An Anime To Avoid | Ousama Game The Animation Review

Series Info

Title: Ousama Game The Animation (MAL Page)

English Title: King’s Game

Original Run: October 5, 2017 – December 21, 2017

Number of Episodes: 12

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Supernatural

Studio: Seven

Based on the Series Created By Nobuaki Kanazawa

Synopsis

1. All students in the class shall participate.

2. After receiving an order from the King, the order must be completed within 24 hours.

3. People who do not complete their order shall be punished.

4. Withdrawing from the game midway is not allowed.

These four rules have been ingrained into the consciousness of Nobuaki Kanazawa. Ever since he looked upon these words in an innocuous group text, his life has been nothing but a nightmare.

Nobuaki was the sole survivor of a sadistic game that claimed the lives of his dear classmates. Then, the unthinkable happened. The vile entity followed Nobuaki to his new school and has started up again. This time Nobuaki swears to save his new friends and put an end to the deadly curse known as the Ousama Game.

Positives

To put it as simply as I can:

THIS. SHOW. WAS. BAD.

But before I can go off on this series, we need to take care of some housekeeping:

“Ousama” is the Japanese word for “King.” Therefore, when I use the word “King” throughout the rest of the review, I am referring to the entity giving orders.

Ousama Game had two stories: The Past Storyline and The Present Storyline.

The Past Storyline: Nobuaki’s first experience with the Ousama Game and how he survived.

The Present Storyline: The current Ousama Game and Nobuaki’s attempts to save his new classmates.

Can this amount of substance work? Absolutely, but there needs to have organization, purpose, and thought. Or, at the very least, a show needs to let its audience know what it’s doing when it’s doing it.

Guess which of those aspects Ousama Game didn’t have. Time’s up – ALL OF THEM.

The most effective tool in the horror genre’s toolbox is the sense of the unknown. But because of the two storylines of Ousama Game — specifically the Present Storyline — we were privileged to certain critical details we shouldn’t have been aware of:

1. The Osama game wasn’t an isolated incident. There must have been some sort of condition that kept the game alive.

2. There was someone who knew the rules of the game from the get-go – Nobuaki. He was a reliable source of information. Why would you ever give that kind of power to the main character?

If we were to take the Present Storyline away, both trouble points would cease to exist.

For you see, in the Past Storyline, nobody had any information at the start. Imagine if Ousama Game was just that. Not only would the characters not have known anything, but we also would not have known anything. We would have been as in-the-dark as everyone else. We would have been learning alongside Nobuaki and his friends.

And the word “friends” is crucial because it was the strength of the Past Storyline.

In the first Ousama Game, Nobuaki watched on helplessly as the people he had known for years died right in front of him. This included his girlfriend and best friend, both of whom he loved very much. This level of comradery wasn’t there in the Present Storyline.

The Past Storyline could have given Ousama Game a fighting chance at decency if the show’s entire attention had gone to it. Would that have fixed all the problems? Probably not. There was still a lot of stupidity here. Nevertheless, had this series decided to focus its efforts in a single direction, we wouldn’t have gotten the Ousama Game we did.

Negatives

Where should I even start?

How about the time a character used her temporary King powers to give herself a roll-of-the-dice chance of finding the real King. Not a six-sided die mind you. This was a one out of one thousand – at best – chance of success, and it was gamble taken because the temporary King foolishly believed Nobuaki’s gut feeling.

Or, how about the instance where the King decided to be suddenly vague. Although the orders the King gave were brutal, there was never any need for interpretation. That was until the King told everyone to not take any “unnecessary” actions – whatever that means. If the King wanted to play dirty, why not just order everyone to not breathe?

OR, why don’t we talk about Ousama Game’s second hardest kick to the shins – the truth behind what the Ousama Game was? It’s not often I run across something so mind-bogglingly stupid that it throws me into a fit of uncontrollable laughter.

And do you want to know a secret? All those examples were from the Past Storyline – a.k.a., THE BETTER ONE.

Take the positive aspects of the Past Storyline and flip them. Then take the negative aspects of the Past Storyline and multiply them. You have just created Ousama Game’s Present Storyline.

What madness did I watch?

In fairness, though, at least there was Natsuko Honda. Natsuko was the “villain” of this series, as well as its best character. She was the only person who made sense. She also was responsible for the only chilling moment in this supposed horror anime.

Everyone else, on the other hand, was nothing more than an inconsequential piece in one of the most incompetent groups of unlikable morons I have ever seen. And along with that, this series had the nerve to pull this last move.

Remember when I said the true nature of the Ousama Game was the second hardest kick to the shins? The hardest came at the end of the show in the form of three simple words:

To Be Continued

Final Thoughts

This show was incompetent. The writing was atrocious. The characters were insufferable. This story took a fascinating idea and pounded it into the ground. And I never even mentioned how subpar the animation was.

…

Were you expecting a “but?” There are no buts. Not with this one.

Ousama Game The Animation is a series you should go out of your way to avoid.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? Have you seen this show? What would be your advice concerning Ousama Game The Animation?

I’m LofZOdyssey, and I’ll see you next time.

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Hello guys and welcome to the Anime Shelter! Ok, maybe not welcome, but more of a goodbye since this is the end of the post… Hmmm… Whatever you prefer it’s alright with me!

Just wanted to comment (or make a disclaimer) that this review was a guest post written by LofZODyssey!

Hope you liked it! If you did, don’t forget to follow his blog and read other stuff from him since, as you can see, is a very good Anime reviewer 😛 (You can read the original post here)