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Time Travel Girl at the start was a pleasant surprise among the Summer anime season. By the end, I have some major criticisms, but still, I enjoyed the ride. It had a likeable set of characters and interesting premise. It was strict to formula, but was never overly ambitious. Each episode left me feeling satisfied and a want to continue, for the first nine episodes at the least. Then, I just trekked through the rest.

The formula is usually one episode focused on one of the eight scientists, though sometimes two for a certain few of them. There's a certain ... situation or issue happening that concerns the protagonist Mari in the present. Her issue will "coincidentally" match with the scientist in the past, even sometimes with the scientist giving her words of wisdom, providing the lesson of the day. Lastly, when she returns, she takes the words to heart and moves forward. It's pretty straightforward in it's approach, not surprising since this anime is targeted for kids. However, even as mostly a kids show, the series had elements even a 26 year old like myself could invest into. The level of accuracy in the portrayal of the history presented is astounding, really showing the work on the writers' part. The only disappointing one was the last one where the story shifts to resolving a subplot that's been built up throughout the series.

The characters are also enjoyable. The main duo Mari and Waka are easy to get behind. They have enough personality to where they aren't just a stereotype of a overused cliche. Even the businessman Mikage who serves as the main antagonist has shades of a personality and isn't a caricature one-dimensional bad guy, that is until the climax when he's degraded into the latter.

However, for this storyline to work while taking into account child viewership, some contrivances were taken. When the time traveling occurs, the people of the past that witness Mari or Waka suddenly appearing in a gulf of blue light react only with a seconds worth of shock before accepting it, and take the idea they are from the future at face value at first before accepting it later on. The dress of both Mari and Waka in the past only gets a few comments that it's shameful due to the short skirt, but it doesn't draw as much attention as you would think it would. And again, this is so the show can focus on what's intended.

There's plenty of plot convenience as well. I already mentioned the coincidence on how each issue introduced in the beginning of the episode manages to coincide with the scientist the protagonist would be meeting later on. In addition, Mari, for the first six trips, always accidentally activates the time machine. Shun, the oldest of the group and Waka's brother, is the one to suggest Mari shouldn't tell her mother about the time traveling. Furthermore, no sane wife would still be married to a husband who she has not seen or heard from for 3 YEARS.

The climax is also pretty weak. The antagonist who was morally grey beforehand jumps of the slippery slope to be the "bad guy" of the series. He's evil because he wants to use the time machine for profit, and intended to use the protagonist as a hostage against her dad to make him cooperate, but then midway, he changes his mind to instead prevent her dad from returning, which doesn't make sense since he himself said he needed the dad to work and maintain the time machine. And even that becomes unnecessary as plot happens to make sure one of them can't get back anyway. Guess who? The guy ends up being a poor antagonist, as in the end, he really doesn't do anything, and is just an excuse to add conflict in the story where there were other alternatives. For instance, actually have the future change because of the interventions of Mari, Waka, or Mari's father. Mentioned before, it's pure plot convenience, how nothing they said or did changed the future e.g. appearing right in front of people after time leaping, letting the scientists know they were going to make a difference, the clothes they're wearing, showing off future technology, etc.

And then the confrontation concludes with Mari recalling each scientist, and preaching essentially the theme of the series. Again, it's marketed towards kids; it's understandable, but comes off as a forced way to spread the show's message, one that was already iterated quite a few times already throughout the series. Also, there's the blatant diversion off of Mari's dad's misuse of the time machine by making Mikage act caricaturely evil. Even if some good came out of it and he fixed any time inconsistencies he unintentionally caused, Eiji was still time hopping for his self interest to witness major scientific discoveries and in the end, these events lead to his family having no contact with him for three years. The anime tries to lesson it with time travel "logic" by the one we meet being the one from three years ago and it's this version that returns to the present. Also, it tries to mitigate it by having the wife unleash her fury at him. However, all of it is to simplify and handwave the main issue, not to mention adding the plot hole of why Mari's dad from three years ago doesn't return to his timeline but instead jumps to the present.

