Short reviews for Anime Shorts!

I've noticed lately that there have been a bit of a rise in anime shorts (as in, episodes that are under 15 minutes in length, though 15 is even a bit high, most are under 10), and I've watched quite a handful in the past half a year or so.  Now, I don't really have a lot to say about these, as most are very easily summed up in a few sentences.  So, I'm going to do mini reviews for shorts, starting each with a Haiku (poem consisting of lines of 5-7-5 syllables, for those that don't know), followed by a quick summary and thoughts paragraph and ratings.  I have quite a few to throw into this post, but in the future the shorts posts will likely be one at a time.

Pupa

Sister eats people
Glorified goreporn it is
So much disappoint

Summary:
The "life-and-death sibling" story follows Utsutsu and Yume Hasegawa, a boy and his little sister who find themselves all alone. One day, Yume sees a mysterious red butterfly and her body undergoes a strange metamorphosis—into a creature that eats humans. Utsutsu struggles to find a way to restore his sister.

(Source: ANN)

Thoughts:
Maybe I'm a weirdo, but I love dark themes in anime.  I don't always want a happy ending, sometimes I prefer to see sick/twisted shit playing out.  But I do draw a line when it comes to that, it has to have a good plot to interest me, the gore just winds up being a bonus of sorts at that point.  I was under the impression that Pupa would give me that, a deep plot with the bonus of gore as well.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  The episodes are too short to advance the plot at all, and they seem more content in showing as much gore as possible rather than giving us a good story.  I was willing to give it a chance and have watched it every week hoping it would improve, but after seeing that they spent one whole episode (albeit, three minute episode, as the rest are as well) with nothing but cannibalism and awkwardly seductive "Onii-chan"s, I lost my hope for improvement.  If you're looking for a short goreporn anime, go for it.  Usually I would say that it's worth a watch (especially at such a short length), but to be honest, I can't really recommend this one.

Plot: 2/5
Characters: 3/5
Visual: 4.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Overall: 2/5

Onee-chan ga Kita

Beware of brocon
Is incest always this cute?
Breast slap for the win

Summary:
The story revolves around Tomoya Mizuhara, a 13-year-old boy who suddenly gains a big sister when his father remarries. 17-year-old Ichika is a little strange, and her affection for Tomoya is rather overwhelming, if not scary. On top of things, Ichika's friend Ruri is the ultimate sadist. Then there is Ichika's big-breasted quarter-Japanese friend Marina.

(Source: ANN)

Thoughts:
I didn't start watching this expecting it to be anything special. And for the most part, it's not.  But it's good for some laughs and cuteness.  Some people are put off by the whole "incest" thing, but given that they aren't blood-related, I see nothing wrong with it, to be honest.  (Besides, it's just an anime anyway, people are a-okay with killing in anime even though it's wrong in real life, but they can't stand incest in anime because it's wrong?  Logic.)  This is just your typical school life comedy with the addition of a stalker stepsister.  Nothing more, nothing less.  If you're bored and looking for (probably less than) an hour of laughs, go for it.  Also, how the hell does she eat with a triangular mouth??

Plot:  3/5
Characters: 4/5
Visual: 3.5/5
Audio: 4/5
Overall: 4/5

Strange+

Wait, that is a guy?
Fooly Cooly made more sense
So many trap jokes

Summary:

Kou comes to a slum neighborhood in search of his elder brother Takumi and finds him to have become the head of a private detective firm. Kou is drafted by Takumi to do errands and chores in the detective firm, and they come to meet various interesting people...

(Source: MAL)  

Thoughts:

There's um...not a whole lot I can say about this one, to be completely honest.  I'm a bit at a loss for words.  It's funny as hell, makes a lot of references to other animes, and definitely lives up to the name Strange+.  I'm not really sure if there's meant to be any sort of plot, if there is, I couldn't tell you what.  Each episode is full of whacky antics that really distract me from the lack of plot.  If you're looking for weirdness on the level of Excel Saga or Fooly Cooly, you will probably enjoy this.  It's a funny little time sink that will likely leave you sitting there wondering what the fuck you just watched.  In a good way!

Plot:  WHAT PLOT?

