*Nitsuj is banging his head on a wall*
Holy mother of God what was I thinking? Why does this anime exist? How does it exist? Okay, perhaps I should back up here. You know how an anime sounds interesting and has a good premise set up, but when it’s time for the anime to premiere they fuck it up? Of course you do, it’s been like this throughout the duration of the month and today’s anime is no exception, Dorei-ku. Also known by it’s full title Slave District: 23 Slaves and Me, Dorei-ku was written by Hiroto Oishi from 2012-2016 with a number of novel series written by Shinichi Okada coming out in 2013, 2014, and 2017. There was even a live-action film based off the series. Suffice to say the series was pretty popular and well-received by people in Japan. Because of it’s success, an anime adaption was made in 2018 produced by Zero-G and TNK (Highschool DxD S2 & S3) to capitalize on its success and after watching the anime I really do question why this series was a hit. This was one of the worst animes from 2018. Everyone skipped over it and those who watched it dropped it fast. So, what made this series so bad? Sadly, there’s only one way to find out. This is my review of Dorei-ku.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Kara Kara Na Kokoro” by Shogo Sakamoto. Now I have to admit this opening is pretty good. I like the flow, the lyrics, the singer, and instrumental of this song. It’s honestly the only good thing I think of to come from this anime.
The ending is “BJ” by Pile. Oh hey, she’s back. This song is also good, but once again it sounds like it could have been used as the opening as well. It’s fast paced, rock, and gets your adrenaline running.
Episodes 1-4
The anime starts with a girl named Eia eating at McDonald’s (I’m sure the anime has another name for it but let’s be honest it’s McDonald’s) while listening to her friend whine about how her boyfriend broke up with her for another guy (wow, dating her was so bad that it made him gay). Eia takes an interest in this guy and wants to meet him so she arranges for them to meet him and his boyfriend at a bookstore where Eia isn’t convinced that the guy is gay. The guy named Ohta, challenges her to a game which is to guess the relationship of the couple sitting down from them. Ohta says they’re a couple having trouble while Eia says they’re people who just met online with the woman being uninterested in the guy after meeting him. Eia is surprisingly right (that’s some good intuition right there) and Ohta asks if she could meet up with him later. Eia agrees to meet up with him later at a karaoke bar where Ohta tells her about SCM a retainer-like device that lets you control other people with SCM and turn them into your slave. In order to control people, you have challenge them to a game and whoever loses becomes the slave of the winner and has to do whatever the winner tells them to do (rules include no doing anything that would cause the death of the slave and must be within the slave’s power to do. That means no asking them to break dance in the middle of the street, although that would be an interesting way to die). We get to see the SCM gear in action by shifting away from Eia and Ohta’s story (random) and focusing on the online couple from the bookstore where we find out that the woman named Lucie was raped by the man named Meguro after talking at the bookstore. We find out that they’ve met up a number of times and had shared interests. While there was nothing going on between them, Lucie trusted Meguro and he betrayed that trust by raping her in his car. Wanting revenge, Lucie buys two SCMs for herself and Meguro where she challenges him to a game of pachinko saying that the person who has the most balls (game balls not the other balls) at the end of an hour wins. As the hour draws to a close it looks like Meguro is going to win but Lucie pulls a fast one and reveals cartons of balls that she won earlier but hid them to trick Meguro. Lucie wins the bet and she makes Meguro her slave where he can’t defy her thanks to the SCM. We return to Eia and Ohta where Ohta gets done telling her about the SCM and wants to make her his partner and insurance. He has two SCMs and wants to give one to Eia while he uses the other one to play games and make people his slave. He says he has no interest in making people his slave he just lives for the thrill of challenging others (gambling addict). This is where Eia comes in. Should Ohta lose and become someone else’s slave, she can come to his rescue (that’s actually not a bad plan). Eia agrees to be his partner and insurance not because he’s paying her 10 million yen (although I’m sure that’s a factor) but because of the experience this will offer. Eia is a woman who feels empty inside and longs for something that’s fulfilling.
