Anime: Bus Gamer

Not as bad as everyone believes it to be, but where's the ending?

I've been hesitating to even watch this show, based on the low rating on AniDB, but eventually I managed to watch it – there are only 3 episodes after all, so it's not like it took a long time. Bus Gamer turns out to be not that bad as I expected and it provides almost an hour of simple, average action. I could easily name 20 other titles which are far worse than this show, but with much higher ratings.

Animation: Unsurprisingly average, with the occasional twitch to show it's not perfect.

It is a show about 3 bishounen, so of course they all have to look gorgeous from all sides. Unfortunately, they also believe you only look at the characters, so they sometimes drop a few notches in quality whenever it comes to other aspects, like background. Not immensely annoying, but it's there.

Most of the opponents our three heroes fight against are all men who are shrouded in shadows. I'm not even joking here, since you often don't even see their faces, as their eyes are blacked out by the shadows the hair produces. It gives an air of: ‘It doesn't matter how they look, so we don't bother with giving them a personality either’. And to be fair, it doesn't matter indeed, so I can't give any criticism for that. I didn't feel bothered at all when I saw those people not having eyes, which is rare for me – but it simply works in this show.

Sound: Good voice actors, okay music, okay BGM.

This is by far the most average section in most reviews and it stays average in this show as well. The 3 protagonists have all fitting voices and they do their work fine. The voices of other characters (and no-eyed people) are fine as well.
The music is not impressive, but it's there and the BGM is having the same thing. There's not much to be said about it, except that near the end they used a particular set of music a bit too often.

Story: Interesting, but already worn out subject. But where is the ending?

The idea of having a business game (hence the name Bus Gamer) isn't new. The most recent show which applied this idea was Gyakkyou Burai Kaiji: Ultimate Survivor and there are plenty more of them. This doesn't mean that Bus Gamer does a worse job, as there is definitely room for character development and plot development.

The only thing this show does not right is the fact that in the end of episode 2, they introduce a character, let her show up in episode 3 as a character who will play an important role in the future – and then stop. Episode 3 ends the moment they have given you clues about how the rest of the story will go, but they simply don't continue. To be honest, episode 3 was the most interesting episode of all three, but the fact that they simply don't continue makes you feel cheated, as episode 3 was the episode which kicked off the story.

There is one particular silly part in episode 3, when there is a fight on a terrace, yet nobody moves away from the fighters, nor is the band playing there taking any caution to stop playing. Even the dancers keep dancing as if there isn't anything happening. It gives the scene a little silly feeling, which is sad.

Characters: As long as they look beautiful.

There is no depth in the characters. They even point that out by letting the characters state that they don't want others to pry in their private lives, so there is very few know about them at all. There are 3 flashbacks in the show, which are meant to give them a bit of history, but as said before, because the show ends at episode 3, nothing's done with this info. That leaves the 3 protagonists pretty flat, despite the hints of them having actual characters rather than just a face and a personality.

Value & Enjoyment: Not bad, but due to the lack of ending, it isn't so much fun to watch.

The show isn't bad, but looking at the story and the characters, it looks like there is much more to be told. As it is based on a manga, I believe the show was merely meant to introduce the characters and the story so people would buy the manga to see how the show continued. If not, it is a shame the series ended prematurely, as it did have some decent potential. Unfortunately, that doesn't make the anime any better.

Below is what psgels and bluesun sent me, which I believe is necessary to add to the review. Thanks for the info!



So no, the show isn't bad (although definitely not first class material either), but the fact that they stopped at the moment the story kicks off, is for a lot of people a reason not to like the show. Nevertheless, not worth the extremely low rating given on AniDB.