Darwin's Game is Stupid Awesome!

over the many years I've been running this channel I've recommended many anime that are philosophically complex emotionally transcendent and intellectually stimulating Darwin's game is not one of those shows but what it is is awesome top to bottom inside and out almost everything about this show rocks there are certainly better anime this season but there are a few I've had more fun keeping up with and I've done so much for smart anime you guys just give me this one this video is sponsored by expressvpn by the way stick around to the end to learn how you can get three months of premium VPN service for free to understand what makes Darwin's game so fun you've got to understand what it is and what it isn't the hour-long first episode which sees our heroes pseudo Kaname squaring off against an invisible panda man with a knife after unwittingly accepting an invite into the titular mobile death game from his dead best friend certainly creates the impression of an edgy dark murder fest full of stabby weirdos in the vein of mirai nikki and in the next episode there is some of that regular Japanese kid running away screaming until his girlfriend saves him with a pointy thing type stuff going on but that's just the prologue the origin story if you will Kaname is understandably a little bit put off by the whole mobile game with real-life deathmatches stick and he struggles with it early on but there's a reason his friend Hamada asked for his help right before he died while he looks like a regular old teenager Kaname is a strong dependable and resourceful kind of guy when thrust into an in-game battle royale style event where his only other option is to die Kaname adapts and as he does as he turns the tables on seemingly unbeatable foe after foe it becomes clear that this isn't just another tawdry survival game thing where deaths come fast cheap and shocking and characters spend most of their time either being crazy or going crazy because they can't handle all the edge I mean there's definitely some of that here but at its heart Darwin's game is really a superhero anime just one where the heroes and villains were all bitten by a murder emo Begay mascot instead of radioactive pests every player of D game is granted a sigil upon signing up unique powers that range from or reviewing and enhanced senses to pyrokinesis and invisibility obviously some of these are a bit more combat ready than others but under the right circumstances they all have their uses with everyone participating in the game being some kind of superhuman or other the fights tend to get a little more batshit than what you might be used to seeing from other entries in this sub-genre the invisible knife wielding panda man is probably the most boring foe of the bunch just to give you some notion of how nutty things in this show can get of course to go up against threats like that and live you know our hero has to be packing some serious heat of his own though maybe that's a poor choice of words since Kaname doesn't actually have to pack anything his hammer of the fire gods sigil is an arguably more versatile take on fates unlimited blade works concept that allows Kaname to instantly recreate and modify at will any weapon or small object he's ever touched before he can't reproduce complex technology like phones or computers larger arms and vehicles are likewise beyond his abilities and creating too many weapons at a time drains his stamina but outside of those limitations this power gives him an essentially unlimited arsenal of guns ammo grenades blades and most importantly cute mechanical pencils as other characters point out kana maze unassuming demeanor and ability to literally pull any weapon out of thin air could make him a near-perfect assassin but luckily for everyone else on the planet he ain't about that he's a kind young man at heart who doesn't like killing and once he gets his bearings in the game and forms a clan he makes it his goal to save everyone playing by either winning d game or finding and stopping the son of a [ __ ] behind it while killing as few of his fellow players as possible preferably only in self-defense this isn't exactly a new concept for a death game hero but having superpowers does make it a bit easier for Kaname to uphold those convictions than some of his contemporaries despite the heist and dark tone that come part and parcel with its premise Darwin's game has a real Saturday morning cartoon vibe about it it's heroes all have archetypal over-the-top personalities its villains chew the ever-loving [ __ ] out of the scenery and its fights while often brutal are always big bombastic and conceptually ridiculous I've lost count of how many times this show has made me smile simply by doing something stupid cool and while that doesn't exactly make it high art or whatever the giddy fourteen-year-old boy in my brain doesn't exactly care there are so many good anime fights in this show sometimes more than one per episode each peppered with sakuga and punched up by gin a categorization never bogs it down and it finds plenty of time to explore its characters Darwin's game is really good at creating interesting heroes with cool power sets that have a wide variety of potential applications strong personalities that complement those powers and striking designs take shuka economies love interest and first team mate her entire look is designed to evoke a rose with her frilly red dress being the flower and the murder spiked change she controls with her mind being the thorns of course that symbolic duality is reflected in her character she's a gentle nurturing and kindly person at heart but a difficult life has taught her not to trust easily and she won't hesitate to kill anyone she sees as a potential threat lest they hurt her or her loved ones first and you do not want to be on her bad side her ability to telekinetically control chains and wires allows her to swing down streets at high speeds like a spiky ER spider-man while in close combat she uses them as legs to raise herself up off the ground and bear down on opponents from all sides in a manner not unlike Doc Ock and like Spidey anak it's just stupid fun to watch her fight all the time the animators at Studio Nexus clearly had a blast playing around with all the snaking chains and ruffles on her dress that fly every which way as she moves in for the kill and the 3d camera they often use to frame her movement really accentuates the speed and dynamism of her fighting style and if you think shuka moves fast on her own just wait till you see her with Kaname yeah it's a bit rushed but at the same time it is kind of nice to see a show skip all the will they won't they rigmarole when that's not what the series is about and while shuka could stand to be less of a doormat around Kaname and it is painfully obvious that the primary goal here is audience insert wish fulfillment she is still a really fun character and their romance is believable enough in that they have good reasons to like each other cuca recognizes Kaname strength before he even sees it in himself which really pushes him to live up to his potential and it seems like seeing that strength in someone who doesn't want to kill does a great deal to pull her back from a really dark place it's not exactly the strongest romantic subplot but it basically works and when you're competing with mirai nikki that is more than enough the other members of their clan the sunset Ravens are equally fun and conceptually interesting rain the brains of the operation is a geeky young shut-in whose sigil lap 'less lets her track and calculate the movements of everything around