The Dumbest Death Game Anime 

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The idea of someone calmly explaining their tragic backstory while actively on fire (and with a massive water source nearby) is the exact kind of batshit insanity I come to anime for

I actually find the idea of "protag-kun actually knows there's no hope but has deluded himself into thinking he's the hero as a fucked up coping mechanism and subsequently led everyone to their ultimately pointless deaths" really interesting. A shame it's just another edgy twist in a hilariously bad anime.

This thing did, in fact, influence my brain, because it took me two days to realize that a BLIND girl has left a written message on the sand.

29:53 that dude getting killed because he accidentally said his name in conversation ergo "naming him" is literally the same logic as that Total Drama episode where Leshawna gets eliminated because everyone said her name outloud too many times even though they didn't want to eliminate her. If your gore horror show works on Total Drama logic, YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING WRONG!!!

I know I should be morally mortified, but a guy knocking his friend out cold with a punch only to then tearfully turn to his girlfriend and sadly ask her to bang his now unconscious friend is just utterly absurd to the point that all I can do is laugh.

Spoiling Natsuko’s heel turn with the OP literal MINUTES before it happens in the show is really just the perfect metaphor for this entire show: turning unbearable levels of edge hilarious through incompetent execution.

Dear god, the irony of Nobuaki objecting to Natsuko seemingly wanting to do it out in the open when nobody was objecting to her being forced to do it against her will out in the open mere seconds before is MIND-BOGGLING.

Heya! Nobuaki's English VA, Comona Lewin, here- just clocking in to offer a little perspective on the experience of recording for this show all the way back in 2017! First of all, I hope you all understand that it'll never be proper of me to denigrate a show I've worked on, so please don't expect any 'brutally honest tell-alls' or anything, but my objective isn't to to come in fighting to defend its honor, either- just to talk about my experience :) Pretty much nobody knows my personal story with this show, but to give you an idea- I'd just turned 19 years old a month before we started recording King's Game. I'd only started studying Theatre in college the year before, and this show, despite not being my first EVER anime part, was actually the first time I'd ever recorded synced to a mouth flap- much less having 6-hour sessions with 100+ cues in each episode. I remember while recording for episode 3, we needed to pause because I started having panic attacks- mostly stress-induced from suddenly being thrust into a lead role with my barely-two years of acting and having to live up to the expectations that come with that. (Not to mention the *incredibly* triggering content later on in the show for me personally, which I had no idea was coming.) Those expectations included being a very-visible trans actor (which, not to get into it too much, I was /also/ only just beginning to explore my own gender identity- you can tell because my old name is still what you'll find credited), and receiving all of the murky ire that came with it. To this day, I still look back at my time working on this show and wonder how seriously it affected who I am now, especially considering how suddenly it all happened. I'll also say that I would accept the role I was offered one thousand times out of a thousand. For all the sickening anxiety I was riddled with trying and feeling like I was failing to live up to expectations before my 20th birthday, I also learned more about myself, my acting style, and about just how goddamn hard voice acting is. If it weren't for King's Game, it would have taken me a hell of a lot longer a time to learn and internalize the work ethic and humility that's necessary to properly contribute to a project and make a *genuine* impact on people. So, do I look back and think 25-year-old me could do a heck of a lot better than 19-year-old me? Yeah, of course I do. It'd kinda be a problem if I didn't. But for 25-year old me to be able to run confidently and help make art with sincere meaning to people, 19-year-old me needed to fall flat on their face over and over and keep going, no matter how much dirt, mud, and tear-stained pain covered them. I may not be able to see this show the same way everyone else does, but above all else, it personally represents where I started learning that fucking up isn't the end of your world: it's just where you fell down onto, and it's where you get back up from. All that aside though, the real moral of the story is King's Game introduced me to Coldrain, and they're one of my favorite bands now, so objectively speaking, you can't say this show never did anyone any good LOL

This is a real "I can't believe it's not Ghost Stories" moment.

Damn, that one dude cared more about the bro code than he did about his own life. I strangely respect that even as I decry it as utter idiocy.

