) “Tin Pin Slammer” a mini game that was like Bey-Blade from the game is completely absent. The dialogue was more modernized to reflect millennial terminology. This may result in the anime not aging well. There were some references from the original game used in the dialogue though which was a nice touch. The character development is really rushed and so many characters often pop in and out and were just introduced all at once due to the short length. The story was very rushed and instead of having the days in just one episode, they’ve just crammed in as many as possible. The pacing did eventually slowdown in later episodes. The animation was really stiff and the cgi was very obvious especially with the noise. The action wasn’t really good either and it was very predictable. Be warned to those who have motion sickness as the camera will move around quite a lot in the anime. Overall, the anime was a decent adaptation of the game.

If you watched the game you would enjoy this anime a bit. It has fan service which is gun and voiced and stuff. The CGI is dogshit and it hurts my eyes those parts were actual trash. I LOVE JOSHUA. HIS VOICE IN THE ANIME IS PERFECT I WISH WE GOT MORE OF HIM. the dialogue was very cute. shiki was there. THE PACING WAS SHIT. The hand drawn animation was pretty but again the cgi was shit. There was a lot of telling and spouting exposition but other than that it was pretty enjoyable but like the danganronpa anime and persona 5 anime it was shit and you should just play the game.

One of the anime's my boyfriend was looking most forward to this 2021! Let's get right into the anime basics. Story; Neku, our sassy main boy, finds himself in the middle of Shibuya crosswalk. Not remembering a single thing (how he got there, who he is, and why he can hear everyone thoughts) "Noise" start attacking him. Luckily, Shiki Misaki (a strangely positive girl with a stuffed cat) tells him they have to make a pact to survive the "Reapers Game" for seven days or possibly get "Erased" by the noise and other obstacles in their way. Without much of a choice, Neku makes the pact with Shiki and is able to use Pyrokinesis and other powers he puts his mind(or pins) to. Along the way, the two of them run into a bunch of bumps in the road(Reapers, the Beat&Rhyme duo and their own emotions/feelings towards their past) but get to learn so much from each other that seven days just seem to fly by. Even after seven games, when the game was supposed to end, it ends up continuing because only one person from the game can move on. How does the story continue, does Neku learn that putting your trust in people isn't a bad thing and what happens to Shibuya? I'm going to state this first... I didn't grow up with TWEWY game, BUT! I did play with my boyfriend (luckily it was two player on the switch) while watching the anime at the same time. Yes, the anime was missing a lot of content from the game (mainly small conversations, tin pin slammers (THANK GOD), Reaper convos/tasks and going into the shops/restaurants?) but it doesn't mean the anime was lacking at all. Art; The animation suited the anime SO WELL! It reminded me of the game, and although they used EVERYONE's least favourite thing in the world apparently... AKA, CG... it still ended up looking SICK AS HELL!!! The noise looked freaky, they showed how large they actually were compared to their small human bodies and THE FIGHTS??? How could you not love them? Sound; OST was a beaut. Nothing else to say. Characters; Neku is a sassy turd, Shiki is a positive and sappy, Beat&Rhyme were cute AF and Joshua was his cocky and cheeky self. How could you not love them? Feel emotional when they feel pain, lose a loved one and see death right before their very eyes? Maybe I loved the characters because I was playing the game alongside the anime (SHIKI WILL E MY FAV FOR LIFE) but I felt the character development was enough... I felt sad, happy and awkward at times while watching them! Overall, I really enjoyed this anime. I think it was a great adaption of TWEWY game, and it's gotten me interested in watching more anime's that are based off of games! I would highly suggest this anime to anyone who has played the game, or just wants a quick and interesting watch! Also... this might just be my suspicion, but I feel like they only made the anime now because the new game "NEO: The World Ends With You" is coming out soon (I'm pretty sure you can buy it on the Switch at this very moment). Even if this anime was only made to advertise the new game (or to remind people the game existed in the first place) I'm happy they finally animated such a fantastic story. (^3^)

