King’s Game: The Complete Series

Based on Nobuaki Kanazawa’s cell phone novel Ōsama Game, this anime series serves up a grim tale about a series of challenges that are sent to Kure Academy students, who are threatened with death if they fail to comply with the demands of a gamemaster calling himself the King. The hero, also named Nobuaki Kanazawa, is a transfer student who survived a round of the game at his previous campus and desperately tries to convince his new classmates to take the phone messages seriously, a mission he succeeds at only after some die. Nobuaki tries to get everyone to work together to discover the origin of the game and track down the gamemaster—which involves a trip to a mysterious village—but while some are willing to make sacrifices for the common good, others are only interested in their own survival. The large number of characters in the series, along with the complexity of the game rules, makes for an occasionally confusing series, but it does generate considerable suspense, offers ample opportunities for solid action sequences, and boasts animation that creates a suitably dark atmosphere. Compiling all 12 episodes from 2017 in a dual-language Blu-ray/DVD Combo set, rated TV-MA, this is recommended. (F. Swietek)