Dorei-ku The Animation

November 3, 2018

Like it or not, slavery still exists even today. I suppose it is only human nature to enslave others as part of their darkest and twisted desire to display their supremacy and dominance. However there is a tool today that allows you to get anybody as your own slave without having to resort to outright violence or obvious oppression and without having society and lawmakers breathing down your neck or face the long arm of the law. At least in the anime Dorei-ku The Animation you can. All you need to do is get yourself a mouthpiece tool that looks like some imitation braces and challenge people to any game of your choice. Then when you win, voila! They’ll become your slave. It’s that simple. But beware should you lose. Then you become their slave.

Episode 1
Eia Arakawa listens out to her friend complaining how her heart broken friend being dumped by her boyfriend so he could enter into another relationship with a guy! Holy sh*t! Eia will help her get back at him and arranges a meet up. So Yuuga Oota is fine having this gay relationship with this hideous lion dude? Eia wants the guys to prove they love each other. He gives excuses about being in public but Eia immediately does it to her friend. Lesbians ok but gays no? Yuuga suggests playing a game by guessing the relationship of the couple next to their table. Eia could correctly guess at first go. They met on a dating site and the girl isn’t so keen in seeing her ugly blind date. Yuuga is impressed and since she is the only winner, he will talk to her later. Her friend gets jealous thinking he is trying to hit on her. Later Yuuga explains that he isn’t into guys and did this gig to break up with her so she could laugh about it in the future. Yuuga hears Eia’s keen observation on how she got her guess right and is excited to introduce her to a game. Interested in getting slaves with this device known as SCM? Meanwhile, Rushie Suginami, the girl in that blind date regretted meeting that dude, Masakazu Meguro. At first they share the same paranormal interest but soon he raped her after that date. Hence she plots her revenge via SCM. She meets him at the pachinko parlour and suggests playing a game. From the way she entices him, he will not lose much so he thinks she is just a horny b*tch wanting to get f*cked. The one with the most pachinko balls wins. He thought he won but Rushie takes out trays of her balls she won the entire morning. Because he agreed to the rules prior and lost, the SCM he is wearing takes effect. He is now her slave and is forced to do everything under her command.

Yuuga explains to Eia about this SCM. They look like dentures and placed behind the teeth. They engage in a duel in which the loser will become the winner’s slave due to some technical BS on how the SCM amplifies the sense of the loser’s obligation. Of course there are a few other caveats like you cannot order your slave to take his/her own life. Yuuga wants Eia to join in him in his scheme as insurance. He will not make her his slave but a partner. You see, if Yuuga challenges others and loses, the only way to get out of this slave control is via another master to verbally release you. You can take out the SCM but the effects will have you put it back and if you fight it, you’ll go crazy. Hence he wants Eia to be his partner to release him from slavery should he lose. As for why he is doing this, he wants to test himself. Eia somewhat understands the excitement in this and agrees to be his partner. Rushie relishes tormenting that fatty as he really does what she says. Punching himself in the face but short of killing himself from it.

Episode 2
Host club guy, Seiya Shinjuku challenges Ayaka Toshima in an SCM game. He lost but that is when Ayaka reveals she also knows about SCM. Now that he is her slave, she makes him reveal the truth about his feelings for her. Seems he finds her a pain and only plays nice as she spends money on him. Like a disgusting human ATM. Ayaka is sad she worked hard and multiple jobs for his company. So she lets him eat her pussy (?!) to earn her praise. She will use SCM to keep her dream alive. Hence she moves into his apartment and has him throw out all the belongings of his girlfriend, Julia Katsushika. Yuuga shows Eia an app that displays the locations of masters and slaves in the vicinity. There is a pair nearby and he is going to challenge them. That pair is Seiya and Ayaka. When SCM users are close to each other, their SCM will vibrate. Yuuga and Eia challenge them to a game. Ayaka doesn’t want to do it but after hearing Seiya out how they can win this, she agrees. In this thumb game, the last one left is the loser. Seiya goes out first. Ayaka thought it was cool but then she realizes she is left to fend for herself and Seiya looks like he doesn’t give a f*ck to help her. Could it be he wants to lose to get a new master? Eventually Ayaka loses. Yuuga then reveals Eia isn’t wearing an SCM. Had Yuuga lost, he would have her free him (but how? Is she his master already?). Ayaka rants about taking Seiya away from him. Suddenly that guy punches her to shut her up! Yuuga orders them to stop and will have them return to their normal lives and not participate in other SCM duels. Seiya returns home. He remembers his life was trash. Left to be wasted, Julia saved him. They were the perfect couple until he made the mistake of dabbling with SCM. That forced break up with Julia was heart breaking. He might be free from Ayaka’s control but he still lost someone important. Suddenly Julia pops up. He vows not to let her hand go again. However she reveals she met someone else after they broke up. Nicknamed Ryuuou, she shows his mark on her skin that proves her ownership over her.