Episode 2 starts off by introducing us to a girl named Ayaka and a guy named Seiyu who works at a host club (never date a guy who works at a host club). We see that Ayaka is madly in love with Seiyu and thanks to her efforts, he became the number 1 guy at the club because she gave him a lot of money. Unfortunately, Seiyu doesn’t feel the same way about her. We find out that he actually has a girlfriend named Julia (she is pretty, I’d hit that) who works at a club as well (they’re perfect for each other) and has just been using Ayaka as an ATM to get money and finance his trips with her. He now plans to use the SCM to turn Ayaka into his slave and extort her for everything (you fucking scumbag). He challenges her to a game of rock, paper, scissors and loses to Ayaka who did research on the SCM, knew what he was trying to do, and turned the tables on him (oh snap, this girl is on top of her game). With Seiyu under her control, she orders him to confess his real life and how he feels about her (the response is anything but pleasant). Ayaka’s heart is broken but quickly recovers because now she has Seiyu under her command and the first thing she orders him to do is eat her out (hey this might not be so bad Seiyu. She is legal right?). She then forces Seiyu to break up with Julia which allows her to move in with him (and I feel no sympathy for him. He used Ayaka and tried to turn her into a slave. He got what he deserved. The only one I feel sorry for is Julia as she’s actually a nice and sweet woman who unknowingly is caught up in this bullshit). Ayaka’s new life seems to be going well (as well as you can get for a crazy obsessed girl), until Ohta and Eia show up and challenge them to a duel. Seiyu convinces Ayaka to accept the duel (oh you foolish girl. Just because he’s your slave doesn’t mean he’s loyal to you). They play thumbs up (a game I’m sure Roger and Gene used to love playing) where Seiyu sets Ayaka up to lose and sure enough she loses releasing him from Ayaka’s control and bringing him under Ohta’s control. Seiyu punches Ayaka (asshole. Okay, I admit that what Ayaka did to you was wrong, but you played with her feelings man. You knew how she felt about you and you used her for your own selfish benefits. If I was weighing the two wrongs, I say yours was far heavier) but Ohta stops him from continuing and orders the two to return to their normal lives (well Seiyu’s life is ruined and I’m sure Ayaka’s life was just stalking Seiyu and I’m sure that ship has sailed and sunk faster than the Titanic). As the two. . .associates (they sure as hell aren’t lovers) walk the streets we get a glimpse of Seiyu’s humanity as he apologizes for hitting Ayaka (anything else you want to apologize for? No? Didn’t think so) and then a few days go by where he meets back up with Julia and tries to get back with her but it’s too late as she’s now the property of a man named Ryuuou.
At the start of episode 3 we see Seiya unknowingly enter a duel with Julia where he loses and temporarily becomes her slave (this guy just can’t catch a break). She takes his SCM and sends him back to the others who reveal that this Ryuuou guy has multiple slaves which he uses as test subjects to see what he can get away with commanding them and then posts them online (why would you post that shit you sicko?). It doesn’t take long for Ohta to figure out that Seiya is under Julia’s control and has no choice but to get as far away from him as possible (he can’t even look at you. Foolish pawn). We then cut away from that story and focus on a woman named Shiori who works at a queen café (Japan. We have cafes for all your fetishes) where she acts like a queen to please her customers but in reality she’s a tomboy. She gets approached by another girl named Taiju who has fallen in love with Shiori and wants to be her slave (or vice-versa. She’s fine with either role). They get approached by 2 guys where their duel is to see who can get the guy to spend the most money on them by midnight. In the final hour, Taiju is winning (wow, these guys are really stupid or these women know how to flirt) and they go back to one of the guys’ apartments where he drugs Shiori’s drink (asshole) but Taiju saves her. Taiju is declared the winner and it gets revealed that she’s actually a boy (wow, he’s a better woman than you Shiori). They get approached by another SCM user named Zenichi who forcefully challenges Shiori to a duel believing she’s the master or he’ll kill Taiju. The game is punch-out (the Mike Tyson version?) where he just beats the crap out of Shiori (definitely Mike Tyson version) and forces her to accept defeat thus making her his slave (that was low but you can’t argue with results). Taiju runs away where he gets approached by Julia who offers to help him save Shiori if he becomes her ally. He agrees to do this and they manage to find Zenichi in the park fighting a dog named Zushiomaru who Shiori fed earlier in the episode and is an SCM user (it just keeps getting weirder). The dog challenges Zenichi to a duel which is a fight to see who can make the other cry uncle (clearly the dog has the advantage) where Zushiomaru wins after biting Zenichi in the nuts (he ain’t having kids) and making him submit.
