SUBARASHIKI KONO SEKAI THE ANIMATION

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA ActionSubarashiki Kono Sekai

REVIEWS

• 

  cameeroo

  70/100
  A decent adaptation of the video game, but for anime-only watchers, this is probably just a meh anime

  

  We always get the answer "Just consume (play, read, or watch) the source material instead" when asked if a certain adaptation is good or not. So that means it's bad, right? Well, most of the time, the adaptation will have a hard time living up to the original, due to various limitations, but it doesn't always mean that adaptation=bad. And that is the case in _The World Ends With You: The Animation_.

  

  Anime-only watchers might feel detached about the story and the characters, because they'll be introduced to us on one episode and then we get to see them go after two to three eps. They had to fit an entire 25-hour game (according to howlongtobeat.com) into a 12-episode anime, so there really is no space for character development and proper storytelling. Video-game Neku is this snobby, unthoughtful loner who's rude to all of his partners because of his contempt for humanity, but they had to simplify his personality in the anime into this kid who just doesn't talk that much and gets along with others faster. The story's pacing is rushed and a bit off as well, but I'm surprised they included most of the subplot/subquests in the anime. Among other things, the Reaper Creeper and Tin Pin Slammer arcs were cut off in the adaptation, but there's not much of a use of that here, because the original purpose of that subplot is to introduce the minigame. So, for me, the adjustments and cuts they made are reasonable enough.

  

  Another thing that may probably feel off for those who haven't played the game is the battles. I personally am not a fan of the constant shounen battles, that don't feel different from one another, because they feel empty and repetitive. Then they try to add emotion to these by making the heroes about to lose, but will be saved by the Power of Friendship, or something that anime like Pokemon use as their typical formula on how an episode goes. And the same formula seems to be used here as well, which could've been better if they at least give names to the moves, or show that some of these moves can evolve after a certain time, just like in the game.

  

  "But wait, all of these criticisms, but you didn't rank this anime subpar?" Now let me geek out about the things I like about this show. When I watched the first episode, I'm not gonna lie, I was blown away by how they executed this adaptation. The art direction isn't far from Tetsuya Nomura's original art style of TWEWY (everyone is just not as skinny as they were in the game lmao), and the 3DCG looks just as good and doesn't feel off compared to some anime that use 3D. Even seeing the psych pins' moves, like Pyrokinesis and Piercing Pillar, made me smile, especially when they're battling in an anime version of Shibuya. Then, I got the chills when music from the game's OST, like _Calling_, _Twister_, and _Underground_, started playing, and when I heard some of my favorite seiyuu play as the characters of this anime. I also appreciate additional stuff that wasn't originally in the game, like how they added a scene of Eri buying flowers for her friend.

  I may be rating this higher than most people because of nostalgia and my love for the game, but I honestly think _The World Ends With You: The Animation_ is not that bad.

  

  So, is it okay to watch this anime without playing the game first? Go for it if you have the time. Should you play the game? DEFINITELY, especially if you have more free time. It's one of the best video games out there and I'm not even exaggerating, because the game mechanics are very well-thought and the OST is just superb, especially if you're into Japanese rock and hip hop. If you could get your hands to a Nintendo DS or 3DS, play the original DS game for full immersion, but you can play that via Switch too, since that one's more accessible these days.

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• 

  RoundChestnut

  50/100
  The World That Could Have Been

  [The World Ends With You: The Animation Review/Criticism]

  As a longtime fan of the game, having played every iteration of The World Ends With You (the original DS, the mobile, and the switch ver.) I was really excited to see the show get the love it deserved and see the animation of it. But ever since the first episode, I have been let down episode after episode that eventually I was finding major differences and questioning why the studio and the writing staff choose to make the changes. This serves more as a critical analysis of The World Ends With You -The Animation- rather than a traditional should you watch. I will be talking about the story in terms of weeks just to have some consistency and organization as if I talk about every day then this will be very long.

  

  [Please keep in mind]

  As a proper note at the beginning, I am not trying to be pretentious, elitist, or gatekeeping the experience of TWEWY from the animation, but I am here to express my opinions of one of my favorite games that I have played and why I have been left disappointed by the animation. I do not wish to take away or demean anyone from the experience they gained from this animation. I have friends who haven't played the game and their first interaction of the franchise is through the animation. This critical analysis is purely to assess the changes made to the animation and how the differences have altered the overall authentic experience that the animation has brought.

