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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 along with almost 20 other versions, it is still welcome and as said before, its super befitting of The World Ends with You.

The music still holds up albeit sometimes not fitting but for reasons I mentioned in my archive thread thought that’s not really the fault of staff under the circumstances. Also the anime original tracks except maybe 'Walls' leave a lot to be desired compared to the games. There is an over reliance on a few tracks that becomes very noticable, I would name drop those tracks but the OST hasnt released yet. None of them are bad and they fit very well, but compared to tracks from the game like, Twister, Someday, Transformation, SHIBUYA, Detonation etc. They dont really hold a candle.

CHARACTER
For those asking why Neku doesnt come across as more assertive and dickish in this adaptation at the beginning? It is because in Japan, Neku is a lot more reserved than the english localised version. So far though, the anime is struggling with character moments. We are missing Neku's internal monologues which have so far made Neku come across as really boring and completely disinterested, like he was a person cast for the main character of a show despite his complete lack of interest in acting. This is purely because of the lack of time, Neku will improve as the show goes on, but his character is clearly going to seem a lot more disjointed in this adaptation. However, I understand why they have gone this route with Neku. Because Neku in the game is so shut off and disconnected it would not make sense with the runtime of the Anime for him to be as he was in the game to the same degree. It would be major whiplash for Neku to undergo such character change meant for 8-10 hours of game time plus, to be squashed into 1hr of Anime time. It would seem like majorly poor writing and unnatural character progression. Instead in the anime, Neku starts off more in the middle of his growth from the game, which while it makes sense for reasons mentioned, it still dilutes his character from the early 3-episode portion as he does not really have much room to grow or change, because he's already where he should be (Day 7 in game) just from Day 1 Episode 1.
Neku definitely becomes better as the show goes on but character is definitely not the forefront of this adaptation, thats not its goal. The goal is to tell the story for people going onto NEO who dont have access to the full game, remember, the anime is NOT replacing the game.

Shiki was great, the attention to detail with her was great, they directly used poses from her game sprites in her animation and it was wonderful to see. Shiki is her normal cheerful and bubbly self; her minor hero tendencies still show through. However again due to time, her character tick of always being in her mobile phone/deep in thought or just generally protective of her phone has been lost. The anime has handled Shiki's story as well as it could have imo and in some ways really improving on the emotion simply because unlike the game, we can experience all of these events in motion.

Beat and Rhyme are pretty good, their personalities have come shone through really well as well as the supporting cast of Reapers from what little we have seen so far. Episode 2 and 3 really helped showcase Beat and Rhyme in ways the game could not which was really nice to see and in particular Rhyme. Anyone who has played the game (or seen up to episode 3) knows what I mean with Rhyme, and my god the Anime has done such a wonderful job with her. Beat really gets to shine in later episodes and his personality is nailed, he's such a joy to watch.
Everyone's character designs are absolutely on point and are near perfect adaptions of their game counterparts.

ANIME ORIGINAL CONTENT
So far the anime has had several different scenes that did not appear in the game to ANY extent. Unlike a lot of other adaptations, in my opinion these all have been extremely welcome and fit the world of the anime adaptation very well. Bonus scenes with Uzuki and Kariya on what they do in their downtime or seeing Eri’s reactions to events I wont spoil. Even Minamimoto got a FANTASTIC anime original scene as his entrance to the Reapers Game as well as his battle being an absolute visually stunning sequence with a great mix of 2D and 3D Combat sequences. The anime original content featured has been some of the highlights of this adaptation as it builds off of things touched upon or not delved deep enough into with the game. Loving it so far.

OVERALL
This show is CLEARLY plagued by time contraints, like most game anime adaptations. If this is your first experience of The World Ends with You, it will do you well enough to use as a catch up for the main story beats leading up to the Sequel, NEO The World Ends With You this summer. However, if you are even remotely interested in this show and have not played the games? I IMPLORE you with all my heart to go play it if you can and give this series a proper chance. The series has a small but super dedicated fanbase and its taken us over a decade for it to truly come back and its too unique of a series to see go dormant again for yet another Final Fantasy or yet another Kingdom Hearts. (Development of the sequel was halted several times because staff were pulled to work on other FF and KH titles). BTW the demo for Neo The World Ends with You is OUT NOW for FREE on Nintendo Switch and PS4. It gives a good 2hrs with the game and fantastically introduces you to the character and style the games offer that the anime lacks. Its 100% worth your time and its free! Please give it a go if you can!

