SPOILERFREE Dark storytelling is a gamble. On the one hand it allows you to explore aspects of the human condition action or philosophy that affords a great wealth of interpretations and territories to explore. On the other hand with such a giant sandbox to play in it becomes all the more important to keep your vision in scale and to probe the various treasures in a way that is both intellectually engrossing and digestible for the audience. It is indeed possible to be given an unpleasant subject but still be drawn into the material. Platinum End was a twocour Fall 2021 anime concerning gods and a candidacy trial that came from the original manga by Ohba Tsugumi and Obata Takeshi the same duo responsible for Death Note. With such an acclaimed property as part of their output I was intrigued by what could potentially result from another one of their collaborations. Nevertheless I was mindful that this series is to be judged by its own merits rather than have a forced undeserved expectation placed upon it. High school student Kakehashi Mirai after enduring the death of his parents and the abuse of his aunt and uncle throws himself off a building to commit suicide. He is saved however by Nasse an angel who selects him to be a candidate for becoming the new God of the world as the current God is dying. Gifted with wings a Red Arrow that can force people to obey his commands and a White Arrow that allows him to kill anyone in an instant Mirai must fight in a battle royale style contest with the other God Candidates and strive to attain happiness in his life. Among them include the mysterious Metropoliman who will seemingly do anything to get his way and Hanakago Saki the childhood friend Mirai loves. With such a backdrop concerning God life and death among other things it makes it all the more important for your main character to be an interesting enough vehicle to have these themes center around. Because we are introduced to Mirai at his absolute lowest where the very idea of continuing to live is considered too painful it sets up the notion that his rescue by Nasse will help steer him in newer more optimistic ways. The fact that hes roped instead into a royale is therefore an effective baitandswitch showing that despite his rescue Mirais problems have only just begun. Especially when it dawns on him what hes capable of with the Red and White Arrows the show paints early on just how grim Mirais place now is and his desire to be happy seems like a worthwhile goal. However the switch between Mirai being understandably and sympathetically at that low point and the new Mirai that we follow over the course of the story doesnt coalesce. He makes the decision early on to never use his White Arrow to kill if he can help it saying that killing in order to obtain happiness is not justifiable. Even taking that ideology into consideration the show goes out of its way to show just how far Mirais philosophy will not buckle. Taking this course paints Mirai less as a praiseworthy saint and more as an insufferable monster of a different sort someone who would be willing to let the other God Candidates allow the worst of the worst to transpire because of the nave hope that a nonmurderous third option exists. His resolute desire not to kill anyone is egregious given that certain characters perform actions that would be putting it kindly worthy of locking them up forever. It would be one thing if he were indeed dealing with regular humans but God Candidates and their willing and unwilling accomplices are also involved and that changes things. One remarkablyunsavory character was formerly imprisoned for murdering her female middle school classmates and later after being released from prison uses a Red Arrow to start raping and murdering middle school girls all over again. According to Mirais entire philosophy this is a character who despite all the horrific things that she has done should not be killed. And in the moments where the people in the royale do end up getting killed somehow Mirai is never the one who actually does the killing itself. Constantly wiping the protagonists hands clean reads more as a copout to keep his worldview stable rather than allowing it to become appropriatelyjaded. Hes still an accessory to the killings even if hes not the one who did it but any potential shakeup internally that might result from these instances are too minor and glossed over. While one could reasonably argue that it is not important for that internal shakeup to be presented so explicitly there is little evidence in the course of the narrative that hints at such a development taking place or at least to the extent that it has a lasting value. Rather than actually delving into the nittygritty of these nebulous conflicting ideologies and events Platinum End is all too happy so to speak to handwave them away. The story is paralyzed by its own main character not really growing and developing or any growth or development coming too late to carry the serious weight it demands. It may be an ensemble show but as the main person whose story we follow in the plot Mirai cannot muster a fascinatingenough character or motivation. The few times Mirai is appropriately challenged in his philosophy include Metropoliman who primarily does so by virtue of being an antagonist and his motivation for God candidacy is quite laughable and Mukaido a terminallyill character who is more proactive in hunting Metropoliman down. Because Mukaido sees himself as a dead man walking he places a different perspective and emphasis on his own sense of happiness. He clashes with Mirai in