Could've been an amazing twist if it turned out Nobuaki was just as traumatized as Natsuko, but that took the form of a messiah complex where he let the other's die to save himself, while deluding himself that he wasn't at fault for anything. Could've been a perfect parallel of each other. Natsuko using her nihilism to terrorize everyone and basically doing everything on her own, while Nobuaki uses optimisim to false hope everyone into helping him, Ultimately each having the same goal, of being scared of death and a innate desperation to live. Natsuko finally shattering Nobuaki's delusion in the final confrontation, causing him to snap even further from the guilt, and eventually he and Natsuko take each other out, leaving the traumatized other girl to end it herself to not turn out like those two, being selfless enough to not inflict this on anyone else.

I get that it's shocking to be ordered to Do The Deed with someone you aren't attracted to, on pain of death. But I feel like after the 2nd or 3rd time it happened, everyone would loosen up a bit, buy a dozen boxes of condoms for the group and ride it out. Telling people to slam hams is just not all that compelling of a Death Game task!!

The plot of this series can be summed up as "Everyone dies and more people will die in the future." It's the most nothing story I have ever heard of.

The delivery on "what are the fidget spinners for?" was outstanding. Perfect mix of fear and confusion.

Mother's Basement can just throw out sentences like "loadbearing flashback" "both found cosplaying Sayori" "so naturally, it's lynching time again" "Danganronp-ish scenario" "she really doesn't take him not taking that well well"

47:19 I like how she ran straight, tripped moving forward, and then proceeded to fall backwards off a cliff that suddenly appeared behind her.

"What if Final Destination's parents were cousins" hits different when you know what happened in the prequel manga

My favorite part is when the Hacker girl spontaneously combusts and for no reason just starts casually taking off all her clothes as she calmly goes on for 5 minutes about her backstory WHILE ON FIRE. That's when this anime went from enjoyably bad horror anime to a god tier comedy.

picking to continue the game instead of punishment is extra funny because we know the punishment could be as simple as become disabled or even just do something embrassing, imagine if that was the twist, after picking to live and dooming the whole class he picks punishment the second time, and then that punishment is just "eat a gross bug"

Saying "i got you a hat" and putting it on the stump of his head is actually the funniest thing ever 😭

You know the plot twists in Kings Game feel like the writer wrote the plot twist got bored in the middle of writing it so he made a new one and repeated the process five times in a row.

"What are the fidget spinners for?!" That line killed me, phenomenal! 😂

Ok but unironically Nobuaki has more chemistry with his best friend and most of the male characters he interacts with than he does his actual girlfriend.

The girl jumping out the window and just EXPLODING had me howling

The supernatural killing as an order kinda ruins the entire premise. The type of story this is, should be one where the orders start out small but are mainly there to get the kids to escalate out of their own volition, with a message about how horrible people will become if they get unchecked power or how everyone is going to escalate something either out of their own self interest or to one up each other You don’t start this type of story with “if you don’t have sex with someone you both die”, It starts with “confess to your crush” or “steal a pencil”, things people would do anyways if challenged by their friends. Only to then escalate after something like “punch a classmate”. Which leads to the first person disobeying and getting proportionally punished, like by getting punched by an invisible force and have 2 teeth knocked out. Then when it becomes really bad it turns out that if three disobediences happen, the game ends, but at that point the really harsh stuff starts to happen, like “break someone’s arm” or “sexually assaulted someone”, which is the point when discussions about making someone fail the challenge come, with the logic that as long as anyone sacrifices themselves, either willingly or unwillingly the horror will end. Which now turns into a game of chicken/pass the bomb, where no one wants to be the one who has to take the punishment but also wants others to take it. It’s not a hard concept to write

I’m stuck on the detail that the kings game hides a hidden message only decipherable over three iterations of itself and the big secret revealed by such an arduous decoding process is information that anyone able to decipher the message would already know

The real cherry on top is that Nobuaki’s VA is pouring out his heart and soul in every line

As an SCP fan, the idea of a memetic virus I'm actually really on board with. But all 3 at once (memetic, digital, biological) just begs the question "Why not a curse then?" over explaining something just tanks the believability of it because you've taken out all the aidience legwork to fill in gaps. Legwork they will do with just enough information.

The VA for dub Natsuko was absolutely giving this more than it deserved.

You know what really tickles me? The OP shouting THIS IS THE EEEEEEEND could be kind of prophetic or foreshadowing if the King's Game actually ended with this group of students, but that "to be continued" at the end undermines it one last time.