Characters: 4/5

Visual: 5/5

Audio: 4/5

Overall:  4/5

Tonari no Seki-kun

Simple comedy
Ending theme song so catchy
Shogi adventures?

Summary:

The original manga revolves around a girl named Yokoi who sits next to a boy only known as Seki-kun. During class, Seki-kun continues to not pay attention and instead creates amazing little distractions, such as a detailed golf course with the course's hole being a dent in his desk, or an entire dramatic war being played out by paper shogi pieces. Yokoi often finds herself getting reluctantly interested in his games, even though they always seem to end up getting HER in trouble with the teacher!

(Source: ANN)

Thoughts:

This has to be my favorite short I've seen in awhile.  It's comedy in a very simple form, no need for fanservice or the like, just a show about a girl and her distraction of a classmate, Seki-kun.  Each episode is spent watching a different type of activity that leaves you wondering how he doesn't get caught doing all of this, where exactly has he been hiding all of these materials, and how the hell Yokoi comes up with half the shit she imagines while watching him.  I dunno, maybe I'm getting old or something, but it's really refreshing to see comedy like this without the need to be overly moe or ecchi.  It reminds me of the days of Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry, but less "violent" of course.  It's hard to make something funny without using cheap jokes, a ton of dialog, etc, and Tonari no Seki-kun has managed to do that in 7 minute episodes.  I'm genuinely impressed.  Also, how can you not love that kickass ending theme song? 

Plot:  4/5

Characters: 4/5

Visual: 2/5

Audio: 4/5

Overall:  5/5

Senyuu.

Hero gets no love
So much tapping at fourth wall
Lolicon grandpa!

Summary:

Long ago, there lived an evil being who reigned over the world through fear, called Satan Rchimedes. He invaded the human world with his many demon underlings, spreading madness and chaos everywhere. One thousand years ago, this menace was sealed by the hero Creation, and peace returned to the world.

Then, one day, a great hole suddenly appeared on the surface of the world, and a vast number of demons appeared. The king discerned that the menace Satan had returned after being sealed away for a thousand years, and decided to send the hero's descendants to battle him. He found 75 men. As one thousand years had passed, you see, it was difficult to tell who the hero's descendants were.

So the king declared that he would grant the title of "true hero" and great fortune to the one who defeated Satan, and ordered the new hero, Alba, and his warrior attendant, Ross, on a quest to bring down the evil Satan.

Though he struggles with lesser monsters and is even nearly killed by his partner Ross, Alba's quest to polish his fighting skills leads him to new places and new meetings that he had never expected. Battles, laughter, and emotional moments enhance this adventure tale of an incompetent hero and a sadistic warrior!

(Source: Crunchyroll)

Thoughts:

This anime is essentially one big spoof of pretty much every JRPG type game out there.  It's got the stereotypical plot of a hero on a quest to save the world from demons.  Unfortunately for our hero though, he pretty much becomes the butt of every joke, and is has pretty much the least amount of screen time.   He's abused by his comrades at every turn, constantly thrown in jail, and in general made a fool of constantly.  And it is quite amusing.  The jokes are nothing sophisticated, just a lot of references to various anime and video game tropes, knocking at the fourth wall, cheap shots, etc, but it is done so in a way that most people (gamers, at the very least) will relate to it and find it funny.  Still waiting for a season three, but not sure if there will be one, sadly.    Definitely worth a watch at least if you have time, not the best parody out there, but it is pretty well done.

Plot:  3/5

Characters: 5/5

Visual: 3/5

Audio: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Diabolik Lovers

Vampire gangrape?
She really can't catch a break
Jerkass emo kids

Summary:

Komori Yui is a positive-thinking girl who nevertheless is troubled by seeing spirits and experiencing poltergeist phenomena. In her second year in high school, she transfers to a new school—a night school for entertainers and celebrities—due to her father's work. There are rumours that vampires exist among the student body, and Yui ends up living with the six sadistic Sakamaki vampire brothers.