ways that directly respond to the present circumstances both to himself and to the world at large. But Mirais status as the central character allows him to keep proselytizing about how dying and killing is bad and his sentiment on finding happiness is echoed so many times and fleshed out so vaguely that I came to dread its inevitable appearances. And speaking of appearances the actual aesthetic of the series is quite wanting. Platinum End is attempting to explore some of the morepessimistic darkest aspects of human existence yet the amount of detail put into the visuals make it seem like things were hastily put together. The color palette was so oddly bland and absent stark contrasts while stylized line work was almost entirely a noshow. The series seemed to keep that artistic stylization only for moments of particular intensity which while making sense on paper does not translate to an overallengrossing experience. The tone of the entire series is one of a despairing melancholic pathos for which the aesthetic fails to commit to wholeheartedly. I recognize that this level of commitment is taxing especially in the anime industrys current climate but stories that require it should be able to deliver. The soundtrack is the only element that feels true to this conviction moving into a thicker atmospheric nuance when the situation arises. But most damning of all is that the show does not have the tact or intellectual wherewithal to have the discussions it seeks. Platinum End relies too heavily on outrageous edginess to carry out its discourse rather than broaching the ideas with seriousness. Suicide murder and religion are not concepts that should be ruminated upon lightly yet watching these twentyfour episodes I questioned whether there was just a complete lack of selfawareness regarding this. The other Candidates worldviews or perceptions are so thinlyprobed that the arguments and the characters speaking them read more as caricatures or imitations. One character introduced in the latter half uses his powers for the purposes of granting other people their suicidal intentions and eventually his own with unapologetic nihilism. The fact that this character on a nihilistic downward streak is temporarily talked out of that by a friend of a main antagonist is beyond infuriating and the justification for the shift is even more silly in context. The discussion problem is worse than it would initially seem since none of the Candidates are religious to a discernible degree. If Platinum End wants to have dialogue about ethical moralistic religious or cosmological ramifications about Gods death and appointing a new one it is baffling that no Candidate adopts the genuinelyreligious position. Even if it were not argued particularly well how could that character not be there? By not including this element the series effectively states that an earnestlyreligious position is not worth having thus depriving itself of an easy source of genuine tension between the Candidates. This omission is hairpulling. As hairpulling as the show could get throughout its run it managed to do so one more time with the ending. It was one of those occurrences where even if I understand what it was attempting to do it did not equate to liking it or even finding it a suitable finale when all was said and done. Thematically it poses a rather fascinating angle on nearly everything that we saw concerning life death and God. But as presented in the greater framing of the story as a whole it felt so out of left field and had no time to develop into something more meaningful despite the last lines of dialogue insinuating that such potential was there. It left me out in the cold though not in the way it intended. As has been insinuated in the course of this review Platinum End is very dark it resides in misery at the structural level. As I thought about this series a thought had occurred to me one sentiment that sometimes gets expressed in online discourse is why do people reject dark stories when they supposedly want them? Why run in the other direction when a dark story is presented? The answer is that a dark story is not a given that a story is good. To find a dark story engaging is to ask yourself what the material means implies and how it engages with itself and yourself alike and enjoy that exercise. It still has to resonate in a manner that proves satisfactory to the viewer even if the viewer disagrees with the ideology or event depicted. Dark does not automatically mean an unpleasant experience either but when this series tried to demonstrate what it was capable of that was what it became. Perhaps it is true that fiction should more often address aspects of humanity and living that others would sooner run away from. But just doing that isnt enough it needs to be maturely handled. Platinum End is an unpleasant selfaggrandizing mess. It wants to have philosophical musings but lacks the nuance and intelligence to have them meaningfully since its roster of characters are not compellinglywritten enough. With a main protagonist too engrossed in his own obstinate attitude much of the events that unfold are more aggravating than intriguing. The overall aesthetic is screaming for a morevisceral stylization only having brief touches of that coming through in particularly dramatic moments. With an upsetting ending this is one dark story that left me shaking my head in disgust rather than clutching my chest in anticipation. At its best it had flashes of possibilities at its worst it was contemptible. What it always came across as however was sanctimonious and disappointing.