Infinite Dendrogram

-インフィニット・デンドログラム-

6.21(88K votes)

Ranked #9584Popularity #1395

episodes

Type

Status

Finished Airing

Aired

Jan 9, 2020 to Apr 16, 2020

Studios:NAZ

ActionAdventureFantasy

Synopsis

In the year 2043, <Infinite Dendrogram>, the world's first successful full-dive VRMMO was released. In addition to its ability to perfectly simulate the five senses, along with its many other amazing features, the game promised to offer players a world full of infinite possibilities. Nearly two years later, soon-to-be college freshman, Reiji Mukudori, is finally able to buy a copy of the game and start playing. With some help from his experienced older brother, Shuu, and his partner Embryo, Reiji embarks on an adventure into the world of <Infinite Dendrogram>. Just what will he discover and encounter in this game world known for its incredible realism and infinite possibilities? (Source: J-Novel Club)

199,025 Members

Worth Watching? — Global Verdict

4.8/10

Average Review Score

25%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

TheDeedsOfMen

Not Recommended

"It would leave a bad taste in my mouth." ‒ Ray Starling You know what, Ray? This anime leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and you are one of the chief culprits. Infinite Dendrogram promises infinite possibilities, but instead we get Ray Starling, a piece of cardboard masquerading as a human being, a robot that gazes upon the world with an empty light in his eyes, an empty husk of a man who delivers the most generic lines imaginable. "My battle's far from over. You can't stop my pace, my sword-wielding arm ‒ not yet. Not as long as I see tragedy before me ‒ tragedy andyou!" ‒ Ray Starling What next? He might as well say "Halt, you fiend! My blade shall thwart your evil plans!" because it would not surprise me anymore. Ray is a typical hero to the extreme. He is so selfless and altruistic that he makes angels blush. He is a white knight who swoops in to rescue people in obvious distress, often random children kidnapped by heinous villains. He never has to make any difficult decisions because the villains are always obvious. Ray also likes to deliver simple, cheesy rants about justice and helping people, completely unironically, of course. This includes his catchphrase "It would leave a bad taste in my mouth." What would leave a bad taste, you ask? Not saving people in need; what else? Ray goes further than that though. He refuses to grab the valuables of a villain he defeated, considering it blood money. He is even reluctant to accept a cash reward for his actions and tries to convince his party members to take his share as well. And this happens not just once but twice. That's ridiculous. You fought hard for the money; it is alright to accept it sometimes. Not to mention that he could always use it to improve his equipment, which would help his altruistic efforts in the future, so his refusal doesn't even make sense from a purely altruistic viewpoint. That is not all. Many characters find Ray interesting simply because he sees the world of Infinite Dendrogram as real, which isn't even unique to him. Several other characters feel the same way, yet they are not treated with the same level of interest. Ray is also one of the most promising new players in the game, though still underpowered compared to the more experienced players. That doesn't stop him from saving the day though. As a side note, the game is also ridiculously imbalanced. Even though it is not particularly rigged in Ray's favor, the fact that it is rigged in general should result in endless complaints from the player base. Oh, and one more thing. Ray happens to get a girl as his Embryo, Nemesis (his unique special weapon that evolves over time). That's right; his weapon can transform into a girl because we had to use that trope as well. Maiden Embryos are not unique to Ray in-universe by any means, but it is still convenient. Ray was generic in the light novel already (yes, I have been reading it), but in the anime most of Ray's internal monologue and backstory have been cut, along with general narration. So we lose all the context and he becomes even more of a generic hero. So generic, in fact, that he has no personality left. I would excuse you if you thought he was secretly a robot all along. Many of the other characters have also taken a hit in the adaptation, and their personalities have taken a turn for the bland. Near the end, they try to deliver backstories for some of the characters in the form of short flashbacks. Not the most subtle form of infodumping, but it is better than nothing. These flashbacks outline the original motivations of the characters in entering Infinite Dendrogram in the first place. Usually this involves various ways of escapism, but it is not enough to salvage their characters. The flashbacks are mostly loyal to the novel, but it doesn't really help when the original backstories were almost as short. Rook's backstory seems particularly implausible and makes me wonder why any of it was necessary. This is the result if you take source material that already has problems and then rush the adaptation and butcher whatever was there. The source material already had many of the same issues, but it turns out that trying to squeeze 5 volumes of an infodump-heavy light novel into 13 episodes is a bad idea. Who would have thought? The script went from long-winded explanations in the novel to explaining pretty much nothing in the anime. Most of the info-dumps related to the world are cut, leaving only the bare essentials. You won't understand how some abilities