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BTOOOM! – Anime Review

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Cast_BTOOOM_

Storyline

Anime series surrounding virtual reality / worlds iare not uncommon in the industry nowadays. Madman Entertainment for example recently began publishing Sword Art Online which saw 10,000 players trapped inside a life-and-death online game while Siren Visual also saw success with their 2011 release of Dennou Coil, featuring a group of children who interact with virtual reality through a pair of glasses (and interplanetary beard wars).

Not to be left out, Hanabee Entertainment last month also released a title of the “gaming” genre, this time setting itself apart in part for being the polar opposite of SAO. Rather than having players trapped inside a video game, individuals are forcibly abducted from their ordinary lives and plunged onto an island. They are not on the island for a retreat or casual bout of questing… instead players are equipped with a small amount of supplies and must fight for their lives to survive in a real life adaptation of the popular action online game BTOOOM!

Consistent with its title, BTOOOM! is an online game where players primarily use bombs / explosives instead of weaponry or magic. The main character Ryouta Sakamoto raised his way through the ranks to become not only the best player in Japan but also in the Top 10 around the world. But the question is… when he wakes up in a downed parachute on an isolated island with nothing but provisions, bombs and a crystal embedded into his hand…. can he adjust from his sheltered life to surviving on an island where everyone else is potentially out to blast him from existence? After all, there is no “RESPAWN” button in real life.

The “Survival” genre is nothing new, with both Japanese and Western media franchises popping up left, right and center to take advantage of what has proven to be successful in the market. While BTOOOM! may be too dark for some, and for once I think does warrant the MA15+ classification given to it in Australia, it is these darker and edgier moments that sets this series apart from others. Some of the characters have tragic backstories, some are anti-social and some are driven to insanity on the island – with each character Sakamoto facing off against providing something unique from the others.

Unfortunately the length of this series hinders the overall experience, and while “short and sweet” does work to an extent, some characters backstories barely get explored and the ending left quite a bit open that could be explored in a future season or set of OVA episodes. While the development of Sakamoto, the female protagonist Himiko and the other characters may have been lacking, it made up for this loss to a degree with some every enjoyable fights, making use of more unique fact that bombs, stealth and radars are the only tools available to players on the island.

Cast_BTOOOM_Himiko

Design / Music / Voice Acting

While not the most vibrantly designed anime release that we have seen from animation studio Madhouse, the design quality overall proved to be above average and still worthy of a blu-ray release. The character designs were the highlight of this series, reflecting the artistic styling of Junya Inoue’s source manga very well. These designs were complimented by above average environment designs and some fantastic action-oriented animation.

The musical backing of BTOOOM! also features a suitable variety of tracks, particularly a number which manage to grab the intensity of the scenes perfectly. The series is also complimented by a primary opening sequence “No Pain, No Game” by Nano and a single ending sequence “Aozora” by May’n. The opening sequence captures the intensity you would expect to come from the series with animation to match, while the ending sequence on the other hand is more subtle and doesn’t stand out nearly so much.

Sentai Filmworks opted to feature both a newer and a familiar voice acting personality when it came to their main English dub cast. Ryouma Sakamoto and Himiko are voiced by Tyler Galindo and Brittney Kawbowski respectively, with both doing a relatively strong performance of their respective roles. The same can mostly be said for the other members of the voice cast, a perk given the vast range of voices needed to cover all the participants in BTOOOM!. The Japanese dub as usual has also been included, for those who prefer the original voice cast.

Extra Content

As this originated as a Sentai Filmworks anime release, usually you can expect either a very small amount of on-disc content or a whole extra disc full of content. Surprisingly they managed to provide the middle-ground when it comes to extra content, featuring clean opening and ending sequences, two English localized “BTOOOM! Digest” videos, Japanese promotional / TV spots and a handful of trailers. I am uncertain if Hanabee Entertainment chose to change the trailers in this release, but all of them are ones shared by Sentai Filmworks and Hanabee.

Story_BTOOOM

Final Words on BTOOOM!

While BTOOOM! didn’t by any means overstay its welcome, it was yet another series that required more episode time to be able to fully present the full storyline. However with the manga franchise still ongoing, it would be interesting to see if they decide to continue the anime adaptation given how it ended. Overall, while BTOOOM! at its core was your run-of-the-mill survival anime series and was lacking a bit in the character development department, the darker plot and concepts behind the action were more than enough to make it an interesting watch in my books.

In all honesty, it provided a good contrast when compared to Hanabee Entertainment’s other releases for the month – AKB0048 and Say “I Love You”.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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