her at once effectively letting her see into the future she mostly uses this ability along with her genius intelligence to act as an information broker with indie game but it also allows her to dodge bullets and it makes her something of a crack shot with a sniper rifle so while she doesn't like to fight it is a lot of fun to watch her do it Rayne adds a much needed calming steady voice to the show's high-octane cacophony and does the bulk of the intellectual grunt work for the clan given all that in the way she looks you might expect her to be a cold awkward and distant typical cooter a but while she is soft-spoken Rayne is also the most sensitive and emotionally intelligent member of the core cast in between solving practical problems she actually has some sage advice to offer that helps other players keep the game in perspective with the rest of their lives Rayne has the coolest super powers so she probably would have been my favorite character regardless of her personality but it's nice that she's also one of the most likable well-rounded members of the cast and doubly nice to see that someone at Funimation totally gets it next up we've got Tsui a timid child and a cute little cat ear hoodie thing whose sigil makes her a friggin waterbender and who could totally murder people with their own blood if she weren't a total cinnamon roll I wouldn't say that she doesn't have a violent bone in her body but all of the ones that she does have are currently being used by her more aggressive and also dead twin brother SOTA whose soul is trapped inside her body his sigil allows him to freeze any liquid in an instant which complements her powers nicely and they've got a really fun back and forth dynamic with each other so far Suey and SOTA aren't exactly the most complex characters of the bunch but the dual personality gimmick is definitely entertaining rounding out the group we have Ryoji a Punisher type antihero driven to seek revenge against the man who killed his brother and decked from head to toe in heavy armor with an equally heavy machine gun to match Yugi has clearly seen some [ __ ] it's obvious the game has burned through a lot of his compassion and goodwill but there's still a spark left in there that's reignited by his encounters with Kaname and he eventually becomes the entire clans warm big brother Ryu G's sigil allows him to tell at a glance if someone is lying or telling the truth which doesn't seem all that useful until you consider that Darwin's game is as much a social game as it is a survival challenge murder is a very viable strategy here but it's not the only one or even the best one in a lot of cases the game allows for victory by submission or escape and it has built-in systems for making friends and forging alliances so while killing indiscriminately and playing the lone wolf is a decent way to amass points in cash it also leaves you alone and vulnerable against those who found strength in numbers and in that context knowing exactly who you can and can't trust at all times is a hell of an advantage aside from the fun characters and kick-ass action scenes my favorite thing about Darwin's game is probably how it takes time to or the implications of its world building there's some interesting fake design here with a fairly fleshed out in game economy and objective based events that take cues not just from your typical battle royale inspirations but also from AR G's or alternate reality games which is a site of game design that fiction in general doesn't nearly do enough to explore the only other thing I can think of off the top of my head that really tackles the concept is ready player 1 if he accounts it's big Easter egg hunt and its implementation of that concept is hampered somewhat by the minor issue that the entire book sucks big old elephant balls like both of them at once in a human-sized mouth it's kind of impressive honestly where was I right Darwin's game has a lot of little details that flesh out its world some of those are there in support of its nonviolent dish themes it makes an effort to establish individual personalities for even it's minor villains to remind us that they all have lives and loved ones outside the game and that most of the deaths we're seeing our tragedies to some extent though that is undermined a bit by how fun the show makes it to watch most of them die what I really like though are the little asides that expand upon how this world works and how society at large has reacted to the D game for example of course there are rumors about the game swirling around on the web that only makes sense but it further makes sense that in our increasingly connected world those rumors would filter down to elementary schools where kids on the playground whisper to each other about a special app that grants wishes that's a really [ __ ] up thing that would totally happen if this story were real does it add anything to the plot not really but it's admirable to see the series writer whose fun fact the same guy who wrote the manga so that's cool fight so hard in the losing battle to make this show that inherently doesn't make all that much sense makes sense it's fun and it makes me happy to watch it much as I love Darwin's game I wouldn't go into it seeking much more than that it isn't completely devoid of depth but it undeniably falls on the dummer side of the spectrum and when it does try to explore its underlying themes it's a little obvious about it to put it nicely it's villains while fun are mostly paper-thin and giving them friends and family doesn't really help with that and while it generally avoids the grosser side of the whole being an anime thing it does lewd the lolly once and that sucks but very little of that holds the series back from being an absolute blast and the stuff that does hold it back is infrequent enough to ignore we're not exactly being deprived of dumb fun superhero action this season but if you like me can't get enough of that nonsense a little bit of death game spice does make Darwin's game a very appealing second helping this video was brought to you by expressvpn expressvpn obscures your identity and location as you browse the web by diverting your connection through one of their high-speed servers in 94 different countries allowing you to stay truly anonymous and evade ISPs ad companies hackers and websites trying to track your usage all at once expressvpn also protects your data with best-in-class encryption to keep your Bank info passwords and search history safe from prying eyes I use Express VPN on a regular basis to access region-locked content at home and to get around pesky Network restrictions while I'm out and about sometimes you just gotta check your YouTube stats on airplane Wi-Fi you know and other times you got to pretend like you live in Australia to watch important highly cultural art like interspecies reviewers the reason I use Express VPN in particular is that they're truly the best in the business their apps are easy to use and work across basically every device you can think of if you're having trouble with any aspect of their service they offer 24/7 customer support to answer your questions in seconds and on the subject of speedy responses their servers are consistently faster than any other VPN provider see what makes them so good for yourself and find out how you can get 3 months of expressvpn for free by clicking the link in the dooblydoo or heading to expressvpn comm slash basement I'm Jeff thew professional [ __ ] signing out from my mother's basement she normally normal so you got a 25% address and beat me and then you had Kurt Angle to the mix you chance of winning trash to go down

