Jan 28, 2026
What if death game concept is converted into an anime?
This is what-if Squid Game concept looks like, but with the visual of Studio Deen, the same studio producingGimai Seikatsu (also from the same author!). While the story follows Yuki's perspective, the suspense of each games is driven well to keep viewers engaged and not left their seats. It has the similar compositions: players in need of money, death games that do not exist in the public eyes, and audience who may or may not saw them as entertainment.
The first episode is a double-length special that clearly summarizes the world setting and the nature of the
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death games. Sure, playing death games wil pay more than minimum wage, but why some players keep playing the games? That's what this anime will uncover the player's reasons (and hopefully, it stays on the track with the LN).
This is the anime that may question viewers whether they will enjoy watching death games. In-universe, the hosts have audience to show the death games, and to avoid the deaths being too gory, the hosts makes their death to be dehumanizing, in a visually interesting way. All bloods and cuts instantly coagulates into a cotton-like filling, which visualizes how the hosts treated the players are: dolls for play and amusement. There is a narrative reasoning on why the cotton instead of blood as viewers watch this anime further.
Visually, this anime looked like a visual concept done well. This anime shows distant characters deliberately out-of-focus with no facial detail whatsoever, and closer shots have striking face and eyes detail. This perfectly mimics how the audience will likely see the players, with cameras placed all over the place, guessing their emotions only with their voice and gesture. Anime about death game should not be this artistic, but Studio Deen nailed it by improving spatial clarity, possibly satisfying both anime-only viewers and light novel readers.
The voice acting and audio effects are solid, and complements this visual concept-styled art. There are no inherent flaws, although the character's voice is a bit too soft to heard.
Overall, this anime is very good as of this writing. A notable bonus point is this anime shows death game without red gore, but still describes cruelty in visuals.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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