  [Visuals]

  I think on the animation department it is actually pretty good. The blend between 3D CGI and 2D animation are pretty much seamless, outside of pretty bad CGI from time to time, but overall, visually the animation does a very good job of replicating the feel and style of Tetsuya Nomura's character designs, locale design. and noise design. The battles were mainly in 3D, but in order to cut corner's a little, it might have been a necessary evil to use 3D than 2D. Since 2D animations require massive amount of time and planning to make the fight scenes, though I wished that the team dedicated more of their staff to work on this, since it sometimes shows where the 3D CGI can be a detriment. The studios' other works have really nice CGI, like the Doraemon movies or the Shin Chan movies. This is difference in quality might not be fair comparing movie budget with TV budget, but it still would have been nice to see some hand drawn 2D fights.

  [Week 1: The Game]

  The protagonist, Neku Sakuraba, is extremely antisocial and deliberately chooses to shut out people for being too loud. Neku is very to-himself and only cares about himself, not wishing to make any friends or connections. Week 1's partner is with Misaki Shiki, a girl that is very lovely and very social. This contrast between Neku and Shiki is very important in the very first week of the game as Neku slowly opens up to Shiki as they are both desperate to survive the reaper's game. At first, Neku was very ignorant of Shiki and flat out ignores her at the beginning as he thought she was being too obvious and slow. To punish Neku’s ignorance, Neku was tricked by Uzuki to kill Shiki to win the game, just before he was about to do so, Hanekoma steps in. He sheds some light about the repear’s game. Hanekoma emphasizes the importance of having trust in Neku’s partner and its key to survival. As a reward he hands him the Fusion Pin, which is a powerful pin that can be utilized when the partners are in sync to unleash a devastating attack. In day 2, the two meet Beat and Rhyme as they both all figure the mission out and without each team, they would not have finished the day. But eventually, Rhyme gets baited out and "erased" and acts as a reminder for Neku for why they do not need friends and they cause nothing but pain to him. Rhyme erasure perpetuated and enforced Neku’s solitude and confinement, and further adds the complexity and emphasis to the eventual growth of Neku further down the line. In contrast, Shiki on the outside portrays herself as positive and straightforward, but in day 5, Neku finds out that she was hiding her jealousy when exposed by Higashizawa. In day 6, Shiki was unable to portray her straightforwardness, and instead see the leadership that Neku had take over to complete the day. Shiki was able to confront her emotions by hearing the truth from Eri and is complimented with Neku being supportive of her and her ability to seam, and ultimately to have another chance at life. And with day 7 to defeat the game master and claim their victory for the week.

  [Week 1: The Animation]

  In week 1 of the animation, studio Shin-Ei and Domerica handle Neku very loosely and from the beginning, Neku does not have his antisocial tendencies, and is rather very welcoming of Shiki, Rhyme and Beat from the beginning. This “loss of character” is one of the most important aspects of that is prevalent throughout for almost every character, maybe outside of Beat. Perhaps it might have been the 12-episode time restraint, the character development for everyone especially Neku and Shiki have been heavily cut down to the point that one might question that they might have known each other from the very beginning. This has a very big consequence in later scenes where Neku mourns for losing Shiki as his entry fee for week 2, but it feels rather weak and has no emphasis or build up that the games had that makes Neku’s growth and his relationship between other characters feel real. The rushed pacing of the show has no room for Neku to sit and think about what is happening like in the games, especially for a character that thinks a lot to himself. Shiki being Neku's first partner serves a very big role for Neku's motivation later but seeing Neku’s progression does not have the weight that the game Neku carries. There are other changes that the animation takes, such as pins that Neku should not have at the very beginning, the Hachiko puzzle in day 2 being gone, the technician being a reaper in day 3 as well as the pin that 777 gives Neku being a wall key pin rather than a limited time pin. Higashizawa does not have much of an impact on the story like in the game, and the show lets Shiki find the personal conflict herself rather than being exposed by him. I feel like this approach left Shiki in a very awkward place. Seeing Shiki’s entry fee be exposed by the game master makes the reapers more threatening and have a firm grasp on the players as they survive the week. But the animation lets Shiki find her own conflict and exposes herself to Neku rather than being forced by it by Higashizawa. I just could not help but think that the animation team was just hitting the main points of the story, but without the plot points that make the impact of those main points memorable and impactful.

