It's been a long time since an anime grabbed me in such a way that I watched it without pausing. However, I have to say that "Infinite Dendrogram" was fun for me, but it is far from perfect, let alone my favorite anime (or similar).

Appearance / sound
I couldn't find anything in particular that I would like to praise here. But nothing to criticize either. Only the sub was strange in some places or the choice of words was weird. This also includes names of things in the game, such as the special designation of the NPCs "Tiam". Either way, I'll just call them NPcs, there isn't even a real justification for the name, why shouldn't I call them "Non Player Character"?

Plot
I just have to compare this anime with Bofuri, the extremely similar scenario alone invites you to do so. At the same time, the anime couldn't be more different.
While Bofuri is a pure comedy anime that doesn't have really good characters or a great world to offer, Infinite Dendrogram isn't really funny, but has a well thought-out world and great characters, but story-wise it can't (yet) shine. There are allusions to various story elements, characters swear revenge, others make mysterious remarks, otherwise the protagonist Ray just walks around and happens to run into problems again and again.
That's why I didn't think the anime was as good as Bofuri. While this unfolds completely in the comedy and is absorbed in it, this anime (so far) seems like an introduction that only introduces important characters and elements of the world or story. Still, I see great potential if the anime ever continues.

Unfortunately I have to criticize the finale and the second half of the anime. While the first half went through one event after the other very quickly and treated one episode for several days or weeks, the pace was slowed down significantly in the second half. About episodes 7 to 13 deal with 2 days. I don't like such changes, although some events are of course more important than others and therefore get more attention, but I would have liked a pace to be set and roughly maintained. Simply for the reason that you can see from the number of episodes how far the story is going this season. In this case, I assumed I was seeing at least a little more, maybe even another form of nemesis, Ray's embryo. The term "embryo" is pretty strange if you think about it. Due to my expectation to see a bit more, I was slightly disappointed, also how the anime ended in the middle of the fight.

Otherwise, a few problems can be listed here that Bofuri also had. Above all, however, the fact that "Infinite Dendrogram" is just a game can be criticized: Even if it is repeatedly pointed out that the game does not look like a game, it is a game! This makes successes or defeats less important, because it only happens in the game. In addition, I find the death penalty slightly ridiculous, being locked out only for 24 hours (72 ingame hours) sounds like a lot, but it is not. On the one hand, every player will have to pause for a longer period of time, certainly 24 hours. On the other hand, there are no other disadvantages, I find death in Minecraft, where potentially all items are lost, much worse.

Characters
The characters are, as already mentioned, quite good: Most of them have a background story, which is usually not very long but fits their characters. The successful and comprehensible links between background stories, character traits and skills are also cool, making the anime look more realistic.
Otherwise the characters are unfortunately quite one-dimensional, Ray alone is probably the stereotypical hero that exists in such stories.

Conclusion
Even if it was really fun to watch, the first season of this anime is just above average. The story is only hinted at, the world is well made, the characters not bad, but far from perfect. I see great potential in other seasons, so I hope that some will appear. Even if I can't imagine that it will ever come close to Bofuri. Unless you don't like comedy anime or the humor of Bofuri.