Subarashiki Kono Sekai or The World Ends with You the Animation is based on the cult classic 2007 Nintendo DS game of the same name that saw a port to mobile, and later Nintendo Switch. The game developed and published by Square Enix was a master class JRPG with a really unique art style (Provided by Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasies Tetsuya Nomura) a gripping and emotional story about breaking out of your insecurities, meeting other people and expanding your horizons, after all; your world ends with you. After its release in 2007, The World Ends with You garnered critical acclaim and regarded as one of the best JRPG's on the Nintendo DS. Which stands to reason? Why is it not that remembered or talked about? Despite critical acclaim, the game didnt do so well in Japan or worldwide for that matter because of its really polarising but unique combat system that requires FULL use of the DS's touch capabilities as well as controlling two characters using each screen. Besides the mobile port in th early 2010s and cameos in Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, The World Ends with You became a dormant franchise until the Nintendo Switch Port in 2018 and now after 13 YEARS a Sequel was announced as well as an Anime Adaptation of the first game, something fans have been clamouring for since the series inception. Now that Anime has finally arrived, so lets take a look at it :) I have followed the development of the Anime Adaptation since its announcement, the project has been overseen by the original executive staff of the game and Tetsuya Nomura. There has been a lot of love put into this adaptation, all of the original voice cast has returned after all these years, the original composer of the video game has returned to score the anime too. Unfortunately, like most Anime Adaptations of Video Games, the show has only been given the standard single cour (12 Episodes) of run time as its just there to promote the video games. Which for a JRPG is usually not good. Looking at you Persona 5 The Animation and Danganronpa The Animation... However, it is clear to me that this adaptation is different. There is clear love behind it, attention to detail and a solid attempt at trying to make the best possible adaptation under budget and episode count constraints. STORY OVERVIEW (Spoiler Free as possible) The World Ends with You follows a 15 Year old boy, Neku Sakuraba in the Tokyo district of Shibuya. Neku wakes up one day in the middle of Shibuya's Scramble Crossing with no knowledge of who he is or why he is here. Neku wakes with a black skull pin with him signifying he is a player in the twisted Reapers Game. Soon after waking, he realises nobody can see him, he is trapped at Scramble Crossing/Statue of Hachiko; surrounded by forcefield like walls at every exit. He receives a text message on his phone, Get to 104, you have 60 Minutes Fail and Face Erasure -The Reapers A timer imprints onto Neku's hand, counting down till the expiration of the allotted mission time. Neku soon gets attacked by frog like monsters that he cannot fight back against until a strange girl runs into him telling him he needs to forge a player pact with her to be able to fight back against the Noise. The story follows Neku and his game partner through the 7 days of the Reapers Game, completing missions, battling the Noise and the Reapers, and discovering the true nature of why they have been chosen to participate in the Reapers Game. I know this doesn’t sound like a particularly original premise, and it’s not. There are plenty of anime and games since 2007 that have used the 'Death Game' format; but there is a lot more depth and complex themes The World Ends with You tackles as it goes on that are not apparent at the beginning of the story. STORY (Anime Adaptation) Lets address the elephant in the room, the pacing. Hooo boy this is a doozy. Of course, 12 episodes means that things will be rushed, it is a given. However, I have minimal issues with the pacing thus far, is it a little jarring? Yes, absolutely. The entire first 1/3 of the game is covered in 3 episodes. While the first 1/3 of the game is shorter than everything that comes after, there is a lot of missing context and nuances that are unfortunately missing; however, in my opinion, that does not make this show outright bad by any stretch. The structure of the story has undergone some significant changes to make the story better flow within an anime format and for the most part, I think it succeeds. Obviously, like with pretty much all video game adaptations into any other medium, the original source is the way to go if you want to experience the full story with all the detail and nuance. The way the anime has been handled so far I think has been pretty good, especially considering the constraints. It does a good job of making the story make sense while also providing all the key plot details for any newcomer to get a solid understanding for if they decide to jump into the new game coming this Summer. As of Episode 4 the pacing has become MUCH better. Really the only terribly affected episodes of weird pacing are the first 3 that comprise of the first arc of the anime. This arc in the game was largely a tutorial and significantly easier as such, this was the arc to receive the most edits or cuts to give more time for the complex stuff later on. Episodes 4-8 have been pretty smooth and the final arc from 9-12 has been pretty good too. ART/ANIMATION The art style of the video game is highly celebrated for its unique art style that has not yet been truly replicated. The unique art was a number one concern by fans on if they would be able