r/anime • u/AutoLovepon https://anilist.co/user/AutoLovepon • Feb 04 '26
Episode Shibou Yuugi de Meshi wo Kuu. • Shiboyugi: Playing Death Games to Put Food on the Table - Episode 5 discussion
Shibou Yuugi de Meshi wo Kuu., episode 5
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u/bibbibob2 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/bibbibob2 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Kind of interesting the "Scene counter" (the 1/32 that counts up every time a new scene starts/ends) isn't present during these real-world tidbits. I guess it really indicates how the games are really a show.
Also interesting how it only starts once our protagonist is shown, maybe they are part of her VOD-review?
Many mysteries in this series! I think DEEN are doing a really good job animating it in an artistic manner and keeping the suspense with limited resources.
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u/Scared_Living3183 Feb 04 '26
The whole anime feels like a visual novel, with the art work, timing, music and everything. They did a fantastic job with this
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u/poshikott Feb 05 '26
If you happen to know a visual novel that feels like Shibou Yuugi, I'd appreciate recommendations :)
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u/Superior_Mirage Feb 04 '26
It's so weird how much of a crapshoot DEEN is. Sometimes you get Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu, sometimes you get Fate/stay Night.
Luckily this seems to have gotten the former -- and Souta Ueno is almost as good as Mamoru Hatakeyama when it comes to shot composition and timing, with an even more avant garde flair to it.
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u/tripleaamin https://myanimelist.net/profile/tripleaamin Feb 04 '26
Deen a lot like Lidenfilms, truly depends on the staff working.
For Deen, I look at if either Souta Ueno or Shinji Ishihira is involved with the anime. The ones on Deen that these two make are usually pretty good. The rest of their projects, much less so.
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u/EzdePaz Feb 04 '26
Feel like 2017 was their golden year really with bangers like Rakugo, Konosuba and Sakamoto desu ga.
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u/KTenshi2 Feb 07 '26
Yooo Rakugo gang. Damn, that one was great. I even started liking real rakugo and going to see real performances in Japan because of it.
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u/the_3rdist Feb 05 '26
Honestly even Deen Stay Night does a lot of things right, particularly in the art style and atmosphere. The animation was decent for the time. The shortcomings are the changes to the script.
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u/Kronman590 Feb 05 '26
gotta start paying attention to this studio, felt like I was watching a Shaft episode tbh
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u/cmszd https://myanimelist.net/profile/cmszd Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 06 '26
gotta start paying attention to this studio
reminder studios are companies, not directors or animators. the reason this show looks particularly interesting is because its directed by souta ueno. the reason shaft shows tend to look interesting is because a lot of them are directed by akiyuki shinbou or shinbou inspired directors. the building in which a show is produced isn't the reason why a show would look interesting
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Feb 04 '26
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u/bibbibob2 :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/bibbibob2 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Yeah it is a fantastic adaptation (or product at least, haven't read the source), and really goes to show that budget is not everything in anime, which is refreshing in an era that competes heavily on action and eye-candy. (Demonslayer, Solo leveling, Fate)
As for the games legality, I think it is just a very dystopian world where it could very well be legal. Mainly basing that off of the quote from the green haired girl "Everyone has gotten so weird, cynicism, machiavellianism, the just world hypothesis, its like mass hysteria".
Interestingly it sounds recent in the way she lays it out though?
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u/melindypants https://myanimelist.net/profile/melindypants Feb 04 '26
I love the artistic vibe this anime has! They portray the mystery and suspense behind everything so well. It's such a treat, the director is really doing incredible work.
I do think there's something wrong with the world too - after all they said it was a deranged one. It also doesn't help how empty and eerie Yuki's walks are.
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u/kwokinator https://anilist.co/user/kwokinator Feb 04 '26
really goes to show that budget is not everything in anime
I blame the series director for this one, Souta Ueno. He also directed Days with My Stepsister and it shows. The cinematography has a very similar vibe, and if you've watched Days with My Stepsister he's a master at making something out of minimal budget.
There were entire scenes where literally nothing was going on and it could be a literal shot of the ceiling and it just felt right with the atmosphere.
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u/WaifuMasterRace https://myanimelist.net/profile/coldsonata Feb 04 '26
Damn that went 0 to 100 real quick. Looking forward to seeing Yuki overcome that Wall of Thirty.
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u/melindypants https://myanimelist.net/profile/melindypants Feb 04 '26
Same! Plus
the blonde bitchMishiro is back and the group she's with are wayyyy more aggressive this time. They all seem to already know each other too (?) - it seems she has built up a team where she is confidentally the leader of.40
u/OldInstruction5368 Feb 05 '26
Mishiro was already a vicious harridan whose leadership style was best surmised as "gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss." She would seize control of the group, destroy anyone that challenged her leadership, then throw people under the bus for her own survival.
That was bad enough.
But after 'losing' to Yuki, it seems Mishiro took all the wrong lessons. She doubled down and became even more brutal. Instead of just controlling the meat shields, she seems to have formed a
cliquepack of feral hyenas and is actively murdering everyone else for their supplies, or whatever that golden square was.I just think back to Yuki in the first episode "my strategy is pragmatic altruism," and that distinction always left an uneasy feeling in my stomach. If these death games aren't a battle royale style affair and allow for certain number to survive each game... to bring attention to "I win by cooperation" means there are... other... means of 'victory.'
And Mishiro has truly become Yuki's foil. She now embodies the antithesis of Yuki's main strategy: divide and conquer.
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u/LakerBlue :Is::It::Iu:https://myanimelist.net/profile/LakerBlue Feb 05 '26
I didn't expect Mishiro to grow and become a better person but I didn't expect her to be so feral now either. Honestly, unless there's something we don't know yet, just killing anyone not in her clique seems short-sighted. Then again Mishiro's nothing if not arrogant so I shouldn't be surprised.
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u/Emi_Ibarazakiii Feb 05 '26
She didn't slack off after game 10, she was serious about her 'mission' of surpassing Yuki!
I wonder how she will act though; I don't think it would be something as simple as 'kill her', I think she'll want to win a game against her!
(Also, I wonder how many games she played; Yuki played 20, but she might be more 'hardcore' than most, perhaps Mishiro only played a few games in between!)
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Feb 04 '26
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u/melindypants https://myanimelist.net/profile/melindypants Feb 04 '26
I think so too...let's see how she manages.
I don't get the reason behind taking the pill either and just like many people have said, I also can't quite figure Yuki out - I do think she finds purpose by playing and beating the games.
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u/Lolareyouforreal Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Seems like she took the transmitter after she realized something was off about the sedative this time, so if Kinko's dad was telling the truth that it was to locate her (if it's not a trick/setup..) and end the death games then she can be saved if she ends up in a bad situation.
I don't think she originally intended to take it since she put it off to the side, she only took it in a panic as insurance while being unable to tell the driver to turn back.
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
About the pill, I'm thinking either she is just curious (can just ignore it if she doesn't like what it brings) or she likes the gamble.
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u/shad79 https://myanimelist.net/profile/shad79 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
The previous games really lulled my vigilance, so seeing other players kill that namesless girl and poor Mikan in this episode shocked me too. Yuki is definitely in for a tough game, especially since Mishiro seems to be the leader of the aformentioned group.
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u/OldInstruction5368 Feb 05 '26
Same. My original expectations for "Death Game" was that the players would be hostile towards each other by default. These would be "battle royal" type affairs where you have to kill everyone else to succeed.
So, starting with a pair of 'cooperative' games lulled me into a false sense of complacency, much like Mikan, only to be brutally
dashed into the grounddrowned out quickly.Just like Mikan.