So far the anime is super solid and most of everything fans have wanted thus far, it hurts to see it rated so low because given the circumstances this is probably the best possible adaptation we could have ever gotten and there is clearly so much love with trying to translate the unique look and sound of the game to animation despite low episode count or budget constraints. It hurts seeing people compare this show to the likes of Danganronpa The Animation and the Ace Attorney adaptation because as a fan of all these series, its clear to see that Subarashiki Kono Sekai is a step above all of those adaptations and even still its rated lower than all of them.

I think fans of The World Ends with You in particular have set themselves up for disappointment because for an attempt at squeezing the game into 12 episodes, this has done a really great job at making it work so far. Were people really expecting a 12-episode Anime to showcase Reaper Creeper? Were you all really expecting it to show the memes scene when the whole shtick of the Anime is to bring the story out of the mid 2000s and into the modern day? Some people were seriously expecting information from the Secret Reports to be covered also? Like really? What were you all expecting? Even Tin Pin would have been a boring recreation of Beyblade, It works in game, not in the animation. The moment this was revealed to be 12 episodes, expectations should be in check. This adaptation could be a heck of a lot worse, and you all know it. Its jam packed with fanservice and even seeing all of these moments animated has been such a pleasure. Could it have been better? Absolutely! But I dont think a (currently) 5.96/10 is fair for the effort that went into adapting this as well as it did. This show deserves at LEAST a 7/10 in my eyes.

Anyways. Thank you for reading. Verdict so far...
With my TWEWY Bias 9/10
Without my TWEWY Bias 8/10

This isnt going to be anything super in depth. Just my two sense.

Why do people hate this movie? This movie is a very fun What If scenario and a HUUUGE improvement over the borefest that was the first MHA Movie that felt like a regular episode 2-parter, extended into a movie length feature, without the movie budget.
MHA Movie 2: Heroes Rising is obviously not canonical. So why are people shitting on it so hard? Ive heard that this movie takes idea's from the scrapped ending of the manga that was planned before the series hit the big leagues; and oh boy does it ... show.

Does the film have asspulls? YES! The entire ending 10 mins is a major asspull. A great What If? Not great for continuity. But this film is not canon so thats okay? It was never made to try and be canon either, so why the complaints about continuity?

MHA Movie 2: Heroes Rising gave me CHILLS! The main reason being that Deku and Bakugo have a decent, enjoyable to watch relationship on screen. Bakugo is one of my least fav characters because he never listens, never learns and is not fun to watch or listen to. THIS movie changes that! Granted after their fight post-season 3, we havnt seen them interact much (Season 4 is still BY FAR the weakest season. Change. My. Mind) but if this is the sort of interaction we'll be having in the future, I AM PSYCHED!
Bakugo and Deku still do not meet eye to eye. Bakugo is still rash and doesnt like following orders, but now he is willing to bite the bullet and work together with Deku and co-operate! He isnt constantly screaming and lording over Deku here, raises his voice? Sure. But now they are closer to actual competitive rivals who both learn from each other and attempt to also out do each other. Its SO REFRESHING to see and its the one thing from this movie I want and hope carries into future Season's.

The ending fight, while an asspull, was fantastic. Is this where Season 4's animation budget went? I wont spoil what happens, but its a real treat despite how asspull it is.

Overall, this is a good movie. MUUUCH better than the snoozefest of the first one. Hell, Id prefer rewatching this over Season 4 in its entirity. The hate is not justified. Its not a deep movie. Its not complex. Its a full blown, typical Shounen action-fest. Your not getting a deep story or amazingly developed characters. Just a very pretty to watch, entertaining action fest with a cool what if scenario at the end.

Def worth a watch if your an MHA fan.

What is there to say about Tokyo Ghoul Season 2? Anime only fans? Because if this travesty of a Season, you are now missing about 60-70 chapters worth of story that this Season, the next Season Tokyo Ghoul Re or ANY OVA, NEVER go back over to re-adapt or get you fans up to speed, expecting you to read the manga if you want any inkling of how these stories connect.

While the anime is usually inferior to the manga anyway, you are usually never forced to read it and get the general gist of things... Here though... Nope.

Manga: Recommended
Anime: Not Recommended EVER

Tokyo Ghoul Root ... A is a classic case of READ THE MANGA. Anybody who thinks Tokyo Ghoul Root A is a good anime, let alone a good sequel to Tokyo Ghoul straight up has not read the manga or is in denial.