For a kid's anime, Time Travel Girl is fairly average. It wants to provide education and inspire children to take an interest in science. In that aspect, it does things well. After each episode, there's a cute segment with chibi versions of Mari, Waka and Mari's dad that explain what was discussed in the episode in more detail, with real life presentations and examples. On the other hand, it also tries to add a deeper story subplot with Mikage in an attempt to add tension, but fails in this regard. In the end, he becomes an inept villain meant to act as scapegoat to divert attention away from Mari's dad, and the confrontation ends with a speech that wasn't natural to reiterate the story's theme.

Looking for an anime about a group of girls (and one boy) going through school and club life with cartoonish facial expressions tossed in and a pinch of yuri subtext? This one is for you. Looking for anime about scuba-diving, along with all its splendor and trials? You may want to look elsewhere.

Amanchu is a very laid back and easygoing show. The series will really show off it's well detailed scenery along with soft music to really set a relaxing atmosphere. The story focuses on protagonist Futaba Ooki and her companion Hikari Koihinata, along with their sempai a pair of ... twin siblings and their homeroom teacher/club advisor. Each episode contains it's own story, even two sometimes, not building an overlying plot in the background. Yep, it's really just the cast going through high school, and learning important life lessons over time. Futaba herself is adjusting to moving to a new area and adjusting to going to new school and new people after leaving her old home and the friends she made in her previous school behind.

Through Hikari's persuasiveness and pushiness, Futaba decides to join the scuba-diving club. In the beginning episodes, the viewer is gradual introduced to the know how and basic info about the gear involved, the buddy system, getting a license, and measuring your air volume by depth and pressure of the water. You'd think it would continually keep expanding this, but it doesn't. Why? Because Futaba can't swim. Around halfway in, Futaba couldn't pass her pool course exam because the club advisor, along with the viewer just found out about this very key detail. Most of the second half is dedicated to more slice of life episodes with the characters just doing things with Futaba learning how to swim mostly offscreen.

And the shift is especially egregious with how out of focus the scuba-diving becomes afterwards, especially due to how it just cuts off. Even in the first half, Futaba wasn't learning about diving every episode. She really only starts in episode 3 when she first signs up with Hikari, and it continues in the next episode, but episode 5 was dedicated to meeting their upperclassman. And episode 6 is the face-palm moment when we learn she can't swim. The club still gets together, but they aren't going to do any activities until she can swim, switching the focus around and changing POV to different characters, telling multiple stories.

The main point of criticism is how this issue was never brought up before. You'd expect she reveal this fact the very first time she's expected to enter water. Also, it should have been the first thing the advisor would check for before starting to teach her. The advisor had the perfect opportunity to ask when she was drilling Futuba on diving basics when she and Hikari just applied to join, but didn't. This was either something that wasn't planned in advance and added on the spot, or was planned for the sole attempt at really shallow and cheap humor. On top of that, to make sure Futaba's first experience at diving is the finale, the episode before it was about taking care of a stray kitten, being after the one when she passed her pool exam.

Ai Kayano did an excellent job voicing Futaba. She conveyed the character's shyness and timidness really well.... to an annoying degree. I give special mention to her role, because it really needed a specialized care in handling.

Amanchu starts getting really preachy during the second half. It was preachy before in the first half, but the second half is when it really goes all out. There is no subtlety in it either; expect everything to be spelled out for you. "Don't be afraid to move out of your comfort zone", "How you view things is important; you can spin any negative into a positive", "Any setback can turn into an opportunity", "While school is important, the answers to life aren't in a textbook to be studied from", "It's okay to abuse your younger twin sibling"... wait, no, ignore that last one. Each episode will take every chance it can get to hammer it's life lessons into your head.