to translate it to anime and I am SUPER HAPPY to report that they have done a phenomenal job in replicating the art style. The anime is super colourful, each characters design is really distinct, locations have been brought to life and the characters retain their signature bold black outlines that make them stand out. The 2D animation looks fantastic, but the main concern is the amount of 3D CGI used. CGI is used A LOOOT in this show and it’s easy to understand why, the unique and detailed character designs don’t lend themselves well to being drawn in chaotic battles in a timely manner for a TV Anime budget, as such for battles heavy used of 3D Character models are used as well as the Noise Monsters being completely 3D CGI. Personally, I think the CGI for the most part is great, the CGI used for the human characters is phenomenally done, they still look like their 2D drawn counterparts and retain their great detailed designs. The Noise are creatures not from this world, they are meant to look weird and uncanny, and the CGI portrays that really well. Does it suck they are not drawn? Yes. But they could look a whole lot worse than they do and with how well the games style has been replicated I don’t have a problem with the CGI. It looks pretty good and the dynamic camera movements during battles also help to disguise any potential shortcomings of the 3D models or the animation itself. SOUND The World Ends with You has a PHENOMENAL soundtrack, anybody who has heard it will agree, it has so many bangers that still hold up over a decade later. The soundtrack was designed to reflect the current musical trends of Japanese Teenagers and Young Adults in and around Shibuya in the late 2000's and it shows even in the Anime. The original composer for the games has returned to score new tracks and remix old game tracks for the anime adaption. We have heard the tracks 'Its a Wonderful World' and 'Calling' (For the new OP in episode 1) used from the game. (I have a Archive Thread for what happened to the original opening 'Teenage City Riot' you can go read). With Twister taking the position of OP from episode 2 onwards. The opening is absolutely stunning in my opinion. It oozes the essence and style of The World Ends with You with every frame and despite this being another version of Twister to go …

The World Ends with You: The Animation might not appeal to those unfamiliar with the series, but it absolutely is an incredibly faithful adaptation that fans will thoroughly enjoy. While it is understandable for minor side content and character development to be cut because of its original lengthy video game format, this does lead to quick pacing that will ultimately turn off some viewers. However, those familiar with the series will appreciate how the production transferred the stylistic aesthetic into well-crafted traditional and 3D animation, used and remastered the original soundtrack, and expanded on memorable moments. This world is wonderfully accurate to the source material.

Just Play the game imo.. was fine if what you are expecting is mid level animation to match the older game style it was emulating. VA's were pretty dang good for real though and the music was killer. but thats about all hse wrote in my opinion. story kinda unique i gues... also kinda mids the style fit in a way so i approve there. i feel like if you havent played the game then... its not what you will be looking for most likely nothing really stood out as amazing... and honestly im trying to review something on hete and it keeps saying i need to add more... my review will be aimed more at MAL now not always does it have to be a long in depth review...sometimes you just want to gwt to the point. which is what i would like to do but being intruded upon by you. such a shame... again lower mid tier anime... possibly just BAD

[SPOILERS...of course.] Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh, been a while, hasn't it? Yeah, I had issues with my new PC that I got as a gift for Christmas so I've been worrying about that for like two months and also playing the Lain PS1 game (still working on getting to watching Texhnolyze and Haibane Renmei, I promise.) In the meantime, I got into something a good bud of mine holds near and dear to his heart...The World Ends With You! I actually played through the first game and finished it about a week ago via Final Remix. So yeah, I'm gonna be comparing this to the game A LOT and I apologize for that. Gonna actually start playing NEO once I get this review out there and finished. Let's boogie!: Story: So...no surprise here, it's just an adaptation of the first game's story with some...rather odd changes to the narrative, like making 777 more obviously seen as a Reaper by Neku and Beat early in the series, reviving the players that all died in the Reaper's game at the end of the anime, amongst a lot of other weird things. I don't think any of the changes really were necessary nor make the show interesting and it just feels like they were making changes for the sake of making changes...like do any of the anime's changes matter if it's leading into NEO? I'm pretty sure Tetsuya Nomura (Deputy Character Art Designer and one of the Producers for both games) apparently said (according to a random comment I saw on a song for the first game, so take that with a grain of salt) that either the game or the anime is canon to the continuity of NEO and it just seems-OH FORGET IT. It's just...kinda garbage. I don't see why they couldn't just adapt the story right from the game with all of its nuance about friends, bonds, trusting each other, and everything that DEFINED the game in the first place and put it in an anime format, IT WOULD'VE WORKED FINE, but I guess they just wanted to make this anime 'different' and uh...boy did it backfire. For the love of God, PLEASE PLAY THE GAME BEFORE WATCHING THIS, you'll be so confused if you try to watch this and THEN play the game.....nobody should do that, and if you do, you need to...I dunno, go get help from a deranged math tutor or something. F+ in the story department, not great at all, especially from someone who JUST played the game and has everything fresh on their mind. Art/Visuals: Okay, okay...let's be fair. The visual design (at least the 2D stuff) looks WONDERFUL! It looks EXACTLY how I would've imagined the game being adapted into the animation, it looks good, there are only a small few minor visual errors (saw derp eyes Neku in like episode 1/2, I think) and it captures the look of the game perfectly. HOWEVER....there's for some reason A LOT of 3D CGI-like animation that just looks...bad. It's not like Guilty Gear-level stuff that looks smooth and consistently gorgeous, a lot of it just looks unnatural, weird, and out of place when put on top of the 2D art (for example, Noise Rhyme always flying around and interacting with Beat and Shiki) and it's used for like 90% of the fight scenes (and in the opening.) Asides from the fight with Kitaniji (literally at the end of the series), all of the 3D stuff just doesn't look that appealing. It would've been hard to animate EVERYTHING in a 2D style, I understand that, but could they have at least spent some more time to make the CG look less awkward? I don't see how it really adds to anything other than making this show look weird and lazy. Oh...but that ending credits art? MY GOD, IT'S GORGEOUS! God bless Ilya Kuvshino for that art! It contrasts so much with the show's other art but it's so unique and pretty it absolutely blows me away especially with the addition of the song like it just...WOOH, it makes that ending so memorable. I'd give the art an A-, with it only being bogged down by the jank CG that's thrown throughout the show's runtime. Sound Design: Soooo, let's start off with the music. There are some remixes of songs from the original game (a Twister remix for the opening, which was originally going to be ALI's Teenage City Riot, but it got replaced due to the band's drummer getting arrested and causing controversy, a shame cause that song works VERY WELL for the OP and the Twister remix makes it very slow and lame) along with a TON of new original songs ('Voices' being an absolute BOP for a battle song, for example, thank god the OST is on Spotify) made for the anime. It's all really good stuff that helps add to the show and not many of the songs are repeated, making it feel less repetitive, it's also quite impressive how large the 53 song soundtrack is, especially for an adaptation. A+ for music...minus the disappointment of us not getting the OG, OP. Nooooow for the sub/dub...okay. So, I decided to watch this show in dub considering that I watched the game in sub (I watched this with the same guy who got me to play the game, I'll call him Sho for brevity sakes, Sho watched it to sub and said it was good but that Neku acts differently in the Japanese TWEWY compared to the sub, so I was curious as to what the dub was like.) Weellll....it's a Funimation dub...a REALLY FREAKING BOTCHED one. The Dub features NONE of the original VAs from the game except for Kariya for some weird reason even though the Japanese Dub kept ALL of the original VAs and as a result, it's much more enjoyable and in line with the game (at least from the plethora of clips I've seen from the sub online cause I really don't want to watch this AGAIN), it's disappointing that this anime not just in its OP but also it's English dubbing got completely screwed over. Neku sounds WAAAY older than he should and it's weird not hearing him be snarky (even if that stuff was localized for the American version of the game) and being so...Rei-like (yeah, shoutouts to Eva fans getting what I mean by that.) Shiki sounds really good, her performance is the most consistent and doesn't sound older than she should, definitely one of the best in the dub, in my opinion. Joshua is also really good, he's got a deeper voice, but it still sounds enough like him to where it's not out of the place, also really solid, especially in his more cocky moments, another one of my favorites. Beat is...wacky, sometimes he's good, sometimes he just sounds like he's too effeminate at times, he doesn't really use ebonics as much as he did in the game...which was one of his defining characteristics soooo yeah, he's kind of a bummer. Rhyme