OTAKU Series by Cecile Maxi ('23): Kill or Get Killed

If you enjoyed The Death Note like I did, another recommendation I have for you this month is High Rise Invasion. High Rise Invasion is a manga based on survival games and psychological horror. The anime got my attention at the opening scene, which I usually skip in other anime (I know I'm weird like that). The opening scene shows a pool of blood from a man whose head has been cut in two by a sword. I know when I say it like that it doesn't sound interesting but the man in the mask was intriguing and who doesn’t like some good suspense?

The series follows the story of a young high schooler, Yuri Honjo, who finds herself suddenly stuck in a parallel world surrounded by tall buildings unable to reach the ground.  Not understanding what is happening to her and how she ended up in this world, the first thing that she sees in this unknown world gets her more confused and terrified: she witnesses the death of a woman by a masked man and it isn't an ordinary assault. The masked man pushed the woman to kill herself by jumping off the building. At this point of the anime, I was questioning … why didn’t he push her himself, wouldn't it be easier?  As Yuri watches the girl jump, she draws the attention onto her by making a noise and without realizing it she’s the next target of the masked man. As he attacks, Yuri drops her phone while escaping. Yuri’s phone was the only way she had to contact her brother, Rika. Rika is her only light and unfortunately they have been separated. The masked man pierces the phone with his weapon, leaving her running to save her life. Her only goal is to reach the tallest building to meet up with her brother. As she is trying to escape and survive, Yuri realizes that the masked man isn't the only one in this world who is killing people. There are other masked people. But who are they, why are they killing innocent people and what is this world? 

As I continued watching I tried to get an answer to these questions. During Yuri’s journey she has made some friends and some enemies and one thing I liked about the anime is watching her trying to figure out if the people she meets are allies or enemies. In the first couple of episodes the only information given about the masked person is that their goal is to “get closer to God.'' But who is God? And how does killing innocent people help them? 

Since it’s a really short anime I can’t talk about it too much so as not to spoil it for you guys. But you should know that the anime is really interesting and it has a lot of good suspense. The graphics are really amazing which makes the fights even more enjoyable. From what I’ve been reading about the series, a lot of people think it has too much fanservice (something specifically made to please the audience like nudity or sex), which is a “problem” and before I read the comments about it, it did not bother me and honestly it still doesn’t (lol). It was actually a really good, short anime. On a scale of 1 to 10, besides the games and the suspense, the whole anime was a solid 7.5. 

For those who watched it and those who will watch it, did you enjoy it like I did? Do you think Netflix should renew it or leave it like that for us to go read the manga?