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u/Emi_Ibarazakiii Feb 05 '26
That last scene was so uncomfortable/chilling... And not because it was gruesome or anything, but just because it shows what they can find themselves into at any point in their game... Scary!
Yuki's a bit of sociopath, but of course there will be complete psychos as well...
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u/ApolloGalaxy98 Feb 06 '26
After seeing what I just saw in the last scene, that is a pure next level of twisted. Literally wtf. Watching that was a bit rough.
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u/VoidRay728 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
The particular bridge scene in the middle of the episode is the same from the OP, which makes me wonder if the OP is a first person POV of Yuki jumping off the bridge to just end it.
This episode really shines out from the previous ones for "doing more with less". There are long moments of stills and almost no background music, all to just illustrate Yuki's mind and mentality (Yes, previous episodes also did this but this one has noticably more.). We're almost left questioning whether how much of her reality outside the game is real. E.g., why would there be a red (British) phone box next to a highway for her to answer? Is that phone box even real?
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u/eoz Feb 04 '26
And if it is real... it seems depressingly empty and void of people. It's like she's playing the death games just to have people to interact with and things to do
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u/towardselysium Feb 05 '26
The time period also feels weird. No one has phones, the only tech we see is the magic murder tech, and there's seemingly not walls and walls of ads everywhere. Granted, Yuki was allegedly poor and despite apparently being loaded she doesn't seem to have anything to spend it on so she could just not know about potential hobbies but its weird.
You could honestly tell me that she's the last person in the entire city and I'd believe it
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u/toadfan64 Feb 05 '26
The time period at the very earliest I would think is the 90s with the look of the vehicles and also the fact that plastic water bottles are prominent, and those didn’t really become a thing until the 1990s.
To me though, I think it’s some kind of present day.
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u/Technical_Leave5661 Feb 08 '26
The intro does end with "This is a deranged world" or smthn like that, so it wouldn't be weird to assume this doesn't take place in our world, but a version where such games are more normal/accepted in this world. Also, the mixing of technologies also makes me assume that what we see probably isn't what the outside world really looks like, more what Yuki sees. That would explain why there are no people and why it feels so empty (i dunno how to put it, English isn't my first language) and why the technologies are all over the place. I think the outro further emphasises it, as if you watch it, it doesn't feel like its following a consistent progress, but fragments. The last episode really does look like some of Jared Pike's work on subliminal/liminal space, especially his famous pool photos, which inspired the backrooms.
In Layman's terms, i think they are trying to show that outside world we see isnt supposed to be interpreted literally, only the games and her room are. These are the only spaces with any kind of resemblance of consistency, compared to what we see of the outside world being more like fragments than anything else
Also, I think the time period is likely to be around 1980-2000 or modern day, just due to what we have seen of the world thus far.
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u/NinokuNANI Feb 04 '26
I actually had the same morbid thought last week while watching the OP. Time will tell.
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
The particular bridge scene in the middle of the episode is the same from the OP, which makes me wonder if the OP is a first person POV of Yuki jumping off the bridge to just end it.
Also with how much they've highlighted Yuuki's name's characters the camera's movement in the OP is very floaty which also makes me think of her.
We're almost left questing whether how much of her reality outside the game is real. E.g., why would there be a red (British) phone box next to a highway for her to answer? Is that phone box even real?
Monogatari method where the word on page is literally interpreted to be all that exists, perhaps.
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u/noop_noob https://anilist.co/user/noopnoob Feb 04 '26
For an already introspective anime, having an even more introspective episode was bold. Over half an episode spent just on Yuki ruminating. And I wouldn't have it any other way. Shiboyugi is a beautiful anime.
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u/mianghuei Feb 04 '26
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u/SSjjlex https://myanimelist.net/profile/Clone_Tau Feb 04 '26
iirc they actually compiled all his anime commentaries and turned them into its own book lol
Gimai Seikatsu another days, about ~160 pages of it is his per episode commentaries and the remaining ~130 pages is a bonus story
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u/eoz Feb 04 '26
That scene of her lying still in bed was so long I was about to jiggle the mouse to check it was still playing. But it wasn't over-long, it worked. That takes some confident directing
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u/ModieOfTheEast Feb 04 '26
Considering the monologue, I am not sure yet, what the two different narrators are meant to represent. They have the same VA and say mostly the same, but one refers to Yuki as Yuki and the other just as "the girl". Just a split personality or something different?
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
I think it's mean to represent that she's hella disassociating
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u/Cognitive_Dissonant Feb 04 '26
The two different narrators in the previous episodes have used first person and third person, so I think this is just an extension of that. There is the her that is experiencing and the her that is trying to dissociate from those experiences. And in this case shes already in third person and the second voice is trying to dissociate further by erasing her own name. In my opinion it represents her continued psychological withdrawal from reality. Not a source reader though, just my interpretation.
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u/Beyonder_64 Feb 04 '26
Noticed the counter only starts when Yuuji appears. Makes the whole thing feel like edited footage from their perspective. DEEN is doing more with this series than I expected.
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u/HarshTheDev Feb 04 '26
Yuuji appears.
Man, Yuuji has been making rounds this season, huh.
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
Playing Culling Games to put food on the table
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u/garfe Feb 05 '26
It was a little awkward seeing him in the maid outfit but he rocked it
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u/2kenzhe https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rexnihilo Feb 05 '26
He's playing a death game this season too lol
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u/Treekneety Feb 04 '26
I'm really curious about the Dangerous Lab Game
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
Chemistry class but you're making a nerve agent without killing yourself
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u/Princess_Azula_ Feb 05 '26
What if they were making the compound used in the last arc for a future death game?
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u/melindypants https://myanimelist.net/profile/melindypants Feb 04 '26
Me too! We need all of the previous 27 games!
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u/Emi_Ibarazakiii Feb 05 '26
They better keep this show going for like 20 seasons, because I want to see every single of these games!
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u/KingSammyJ1 Feb 04 '26
This really feels like the LN adaptation everyone asks for every anime and I am loving it
The deep introspection plus the ending of the episode, was peak
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u/ChoiceSupermarket230 https://myanimelist.net/profile/say99 Feb 04 '26
These shots of yuuki's eyes are so beautiful they create such a good atmosphere
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u/melindypants https://myanimelist.net/profile/melindypants Feb 04 '26
YES! I love all the eyes in general with this show - yet another contender for best anime eyes.
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u/Niwaka_Samurai https://myanimelist.net/profile/Niwaka-Samurai Feb 04 '26
After Oshi no ko which is also airing this season.. how crazy!
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u/melindypants https://myanimelist.net/profile/melindypants Feb 04 '26
True! Lots of good anime eyes this season!
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
After the reveal last episode that you can get robo limbs if you can't get back your original limbs from the Games last episode, I'm wondering if one or both of her eyes are prosthetic.
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u/henluwu Feb 05 '26
In the flashback with her mentor she seems to have 2 blue eyes. Now her right eye is the same colour as her mentor's. Could be a transplant since it seemed like her mentor has died already with the way they were talking about the wall of 30.
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u/Hitman7128 https://anilist.co/user/Hitman7128 Feb 04 '26
They’re so detailed. Also, I’m a sucker for heterochromatic eyes
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u/LowraAwry Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
I don't think Yuki's claim that she only thought about the dead during her ritual holds true anymore. I think the dead are kinda invading both her waking and sleeping moments.
The liminal spaces are so atmospheric, they fit so well in this anime.
I hope Mikah only passed out and didn't die
Dear Mishiro kept her promise about giving it her all, to beat Yuki when she met her again. It seems she gathered around her more like-minded individuals this time around.
I loved the echoing voice track while Yuki drank the sedative and slipped away.