is...well, Rhyme, you don't really get to hear her that much other than her growling as a Noise and at the beginning and ending parts of the series, but she sounds fine too, I'd hope that they wouldn't mess her up. The other characters like Uzuki, Kitaniji, Kariya (who did GREAT! He was great in the game though, so of course, he'd do well here too), and everyone EXCEPT SHO were good. Sho....isn't Sho here, his voice is WAAAY too deep and he sounds next to NOTHING like the Punky, Psychopathic Mathematician we all know, he just sounds WAAYYY off (which definitely made my bud Sho mad cause...he's one of his favorite characters in the game, so he definitely didn't take that kindly.) A really weird mixed bag with a lot more bad and disappointing than a good...good job, Funimation, you botched another dub that could've been great and now you guys are gonna merge with Crunchyroll and reek even MORE havoc. Overall...a C grade for the dub, not happy with most of this dub. I'd say just watch it in sub even if you haven't played the Japanese version of the game just because it has all of the original VAs for all of the characters. I guess I should've been warned with Funimation appearing at the beginning of the first episode. Character: This gonna be brief cause there's not really much to say without repeating a lot of what I've said already. Neku is more akin to his Japanese version of his character rather than this American one, he's not nearly as snarky and is more introverted and reserved, not terrible…

The World Ends With You is a game I first played when I was 14 and as I’ve returned to it over the years and thought about the game, it has rapidly shot up to being one of my favorite games of all time. It’s story is amazingly well written and has so many little details that really make you realize just how much thought was really put into the story. The soundtrack is absolutely godly, composed mostly of j-pop, rock, hip hop, and every other genre that was popular in the mid 2000s. It makes the entire game pop and gives it a vibe all to itself. The gameplay is a fun and interesting action rpg that basically anyone can have a blast with. My main point is play the game. It’s sequel’s pretty good too. However, I also tell you this to better contextualize my thoughts with the anime. I went into this show not expecting much. I knew that this show didn’t really have near the time it would take to properly convey the game's story, so I went in expecting an anime that hits the basic beats of the original story, but also adds in some cool fight scenes. Somehow, I was still left disappointed. My main gripe is with the story and how it’s told, so let’s save that for last. First, I want to talk about the music. It’s still pretty great. The show was composed by the same man who composed the games, Takeharu Ishimoto, and the soundtrack is still great. There are a lot of absolute bangers in the soundtrack. My favorite is probably walls. My only main grip is the lack of songs from the games. There are only a few songs from the games present. I think they play “It’s so Wonderful” and another instrumental track I can’t remember the name of in the background a few times, but that’s mostly it for music from the games. The only 2 other songs from the games are “Twister” which is used as the opening for the anime and “Calling” used for fighting montages in two different episodes. The funny thing is that those two were probably not supposed to be there at all! The band ALI was supposed to give the anime it’s intro, called “Teenage City Riot”. I don’t know if this was a fan edit or leaked footage, but the opening fight sequence of the first episode, which used calling for said fight sequence, also fits very well with that track over it, which makes sense since that was the opening for the episode and animes do that sometime, where they play the episodes theme in the background of the intro episode. The only other 2 pieces of music from the original I can remember were probably only there as last minute replacements! This means that certain scenes lack the oomph they had in the original, as they are missing their iconic scoring. This is probably most egregious in the fight scene with Minamimoto, where they don’t play the song “Transformation”, a song so synonymous with the character that the first scene where he’s introduced in the sequel, they play the song. This might just be nitpicking from an autisticly devoted fanboy, but I feel like the lack of music from the original robs this anime of the original experience. My next point is with the animation and art, which I actually think is pretty good. A lot of people complained about the usage of CG in the fight scenes, but I actually don’t have a problem with this. I think the usage of CG fits the artstyle of the anime mostly well and I think it allows for some very interesting camera angles and battle choreography. The usage of pins from the game and seeing them put into action outside of a gameplay perspective is very interesting. I expected the fight scenes in the anime to be one of my favorite parts and I was right. At the very least the show is cool to look at. So now we