English Dub Review: The World Ends with You The Animation “The Reapers’ Game”

Overview

Based on the hit Nintendo DS game from Square Enix, The story follows a boy named Neku Sakuraba who awakens in the bustling city of Shibuya. Later, Neku finds himself holding two black pins that enable him to read the minds of people around him. However, these pins also give him the ability to see hostile creatures known as the “Noise,” which are capable of “erasing” people from existence.

After discovering that he is trapped within the confines of the city, Neku receives a message regarding a mission that will nevertheless erase him should he fail. While trying to fend off a Noise attack, Neku meets a girl named Shiki Misaki who asks him to form a partnership pact with her to fight against the monsters. Shiki explains that she and Neku have become “Players” participating in the “Reaper’s Game”—an event spanning over seven days, each featuring a different mission where he must compete to survive or be erased from existence…



Our Take

The plot itself seems pretty interesting. I really liked the directing in some scenes even though the CGI was a bit off-putting in places. Game adaptations are sometimes rushed or designed to be a “Cash-grab” if the effort isn’t there. The characters often seem like your “by the numbers” opposites with Neku is your typical main edgy jerk character with amnesia, while Shiki is the “I’m the talking loud type” character whose only character trait mostly feels like a walking exposition dump for the audience.

The presentation looks cool but upon research, it looks quite faithful to the game that was made almost 15 years ago. However, the pacing is so fast and something about it makes it way more boring than it should be. A lot of people watching this anime like myself have most likely never played the game since I never owned it for Nintendo DS in my youth, So I’m just along for the ride since which could also be a bad first impression if you a 2D Anime purist and don’t think CGI can be utilized properly.

Overall, this is a pretty good start even if everything felt rushed in places. But I do hope they make the characters a little better than this in the upcoming episodes. Using CGI for monsters is passable, but for characters as well? The movement looked very jarring and in slow motion, not real at all. At the very least, I do hope they take their time when they come into the meat of things and don’t rush it just like any anime based on a video game.