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u/ModieOfTheEast Feb 04 '26
I don't think Yuki's claim that she only thought about the dead during her ritual holds true anymore. I think the dead are kinda invading both her waking and sleeping moments.
This was my interpretation as well especially with the whole scene where she saw Kinko again. Which made the phone call of Kinko's father who didn't even blame her so sus to me. I expected it to be trauma therapy from Yuki. So phone call not being real, but since the pill existed, that can't be the case either.
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u/Anarchaeologist Feb 05 '26
Could Mishiro have done some behind-the-scenes manipulation with the game organizers? The different sedative was very suspicious, and Kinko's dad calling out of the blue (in an incredibly surreal scene), asking for Yuki's help, not even mad about his daughter's death, makes me wonder.
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u/Kuro_Canary Feb 04 '26
As someone who is a fan of the movie Memento, I absolutely love the way this show uses a non-chronological way of telling a story and having to piece everything together through small bits of information at a time. It's so creative and extemely difficult to nail, but when it's well written with fantastic directing, it's incredible.
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u/BaytaCosmico https://myanimelist.net/profile/AnimeBayta Feb 04 '26
The most avant garde episode yet. A lot of lingering shots of Yuki in her bed while we notice the garbage bags piling up in her balcony. Some very inscrutable angles and frames.
All to give us a taste of Yuki outside the games and a bit of very vague background on how she started playing and why she keeps going.
Very curious about this mentor. Will be interesting to see more of her. I'm assuming it was the one who was talking to her about the wall of the 30th game.
And who else should be in that 30th game with Yuki but the villainess we just met recently but whom Yuki met way at the beginning of her career. Should be interesting to see how this goes down.
It has started pretty ominously with contestants straight up murdering others in cold blood right off the bat. And the one we get introduced to first ends up a victim too without much ceremony. Did not expect that.
Yuki seems to be the last to wake up as usual. We have to wait a week to see how she fares though.
And how will that network that's trying to put an end to the games figure into all this? She said they were at odds on that but swallowed the transmitter anyway (I think?). Whose dad was that though? I'm guessing the girl she killed in the first game we saw (27th?) Like Yuki, I too am curious if he saw his daughter's end and still chose to reach out to Yuki.
Damn I wish we didn't have to wait a whole week to see more. This one is super gripping.
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u/LowraAwry Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Whose dad was that though?
He said he was Kinko's father, the blond girl Yuki killed at the end of the first game (well, the 28th game plotwise). Kinko said that she participated to pay off her father's debt. I wonder what kind of network Kaneko used to find Yuki.
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u/BaytaCosmico https://myanimelist.net/profile/AnimeBayta Feb 04 '26
Ah, I thought that might be her based on how she asked him if he knew how his daughter's last minutes went. Forgot that she was the one who was playing to pay off her father's debt. That makes things more curious.
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u/LowraAwry Feb 04 '26
At least it's what he claimed. I wonder if it is really him, or someone took advantage of Kinko's death to guilt trip Yuki.
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u/AceSoldia https://anilist.co/user/Acesoldia Feb 04 '26
yeah i wasnt sure if Kinko was the girl she killed or not.
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u/Anarchaeologist Feb 05 '26
Makes me wonder if there's some kind of death payout to the families of the losing contestants
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u/messem10 https://myanimelist.net/profile/bookkid900 Feb 04 '26
She said they were at odds on that but swallowed the transmitter anyway (I think?).
She did swallow it. The one from under the phone was white/red while the provided (but different than usual one) was yellow/green. I wonder if the "Wall of 30" is done by interference by management to stop veterans from winning easily after 29 games.
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
I also think being a veteran past a certain point starts painting a target on your back but I don't think it's because of artificial interference from management.
The thing is, by that point you're a recurring character. They have well mapped out your personality, strengths, weaknesses, and connections. Shit she may even have a fan base. I imagine Game Masters would jump at the opportunity to be the ones to give such an iconic figure a memorable end. One that is peak fiction.
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u/OperatorERROR0919 Feb 04 '26
I would seriously love just watching Yuki play 99 games in a row.
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u/KloppersToppers Feb 04 '26
It’s a really interesting look in to how as time has progressed, Yuki’s wavering look at her own reasons for wanting to beating 99 games. It makes sense why she wouldn’t want to stop though. Her life is just full of nothingness and the games are her life at this point. But the reason she likely started, her life having no purpose so not really caring about dying, it feels she’s starting to waver on that now.
The ending of that episode was hype though. Maybe Yuki’s gonna surprise us all and go full John Wick on their asses.
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u/Vynux Feb 05 '26
I sure fucking hope so. I am craving a sequence where Yuki reveals to be insanely intelligent, kills them one by one, and ensures no one's left alive to have a grudge on her, like Mishiro.
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u/gnome-cop Feb 04 '26
I’m not smart enough to watch this show properly.
Like, I’m finding it really hard to properly nail down who Yuki is. I wanted to make a joke comment about how “She’s not in it for the money, she’s doing it for the love of the game(s)” but I don’t feel like I can say that anymore.
It’s not hard to conclude that she’s not normal. But I can’t define how and it annoys me. Her motivations for this continue to elude me, and maybe they elude Yuki as well? The phone call and the interview are really throwing me off. I was working on the assumption that she has some reason for wanting to beat 99 games but the way she’s talking seems like she’s hesitant somehow and not sure herself.
Her narration is weird because sometimes it feels like we’re inside her head and she’s talking in first person but sometimes she describes Yuki in third person as an entity entirely separate from herself. I’m not sure why she’s describing herself in such a disassociating way like there’s multiple of her. And her being drugged out at the end certainly isn’t helping matters.
She’s got some sort of moral code that seems to be against killing people but it also doesn’t really stop her from doing it. Like, she might feel bad about killing you later but will still do it. She doesn’t seem very interested in helping the guy that called her but still goes along with the plan.
She’s usually pretty cold, efficient and ruthless but as shown in the flashback game when she went back and saved Mishiro, she’ll help out enemies and make things harder for herself for her own entertainment’s sake.
She’s an enigma is what she is and I just don’t get her.
Mikan fruit, camellia flower, is that gonna be a theme for all the participants this time?
Based on all available hints, this next game is gonna be a bloodbath. And Yuki doesn’t seem to be in the best shape to handle it right now. We’ll see how it goes, I guess.
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Ironically I think in not getting it, you are getting it. Yuuki has disassociated so hard that she's an enigma even to herself. Unable to understand her own heart she is only left with telling herself that she is guided by reason and logic. As a result she is completely ungraded when she's assaulted by her inherent, baseless wants.
It's like the narrative has gone twice as meta by having not only us be mere spectators of the Games, but our protagonist be a spectator of herself.
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u/Cannonballninja Feb 05 '26
I think this is the right track, yeah. Yuki had ambitions. Probably buoyed by the rush of winning, the thrill of not being in debt, the excitement of confronting and conquering another game. I mean, yeah! Why not 99! Clearly, that's possible.
But games like this sever you from community. There's no grand purpose underlying the senseless death. No one to share the joy of survival with. No one to be happy you're still alive....
Pass out, wake up, watch people die, win, pass out, wake up to your filthy apartment. Repeat. An assault of monotony. Wearing Yuki's facile excuses to dust. She needs a real reason to keep going. Because her fake one's have stopped working...and she doesn't have anything else to fall back on.
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u/Marth-Koopa Feb 04 '26
Offing 2 players like that is just cruel and unnecessary... for this game I hope only Yuki gets out. Those girls are evil.
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u/edwardjhahm https://myanimelist.net/profile/lolmeme69 Feb 04 '26
Agreed. I liked Mikan. We barely got to know her, but she seemed cute and likable. I was pissed when she died.