In the first half of episode 4 Taiju shows back up with Julia and a guy named Chou and avenges Shiori by challenging Zenichi to a duel of punch out and knocking him out with a brick (and winner by default, Taiju). The two are then forced to go with Julia and Chou as they’ve become her slave since she won the duel of helping Taiju avenge Shiori and we find out that Zushiomaru (nicknamed Zushi) belongs to Eia (she does look like a dog person) who ran away months ago. She tries to get the SCM out of his mouth but he refuses to hand it over so Eia and Ohta take him with them. In the second half we meet a guy named Zero. He works the third shift at a bread factory, keeps to himself, and doesn’t have any family or others to call friend. On his way home from work he runs into a kid who begs him for help to avenge his father who became a slave in the SCM games. Not believing SCMs can turn people into slaves but wanting to help the child, he agrees to tag along where they get into a trivia duel with Chou. The first to answer 3 questions correctly wins and when it seems like Zero and the kid have won, we get a twist and find out that all this time Zero has been facing the kid who is really Ryuuou (the kid is Ryuuou? That’s actually good twist). Ryuuou beats Zero and Zero becomes his slave.
Episodes 5-8
At the start of episode 5 we see that Zero is able to disobey Ryuuou’s orders thanks to a voice he hears in his head (careful, that voice makes you RKO people out of nowhere). He runs away only to get stun gunned by Taiju and taken to Ryuuou’s secret lair where he’s now obedient to Ryuuou and tells him about the voice he heard. We also find out how Chou became Ryuuou’s slave. In the past, Chou was a businessman and would have to take his clients out to hostess clubs (drinks and women are the keys to business deals in Japan). When he was at one of these clubs he met Julia who reminded him of a woman from his past and kept coming to see her until one day she left the club she was working at. One day, Julia calls him up and tells him she’s at a different club and wants to see him again. He goes to see her where she tricks him into playing a game using the SCMs and loses because he failed to guess the correct color of her panties (man she is a natural at this game). After Chou’s story we focus on Eia and Ohta who have received a letter from a crazy person challenging them to a duel. Ohta wants to do it but Eia says no and finally has enough of the SCM crap and wants out but Ohta won’t have it as one, he’s crazy, and two, he’s in love with her and doesn’t want her to leave his side (because let’s be honest, he’s not gonna find anyone more tolerant then her). Eia takes her leave but Ohta tricks her into a hotel room and uses Ayaka as a hostage to get Eia to agree to a duel. She still refuges to do it and Zushi comes to the defense of his master by challenging Ohta in her place. Zushi duels against Ayaka where their duel is to see who can eat the dinnerware first (oh that’s twisted). Ayaka is forced to eat the dinnerware and Eia not wanting any harm to come to Zushi stops him from eating the dinnerware and begs Ohta to stop the duel but he refuses and Ayaka manages to win. So Zushi becomes Ohta’s slave which means he gets Eia as she has no intention of leaving Zushi alone in this situation (a package deal. Nice).
