I believed the idea for the DRAMAtical Murder anime was not really to give an accurate adaptation to the source material, but rather to try and milk a successful game series by putting a SFW-not-really-gay version of it on TV. With that said, I'm really confused as to why this OVA exists the way it does. The story of the OVA adapts all of the bad ends from the first game (mixed with some elements of the second game). The TV anime took every route from the games and mashed them together in a rushed, impersonal, poorly pieced together story, and the same can pretty muchbe said for this OVA, but this time they actually kept in the horror and gay porn?
Like, if you're going to cut out a lot of what the fans of the game like for the anime, fine. I can understand wanting to try and attract a new audience. But then after doing that they make this OVA, which is obviously something made for fans of the games. I usually see OVAs as being something like "You liked the anime, so if you want even more here's a little bonus for you!" but this OVA brings back exactly what they cut out of the anime when they tried to draw in a new audience, so do they think that the new audience really wants this? Was it really made just to try and milk the fans of the games?? I really don't understand..
It may sound like I have nothing good to say about this OVA, but I actually thought it was interesting, the way they pulled off showing all of the bad ends together in a way that made sense in terms of what they did with the anime. But while it was interesting, it wasn't exactly well done.
The animation was poor. There was limited movement in general, and whenever a character did move a lot, it looked a awkward and unnatural. The art itself was fine for the most part, but when it came to actual animation, it was a bit hard to watch. This was all made worse by the fact there were sex scenes happening. Everything looked jerky and weird, it wasn't good.
There were also a lot of times when the mouth movements didn't match up well with words and sounds, again, made worse and more obvious by the fact there were sex scenes.
After ragging on it that bad, it's worth saying that I did actually enjoy it, but I am entirely biased as I was a big fan of how the bad ends were done in the game. Even if this OVA was objectively a mess, there are still bits that take after the game pretty well and it made me happy to see them.
Should you watch this?
If you really enjoyed the bad ends from the games and REALLY want to see your favs animated (cough Shiroba cough) then sure, but don't go into it expecting it to be as great as you remember.
If you liked the TV anime and like yaoi, then sure, but again, don't expect it to be anything great.
If you just generally like horror and yaoi mixed together, sure, that's pretty much all this is.
If any of those don't apply to you, then don't waste your time, you more than likely won't enjoy this at all.
ininespisca
January 12, 2015
Recommended
THIS OVA INCLUDES GAY SEX, RAPE, NUDITY AND BLOOD - if want to avoid those, don't watch it. The anime doesn't have these, so you can just watch the anime without watching the OVA. This OVA shows what would happen to Aoba if things had gone wrong on episode 11 of the anime. It has good quality animation because it came on DVD and there isn't much of a plot to insert here. The voice acting is really good on it and it's a great adaptation of the bad ends. Excluding how short each part was (but I understand why it is like that), I haveno complaints.
So, nothing I wrote on the first sentence bothers you - go watch it.
BiBitterFloof
October 26, 2016
Mixed Feelings
If the full DMMD anime had just taken this route and just went 'screw the majority' and pandered to the original fans of DMMD instead of trying to market to a wider audience - it would have likely would not have garnered as much hate as it does. However, that's not what happened and the majority will always rule, that's how demographics work. So to have this little OVA giving a short nod to each of the bad endings of the game is a nice attempt to gain a little favour from the fans of the game. Sure, it's not quite a violent, dark or explicit(because let's face it, they'd never get away with that). It's still an obvious attempt to try and fix what was broken. At least a little bit.
Is it any good: kind of.
It's better than the anime. Simply because it's closer to the original tone of the game. However, it's still not great since the anime it's coming from the back of, doesn't really tie into how each of the bad endings occur and pan out since it is a multi-route game and you cannot fit a multi-route game into a 12 episode anime. It just doesn't work like that.
It's not fair to hate this OVA simply because it's parent anime was bad. It tried - it really did. So take it for what it is, a small nod to some of the darkest aspect of DRAMAtical Murder which the anime would never touch in the watered down product that we got.
Overall: 6/10
ElEllieCats
February 18, 2025
Recommended
If you like the game, this is as close as you're gonna get seeing anything that is close to what happens in it. If you haven't played the game, don't like messed up BL, or enjoyed the anime as the only piece of Dramatical Murder content you've consumed - this isn't for you. Story: It's the bad ends for each love interest. If you've played the game, you'll know what those entail. If you haven't and have only watched the anime, uhhh, get ready for a surprise. It's not an overall plot, but rather mini-episodes of what would have happened if Aoba made the wrong choicetowards the end of the game/anime.
Characters: All the main love interests from the game. Doesn't really tell you anything about what they're actually like, and only shows their "dark side", without going too much into the lore of the game.
Style: Dark, gritty, dirty. It does a good job of depicting the bad ends without showing too much. It shows juuuuust enough for you to get the vibe.
Recommendation: If you played the game, watched the anime and wanted more, this is for you. I liked it. It was authentic. I'd recommend it. Though if you're more of a Given/Sasaki to Miyano/Umibe no Étranger person, this is very obviously not for you. Rated slightly higher for authenticity.