  

  [Week 2: The Game]

  Week 2 introduces Joshua, as a quirky and condescending person towards Neku. This is another contrast that the game puts the players in. As the player was getting comfortable with Shiki, Joshua serves as the next partner for Neku. Joshua throughout week 2 is a very mysterious person. Neku never was able to get a read on Joshua as he hides most of personality behind his condescending smirk as well as knowing more about the reaper’s game than a normal player should. Neku is very suspicious of Joshua because of this as well as Neku getting flash backs about his death at the graffiti mural at Udagawa which Joshua secretly eggs Neku on about, which serves as a bigger motivation for Neku as he wants to find out what happened when he died as well as who did it. Minamimoto being game master also triggers his memory, but is unable to figure out what as a headache occurs when trying to figure it out. As the players are wondering if Minamimoto is connected to Neku as Minamimoto is sporadic and uncertain if he is talking to either Neku or Joshua which makes it ambiguous for the player. Later in the week, this is further played with as Neku’s memories is constantly returning with Minamimoto and Joshua being at the scene where Neku died and eventually at the end of the week, Neku’s death is rounded out by being because of Minamimoto. Another change is Beat, he is now a reaper in order to save rhyme. He comes after Neku to bully him as his anger towards Rhyme’s death has no output. Beat now seems cold to Neku and does not seem to budge about being a reaper and only seeks to cause havoc for Neku. Though Beat does stutter a bit when Neku gives back Rhyme’s pendant to Beat when he dropped it one time. Week 2 rounds out with the fight with Minamimoto and although Neku never fully trusted Joshua, but he was his partner so he did trust him as much as he could. Ultimately being able to defeat Minamimoto by taking the final blow of Minamimoto’s meteor. Joshua in the end was very influential to Neku as Neku was able to open up to other people than just Shiki and the interwoven motivations of all the characters is what perpetuated Neku to push on to live another week.

  [Week 2: The Animation and some combat stuff]

  Week 2 of the animation is handled more or less the same, but similar to week 1, there are many aspects that build up with Joshua and Neku are cut for the sake of time. Joshua takes more of a forward approach to Neku and even flat-out taunts Neku to scan him and reveal Neku’s death to him. This forward approach, in my opinion, is a contradictory approach to portray Joshua’s character in week 2. Since at the end of the game, Joshua is eventually revealed to be the composer of the entire Shibuya underground. Up to the very end, the air of mystery for Joshua, that was present in the game, seems to be missing or part of the charm of Joshua’s character and his actions in week 2 just does not seem to be there. Though the Shibuya River aspect that Joshua was going for is there, but the relationship with Neku as well as Minamimoto just come as flat and unimpactful. The show really pushed the viewers to be suspicious of Joshua rather than playing between Joshua and Minamimoto. Taboo noise were way more abundant and a little underwhelming since Neku and Joshua were able to defeat them with their “sync” powers. In the game, yes the player is supposed to attack the taboo noise in tandem with the partner to deal actual damage, but since the show always showed Neku and his partner “focusing” it really did not feel like the Neku and Joshua fighting together to figure out the mechanics to defeat the taboo noise. I will bring this up here for brevity, but the “focusing”/”sync” mechanic that the show was going for I think was a complete disaster. They were trying to imitate the fusion pin mechanic in the game, but the show really liked using this mechanic to show that Neku and his partner was ”in-sync” and working together to overcome the fight. I really wished they just implemented the fusion moves while fighting rather them focusing and doing it. The flow of combat was very repetitive for that reason. Combat did feel same-y for the majority of the fights in the show. Speaking of same-y, the pin selection was also very limited in the show. Neku really likes pyro pins and ice riser pins since those were by far the most used pin types. When there are tons of other types of pins such as telekinesis pins, force round pins, debuffer pins, slasher pins, healing pins, or even noise pins. There is a lot of pin types and I wanted to see more variety than just pyro and ice risers.

  

  [Week 3: The Game]