I was enjoying Amanchu at first, but got increasingly frustrated in the second half. In the end, it became something I just wanted to finish. The tone was really lighthearted, and the atmosphere was relaxing. Still, my main problem was how the series executed it's themes very blatantly. Someone would say something meaningful, and the target of it would be completely moved. The problem was that it happened so frequently that the impact was lost fast, and it just became annoying the rest of the time. Another point is that the cartoonish facial expressions were used entirely too often, often times killing the moment of important scenes.

Also, I couldn't get invested in the characters (especially not Ai), due to there not being any overarching plot or stakes. Both Futaba and Hikari are very hit-or-miss characters. You'll either find them likeable or very annoying for different reasons. Futaba takes her role as audience surrogate and main POV character to an extreme where we will know her thoughts about everything in painstaking detail. Her shyness is ridiculously exaggerated; expect her to be embarrassed at the slightest thing and stammer a lot. Oh, she'll also have many long-winded monologues that will sooner or later put you to sleep. Hikari is the usual cheerful girl who can't stand still. Expect her to make random noises most of the time either by mouth or whistle, and generally act like a little kid instead of a teenager.

Danganronpa 3 Future has become a mixed bag for fans for the franchise. Even when it was announced that it would be a anime instead of a game, there were doubts that this could be done well. What didn't help is that it would only have 12 episodes for this side alone. After watching it, indeed certain things in the overall narrative didn't quite click well.

Before watching this, playing DR: Trigger Happy Havoc, Super DR2: Goodbye Island of Despair and DR Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls is required. Also, alongside Side Future is DR Side Despair, which viewers are meant ... to watch side by side.

First off, most of the criticisms stem from the format. This franchise started as a series of games that average at least 20 hours of gameplay. The conclusion of the series being one 12 episode series, an 11 episode series that ties into it, and a sequel special that will tie up both series and overall would only take up atleast 10 hours brought up some concerns. With at least 16 characters, even with at least 4 already known, the limited time along with the usual content of the series gave doubts whether the characters would be given a decent amount of screentime and characterization. Despair side picked up some slack in that regard by relegating time to give further exposition for the new characters, which also opened up problems as well for that series.

It also didn't help that at the beginning, the new characters come off as unlikable right from the start. The story starts off after the events of Super Danganronpa 2, in which Makoto Naegi, the protagonist of the first game and taking up the protagonist role again here, is being tried for his actions in trying to save the Remnants of Despair from being executed by the Future Foundation, and undo the influence Junko Enoshima has done to them. Now, Makoto, as a member of Future Foundation, it is reasonable for him to be held accountable for his actions that were out of his own sense of morality but were against the organization's as a whole. What was not is that the heads of Future Foundation holding him on trial weren't being reasonable in the slightest and are outright antagonistic towards him from the start.

It's reasonable that one or two would make claims that he's a traitor, but it's the opposite in that only a few aren't immediately jumping to conclusions, and the majority already made their decisions about it, hinting that the trial would have been against Makoto from the start, if things didn't go to hell before it properly started. It's stupid. The audience knows Makoto was acting on good intentions. To have the new characters from the start be against him would already make them less receptive. However even after they get trapped and put into a killing game, many of them still act unreasonable as they automatically assume Makoto is the one responsible for this and start trying to kill him right off the bat.

Also, the actually likeable characters or the ones that didn't automatically come across as jerks from the new cast are the ones that start getting killed off. It's easy to determine who's going to die because it's always the one that's given focus the same episode. You, the viewer, start to find this character interesting only for them to be killed off abruptly before the episode's end, leaving the unlikable ones around to create conflict. This was intended so they could redeem themselves in some way near the end, but it's divided whether the payoff was worth it. I actually grew to like Munakata even though he was the one mainly responsible for the string of irrational decisions that started most of the conflict in the series. Sakakura was still a mixed bag for me though he did become a more fleshed out character.

