Plot
A young man gets transported into a video game he plays called Btooom. A plot is uncovered involving an organization that aims to conquer the world by dominating the virtual world.
Cast
Unfamiliar with anybody involved.
Verdict
I've never read the original Btooom! Manga so I have no basis for comparison, I took it for what it was and it is a very mixed bag.
It starts strong on account of the premise being fairly interesting, being a gamer I doubly appreciated it and I was engrossed however it's quite goes from decent to average faster than you can say Call of Duty is overrated and though I was interested in the direction it was going I found myself thankful it was only 12 episodes.
The anime is dark, there's no goofy voices, over the top expressions or standard anime tropes here which I appreciated as I despise that stuff. It was gritty and hard hitting, but something was missing.
Then there's the perviness of it all, there are a couple of very eye brow raising scenes. You know the ones, the stuff you'd never see in anything American yet seems the standard in Japan, perverse and creepy for the sake of it, even the hero who we're supposed to be rooting for gets in on this action.
And then the biggest flaw? Yep that's right, the show gone cancelled on a cliffhanger so Btooom! Is an unfinished story rendering it a quite pointless watch.
Could have been a memorable enough anime, the ignorance and selfishness of the creators doomed it to mediocrity.
Rants
As an avid gamer since the mid 80's I appreciate stuff like this, especially when it's clearly made by gamers (Unlike most Hollywood efforts). The trouble is gaming has changed so much over the years, the primary change being the online element. I miss couch coop! Modern online gaming is offensively toxic to the point I find it best to mute everyone the moment I go into a new game. Whether it be League of Legends, Call of Duty, the worst community of all time Town of Salem or Among Us which wow just use the Pride banner in there and see how that plays out! You think people are vile behind their keyboards on social media? They're worse behind a controller.
The Good
Solid premise
Surprisingly decent characters
The Bad
Inconsistent quality
Ends on a cliffhanger
Some senseless perverseness.