Channel: Mother's Basement

Views: 358,082

Keywords: Mother's Basement, Anime, Anime Analysis, Darwin's Game, anime to watch, anime 2020, my hero academia, mirai nikki, one punch man, deadman wonderland, death game anime, superhero anime, battle royale anime, funimation, crunchyroll, darwins game, Shuka, Kaname, Rain, fate, unlimited blade works, game design, fakle game design, ready player one, yandere, darwins game episode 1, fun anime, shounen battle anime, best anime fights, darwins game anime

Id: Fr5O9QHDdiw

Length: 15min 44sec (944 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/BpsychedVR]

I love this show. I hope Rosey Chains Girl and mc become even more of a thing as the show continues on, and that the clan becomes more of a family like episode 9 showed. :)

[u/JosephZheng111]

Kaname's special ability is pretty dumb. Because he can only reproduce things like guns and grenades. Things you can get in real life without ever having super powers. So his super powers are essentially equalized by any person who has enough money to go out and buy a gun. And its fair to say. Guns are pretty cheap. So his super powers are pretty weak in that sense.

But its how he is able to utilize his seemingly weak abilities into something quite powerful that surprises the audience each episode.

For instance. His ability to create a gun out of thin air is no match for Wang's ability to teleport at will and cut anything in half. But because of "friendship" and "teamwork". Kaname is about to work out a plan with his comrades to take Wang down in that diamond game.

Later