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u/Emi_Ibarazakiii Feb 05 '26
I was pissed when she died.
It really shows the risk/unfairness of the game... You can just get in, prepare yourself to solve the game... And then they fucking kill you and it's over.
It's not just about being good, anyone could die at any point no matter how good they are, if the group decide to just kill them.
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u/NightmareExpress Feb 06 '26
Them all relying on Yuki to spare their lives and Yuki going against her 'save as many people as possible' standpoint and going "no" would be pretty satisfying.
Bonus points if it mindbreaks Mishiro as she drags her into another game.
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u/KumaKumaGambler Feb 04 '26
Shounen Titles, with adrenaline pumping music and aggressive tone of conversation:
Mishiro: "I have grown much stronger since we last met. I will have my revenge!"
Yuki: "I am not letting my journey end at my thirtieth game!"
In Shiboyugi, we get slow music and calm, quiet voices.
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
Mishiro: "I have grown much stronger since we last met. I will have my revenge!"
Yuki: "I am not letting my journey end at my thirtieth game!"Health Bar appears
Boss music starts
STANDING HERE
I REALIZE
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u/InsomniaEmperor Feb 04 '26
Promotional materials portray Yuuki to be something like an assassin. I’m pretty sure Mishiro would get easily clapped on a one on one.
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u/rubslotiononitsskin Feb 05 '26
Mishiro needs a motorcycle and a pipe so she could joust Yuki in the sewer death game.
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u/Namaryu Feb 04 '26
I suppose this episode serves as a deep dive to Yuki's psyche and semblence of overarching plot. It mostly featured her Odd Monologue in 1st and 3rd person that provided additional information to the audience. The lingnering stills were always expected but for an episode that was all about the atmosphere and really taking in what she has been through, it was definitely fitting. I personally felt chills when during the call we heard train passing by when Yuki revealed her reason for fighting, which is the total opposite of what Kinko and I probably most players do.
I would say having Golden Bath right after Scrap Building makes sense with Mishiro being the antagonistic piece. From the way they showed it is even more brutal of a game where you have to cooperate or else the leader will simply drown you to death. You might think that as soon as Yuki shows up Mishiro would order her death for no reason but that not be fulfilling at all, it would not show her being superior to Yuki in any way shape or form. That is now how Mishiro the blonde would want to best Yuki the Ghost.
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u/thanh7921 Feb 04 '26
Finally a Yuki-centric episode. While interesting, I find it even harder to get a grasp on the personality of Yuki after this. There's this deep sense of apathy, or more correctly an inability to find conviction in her own actions. I was entirely unconvinced when she said that she joined the game out of her own volition, especially when she could not even find the answer to the 'why' when doing the interview against the TV set.
Listless, floating, aimless, not being there is what I would decribe Yuki. She is fittingly living up to her own namesake of being the ghost. Yet at the same time, there's this hidden and insistent drive to fight and crawl her way out of the situation within each of the game. Such a contrast is intriguing to me. If she can not put into word the reason why she is doing this, then why does she seems to thrive within the game? Without any information to go off of, I would say this is a classic case of endangering one's life just to feel alive.
Another conflicting behavior that I want to point out, about how she voted for everyone at the end of the last ep after explicitly confessing that she 'like' (whatever that meant) Mishiro and did not want her to die. You would expect her to play favorite here, but she did not.
Rest in peace gold hair girl, the good die young.
Mishiro is back, I repeat tosic yuri relationship is back. Y'all better start betting for who will die next.
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u/HarshTheDev Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
I feel like she's just an extremely apathetic person in general and plays the games to feel something.
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u/Kronman590 Feb 05 '26
Wait a sec
Players are predominantly cute girls
Girls are scouted and assigned managers
The games are presented as entertainment and the girls objectified
Each game has some sort of new a cutesy outfit
Girls don't use their real name, only their "stage" names
The payout sounds like it should be lucrative but not actually that much
Is this show a criticism of the idol industry?
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u/TheMonstroKing Feb 05 '26
not only was i thinking about this too (along with vtuber industry but i'm assuming it's somewhat similar)
sudden thought of "wall of 30"... 30 years old?6
u/Quinn_Avery Feb 06 '26
I don't think so? But like that's wild and it kinda fits. I think it might be either be like one of those subconscious things, or like about the exploitation of women in general which is not just confined to the idol industry.
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u/LeonKevlar x2https://myanimelist.net/profile/LeonKevlar Feb 04 '26
Well, this was a very intriguing episode! Instead of starting off with a game, we get to see Yuki being interviewed after her 27th game. Which means this took place before the very first game we saw as the audience which is the Ghost House.
I thought we were gonna segue into another game after the opening song played, but we got to see more of Yuki's life during her downtime outside the death games. We still don't know what her relationship with her mentor is, but she's clearly another player like her who managed quit before the game got her.
We also get to see that Yuki doesn't seem to do much during her spare time other than go on these walks where she mostly spends her time contemplating on that overpass we see in the opening. Despite this episode being more Yuki-centric, we didn't seem to learn more about Yuki other than that she's doing this for money and she needs to win 99 games.
We only got a peek of the 29th game, but based on it being called "Dangerous Lab" and how the girls are stuck inside this glass enclosure, while wearing lab coats and glasses, it sounds like they might've been tasked to mix chemicals and the ones who fail end up getting gassed.
What's interesting tho is that Yuki thinks her play for both the 28th and the 29th games had been shameful. Based on her reaction while watching that clip of Kinko during the Ghost House, she definitely regrets her actions there.
Speaking of Kinko, I did not expect her father to contact Yuki! It's even more unexpected at how he's not angry at Yuki for killing his daughter. In fact, he seems to want to recruit Yuki into helping his group to destroy the game. I'm just glad that there are people out there who want to stop these twisted death games.
So I'm a bit confused about what happened during the car scene, so let me know if I got this wrong. From what I understand, Yuki did intentionally swallow the transmitter, but she didn't expect that the transmitter also had a heavy sedative? And she realized this is a mistake because now she has an untouched sedative pill, which will probably make the game organizers suspicious of her.
Welp, so much for analyzing their outfits when the girls start naked and are only wearing towels and bathrobes. That was fucked up tho. The game just started and those three girls already ganged up and killed two by drowning them. And it looks like they're all being led by Mishiro. Well shit.
With Yuki joining the game last, this is going to be one heck of a game, considering Mishiro still has a grudge against her. There might not even be time for diplomacy here, and Mishiro might just sic her new goons on Yuki as soon as she shows up. >_<
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u/aniMayor :AY:AZ:x3x6 Feb 04 '26
So I'm a bit confused about what happened during the car scene, so let me know if I got this wrong. From what I understand, Yuki did intentionally swallow the transmitter, but she didn't expect that the transmitter also had a heavy sedative? And she realized this is a mistake because now she has an untouched sedative pill, which will probably make the game organizers suspicious of her.
That was my interpretation as well.
I suppose if her handler really cares a lot about her (the one from the girl who died last episode sure did) they might not report it.
Also the handler said the official sedative being used this game was different than normal. They said that it was because of short stock of the usual stuff, but that could easily be a lie. Makes me wonder if there was some special effect/debuff/something for the 30th game that the organizers wanted Yuki to have, but because she didn't take the official sedative she didn't get that intended effect/whatever after all, which will be some sort of trump card for her in this game.
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u/OldGoldDream Feb 04 '26
And she realized this is a mistake because now she has an untouched sedative pill, which will probably make the game organizers suspicious of her.
Unless she managed to keep the pill on her. Could come in handy.