Does the Kings Game also teleport you and your class to a pocket dimension because literally nobody outside the classroom exists.

like 10+ kids offed themselves in 2 nights and the school still has classes?

The "Just do it while he's unconscious" had my jaw on the floor. Jesus Christ.

I still can’t believe they made a manga explaining everything that happened at the village. They somehow explained it as “So we made super hyper poison, and because we didn’t let the cousins bang, one of them opened it, and now, the village is super fucked, and now it’s a virus also fuck you.” I also can’t believe I managed to read that whole thing and thought it was sort of compelling. God, how many brain cells died to make me think that was good?! Geoff, I blame you for that set of memories resurfacing.

Hearing the words "What are the fidget spinners for?" in a terrified voice is just the height of hilarity. Amazing

I was morbidly curious so I checked it out (the whole series is available on a youtube playlist). You giving us the sparknotes made it infinitely easier to handle because holy crap I felt like I was experiencing a gas leak with the show's logic. Here are some golden moments that you will experience if you choose to watch it yourself: 1) When tossed the chainsaw, the guy who was going crazy had no idea how to turn it on. Natsuko had to take a minute to snap out of the crazy to teach him. 2) Everyone goes to heaven Wolf's Rain-style holding hands 3) The finger-breaking scene is even funnier than described. Natsuko attacks her best friend twice and is still forgiven. 4) The flashbacks happen as if they were Saturday morning cartoons with life lessons to just try and explain why doing anything is pointless and it's implied that characters keep proposing solutions but the protag keeps going 'no it's useless' over and over up until the final episode. He's just a constant bummer. If the flashbacks weren't happening you would realize that none of the current game members are even doing anything except standing around to be slaughtered. 5) The way characters talk is wildly inconsistent. They all act the same until it's the episode when they're about to die and then they emulate the same energy. It's hard for me to really describe other than 'every male VA starts sounding like a shounen protagonist and every female VA sounds like a tragic love interest'. 6) The computer guy's death was the most hilarious but frustrating thing ever. People were ordered not to cry and the protagonist just goes around telling people not to cry or look at their phones as if that would lessen anyone's anxiety about the situation. People that he calls just end up crying after being told not to, thus killing them even faster. The computer guy begs the protagonist to not let his crush cry before he goes........ and then the protag immediately interacts with her to let her know that he died and he loved her so she immediately cried. 7) There are several characters who do their own individual research but they're all doing it at the same time so nobody learns any new information-- except for the protag, again, who pretends like he's starting from ground up. There are moments when characters try to drop truth bombs on each other but since everyone knows the same information they just go "Yeah I heard that too" and move on. 8) The rabbit covered in jizz wasn't ever explained but there was a scene where Natsuko waved the keychain version of it around which was equally nasty and dirty. Apparently her sister used to have the stuffed animal rabbit and it was just some kind of confirmation that the protag was correct about them being related. I thought at first maybe that just meant the rabbit keychain was making them all sick and they were just idiots for a while. 9) When the protag's phone was stolen there were several moments when he both did and didn't know information that would only be from the phones. For example he DID know where to meet up from a group text Natsuko sent right down to the time, but he didn't know the rules of the next game. 10) The protagonist talks about 'the worst thing he's ever done' and it wasn't when he made his girlfriend assault his best friend-- it was just when he lied to the class about him knowing how to get out of the game to win the popularity contest. Sexual assault has zero consequence. 11) Natsuko is just... riding a guy when she calls the protag. Casually straddling the guy tweening-motioning up and down. There is so, so much more. Please, I beg of you, suffer with me. Just try not to check out the comments because it's full of people thinking that it's the deepest spookiest anime in the world and it'll give you brain rot.

You got me. I was waiting for 'who is the king' all along, I thought it would be predictable, I thought it would be silly, I thought I'd get a good laugh. No. No laugh for me. A virus is sending texts and is somehow able to tell what's happening among people and also it can execute people's bodies in the way that it said it would. That isn't drama. That isn't a plot twist. That's stupid and I'm mad.

I screamed "WHAT" multiple times watching this idiocy. How do you write an entire series without having a single thought?

Wait... how'd she write her suicide note in the sand if she's blind??

