Let’s face it, everyone thought this. The beginning of Platinum End was similar to an Isekai plot—the MC “dies” and gets a second shot at life. While Mirai didn’t die in the first episode, he still had a different perspective about life when he was saved by Nasse just like an isekai protagonist. Mirai was willing to rise up to the challenge of protecting his happiness at all costs, no matter how small his chances, and showed us that he is a smart individual.

On the other hand, there are also other parallels. The premise of “god-candidates” being chosen by angels to fight against one another and emerge as “God” is a premise that is similar to Mirai Nikki. We can only hope that this anime doesn’t have the unsatisfactory ending that Mirai Nikki did. There are some similarities with Death Note which is unsurprising considering the creators are the same two people. The plot has some great aspects like establishing Mirai’s goal in the very first episode and showing how twisted such a competition for god candidates can be. But Platinum End doesn't offer anything new other than these already-established tropes that other anime have already done. While it’s too early to give up on this anime, it does feel like if it keeps going down this road, it won’t live up to its expectations.

The characters in Platinum End have depth to them but also don’t at the same time. For example, the protagonist Mirai Kakehashi has a goal to protect his happiness at all costs and the way the competition between god-candidates is set threatens his goal. However, other characters like Saki and Nasse don’t seem to have much depth. They only exist to make Mirai progress. This is bad characterization because what makes an anime really good is when the characters are able to stand out by themselves but also merge with the plot. Moreover, the characters of Platinum End don’t stir us up and make us empathize with them like Death Note did. Even though we knew that Light Yagami was a bad person for ruthlessly killing anyone he pleased, we also saw sense in his attempt to purge the world of evil. The tension between rooting for Light but also wanting him to stop was palpable throughout the show and that’s what made him such a great character. With Mirai, he seems half-baked at best but we can only hope that the later episodes will show us more clarity.

One of the complaints that Platinum End has been receiving is the shoddy animation of the mechs in the anime. The antagonist called Metropoliman wears what can only be described as a Power Rangers Suit and the animation that accompanies it ruins the feel of the whole anime. While the art, animation, and the tone of the anime are a lot similar to Death Note, the use of mechs in such a world almost feels like a joke. We get Metropoliman does it because he wants to keep his identity a secret but, surely, there are better ways to go about that and better ways to animate it…