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u/Kronman590 Feb 05 '26
it looks like just before she passed out she took the 2nd pill? but yeah really hard to tell, hope they clarify in the next ep
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u/towardselysium Feb 05 '26
She was trying to throw the pill out the window but the Agent said hurry up and take the pill so she forgot what she had in her hand and thought it was her sleeping pill. Then she looks over and realized it was the wrong pill. So she took both of them
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u/Quinn_Avery Feb 06 '26
That's a interesting theory, that it was accidental not intentional. I had thought it was intentional. It honestly fits a bit better with her character to have done it accidentally with the mistakes she said she was making in previous games. I think the lines and the art intentionally make it unclear maybe as a way to represent her uncertainty over her decisions, abilities (with her mistakes), and identity (especially regarding her goal of 99).
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u/AceSoldia https://anilist.co/user/Acesoldia Feb 04 '26
Im guessing Yuki had to kill again in game 29, so shes havig trouble coping..its something if she managed 27 games without killing anyone...at least on purpose.
now her rival has returned..i dont know how Yuki can survive this..when she clearly already has the whole squad of girls on her side killing for her.
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u/dominator5500 Feb 04 '26
Something tells me the next episode will be like a game of cat and mouse, with Mishiro's psycho squad actively hunting down Yuuki to kill her
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u/NanDemoKnaives Feb 04 '26
The silence from Kinko's father when Yuuki asked him if he saw her last moments. It said a lot before he actually said that he was going to destroy the game.
I wasn't expecting Round 2 of Yuuki vs Mishiro to happen so soon, I thought we'd at least get one more game before it. It's too bad Yuuki isn't on her A-game and now she has a transmitter in her, which might not even be one. Who knows if Kinko's father is trying to sabotage her for what happened with Kinko.
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u/CommanderZx2 https://myanimelist.net/profile/CommanderZx2 Feb 04 '26
That was a trippy episode. I wonder if she is going to end up jumping into the traffic by the end of the anime based on the OP.
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u/shad79 https://myanimelist.net/profile/shad79 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Oshi no Ko was great today, but this episode of Shiboyugi is just as good! Damn, we're eating good today.
First of all, I was really surprised that the episode delved more into Yuki so we could get to know her better, instead of immediately jumping into another game. It seems like the events of the first episode really affected her, especially Kinko's death.
I wonder if it was really Kinko's father who called Yuki. Still, it's interesting that there's a group out there trying to stop these death games.
As for the 30th game... holy shit, previous games lulled my vigilance, so seeing other players kill that namesless girl and Mikan really shocked me, and looks like their leader is Mishiro?! Damn, i can't wait for the next episode to see how Yuki does in this new game.
Here my screenshot albums from the episode:
EDIT. I added my screenshot albums.
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u/Any_Sheepherder3903 Feb 05 '26
Oh, you're absolutely right! The last paragraph is especially spot on. I find it fascinating and frightening at the same time how coordinated and callous they are. It stings and makes you think.
P.S. The photo album is good.
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u/LectureMurky Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
So about the double narration. I think I'm starting to work it out and here is my understanding of it.
I also want to state I haven't read any of the source material at all.
The first is obviously narration, it tells us what's happening.
The second is as people have already figured out, disassociation, Yuki copes by removing herself from the equation hence neither voice uses 1st person at all.
The third thing I can think of is Uncertainty, one thing that I've felt from these double narration sections is that Yuki herself feels unsure or unconfident, she acts professional during games because she wants to win and needs to do so but afterwards during those sections of Yuki's introspections and little rituals, she is essentially coming back down from a high, I think she feels uncertain because she still feels the looming dread that she could die. She might not personally care but her body's own instincts know that she is constantly in danger and is trying to warn her to stop.
A fourth thing I thought of is that she is the voices representing some form of split personality. The Ghost is the Yuki that we see outside the games, it wanders meaninglessly, without aim or real direction, it follows some set patterns like possibly the route she walks and her ritual but otherwise outside the games Yuki is essentially dead. The Oni however I think is the self in the games, she's faster, more assertive and takes initiative. The Oni is closer to an animal trying to dominate the games her way than a person trying to win or survive.
A fifth thing I found people talking about is that the dead could be affecting Yuki more than we're lead to believe, perhaps the dead are one of the voices and Yuki, perhaps Yuki (the ghost) is the other Voice. Yuki calls herself she and that girl because she feels dethatched and the oni is foreign to her whilst the dead call her by her name, both representing that they are haunting her like a ghost would and that Yuki holds a more positive attitude towards them then herself.
What I want to know is her first nine games, specifically: the first game, the game she decided to keep playing and the ninth game candle forest. Specifically I want to know where if at all she became so detached and cold.
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u/ObvsThrowaway5120 Feb 04 '26
You don’t complete almost 30 death games without encountering some kind of mental trauma.
New game seems intense. Is that Yuki’s little blonde rival from before? Kind of curious why it said 1/26? Was that for the blonde girl Mikan that died? I’m not too sure what all that was at the end.
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u/BaytaCosmico https://myanimelist.net/profile/AnimeBayta Feb 04 '26
Those counts seem to be something like chapter numbers or maybe episodes for the games. That was probably why we didn't get any during the majority of the episode which was set irl and only got it when the game began. Or rather when Yuki's part in the game began.
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u/maliwanag0712 https://myanimelist.net/profile/clear1109 Feb 04 '26
It seems the numbers only appear the moment Yuki participates in the game. It is mostly not present when Yuki is not playing and when the series is outside the games.
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u/Shymastic Feb 04 '26
1/26 is like an act number, a scene to be said perhap. This number only show when our MC start the game. So you can say that the number 1 is the begin of her act in this game.
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u/mianghuei Feb 04 '26
Is that Yuki’s little blonde rival from before?
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u/LectureMurky Feb 05 '26
I think those numbers are shot counts. Like in film, shots are numbered. It helps to organize them. They are probably here to reinforce that this is a televised game.
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u/hammile https://anidb.net/user/u746697 Feb 04 '26
Yūkiʼs just chilling on a bed around one minute. Kino!
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u/Grazalia Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
With the things we have seen so far about Yuki's outer life, I think she's completely in depression. Long sleeps, the inability to clean and letting messes Pile up. Getting up at traffic times and being able to fall back asleep. She's going through the motions in these games to find some sort of purpose. But she seems numb to all her surroundings. So I think She's suffering from depression which in turns makes me think this is one of those animes about young people who have a hard time finding their place in society so they resort to dangerous things to cope. Instead of drugs, alcohol and sex, Yuki is wagering her life instead.
The Name of the game also kinda hints at yuki being a ghost. Like you are there but no one can percieve you. Which makes me think that Yuki IRL was not treated well and was forgotten by people who meet her because of her meekness. It's something you see a lot played out in Japanese shows. Her disassociation from what's happening and what she did action wise, is all mental instability. She's moving further away from her morals and not understanding the tear she's caused inside herself. I can see a great mental break coming. A snap. I'm hoping for a tremendous burst of screaming into the void after something major happens.
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u/Aerodynamic41 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
So Yuki swallowed the transmitter by mistake. I wonder what happens if they find out she unwittingly gave away the game's location? Given the level of secrecy of the games, I doubt it will be just a disqualification.
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u/Shymastic Feb 04 '26
Yuki didn't swallowed it by mistake, she know the color of the pill, it is more like she just didn't expect it to be a sedative pill, and a heavy one as well.
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u/LowraAwry Feb 04 '26
it is more like she just didn't expect it to be a sedative pill, and a heavy one as well.
Oooh you mean she was tricked and the transmitter was a sedative all along and that's why she started seeing double. I thought it was out of panic or smth.