If the kid was ordered to nominate six people to die and then die himself what's his incentive for actually following it? He's dead either way what reason does he have to take six other people with him?

The first time you see someone sit on their own balls at a wedding dinner, it's funny. The second time you see someone sit on their own balls at the same dinner, you feel bad for them. The third time you see them sit on their own balls at this dinner, you start to get mad that they can't stop doing it. Watching King's Game is like watching this guy sit on his own balls twenty-six times in a row, leaving you torn between anger that they are doing this on purpose to bother you and fear that they aren't and literally cannot stop sitting on their own balls.

this show has got to be top 5 unhealthiest relationships with sex as a concept of all time

19:32 The fact that he intervened to stop her from assaulting that guy yet stood still while she was being assaulted is baffling !

Well, if you combine problem-solving Kyoko with problem-causing Nagito, you get problem rotating door Kokishi. Comparing Kokichi's actions to Kyoko's makes me realize that Kyoko was damn lucky to have Makoto in her game.

Ok but I unironically love Natsuko actually. Every line from her is comedy gold.

Evil Geoff delivered better, more immersive voice acting than anyone in this dub.

Wait so the virus... Writes letters.... Before deciding to use texting? Why? How? What?!

I love how Natsuko's v/a *completely* changes her vocal performance the exact second the heel-turn happens. Like, you'd think she was suddenly voicing a completely different character, and boy is she having the time of her LIFE voicing that second character. I also feel like it may not be a coincidence that the backstory of this ..."virus" has a decent amount in common with some of the truth behind the mysteries of Higurashi's curse, albeit filtered through the brain of someone who maybe didn't understand that the way *that* worked made sense as a plot element that was, mostly, separate from the supernatural elements of the story. And also was *consistent* about how it was used and who it affected. That said, the original medium by which this story was told probably made it a hell of a lot more immersive/engaging than this anime adaptation does. Honestly, I'm glad that sort of serialization as a means of storytelling is coming back into fashion with things like Dracula Daily.

Not gonna lie Natsuko's sudden swerve into batshit insanity is hilarious

Easily the funniest and edgiest moment for me was Ria being on fire for like 2 minutes, having time to talk her backstory while this epic music plays in the background before she jumps off in true badass fashion. (While there was literally water around obviously) Peak moment of the anime. I also refuse to believe the dub production recorded this without already thinking of it as an actual shitpost. At the same time, the fact the original JP voice actors were able to stay so serious throughout the show is just as impressive. Honestly the thing I'm scared the most about now is that my furniture is gonna turn into plot convenient side-characters at any day..

Listen...I know people's opinions on Danganronpa are pretty divided (I have a deep personal love for it, despite the glaring flaws) but you guys have to admit that it pulls off the zany-to-horrifying balance of this genre _really_ well. It's stylish, larger than life, aware of its campiness (in the games at least) and the characters, like them or not, are actually interesting and contribute something to the story they're in. Danganronpa is _fun_ , which makes the dark parts hit way harder. It really feels like this author wanted to emulate it (seriously, tragedy being spread via Dawkins' meme theory was an actual thing in the anime) but fundamentally misunderstood what people love about it.

33:25 "Oh, Dear!" "What is it?" "I Spontaneously Combusted." "Oh, I am sorry." "Oh, it's quite alright, I've grown tired of living." "Ah, very good then." "For the best." "Indeed." "Is it raining again?"

As someone who's PTSD decides it has a sense of humor and makes me think cartoons are a million times more violent than they are, I appreciate the warning ahead of time. Like, I know you laied heavy into the "I guess I GOTTA do this" but the prep legit made my PTSD calm down, so bit aside, legit thank you.

This show is proof that I've grown as a person, because when I was 17/18 I thought this was a gripping and thrilling story.

"oh my god I didn't die, Im so happy! :D" "Alright let me leave the room real quick and get us drinks" Ok that sequence got me

I'd say the part where the girl throws herself out the window is funny for three reasons. 1. Her celebrating too early. 2. Her throwing herself out the window despite NOT wanting to die. 3. Her incredibly benign punishment.

The discount Kyoko/Nagito bit absolutely sent me. What a vivid and yet still baffling description.