work. You won't properly know the side characters or even the main characters. You won't even know the names of some of the countries. It is that bad. Good luck understanding what is going on, why it is happening, and what the context for any of it is. If the main point of your novel is world-building, having an anime adaptation without it simply means that you are airing an empty shell. They might as well just put "Read the novel, idiot!" on-screen. Or take the comedy. The novel already has the tendency to make jokes that are too obvious. For instance, encountering a bunch of thugs in a back alley while they are trying to kidnap a child and then pointing out that the encounter is clichéd. It is better to be aware of the cliché than not, but an even better idea would be to write something else entirely. In the anime, the scene loses every last bit of nuance and self-awareness. In the novel, the jokes have the subtlety of a brick to the face. Now replace the brick with a pile of bricks and maybe a sledgehammer, and you have the anime. We have slapstick comedy like Ray catching fire or enveloped in a cloud of toxic gas. We have his brother wearing a bear costume and ending almost every line with "kuma" (or "grizz" in English), which is bear-ly ever funny. (Yeah, that was a bad one too.) We have Nemesis eating too much. We have people over-reacting to every single thing. We have Ray finding or purchasing too many of the same now-useless item several times, which is a bit funnier in a kind of blunt way (maybe?) but can't exactly carry the show either. There is a character who literally says "xD" and "lol" on-screen, which may produce a quick cheap laugh out of sheer surprise. We are hip on the interwebs. More generally, the show over-explains what is obvious while simultaneously leaving many important points unexplained. (The latter parts were probably in the novel.) Sometimes the characters are having awkward and unnatural conversations about information they should already know and have no in-universe reason to repeat. "There certainly was a lot of bickering yesterday." "Everyone kept trying to..." These conversations take place purely for the sake of the audience. It is a lazy and poorly conceived method of delivering exposition. Sometimes characters even explain what they are obviously visibly doing at the moment for no reason. This includes pointless villain speeches in which the bad guys explain their current plans, and people talking to themselves out loud. Franklin tries to provide more of a central antagonist to the show. The problem is that he ends up looking like a cartoon villain who acts evil for the sake of evil itself. You know, the wacky evil mad scientist. His motives are poorly developed too, both in-game and in real life. Even with the short flashback of his background, it is hard to see why exactly he'd end up with goals like that. Furthermore, the inner workings of Dryfe (a country) are barely addressed in the anime, just like the inner workings of just about anything, really. Franklin also likes to deliver lengthy villain speeches to explain his current plans, to show off to everyone that he is evil and strong, and to scare the good guys into giving up, as if the latter has any chance of working. The show also tries to focus on whether the world of Infinite Dendrogram is real or not, including whether the tians (NPCs) are living, sentient beings. While this is generally a good idea, not much comes out of it and it is too little too late. As a moral aesop, it is also a bit on the obvious side, though better than simply the power of friendship in its most generic form. I kind of wonder though. It seems implausible that so many people would not consider the tians sentient when they so obviously are. I don't want to dwell too long on the visuals, but let's note that they are not great. The animation quality isn't the best, and it looks lazy sometimes, with unnatural movements. But what struck out to me even more were the designs. So many places, characters, and creatures look so generic. These are some of the most generic goblins I have ever seen. The boss monsters look generic as well. Plains, roads, the crypt: they all look generic. The common criminals look so clichéd that they might as well be wearing shirts with "thug," "ruffian," or "scoundrel" printed on them. The evil wizard looks comically evil and not in a good sense. His scenes, which were already generic in the source material, become a laughingstock in the anime. The mecha looks fairly generic too, but at least it is on the realistic side, at least by mecha standards. The bigger mecha looks less realistic but still fairly generic. Ray's red-black coat is a fashion disaster and not in a funny way. They point out that it looks too edgy for him, but a bigger problem is its sheer ugliness. This is your fancy new coat, Ray? Really? We get to very briefly see a few of the capitals of the other countries, which was nice. If only we could see them more. The opening song is alright, but the opening visuals reuse animation and awkwardly try to hide it with the excessive use of flashy effects all over the screen. Hey, at least they managed to draw my attention with the visual onslaught. Thankfully, there is a silver lining. Because the show is so rushed, at least it will only take 13 episodes to finish, so it is faster than a more decent adaptation would have been. Always look on the bright side, right? You could watch it out of curiosity to see just how generic a protagonist can be and maybe scratch your head at some of the visual designs and adaptation decisions.