  Week 3 is the climax week for Neku since it is his last chance at the game and with Beat, the ex-reaper, by his side to conquer the week as well as finding the truth about Shibuya’s underground. Week 3 is all about finding Konishi, the new game master. Konishi takes Rhyme as Beat’s entry fee and turns her into a pin as the goal of week 3 is to find Konishi in a grand game of hide and seek, but Konishi does not move a single spot. While Neku and Beat try to find Konishi, week 3 is about seeing the individual stories that people have and accepting those rather than turning everything to uniform. The red skull badges seen in week 1 play a role since the entirety of Shibuya is under emergency call. Meaning that the whole underground is out to take out Neku and Beat. Amidst that, Neku learns more about the other reapers, especially Kariya and Uzuki. They have been antagonizing Neku since the very beginning, but in week 3, Neku sees them more eye to eye as the two fought as well as seeing Shibuya in a distressed state. Kariya is everything good that Shibuya has. The laidback attitude of people watching as well as seeing the individual stories that everyone has while also respecting his own. He doesn’t strive to be a top-ranking reaper, but rather likes to roam around and with Uzuki, he feels at ease being an officer reaper. As the red skull pins begin to turn everyone into uniform zombies, Neku and Beat make their way into Shibuya River on the 7th day. Konishi then reveals herself from Beat’s shadow. The fight with Konishi is about symbolizing Neku’s ambition to keep Shibuya as Shibuya rather than transform it into a singular clump. Within the white battle, the heavy use of light and shadow were utilized to symbolize the union of both the good and the bad part about Shibuya as well as Neku. Neku being the prime example of the transformation that Shibuya has seen. Along with Beat and Rhyme, the three of them defeat Konishi and head further into Shibuya River. Kitaniji awaits in Dead God’s Pad, a bar and a hub for the higher-up reapers to reside in. While fighting Kitaniji, a possessed Shiki comes and attacks Neku and Beat, but eventually the spell is broken by destroying the red skull pin that Shiki had on since week 1. Beat and Shiki fall unconscious, but Neku chooses to continue by himself to fight the composer. Along the way, there were murals of CAT’s graffiti, Neku looks back on the 3 weeks he spent on the underground. Neku looks back on the people he met, the people he sees die, the challenges he faced, and the amount that he changed. Once Neku heads into the final room, the Room of Reckoning, there was Kitaniji again. He gives Neku the insight of Shibuya’s “new” look and why he has been so adamant of doing so, as he attempts to erase Neku. Beat and Shiki make their way into the room and the final fight begins. As the first phase of the fight is beat, Joshua appears from nowhere and says that Kitaniji’s timer is almost up, But Kitaniji is not done as he throws a binding to Joshua and fuses with Joshua and binding Beat and Shiki, leaving Neku to fight all alone. But Neku is not there alone, Neku is there with his friends to fight for the future of Shibuya and a more selfish reason, to live another day with his new friends. Once the fight ends, Kitaniji and Joshua reveal their 1 month game: Kitaniji to change Shibuya or Joshua to erase it while Joshua was to pick a single proxy to fight for him, being Neku. After Neku learning about the truth to the reaper’s game and Joshua being the composer, he is enraged. Mad because of being used for Joshua’s own benefits and his experiences up to this point have been nothing more than a whim on Joshua’s end. Neku was simply there. Joshua makes an agreement. They have a shoot off. If Neku wins, Shibuya is saved if Joshua win, Shibuya is erased. They have the standoff, but Neku just cannot seem to pull the trigger. He does not want to shoot his friend, and in the end, he does not and ultimately letting Joshua shoot him. Neku wakes up on the Shibuya crossing, but this time with people watching, and shouting “what the hell!”

  

  [Week 3: The Animation]

  The animation’s week 3 is the same for the most part, but the animation breaks its own logic for no reason. The main one being Konishi. Despite her playing the hide and seek game, she is often seen to be moving back and worth in the shadows in different places rather than just in Beat’s shadow. This is a sign that the animation team does not take into account Konishi’s logic as well as her personality. She will never break her own rules, especially with her nickname being Iron Maiden. The fact that the final day of the animation is day 6 rather than day 7 completely throws me off. Why couldn't the animation team just split a day in half to fit day 7? Rhyme was also mismanaged in the animation. In the game, Rhyme was turned into a pin, but the animation simply let Konishi absorb Rhyme into her. This change makes the fight with Konishi a bit wonky since at the very end of their fight, Konishi takes away all of Neku's pins in the white room. Rhyme was the only pin that Neku could use to finish off Konishi further solidifying the bond that Neku has with the people he interacted with. But unlike that, the animation kind of rips Rhyme out of nowhere and does a final blow to her. This hurts the fight yet again by ruining its logic a bit with Konishi saying "how can you use noise!" when this could have been avoided if Rhyme was a pin to begin with. Another aspect that was taken away in week 3 from the games in the animation is the relationship and fight with Kariya. Leading up to the fight, he scatters puzzle boxes and the players have to figure out the puzzle. This aspect about Kariya is completely stripped away for a generic fight with him and Uzuki. The final battle with Kitaniji is almost as empty as Kariya’s fight. Not only does the Dead God’s Pad fight not there, Kitaniji takes a beating then transforms into his final form, not with Joshua, but with Taboo noise. What is the point of doing that without Joshua when he could’ve been there and the transformation would not have been so janky? And ultimately Joshua has become subjected to this scrutiny as well. Joshua’s reveal of being composer was after the fight in a separate room to imitate the Room of the Judged with CAT’s graffiti. This very much takes away from the purpose of having Room the Reckoning being the final room as well as Joshua’s big reveal. The reason why this scene falls flat is due to Joshua appearing after the Kitaniji fight rather than along with Neku in the final fight. This contrast heavily hurts the animation’s presentation and delivery of the final scene of show and portrays Joshua as cold, uncaring, and ruthless. Whereas in the game Joshua was there for Neku till the very end (despite him being the composer and literally bringing Neku in the game) and most likely have been changing his mind throughout week 2, thus the big reveal having much more impact and more meaningful in the end.
  I was really anticipating a one-to-one rendition of the game, but my seeds out doubt started with the 13-episode season and the first episode. From the first episode, I knew that I was not getting the same experience that I experienced from the game. Some of the subtle changes I did like. For example, having more screen time with Nao and Sota or the exclusion of the minigames, such as Tin Pin or Reaper Creeper. But the number of changes that were outright unnecessary and could have sticked to the original was more prevalent than the minor changes that the show did. The animation team had the entire game as a reference point (and not that long of a game either), but from what I saw, it just seemed like the animation team tried to remember the game from their memories rather than try to actively use the game to make the show as one-to-one as possible. Perhaps the animation team’s goal wasn’t an one-to-one, but even then, the things that were changed did not amount to much or ruined the point of the entire build up of Neku’s adventure throughout the underground of Shibuya.

