Pretty, with potential that is unrealized.

ajrcvr

What we have here is a somewhat ecchi presentation of females running about trying to make a story out of the various elements the author brings into the movie. The rampant nudity, huge boobs of nearly all the female characters, and routine fan-service - which I'm certainly not against - don't come close to saving this haphazard & amateurish attempt at telling a tale, particularly the last episode, which is pointlessly stupid beyond belief. In fact, all that pizzaz is distracting & even irritating when you don't have an intelligent plot- line to give it all purpose. Scantily clad and nude sexy young women scampering about destroying each other for no intelligent reason, and no definable goal ("you'll get something good at the end if you're the last one standing"), led by a psychotic "game-master" who achieves that position by who knows what means, is a thin storyline at best. As an author myself who enjoys anime, I know it could easily have been made better! Laziness and lack of imagination caused it not to be. A solid, heartfelt story never quite materializes. What IS there is overly sketchy & under-developed, & isn't concluded in any sensible or satisfying way. The author is overly consumed with keeping his psychopathic villains and not much concerned with the status and well- being of his heroes and heroines, who suffer mightily at the hands of their foes, sometimes ridiculously & inordinately so.

The magic employed by the characters is weak and nonsensical, while the characters themselves are mostly stupid - you'd HAVE to be to play this deadly "game," because the only true villain here is the game- master and his cronies, the destruction of whom should be the real plot of the story. Characters are also uni-dimensional and even pathetic, occasionally foolishly falling victim to their foes and then suffering for it, something employed to create drama, which it actually doesn't, because it is so dumb. As for the animation, it's only fair, while the graphics are pretty decent, which makes it visually pleasing to watch. This is a series that had a good idea, and could have offered up a great story, with powerful relationships and heartfelt drama, but it did what was easy and quick and so failed to do that - a shame, really. What you're left with is sexy, overly busty animated women, occasionally delightfully nude, dancing about trying to kill each other because some psychotic says they should so he can get his jollies from he fray, unconcerned about the human carnage. As for a deeper story and adventure, you really need to find that elsewhere.

score 2/10

ajrcvr 9 June 2016

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3484633/