It's not really something that comes up here since this is an anime site, but I love video games. Probably as much as anime, in fact. I certainly know I've played video games longer than I've watched anime. I got into anime in middle school, while the first console I played was my dad's Nintendo 64 when I was three or so. While I seldom pick it up now, my Legend of Zelda Link Between Worlds-edition Nintendo 3DS was my primary gaming system in high school. While I was hanging out with my friend recently, we decided to take a trip down memory lane and look through our 3DS activity logs. Sure enough, there it was — played for 28 hours 27 minutes, first played 9/26/2015, last played 4/3/2017 — Square Enix's cult classic, The World Ends You. I had actually played the game a bit earlier than this. When I first played Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, I was intrigued by the TWEWY characters who made guest appearances in the game. I began playing The World Ends With You via a rom and emulator at my local library in 2014. I didn't get very far, however, and I'd receive the physical game as a birthday gift a year later, which is when I started playing it on my 3DS.

The game was dripping with style — you can tell the second the main menu boots up with its funky tune, the graffiti-inspired font for the title, the urban character designs that were much different than typical Square Enix fare (at the time, at least. The likes of Final Fantasy XV is more rooted in real-world fashion, but the designs of Neku and co. are still notably flashier), and the record scratch when you start a new game. The soundtrack is an amazing blend of various genres — from Twister to Detonation, you get the sense that these are actual songs the youth of Shibuya would listen to. I absolutely loved the characters, particularly Neku, whose journey from cagey misanthrope to trusting idealist forms the core of the story. I know that in talking about how everything is important, you risk nothing sounding important...but bear with me when I say this was a pretty damn big game for me in my teen years. I wouldn't say it's my favorite (if you're curious, that distinction belongs to Final Fantasy VIII, with Mother 3, Undertale, and Mother/Earthbound 0 following in that order), but I'm very fond of it. Believe it or not, it was fundamental in my development as a writer. My first non-fanfiction, longform story was heavily “inspired” by TWEWY (so "inspired" that I feel scare quotes are necessary). A group of my characters had powers inspired by some of the TWEWY’s character’s powers. The aesthetic of the story is different from TWEWY (remember kids, it's fine if you only mostly plagiarize the shit out of your favorite media!) but games such as TWEWY did inspire me to go with an urban fantasy genre. Most egregious though are the characters themselves, with the main character essentially having Neku's personal and development. His friend is literally just what I understand of Joshua at the time, from speech, to mannerisms, to appearance, to name. My friend and sometimes-writing buddy who wrote his own serial concurrently with mine would be ashamed to see just how much I "borrowed" from video games I liked and when I return to the setting, I'll need to do some serious reworking to create something I'm proud of. But that's neither here nor there. This is all to illustrate, again, how important it is to me.

And I don't bring this up to say The Animation "fucked my childhood" or whatever — in general, I don't really subscribe to the idea that a bad sequel or adaptation can tarnish your memories of the original. I bring it up to show that I have a history with The World Ends With You and many others do, too. It is a cult classic, so even if its fanbase is small, it's loyal as all get-out. Being the adaption of a cult classic, The World Ends with You The Animation had big shoes to fill.

That said, not that many people were watching to see how the show fit. Even when begun, it was one of the least popular anime of the Spring 2021 season. Though, that's pretty understandable. I mean, why bother with this schlock when you can get your rocks off to some tan girl bullying her classmate.

Last year, TWEWY fans found out that we were going to be eating damn good in 2021 — The World Ends With You was getting a sequel in NEO: The World Ends with You as well as an anime adaption of the first game. Naturally, I leapt to Anilist to add it to my "planning" list. I was excited. Video game adaptions of any sort generally don't have the best reputation, but my scrutiny only extends to actually deciding something to watch — once I've set my mind on watching something, I expect it to be good. I was looking forward to delving back into the world of UG Shibuya. Now that I'm out the other side, did I enjoy my journey?

Meh.