  

  [Conclusion]

  In conclusion, I heavily recommend playing the game since it is the raw experience of The World Ends With You, and I cannot recommend the animation to someone new. As much as I did enjoy the parts that the animation did do right, there were equal amount of things that bothered me, so the score just ends up being 50/100. If you have seen the animation and did like it, then I cannot recommend the game enough as it is a timeless classic that preserves early 2000 Japan as well as having a comparison of the animation with the actual source material. I recommend the mobile version since it is the cheapest (about 15 dollars), but the switch version is there as well (50 dollars, but I would wait for a sale). And yes, I will be playing NEO, I really liked the demo.

  If you read all the way to end, thank you. I know there is quite a lot to read, but I wanted to get my opinion out there. If there is any criticism about this review, please send them my way and I will find ways to change the wording or phrase it differently. I wrote this myself and edited it myself, but I do not have anyone that I know that played the games through and through and watched the show, so please let me know.

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• 

  Pockeyramune919

  60/100
  A decent enough adaptation that doesn't measure up to Square Enix's cult classic video game.

  

  It's not really something that comes up here since this is an anime site, but I love video games. Probably as much as anime, in fact. I certainly know I've played video games longer than I've watched anime. I got into anime in middle school, while the first console I played was my dad's Nintendo 64 when I was three or so. While I seldom pick it up now, my Legend of Zelda Link Between Worlds-edition Nintendo 3DS was my primary gaming system in high school. While I was hanging out with my friend recently, we decided to take a trip down memory lane and look through our 3DS activity logs. Sure enough, there it was — played for 28 hours 27 minutes, first played 9/26/2015, last played 4/3/2017 — Square Enix's cult classic, The World Ends You. I had actually played the game a bit earlier than this. When I first played Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, I was intrigued by the TWEWY characters who made guest appearances in the game. I began playing The World Ends With You via a rom and emulator at my local library in 2014. I didn't get very far, however, and I'd receive the physical game as a birthday gift a year later, which is when I started playing it on my 3DS.

  The game was dripping with style — you can tell the second the main menu boots up with its funky tune, the graffiti-inspired font for the title, the urban character designs that were much different than typical Square Enix fare (at the time, at least. The likes of Final Fantasy XV is more rooted in real-world fashion, but the designs of Neku and co. are still notably flashier), and the record scratch when you start a new game. The soundtrack is an amazing blend of various genres — from Twister to Detonation, you get the sense that these are actual songs the youth of Shibuya would listen to. I absolutely loved the characters, particularly Neku, whose journey from cagey misanthrope to trusting idealist forms the core of the story. I know that in talking about how everything is important, you risk nothing sounding important...but bear with me when I say this was a pretty damn big game for me in my teen years. I wouldn't say it's my favorite (if you're curious, that distinction belongs to Final Fantasy VIII, with Mother 3, Undertale, and Mother/Earthbound 0 following in that order), but I'm very fond of it. Believe it or not, it was fundamental in my development as a writer. My first non-fanfiction, longform story was heavily “inspired” by TWEWY (so "inspired" that I feel scare quotes are necessary). A group of my characters had powers inspired by some of the TWEWY’s character’s powers. The aesthetic of the story is different from TWEWY (remember kids, it's fine if you only mostly plagiarize the shit out of your favorite media!) but games such as TWEWY did inspire me to go with an urban fantasy genre. Most egregious though are the characters themselves, with the main character essentially having Neku's personal and development. His friend is literally just what I understand of Joshua at the time, from speech, to mannerisms, to appearance, to name. My friend and sometimes-writing buddy who wrote his own serial concurrently with mine would be ashamed to see just how much I "borrowed" from video games I liked and when I return to the setting, I'll need to do some serious reworking to create something I'm proud of. But that's neither here nor there. This is all to illustrate, again, how important it is to me.

