English Dub Review: King’s Game “Chaos (Scars Disorder)”

Chick be twisted.

Overview (Spoilers)

There is now no question in the class’ mind. The King’s Game is real, and their lives are on the line. The commands are incredulous. Mizuki is told she has to text the word “DIE” to someone. That person will die. Natsuko realizes her new command is to have sex with Teruaki, and she panics, claiming she is in love with Nobuaki. While Nobuaki tries to convince everyone that they need to work together to survive, he begins to have a flashback to a similar situation in the first Game. A boy was commanded to touch a girl’s breasts, and she was to let him. They were found hung to death. A similar command was given that two kids were to hook up, except that the girl had a boyfriend. He was less than thrilled to get a text that their obedience was confirmed. It is then revealed that the boyfriend was given a command. He had to command anyone in the game to do something. They had to comply. He turns to the other boy (Daisuke) and commands him to hang himself and die. Daisuke panics and runs up to the roof, where Nobuaki later joins him to comfort him. It turns out, they have a shared interest in music. Daisuke even has a bracelet that says “ROCK” on it. They become fast friends, and he invites Nobuaki and another classmate over for a jam session. They play until the clock says midnight, hoping to prevent him from committing suicide. Once time is up, they relax. He should be safe. Then, Nobuaki gets a call. The clock in the room was wrong. A text arrives. Obedience confirmed. He runs to find his new friend, and discovers him dead, hanging from some rope.

Oh, but we aren’t done yet. That was just the flashback. You see, in the present day, the class still has a bit of an issue. Natsuko begs Nobuaki to have sex with her before she does it with Teruaki. He declines, as it won’t help her situation. Afraid for his life, Teruaki grabs Natsuko and attempts to rape her. She takes advantage of a momentary lapse in his attention, and overpowers him to escape, but… something is not right with her. She starts acting viciously, almost raping Teruaki instead. When Nobuaki interrupts, she pulls him aside. She wants to know how he escaped the game and is willing to do anything to survive. It’s foolish to do anything but. When he continues to refuse her this knowledge, she screams rape and gets him beaten up all over again. She even turns to Mizuki to try and kill him. The other students begin noticing how strangely she’s behaving but doesn’t do anything to stop her.

Our Take

So, I managed to find a site that translates the original mobile novel. The flashback sequences of this episode are drawn from the first few chapters, treating the novel as the backstory for the anime. What I do notice is that the anime’s versions give more life to the characters. Before, Nobuaki went over for the sole purpose of keeping the other guy alive. They simply play video games and hid all the rope. Here, however, the writers take the time to not only develop Nobuaki but to give the dead a bit of flesh. Daisuke becomes a full character, with hopes and dreams here. As he struggles with his mortality, he lets it out in his rock music. As interesting as the concept of the mobile novel was, I feel like the anime is just superior way to tell the story. There is more freedom for characterization in a show that there is in texts, and you aren’t having to be as economical with your word count.

What I like about this show is the discussion of right and wrong, instinct versus society. At its core, the question is: what wouldn’t you do to survive? However, as soon as we returned to the modern day, that discussion became difficult for me to watch. First, the near rape, and then, Natsuko’s sudden shift. Just as I had a hard time with my first watch through Attack on Titan, because of how powerful the death was, the raw ugliness of the class’ response to this made me feel sick. Natsuko’s behavior infuriated and nauseated me. We are supposed to feel this way. If you can look at these actions and be okay with it, even to fictional, cartoon people, something is wrong with you.

My only issue with the writing thus far is Nobuaki. His behavior is inconsistent. He spends all this time refusing to kiss a girl to save her life, refuses to help her ease the trauma of being forced into sex, turns her over to be raped in order to save her, then prevents her from willfully having sex with Teruaki. I can’t follow his line of thinking here at all. Hopefully, there is more to the story, and he isn’t just a character stripped of agency.

So, when we talk about the animation, it’s a bit of a complicated story. The quality of the animation and fidelity of the drawings are all pretty middle of the road. It’s definitely got some effort, but only enough to make it look like a baseline level of “good”. There are no attempts to wow you. Most of the time, the visual direction is head on, and not all that creative. That is until things start getting twisted. At that point, while the animation stays at the same level, there are subtle warps to the art style to make the characters look a bit edgier. The direction moves to more interesting angles to suggest how the situation is going. That makes me think that the more head-on direction of the other portions is done that way on purpose, in order to amp up the twisted portions.

I am stunned by the number of voice actors on this cast. Two full classes of kids and each one of them got a voice actor. Daisuke (Dallas Reid) got some real depth during his brief journey on the show, and the portion of him playing his heart out was powerful. In my previous article, I mentioned feeling that Bryn Apprill was a bit of a miscast for Natsuko. I rescind that. Now seeing her as a villainous Natsuko, the voice snaps into place. Bryn illustrates the switch in Natsuko’s head being flipped with a change in how she’s talking. She is creepy and seductive at the same time, but without being a tramp. She feels like she’s mocking you.