
a review by Joshhhp

a review by Joshhhp
Few spoilers ahead as a warning!
I went here with nice expectation after finishing the first episode, the premise seemed generic but I though it could have lead me to something that was either going to be decent or utter trash but still highly entertaining. Took me only few episodes later to realize that the Platinum End ride was going to be a waste of time more then anything. It's a story about Mirai who was about to commit suicide but saved in the last second by an angel called Nasse, then she gift him a pair of wings with the ability to fly, and firsthand powers (a white arrow that instantly kills, and a red arrow that commands people or making them fall in love) and with that the guy is involved into a battle royal game with the aim of winning in fighting against other opponents and becoming the new God.

In other words, this show is basically Mirai Nikki, or most of the battle royal anime ever, but there's only one major problem that makes Platinum End quite possibly one of the worst of this genre... it's boring as hell. Not because nothing majorly important happens, but the all show from the second episode to end is so bland and uninspired, and this problem is heavily caused by the characters; I can't recall more forgettable characters then these, and it's a clear evidence from the first big battle of the series. The battle starts off in a stadium during the fourth episode, we learn more about one of the main villains Kanade and he makes a battle of twist against the contenders surrounding him, and then killing all of them at the end. It's a tragic moment filled with tension but I ended up not feeling and caring about anything. The contenders only showed up for few minutes, have a brief character development before dying, Kanade has no motivation for being a villain and starting to kill people left and right, and when they reveal later on his motivations are just as dumb and uninteresting as I expected. And by the way, through all this shenanigans happening Mirai was only sitting in the stadium, witnessing the massacre and then he goes away, that is all. It was a pretty terrible first game and while watching I being awkwardly bored since the emotional impact already failed spectacularly, and it only gets worse later. We get introduced to other villains who are just dumb edgy psychopath with no motive, most of them with no backstory or anything at all, they're just there ready to get killed by other players and bring more boring action to the show. Even the people who aren't bad guy have only one personality trait and they're often used to explain unnecessary philosophical explanation about achieving happiness and how important life is. One of the worst cases is Saki, through the all series all she does is sitting next to the MC just so she can give him support, she does one rescue at the last battle, but she's useless for like 99% of the time. Mirai is quite pathetic as a MC, which left me not surprised that a lot of people agree with it. He has the empathy of never throw the white arrow at his enemies and kill them because he believe that life is worth a life of another... despite the fact that these psychos take away life of many individuals and people would be better off without them. One contender bombs out an entire public building causing so a lot of damage, and Mikei keeps standing around with no willing of finish the opponent, while his ally Nanato, basically does all the work at defeating the enemy. I can't get over how pathetic this is.

The second half of the series is very forgettable, we get introduced to more characters, two of which are a scientist and an emo kid who will become very important for the final battle, a battle that pretty much consist in manipulations and beliefs, that will align with the emo kid becoming the winner of the death game and therefore the person that will take the place as the new God. Quite possibly one of the most underwhelming finale I've seen in a while, it doesn't feel satisfied or intelligent in the slightest. And then to put more salt into the injury, there's the last episode. It's all reduced to even more philosophical ambiguity with constant talking about the meaning of God and despite the goal of our main characters are finally reached and succeeded, the shows makes us remember that every 40 seconds a person commits suicide. Then the very last scene everybody gets Thanos snapped and disappears, the show clearly tried to do something symbolic or mind blowing with this event but I still couldn't care less, in fact, the only thing I cared about is that the series finally ended along with my misery.
I can't find any positive to say about Platinum End, Op and Ed songs are great sure but the rest falls so incredibly flat, there are a lot of dumb decisions, boring dialogues, combined with poor art direction and below average animation and it all ends up being bland. I'm sure everybody has already forgot about this show. Highly suggest to avoid because you're not gonna get anything out of it.

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