  

  And I don't bring this up to say The Animation "fucked my childhood" or whatever — in general, I don't really subscribe to the idea that a bad sequel or adaptation can tarnish your memories of the original. I bring it up to show that I have a history with The World Ends With You and many others do, too. It is a cult classic, so even if its fanbase is small, it's loyal as all get-out. Being the adaption of a cult classic, The World Ends with You The Animation had big shoes to fill.

  That said, not that many people were watching to see how the show fit. Even when begun, it was one of the least popular anime of the Spring 2021 season. Though, that's pretty understandable. I mean, why bother with this schlock when you can get your rocks off to some tan girl bullying her classmate.

  Last year, TWEWY fans found out that we were going to be eating damn good in 2021 — The World Ends With You was getting a sequel in NEO: The World Ends with You as well as an anime adaption of the first game. Naturally, I leapt to Anilist to add it to my "planning" list. I was excited. Video game adaptions of any sort generally don't have the best reputation, but my scrutiny only extends to actually deciding something to watch — once I've set my mind on watching something, I expect it to be good. I was looking forward to delving back into the world of UG Shibuya. Now that I'm out the other side, did I enjoy my journey?

  Meh.

  To reiterate — I don't at all hate this thing. I've seen some who are very zealous in their disdain towards The World Ends With You The Animation. That's not me. This is mediocre at worst. Given the high regard people hold for the game, "mediocre" is pretty bad in comparison, but people need to take a step back and realize that The World Ends With You The Animation isn't terrible in-and-of-itself. Unfortunately, on the other side of the coin, the show's only fine at best. I'm not angry at TWEWY, but I am disappointed. I admit that my expectations for this show might have been a bit lofty — I came in expecting an audio-visual storytelling experience as great as the game and I didn't get that. Your view of The World Ends With You the Animation hinges greatly on your relationship (or lack thereof) with the source material. Moreso than sequels, the original work will make or break (but generally the latter) an adaptation, because the fans' desire to see what they loved in the original represented in the new work is all the greater. This anime is a prime example of that. The World Ends With You The Animation is a pretty good introduction to the characters and world of the game series, hitting all the major beats with a decent amount of flair to boot. However, as someone who already knows and loves these characters, I can't help but find The World Ends With You The Animation lacking.

  

  I'm going to cheat a bit with the synopsis. I'll explain how and why later.

  ---

  Neku Sakuraba is a misanthrope in the hustling and bustling city of Shibuya. By his own admission, he doesn't "get" people. He says he never has, and never will. While Neku would like nothing more to be alone, isolated in a world that begins and ends with him thanks to his headphones, the greater world that he shares with others has other plans for him. Memories scrambled and hazy, he wakes up in the middle of Shibuya's scramble crossing. He's able to hear the thoughts of others and the passersby in Shibuya pass right through him. If that wasn't enough, strange, animal and tribal tattoo-hybrid creatures called Noise attack him. Worse yet, the only way that he can so much as hit the noise is by teaming up with a partner, the energetic Shiki who begs for him to form a pact with her. Reluctantly, he agrees. The two realize they're in a mirror version of Shibuya, the UG as part of the Reapers Game where they have to complete an adjective each day for seven days lest they face erasure. If Neku wants to win the game, regain his lost memories, and figure out what the hell's going on, he'll have to team up with Shiki.

  It's important to acknowledge that the adaption does get some things right in the process of translating the story of TWEWY from the dual-screen to the silver screen. Indeed, there are some things that the anime does better than the source material.

  While a specific bit of characterization forms one of my biggest gripes with the show, I think the characterization as a whole is pretty solid. The characters are as well-defined and colorful in the games. In some cases, their characters shine a bit better than they did in the original game. One instance I can think of is the reveal that Shiki's appearance isn't her own — from what I remember and from what others have said in forums, the placement of the scene hits different here, with more buildup. Similarly, Shiki being erased and made into Neku's entry free is a lot more heartbreaking here due to the fluidity allotted to animation and voice acting as opposed to the game's text bubbles and sprite stills. The Animation has some pretty good emotional setpieces; it’s built around a solid foundation that it refines to be even more sound. For one, I think the ending is great. It’s essentially the same as the game's and while you could say it’s a bit more "tell" than "show" it’s sweeter and ties up ambiguous ends a bit better to make for a more satisfying conclusion.