To reiterate — I don't at all hate this thing. I've seen some who are very zealous in their disdain towards The World Ends With You The Animation. That's not me. This is mediocre at worst. Given the high regard people hold for the game, "mediocre" is pretty bad in comparison, but people need to take a step back and realize that The World Ends With You The Animation isn't terrible in-and-of-itself. Unfortunately, on the other side of the coin, the show's only fine at best. I'm not angry at TWEWY, but I am disappointed. I admit that my expectations for this show might have been a bit lofty — I came in expecting an audio-visual storytelling experience as great as the game and I didn't get that. Your view of The World Ends With You the Animation hinges greatly on your relationship (or lack thereof) with the source material. Moreso than sequels, the original work will make or break (but generally the latter) an adaptation, because the fans' desire to see what they loved in the original represented in the new work is all the greater. This anime is a prime example of that. The World Ends With You The Animation is a pretty good introduction to the characters and world of the game series, hitting all the major beats with a decent amount of flair to boot. However, as someone who already knows and loves these characters, I can't help but find The World Ends With You The Animation lacking.

I'm going to cheat a bit with the synopsis. I'll explain how and why later.

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Neku Sakuraba is a misanthrope in the hustling and bustling city of Shibuya. By his own admission, he doesn't "get" people. He says he never has, and never will. While Neku would like nothing more to be alone, isolated in a world that begins and ends with him thanks to his headphones, the greater world that he shares with others has other plans for him. Memories scrambled and hazy, he wakes up in the middle of Shibuya's scramble crossing. He's able to hear the thoughts of others and the passersby in Shibuya pass right through him. If that wasn't enough, strange, animal and tribal tattoo-hybrid creatures called Noise attack him. Worse yet, the only way that he can so much as hit the noise is by teaming up with a partner, the energetic Shiki who begs for him to form a pact with her. Reluctantly, he agrees. The two realize they're in a mirror version of Shibuya, the UG as part of the Reapers Game where they have to complete an adjective each day for seven days lest they face erasure. If Neku wants to win the game, regain his lost memories, and figure out what the hell's going on, he'll have to team up with Shiki.

It's important to acknowledge that the adaption does get some things right in the process of translating the story of TWEWY from the dual-screen to the silver screen. Indeed, there are some things that the anime does better than the source material.

While a specific bit of characterization forms one of my biggest gripes with the show, I think the characterization as a whole is pretty solid. The characters are as well-defined and colorful in the games. In some cases, their characters shine a bit better than they did in the original game. One instance I can think of is the reveal that Shiki's appearance isn't her own — from what I remember and from what others have said in forums, the placement of the scene hits different here, with more buildup. Similarly, Shiki being erased and made into Neku's entry free is a lot more heartbreaking here due to the fluidity allotted to animation and voice acting as opposed to the game's text bubbles and sprite stills. The Animation has some pretty good emotional setpieces; it’s built around a solid foundation that it refines to be even more sound. For one, I think the ending is great. It’s essentially the same as the game's and while you could say it’s a bit more "tell" than "show" it’s sweeter and ties up ambiguous ends a bit better to make for a more satisfying conclusion.

The animation and design are also good. It's not perfect by any means — the anime largely forgoes the comic book-like stylization of the game and employs brighter colors than the slightly muted game. It's not for everyone — even I'm still on the fence on certain aspects of it even if I like the direction overall. It threw me off to see TWEWY's Shibuya depicted with such bright skies and a part of me feels like it makes the anime come across as a lot more happy-go-lucky than the game. That said, I'm all for the improved character designs. Shiki actually has a waist now! I don't think the stylization of the main characters doesn't lend itself to animation well and in faithfully translating the proportions of the TWEWY to 3D, their models look a bit uncanny Compare Shiki and Neku's original artwork (Shiki / Neku), their Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance models (Shiki / Neku), and their anime reference art (Shiki / Neku). I also found the fights well-animated, showing off the psychic attacks well. The Nose being CGI worked out well, as it's a good way to convey their strange nature.

