TRILLION GAME

Trillion Game — Welcome back, Dr. Stone...but in modernized stacks of big bucks' cash. "Come one, come all! There's big bucks to be earned, but you must have the heart of an entrepreneur - good looks, great mouthpiece to showcase your cunning business tactics, and overall, a heart of paper and steel to accept the money with every opportunity and steel that resolve when you're being hit by losses, to not give up and rebound!"...is what famed mangaka Riichiro Inagaki will tell you, to vet the newest series from the Dr. Stone mangaka: Trillion Game, the 2nd collaboration with yet another famous illustrator of Ryoichi Ikegami(the first being the 2015 one-shot of Kobushi Zamurai), and simultaneously a winner of the 69th Shogakukan Manga Awards alongside Yusei Matsui's Nige Jouzu no Wakagimi a.k.a The Elusive Samurai, Murako Kinata's Suuji de Asobo and most influentially, Kanehito Yamada's Sousou no Frieren a.k.a Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, in 2024. Yet, with or without knowing Dr. Stone's influence going into Trillion Game, can you still enjoy what Riichiro Inagaki has prepared for this wild Shark Tank-esque startup thrill of a ride? To a certain degree, yes. What happens when you put the "world's most selfish man" with a tech-savvy nerd that goes nowhere with his legit skills that are dismissed by just about any company that wishes that they could hire him? You get two people with the gamble of a lifetime trying to be the wealthiest company in the world, starting from being underdogs with both smarts and naivete to take on the big dogs in the belligerent society of the business world to earn them a net worth of a trillion dollars (that's 12 zeroes) by establishing the biggest heist that's known to man: Trillion Game. That's the game plan for the friends of Haru Tennoji and Manabu "Gaku" Taira, the gifted negotiator and the nerdy tech geek challenging their biggest rival of Dragon Bank, which is run by the Kokuryu family, where its board director and only daughter of the President, Kirika (or Kiri-hime as everyone dubs her), stands atop the business enterprise in the food chain. The key rules of being an entrepreneur are being able to hold yourself to a higher regard and be able to concoct strategies at the ready as and whenever they are needed, plus a bit of luck, because a businessman's trailblazer has its green buck gains and red net losses. It's exciting, fulfilling, and (all the more) exhilarating to see both Haru and Gaku navigate each complex layer when it comes to challenging and being challenged about their step-by-step ladder to achieving a trillion dollars — from hiring and poaching competent people for their gain to giving people emotional whiplashes to help turn the tide towards their favour, anything goes to get a win against the conglomerate that is the controlling Dragon Bank, by hook or by crook. Their motive may be one and simple, but it's the people that they hire, from Gaku's similar mindset of Rinrin Takahashi, who is quite the OCD when it comes to details, to the investors of Kazuki Kedoin, who took the chance on them after his own failures to engage with yet another startup company with them, as well as Shingo Sakura, a former president of a small indie company that was absorbed by Trillion Game to help them combat Dragon Bank when it came to their game division business fight. Just like Dr. Stone when it comes to portraying the new Stone Age, Trillion Game is just as authentic as it could get when it comes to portraying and navigating the ins and outs of the grounded and realistic entrepreneurship that's worth time to invest into. Even if it feels slow, stiff, and uncertain of impending troubles awaiting Haru and Gaku, along with their small startup team of people that could taste fortune or bankruptcy when situations arise to fault them, there's always the counteraction of the "never give up" attitudes, alongside the two-faced facade of the characters on both ends of the spectrum always thinking about the success of their own company and burning their competition to the ground. The fight of Trillion Game vs. Dragon Bank only gets more heated as time progresses and market shifts in the business world proceed at a breakneck pace trying to rope in the average Joe into buying their products, and it says so for the series going forward in its strategy-focused intelligence story. This may be Madhouse's effort, but it's of their B-team instead of the ones specifically helmed for Frieren and (especially) Chi. Chikyuu no Undou ni Tsuite a.k.a Orb: On the Movements of the Earth, going head-to-head with Trillion Game, being the same 2-cour infighting treatment for resources. As it stands, the production could be better, along with the rather gritty art style adapted from Ryoichi Ikegami's drawings, but for what it is, it gets a pass grade. The music gets a pass too, though it can be unnoticeable at times. I especially love the 1st Cour's OP/ED set with J-K-Pop fusion band &Team's OP and Klang Ruler's ED, which perfectly suits the anime given its "Start, Start, Start moving" relatability, though the disappointment with the 2nd Cour for rock singer Hiroji Miyamoto's OP and imase's ED songs is foretelling. It's crazy to think that for much of everyone being able to relate to Dr. Stone, Riichiro Inagaki choosing to venture the niche road is somewhat of a twist that instead deviates from that same relatability and goes into obscure territory. Still, Trillion Game is an Inagaki work that should at least be tried once to know more of what he has to offer, more than just sticks and stones, but in money and fame as well.