(Source: ANN)

Thoughts:

I have a slight love/hate relationship with this anime.  I heard of it and fell in love with the art style, and given that I have the usual girl-fetish for vampires, I was immediately interested.  Then I heard that it was based off a visual novel with very dark tones, and it piqued my interest even more so.  When it released and I saw that it was a short, I was a bit disappointed, but tuned in every week to watch it anyway.  Most people will whine that it may as well be a rape anime.  I can see why, but I don't think it's as bad as they make it out to be.  A girl is sent to live with vampires that are much stronger than she is, so of course she is helpless.  People seem to be forgetting that vampires are supposed to be dangerous beings, not sparkling teddy bears like they seem to be portrayed nowadays. So yes, they antagonize the main character a lot, because that's what vampires do.  Not all of them are going to be pacified by the 'power of love' or whatever.  I do think they may have went a little overboard with the victimization of Yui, but this isn't really supposed to be all rays of sunshine and rainbows.  It got a little stale about halfway through the series, but I am satisfied with how it turned out and sort of think of this as more of an advertisement for the visual novels rather than a legitimate anime series.  

Plot:  3/5

Characters:  3/5

Visual: 5/5

Audio: 5/5

Overall:  3/5

Mangirl!

Animeception
Thirteen episodes of cute
Fonts are important!

Summary:

"We're going to launch a manga magazine!"

A team of girls with zero experience in manga editing are off and running toward their dream of creating the biggest manga magazine in Japan! They seem to do nothing but run into problems and failures... But still they're working hard every day!

(Source: Crunchyroll)

Thoughts:

Moe.  Moe.  And more moe.  Is that a bad thing?  Depends on your taste.  I enjoy moe here and there, so I didn't mind this one bit.   This is your general moe show but instead of being in a school setting, it takes place mostly in the office they use to edit their magazine.  Unfortunately, they didn't go into as much detail about the actual editing process as I'd have liked, but it did give glimpses of the work that goes into manga and manga magazines.  It's refreshing to see a moe anime that isn't full of underaged girls, though they could have done better in showing that, rather than making them look just as young as most moeblobs.  This series didn't really have any impact for me, I can't really recommend it, but I also wouldn't say to completely avoid it.  Wanna waste time with a really short moe series?  Go for it.  I didn't hate this one, I just wasn't very impressed.

Plot:  4/5

Characters:  3/5

Visual: 3/5

Audio: 4/5

Overall:  2/5

Disclaimer:  All pictures belong to their rightful owners.

Quick update and ramblings about blindboxes

Okay, so sorry it's been a bit since my last review, been a bit preoccupied with life in general and also been debating on whether to bother reviewing Charger Girl Juden-Chan or just skip it and review Dusk Maiden of Amnesia.  I don't really have much good to say about it, and I don't want every other review to be like my first review, that is to say, a bit short and lackluster.  I understand that I shouldn't only review animes that I enjoyed, and I don't intend to do only that.  But there's not a whole lot to say about an anime that in this case was nothing but awkward pissing, various styles of ecchi, and lacking plot.  I can't really find many redeeming qualities other than a catchy theme song and decent character design and animation.  So I'm still not sure whether I should just get it over with and give it a quick run-down, or if I should skip it in favor of something I can actually write somewhat at length about.  Thoughts?  (not that I think I'll get really any response, but worth asking).

Probably all of my few viewers right now are my friends on Facebook, so you'll likely already know my rants and raves about anime blindboxes that I've gotten in the past half a year or so, but for those that don't, I'm going to give a quick semi-review (for lack of a better word right now) of my experiences thus far, and will probably make unboxing posts in the future as I receive more.  Now, I'm not sure if I will be able to get quality pics when the time comes, I will need to experiment with lighting, probably will have to take the pics outside most likely because my camera tends to make the lighting in my home look like refried ass.  But I digress, I will make an attempt at least, and if it doesn't come out well....well there's not really much I can do about it, so bollocks to that.  (yes, bollocks....I seem to be saying that lately for some reason...)

