Are you someone who wants to have girls flock to you at every angle, well... You're in luck because this anime will shoot every trope it can think of and make them converse with the main character by any means necessary. So the first character this generic man met was a redhead tsundere? CHECK! Next up, give way to whose name literally translates to Snow White and she's a maid too? Where for some reason she's listening to every word this random man has to offer? Fine by me. You thought that's it? Don't worry, there's still a talkative extrovert whose lines need to have the sound nyan, or else she would evaporate to ashes if she didn't do it. And even if you don't like it, there are still plenty of choices you can have in this one. I don't hate 'basic' or 'simple' characters, but these characters are made up just to feed the audience a ton of fan service, and it's obnoxious to go through. To add more, the visuals are also mediocre and dull to watch, it's the epitome of "All that glitters is not gold", so there's a lot of color for a generic-looking anime.
Remember when I said the first character Hiroto met was a redhead tsundere? So it turns out, she's one of the most skilled players in this world they have established and for some reason lost to him in the dumbest way possible? Not only that, but the writers took the time to establish that there's a ranking system and the man himself became the most wanted man in the academy after he mistakenly got a special star from the redhead himself. So if you don't understand what just happened, this is just the prologue to the anime Liar Liar, which establishes itself as a 'Suspense' show to bullshit his way out of trouble. This anime's storytelling is godawful and painful to sit through, not to mention the pacing of the story is also dogcrap. It's more interested in the action without building any meaningful stakes to make the suspense reach a level of intensity for the audience to care about the characters. How are we supposed to root for the characters if we don't have the time to digest what's happening?
Speaking of action, let's talk about the real reason why we'd click on this anime in the first place and it's to look at how our characters would play the games in order to survive in such a dog-eat-dog world. The games these characters play have the most confusing rules, so because of that, get ready for a 3-minute tutorial on how to play the game. Every. Single. Time. But games can be fun to watch, it's just a creative way to show our characters going through conflict and winning, right? Not only do these games are overly complicated on their own, but with the addition of extra power-ups that allow them to bullshit their way through the game, it comes off as convoluted and mind-numbingly stupid to even think of. Imagine you're battling against a child who has no idea about the game, only for them to make a dumb move and say it's justified because their powerups say otherwise, that is what the majority of the games happen. The worst part? The main character uses cheats to win the game anyway. So Hiroto is nothing but a player who requires a modder to ruin his foes' chances of winning. It sounds like something a bad mobile game would do, which is not a surprise though, they are playing with smartphones, what a coincidence.
It's definitely not the worst product you'll find in this endless sea of trash, but it has been quite a gamble to my soul to stomach some really bad fanservice and edgy-level storytelling. Spare yourself the pain and don't watch this mess.