Episode 7 was a episode that could have been better used to focus on other things. The main story is replaced by a related but separate incident that would have been better left as a "leave to your imagination" only getting the critical parts of it. The plot focuses on the plotline from Ultra Despair Girls and I really liked some of the fanservice in that episode. Still, from a narrative perspective, it's only slightly related to the main plot. All it really does is drop a death flag for a DR1 character. The cost wasn't worth it. The character that was the main antagonist in that game and was revealed to be participating in the current killing game via robot masquerading as one of the FF branch heads turns out to be red herring, and she gives up right in the middle of the episode. She literally self-destructs all her robots herself for no reason. That it was a troll in the end did not sit well, and personally was disappointing for me, since I really like Ultra Despair Girls and didn't like the episode making one big joke out of it. And precious time that could have been used on something more relevant was instead used for this kind of fake out.

What turns out to be critical for Future's plot is certain characters, and if they aren't done well, they will damage the series as a whole. First is Chisa Yukizome, whose importance is affected by her role in Side Despair, and what happens to her. She was the teacher of the 77th class that became Super High School Level Despair, and she in turn was brainwashed like them by association. Once this is revealed in Side Despair, the truth becomes she was still brainwashed in Future arc, and was the reason the vice-chairman had become so irrational by her doing heinous crimes, then showing them to him while hiding the fact she did it, and influencing him to be more extreme in his beliefs.

She also turns out to be the one to have given this series' mastermind the means to do the killing game. The way this was handled was less well done. She literally just gives the mastermind the Macguffin without any more context whether or not the situation at the time fit or not, especially when who the mastermind turns out to be. That moment sums up her fatal flaw, in that she's less of a character but a plot device to railroad the plot when needed or in this case, explain how the mastermind got a certain thing. It's not even hidden; during one moment in both series, she exclaims because of her talent, she's lead to important moments. Anything the viewer may have liked about her is gone once she's brainwashed making her role in the story more apparent.

Next is the mastermind, who turns out be a character who died during the events of the series. This person turns out to be the chairman of Future Foundation, Kazuo Tengan. And the reasons why he set up this killing game relates to another character, who I will mention next. His motives turn out to be to get this person to use something he had. The problem is that the person was also part of the killing game, meaning that person was in danger of dying. Questions are raised why he didn't guarantee that person's safety. Why of all things he set up killing game to influence that person to use the Macguffin. And if that person wasn't supposed to be there originally for the events, then how and why did he end up being there. It's left to interpretation so far, maybe to be clarified in the special.

Lastly is Ryota Mitarai. He is key to this entire anime, both sides of it, leaving him a very divisive character, and one that really needed to be done right. His talent is as an animator. His dream was making an anime to inspire hope in others just as he had been. It all goes wrong once he turns to using subliminal messaging and other brainwashing techniques in his work and he encounters Junko Enoshima, who twists his work for her purposes, used it to brainwash Chisa and the 77th class to spread despair, and the reserve course students to commit suicide, setting off the end of world. This leaves him very guilt ridden that carries over to the Future arc. After these events were presented in Despair arc, he becomes a sympathetic character. However, this somewhat diminishes after it turns out he made another video to brainwash people to spread hope, what Tengan wanted to push him to use and now after all this, he's now resolved to use it by uploading it to all communication devices. Even though Tengan was the mastermind, Ryota is now the true final boss. Not to be resolved in Future arc though, but in the Hope arc. Yes, the finale of this series ends on a cliffhanger to resolve all the plotlines in a special.

The fact all the events so far lead up to this is underwhelming. In the end, it's more brainwashing from the Despair arc, that was divisive from the start. Also, more importantly, Ryota turns out to not learn anything, and now, he needs to be stopped. What's worse is that from the start of Future arc, he is just there. No reason exists for him being in this side of the story until this moment. You'd hope his first major act to be aligned with the protagonist and not against him, making all this build up to be a waste, because Ryota isn't even a true antagonist. He's just misguided, engulfed by his guilt and weakness, and projecting it onto the world. Making the final confrontation to be convincing him to not to follow through because it would be a mistake. That's just disappointing and wasn't worth being the climax of the series. If it turned out Tengan stole the Hope video, did broadcast the killing game, and set up for the video to be broadcasted afterwards, requiring Ryota to stop it, with previous episodes giving him character development, that would be easier to accept.

