High-Rise Invasion

When I heard that Tenkuu Shinpan was recieving an anime adaptation, I was really excited, even considering that Zero-G is a mainly Slice of Life studio. I was curious, how it all would turn out in the end? Would Netflix censor everything? What attracted me in the manga was the whole dark and lonely premise of being trapped in a skyscraper maze with dozens of killers. Okay, we got a high school girl wearing skirts as the MC (be prepared for many random panty shots), but that was not a problem to me, actually, I was curious about how a defenseless girl would survive in thatworld. Considering all that, I was expectating an equally dark atmosphere in the anime, something like Hellsing Ultimate, maybe? but no, it was not. We recieved a colorful anime, I mean, a REALLY colorful anime, it is something that I would expect in a comedy show, not in an "horror" tagged one. But okay, I mean, "If you want a grey color pallet, go read the manga", right? So yeah, ignoring that, I was hoping that at least we could get some cool gore scenes with terrifying killers and breathtaking situations, did we recieved this? You right, no. I mean, in the first encounter of Yuri with a killer (ep 1 minor spoilers), the man point a katana to her face and the girl puts out the SAME expression that a rom-com girl do when the MC says something lame. Like, hello? you're about to be decapitated by a katana, girl, wtf. While watching it, I couldn't feel Yuri's fear, I couldn't feel any emotions at all, I think the approach taken by the studio was not the best for this show. What should be a story filled with thriller, mistery and blood, ended up as an "okay" show with some dumb comedy traces. And don't get me wrong, Yuri really is a tough girl, however she took some chapters to put everything togheter in the manga, but in the anime the girl is already playing midgames with killers in the first episode, and that happened cause the pace is awful, so awful that you can say it's an original story, they JUMPED from chapter 3 to 21 in the first episode, I'm not even joking, it's like they wanted to put 250 chapters into 12 episodes. The animation is ok, the art is ok, the dub is ok, the OST is ok, but looks like a SOL studio was not the best choice for an horror anime. In the end, Tenkuu Shinpan is an average manga that got an even more average adaptation, it's sad cause they could've pulled out something amazing, but that dumb, "funny" and - panty shots - atmosphere plus the rushed pace are just lame.

This show definitely set itself up high in expectations. But that didn’t stop it from plummeting down on the same level as any other bottom-tier fiction. Tenkuu Shinpan is yet another proof of how short a high concept can take you if there’s nothing else of value. The premise of Tenkuu Shinpan is quite attention-grabbing and creates a basis for something promising. Following a bunch of teenagers who’re trapped upon a sea of skyscrapers that stretches as far as the eye can see. Where they have to find a way to stay alive before zany mask-wearing maniacs get to them. It sounds like a funtime if anything, yet the show falters due to underwhelming execution and a lack of identity. The show wants to be a lot of things and tries to balance it out during the short runtime. As such it doesn’t fully succeed in anything it sets out to do. I’ll do my best to address the issues I have with most of them. Dull Characters: The story of Tenkuu Shinpan is centered around it’s main leads and their journey through the high-rise landscape. Yet they feel hollow, with nothing but their thickness as meat on otherwise bare-bones characteristics. Which the show likes to show off with panty shots aplenty. The show rarely takes time to further explore who they are and why we should care about them getting back to the real world. We don’t find out how their lives were before they were transported, so it’s impossible to do so. It creates a distance between the characters and the viewer which is a deathblow when a show relies on you caring about their survival. High-Rise Survival: Survival becomes priority as soon as our protagonist Yuri enters the high-rise landscape. But just as quickly fades away into the background due to there being little urgency to find necessary provisions and places to sleep. Even basic hygiene is of no concern. So the only real hurdle they have to overcome is to defeat the mask-wearing lunatics and I suppose to not accidentally sleepwalk off the roof. It’s a shame that they didn’t take advantage of the setting, and maybe have our protagonists fight other humans for necessary resources. It would certainly help give more weight to the fights, rather than have it just be kill or be killed scenarios. As is, the battles that ensue lack a compelling reasoning as to why they happen, making them quite dull. Doesn’t help that the animation is clunky and stiff. The visuals overall looked rushed and were quite straining on the eyeballs. It’s also extremely bright and colorful for what is proclaimed to be a horror. Although to be fair you can barely call it one. Sloppy Horror: Calling this show a horror in any way other than horrifyingly bad would be quite wrong as it isn’t terrifying in the slightest. So don’t be tricked into thinking otherwise. It does have horror elements but due to how tensionless it often feels, you quickly forget they exist. You see, the characters suffer from this sickness called plot armor, which hinders them from actually being in any danger whatsoever. Every time a situation starts to become too dire, the writers pull something out of their asses to fix it. If a character is in need of rescuing, a convenient person or item appears. When a character needs some quick information, someone responds with a quick exposition dump. It’s not as much of a fight for your life scenario as it is just overcoming an annoyance. It robs the show of any suspense, and a horror without suspense can’t really be described as being a horror. At heart it’s more of an action-comedy. The action is thoroughly lackluster, but the latter is much better handled. Momentary Chuckles: Tenkuu Shinpan is at it’s best when any sense of realism is replaced with over the top absurdity. When it lets loose and just has fun with its premise and isn’t squeezing out some drama for drama's sake. It does stay light-hearted through a large portion of the show, but clearly also expects you to take it seriously when it tries to be. It should've been a full blown parody instead of being both zany and serious which just makes it jarring. The comedic parts we do have are not amazing, they didn’t land as gracefully as one might’ve hoped. Often missing and falling flat on impact. When it does land however, it’s quite funny, but not a worthy enough reward to sit through the whole thing in my eyes. Final Verdict: Well, at least the pacing wasn’t sluggish. But if you're not a pacing enthusiast or is actively looking for a time waster then there's isn't much to recommend it by. The show could, like I said, be slightly humorous when it embraces its own silliness. Although not enough to be worth the time spent on everything else. There are bigger fishes to catch elsewhere.

Not a bad plot but loose writing and storyboard. I'm really disappointed with all of the panty shots and "transformations" of the girls, it just felt gross to watch. Sad to see new shows still do that kind of stuff just to try and make it some kind of "fan service" when that's not what viewers are here for. Overall though the story is rather interesting at first, but looses its way after about 5 or so episodes. I wish the masked sniper had a better plot, there could have been a lot more to his character which is a big letdown