Episode 3
Looks like Julia is also wearing an SCM. Yup, she is Ryuuou’s slave. And now Seiya will temporarily be her slave before she transfers this ownership to Ryuuou. Seiya lost because he let go of her hand. Uhm, I didn’t know that also constituted a duel. When Seiya returns to Yuuga’s group, they find lots of nude slavery pics of Julia online. Because he cannot answer Yuuga’s questions, this proves he is not his slave anymore. Plus, Julia took his SCM out (but will return it later) so Yuuga can’t challenge him for a duel. Thinking he could be a spy for Ryuuou, they leave him alone to discuss things. Shiori Adachi works as some cosplay hostess. A princess one. After work, she meets an eager fan, Taiju Nakano who manages to convince her to play this SCM game as she is interested in this slave and master thingy. Thinking it is just a toy and having nothing better to do, she agrees. But what will the play for? A couple of guys try to hit on them. Uhm, isn’t that lion head dude? So the challenge is who could get the guy to spend more on them. Man, the guys must have deep pockets to splash the cash. Near the end of their date, they meet and feed a dog. It isn’t a stray as it has a tag name, Zushioumaru. Unknown to them, it is also wearing an SCM. When they go to the guys’ house, suddenly Shiori is knocked out after drinking her drink. Realizing this is a date rape, suddenly Nakano turns the tables over! Resting at the park, Nakano reveals he is actually a guy! Shiori felt she lost to her as a woman. This activates her SCM. Suddenly this ruffian dude, Zenichi Bunkyou approaches them and wants to know who the master is. From Shiori’s words, he thinks she is the one and grabs her. He challenges her to a punching game and he punches her face until she gives up!!! After beating up Nakano and thinking this cross-dresser is also his slave, but Nakano darts for it. Hiding in an alley while regretting putting Shiori in danger, Julia offers to help but with a condition he becomes their ally. Julia brings him to meet colleague, Ataru Chuo who wants him to duel Julia as prove he is on their side. As they reach the park, they see Zenichi trying to fend off Zushioumaru. Doggie bites his balls and big bully is forced to admit his loss!

Episode 4
Flashback shows Zenichi being confronted by a few bodyguards because he refused to pay for Ayaka’s service. As he doesn’t like being bossed around, he beats them up! Muon Nerima saw this and thinks he is suitable to be his successor. He is the ringleader of the red light district. Zenichi loved the idea of women and money but is made to prove himself by wearing this SCM. For every slave he gets, he gets a million bucks. The rest is history. After beating Shiori, Zushioumaru came to the rescue. Chuo offers him to be their ally but Zenichi would rather die than be bossed around. Chuo wants to duel him but Nakano takes responsibility to avenge Shiori. The game is punch out and Nakano is holding a brick! As they clean up, they see Zushioumaru returning to its owner: Eia. Chuo wants the dog since it is wearing SCM but Yuuga tries to extract more info about Ryuuou. He is not saying anything. Yuuga offers to duel to free him from his slavery but Chuo remains cool and thinks that is a lie. Later Yuuga and Eia discuss how the dog end up wearing an SCM as well as the possibility that Ryuuou has a lot of slaves. Zero Shinagawa is a lonely guy whose life is just one big mundane routine. One day a kid wants him to help him avenge his father who lost an SCM duel and went crazy because the winner ran away and without the SCM, his brain suffered some damage. He would have duelled himself but nobody would take him seriously as a kid. Zero doesn’t want to get involved but when the kid says nobody ever believes him, this triggers Zero’s childhood trauma that nobody believed him and threw baseless accusations at him. Zero agrees to help so they meet the person to duel: Chuo. The game will be a quiz. First to get 3 correct wins. But it seems the kid is answering on Zero’s behalf. Eventually Zero answers one correctly himself and Chuo messes up on one. Does this mean Zero has won? On the contrary Chuo isn’t the one battling but the kid. He reveals his SCM. Zero loses and is now his slave. That story about his dad was made up and Zero was an easy target as nobody would care if he vanishes since he lives alone. A juicy revelation as the kid reveals himself as Ryuuou!

