One Outs / ワンナウツ

If it isn’t already obvious from the blog, I’m a nerd. I don’t care for sports. So if you haven’t heard about One Outs before, it might seem odd that I watched (and loved!) a baseball anime, but One Outs isn’t really about baseball. It’s a psychological/gaming anime right up there with the best of them, and it just so happens that it’s about baseball rather than a series of bespoke games.

The Invisible Guest

The Invisible Guest is about Adrián Doria, a successful businessman, who has been accused of murdering his mistress, as he was found locked inside a hotel room with her corpse. The entirety of the movie consists of Adrian's conversation with his defense attorney, Virginia Goodman, in his apartment as she questions Adrian on what happened and they try to solve the locked room and mount a defense.

Birth ME Code

You may or may not have heard the term "ontological mystery" before, but if you're the kind of person that reads a blog like this, you've probably already encountered some. An ontological mystery is essentially a story where the characters find themselves in an unfamiliar and often limited setting, and one of the main focuses of the story is learning about and escaping from the setting. I've already reviewed a few of them. Other major questions often include why these people in particular were chosen and who is behind everything.

Birth ME Code, the second game in the ABiMe series, takes this sub-genre and flips it on its head by letting you play as the mastermind and tasking you with ensuring your death game runs smoothly. (Well... Without naming any names, a fair number of ontological mysteries are convoluted enough where it turns out by the end that you were the mastermind the whole time. But Birth ME Code is different because it bakes this into the premise.)

Or at least, it tries to flip the sub-genre on its head. It's a solid ontological mystery, especially considering it was all done by one guy (even if he calls himself "Team" Miracle Moon), and a noticeable improvement from his previous game, Head AS Code. There's a lot to like, and Birth ME Code will undoubtedly scratch your itch if you're looking for games like Zero Escape or Danganronpa, but, along with a few other pitfalls, it never really manages to live up to its central conceit.

Kakegurui / 賭ケグルイ

Oh, Kakegurui...

It’s stylish, sexy, and over-the-top. It’s become relatively well-known, giving some much-needed exposure to the psychological/games genre. Unfortunately, as far as psychological/games anime go, it’s pretty bad.

Kill-Each-Other House - Second / 殺し合いハウス Second

Kill-Each-Other House - Second is the third entry in the House series, returning to the spirit of the first entry. While it avoids the lows of the second game, it doesn't quite manage to reach the highs of the original.

Re: Mind

Eleven girls awaken in an elegant dining room, filled with an eclectic collection of seemingly unrelated items. The girls' legs are locked to the floor, preventing them from standing up, let alone leaving. And quality-wise, things basically go downhill from there.

Death Note (Netflix)

I'm not a big movie buff, but there's no way I could not watch this one, and I figured I may as well write about it. I'm going to be focusing on the plot, and you're warned now that there are SPOILERS. (I'm also working off memory for the original Death Note, so apologies if I get any details about it wrong.)

As you've probably already heard, Netflix's new Death Note isn't very good. But if you like the franchise, there are less entertaining ways to spend an hour and a half.

Trick-Each-Other House / 騙し合いハウス

Here we go again! Trick-Each-Other House is the sequel to Kill-Each-Other House, and is another free online web series about a psychological game presented in the style of a fully voiced visual novel. I really liked Kill-Each-Other House, and while Trick-Each-Other House was okay, it didn't feel quite as elegant or clever as the previous series. (And, like Kill-Each-Other House, it's entirely in Japanese.)

Kill-Each-Other House / 殺し合いハウス

(This is not a review I expected to write...)

Kill-Each-Other House is a fully voiced Japanese amateur web series presented in the style of a visual novel. (Kill-Each-Other House is a direct translation of the title. If I was going to localize it, I'd probably call it something like "Murder Mansion.") The creators described their intention as creating a cross between Liar Game and Future Diary, and I think they succeeded! (And just in case you didn't believe those two works were the inspiration, there's a character named Akiyama Minane.) Kill-Each-Other House has the basic Future Diary plot of a bunch of people with magic powers trying to kill each other, with the aesthetic and structure of a game as in Liar Game. I stumbled upon this series by complete accident today, and gave the whole thing a whirl... and it held up!