Pretty unique and fun story. It takes getting used to because it's bollywood realism(not physically but stuff that happens). There's lots of filmy exaggerations and "plot holes" that's meant to be looked over. Once you get the expectations right, it's amazing. The artstyle is probably a turn off for many and the reason for the low views. I disagree with the rest that it's about business, or any topic for that matter. It's a drama that lightly explores everything from video games, to florist business, to AI, to competitions, news, cabaret club and weaves a story through all of them. If you're specialised in anyof the above fields you might twitch at the things shown , but you're not supposed to take anything too seriously here. Consider it as an VC Enterpreneur adventure. The farfetched convoluted plans the characters pull off is where the fun is at. The characters are well structured, but it's not a show to experience character growth. Different people, different talents. You accept their antics and ride with them to see where the road takes them to. The voice-acting, OP/EDs are all fine. The artstyle is a conscious decision but there's no faltering production. It has been pretty consistent. It's new Madhouse after all. That said, it does kinda feel it's missing something, especially around the antagonist who gets featured from time to time. I don't think it's a full adaptation and the ending had no climax but also not anticlimactic. It just randomly wrapped things up, probably because there likely won't be a season 2 greenlit. I think the choice of artstyle really ruined the show's chances. I checked out the manga a little and that's much normal and cleaner. Not much else to say.

Trillion Game is one of those anime, that you really can't rate well. I thought about how to rate this series and under what categories you could rate this properly. It is nothing magnificent, yet it was an experience worth watching. It has many areas of improvement, which it compromises with great mind game moments and funny scenes to lighten up the mood in an intense situation. In the following review I will try to give a relatively clear picture of what I think and make sense out of this unusually hard to rate piece of fiction. Trillion game is an anime set in a moreor less realistic depiction of the tech world and it's conglomerates. The viewer follows 2 main protagonists, Haru and Gaku, the two most greedy friends, that met under rather strange circumstances and later decided to form their own company trying to make 1 trillion Dollars. During the show they encounter various secondary characters, like Rinrin Takahashi, a rather stiff but dutiful lady, who helps the protagonists organize their plans, the childish but passionate game developer Sakura Shingo, who develops small games and supports Haru and Gaku to take over the Gacha industry and there is the financial backer Kazuki Kedoin, who believed in them and gave them a starter bonus to get their business going. Together Haru and Gaku form a strong connection, which leads to many exciting situations throughout. I allways like to start with the plot, because it is the main focus of /almost/ every story. If you were to analyze all the plot points you would quickly realize that most of them are filled with holes, yet still feel like they were thought through and made total sense and that is a really great feature of the show. Most plot twists or important scenes in the story revolve around either haru manipulating, blackmailing, or performing legal tightrope walks trying to make money, or around gaku showing of his computational skills to support any idea Haru comes up with. Those scenes are fun to watch, would fail horribly in the real world though. The story is based in a realistic setting, which does not mean it can't be unrealistic. Most people forget this is still an anime not a documentation. Not everything has to be sensical in the means of "would it be waterproof in the real world". The fun of this anime, as I had it throughout the show, lies in the intrigues and not knowing what the both of them would pull of next. What let me down a bit was the all perfect world they live in. They graduate Uni, create a business and skyrocket their profits without any real setbacks. The house allways wins aah business. If this would be a great story they would send the viewer on an emotional rollercoaster. The antagonist allways loses and if it was that alone that would not be a problem but this happens in matter of episodes (in the later ones even in 1 episode). No menacing counterattacks on the antagonists side, which lets the viewer shiver and wonder if this is the moment in which the rise has it's end. I really think the time or the money of the production weren't enough to live up to this expectation of me. Even though, it is a bit like in their game "Puchi Puchi Land", it is satisfying to watch your empire growing. That's the best way to describe the feeling I got from the plot. A bit more on this feeling later down the road. Let's talk a bit more about the characters. A big part in this regard played the comedic aspect of all the main and supporting characters. Every character had their trope. In a AAA production Anime this would be a problem. You would want to have character growth and development, but this is a small anime related not as much to the characters as to it's story it wants to tell. But Anyways, Haru is charismatic and deceitful, yet had his moments caring for his friend, Gaku is shy and can't talk to women, which lead to many funny scenes. Also he is kinda homeless (no pun intended). Then there is Rinrin, stiff, yet compassionate and a bit in love with Gaku