Anyways, onto the blind box discussion!  (should it be blind box or blindbox?  I keep bip-bopping back and forth between those...) So, a year or two ago, I found out that Rightstuf had various blind boxes.  They have four different ones, each a different price.  ($1, $5, $10, and $25)  The claim is that it will be anime/manga related, as in, could be a dvd, a manga volume, a piece of merchandise (this seems rare), etc that will be a good value for what you pay.  They are not used, but could be "previously handled" (as in, possibly shipped here and there, so may have some damage on the outer casing or whatever).  Being the addict I am about random chance sorta things, I was very excited to try these out, and have been getting a few boxes here and there over the past half a year or so.  Now, I would say for most people, this might be a bit of a waste.  You aren't going to get super new anime, you are very liable to get something in the middle of a series or something that you might not be interested in.  But if you are like me, and tend to try out almost any anime out there and don't have much that you own, it can be a good way of starting your collection.  Before last year, I literally only had a couple random dvd volumes, movies, one box set (a beat up Evangelion boxset that is technically my brother's), and a Blue Gender set that is likely bootleg (bought on Ebay when I was kinda young, all the discs look the same and are in little white sleeves).  So, I figured I could use some more variety and was looking to support the industry a little more than I have in the past and so I decided I'd start buying but didn't know where to start.  So I started buying blind boxes, and have gotten some pretty decent things so far.  I'll list what I've gotten so far and then explain a bit of my concerns/complaints.  (Also listing two mystery boxes I've gotten from CrunchyRoll, I know the anime box was handled by Rightstuf, but I didn't pay attention to where the manga box came from)

Blind Box Package #1 (11/3/2013):
$10 blind box-  Saint Seiya Collection 2  (boxset version)

Blind Box Package #2 (11/9/2013):
$10 blind box-  Tenchi Muyo Movie Collection dvd set (doesn't seem available on their site anymore, though they have bluray/dvd set of it)
$10 blind box- Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn vol. 2


Blind Box Package #3 (1/4/2014):
$1 blind box-  Synesthesia
$10 blind box- Magical Project S set 2
$25 blind box- Antique Bakery complete series boxset


Blind Box Package #4 (2/19/2014):
$1 blind box-  Zi Pang vol. 1 (can't find link on site)
$1 blind box-  Rumiko Takahashi Anthology vol. 1
$1 blind box-  Dragon Hunters vol. 1
$1 blind box-  Saiyuki Reload vol. 4
$1 blind box-  Gun x Sword vol. 5
$10 blind box- Saint Seiya Collection 2 (single case version)


Blind Box Package #5 (3/1/2014):
$5 blind box-  Jojo's Bizarre Adventure vol. 1
$10 blind box- Saint Seiya Collection 2 (single case version, link above)
$10 blind box- Gantz season 2 boxset
$25 blind box-  Gasaraki complete series




CrunchyRoll 30 dvd Mystery Box (11/1/2013):
Anthology of Rumiko Takahashi
Appleseed 
Armitage Dual Matrix x2 (one special edition, one normal edition)
Astroboy vol. 1
The Daichi's Earth's Defense Family vol. 1 
Dragon Hunters vol. 1, 3, and 5
Elemental Gelade vol. 1
Ex-Driver the Movie
Fighting Spirit (Hajime no Ippo) vol. 1
Gregory Horror Show vol. 1
Gun x Sword vol. 1
Heat Guy J vol. 1
Koi Kaze vol. 1
The Melody of Oblivion vol. 5 & 6
Saiyuki Reload vol. 5
Serial Experiments Lain vol. 1 
Submarine 707R x2 (one limited edition, one regular)
Tenjho Tenge vol. 6
Tsukihime vol. 1
Ultra Maniac vol. 1
Vandread vol. 1, 2, 3
Viewtiful Joe vol. 1
Zi Pang vol. 1

CrunchyRoll Manga Mystery Collection (3/8/2014):
The Wallflower/Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge vol. 15-19 



Ooookay, long list over!  I guess I'll just number the things I have to say about it the blind boxes in general.

1.  Don't expect too much. 
It's likely that you will get something older or lesser known in boxes like these.  For some, that might be a bad thing, for others, that might be great.  If you aren't picky and enjoy trying "new" shows you've never heard of, you might enjoy these.  If you are looking for very new anime or very well known anime, you would be better off buying just those things straight up.  Also worth noting, most of the cheaper ones tend to be Geneon dvds.  I'm not entirely sure why so many people see that as a bad thing, but it's worth mentioning since Geneon seems to have a bit of a bad reputation.  (I've not done research on why, but I have seen MANY complaints about the amount of Geneon dvds wind up in blind boxes, so I suppose there's gotta be some reason behind it.)

