English Dub Review: Darwin’s Game; “Gemstone Mine”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Having established a promising partnership, Kaname and Shuka head out into Shibuya to investigate an upcoming game event. 

Our Take

Kaname and Shuka’s bedtime antics end up being a fake-out. She was naked because she was too tired after carrying Kaname back, and by “starting a family” she meant starting an in-game clan. Typical anime misunderstandings. Though to its benefit, it does diffuse almost all of the gratuitous sexual tension between them, which is good. 

What’s also great is all the useful information we get about Darwin’s Game. As for starting a clan, Kaname’s rank is too low and he is unable to. Shuka’s partnership with him is based only on trust right now, but it seems pretty likely she’ll keep her word.

In-game points can be exchanged for real-world money. Kaname exchanges 10 points and appears to get about ￥950,000 in return, which is about $8,700. That’s a pretty insane exchange rate, though I suppose a death game should be paying you pretty well for risking your life. It also explains how Shuka can afford her upscale apartment. 

Mentioning Darwin’s Game publicly to non-players gets you automatically “teleported.” This is the term used to refer to people who have lost the game and are forcibly removed from reality. It didn’t really hit me because the teleporting looked very much like death at first glance, but the specific term “teleporting” might imply that instead of dying you’re simply transported somewhere else. There is also a visual distinction at play, though. When Kaname and the others are teleported to the event at the end of the episode, they’re teleported whole. When we’ve seen players who have lost get teleported, their bodies are teleported bit by bit, which would seem to mean you arrive at your destination dismembered. There’s a lot of horrifying food for thought in this game. 

Kaname and Shuka receive a notification from the game that a treasure hunt event will be starting in Shibuya soon. They go there to investigate, but Shuka decides to turn it into an impromptu trip to the mall. When Kaname tries to do a little bit of prying into who Shuka is, she is completely unwilling to share. Even though they just met not that long ago, for someone who wants to start a long-term partnership, Shuka isn’t very forthcoming. 

All the waiting around Kaname’s doing has him so unnerved and distracted that he doesn’t pay attention when a dude walks up to him and steals his phone. This young man, Inukai, takes Kaname’s phone hostage and leads him to a secluded place. In doing this, Kaname realizes the importance of his phone in the game and the real threat that Inukai is posing. While only the owner of the phone can operate the app on it, all of the vital functions and information for the game are on the app. Thus, losing your phone is basically like flying blindly into a storm. Inukai also reveals some information about Shuka; up until now, she was a notorious solo player who reached her high rank by killing tons of people all without the help of a clan. 

Tired of being led by the nose, Kaname instigates a fight with Inukai. Blows are exchanged and Kaname eventually takes Inukai’s phone hostage. Shuka then arrives and the outmatched Inukai smartly surrenders. Just after the fight ends, the treasure hunt event begins and the three are teleported. They arrive separated from each other, in what appears to be an apartment complex, where their treasure hunt begins. 

This second episode was basically all exposition, in stark contrast to the action-packed double-length first episode. They obviously front-loaded that first episode with thrills to pull in an audience, which was admittedly effective. But that means we walked right into the next one at something of an information deficit and needed to be fully briefed before we could continue. There’s probably a better balance that could’ve been struck that would result in the plot advancing smoother, but this isn’t it.

Of note though are the quality of the character designs, which are much higher in this episode than in the last. Characters appeared oddly assembled before, but now they look a lot cleaner. Kaname now looks like your standard anime teenage boy instead of an unfortunate hobo, and Shuka now looks like an attractive young woman instead of a third-rate cabaret girl. Perhaps having to implement all of that action all at once hampered the consistency of the animation. Either way, hopefully, the quality of the designs here is the new standard. 

The treasure hunt arc appears promising, as we jump right back into the bloody action and perhaps meet some more permanent antagonists.