Overall, I did enjoy this, in fact I enjoyed this more than Despair arc. I do understand why Spike Chunsoft wanted to end this storyline in an anime. Makoto and the rest of the DR1 characters shouldn't have been in anymore class trials; they're past that. Now, would it have been better instead of an anime, Spike Chunsoft make a game with different gameplay elements to compensate that? Probably, but I'd imagine that would be difficult. Also despite my criticisms, I'm looking forward to see how it all ends in the Side Hope special.

Danganronpa 3 Despair has become divisive among the fanbase. From expectations not being fulfilled to false advertising, a good portion of fans we're not satisfied with how the anime was handled. On the other side of the spectrum, others believe it to be a great work that holds the franchise well. Lastly, there are those in the middle that still enjoyed it but recognize it's flaws. I'm also in the middle. While I did enjoy this series, I also had many issues with it.

First off, knowledge of both DR: Trigger Happy Havoc and Super DR2: Goodbye Island of Despair ... are necessary. Even going into this prequel, spoilers are abound right off the bat due to revelations as early as episode 1 spoil critical mysteries you won't find answers to until near the end of the game. Also, Despair arc runs alongside Future arc, and episode order is one Future arc episode then Despair arc, watching both series simultaneously. This issue should be brought up as soon as possible, as all the criticism of the anime stems from this format.

The false advertising I mentioned earlier is that while Despair arc's premise is about the 77th class of Hope's Peak Academy. The POV starts and gives plenty of focus on a character from the Future arc, Chisa Yukizome. While she first appears to bring the class together and bonding with them, the story shifts to her investigation about the hidden secrets of the school to the point it takes away time from the 77th class. That's not all. Other characters from the Future arc appear later, and get an amount of focus in relation to what's going on in the Future arc at the time. The fact that no characters from Future arc were even hinted before in promotion materials to be in Despair arc led to the accusations of false advertisement and how Despair arc was used to provide more characterization to the characters from the Future arc that itself couldn't provide. Two one cour series with each having many characters to focus on rarely gives consistent and equal characterization, and a good number of them will get be sidelined. And while the attempt is creative, was it worth all the cutting corners in the narrative to fit these plotlines together.

In the end, the main characters, the 77th class, get relegated to being side characters in what was supposed to be their own story and get treated more as a collective than individuals. Some exceptions are Hajime, Chiaki, Nagito and the Super High School Level Imposter, though very slightly, and for specific plot reasons. Hajime has a adequate amount of characterization because a good deal of focus is on him in the beginning, but it only lasts a few episodes. Those who played the game know the inevitable change that will befall him, and how he will be erased to make another character take his place for the rest of the series Izuru Kamukura. This had fans hyped because of who this character was and that we would finally see him in action, but then grew dissatisfied as episodes passed and he rarely did anything. Hajime who was an interesting character is replaced by Izuru who fans were hyped about, hoping he would play a big role, yet he merely serves as a walking plot device with no character.

Chiaki plays a key role that ultimately leads to one of the most divisive episodes of the anime. The premise of the show is about the 77th class, and how they would later become a group Super High School Level Despair that destroy the world. There were expectations built up from the second game on how the main antagonist Junko Enoshima managed to turn these beacons of hope into envoys of despair. The way it was executed left much to be desired, and it's in part due to the existence of another character from the Future arc, Ryota Mitarai. This one character is so deeply entrenched in both storylines that many of the decisions for DR3 as a whole was based around him, making him a divisive character. Chiaki was meant to play the role of the hope of the 77th class, and in order to turn the rest of the 77th class to despair, she was doomed to die. Ryota was to provide the means to help the transformation, a brainwashing anime. The characterization of the Super High School Level Imposter is also mainly dependent on this character as well, forming a give and take relationship with him that later becomes friendship.