In the first half of episode 6 we see the backstory of Zushi (wow, even the dog gets a backstory). We find out that he ran away from Eia because he saw a bitch that he liked (you mean to tell me he ran away from home just to get laid? Can’t find fault with that). Unfortunately, he couldn’t find the bitch, got lost, and got wounded (worst day ever). He got found by a man named Sumida a scientist who was the inventor of the SCM. Kushi, wanting to repay the kindness of Sumida decided to stay with him and be his test animal for the SCM. We see that the SCM was originally meant for pets to help them stay more obedient, but another scientist named Sategaya saw an alternative for these devices (human trafficking in disguise). Sategaya stole the data of the SCM which forced Sumida to resign from his job and ultimately commit suicide. Wanting to avenge Sumida, Kushi took the prototype SCM created by Sumida and went out to search for Sategaya but just like the bitch he has no luck in finding him and just roamed the streets lost and hungry until he was finally reunited with Eia (and then became the slave of this crazy guy). In the second half Ohta comes across a crazy person who is a woman named Fujiko on the subway train. She captures him with drugs and says she’s looking for a man named Shinnosuke who just happens to be Ohta’s old friend. In the past these two were trying to start up a business together and came across the SCMs. Shinnosuke wanted to sell them off for cash (they were selling pretty high) but Ohta said they should use them themselves but Shinnosuke said no. In the end, Ohta betrayed Shinnosuke and ran off with 2 of the SCMs. Fujiko is now looking for Shinnosuke because she’s in love with him. Shinnosuke rescued her from some thugs, they had dinner, got drunk, and may have possibly had sex (which is most unlikely because if Shinnosuke did he would still be with her). The next morning Shinnosuke was gone but he left behind the SCM, so Fujiko decided to take part in the SCM madness in the hopes of finding the man she loves (she really is crazy. Why did Shinnosuke leave her?). Fujiko challenges Ohta to a duel which is whoever sees their mom first loses. She drugs Ohta again (these duels need guidelines) and sneaks him into his mom’s house (how she knew where his mom lived is beyond me) where Ohta’s mom sees him naked and tied up (well that’s going to traumatize her. Better save money for therapy). So Ohta becomes Fujiko’s slave (serves him right) and his first task is to make Eia and Zushi her slaves but Eia flips the script and manages to beat Ohta in a duel and make him her slave (you should have left him to suffer). With Ohta now saved you would think Eia would be done with the SCM stuff, right? Nope, she instead decides to keep on playing because she now has a new goal. She wants to find everyone involved in the SCM game, make them her slaves, and then free them all bringing an end to the SCM once and for all (why do I get the feeling this plan will not go as smoothly as she hopes?).
Episode 7 gives us the backstory of Julia and Ryuuou. After Seiya was forced to throw Julia out, she stayed at the friend of a friend’s house where said friend worked all day and night and had a son named Ryuuou (wait a second. You’re telling me this woman allowed another woman she knew nothing about to live in her house and around her underaged son unsupervised? That is bad parenting right there). Ryuuou was cold and distant to her at first and usually just spent his days in his room looking up torture devices on the internet (call the ward. When a child is looking up tortured devices online, that’s usually the sign to send them to the mental ward) but then one day challenged Julia to a game after obtaining two SCMs. Julia lost and became Ryuuou’s slave where he ordered her to go with him to where his mom works. We find out that Ryuuou’s mom works at a soapland (the kind of place that would be frowned upon here in the states) because of a large debt and in order to save her, Ryuuou has to raise 100 million yen. Julia decides to help him out realizing that despite his tough and cold act, he’s actually just a frightened child who longs to save his mom. Together, the two form a partnership (and I think Julia became a shotacon somewhere down the line) and managed to get a number of slaves under their control with neither of them telling the others about Ryuuou’s family situation (I don’t blame them it’s too embarrassing). In the second half Ryuuou and his slaves take on Fujiko in a 4 on 4 capture the flag game with the masters giving out orders to the slaves. Both sides appear to be even but Fujiko’s group manages to reach the flag which is being guarded by Julia who in an act to scare off the other players shocks herself while standing in water (Good Lord woman). She survives and gets knocked out but the plan works as Fujiko’s slaves are too afraid to go after the flag because they fear for their lives and since the SCM won’t let slaves do something that would put their lives in mortal danger, they can reject Fujiko’s order to advance. Ryuuou manages to make his way to Fujiko’s flag, avoids all the traps, and wins the game for his team.