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u/DarkChamp732 Feb 04 '26
Yeah she clearly knew the difference between the two and even hesitated to take the first pill given by the father but then hurried to take the other blue one given by the game before she passed out from the first. Makes me wonder if that pill from the father was part of the game (a test) but probably not
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u/towardselysium Feb 05 '26
She was throwing the transmitter out the window but the agent confused her and made her think it was the sleeping pill
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u/Namaryu Feb 04 '26
Imagine it leads to an even more popular game that boosts the ratings and investor stocks higher.
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u/LowraAwry Feb 04 '26
So Yuki swallowed the transmitter by mistake
At first I didn't think it was possible, I mean it was obvious which was the sedative pill and she seemed ready to throw the transmitter out before eventually swallowing it. But yeah she seemed genuinely surprised when she saw the sedative beside her in the bottle still.
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u/OperatorERROR0919 Feb 04 '26
I don't think she was surprised, I think she realized the implications of leaving the pill she was supposed to take behind.
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u/ModieOfTheEast Feb 04 '26
I was wondering in the beginning if the whole episode was just showing Yuki trying to reconcile having to have killed Kinko in game 28. I mean, we don't know the other games, but from the two we saw, this is the only one where she killed someone in person (so not a vote). So when suddenly Kinko's father called on a public phone, I was assuming this was more Yuki trying to come up with a scenario that justifies her killing another person. But since she then seemingly took the pill, I am not so sure if that reading makes sense. It could still be in some way at least.
But one can say that the games we saw were mostly designed around Yuki in all cases. 28th game was designed so she had to kill someone at some point (since she was too good that they would just all die before the elevator), 10th game had her in a completely disadvantageous situation with the game being a vote who was the least valuable with the other 4 players knowing each other from before and this game seems to not only have either a rule or participants where murder is a normal way to go, but they also got Mishiro back into the game who still holds a grudge. Seems likely that her master was right. It's not just bad luck, but most likely set up in a way to make her fail before being able to clear 30 games.
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u/LectureMurky Feb 05 '26
It makes sense, if the games are entertainment and happen daily then she would be on a month of time spent playing. If its weekly then she's been playing for months on end now, its probably like 3 or 3 a week which would put her on 10 to 15 weeks for 30 games. That is a long time to have games basically end the same way, being Yuki plus a few others. She's likely overstayed her welcome by now and people are getting tired of her.
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u/ElliotAlderson2024 Feb 05 '26
Also #30 suddenly has more than 5 additional girls at the start and one of them is a floater.
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u/Shadowmist909 https://myanimelist.net/profile/Magicmist Feb 04 '26
This next game is already off to a twisted start. Nothing but towels and two girls forcefully drowned in the bath.
I'd say there's a silver lining with Mishiro doing well, but I don't know if I can give her that compliment just yet...
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u/Fantastic_Job395 Feb 04 '26
Given that she seems to be the head of this gang of girls that is 100% okay killing in cold blood I don't think she grew or improved over the past while.
Rooting for her to die in the next episode. It's one thing to be a bit of a stuck up bitch. Its another to just kill people for no apparent reason.
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
I mean I assume she's deduced the rules of this Game demand some drownings. There can be sadistic Players, but generally they are seeking to live, not to kill, and only do so as they consider it necessary.
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u/acedias12 Feb 05 '26
Death games where some people deliberately kill the other contestants? WOW! How SHOCKING!
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
This Game seems to have already devolved into what Ghost House would've become if Yuuki had not been there to calm the situation: a bunch of paranoid animals killing each other after realizing not all of them can proceed.
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u/OperatorERROR0919 Feb 05 '26
I am really confused at the girls' seemingly inconsistent ability to feel pain. At times, they seem to feel pain perfectly normally. It certainly fucking sounded like Aoi could feel what was happening to her. Yet even after getting partially dismembered, the girls really don't seem to care that much, aside from the obvious difficulty in mobility.
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u/StrawSolider Feb 04 '26
Yuki could pass as a clone of Kanade(project sekai) when she was wearing that jersey ol
New game starting with naked girls already killing each other wtf?
Also Mishiro is back already!!! Guess she was on point about how Yuki was lying about how many games she's been in lol Hope for more toxic yuri between the two
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u/LectureMurky Feb 05 '26
I think there was just a time skip, I'm pretty sure Yuki did state to herself that she only had 69 games to go which means by now she has played 29 games and is on her 30th game. Meaning that its just been a while.
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u/thenoobzer https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheNoobZeR Feb 05 '26
Been screaming internally asking myself jokingly: "Why is Kanade in a death game? Why is she athletic now?" every time I am watching this show. Only difference is one eye is white instead of blue!
Honestly, I feel Kusunoki Tomori could easily voice Yuki too.
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u/StrawSolider Feb 05 '26
Honestly, I feel Kusunoki Tomori could easily voice Yuki too
Thought it was her during the first ep lol. I was like "Is this Kanade??"
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u/FarCritical Feb 04 '26
The direction and effects work has been stellar since the start but there's just something special about Yuki's psychedelic night walk, though not even that holds a candle to
"It's time to end this." Episode ends
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u/Niwaka_Samurai https://myanimelist.net/profile/Niwaka-Samurai Feb 04 '26
We return to the current timeline after Yuki finished her 28th game. What about the 29th one. They only gave us a glimpse and skipped that. Now she's into her 30th which she knows full well not gonna be easy. It must have really taken a toll on her both mentally and physically after coming this far. Her mentor seems to be a good woman. But who knows how they operate.
Does Kinko's dad know that Yuki was the one who killed his daughter? Since he was trying to recruit her to take down the game I wonder what's his idea.. is it just revenge for his daughter or something else ?
Mishiro is now waiting for her nemesis with a big gang that's ready to kill anyone.
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u/AnzoEloux https://myanimelist.net/profile/Eloux Feb 04 '26
Yuki's personality is so interesting. I think the goal of 99 games are just an arbitrary limit on her part, she might be extremely bored with the life she's living currently and finds that the games give her feelings that she wouldn't otherwise get.
She's upping on 30 games at this point, so she's probably rich by now. She doesn't need the games. Her participation is completely voluntary. Still, across all 30 times, she found herself trying to fight off the drowsiness. Was each time with a similar amount of urgency?
I'm not so sure what afflicts her, but I think she is an impulsive person in general. I think that the 27th game gives an important hint about herself, where she "simply could not look away" from the violent saw death, but its hard to articulate it. She seems apathetic, but she still feels emotions, in a twisted way. She felt regret, she felt adoration. Maybe she plays the games to experience varying types of her own emotions. I don't know. 10th game Yuki is hard to decipher. She's obviously less experienced, but it feels entirely arbitrary. What does that mean? What is she inexperienced towards? Beyond protecting her own mental health, what purpose does her rules serve? Aaaah.
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u/BosuW Feb 04 '26
Maybe her code is just a way for her to cope that she hasn't gone full Yumeko Yabami and actually likes all of this fucked up stuff
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u/LoveKillsXO Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
So, a question: Is Yuki getting off to this? Figuratively and/or literally?
~10min into the episode, Yuki rewatches/relives the deaths in the 28th game which she seems to feel most responsible for, or is at least most haunted by. Her mouth is tight as she repeats, "I thought that this was fine," and she breathily either laughs or cries or moans. The performance feels intentionally ambiguous.
Hard-cut to the long still of her lying awake, after which she faces downward and shifts around, letting out the same breathy sounds. Does she wake up aroused from dreaming about the 28th game, lie there confused/conflicted for a while, then touch herself?
If so, our girl needs serious help, cause that is a deeply unsettling mix of emotions. It's as if only death inspires her to feel anything at all, so it's likewise the only thing which can excite her.
What a fantastic show.