Tokyo Ghoul Root A is an absolute garbage show with a mess of a plot, rushed animation, WAY BETTER music than it deserves actually, terrible characters and is overall inferior to both its source material and even the previous anime adaption which even then was not the best. Its one thing to cut important story beats and plot details from an adaptation, but its another to completely disrespect the creator of the source material, Sui Ishida and throw out his re-done story and script for Root A which accommodated for the cut details from Season 1. Instead, going on a completely anime original path which has now confused anime only fans and given them the complete WRONG impression of what Tokyo Ghoul as a franchise is meant to be about.

Tokyo Ghoul is not about badass fight scenes, its not about Kaneki being awesome and edgy. Its meant to be a deep psychological tragedy story about a young boy who's world is flipped upside down and suffers immeasurable pain throughout but still learns to better himself and protect those around him, trying to resolve the conflict between the two sides of society, Humans ans Ghouls.

That being said. Tokyo Ghoul Root A is not worth your time, they have cut everything to do with Doctor Kanou, one of the most important characters of the franchise. They merge story arcs together making both arcs feel lacklustre, they introduce so many new characters you do not know who they are, what their motivations are etc. Most of the new Aogiri members either remain nameless or have their name spoken once or twice before they die or are never seen on screen again. Same goes for the new members of the CCG. This means you never know who is who.

Kaneki's motivations make zero sense, everything to do with his own organisation GOAT has been stripped away. Instead, Kaneki wants to protect his friends by becoming stronger, so he joins the Ghoul terrorist organisation that threatens the very friends he want to protect!!! Everything to do with Rize is cut. Background on Naki and the White Suits, cut. Everything on Manager Yoshimura and his backstory as Kuzen and his child Eto, ALSO CUT.

The ENDING IS CUT ALSO! Yes you heard it! The ENDING is cut. The big battle against Kishou Arima and the following scenes after a short timeskip that leads DIRECTLY into Tokyo Ghoul Re with the introduction of Haise Sasaki are cut, instead featuring a fake out cliffhanger. Its a massive letdown to never see this fight animated. It was not even revisited in an OVA or anything to help anime only fans connect the dots between Tokyo Ghoul Season 1 and Tokyo Ghoul Re Season 1. They even mess things up even more with a MAJOR character death that is confirmed rather than left ambiguous like in the manga.

The only thing here worthy of note is the AMAZING soundtrack, Glassy Sky and the Acoustic version of Season 1's Opening theme Unravel being the highlights. Its such a shame musical talent like this was wasted on a garbage throw away series.

Overall 2/10. Tokyo Ghoul Root A is a dreadful mess that should never be watched unless you are a die hard Tokyo Ghoul fan and/or you are just that curious. I dont usually like to force manga down anime only fans throats, because most of the time the anime adaptation is at the very least serviceable. But this is an exception. Tokyo Ghoul is a fantastic franchise with a lot of potential. None of the anime adaptations really live up to it, but at least Season 1 and Tokyo Ghoul Re are serviceable. This is not.

Assassination Classroom is without a doubt my personal favourite anime of all time. While its second season is superior to the first, season one is an absolute enjoyable romp from beginning to end. This one is going to be extensive.

Set in Kunikigokoa Junior High (Spelling probably off) class 3E. A group of struggling students are presented with a brand new teacher at the beginning of their first semester of their final year. This teacher is responsible for having all of the worlds governments on high alert after managing to destroy an entire half of the moon. This teacher has decided he want's to teach the ... students of class 3E in their final year with the final ultimatum.

Kill me before your graduation, or Earth will suffer the same fate as the moon, if not worse.

Not easy when your teacher is a giant octopus like creature that is immune to traditional gun shots and can travel the speed of Mach 20! Even harder when he is the best teacher you could ask for!

While the title of the show may come across as a more dark and mature anime, this is not the case at all. Assassination Classroom is a colourful, wacky and fun filled show with plenty of humour and silliness. Unlike your traditional Moe style high school show however, Assassination Classroom manages to set itself apart from the rest with a class of roughly 30 students who all get decent screen time across the series as well as plenty to find likeable about all of them, for different reasons. Each episode is rather episodic in nature with the students trying to find different ways to kill off their teacher. While this can become tiresome for some, Assassination Classroom kept me engaged with the different plot threats and revelations that occur throughout the season. One of the main draws is seeing exactly how the students are able to develop and learn from their mistakes. How each student has a weakness and intends to strengthen them as time goes on. The show may seem like all fun and games, but it can take deep and dark turns when it needs to which is in sharp contrast to its regular episodes, but they are dont well and do not feel out of place, instead complimenting the story and helping the characters grow.