2.  They are likely a blind box item for a reason.
This goes back a bit to point one, but most of these are likely there because a. they aren't selling, b. they are old and they just want to clear out their stock, or c. the packaging is somewhat damaged.  Don't be surprised if you receive a boxset that is a bit dented or a volume of a show that has bad reviews or is relatively unknown.  Most of mine so far have been in decent shape, and I've got some pretty decent shows, but I will admit that there are some that I've not heard of and others that I have heard bad things about.

3.   If you buy often, there is a chance of getting the same thing twice, three times, maybe more. 
Saint Seiya collection 2 is haunting me.  Don't get me wrong, I love the show despite it's 'flaws' (being campy, terrible dub, etc), but I don't need the same set more than once.  Out of the 6 $10 boxes I have gotten, 3 of them have been the same collection (although 1 was the boxset of it and two were the cheaper looking set that is somehow more expensive....).  This likely doesn't happen to everyone, but it is definitely a possibility.  Try not to get too angry over it though, you technically are getting them at a discount as it is, so you might be able to sell any dupes to a friend or online to get your money back or possibly profit, if you are so inclined.

4.  You might get a volume from the middle of a series. 
As these are random, it is quite common to get something from the middle of a series.  In some cases, this isn't much of a problem, but others it can be a bit of a pain.  Using Saint Seiya and Magical Project S as examples, I received set 2 of each, and proceeded to look online for the first sets.  While I spent $10 on each, I found that I would have to spend at least $60 or more on most sites if I want to get the first sets, which is a bit disappointing when you are expecting them to be similar in price.  In some cases, it might even be cheaper to buy the full series (Gun x Sword is around $20 for the S.A.V.E. collection, which is a bit cheaper than buying the individual disks, but since I have a few of the individual dvds, I want to finish the collection that way), so you may find yourself feeling a bit inconvenienced when wanting to finish a series you start this way. 

5.  Cheaper boxes tend to be single volumes, whereas more expensive ones tend to have a full season or series. 
Before buying any of these, I researched a bit (mainly watching unboxing videos on Youtube) and realized that the $10 boxes tend to be seasons or series, and the $25 boxes usually are as well, sometimes even being bluray.  I have not yet received manga in any (except for the manga specific box), but I have only seen other people receive manga in the $5 boxes.  $1 boxes tend to be singular volumes or in one case wound up being a live action movie for me.  Of course, this is just a general guess about them, as I've gotten a $10 box that was a single volume, though it was somewhat newer compared to others I've gotten, and also more well-known.  So keep that in mind if you are wanting to avoid getting singular volumes, you might want to stick with $10/$25 boxes.

6.  Keep in mind that it can be just about anything. 
When I got my third box, I was surprised.  I hadn't seen anyone else receive a live action movie in theirs, so I didn't think they were included at all.  Also, I hadn't seen anyone receive a shounen-ai/yaoi series either, which honestly surprised me even more.  While I don't mind yaoi at all myself, I know that many people find it offensive, so I was surprised that Rightstuf would put it in the blind box pool.  So try not to be surprised if you find something you weren't expecting.  I don't think you can receive hentai in these boxes, but it seems pretty much anything on their site regardless of genre could show up in a box.  

7.  Keep an open mind and have fun with it. 
Got something you've never heard of or something that doesn't interest you right off the bat?  Try it anyway!  The worst case scenario is that you dislike it, but if you have it, why not try it?  If you wind up disliking something, maybe pass it off to a friend that might enjoy it.  There's also anime trading groups/threads all over the place, you could maybe see if someone would be willing to trade with you, or possibly sell it.  But the whole hook of blind boxes is the surprise, it might not always be something you like, but if you're as indecisive as me and want to expand your horizons a bit but don't know where to start, it could be a decent investment.  So if you wanna buy something but aren't sure what, or you need a free shipping topper, maybe give these a try.  You could be pleasantly surprised. :)

Review: Btooom!