Episodes (13)

Filler Recap

Click an episode to read its synopsis.

Community Discussion

810Teams

Not Recommended

“The possibilities are endless.” - Infinite Dendrogram’s slogan This review contains mild spoilers. 🙅‍♂️ 4/10 Welcome to Infinite Dendrogram, the world's first successful full-dive VRMMORPG, where the possibilities are endless. Infinite Dendrogram is a show about the game of the same name. Infinite Dendrogram shows potential, but sadly it was wasted in almost every way. If Infinite Dendrogram was food, it would probably be the one that looks good but tastes bad. 🎬 Story - 2/10 At first glance, Infinite Dendrogram might look like Sword Art Online, but it is not. According to the slogan of Infinite Dendrogram, this is where anything can happen. The overall story is notpredictable, due to the unique abilities each character has, which seems to be a fairly nice idea, but at the same time, it is also due to having improper world settings and a messy storyline. First of all, Infinite Dendrogram is much like any MMORPG as we know, but with no limitations, rather close to the fantasy world than a game, resulting in a mess, nothing is balanced. Upon the registration, players will receive a power unique to their own, called “embryos”. However, while they are having a huge role in the game, players are not able to choose it, similar to not being able to choose a class in an MMORPG. The concept of MMORPG is broken here. Second, Infinite Dendrogram allows player-killing, even right in the city, which is supposed to be a safe zone in many MMORPGs. Crimes, terrorisms, and wars are also being allowed. The concept of MMORPG wrecked again. Getting killed also results in a 24-hour log-in restriction into the game. Infinite Dendrogram made me wondered if there is the point of making a game like this. Third, Infinite Dendrogram contains a contradiction. While the game is where you should be having fun, Infinite Dendrogram is having several serious moments. Unlike Sword Art Online which real death is involved, Infinite Dendrogram has no real threat, even with anywhere player-killing is involved, players can always escape from the game. Infinite Dendrogram confused me if I should feel relaxed or get serious when watching the show. Fourth, a few plot armors are detected. I personally prefer the hardworking or smart protagonist than the one that usually gets protected by plot armors. Lastly, the storyline is messy, going from one place to another quickly. It is more like a couple of events packed into a single anime than a well-written continuous story. This is one of the possibilities that could happen when the story has no actual objective. In conclusion, the main problem of the story is about the settings of the world which is at risk of not fitting well the story, and yes, it did not fit. Making a world where “anything can happen” is like saying “I have no idea how should I write a proper story, so I will use random ideas that popped up in my head along the way of writing”. 🎨 Animation - 6/10 Overall pretty standard art quality, nothing has bugged me. However, the animation of the action scenes seems a bit stiff, almost no tension, not so many action moves are being shown. 🔈 Sound - 7/10 Standard theme songs and soundtracks. I am not a sound expert, so I would say that I find nothing outstanding and nothing bugged me. 🕶 Characters - 3/10 Character is an important factor in impressing audiences and keeping them from dropping the show. While Infinite Dendrogram seems to noticed mistakes that happened in other shows and did try to prevent them, but ended with a failure. First, despite the show is giving off a serious vibe, characters have no real objectives, not making me having any interest in them at all. They just do whatever they want. Second, the characters’ background is not being told properly. While the main character’s background is not being told, several supporting characters’ are being told instead. However, I find them to be not convincing and meaningless, not really related to their actions or motivation. Third, character design and looks are important. According to the anime poster, the protagonist, Ray, is wearing a good-looking white knight-like costume. However, at a point in the show, he comes to wear a totally different style of costume instead, which is not a matching appearance at all. Even this is intentional, I find tainting to characters. Lastly, the protagonist character development is not very promising. Through the 13 episodes of Infinite Dendrogram, the protagonist gains some upgrades, but what I saw was the same move is being used repeatedly, basically a one-trick pony. 🎉 Enjoyment - 4/10 I used to play an MMORPG and find them interesting. I enjoy seeing how different MMORPGs could become, like Sword Art Online, Elder Tale from Log Horizon, or NewWorld Online from Bofuri. However, I came to disappointment. I have never seen such a chaotic, messy, and unbalanced MMORPG before, as well as how the story and characters correspond to it, which is just did not work out, seeming like the settings of the world just do not work out from the beginning. It does not mean that I hated this show, I just do not like it and a bit disappointed. 📌 Recommendations If you are still new to anime, Infinite Dendrogram might be fine for you. Infinite Dendrogram is probably an anime for a group of people who usually overlook flaws and illogical things. In conclusion, if you are looking for an anime about games, action anime, and you can overlook flaws and illogical things, then I recommend this anime. Enjoy!