77th class as a whole already got relegated to being side characters in their own series that their characters as individuals were already diminished, but now the way they're converted, what's supposed to be the focal point of the series, is the same lazy way as a group like some kind of hive mind. Those who played the games know they aren't just a class of students. We know they have their own backstories, characteristics (not just the ones used for comedy), and ambitions that made them each who they are. To have that all tossed aside and have them be treated as a single entity is disappointing.

Again, the format is a huge factor, but also, the way it was executed and how it fits in the narrative have problems. I mentioned before that viewers need to know the storylines of both games before watching. That could not be anymore true. You could not hope to understand even half of what goes on in this series without that knowledge, and even then you have to stretch your imagination on how things progress and how it connects to the games.

Important events are also condensed to one episode, incidents with enough material that could have been made each into their own series. One example is one of the most brutal events in the series, the first killing game. If the purpose was to freak the audience out, it succeeded. However, once you calm down and start evaluating what happened, you realize that what happened didn't make any sense. The 16 students weren't captured; they were summoned. Even when threatened that if they didn't play they would die, the threat diminishes when the ones doing the threatening leave the room. Junko gives them all sorts of weapons, and only one of the students suggest using them against their coercers, and he promptly gets killed soon after by another of his fellow classmates. After that, mostly everyone just degrades and start becoming sadistic killers for no reason other than to hammer in the nightmare fuel. They weren't locked in, had options outside of killing each other, and were left with means that could have just as easily been used to defend themselves and escape rather than turn on each other, but because this must end in tragedy and in such a short time span, the characters have to move the story along no matter what. In the same vein, afterwards, the school just covers it up, because the board of directors are generic one-dimensional scumbags and Junko can't be caught yet.

The same line of thought goes into Junko's motivations. Why did she particular choose the 77th class to begin with? You never get an answer other then her just being fickle about it. How did she notice Ryota provided the means for her agenda? She just had a feeling. You always get a half-baked answer or no answer at all. Being a prequel means the main plot points are all foregone conclusions. However, this point is taken to nauseously exploitative handling.

For example, Mikan goes missing after being captured by Mukuro and has been brainwashed. The other classmates split up and go search for her even with riots going on outside. Nagito and Chiaki find the secret room Junko had Ryota held up in by Nagito using his luck, in which has them meeting Izuru and Junko as well, Ryota escaping and running into Chisa, Nagito getting injured and Chisa intervening. Mukuro was being kept occupied by Peko who Nagito requested she distract her. How he knows about Mukuro or anything that's been going on with Junko is left unanswered. Chisa volunteers to stay behind for no good reason, and that leads to Chiaki to carry Nagito back to their classroom where everyone else is, excluding Peko.

Next, Chiaki comes up with the brilliant idea of everyone going together to save Chisa to which they all inevitably agree. During which Mikan who was missing suddenly returns with Peko who got injured. You expect since she was the reason everyone was searching for initially, they would ask where she's been and why she's been absent. No, they don't inquire anything about that. They head towards Chisa who has now been captured and brainwashed.

On the way, they encounter rioters just outside the gate that is now open for some reason, and there is no security around. It takes a very special kind of lazy to have this, because in previous scenes, the gates were closed, guards were struggling keeping them out, and you get atleast two scenes of that. Now, no one is there except the rioters and not only that, they immediately resort to cold-blooded murder. They were angry before, but here, they are calm, quiet and slowly walk up to Chiaki and everyone. Nekomaru and Gundham stay behind to deal with them. Chiaki takes them to the secret passageway, where Mikan manages to separate her from everyone else through convenient trap doors and when the others wonder why she's missing, they accept Mikan's excuse that she's wasn't "feeling well and rested in a room they previously passed". Nevermind, she was well just a moment ago, also how that contrasted with her determination shown earlier, and you know, the fact this is enemy territory! Nekomaru and Gundham catch up at this time, getting the location from Mikan. Chiaki wakes up to find Chisa who lies that Izuru helped her escape, and they decide to meet up with the rest of the class. From then on, well, it goes as well as you'd expect...