In the first half of episode 8 Ryuuou sends Julia and Fujiko into a school to investigate a mysterious new SCM user. The new user is Sategaya who quickly makes Fujiko his slave and goes after Julia where he manages to catch her but Julia refuses to put in her SCM so Sategaya can’t duel her. But he decides to remain patient as it’s only a matter time before she starts going insane without her SCM. In the second half Eia sets her sights on taking out Muon, a corrupted businessman (and the one who put Ryuuou’s mom in debt). She challenges him to a duel to see who can raise the most money in 2 hours. Muon gathers money from his businesses while Eia heads out to the streets where she sings the opening theme song and receives a generous donation from Saiko her slave bringing her earnings to 500,000 yen. Muon manages to get 900,000 yen and Ohta disguised as a loan shark tries to trick Muon out of 100 million yen but he sees through the trick, captures Ohta, and takes the money. When Eia returns it seems like she’s destined to lose despite raising 1 million yen but it turns out there was a time bomb in the bag of money Ohta bought (you burned 100 million yen? I think I’m gonna to be sick). All of the money gets burnt which brings Muon’s total earnings to 900,000 yen which loses to Eia’s 1 million yen.
Episodes 9-12
We start episode 9 by meeting a new character named Gekkou who is a complete nut job who is obsessed by an internet doll named Maria who does livestreams answering questions in a sadist like manner (https://youtu.be/P5iqYuFmzqg). He writes down one of his worries to Maria where she messages him in school asking him to take down Fujiko in his school (Corbin: Oh I’ll take her down. Take her all the way down to pleasure island and back). He arrives at the nurse’s office where he sees Fujiko talking to Sategaya where we see his SCM has the power to make anyone his slave without having to duel them as long as they wear their SCM (so basically this guy can screw the rules and do anything he wants). Gekkou goes to report his discovery to Maria where we see the real Maria is an overweight, tall, middle-aged woman (at least I hope it’s a woman). She gives Gekkou an SCM and sends him out to meet Kiyo who will help him defeat Ryuuou. Gekkou meets Ryuuou and Zero in the park where Zero challenges him to a duel of ‘Look that way’. Zero wins and soon holds Ryuuou hostage revealing himself to be Kiyo (https://youtu.be/TH6Acpzurb0). Ryuuou manages to escape from Kiyo’s grasp who escapes with Gekkou after Maria comes to pick them up (I have no idea what’s going on). After this scene we get a flashback where we discover that Kiyo was actually Zero’s mom who passed away some time ago in a car accident (I fail to see the family resemblance). After her death, her mind somehow fused with Zero’s mind and created a split personality separated from Zero (you’re trying too hard anime). Wanting to save her son, Kiyo took control of Zero’s body and sought the help of Maria who owes Kiyo her life after befriending her in a police holding cell after she punched some guy for making fun of her (wow, talk about BS). Zero was so shocked by Kiyo’s death that he completely forgot her but when Zero put in the SCM and became Ryuuou’s slave, Kiyo’s subconscious awakened inside of him and now she wants to save him from Ryuuou.
Nothing much happens in episode 10. Ryuuou’s slaves become worried about Ryuuou so they decide to take action themselves and find Julia and Fujiko. While that’s going on Eia and Ryuuou come face to face with each other at the bookstore where Eia gives him a donut (that’s not creepy at all) and he recommends some books to her before taking his leave. Ryuuou’s group comes across Sategaya where they surround him and decide to be idiots by putting in their SCMs (why the hell would you do that? Chou has a gun, he could have just easily forced Sategaya to hand Julia over or better yet take his SCM and shoot the guy. I know the SCM is a big part of this anime but let’s use our brains here). So as you would imagine they all become Sategaya’s slaves and he uses this to call out Ryuuou. In another part of the story, Maria comes across this psycho wearing a gas mask who challenges her to a duel where she loses (in embarrassing fashion).
