Imagine you're a high school student in Japan. Now imagine you have to play a glorified game of Simon Says with your cell phone. Digging deeper that you have to watch your classmates die. This is King's Game.
King's Game is a death-game anime, not too far removed from the likes of Danganronpa or Battle Royale. The protagonist is a boy called Nobuaki, who has experienced great loss because of the King's Game. The story is told in two parts; Nobuaki's first game where he watched his entire class die and the current game where he's trying to save the class. This essentially means he has to watch two entire classes die unless he can do something about it.
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| Our Protagonist, Nobuaki. |
So, what is this King's Game? Someone or something only known as The King calls people and forces them to compete in the game. The King will ask them to do things that may or may not be weird. It could be as harmless as winning a popularity contest or as messed up as having sex with an unwilling girl. Things actually get even more messed up than that, but for the sake of spoilers, I won't mention them. I will say the obvious; disobeying usually means death.
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| This feel...very Danganronpa-ish. |
The selling point of any death-game anime or videogame is the deaths. King's Game has plenty of death. Kids will have heart attacks, hang themselves, literally fall to pieces, and burst into flames, among other things. The problem is, until you understand how The King is doing these things, you'll probably just laugh at most of the deaths.
As is the case with every death-game anime, don't get too attached to a character because they are guaranteed to die. There are some pretty cute girls who meet pretty grizzly ends. Same with the guys. Some cool dudes get wiped out. It's predictable because they WILL die without fail.
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| Sigh...a waste of a perfectly good thigh. |
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| This poor girl died for less than nothing. |
The character voices are all over the place. Some characters sound fine, while others sound like they have a mouth full of cotton balls. But I won't be too harsh on the English voices because I like understanding what the characters are saying without having to choose between looking at the subtitles or the action. So, no biggie here.
The pacing is done pretty well for a twelve episode anime. The problem with short anime is that they feel rushed. King's Game gave me no such feeling. From the first game to the second game to the origin of the King's game, it never felt like things were moving too fast or dragging, probably because I've never read the manga the apparently exists. The execution however...
If anything hurts this anime, it's that its not particularly well executed. As mentioned before, I laughed at most of the deaths, which I don't think the creators were trying to do. There was one serious logic lapse that made me say, "what the hell," out loud. One particular death towards the end was executed so poorly, it's almost as if some mentally handicapped person made it. And the thing that gives The King his power (essentially The King's identity) is quite stupid. I won't say what it is. You'll just have to watch. Just try not to give yourself a concussion from slapping your forehead too much.
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| This girl's fate is as stupid as The King's identity. |
As a side note, this anime is pretty hardcore in terms of sexual content. Most of it is standard anime fare, but this anime has one thing I've never seen in any other anime; a girl holding a condom filled with the...material of a boy she just had sex with. Yep. It's really there. I don't know why it is, but it is. So, I guess it's...edgy. Really, it's just odd. It's there for the sake of being there, nothing more.
If you have a fetish for teenagers dying, King's Game is right up your alley. This is a weird anime because it's well-paced, but not well-executed. It's not the garbage fire some would have you believe. It isn't overly good, though. There were plenty of eye-rolling moments, but I didn't want to kick the TV because of the stupidity, either. Give It A Try.
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