WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Season 1, Episode 1 of Darwin’s Game, "First Game."
The first episode of new anime series, Darwin’s Game, wastes no time getting started. We see a high school student frantically running through the streets, constantly checking with his phone. He’s playing a game and reaches out to his friend, Kaname Sudo, for help. It doesn’t work as shortly afterward, someone wearing a baseball jersey and a panda head appears out of nowhere, brutally killing him. As he dies, his body dissolves in large blocks, leaving the pavement looking like Minecraft art.
The next day, we meet Kaname, who’s more interested in how his friend Hamada could afford a motorcycle than his disappearance or the weird body outline art appearing around the city. Another friend, Kyoda, tries to talk him out of pursuing how Hamada got the motorcycle. When Kaname sees Hamada’s text about "Darwin’s Game," Kyoda tries even harder to talk him out of it. Kaname ignores him and installs Darwin’s Game, which seems like your typical free-to-play mobile game... until a snake comes out of his phone and bites him on the neck.
After a trip to the school nurse, Kaname starts playing the game, only to find that it already knows him and his next match starts in one minute. It seems like a joke -- he knows nothing about the game yet and his match is against the mascot for a local baseball team, a clear copyright violation. Having seen the beginning, though, we know better. Hamada got his money through this game but paid with his life.
The match is against Banda, the mascot who killed Hamada, and he’s already on the train. Their fight takes them all over the city, showing some of the mechanics of the game. Some are implied, like collateral damage being okay as Banda kills a security guard Kaname goes to for help. Others are more explicit, and Kyoda comes to assist, explaining that you can’t use your phone other than through the app during the game. He also mentions Sigils, which explains how Banda can turn invisible, but there’s not a lot of information on those until later.
Kaname survives almost by sheer luck, with Banda getting hit by a car because he’s invisible while fighting in a parking garage. This also shows how twisted the game is: the collision didn’t kill Banda, but time ran out and Kaname had a better score. Banda has just enough time to give a metaphorical gut punch -- “This game was fun in its own way, unlike my boring, shitty job!” -- before dissolving into blocks. Shaken by being part of killing someone and seeing the truth behind the body outline art, Kaname goes back to find Kyoda, only to find the same blocky outline where he was hiding in the parking garage.
Had this been the length of a typical anime episode, it would have ended here. The basic mechanics of the game are laid out and we get hints about new characters with the appearance of a blonde girl who seems to have taken an interest in Kaname. With this being a double-length series premiere, however, we get more, adding Shuka to the cast.
Shuka had sent Kaname some messages, so he goes to her, trying to find out more about how Darwin’s Game works. Here we learn more about Sigils, which are essentially superpowers for those who participate in the games. Banda could turn invisible, Kyoda could see auras, but Kaname’s is unknown -- even to the game. Shuka says she can’t trust him if he doesn’t know his sigil, especially since using them is subconscious, like breathing; drawing the two of them into a fight.
Shuka’s Sigil is to control chains she uses to fight Kaname, leaving him almost defeated before he can figure out his sigil. He conjures a gun he won from the Banda fight, using it to distract Shuka enough to get the upper hand in the match. He has her on the ground at gunpoint but refuses to kill her. She can’t cancel the match, but she can forfeit. As she does, we hear her somewhat cryptic thoughts: “I surrender. From here on in, I’ll obey Kaname.” As soon as that’s done, Kaname collapses from exhaustion.
We then get a short scene of a future main cast member watching the fight. She seems to get points by selling information on other competitors and is quite impressed by what she saw from Kaname, thinking that this information could be worth a lot.
The premiere ends with Kaname waking up shirtless, while Shuka is curled up naked in bed next to him. She tells him that he was asleep the whole day yesterday, and asks him a favor: “Make a family with me.” It seems like a flip from what we’ve seen of her personality so far, and Kaname is as thrown off by this as we are.
There’s no time given yet to exploring what any of this means, which could put off a lot of potential fans. The manga has largely had a focus on a different type of family, with clans within Darwin’s Game acting as characters' families. Is that what Shuka wants? It would be closer to what the manga series has been, but that speculation is based on what’s not in the show yet, as well as trusting the creators won’t completely turn a battle royale series into an unwanted harem series.
That strange ending aside, Darwin’s Game sets up a lot of story with many plot threads to pick up on later. We’ve only seen three of the five characters shown as the main cast in the credits, with only two that we’ve really gotten to know so far. There’s also a scene-setting of what looks like the Yakuza in the margins, but how that connects to the rest of the story is unclear so far.
Oh, and Kaname really wants to figure out how to not die, as well as what exactly he’s gotten himself into. So far, only 11 episodes have been announced for Darwin’s Game, but it could easily have enough story to do more.
Darwin's Game is available for streaming on FunimationNOW with new episodes released every Friday. The anime will debut on Crunchyroll and HIDIVE on February 2.