×
  • remind me tomorrow
  • remind me next week
  • never remind me
Subscribe to the ANN Newsletter • Wake up every Sunday to a curated list of ANN's most interesting posts of the week. read more

Forum - View topic
Trillion Game (TV).




Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
Tony K.
Subscriber
Moderator


Joined: 18 Nov 2003
Posts: 11440
Location: Frisco, TX
PostPosted: Wed Sep 11, 2024 12:46 pm Reply with quote


Trillion Game (TV)

Source: Manga (ongoing @ 9 volumes, written by Riichiro Inagaki and illustrated by Ryoichi Ikegami)

Demographic: Seinen

Animation Studio: Madhouse

Genres: drama

Themes: adult cast, business, economics

Plot Summary: Carefree Haru and the serious Gaku are two men who plot to earn a trillion dollars in order to afford anything they might ever want in the world. Haru is an eloquent, persuasive, and confident speaker, which allows him to be in anyone's good graces. Gaku is an awkward but highly skilled programmer. The two were schoolmates in middle school and reunited when Gaku's application to a bank company was rejected.

Air Date & Platform:
October 3, 2024 (Thursday)
Available on: Crunchyroll

Episode Count / Runtime: Pending
----------------------------------

Madhouse. Yes. Try.


Last edited by Tony K. on Thu Oct 31, 2024 10:43 am; edited 1 time in total
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message My Anime My Manga
smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 2634
PostPosted: Fri Oct 04, 2024 2:37 pm Reply with quote
The first episode made me feel a few things (especially about the mc and his character), none of them particularly positive so I am just going to say this one is not for me.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 1566
PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2024 5:20 am Reply with quote
Yeah, I'm sure this anime turned a lot of peopIe off. It turned me off a little bit. I don't think either Haru or Gaku are particularly likable, and when I’m not particularly invested in any of the characters, it’s usually one of the surest guideposts that an anime and I aren’t going to mesh. And yet, I'm going to give this one a chance.

Haru is smug, widely adored for the wrong reasons, and manipulative to the point where I find myself wondering if he’s a sociopath. But something keeps me from definitively making that judgment. Maybe it’s because he breezily brags about being all bluff and lies in that scene where he “pretends” to be multi-lingual, but then it is later revealed that he really did know Chinese and French all along. That's not something a scam artist coasting by on his good looks and breezy/sleazy charm could pull off, and it’s a sign that he’s only pretending to be a hollow vase, the kind of giveaway that comes back to bite a viewer on the ass later if they ignore or forget about it. Is it bad writing or a puzzle piece? I'm interested enough to keep watching for a bit.

Or maybe I’m not dismissing Hiru because he didn’t hesitate to quit the corporation that didn’t appreciate Gaku just as much as it appreciated him even if that might be a self-serving calculation. Or because Hiru didn’t know that Gaku was a computer genius – or I don’t see how he could have at that point – and didn’t have a recognizably selfish motive for saving Gaku from those thugs. It’s that element of uncertainty that makes him interesting although I’d still like to see Haru get some call-out and comeuppance.

And I don’t dislike Gaku, but really, I don’t like him so much as feel sorry for him. Is Gaku kind? I don’t know. It could be lack of opportunity and timidness that keeps him from being an ass. Is Gaku particularly insightful? Doesn’t seem to be. Does Gaku have inner fortitude waiting to come to life beneath his shyness and meek acceptance of events? Maybe? I'd like him to, but it's not like I can make a convincing argument for it. The one time he showed concern for another and courage was when he repaid Haru by erasing that camera footage.

In other words, both leads have only shown qualities I admire through acts of loyalty and friendship (or love, if the anime winds up swinging that way) for each other. But there’s a sense that their friendship is going to be more about Hiru using/leading Gaku into schemes that Hiru calls selfish and will probably be sketchy to say the least. Kind of like the relationship between Tyler Durden and the Narrator in Fight Club. In fact, Hiru’s friendship for Gaku could all be part of a long con. So I’m a bit interested but also a bit ambivalent.

Honestly, the character I like the most is Kirika, and that’s for arbitrary reasons. She could be a sociopath or a byatch herself, but she reminds me of a character called Tsubaki from Malevolent Spirits: Monogatori. Tsubaki was also a capricious, highly skilled daughter of a powerful leader, and like Tsubaki, Kirika gives off a sense that she’s most dangerous when bored. I’ve always thought that Malevolent Spirits was criminally underappreciated, and it holds a special place in my heart.

So I’m going to proceed ahead with this anime, but I’m seesawing back and forth between interest and mild ambivalence, so that good will could collapse at any moment.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
smurky turkey



Joined: 30 Jan 2022
Posts: 2634
PostPosted: Sat Oct 05, 2024 7:19 am Reply with quote
My biggest issue is that I need someone to root for in order to give a damn about a show/story. It is even fine if all of the characters are okay at best with lots of faults, if at the start I come away with the notion that all the characters are a bunch of a-holes then I am one to just not bother getting invested.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Edjwald



Joined: 03 Aug 2017
Posts: 1566
PostPosted: Thu Oct 31, 2024 4:35 am Reply with quote
I've started watching 365 days to the Wedding and Goodbye Dragon Life on Mondays and Trillion Game on Tuesdays when there's nothing else that I'm interested in, and I have to say, I'm enjoying it. Haru's antics have become more entertaining than annoying, and he is indeed turning out to be more of a cynical secret genius than a vain pretty boy. I thought the whole purifying priest scam was pretty entertaining.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Reply to topic    Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 


Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group