That's really it as far as praises go. There are a few more things that I like, but not without caveats that make them better suited for the criticism section.

A lot of my negative feelings towards The World Ends With You The Animation are centered around the initial episodes. I have to acknowledge that the show as a whole is, again, fine, but the first two episodes really left a sour taste in my mouth that never left.
The heart of my issue with the early episodes comes from Neku's characterization. As I said before, the adaption's take on the characters in general is pretty good, but a notable area where they dropped the ball is with Neku. Seeing as he's the main character and the story's emotional weight centers around him, the showrunners' failure with Neku hurts the show immensely.

Remember when I said that I "cheated" a bit with the synopsis? Here's how: the first three sentences that set up Neku's character aren't actually in the anime — they're in the game. This bit of characterization, which is depicted before the intro to the game, is extremely important for the story of The World Ends With You. In the anime, Neku's never really as prickly as is does in the game. His relationship with his various partners (especially Shiki) is much less acerbic and in trading his disdain for mere indifference, he ends up being slightly generic. In the anime, Neku is a character you've doubtless seen before. The Animation seems to be content painting Neku as being more quiet, than anything. Meanwhile, in the game, he was an absolute asshole. The kid doesn't just not "get" people, no, he actively and indiscriminately hates them and doesn't trust them as far as he can throw them. As an example of this, on the second day of having Shiki as a partner, Reapers essentially go "hey, your partner's a spy, kill her and you win the game," and Neku says "sure lol" before proceeding to telekinetically choke her. This is a shocking moment, one that sticks with you, one you're forced to ruminate on as you realize just how bad of a dude Neku is. The anime absolutely neuters this scene by having Neku essentially be mind-controlled/influenced to choke Shiki instead of doing it of his own volition. It's a small change, but one that has huge ramifications for how you view Neku's character. This is probably the most egregious change to Neku's character, but differences are peppered throughout. You'll have Neku being more polite here, have him not say a quip there, and it quickly adds up.

I don't ascribe this change to incompetence. I suspect there's a very practical reason for this characterization. As I'll get into shortly, The Animation is much shorter than the game. As a result, they'd naturally have to cut many things out, and a part of this ended up being Neku's development. Instead of having Neku do a 180 in terms of personality, they have him do a 90. Having Neku go from a misanthrope to touting the Power of Freidnship™ in such a short time would doubtless stretch viewers' suspension of disbelief. In making Neku go through a less drastic change, his transformation is more believable, feels more earned in the short runtime. That said, just because it's believable doesn't mean it's satisfying. Again, Neku feels a lot more by the numbers. Since he's the central character this results in the story itself feeling bit by the numbers. If I saw this without the context of the game, I'd imagine this would be the type of show that I'd largely forget by next year.

As I said before, Neku's characterization woes are due to the show's pacing. A bit of a spoiler, but The World Ends with You spans three weeks. Ideally, The World Ends With You The Animation would have two cours worth of episodes, with each episode covering a day. In reality, The Animation is one cour exactly. At twelve episodes, this results in a breakneck pace where many events are either skipped entirely or blitzed over. The first episode covers three days and it feels very frantic. Future episodes slow down a bit, but The Animation left a bad first impression and the first episode kills any tension. A good place to end the episode would've been at the end of day two where Neku chokes Shiki, but the anime squeezes the next day right next to it, robbing it of impact. With everything happening so quickly, it all just feels like nothing has much importance.

The music is criminally underused in the anime. It might feel like a minor gripe, but the music of TWEWY was one of the game's biggest draws for me. While there are some returning tracks from the game and the ED is cool, vocal tracks, or even instrumentals from the game, are sparsely used. What we're left with is mostly standard anime OST fare that really robs TWEWY of its ability to stand out from the crowd. To put it into perspective, Twister, the opening song for The World Ends With You and its most iconic track, might not have even been in the anime. The anime was slated to have an opening by the band, ALI but after it was discovered that the drummer was arrested, the OP was hastily replaced with a rendition of Twister.

