Good but not great This series was an interesting experience and overall worth the watch even though Id rate it around a 6/10 or 7/10 after the 12 episodes. Our main character Akira struggles with the difficulty of normal life not being challenging enough for him. Whether it be school work or having a future he channels that energy into gaming which gives him clear objectives to overcome. After a fateful chance encounter with an unforeseen enemy while on his way to school things quickly take a turn for the worse. However he gets his wish of being faced with an adequate challenge for once and thus begins the battle game. The 5 Seconds rule is unique and begins as this series individual mechanic however very quickly it disappears as it seems the writers chose to move away from the 5 second before battle rule within a few episodes. This doesnt necessarily take away from the combat portions of the anime but it was odd to introduce it as a theme of how battles commence only to disregard it for most of them. Another week point of this season is the character development. Aside from a few typical tropes it does a pretty good job at familiarizing the viewer with the cast but it suffers in taking you through their journeys in a way to where you feel for them. It didnt feel like there were particularly any standout characters but they werent bad either. They were mostly just good enough. One of the strongest aspects of this anime so far is the mind games and strategy that the cast uses in battle particularly our MC Akira due to his mysterious and openended power that he was given. The possibilities are endless so endless in fact that you easily find yourself thinking about insane things he could do that would automatically give him the victory but the writing does a good job in grounding him and making it so that he actually thinks out his strategy instead of abusing it for easy wins. This also plays into the fact that he strives for a challenge which is a plus to his character. For some final thoughts I did notice a few episodes towards the middle of the season where the animation quality dropped but it was never too concerning. While the characters didnt have too much depth they werent awful either. The anime shines in its wittiness and strategy during combat and witnessing how they will make it out as they navigate this new world. Akira being the type of main character who doesnt care about the end result and is only in it for overcoming the experience ends up being a benefit to the series. He is ruthless when its necessary and also uses his wit to figure out who and what he can use in order to continue achieving victory. Overall this series is definitely recommended