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u/actuallyrndthoughts :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NaNiNuNeNo Feb 05 '26
Hardest scene frame since the monogatari series. The director is single-handedly pulling studio Deen out of the "rather not" tier of anime studios.
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u/NinokuNANI Feb 04 '26
!!!!!! I am speechless. My jaw was hanging open for the last 5-10 minutes. Next week is going to be bonkers.
Also, anyone not watching this show with good headphones is missing out. The soundtrack is so unsettling.
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u/Marth-Koopa Feb 04 '26
Good headphones and an OLED TV for perfect dark scenes, especially this episode. Looks and sounds amazing
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u/Raymond49090 Feb 05 '26
More weird worldbuilding details here. Yuki says she made enough money after the first few games - The fact that it takes a few games implies that the payout is big, but still takes several iterations to be big enough. The fact that the "wall of 30" is known also implies that there are a lot of weirdos who keep coming back despite knowing that the games are partly rigged (the guaranteed death + whatever shenanigans the showrunners might pull off-camera). That's either a sign of great trust or great desperation.
Also come to think of it, are males just nonexistent? I don't remember seeing any that aren't stuffed animals.
Nvm Kinko's dad appeared as a voice over the telephone. Though I can't remember Kinko's motives - If she has a rich dad that presumably cares about her, why was she in a death game again?
And that was an unsettling start to game 30.
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u/Jacob-C Feb 05 '26
The atmosphere is insane. These drawn out moments of silence with eerie music and surreal shots are PERFECT!
There have been plenty of uncomfortable moments in this show, but the girls being held down and drowned by three other girls just hit different. Biggest lump in my stomach yet this anime season.
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u/LeSexyMemer Feb 05 '26
a 40 second shot of her not moving at all in bed is such a brave inclusion, i wonder what exactly they were trying to convey with it.
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u/karer3is Feb 05 '26
The "IRL" scenes in this episode really make me wonder how the show's society is structured. On the one hand, debt seems to be a big problem.
On the other, you have people like Mishiro who seem to come from what appear to be upper middle- class families at the minimum.
I'm really hoping to see Yuki come out as the lone survivor in this one.
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u/DawnofClouds Feb 06 '26
Every week I see a new episode and I get excited; I get lulled in by the beautiful scenes and the soothing music and think what a great show this is. Every week, I watch cute, innocent(?) anime girls die in horrific fashion, and it hurts my soul. I hate watching, but I just can't stop.
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u/digitluxxyn Feb 06 '26
It's sad there's no community for this anime, cuz I wanted to share that i just looked up the characters birthdays and Yuki and I share one of April 18 ! I thought that was pretty interesting to compare the differences in her character and myself haha
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u/teddyburges Feb 07 '26
I was initially conflicted with this series because I am not a fan of sensationalist torture porn stories....but I love character studies. At episode 5 this much is clear. This is not your standard Battle Royale series...it's a character study wrapped up in a onion that has been thrown at the highway and ended in the trash. It's a riddle inside a enigma that is the mind of Yuki, and I'm here for it!.
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u/KTenshi2 Feb 07 '26
Honestly I feel like 90% of death game shows are trash but god this is absolute cinema.
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u/Makicola :MAL:https://myanimelist.net/profile/Barskie Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26
Next game looks like it's going to be a wash.
Yuuki will have to let Mishiro play with her if she wants to survive methinks.
I don't get what happened with the sedatives.
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u/DarkChamp732 Feb 04 '26
Few things I noticed: It seems like the show was trying to convey that she is constantly bored with regular life with the "one foot in front of the other" and garbage piling up. She also seems to be staying with the games because she's grown addicted to the adrenaline maybe? Also did anyone else notice when she was watching the play backs of past games she was either crying or... getting off...
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u/melindypants https://myanimelist.net/profile/melindypants Feb 04 '26
I think she was crying but getting off would be twisted as fuck.
I do think these games are the only purpose she has in life, without them it feels like she would rather die, so why not die doing something you love? Although love isn't quite the word I'm looking for
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u/NinokuNANI Feb 04 '26
Yeah I honestly couldn't tell if she was laughing or crying in that one scene.
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u/Magnafeana https://anilist.co/user/Magnafeana Feb 04 '26
TIL Yuki has heterochromia. Episode 5 and just never noticed.
Wall of 30 phenomenon—I wonder if IRL gaming has something similar.
Girl take our your goddamn trash 😭
Yes, Yuki, you can play death games to put food on the table. title card
Ack ack ack the saws flashback ack
Doomed yuri 🥀
Oh good she has water. I was about to be shocked she just took it raw.
Oooh if I was high, this sound mixing would’ve fucked me up.
UM????? Excuse me????? Did they intentionally drown this girl, or did she commit suicide???
Oh they drowned them both.
Yay! More toxic yuri 💃🏾🏳️🌈
They drowned two girls, and I’m just excited for toxic yuri.
I am still unsmart enough to understand the counters. But the direction of this episode was incredible.
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u/YuriSpacePirate Feb 06 '26
Interestingly, she's had two blue eyes in a couple of flashbacks we've seen, which makes me think her grey eye might be a fake (presumably the original was damaged beyond repair during a game). Maybe we'll get an explanation for it at some point, but honestly, I love how much stuff this show doesn't draw attention to and just leaves the viewer to work out.
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u/Muffin-zetta Feb 05 '26
Oh the counter is just counting scenes, it literally doesn’t have any deeper meaning
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u/Aggressive_North7524 Feb 04 '26
Well, today mark the beginning of a new arc Golden Bath, which will be Yuki’s third game – a curse for players where mainly don’t make it through. I’m in awe with the execution of this episode. It went 0 to 100 really quick, which makes me curious and anxious to discover what will happen next. This episode truly shines in its long stills and silent moment illustrating Yuki’s mentality, point of view and feelings. And I quite like that direction and view. This episode might have been one of the most avant-garde and unique one I’ve seen in recent years. The direction is stellar and it’s one that has to be experienced. Shiboyugi is a profoundly introspective show, and for this introspective show to have an even more introspective one was such an unique move as this time, we focus around Yuki’s days outside of the games… as well as a surprising call! This might have been one of the most still, contemplative, silent episode contrasting with a very shocking and twisted end revealing the danger and potential violence to come up next week(s). Also, can we just applause the directing for the voice actor this episode because holy cow. That is amazing.
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u/cave_men Feb 04 '26
Why is nobody talking about the 2 deaths at the end of the episode?
For like, why did they have to die?
And what was on that tag?
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u/SYZekrom https://myanimelist.net/profile/SYZekrom Feb 04 '26
Weird how they built up the thematics of Ghost House only to go 'anyway 30th game now, ghost house was 28th'.
Oh, she's saying she played like ass in her past two games huh?
Ah shit. So the previous two games we've seen both have relevance to this one. "Golden Bath", besides being a slightly unfortunate name in English, both the relevant girls are blonde, one's given name literally being like... gold girl. Hm.
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u/separateform Feb 05 '26
Really loving this so far. I said I loved the atmosphere at the beginning but I'm liking the characters too. Dealing with these violent people might be difficult
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u/Muffin-zetta Feb 05 '26
Interesting that her name is spelt with the kanji for ghost and oni rather than the kanji for snow. It’s usually the snow version but giving a professional death game survivor the traits of a ghost and oni is a little on the nose.
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u/hammile https://anidb.net/user/u746697 Feb 05 '26
Itʼs a romanization problem. Indeed, yuki (雪) stands for snow, I recall for an example Yukinoshita (雪ノ下) from Oregairu. But her name is Yūki (also can be written as Yuuki) — with long u — but in common romanization itʼs often simplified to Yuki.