get to the story. Now considering that this was my favorite part of the original game, it makes sense that this is the part of the anime that I would have the most problems with. Now, I realize that expecting a 12 episode anime to accurately retell the plot to an entire jrpg down to every detail is ridiculous, but this anime takes it to a whole new level. The basic plot follows a 15 year old boy named Neku Sakuraba as he attempts to survive a death game (or I guess a post-mortem game) for 3 weeks and tries to return himself to life. The overall story is the same as the game, but the anime just misses so many small details from the game that makes the game so much better. The biggest example I can think of is Neku’s characterization in the early days of the first week. In the game he is a complete asshole, acting as rude as possible to Shiki and even actively sabotaging any attempt she makes to collaborate with other teams in the game. The anime basically removes anything that makes him look like too much of an asshole. One scene has him ask Shiki what she knows about the situation, but starts off with “Hey, you” which causes Shiki to correct him by saying her name. Was that supposed to establish him as a bad guy? In the game, actively refused to call her by her name and referred to her only as “Stalker”. This scene just makes him look like he forgot her name, which is totally understandable considering that he got caught in a fight for his life and passed out only to wake up with a whole day having passed. He was probably a bit too tied up in the situation to remember a girl's name. Another grievous example comes when Neku force chokes Shiki at the end of the second day. In the game, a reaper tells him that Shiki is a spy for the reapers and that, if Neku kills her, then he can escape the game. Neku then attempts to murder her without any real hesitation. This scene is pivotal in establishing Neku’s character at the start of the game and how little he really values any human life other than his own and how he’s a missive self obsessed dickhead, which makes his later character development far more meaningful in how it echoes back to who he was at the start of the game. In the anime, he just gets possessed and then tries to kill her. Then he’s fine once the noise leaves him. This completely scrubs away him learning about valuing other people's lives and just goes to show how the show butchers his character development. The last scene I’ll bring up is Neku’s pep talk to Shiki. In the game, Neku tells Shiki that she needs to appreciate herself more and, rather than compare herself to her friend and talk about how she's not as good as her, take pride in who she is and what makes her unique, because Shibuya has room for all kinds of people. In the anime, this scene is essentially just boiled down to “Be Yourself.” Be yourself? Uh… Yeah bellend! That’s what she’s fucking complaining about. I know all of the examples I use are from the first week, but that’s because I feel like it’s the best example of how these changes unintentionally ruin the character’s later development and in a story where the main character’s development throughout the entire story is the main focus, that’s kind of a big deal. Overall, The World Ends With You: The Animation is a show that I can only recommend to people who’ve already played the first game and either need a refresher or just want to see some cool fight scenes with the characters and pins. If you’ve never played the game before, play it. You can get it on switch or buy it physically or emulate it on DS. If you either can’t or don’t want to play the game for whatever reason. Then look up a let’s play or cutscene compilation on Youtube, because the animation just doesn’t live up the original at all in my opinion and is probably my least favorite video game to anime adaptation I’ve ever seen. There are probably worse in terms of animation, story butchery, and in other ways, but this one holds a special place in my heart for how I can see a world in which it could have been great, but the lengths with which they go to fit the story in 12 episodes completely and utterly ruins it. Also, Beat doesn't speak like what a 40 year old, white, Christian mother thinks people who listen to hip hop speak like in the show, so it's au…

TWEWY has been my favorite game/series my entire life. Sadly I was disappointed with the anime. I was pretty excited to recommend it to others but I don't feel like it would be a good watch for non-fans of the game. It feels like they had all the right puzzle pieces to make a great anime - great soundtrack, great story, great characters - and they took the puzzle pieces and smashed them into place randomly instead of just putting the puzzle together the right way. This anime needed 1-2 more episodes to explain combat and some lore, and it REALLY needed to use the soundtrack from the original game. The music and remixes they used in this show do not do the original soundtrack any justice. That was one thing I really wish they didn't mess up, but they did. If you are a fan of the game you will still enjoy it, but I don't think non-fans will.