Chiaki's death made me sad but it wasn't as tearjerking as it could have been. All of her exploits of keeping the class together were just told to us and mostly off screen. The build up to her execution was poor by having everyone passing around the idiot ball to have plot happen. Also throughout it all, I couldn't hold back my disbelief on how Junko managed to configure all those traps and build the trial room all in the span of at least days, and none of the authoritative figures in the school or the board of directors noticed, either because they will either ignore it anyway or are grossly incompetent.

I mean I liked all the continuity nods and fanservice provided, but that's not enough to hold the story together. When it came to the Despair arc, the fanservice and establishing ties to the Future arc were more important than telling a coherent story.

What I also liked was the portrayal of Junko and the resulting disillusionment for a good portion of the fanbase. Another aspect I believe this series intended to do was really hammer home how Junko is a irredeemable character. Mukuro was also disillusioned to many.

Despair arc has fanservice and hit-or-miss humor going for it. Many things happen because they need to and not if it makes any sense. The format really limited the series as there was simply not enough time to expand on all the plot points, resulting in too much going on at once and not enough focus on the main characters, the ones the story should mainly be about.

There are so many things wrong with this anime and its setting. The Kizna system in the end is just a plot device as a cheap explanation to have things make sense and fails at that. The warning signs were right there from the first and second episode. The protagonist gets pushed down some stairs, he's saved by having his pain shared among six other people (how the heck that works is anyone's guess), yet he and the six others right afterwards look and react totally fine, when the protagonist should at least have a couple broken bones and that pain should ... have been distributed to the other six. However, only six of the seven are summoned together and have this explained to them. The seventh was purposefully left out to be another episode of the others finding him, which overall was just for episode count, because there was no underlying purpose to having him separated from the others in the main narrative. Of course, everyone had this change done to them without consent and were abducted by a horde of mascots that roam the city for some reason. The mascots continuously act as railroading personified throughout the series, and move the characters to where they need to be and dance to whatever narrative the plot needs them to.

Now, the main characters are forced into this experiment with a threat of a "bad end" if they don't. Their first task is completely nonsensical where they have to "introduce themselves", but really it's to share your most highly kept secret, and not telling will result in several traps bordering on death being activated to force it out of you. Yet in the midst of this highly controlled environment they were placed in, one of main characters manages to get separated from the others somehow in order to give a hint of her dark and troubled past, and later appears in a mascot costume for some reason once the task is finally cleared. Also, she gives her secret after their abductor already said they cleared their first task. Oh, and one character's most valued secret is that she loves the protagonist. She's also the childhood friend and next door neighbor. Yep, a huge guarded secret there, and the first hint at one of many of the forced romances this anime will later try to shove in the audience's face in the second half. So yeah, after that cluster of nonsense, this anime started out in the negative and future episodes would have to work to bring it up, which it never does.

The fault is in half due to it's worldbuilding. Few things make sense and that's due to vagueness and inconsistency. From what was told, this experiment was done once before, the city was constructed for that very purpose, with one third of the citizenry in on it, and ended in a huge failure. As a result, 19 kids that were the subjects were robbed of their sensory system; some can't even go out into society. That an experiment like this happened and not one mention of it was on the news or any social media not even as a rumor is ridiculous. I imagine parents would be outraged and/or distraught for what happened, especially the parents to the kids that were experimented on. But that's the issue isn't it? While parents are mentioned, rarely any of them are shown. The protagonist was a subject of the first experiments, yet he still gets the same cliche that his parents work overseas, when any caring parent after seeing what happened to their child would be with him no matter what. The only parents that do appear aren't even any of the main characters', but for a side character, and they only appear for a few minutes.