I'll give Bryn Apprill some credit. She sounds like she's having fun as Natsuko. She's been in a ton of good stuff in the dub scene as well.

I feel like a lot of this shows problems could be solved if they went for the supernatural angle. Some guy in the village was shunned for Reasons, so he uses his Big Brain to combine an advanced A.I, a dark ritual, and a demon that was sealed up several thousand years ago. The demon uses their new found freedom to kill a whole bunch of people locally, leading to the o.g guy to actually regret the carnage, leading to the confession letter. The whole thing got into the wild word because the people that came to clean up had an open network phone, so the demon bundle jumped to that, spreading over the web, randomly activating when the demon gets hungry for more victims.

You know... Seeing "Evil" Geoff at the end use the self-deprecating sign-off that you haven't used in a while... Honestly real clever writing as a long-time viewer. Happy to have been here all this time!

- He watched the anime, and he died. - Then and there? - No, about eighteen years later. It's a thing about watching the anime, you never know when it's gonna take effect.

As is well-known among us entities of a higher plane, the spelling "Geoff" is for good, holy beings while "Jeff" is for evil incarnate. I propose that Evil Geoff is actually spelled Evil Jeff.

Honestly, the premise of a Death Game survivor getting roped back into another would've been an interesting angle. That is, the aftermath, the trauma and having to go through it all over again. In that respect, skipping over the first Volume might have worked... if they actually had the right amount of episodes or even ended Season 1 on a cliffhanger so as to spread it across a potential two cour.

This series is like a fever dream. There's like nothing funnier than mentioning this "terrible horror anime I watched that turned out to be a comedy actually" and learning other people know it. It's a gift that keeps giving. Either you curse someone with its knowledge and laugh at their reactions or you can laugh with someone else who already knows over the ridiculousness of it. God bless you for spreading this. thing, to more people JHJDFDXG

You know, this video caused me to do a thought experiment on how to "fix" this bad story. Not that I think I'm a good writer, its just one of those things you can do in hindsight because there actually is a nugget of a good story buried beneath all the shlock. Like it's nihilistic but have a theme of "you can't run away from death" would actually work. You can delay it but ultimately death does eventually comes for everyone. And Nobuaki's desperation to prevent his own death translates until the game continuing. He literally becomes the virus. And to go along with that, remove the dumbass twist of Chiemi and Natsuko being sisters because that literally felt like a last minute insertion on the author's part because he realized implications of his MC being the cause of everyone's deaths and decided that Natsuko was actually the one to infect everyone to absolve him.

"what if final destination's parents were cousins" I laughed so hard at that omg I've never commented here before but I'm delurking to say I'm glad you got this back up, and good luck!

Not gonna lie, changing the title to focus on death games over horror is the whole reason im watching this video. From one Jeff to another (well sorta), nice.

33:55 How fucking unaware of sex do you have to be to think that fidget spinners are sex toys? Unless the author or animator had something REALLY kinky in mind when making that scene? Either way, absolutely hilarious!

You know, that bit at the end with the protagonist basically dooming everyone because he keeps acting like there's a way for people to survive could actually be a really interesting plot device. If, you know, it was implemented with even a shred of competency. I imagine there's a parallel world where this isn't dogshit and they go a sort of Talentless Nana route with it where the protag is clearly a villain all along and his whole schtick is that he has to manipulate everyone into thinking he's some kind of messiah that can get them all through it. But, then we wouldn't get to see crazy people sex, so I guess that's an L.

I'd like to point out that if Natsuko ALSO survived a previous game, then even if Nobuaki did decide to end the game and take the punishment that, Natsuko still did continue the game herself and would have infected the class with the kings game virus regardless of Nobuaki's decision.

I remember years ago when I tried watching Another, and that show felt like each episode was written by starting with the death scene and working backwards. But at least the voice acting and animation was clean and competent. King's Game is Another except the director is spiking the entire production team's coffee maker with ketamine and the writing room has a life sized Gasai Yuno statue on full display

The whole King's game: virus/computer virus/meme/ genetic disorder would actually make sense if this anime was part of the metal gear universe. I'm not joking everyone would nanomachines inside them, which would explain why the king's game can be hacked, infect people, passed on both genetically and via MEMES. Yes... it all makes sense now.... its NANOMACHINES SON!

