DRAMAtical Murder

Our lives can get so hectic sometimes that we wonder what’s stopping us from moving to the quiet countryside to live a peaceful life. While such getaways are great for vacations and holidays, something always seems to drag us back into the chaos of modern life. The reasons differ greatly, but the end result is more or less the same. No matter how much we try to avoid trouble and drama, these things relentlessly pursue us on occasion, leaving us no choice but to drop everything to deal with it. So what’s hot on your heels now?

“DRAMAtical Murder," also known as "DMMd," is a 12-episode TV anime series that aired from the 7th of July until the 22nd of September in summer 2014. Sentai Filmworks obtained the license, Avex Entertainment, Nitroplus, and DIVE II Entertainment produced it, and Studio NAZ brought it to life.

The main staff behind it included Kananiwa Kozue, Beniya Yoshikazu, and Tanaka Hiroyuki as producers, and Miura Kazuya as director, episode director, and storyboard. These 24-minute episodes featured the genres of action, mystery, and sci-fi, alongside the themes of psychological, superpowers, and video games. It received a rating of PG-13 for teenagers 13 years of age or older.

The series is based on the Visual Novel of the same name, which is a Japanese BL work both developed and published by Nitro+chiral. Originally released on March 23, 2012, the game showcases protagonist Aoba's vibrant cyberpunk world rife with high-tech VR battles and good ol’ turf wars, with some super luxurious resorts and small junk shops on the side.

Players get to make choices that shape the MC’s journey, embroiled in dark secrets hidden under the glossy sheen of their city. The DRAMAtical Murder Manga began publication on August 11th, 2012, and is still ongoing, thanks to the work of author Nitroplus and artist Asada Torao. It is targeted at the Shoujo demographic and is serialized in Comic B's-LOG Kyun! A Side story titled “DRAMAtical Murder: Data_xx_Transitory” aired as a single special episode on December 24th, 2014.

It has a runtime of 24 minutes and features the additional genres of boy love and drama, earning a rating of R-17+ for its violence and profanity. This is the 13th episode of the anime, and the bonus piece showcases all the bad endings from the game. Another 5-episode ONA series titled “BOY's LOVE Nitro+CHiRAL” aired on the 1st of April 2017, which is a comedic parody lasting 4 minutes per episode.

The story takes place on the Japanese island of Midorijima, which the incredibly powerful and influential Toue Inc. company purchased with the intention of creating the opulent utopian facility known as "Platinum Jail." Only the wealthiest of the wealthy are fortunate enough to call such a place home, so the original denizens of the island end up cast aside.

Forced to relocate back into the Old Residential District, these ordinary people are completely abandoned following the completion of Platinum Jail. Regardless, the people continue to live their lives within their own unique setup: two games called "Rib" and "Rhyme" are commonly played on the island. Rib is the good ol’ fashioned school game that involves gangs engaging in turf wars against each other, while Rhyme is the high-tech game where people duke it out in virtual reality.

To play Rhyme, one needs an "All-Mate," an AI that resembles a pet, and an "Usui" to mediate the matches.

Thus, the camera turns to protagonist Aoba Seragaki, a man who shows zero interest in both games. Instead, he prefers to live a quiet and peaceful life alongside his grandmother and All-Mate, Ren. Unfortunately, he gets forcibly dragged into one particularly dangerous Rhyme match, and rumors about disappearing Rib players reach his ears in the process. Now all of our MC’s hopes of living a regular life are in shambles because there’s no escaping this mess, and his only choice is to face it.

Before going into the review, it needs to be established that this anime isn’t a great watch for fans of the original games. The Games are incredible pieces of work, executing their genres and themes well even amidst some cliches. It goes without saying that the fanservice and adult scenes from the game did not make it into this series, but they still had an array of solid elements to work with. Unfortunately, all we ended up with was a train wreck that was apparent from the first few episodes themselves.

The issues start with the story itself. Continuing from the synopsis, the MC and his “friends” must defeat a very overused antagonist trope: the rich old dude running a major corporation. This is the same in the game, but the difference is that the game took its time to make the journey impactful, interesting, and action-packed.

As usual, the entire plot was extremely rushed in this 12-episode series, which brought the protagonists before the antagonist in record time and ended up being forgettable and anti-climatic.

Moving on, it was probably a bad idea to remove all the adult scenes from a franchise that was defined by it because it was a staple that the fandom loved. This anime attempted to turn a hardcore Hentai into a regular Boy’s Romance series, making it lose a bulk of its allure. It’s not impossible to make the show work with an intriguing plot and expert execution, but that's extremely difficult to pull off.

They tried to mash all the separate story routes into one, making the MC look like some promiscuous guy with five different men irrevocably in love with him. What’s worse, they expect us to believe that none of them are aware of the others’ feelings for Aoba. So yes, the story is so bad that it ruins the characters themselves.

If you have played the game, there’s no doubt that you fell in love with one or more characters after getting to know them. Like any good romance, we were shown everything about them, and that’s what made these characters work despite being love interests for the MC.

The anime does the polar opposite; it doesn’t establish any connection between the viewer and characters, let alone develop the cast. This is unfortunate because every single character had such sad but beautiful stories to tell in the VN, none of which made it into the anime.

The result is a very mediocre cast we don’t even see on-screen much, making it hard to care about any of them. The show’s attempts to cram all their stories into their limited runtime only made things worse!

The initial trailer for the anime looked amazing, so many fans had hopes for decent art and animation. But similar to the previous departments, the visuals came crashing down hard. The animation is downright atrocious; there was even news of one particular episode being remade owing to just how bad it was.

There were very few action scenes, but they all looked sloppy and had nothing going on to make viewers care. The background art was the only good thing, but it came with very sad attempts at mimicking the VN’s art style and character designs. The game was practically characterized by its gorgeous art, but none of that allure made it on screen. There were also blatant visual errors that would easily irritate any fan, like younger Aoba having brown hair for some reason. It’s right there in his name; he’s “Ao”ba.

The Sounds and Music department is just as bad as the rest. The opening theme is "SLIP ON THE PUMPS" by GOATBED, and the ending themes are "BOWIE KNIFE" by GOATBED, "BY MY SIDE" by Kanako Itou, "felt" by Seizi Kimura, "Lullaby Blue" by Kanako Itou, "Soul Grace" by VERTUEUX, and finally "Tenshitachi" by GOATBED.

Believe me when I tell you that none of them sound that good; they’re decent at best towards the end, and none of them are particularly memorable. The OSTs are equally fortaggable and boring, so much so that you don’t even realize they exist. I will give the OSTs credit for not destroying anything on their own, generally aligning with the mood of the show. The voice acting wasn’t bad, but there’s nothing amazing or worthy of an honorable mention here.

DRAMAtical Murder is not an anime I would recommend to anyone; rather, I would advise fans of the game to stay away from this show. If you are curious about this franchise, I recommend the game where you can pick a route and truly establish a bond with the great characters, along with the explicit scenes.

If you still want to give the anime a try, watch until Episode 3 and decide for yourself, because the only thing that has even mildly improved over time is the music. If there’s nothing to attract you at that point, do yourself a favor and drop it immediately. The entire show is a snorefest that butchers incredible some source material, so best not let it soil the title in your eyes.