Once learning the protagonist was part of the first experiment, you ask the question "why was he chosen again?". It is never made clear. It may have been to get his pain back, which is necessary for him to start emoting again (but it's really not), but later we learn that another subject is willingly keeping his and all the other kids' pain in her, which is ridiculous and a contradiction to previous info (which I'll get to later), and the other subject's goal in the end was never for him to get his pain back despite earlier hints that's what she wanted, and starts off what is one of the most sorry excuses of a plot twist and final confrontation. It's all just a mess.

I look at the the two experiments done for the Kizna system, and they only have a few similarities. The first experiment as a whole is even more ludicrous than than one we find our main characters in. It started with a mistake that resulted in one kid out of nineteen was solely getting the pain out of 5 kids (jumps to all of them later for no reason). Gradually, the kids that were having their pain transferred became desensitized, not just physically but emotionally as well that carried over to the present. The current subjects didn't have these problems. For one, the current subjects' pain was distributed equally. Second, theirs had a time limit and were freed after summer vacation, contrasting the original that continues to the current time. If the researchers made improvements, how the heck did they test the modifications before the story starts? Did they just administer it to the current subjects, and it worked? But if they were able to fix the previous problems, wouldn't they be able to cure the first subjects? You're left wondering because it is never explained! It's instead used to set up one of the project members as some tragic character, because that person is the same kid that all the pain was transferred to. The girl's circumstances get contradicted too, making the attempt at sympathy ineffective. During certain moments the protagonist somehow is able to feel the pain of the girl through their Kizna link when from what was explained is impossible, even emotional pain in the last episode, when only the current subjects were able to advance to that level. In addition, as I mentioned before, she's also willingly keeping the pain of the other previous subjects, which in no instance beforehand was ever hinted to be possible. Her entire condition was because of a botch, and was something she had no control over. However, in the final episode, we're told she does have control over it.

Some may argue that the lack of consistency in the setting and it's rules is okay, because it would take away from the character interactions. However, if your setting is crap, why would the characters be treated any better. The answer is they aren't. Late in the story, the focus shifts mainly on the girl from the first experiment and the protagonist's forced romance to her, and away from the six other main characters. The seven are still in the midst of working out their drama, making this change in direction absurd. The anime is supposedly about theses seven characters' issues and how they bond through overcoming those problems. However, their friendship is mostly told, not shown. The times they are all together are limited, and when they split into smaller groups, it's always with the same people. There's no diversity. The reason is for the other forced romances that are again mostly told and not shown. How forced is it? They have to have side characters make a character sheet on who likes who, along with expressing how "obvious" it was. The romance is also the main source of drama, as if it needed it. Seven people are linked to their pain. They have no clue if these people that forced them into it will keep their word and release them after summer vacation, and constantly have to worry about each others' safety, especially when one of the seven is a masochist. However, none of these very reasonable issues are utilized. After their initial abduction and forced cooperation, the main characters just walk off what's happened to them and go home for the day. The next day, they continue on normally, which is not normal! They act as if they haven't become lab rats and had their human rights violated. Even when they find out their teacher and counselor are part of the project, they don't act realistically. Only one of them gets angry; the others are far more subdued and calm. What's worse is these two characters are only here to give exposition and act like giant scumbags. It becomes more inconsistent when the counselor suddenly has a change of heart late in the series and believes what they're doing is inhumane and immoral, when she was shown to be able to cross that line well before and not show an ounce of remorse.

Kiznaiver constantly tried to have it's cake and eat it too, even at the cost of situations and reactions being portrayed consistently. It wants this SoL drama along with an over the top setting and situations, but in attempting to do both, does neither one of them well. Seriously, in the end, why were none of the committee members arrested!?