Ah, video games, how we love thee.  Growing up and even now, I've always been an avid gamer, so it's natural for me to have an interest in shows that use it as a plot point in some way shape or form.   I've noticed over the past few years, more and more animes are being released based on video games - MMORPGs, in particular - so it is becoming a bit cliched, but here we have one that does things a little bit differently.  Ladies and gentleman, our subject today is a 2012 action anime called "Btooom!", as if the title of this entry hadn't already made that obvious.  Also, as a quick note, I'm going to try to keep these reviews as spoiler free as possible, so I may get a bit vague on occasion.  Most I'll "spoil" is the first episode, which is a bit of a given, as that's sort of explained in the summary of each anime anyway.  Moving on, to the review!

 "Btooom!" starts from the perspective of Ryouta Sakamoto, a 22-year-old who spends his time playing a PC game called Btooom, and is the number one player in Japan and ranked number ten worldwide.  "Btooom" is a first person shooter style game where players fight against each other using only bombs and using sonar to track their opponents' positions.  Ryouta and his friends are in a high ranking team that are well known across the servers of the game.  

However, despite being well liked and popular in-game, Ryouta is an unemployed shut-in that lives with his mother.  His mother begs him to find a job on a regular basis, which is what fuels much of the hostility between them.  Despite her attempts at pushing him to advance in life, he is set in his ways and claims he will get the job he wants the most, working as a game developer.  (I believe it was game developer, I can't remember entirely as it has been awhile since I've watched.)  

After an evening of arguing with his mother, he awakes to find himself hanging from a tree in an unknown jungle, with no one else around.  All he has with him is his bag, which contains food he bought the previous evening in it, a bag full of mysterious cubes with buttons on them, and a strange crystal embedded into his hand.   While exploring the island, he tests one of the cubes and realizes that they are bombs and plans to leave them behind out of fear.  However, he quickly changes his mind when he encounters another man on the island, one whom immediately attacks him with his own bombs.  Ryouta hauls ass away and tries to reason with the man, but soon realizes that he has no choice but to fight back.  Cue several wasted bombs, as he struggles to realize that the bombs he has are on a timer, and not ones that explode on impact like the other man's.  Now, I don't know about you...but if I had mysterious little bombs on me that had an LED display with a number counting down when I pressed the button on it, I would kind of assume they are timed, but this took Ryouta a ridiculous amount of time to realize.  I can understand that he's just a regular Joe whom was thrown into a stressful situation with no training and whatnot, but he tested one earlier in the episode, so it shouldn't have been so hard to figure out.  Either way, our hero eventually figures out what he's doing and fights back, reluctantly.

He uses his experience in the game world to battle his opponent, with moderate success.  After defeating his first opponent, Ryouta is left questioning whether he is willing to kill to survive.   We watch as he struggles to come to terms with his situation and attempt to band together with others on the island to find a way out - all the while learning new tricks and strategies along the way.  Along the way, he makes a few allies and many enemies.  Among the people he allies himself with are Himiko, a blonde haired, blue-eyed high schooler with a serious distrust towards men, and Kiyoshi Taira, a middle-aged man with a generally laid back personality.   Most of the series is spent following their journey toward escaping the island alive and unveiling the how and why they were chosen to take part in this deadly real-life version of "Btooom".

Plot:  4/5

I really enjoyed the pacing of the story.   We get to see and feel the struggle each of these characters are going through and have gone through previously.   Sure, we've seen the idea of "real-life death games" before, but this one made it more about the characters than the death.  It was refreshing to see a show like this that was actually more emotional than it was gore-porn.  I did feel that they may have went a little too far in how much of a victim they made Himiko at times, but it did help to add to the helpless feeling she always had.   For such a short anime, I do feel that they packed it with as much story as possible, though the ending did leave a bit to be desired.  The series itself kept a somewhat realistic pace, whereas the actual ending felt rushed and thrown in your face.  This could be due to lack of funds, but I'm not entirely sure.  It seemed like it would have fit much more comfortably in a twenty-six episode anime rather than thirteen.  My only semi-complaint would be about how often it seems Ryouta is immune to losing.  I understand that he is the main protagonist, but there's no way someone could be completely unharmed by some of shit he went through.  Would be a lot more realistic if our hero wasn't completely invulnerable to damn near everything.  Either way, I enjoyed the action, the drama, and the general feel of this one.  It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but in a sea of shounen bullshit, this one stands out as one of the better ones to me. (And yes, I do realize this is more categorized as seinen than it is shounen, but really, seinen is just an older version of shounen, is it not?)  The manga continues passed where the anime stopped, so if the anime leaves you looking for more, go ahead and give the manga a chance.