61 found helpfulApr 16, 2020

KANLen09

Not Recommended

July 15, 2043. On that day, a Full-Dive VRMMO was released, with its unique system called "Embryo" allowing each player to follow an extremely varied—or rather, an "infinitely" varied pattern of evolution. The game's name and slogan? " offers a new world and your own possibilities." What possibilities you may ask of offer in the new world? Generic tropey settings? Generic sterotypical characters? Generic visuals? Generic music? The whole platter of this game is genericness, and the reason why we watch this generic Isekai series is to be offered a new world with DIFFERENT possibilities, not to watch series like this of boredom...who would wantthat? The "first" VR MMORPG (with AI) to make waves in the reality world (that isn't the human world), oh how great the world they live in! Oh, did I forget SAO, the "father" of the Isekai game genre re-birth? That has existed since 2022, and this game progressed it 21 years later in 2043? Which one's the more popular one now, EH??? Where's the blurred line between fantasy and realism??? Who started it first??? Right off the bat, we'd think of a sliver of hope that Isekai genericness of games like these could offer something different: it's not being able to die both in-game and real life, it isn't being unable to log off either, and as the opening review says it: offering you your freedom to do whatever you wish of infinite possibilities, essentially roaming around like free men and women. And in retrospect, I honestly bought the idea (as is with many LN readers when they first started this series) and thought it was a good one to settle into...until the novelist went too deep and gave up on ideas thereafter, resorting to generic settings that are none the wiser (oh how we hate you Japan for stuff like these). Starting out this journey like newbies, MC Ray Starling is the kind of newbie I would expect from being a total beginner, but the problem is that as he progresses he went from a rookie to a full-on retard, as if he's the parrot to everyone around him. Even as Embryo Nemesis (AI program) tracks his progress and becomes his sword (and shield if putting it literally). And everyone, I mean EVERYONE in this game, friends and foes alike, are just copy-paste cut-outs from similar shows we've seen time and time again, and communications with Ray are as simple as molasses (but of course, confusing and questioning to the newbie). Admit it, the characters here are also one-note purposeful characters, meant to serve their time and duty in their assigned position and rake in the efforts. Take "Brother" Bear Shu for example. Being a veteran of the game, his introduction to Ray is as subtle as possible because he's what known as a Superior Master, people who can engage with their Embryos well enough for their desired power. It's not until late that he shows off that power at the "appropriate" timing when the world is at stake. NPC Marie Adler (also a Superior Killer), also tending to Ray when he was just beginning, same as Shu, is being very cryptic at the start (for Ray to get used to the game), but then also comes at the opportune timing to strike. I'm really guessing that you do not need to see the "accidental" coincidence here. And hello, Dr. "Generic villain" Franklin, to decimate an entire town just for the sake of killing the MC, WOW, just WOW and being OP for cheapo reasons. *clap* As the saying goes: "Every man for himself". Amazingly, NAZ's visuals are not too bad either, just decent. Even in action there's some CG but it's not horrible to say as a quick mention. Given that we've seen much of ID:Invaded (by the same studio), stereotypical visuals. The same can't be said for the music, ending up at the decent range as far as VA-talented musicians go (for Aoi Yuuki and Aya Uchida). Overall, this series is just another textbook example of a promised Isekai plot that was never utilized nor planned well, that sums up most LNs and the novelists in this day and age trying to break the SAO mold that sadly cannot be shaken, yet loosely inspired from. It could've been a fine-to-good one had the potential be unlocked (as in diving into a new world and creating infinite choices), but it's clear as day that no amount of Isekai would run series like this rampant on its knees (while still serializing in Japan) and challenge the status quo. What a total shame, Infinite Dendrogram, giving us limited choices with a contrived plot that's bitter to swallow.

29 found helpfulApr 15, 2020