My most nebulous complaint is probably the show’s most damning flaw — more often than not, it's kind of boring. There's something to be said about the fact that I'd create discussion threads to talk about the show but come episode six, I just thought it wasn't worth the effort. I made sure to watch the early episodes as soon as they dropped but towards the end, there were weeks where I couldn't be arsed to watch the latest episodes. The characters don't really have interesting dynamics here, there aren't interesting fights to be had. That said, I acknowledge that this could just be due to me having experienced a better form of the story.

All this said, the show still does have some good emotional setpieces — it’s just you need to go through drudgery to get there. As I said, the ending is solid and it's a real about-face when stacked up next to the beginning. But a part of me feels like I can really only gleam any enjoyment out of the ending thanks to the game helping me connect the dots, fill in the blanks that The Animation left.

And that's really the rub, at the end of the day. The World Ends With You The Animation is decent. Even given how much they had to squeeze in such few episodes, the story is competent. It feels frantic at first, but the anime settles into a pace that, while I don't personally like, I have to admit isn’t that rushed. I think The World Ends With You is a fine enough crash course on the first game to prep yourself for the sequel. But as someone who wanted to truly relive one of my favorite games through another medium, I can't help but be disappointed. This is the Sparknotes version, a passionless summary. It's good enough to pass a quiz on the material, but it's not much more beyond that. And as such, I don't think there's much to get out of this anime in-and-of-itself. Stripped of the music, the comic book styling, the dark coloring, the bite of characters such as Joshua and Neku, I really can't see what someone just stumbling upon this anime would get out of it.

___ I've decided to add a little addendum to end this on a positive note. I don't want the takeaway from my review being that I can no longer find excitement and a sense of wonder in The World Ends With You because that's absolutely not true. I very much can and it's all thanks to the upcoming game, NEO: The World Ends with You, which recently saw its demo released. The demo clocks in at around two-and-a-half hours and that was more than enough to convince me that this would be a day-one buy for me on my Playstation 4.

What's old is new again in NEO: The World Ends With You as it recreates the style of the original game while putting its own spin on it. A part of me wondered if a faithful TWEWY sequel would even work well in 2021. After all, the game feels like it came from 2007 — it isn't terribly dated and you can certainly still appreciate it, but I felt a sequel in the same style many years later might risk not feeling genuine. However, I was very pleasantly surprised to see the style and aesthetics of the first game work here quite well. Perhaps there's a timelessness to the urbancore aesthetic that I didn't give it credit for. That said, comparing the character design of the two games, you can see that they did tweak the clothing somewhat in order to stay up-to-date with current trends. For one, the characters are rocking Nomura's latest muse — plaid, which I think is put to better use here than in Kingdom Hearts 3. Also, notice the copious amounts of hoods.

The music is as great as it was before. The opening theme is infectious and even contains a section of "Twister." Funnily, a few years ago, this song's copious use of screaming would have made it dated, but as it would so happen, come 2021, Nu-metal would inexplicably have a revival. Another track that I love is March On -NEO Mix-].

The story's as mysterious and intriguing as the first game was when I first played it seven years ago. I'm enjoying the characters so far even if Rindo is no Neku. I particularly took note of the dialogue, which is modern without feeling somewhat artificial, ala the criticisms lodged against Life is Strange. I can't wait to see what's in store for these characters.

Then there's the gameplay, which I enjoyed for its fluidity. Nothing I've played has dethroned the action RPG king of Kingdom Hearts, but the fast-paced, simple-to-pick-up action certainly reminds me of it. This might be a bit of a hot take but I think I actually prefer this to the original game's battle system. Don't get me wrong — the battle system was definitely unique, but I can see myself actually getting quite good at this system in a way that I don’t think I ever could with the original’s.

So, yeah, even if I wasn't the biggest fan of the The Animation, I know the future of The World Ends With You is in good hands thanks to NEO.

A decent enough adaptation that doesn't measure up to Square Enix's cult classic video game.