Characters:  5/5

I really, REALLY enjoyed the characters in this show.  It emphasizes on the fact that they are all just normal people whom happened to be thrown on an island with bombs and were told to survive.  Of course most of them would be scared, of course many of them would be clueless.  A lot of the characters were very relatable and easy to sympathize with, even if they wound up being seen as an enemy/antagonist.  It's hard to be angry at someone for fighting to survive when they have no other choice.   The story went very in-depth when it came to fleshing out most of the characters.  Some were a bit vague, but most of the characters had a deep story behind them to help explain their actions.  Of course, they spent the most time to give us back story for Ryouta and Himiko, but that's to be expected.   They made sure every character had their own specific motives and reasons for their actions, and it made each one of them very unique and made it hard to dislike any of them on a personal level.  Many of the characters "grew" as the story went on and they experienced more things, and others didn't.  For example, we get to see Ryouta grow from a selfish and cowardly person, to a brave, yet reckless man, willing to put his life on the line to protect the ones he cares about.  I feel that the character growth reflected humans beings as a whole very well.  Some of us grow and learn from our mistakes, actions, and experiences, while others remain stuck in the past and allow it to be their downfall.  And that's really how I see the growth in this show.   They are all fighting for the same goal, survival, but all of them handle that in their own unique way.

Visual:  3/5

While I do enjoy the visuals of this anime for the most part, I will say that it does feel very inconsistent.  Many of the facial expressions seem off unless it is an extreme close-up, and character heights and body types seem to change from scene to scene.   They did best at portraying the environment and the explosions, but the character designs usually left a lot to be desired.  They made each character so different looking that it was hard to mistake any of them for another, but it made it feel very inconsistent.  I do like them trying to give each person their own unique design, but it felt like some were a bit shabby compared to others.  Himiko, for example, had very odd facial structure compared to everyone else.  The placement of her bangs sometimes made it feel like her eyes were way too low on her face, and her eyes seemed to rotate between being too big for her face and too small.  I think if they had put more time and money into this, they could have done a lot better in the animation and art style.  I guess the best way to articulate it would be to say that I do like it, but it feels clunky.

Audio:  4/5 

I'm a bit biased.  I'll admit that a lot of the score here is coming from my long-standing obsession with the singer Nano.  Her opening song for the show fits very well, and helps pump you up for the action to come.   The voice acting itself is pretty on-point in terms of how well the voices fit the characters, scenes, etc.  (I've only watched in Japanese, in case anyone is wondering which version I'm speaking of.)  The cast of seiyuus didn't really stick out with any of the more well-known people, but nonetheless, they did well with each of their characters.  Ryouta's voice was usually pretty spot-on for who he was, he was good at sounding like an overconfident little shit at the beginning, but also fit for more serious moments without feeling overdone.  The soundtrack itself was alright, but left a bit to be desired.  There wasn't songs that really stuck out, just a lot of the same.  It seemed most of the tracks were either suspenseful strings or a mix of jazz and like an electronic sort of sound.   (Not exactly techno or dubstep, but something futuristic and synthetic sounding.)  I wasn't the most impressed by it, there were no scenes that stuck out in my brain as being very well coordinated with the music.   It wasn't a bad soundtrack, I just feel it could have been done better. 

Overall Rating:  4/5

Overall, I think this was a very good watch.   It is definitely not a pioneer when it comes to initial plot, but I feel that it did well in balancing action and drama, without feeling overdone in either aspect.  If you enjoy the action of shounen but are looking for something a bit more "grown up" and psychological, give this a try.  If you aren't into animes that involve a lot of death and darker tones in terms of character development and back story, then you might not like this one, as it is definitely not for the faint of heart at some points, but not completely overboard like some animes.  It could definitely have done with a bigger budget, more episodes, or another season, but for what it is, I definitely think it's worth a watch.