What struck me the most about Assassination Classroom was the type of show that is was. Compared to other slice of life, school life shows on the market today, few of them take me back to my school life. Assassination Classroom presents school life in a really down-to-earth way that is really engaging and surprising considering the over-arching plot of the show. More-so in the second season does this become apparent due to the nearing of graduation, presenting that one question that all of us must go through in our lives,

What the hell to do with ourselves once school life is over?

Overall, the story for Assassination Classroom is awesome. The show is not for everyone, no show is. But the story suits the show, surprises in many ways and is very enjoyable to watch.

The art and sound in the show are simply great. Starting with the art. Each scene within Assassination Classroom is colourful and stands out. Its detailed where it needs to be, its simple where it needs to be. The style of the art is very appealing with a sleek modern anime aesthetic to it. Backgrounds are very nice to look at. One weakness in the art has to do with some character designs. Upon close inspection of the background students on the main campus, a lot of them are re-using assets from the main cast of 30-odd students and slightly remixing them and mixing and matching them. While it is not completely obvious, it does detract a little.

The sound in Assassination Classroom is very good and fits perfectly. The first OP Seishun Satsubatsuron sung by, 3-nen E-gumi Utatan (Class 3-E Song Unit). The group is comprised of the japanese voice actors for,
Nagisa Shiota
Kaede Kayano
Karma Akabane
Hiroto Maehara

If you didnt know the type of show this will be before hand, this opening will definitely tell you. This opening is filled with colourful illustrations of all the characters and their class registration numbers, quick cuts of different scenes upcoming and the all too famous dance off that get the most hardcore Assassination Classroom fans singing along (to the best of their ability lol) and attempting the dance too.

Opening 2 Jiriki Hongan Revolution also sung by 3-nen E-gumi Utatan (Class 3-E Song Unit) while not being as catchy or iconic as the first opening is still a great OP with an enjoyable song, great visuals and fantastic animation.

The ending theme Hello, shooting-star by Moumoon is an utterly fantastical piece perfectly befitting the ending animation. Definitely an ending theme to not skip and keep tagged on your music playlist.

The characters in Assassination Classroom are simply brilliant, the teacher Kuro-Sensei is an absolute JOY to watch whether subbed or dubbed (Will get to that in a bit). Kuro-Sensei is always has that comedic element to him because of his character and the situation he is in. He is able to perform super-human feats and become flustered over the most simple of things. Easily one of the best of the show.

Main Character Nagisa Shiota is a great protagonist. Nagisa is obviously troubled from episode 1. It is clear that he is a kid and sensible young lad. However he remains rather ambiguous throughout the first season. Instead, Nagisa acts as our guide to the world of Assassination Classroom, he keeps tabs on Kuro-Sensei's weaknesses and provides much needed explanations when required. He is not all of this though, throughout the second half, Nagisa is able to develop into a more fleshed out character with different skills s=to set himself apart from the rest of the class, with his character blossoming in the second season later on.

The rest of the class are all thoroughly enjoyable. Each new student tends to get an episode centred around them as they enter the class, fleshing them out from the original class mates. While not everyone gets the most screen time or solo episodes, the majority are memorable and most, if not all are likeable or have redeeming qualities, something which is ridiculously difficult to do with a cast of this size.

Overall. Assassination Classroom is simply a MUST watch. While the second season is better, without the groundwork and foundation layed down by season 1, season 2 wouldn't nearly be as impactful. The show takes many surprising turns throughout its 2 season life and one in the second season which i GUARANTEE you will not see coming. The story is fun and enjoyable and knows when it needs to get serious. This is adventure not to be missed
9/10

Your Lie in April, make no mistake is a great show. Perfect for those who enjoy this type of show in particular, probably one of the greater shows of the genre.
Then why is my score so low?

Your Lie in April was a good show while I was watching it. However it was very predictable, even for someone like me who has not seen too many shows of this genre at the time of watching it. I couldn't help but feel the show was trying too hard on occasion. The characters are all good and keep you interested throughout the story, the art and music ... direction is EASILY the shows best qualities. If you highly value these aspects, definitely place Your Lie on April in your watch list.

Being as predictable as it was, really diminished my overall enjoyment of the show overall. If you can look past that. This is a not to be missed show.