DRAMAtical Murder

May it be said that this horror of an adapted anime has forever ruined my picture of DMMD. Anyone who gives this anime a decent score is just going easy on it. This anime is not a ten, not a seven or even the lowest score to ever be conceived of on MAL, a six. No, this is far worse. What I was hoping for was, alas, too much. I feel sorry for previous fans of the series, as this does no justice to the original VN. Honestly, I think you should never remove the "L" from "BL", as the originalhad some plot points revolving around the romance between characters. I understand what the producers were trying to do here, which was acquire a new demographic. What a mistake. In doing this, along with the short amount of episodes, they stripped the characters of any real feeling. You couldn't get attached to them because they didn't get a chance. Noiz, for example, was reduced to a background prop after his arc ended and Clear's began. There was no development because it wasn't long enough. ( Aside from Aoba using Scrap on them. ) The only character I really even liked was Clear. Every time an arc was finished Aoba stuffed that character into Glitter like he was building his own harem or something. I didn't like this at all, although I can understand why they did this. ( Basically so every character could achieve their "happy ends". ) The animation was mediocre at best. It seemed very rushed, especially towards the beginning. Near the end it was somewhat decent, but I've definitely seen better. As for the sound, I'm pretty satisfied with it. It sets the mood fairly well in most parts. Probably the anime's only redeeming quality. Okay, plot! Pretty much the same as the VN, which, mind you I found mildly boring too. This isn't really the anime's fault, but yeah, it's especially boring in the beginning. There were some plot holes, some of which the anime was at fault for due to not enough episodes. There were some pretty original ideas here and there, but without the romance there's really nothing all that amazing. In conclusion, this anime sucks. I didn't enjoy it by any means. It was aimed at the wrong demographic, was rushed, had a low budget and not enough episodes to flush it all out. I think this anime would've been a lot better with more of a budget and more episodes. I recommend the VN if you're interested in it, but not the anime unless you're really bored. (or are a hardcore fan of the VN.) NOTE: I'm not a professional at all. If you have a criticism of this review please tell me, it would really help! :)

Why are you all hating? The plot may be difficult to follow, but when it all finally clicks into place you end up sitting there like "HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED THIS?" Don't give up on Dramatical Murder just because you don't understand what is going on in the first episode. Or the second...Or third...Or...Well you get the point (Amnesia fans understand the struggle). Each time I clicked 'next episode', I felt as if someone rammed something into my brain and started picking on it : "Oh look..You've seen this character before. Haven't you? Ohhhh he seemed suspicious! I knew it! I knew it!". Inessence the author did an amazing job at trowing javelins at my imagination through plot twists. You'll never know what will happen next. In reference to the art...Well hella. The detail of the landscape is quite similar to Durarara or Cross Ange (basically a 'society in the future' landscape). However, it has it's own 'high' to it. When you watch, notice that most of the city is animated as if behind a block of ice. It's blurry, shiny and magnificent. But the blurriness foreshadows the instability of perfection created by humans in Dramatical Murder. And the characters...Well they're all completely (and I mean totally) to die for. Each of the (significant or insignificant) characters have incredibly beautiful eyes that pierce straight through your anime/manga-loving heart. But...That's not all that captivated me when it came down to their looks. All of them were unique in a million different ways. You need to see it to understand. Characters? Characters...Yes...Well...I need you to promise me something ok? Have tissues near (Not just for tears if you know what I mean). The moment I laid my eyes on Aoba and Ren, I needed more. Aoba is the main character, and let me tell you... Everyone wants, loves and adores Aoba (For whatever reason). However...His personality pivots between Kaneki-ken (and his struggle to remain human) and Mikado Ryuugamine (who fights to stay a simple human despite his curiosity). He is beyond special and so is his Grandma and his dog, and all his friends ( :D ). But I don't want to be too specific, or i'll spoil everything for you. In general the characters were all quite well developed (Even supporting characters had a unique personality that made them stand out). Each radiated a different side of humanity. They all had their fears, goals, grudges and dreams that eventually lead them to Aoba. I bet you'll find yourself in at lest one of them. I don't know If I motivated you to watch DM, but please consider it. It's a work of art. You will remember the names of the characters even if it's a 12 episode anime. Cheers --

DRAMAtical Murder is an anime adapted from a BL visual novel originally created by the company Nitro+ who also made things like Steins;Gate and Chaos Head. Similarly to those and other stories done by Nitro+, it has a very sci-fi and futuristic feeling to it. And despite the original material involving gay rape sex scenes (though I haven't played the original game so I can't compare them more than this), this is tuned down to a PG-13 rating which never delves farther in the shounen-ai element than a simple kiss and gay sexual innuendos galore. DMMd begins with Seragaki Aoba, a man of around 20 yearsold. The story is told from his perspective as he meets different people, both ones he already knew and strangers. He begins to discover something big going on in his city involving gangs, a digital game called "Rhyme," and some of the people around him. Aoba, of course, is also strongly involved in this growing plot whether he knows it or not at first. The initial setup is basically your typical VN setup where you follow the protagonist as you meet the other important and not so important characters. One of the biggest problems I had with DMMd is just how poorly timed its twists and reveals are. Aoba knows almost nothing that is going on about the main story at first or much that happened prior to Episode 1. Unfortunately, it takes almost half of the 12 episodes for the show to actually give you any idea what is going to happen. And that first half is incredibly boring since all it does is introduce you to some characters who really aren't all that likable. When they do finally reveal the real intent of the plot, it is very predictable and generic. This show is chock full of generic tropes. As for the characters, they could not be less interesting if they tried. Clear is the only character I ever cared about in the slightest (he's a great singer imo) but even still the show developed him and everyone else very poorly. Everything from Aoba's character design (his huge sweatshirt is just disgusting to look at for 12 episodes) to the typical personalities of all the other main characters just made for an extremely boring and annoying cast. Aoba is your typical main lead who doesn't want to hurt anyone and is just lead through the story by everyone else. Koujaku is his best friend who sticks with him through thick and thin despite not really mattering at all in the story. Clear is the mysterious, strange one who also ends up a little unimportant in the story. Noiz is a hacker who's quiet and arrogant. And Mink is really only important towards the end with almost no personality or development to his character. The villains are one dimensional as are most of the small amount of side characters making for one of the worst character casts I've seen in an anime. The art is noticeably cheap. The budget seems to be low from the start, you just kind of have to laugh at how rushed episode 3 was, and aside from some nice climactic scenes in the last couple episodes, the entire show just looks terrible. Aside from Aoba's design the other main characters do have pretty good and unique designs. The one aspect of DMMd that wasn't terrible was the soundtrack. Though it didn't stand out at all early on, the later episodes towards the climax of the show really added some great rock tracks that really improved some scenes. Still, this was only apparent towards the end and for much of the show, there is a noticeable lack of any background music. While this can work in some shows, with its futuristic setting DMMd felt very empty because of it. This show just has almost nothing to offer. A bad character cast, animation that is so terrible you can see the individual frames used in most running sequences, a decent soundtrack that needed its better tracks to be used more often, and a generic and silly story full of terrible gay sexual innuendos. One of the worst shows I've seen in a while, I certainly don't recommend this show.

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