  

  The animation and design are also good. It's not perfect by any means — the anime largely forgoes the comic book-like stylization of the game and employs brighter colors than the slightly muted game. It's not for everyone — even I'm still on the fence on certain aspects of it even if I like the direction overall. It threw me off to see TWEWY's Shibuya depicted with such bright skies and a part of me feels like it makes the anime come across as a lot more happy-go-lucky than the game. That said, I'm all for the improved character designs. Shiki actually has a waist now! I don't think the stylization of the main characters doesn't lend itself to animation well and in faithfully translating the proportions of the TWEWY to 3D, their models look a bit uncanny Compare Shiki and Neku's original artwork (Shiki / Neku), their Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance models (Shiki / Neku), and their anime reference art (Shiki / Neku). I also found the fights well-animated, showing off the psychic attacks well. The Nose being CGI worked out well, as it's a good way to convey their strange nature.

  

  That's really it as far as praises go. There are a few more things that I like, but not without caveats that make them better suited for the criticism section.

  A lot of my negative feelings towards The World Ends With You The Animation are centered around the initial episodes. I have to acknowledge that the show as a whole is, again, fine, but the first two episodes really left a sour taste in my mouth that never left.
  The heart of my issue with the early episodes comes from Neku's characterization. As I said before, the adaption's take on the characters in general is pretty good, but a notable area where they dropped the ball is with Neku. Seeing as he's the main character and the story's emotional weight centers around him, the showrunners' failure with Neku hurts the show immensely.

  Remember when I said that I "cheated" a bit with the synopsis? Here's how: the first three sentences that set up Neku's character aren't actually in the anime — they're in the game. This bit of characterization, which is depicted before the intro to the game, is extremely important for the story of The World Ends With You. In the anime, Neku's never really as prickly as is does in the game. His relationship with his various partners (especially Shiki) is much less acerbic and in trading his disdain for mere indifference, he ends up being slightly generic. In the anime, Neku is a character you've doubtless seen before. The Animation seems to be content painting Neku as being more quiet, than anything. Meanwhile, in the game, he was an absolute asshole. The kid doesn't just not "get" people, no, he actively and indiscriminately hates them and doesn't trust them as far as he can throw them. As an example of this, on the second day of having Shiki as a partner, Reapers essentially go "hey, your partner's a spy, kill her and you win the game," and Neku says "sure lol" before proceeding to telekinetically choke her. This is a shocking moment, one that sticks with you, one you're forced to ruminate on as you realize just how bad of a dude Neku is. The anime absolutely neuters this scene by having Neku essentially be mind-controlled/influenced to choke Shiki instead of doing it of his own volition. It's a small change, but one that has huge ramifications for how you view Neku's character. This is probably the most egregious change to Neku's character, but differences are peppered throughout. You'll have Neku being more polite here, have him not say a quip there, and it quickly adds up.

  

  I don't ascribe this change to incompetence. I suspect there's a very practical reason for this characterization. As I'll get into shortly, The Animation is much shorter than the game. As a result, they'd naturally have to cut many things out, and a part of this ended up being Neku's development. Instead of having Neku do a 180 in terms of personality, they have him do a 90. Having Neku go from a misanthrope to touting the Power of Freidnship™ in such a short time would doubtless stretch viewers' suspension of disbelief. In making Neku go through a less drastic change, his transformation is more believable, feels more earned in the short runtime. That said, just because it's believable doesn't mean it's satisfying. Again, Neku feels a lot more by the numbers. Since he's the central character this results in the story itself feeling bit by the numbers. If I saw this without the context of the game, I'd imagine this would be the type of show that I'd largely forget by next year.

  As I said before, Neku's characterization woes are due to the show's pacing. A bit of a spoiler, but The World Ends with You spans three weeks. Ideally, The World Ends With You The Animation would have two cours worth of episodes, with each episode covering a day. In reality, The Animation is one cour exactly. At twelve episodes, this results in a breakneck pace where many events are either skipped entirely or blitzed over. The first episode covers three days and it feels very frantic. Future episodes slow down a bit, but The Animation left a bad first impression and the first episode kills any tension. A good place to end the episode would've been at the end of day two where Neku chokes Shiki, but the anime squeezes the next day right next to it, robbing it of impact. With everything happening so quickly, it all just feels like nothing has much importance.