I only became a TWEWY fan in the summer but I loved it from start to finish, so I got kinda curious about the anime. I did not expect too much, but I wanted to give it a try anyway and I'll be honest that I am not the biggest fan. I do have to compare it to the game, because that's how I know TWEWY. One of my favourite things about TWEWY was the development about the characters, be it the growth of Neku opening up to people or Shiki's self doubt. And sure Shiki's doubt was bone pretty well, but Neku's growth was in baby steps in the game and in this game it was in jumps, so character growth is avarage. The story is great, I love the idea of the game, however many days were just skipped and sure some may feel like filler, but others that were skipped were very bad becasue they'd add to the plot. The artstyle of the games and the anime are all beautiful, so I can't complain about that. The music is good, not amazing but really good. So yeah, while I have a lot of love for the game, the anime was just mediocre, which is a shame because the TWEWY series deserves more love. Hopefully, if they ever do an anime based on NEO TWEWY, they'll do it better with a NEO TWEWY anime.

I'm writing this review as someone who never played the game version, so I don't have the source material to compare the anime adaptation to. Regardless, I'm hoping people aren't exaggerating when they say the game version is better than the anime. While the characters, story and world are all well crafted and interesting to follow, the anime doesn't really succeed in doing anything satisfying with the laid foundation. Watching episode 1, it felt strange watching Rayman, the shinigami and the rest of the colorful cast be placed in the city of Shibuya, as I went into the series blindly. The characters felt misplaced, and I wasn't sure what kind of tone the series was meant to have. Thankfully episodes 2 and 3 did a good job explaining the tone more, and also elaborating why some of the characters acted the way they did. Brushing off certain things in episode 1 initially came across to me as sloppy writing. Shock value started to increase during and after episode 3, and the constant cliffhangers made me continue binging the show. As the show only consists of 12 episodes, but the story isn't too simple, the pacing felt quite fast. Some great new characters were introduced, such as Sho and Joshua, but by the end they ended up feeling like missed potential. The fight scenes were meh for the most part (I didn't mind the CGI though), but the game master fights were quite cool to watch. Admittedly it did feel like they got defeated pretty effortlessly, which I can only imagine isn't the case in the game version, as the player would be the one battling the game masters. The ending didn't really explain what had happened, and I was still left with a lot of questions. The anime only presented the questions swiftly throughout the episodes to keep up a sense of mystery, but by the end it just seemed like there never was much of a mystery at all. Even the twist about the true identity of the game composer felt weirdly executed, because it didn't feel like I was suddenly putting together every piece of the puzzle. It wasn't a complete 180 either, it simply came across as a strange attempt at one. The intro and outro were very charming, the art style was pretty nice, the characters were cool for the most part, while the pacing was off, some character interactions and conclusions weren't to my liking, and neither was the ending. Well, the fate of the main cast was something I'm happy about, but that's about it. Because the anime felt a bit uninspired, I can't give it more than a 6/10. Nonetheless, I did still have a positive experience watching it.

As someone who played and enjoyed the TWEWY before watching this adaptation, my main conclusion is this: I highly recommend playing the game before watching, mainly due to plot and animation. Despite TWEWY being a relatively short game, I did feel as if there was some things that were lost in this adaptation due to the limited 12 episodes. Towards the middle of the show, things felt like they were kind of rushed. I think this is because the game had a lot more to offer in terms of content, so sticking to strict main points in a condensed amount of episodes made it swift. However, they did add some scenes or concepts to the anime that weren't in the game that enhanced the watching experience without straying too far from the original plot and message. Despite me knowing how the plot unfolded already, there were some scenes that did strike a bit of new emotion in me. The game itself has very limited animation, and so seeing this story fully animated and done so pretty well still made watching it a good experience. I did feel as if the animation was lacking in the first few episodes, but by the end I wasn't too disappointed. I'm not sure if this is due to Nomura's art being so stylized and having to get used to seeing it fully animated in this way, or if the artists themselves had improved by the end (maybe a bit of both?). In the end, there are certain things about the world that are made charming by playing the game. I think once you've experienced that, watching the anime is a better experience. I have to say, the ending was probably my favorite part of the whole anime. I felt more satisfied with this version of the ending than I had been with the game's ending because it was longer, given more attention to, and was way more clear in terms of plot than the game had done. I believe TWEWY is still relatively underrated and has a great message about how essential freedom, individuality, and empathy are to living life to the fullest. I think both the game and the anime are important to contributing to a good experience of its story and characters.