High-Rise Invasion | Anime Review | Pinnedupink.com

HIGH-RISE INVASION

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High-Rise Invasion tells a tale of a girl trapped amidst high-rise buildings, where masked maniacs run rampant in search of people to blow their heads off! The show takes a whopping start where our lead, Yuri, wakes up to a masked figure splitting a man’s head open.

Not every day does a high schooler gets to live through a makeshift purge experience, but our not-so-fortunate character Yuri has been offered that opportunity. Not too long after her awakening, she discovers others, trapped and terrified, just like her. “Friend or foe?” With this question bearing in mind, she now is left with two choices, either toughen up and fight or take the easy way out and jump off those insanely high buildings.

High-Rise Invasion Anime Review | Pinnedupink.com

Before we properly begin our review, let's skim through the anime’s background a little.

Comprising over 20 volumes, its manga series, written by Tsuin and illustrated by Takahiro oba, was serialized online in DeNA’s manga box app from 2013 to 2019. The series has a sequel titled “High-Rise Invasion Arrives,” which could hint towards an animated second season, but would it be worth watching? Let’s find out.

The plot was too big of a disappointment. If we take our time out from the numerous unnecessary panty shots in “thigh-rise invasion,” we can somewhat see it thicken into something barely meaningful. As the plot progresses, we see that our character chooses the former and decides to fight as she discovers a motive for survival.

It becomes apparent to her that her dear brother, too, is trapped in this world made of ridiculously tall buildings and needs to be saved. The show borrows overused ideas and has nothing new to offer. It’s the same old battle royale theme, where the only role given to humans is to survive from masked monsters that have trouble staying consistent with choosing an enemy.

The plot grows most predictably; Yuri, who had never held a gun in her life before, gains insane powers and can suddenly fight like a demigod. The fights are incredibly shallow and underwhelming in execution. The battles between the masked enemies and humans lack emotion or any unique motivation at all. There’s no motive except plain survival.

The story was super rushed and generally not exciting or engaging. The factor of it being too generic also made it dull and made me want to quit watching it midway. Throughout the anime, you will be left guessing if you're watching a comedy, serious drama, or psychological horror.

The only way this series can make it to your good book is if you have terrible taste.

For a horror series, this anime seemed to be highly colorful and vivid. If I had to pick one word to describe its art, it would be colorful CHAOS. The anime’s try-hard attempt to be a mysterious, dark, and thrilling anime made it look like a horror parody because of its art. Animation studio Zero-G didn’t do the show any justice. The animation didn’t seem as fluid as possible, and CGI was heavily implemented in places not needed.

How can we forget the role of terrible sound effects that make the show even more unbearable? The soundtracks seemed decent but lacked any impact and didn’t add much to the emotion or hype during intense scenes. If you're someone who watches dubbed shows, then prepare your ears for unending bleeding. The voice acting in subbed is way better and more acceptable. The script and direction could use a lot more work.

An offensively dull cast of characters didn’t make it any better, with extremely inconsistent personalities and no emotion at all.

Honjou Rika, Yuri’s brother, Shinozaki kuon, and Sniper Kamen are some of the main characters.

In all honesty, I can't even narrate what characteristics of each of them stood out to me the most as none of them generally played any unique or significant role in kickstarting or turning the plot. Honjou Rika’s character was made the most dependable out of the rest, Yuri’s character lacked any appropriate emotion or depth, and sniper Kamen’s character was too confusing to absorb.

Bringing our attention to another character, Nise-chan, who too magically gets thrown into this world with no context and devotes her life to Yuri, seemed to be the most cautious, at least out of the bunch.

There was little to no character development besides illogical intimacy promoted between characters based on underwear. I mean, why would there be any when the storyline was made to throw convenient plot twists now and then and call it a day. The only attention-grabbing element was the annoying fanservice reserved for the male audience and the overdramatic deaths.

If you have made it this far in the review and are still looking for some hope in this show, then I'm sorry to break it to you, but there is none. If you're among the bunch who has already seen it and are looking for some extra validation for your taste, then all I can say is good luck. Season one lacked any wow factor at all, although it could be said that they left it to its sequel to bring us everything that season one couldn’t bring to the table and make it something worth fanboying over. For that, our fingers remain crossed.

It is evident from history in the anime realm how stuffing down entire chapters of manga in just 11-12 episodes results in a disaster. Unfortunately, this is what happened to High-Rise Invasion. Over 250 chapters were squeezed into 12 episodes. No wonder the super rushed character development had trouble finding a proper place in this story, progressing at an awful pace.

In my final verdict, it can only be added that this anime must be avoided as long as you're not being held at gunpoint. From my end, High-Rise Invasion will undeniably receive a meager rating of 4/10.