  

  The music is criminally underused in the anime. It might feel like a minor gripe, but the music of TWEWY was one of the game's biggest draws for me. While there are some returning tracks from the game and the ED is cool, vocal tracks, or even instrumentals from the game, are sparsely used. What we're left with is mostly standard anime OST fare that really robs TWEWY of its ability to stand out from the crowd. To put it into perspective, Twister, the opening song for The World Ends With You and its most iconic track, might not have even been in the anime. The anime was slated to have an opening by the band, ALI but after it was discovered that the drummer was arrested, the OP was hastily replaced with a rendition of Twister.

  My most nebulous complaint is probably the show’s most damning flaw — more often than not, it's kind of boring. There's something to be said about the fact that I'd create discussion threads to talk about the show but come episode six, I just thought it wasn't worth the effort. I made sure to watch the early episodes as soon as they dropped but towards the end, there were weeks where I couldn't be arsed to watch the latest episodes. The characters don't really have interesting dynamics here, there aren't interesting fights to be had. That said, I acknowledge that this could just be due to me having experienced a better form of the story.

  All this said, the show still does have some good emotional setpieces — it’s just you need to go through drudgery to get there. As I said, the ending is solid and it's a real about-face when stacked up next to the beginning. But a part of me feels like I can really only gleam any enjoyment out of the ending thanks to the game helping me connect the dots, fill in the blanks that The Animation left.

  

  And that's really the rub, at the end of the day. The World Ends With You The Animation is decent. Even given how much they had to squeeze in such few episodes, the story is competent. It feels frantic at first, but the anime settles into a pace that, while I don't personally like, I have to admit isn’t that rushed. I think The World Ends With You is a fine enough crash course on the first game to prep yourself for the sequel. But as someone who wanted to truly relive one of my favorite games through another medium, I can't help but be disappointed. This is the Sparknotes version, a passionless summary. It's good enough to pass a quiz on the material, but it's not much more beyond that. And as such, I don't think there's much to get out of this anime in-and-of-itself. Stripped of the music, the comic book styling, the dark coloring, the bite of characters such as Joshua and Neku, I really can't see what someone just stumbling upon this anime would get out of it.

  

  ---

  

  I've decided to add a little addendum to end this on a positive note. I don't want the takeaway from my review being that I can no longer find excitement and a sense of wonder in The World Ends With You because that's absolutely not true. I very much can and it's all thanks to the upcoming game, NEO: The World Ends with You, which recently saw its demo released. The demo clocks in at around two-and-a-half hours and that was more than enough to convince me that this would be a day-one buy for me on my Playstation 4.

  What's old is new again in NEO: The World Ends With You as it recreates the style of the original game while putting its own spin on it. A part of me wondered if a faithful TWEWY sequel would even work well in 2021. After all, the game feels like it came from 2007 — it isn't terribly dated and you can certainly still appreciate it, but I felt a sequel in the same style many years later might risk not feeling genuine. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the style and aesthetics of the first game work here quite well. Perhaps there's a timelessness to the urbancore aesthetic that I didn't give it credit for. That said, comparing the character design of the two games, you can see that they did tweak the clothing somewhat in order to stay up-to-date with current trends. For one, the characters are rocking Nomura's latest muse — plaid, which I think is put to better use here than in Kingdom Hearts 3. Also, notice the copious amounts of hoods.

  The music is as great as it was before. The opening theme is infectious and even contains a section of "Twister." Funnily, a few years ago, this song's copious use of screaming would have made it dated, but as it would so happen, come 2021, Nu-metal would inexplicably have a revival. Another track that I love is March On -NEO Mix-].

  The story's as mysterious and intriguing as the first game was when I first played it seven years ago. I'm enjoying the characters so far even if Rindo is no Neku. I particularly took note of the dialogue, which is modern without feeling somewhat artificial, ala the criticisms lodged against Life is Strange. I can't wait to see what's in store for these characters.

  Then there's the gameplay, which I enjoyed for its fluidity. Nothing I've played has dethroned the action RPG king of Kingdom Hearts, but the fast-paced, simple-to-pick-up action certainly reminds me of it. This might be a bit of a hot take but I think I actually prefer this to the original game's battle system. Don't get me wrong — the battle system was definitely unique, but I can see myself actually getting quite good at this system in a way that I don’t think I ever could with the original’s.

  So, yeah, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of the The Animation, I know the future of The World Ends With You is in good hands thanks to NEO.

  

  A decent enough adaptation that doesn't measure up to Square Enix's cult classic video game.

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