Too generic to stand out, too trashy even by trash standards to be funny.

At first glance, this seemed to be one of those shows that are so bad it’s… well, not good, but certainly entertaining. Something like Mirai Nikki immediately springs to mind – you know, your standard trashy action/thriller series with so many plot holes and miraculous escapes from deadly situations that it’s impossible not to be amused, and even get hooked after a certain amount of time. Basically, I’m saying I was kinda sold on the enemy being a guy in a panda suit with a carving knife and ‘666’ on his shirt. It’s been a good long while since I watched one of those shows.

Unfortunately for this particular show, the premiere was a double feature, and I quickly realized I was in fact not amused. First, 666 Panda-kun does not stick around. Second, the heavy amounts of exposition by way of internal monologue got very old, very fast. Third, neither the far less-than-stellar animation nor the black bars censoring large portions of the screen (because the sliced-up decapitated heads and fountain-like sprays of blood was just too violent for TV) didn’t exactly thrill me. Last but certainly not least, while I can forgive maybe one resident loli lovingly introduced from the butt up, I draw the line at an entire gang of them. Needless to say, First Loli has all agency completely stripped from her (along with her clothing, of course) by the end of the opening episode, and there’s really only so much rampant sexism I can take before calling something quits.

Having read this far, I expect everyone will immediately know whether or not Darwin’s Game is something they’d enjoy. For me, it’s a hard pass.

Rating: 3/10

In case you missed it: ‘Tis the season for Glorio’s annual anime wrap-up posts as well as a special end-of-decade feature. You can find my posts for these here and here.