~~~~~~ Good, but not great

This series was an interesting experience, and overall worth the watch even though I'd rate it around a 6/10 or 7/10 after the 12 episodes. Our main character, Akira, struggles with the difficulty of normal life not being challenging enough for him. Whether it be school, work, or having a future, he channels that energy into gaming which gives him clear objectives to overcome.

After a fateful chance encounter with an unforeseen enemy while on his way to school, things quickly take a turn for the worse. However, he gets his wish of being faced with an adequate challenge for once, and thus begins the battle game.

The "5 Seconds" rule is unique and begins as this series' individual mechanic, however very quickly it disappears as it seems the writers chose to move away from the 5 second before battle rule within a few episodes. This doesn't necessarily take away from the combat portions of the anime, but it was odd to introduce it as a theme of how battles commence, only to disregard it for most of them.

Another week point of this season is the character development. Aside from a few typical tropes, it does a pretty good job at familiarizing the viewer with the cast, but it suffers in taking you through their journeys in a way to where you feel for them. It didn't feel like there were particularly any standout characters, but they weren't bad either. They were mostly just good enough.

One of the strongest aspects of this anime so far is the mind games and strategy that the cast uses in battle, particularly our MC Akira, due to his mysterious and open-ended power that he was given. The possibilities are endless, so endless in fact that you easily find yourself thinking about insane things he could do that would automatically give him the victory, but the writing does a good job in grounding him and making it so that he actually thinks out his strategy instead of abusing it for easy wins. This also plays into the fact that he strives for a challenge, which is a plus to his character.

For some final thoughts, I did notice a few episodes towards the middle of the season where the animation quality dropped, but it was never too concerning. While the characters didn't have too much depth, they weren't awful either. The anime shines in it's wittiness and strategy during combat, and witnessing how they will make it out as they navigate this new world. Akira being the type of main character who doesn't care about the end result and is only in it for overcoming the experience ends up being a benefit to the series. He is ruthless when it's necessary, and also uses his wit to figure out who and what he can use in order to continue achieving victory.

Overall, this series is definitely recommended!