In episode 11 Eia’s group learns about Sategaya and the Judgement SCM from Muon where they receive a text from Sategaya calling them out to a warehouse. Muon gets his men to surround the place while the others look for Sachi (why? You have hired guns who aren’t using SCMs. Rush the place, take everyone down, shoot Sategaya and this whole ordeal is over. Idiots). They find Sachi but she’s forced to lead them into a trap where they all get captured (you guys still had you’re SCMs in? Why didn’t you take them out!? You know what he can do so take them out? Oh my God this anime is gonna drive me insane). The only person who managed to escape was Eia thanks to Ohta who pushed her out of the way. As Sategaya relishes in his victory we find out that the Judgement SCM only works on those who have been enslaved once (that means Eia and Ryuuou are our only chance out of this situation) and it also causes a little damage to the brain as well for each use. While in the restroom he gets ambushed by Maria and Zero who are now the slaves of the psycho mask-wearer named Takio who actually does the smart thing and has his slaves not wear their SCMs (finally, someone who thinks in this anime) and challenges him to a legit duel where he wins thanks to Fujiko who sided with Takio in the hopes of finding Shinnosuke. In the second half we see Takio’s backstory (it’s the 11th episode I could care less) where we see he was just a pencil-pusher at work who everyone looked down on (maybe it’s because you come across as an asshole) and wanted to use the SCM to create a harem (someone’s ambitions I can get behind. It’s sad when the psycho’s ambitions are the ones I can relate to). He eventually made Sachi his slave but she soon started to ignore him so he decided to start going after others where his next slave was Maria followed by Zero then Fujiko and now that he has beaten Sategaya he now has a total of 18 slaves.
In the final episode Eia teams up with Shinnosuke and Ryuuou to save everyone from Takio. They find him holed up in an abandoned school building where he strips the women of their clothes and shoots the men with a BB gun all while insulting them (they are so gonna kick your ass when this is all over). Eia manages to sneak into the building and forces Takio into a duel of beg for your life (aka say uncle). Takio has the others tie Eia up which she and the others predicted and created a countermeasure for this. While Eia keeps him distracted, Shinnosuke rigs the first floor with explosives and fights Yuuga where he manages to win. Ryuuou sets off the explosives which makes the building catch fire with Eia and Takio on the top floor and everyone else down below. Kiyo takes control of Zero and frees Eia, Shinnosuke makes it up to the top floor and gets everyone out of the burning building by jumping out the window (it looks we’re gonna have to jump). As Shinnosuke jumps out the window Takio begs for his life giving Eia the win and ownership of everyone except Ryuuou (I always knew it would come down to these two). They decide to have one last duel which is just a flip of the coin where Eia wins and destroys the SCM game once and for all (thank you).
Final Thoughts
So that was Dorei-ku. If you weren’t able to figure out why this anime doesn’t work it’s because the anime was beyond boring to watch and nobody wants to watch an anime where people become the slaves of other people. The anime just bounces with so many uninteresting characters. The only character that actually comes across as interesting is Ryuuou. If the anime would have just focused on him and his quest to save his mom the anime might have been saved. Not likely, but it would have been more interesting. The other characters I really don’t care about. Eia is pretty bland, and the rest of the characters are assholes or characters that I forget quickly. Was there any redeeming quality in this anime? No. The anime was just boring to watch from beginning to end. I honestly had to force myself to finish watching this anime because I had already started writing a review for it and it’s not in my nature to cancel a review when I start writing it. Watching this anime is exhausting and frustrating as the characters keep making stupid choices, playing uninteresting games, and did I mention it was boring to watch?
Final Score
The final score for Dorei-ku is a disappointing but well deserved 1/10. I really did want to like this anime, it sounded like a good dark thriller, but the anime poorly represents the source material and makes so uninteresting and boring. If you want, check out the manga or light novels and see if those are any better. Alright, three disappointments in a row. I refuse to let Aniween end like this. Come on internet, give me something to end this year off on high note.
*A notice appears of Castlevania S3 appears on Nitsuj’s phone*
I think we have a winner. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj. MUHAHAHAHAHA- oh hey a $20 dollar bill.
*Nitsuj bends down to pick up the bill just in time as a bean bag goes flying over his head and hitting the wall*
Well, that was a close one.
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