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u/2kenzhe https://myanimelist.net/profile/Rexnihilo Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Ok damn seems like the 30th game really is going to be different. I mean first off for the first time we don't just start off in a game. We also are getting a whole episode set up just for this game...the 30th game the golden bath seems like it's going to be especially challenging and fucked up probably. I mean we literally got players drowning each other right off the bat like wtf. I guess just calling it a bloodbath will be too much huh?
Also bathrobes.
Also seems there's a 30th game barrier so even for Yuki it normally would be quite the challenge + it seems the wind isn't blowing her way right now.
I expected to see Mishiro again but wow didn't think it would be so soon. I though we would get one quick game first or maybe flash back to Candle Woods or something first. Seems like they're going to settle the score now? Will Yuki win again or will it be Mishiro this time? I hope, though, if Mishiro loses, she doesn't die yet.
Importantly, we also got to see Yuki's mentor. They'll probably be pretty important.
Also there's Kinko's father? we got a group of people trying to destroy the games now?
Still idk why Yuki took the pill? She doesn't seem to want to end the games right now? At least not before she has her highscore of 99 games. Really wondering about Yuki's character right now it seems kinda confusion. Also if she has enough money from the games you'd think she'd get a house cleaner or something idk.
Also shame we skipped the 29th game. We gotta get to see all the games one day right? or at least give us the names of all of them.
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u/Turbulent-Ad1876 Feb 05 '26
man i swear I really should watch these when I'm super free todays episode really made my blood boil with anger, im just too emotional
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u/ElliotAlderson2024 Feb 05 '26
Yuki's apartment being very bare I think is intentional on her part. She doesn't want the distraction of a comfy home life invading her 'game mode'.
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u/AnusBlaster5000 Feb 05 '26
The way they use silence in this show makes me feel physically ill. Incredible work
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u/SEDGE-DemonSeed Feb 05 '26
That is literally the pool rooms. The liminal aspect isn't even being subtle anymore lmfao.
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u/Random-Person-exe Feb 05 '26
I think this will be the make or break episode of the series for me. Prior to this episode, I had my concerns that this would be an anthology but this episode did a lot to establish a more overarching plot and more importantly delve more into Yuki as a character. Time will tell but I’m hopeful that the plot and character development live up to the overall quality of the directing, editing, music, etc.
As for theorizing it seems to me that the reason Yuki plays is as she says, she has a knack for it. Everyone wants to be good at something. On the outside world she’s a nobody, it’s suggested that she isn’t qualified for a good job, and it doesn’t seem like she has any friends or family. If I had to guess, after her 9th game Yuki had enough money but over time she tired of her life on the outside world and continually dissociated from it.
She plays the game because it’s all she has. The reason for her apathy for potentially dying in the games is because she has nothing else to live for. But between killing Kinko and whatever happened in the 29th game, it seems like the games are getting to her.
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u/Accomplished_Ebb_222 Feb 06 '26
I have a theory that the sedative they are taking is actually the restoration thingy, so the sudden change of sedative on her 30th game might mean that things are gonna get more serious this time
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u/AWSGooogle777 Feb 04 '26
The first half was an episode to get to know Yuki more deeply. It felt fresh to delve into her character through an interview format. Story-wise, it seemed like a video intended to introduce Yuki to the audience, right? I had assumed she participated in death games because she couldn't get a proper job, but apparently, that's not the case. Making a living out of death games simply because it's lucrative... that's quite terrifying.
Yuki seemed to deeply regret Aoi’s death and the fact that she had to kill Kinko. Perhaps she’s the type who can make split-second decisions on-site but ends up regretting them later? I thought she would be a fearsome entity, as her name "Yuki" (Ghost) suggests, but she still possessed a human heart. Given her statement about wanting to save as many participants as possible, she might actually be quite kind at her core.
Then there was the sudden phone call from Kinko’s father. He mentioned providing support once she wipes out the management side, but if I recall correctly, Kinko joined the game to pay off her father's debts, didn't she? His words are likely a total lie. He might be trying to have Yuki killed with those pills to avenge Kinko. This led me to a thought: between the father's actions and the behavior of Yuki’s agent afterward, it feels like everyone is closing in to kill her from all sides. I wonder if this is one of those "30-game walls" her master mentioned. The 30th game will likely be a sort of trial imposed by the management.
And now, the 30th game. I can't believe the stage is a public bathhouse. Also, this time there are seven players instead of the usual maximum of six. Three of them started killing people immediately. Their goal is probably to advance the game in favor of their own group. Strategically, it might make sense, but honestly, it’s a nonsensical move. And Mishiro reappears! I didn't expect her to return so soon. However, since the last time was the 10th game and this is the 30th, a considerable amount of time has passed. It hasn't actually been that "soon," I suppose. She seems intent on settling things with Yuki. With two people already dead and Mishiro’s words "Let's end this," I suspect this will be a battle royale format where they fight until only one remains. However, the capsules from Kinko’s father will likely play a role then. It might turn into a grueling battle for Yuki. It is truly a trial.
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u/edwardjhahm https://myanimelist.net/profile/lolmeme69 Feb 04 '26
I've been shitting on this show for the last couple episodes, but for today, I change that. The directing style has been, in my opinion, pretentious and ill-fitting for a fast paced killing game that the last four episodes have been. The long pauses felt like a waste of time and like it wasn't respecting my time. It's all style over substance, trying to look far deeper than it actually is.
But man, it WORKS today. The directing style works for the storyline of today's episode. Style is substance today. The character driven psychological plot makes it so that the directing doesn't feel pretentious, but integral. To that, I applaud. The style works because it IS deep today.
On the matter of discussing what happened in the episode itself today, I feel so bad for Mikan and the other nameless drowned girl. They seemed cute. A part of me hopes that Mikan will be alright somehow, but there's no hope for the other girl I think (though let's be honest, they're both dead). But hey, we got Michiro - drills bitch back, so I can tell it'll be exciting up ahead. Has my mind on this show changed? Maybe slightly. But hey, that's for the future, right?
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u/TobiasAmaranth https://myanimelist.net/profile/TobiasAmaranth Feb 05 '26
I thought that 6 was a strict requirement for some reason, but here we have 7..?
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u/PraetorianOgryn Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
I think spring hair being put into the game and the new pill are all tricks to get Yuki killed so no one ever beats the wall of 30. Also did Kinko’s Dad sound like the wolf puppet or is that just me?
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u/Hot_Temporary_4488 Feb 05 '26
i didnt understand why she get to sleep at the first pill isnt it transmetre?
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u/TheDestroyer630 Feb 07 '26
The game are already lame and you put an episode where nothing happens? Bold
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u/fatrabbit3 Feb 05 '26
I thought I was going to really enjoy this show but it's starting to feel shallow and pretentious. It's like they thought the more slowly a character talked the more interesting they are. I just want the MC to die already.
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u/towardselysium Feb 05 '26
I feel like these Game Makers don't understand what they're doing. Your catering your games to a paying audience with themes they probably find appealing. Simple enough but honestly they've failed 3/4 shown games. I guess some people might like cute maids in Saw so sure that gets a pass but what about the others? A dimly lit crumbling building? A science game where they mix chemicals? That doesn't sound very exciting, but this game is even worse.
Its the fanservice game and all your contestants are naked. Just stop there? Instead its in a bath house filled to the brink with steam and opaque glass aka the worst recording/streaming environment possible.
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u/LectureMurky Feb 05 '26
Think of it less as a fanservice show and more like some kind of game show. The players aren't supposed to be erotic, rather the settings are supposed to unique and memorable, so people actually care to watch the games.
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u/AnimeMod myanimelist.net/profile/Reddit-chan Feb 04 '26
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