xD. Maybe an unpopular take but she is the most well written character in the show, because of the depth of her actions and always caring for the company, as well as both Haru and Gaku. Sakura is a passionate gamer and is unusually fast to be influenced by other people, which creates really funny and charming moments. Imo he is the "comedy punching bag" of the show. Always good for a small joke to lift up an intense situation in the anime. I don't want to continue with the character traits because else I might get you guys reading this tired. All in all I can say the comedic effect of a joke in an unfitting situation or as a random transition to another scene really lifts up the spirit of the viewer and at times really made me laugh out loud and even if the characters don't have the depth you might expect from a drama they still more than suffice. The biggest problem this anime has with attracting the average anime enjoyer is it's art style. It really takes a few episodes to get used to. The faces don't have the common found shape or facial features, the background is bland, with not much going on and details in walls, objects (also close up shots) and background characters are pretty much non existant. Still not worse than TBATE, but it's pretty bad. Though It is to say, that the quality stays consistent throughout the show and the characters are modeled after the manga depictions, which maybe creates the unusual look. that barely is enough of a defence though. Not to speak of the absolute garbage CGI that was used EVERYWHERE from cars to crowds to background characters or even singled out people. I really thought I would never see CGI as bad as in "I got a cheat skill in another world" again, yet here we are. I don't know why many people in the other reviews don't see a big problem with that. These budget cuts were really ruining the experience for me at certain moments throughout the show (for example the Idol concert). By no means would I think that CGI as a whole is bad for the industry, it just needs to be done right or else it will look horrid and scare viewers away from watching a solid anime, which definitely happened here. A topic which I didn't mention yet is music and that is because I really can't decide on what to do with this. The first OP was great I loved the rather unusual music choice and the animation was presentable. It wasn't great considering, it was the characters just staring at the sky of tokyo looking down from a skyscraper, but it was enjoyable. The ED of cour 1 fell a bit flat which didn't bother me much, bc I always skip them if I am invested. As I didn't reeeeaally look out for details here I won't judge. OP and ED of cour 2 were really bad, animation quality of the OP was similar to cour 1 but the song was not enjoyable and tbh hurt my ears a bit. The ED fell flat again on animation (again skipped it in later episodes xD). The background music was fine, It just accompanied the story and brought some life to the situations. It was nothing special, nothing outstandingly beautiful like in "A silent voice" or outstandingly pushing like in "AoT", it was just underlining the experience. A bit like elevator music. Not noticable but still making the experience better. A lot of negative things I said here..., still I don't want to end this review on a negative note, because I really enjoyed the anime, so here is my personal opinion without judging the anime on facts alone. I enjoyed watching it because it was a breath of fresh air under all the piles of generic anime trying to push certain tropes, like power fantasy, fantasy or the typical shonen. It was set in a realistic environment but still managed to get me thinking "no way this works out" or "I really didn't expect that" The comedy made me laugh and the episodes didn't feel like they were dragged out in any way. Yes, sometimes the dialogue was a bit boring but for a fun watch this was perfect. For me it wasn't about how realistic the conversations with antagonists or financial backers were. It was about how 2 normal dudes try to buy the whole world. Even though I knew they would win I was still intrigued on how they would accomplish their goals. No deep storyline, no character development that shocks you or makes you cry, no epic battles, just a fun relaxed watch to be remembered as a niche gem. Im gonna list how many points out of 10 I would award to each category I just talked about + a few bonus points, just because of personal preference. - Plot [8/10] - Characters [7/10] - Animation [4/10] - Music [6/10] - Everything (+ Personal bonus) [8/10] Recommended watch!

TL;DR Overall a very fun ride with interesting characters and unique story. Although it does stumble a little in its pacing and character growth it seems like it was criminally underrated when it premiered. I think if you are willing to get past it's odd animation style and enjoy (social engineering, hacking, or politics) you should definitely give this a shot! Pros: -Interesting characters (Primarily in the two lead characters ....Haru/Gaku) -Story is both informative and unpredictable/entertaining (especially if you hacking, politics, social engineering) Cons: -Animation takes some getting used to (def drops off later in quality) -Pacing (The first half seems like everything takes at least a fewepisodes but the back half of the season everything is solved in an episode. Characters will say I don't know how to do that then instantly figure it out! Kind of takes away most of the drama or intrigue that was in the first half. ) -Minor gripe is character development( Characters such as Gaku grow over time for sure but it seems to be one step forward two steps back.)