after putting AiB on hold for four months i finally sat down and binged watched it. am i satisfied? id say so. this is one of those dramas you sit and watch for the heck of it and dont feel much attachment to after (if you were a hardcore fan of the manga you may disagree).

this is a solid watch if youre into action, thriller, mystery, or gore content (or if you enjoyed sword art online) and i have nothing bad to say about the plot, acting, or pace. but for a show that focuses on the themes of morality and humanism, it almost... fails to divulge in it? to explain, our characters often ponder about their lives before the games, and a lot of them show remorse for their actions in it, depicting their humanism and morality. we also get to see their lives in the real world: their struggles, relationships, families. but at the same time, the characters seem somewhat superficial, their personalities underdeveloped in exchange for more screentime for gore and bloodlust. now i understand, this show isnt meant to make you question your life choices but i think a good show takes everything into consideration.

for one, it felt like some of our main characters dont get much of a personality outside of their 2d cutouts: arisu is a genius neet rejected by his family, his friends are his moral support, usagi likes climbing rocks with her dad. wouldnt it make more sense for the characters to be more developed and realistic so we can grow more attached to them and experience more of a shock factor if something happens to them? instead, show replaced valuable screen time that couldve been used for a meaningful conversation to allow for emotional growth on sex scenes and gore. not that i particularly mind, but one less dead person wouldnt have affected the body count, but it did take away time from us learning the characters. on the same note, a character that comes in later in the show seems to possess no emotions at all? (i believe his name is chishiya, the blonde one). again, this show focuses so much on humanism but this guy has one facial expression for the entirety of his screen time. he isnt fazed by death, important/shocking discoveries and revelations, or even when standing in a building on fire. this, to me, felt like either lazy characterization or inadequate acting. it was off putting to watch him act nonchalant amidst chaos because real humans dont act like that. at the beginning of the show, i was under the impression that our characters were supposed to feel real. their shock when entering the game world felt- what i would assume to be- accurate, their internal struggle when they had to choose between their lives and the lives of their loved ones was heartwrenching. but why then, are some of the more important characters not more fleshed out? why are the evil deeds done by antagonists done just to be done and we dont see reasoning behind them? this was more prevalent from episode 6 and onwards, where it really lost that humanistic touch.

nonetheless, this isnt the focus on the show. its just things that i noticed after watching it for 8 hours straight. this show is still very solid, and very much worth the watch.