"Did Sneako direct this" Now I got the kings message and am literally dying.

I just realised something about this show. Where are all the adults?

Thank you geoff, i had the displeasure of thinking this show looked interesting when it aired. After the shitshow began it officially became the first and only show i hatewatched, every week i got pissed at how bad it was, im glad to see other people also know how stupid it is

If I remember right, in the live-action movie the ending was that Natsuko was still the sole survivor of her old school’s game, but that the King wiped her memory afterwards. She survives the present game as well, gets memory wiped again, and the cycle continues at a new school, making the ending actually tragic because she doesn’t WANT to keep the game going but the curse doesn’t give her a choice. Still a better and more sympathetic route than “nah I’ll go to another class anyway.”

"Cosplaying Sayori" is an incredible euphemism

Sees title: "Could it be? A death game worse than King's Game?" Starts video: "Oh, damn, it IS King's Game."

One of the funniest things not mentioned in the video is the fact that the protag-kun's Japanese VA is Mamoru Miyano (the voice of Light Yagami, Okabe Rintaro, Ling Yao, etc, etc). What a show to add to the resume.

The best part of the video was all the different ways Geoff somehow found to describe the one thing my League teammates tell me to do when I go 0/1 in lane.

The fact that one of the kids has the same dub VA as Deku makes me laugh in hilarity.

Perhaps the most underrated bit of insanity here is the fact they turned the first volume into flashbacks. Stories kind of work best if they start at the beginning?

You know, that could actually be a halfway decent twist in a series that was fully written to make it hit as hard as humanly possible, and actually managed to *spoilers* construct Natsuko Honda as a genuine hero trying to end the game who is taken for a suicidal sadist until the final reveal. There is an actual opportunity here to plant clues that we should be thinking about these characters differently, even if the final message would have been very strange.

"The King's Game is very, very real!!" that was convincing

I don't think I'll ever be over the scene with the computer virus ending in the girl just being lit on fire. It was so funny it was just completely unbelievable

I read the manga years ago and thought it was pretty silly, but good fun. When everyone said the anime adaptation was terrible I thought it was just because the manga wasn't exactly a work of art, but I can't believe how much WORSE they made it

Mr Basement, I almost never comment on youtube videos but I have to let you know that "...........what are the fidget spinners for?" made me fucking lose it. I have passed away with tears in my eyes, dumb death game anime style

The absolute horror in Geoff's voice when he asks what the fidget spinners are for is so fcuking funny

So happy to see this back up!! Good work everyone! Hopefully this stays up. 🎉

I love how you find so much joy you manage to get when you watch one of these things, as you turn those rotted like a jack o lantern on Thanksgiving lemons into a medicinal lemonade spread among others to spare them of the pain you endured

When i watched this anime years ago i was completely caught off guard when they explained that all was caused by a biological virus evolving into a computer virus I remember shouting to the screen: are you fricking kidding me!? Thats not how viruses work!! Thats not how anything works!!

The writers of the dub script should be awarded the Nobel prize for literature

I did the unthinkable. I paused the video, watched all the 12 episodes in less than 24 hours and then came back to finish it. I don't feel like I'm in heaven because I want to get out of here

A blind girl writing a suicide note in the sand before wandering into the ocean is a new level of ridiculous.

That Geoff managed to act through that entire outro without bursting out laughing is honestly impressive How many tries did it take

I always am left wondering if the voice actors at least have fun with shows like this, because I don't know how much is enough to actually be paid to dub it

This anime is basically just "How can we have as many graphic deaths as possible with the barest threads of plot holding it together?" It's not much of a story. It's just gore-porn.

"If you try to *LUIGI* yourself I'll stop you!" I laughed out loud

The worst thing is that the premise could lead to a very interesting story if used correctly: 1 - Make the game something 100% supernatural, instead of this mess of viruses and Memes. 2 - Make the origin of the game be an ancient curse passed down from generation to generation, which adapts to the current era, Jumanji style. 3 - Make decent characters. 4 - Reduce the blood and guts and make deaths simple and quick, to really show how fragile human life can be. 5 - Make the story revolve around themes of self-sacrifice, the good of the many against the good of the few, fear of death and how there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. ...What would the ending be like? I have no idea, I'm not a writer, but it would definitely be better than this one.