Episode 5
Somehow Zero could defy Ryuuou’s orders! He runs away but is soon knocked out. Although he is still Ryuuou’s slave, Zero explains that he heard a voice in his head to run. I’m sure that wasn’t the voice of God. Julia returns to report that Zenichi has disappeared from hospital and is left with a note. Written in blood by a crazy person, it is definitely a challenge between SCM users. Ryuuou agrees to the challenge to punish that person. Shiori finds out that Chuo is actually Julia’s slave. He started seeing her in the club she works. One day he saw her looking troubled so he thought of agreeing to play a game with her to cheer her up. Before he knew it, he became her slave. Yeah, he guessed the wrong colour of her pantsu. She wasn’t wearing any… Yuuga also receives the same letter and wants to take up the challenge. However Eia refuses as she believes the game has gotten more dangerous. Yuuga is disappointed. He thought she shared the same feelings and all. That was then. Now not so. She doesn’t want innocent people dragged in to become slaves forever. Yuuga even hits her! Eia still won’t cooperate and get him more slaves. Back home, Eia receives a message that Yuuga has lost to that crazy person. Don’t know why she is obligated to go save him. Turns how he set up himself. That’s not the end of it. He has ordered Ayaka to soak in an ice bath. Hmm… I thought masters cannot put slaves’ live in danger? Of course she cannot get out until he says so. Yuuga rants about his boring school and work life. Yeah, this gives him the thrills. His plan is to make Zushioumaru his slave. He doesn’t want Ayaka to wear the SCM or she won’t be his insurance anymore. That way, she will always stay by his side. No choice, Ayaka and Zushioumaru enter the next duel, an eating contest. No food on the plate? You eat the utensils! It’s painful seeing Ayaka trying to break the fork into pieces to swallow! Zushioumaru would do the same too but his mouth and teeth aren’t compatible. Eia agrees to do whatever he says but Yuuga lets the duel go on until Ayaka wins. Hope she doesn’t get indigestion. Yuuga then transfers Zushioumaru’s slave status from Ayaka to himself. Also, he reveals he isn’t that crazy person and just used that for this. Things are going to be crazier now that crazy people are going to play this game.

Episode 6
Wow. Now we hear the thoughts of Zushioumaru. Originally Eia’s pet, one day he saw a cute bitch (the female dog, mind you) and chased after it. Too bad he got lost and injured. A kind professor, Sumida took him in and cared for it. As he is a scientist researching about the brain, Zushioumaru didn’t mind becoming his test subject. He developed a mild prototype called Slave Control Method otherwise known as SCM. One night, his greedy colleague, Tsubaki Setagaya stole all that data to modify it for his own use and fled. Sumida felt responsible for this and resigned. With only a prototype in hand, Zushioumaru had this idea of wearing it because SCM vibrates when another wearer is nearby, to find Setagaya. Doggie must be real confident Setagaya is wearing it all the time. Too bad he didn’t find him. When Zushioumaru returned, Sumida had hanged himself. Zushioumaru vowed to find Setagaya at all cost. That’s when he stumbled into Shiori and then his SCM vibrated for the first time when Zenichi was around. The rest is history. Zushioumaru is happily reunited with Eia but wonders why she is with Yuuga whom he can sniff is a liar.

Yuuga is on the crowded train when a woman comes up to him and whispers she is that crazy person. She has him agree to a duel but before was drugged out and brought back to her base. Fujiko Taito introduces the slaves she has now that include Rushie, Masakazu, Zenichi and even Ayaka. Fujiko wants to know if he knows a man with a lion hairstyle. In fact he does. Shinnosuke Tachikawa was his friend and business partner. They wanted to sell SCMs but Yuuga had other ideas of using it so it ended there for them. Apparently Fujiko is looking for him because love at first sight. He saved her in a weird cliché manner from thugs. However he soon left and left behind and SCM. Her goal is to use it to find him so he can be hers. Not so fun now that you’re the slave, huh? With Yuuga as her slave, he is ordered to capture Eia and Zushioumaru. But Yuuga falls into another duel and loses. This person is Eia. She saved him so as to free him? This means wearing the SCM. At least she kept her promise even though he is a jerk. Better thank your lucky stars. Eia who was against using SCMs seems all for it now. They find another SCM user, Sachi Shibuya as Eia battle and win over her. Yuuga is afraid of how Eia is using it so aggressively. It seems Eia’s goal is to free all slaves from SCM. Although it can be as easy as the master’s orders, what about other slaves out there they don’t know? Hence she is going to enslave everyone wearing an SCM and them let them all go free. She’ll then rid the world of SCM. Wow. That’s like trying to destroy humanity to save it. I guess you have to be this crazy if you want it to work.

Episode 7
Julia narrates she loves holding hands of her parents. When they could not, other men tried to do the same via money or violence but they weren’t serious. Until she met Seiya. He was always there for her until that sudden breakup. Depressed, her tranny friend suggested a place of a friend to clear her head. But that home belonged to Ryuuou but he is always home alone as his mom is always out working. Thinking of being his friend, Julia agreed to play a game using SCM. She lost and is ordered to strip. This was the first time Ryuuou used the SCM and is amazed it worked. The next step is to go rescue his mom who is working in a red light district run by Nerima. However he couldn’t save her as Nerima says mom owes a lot of money and if he could secure 100 million yen, he might consider releasing his mom. Julia pitied him and agreed to his order to bait and catch more people to become his slave. She doesn’t mind doing this as it is their secret and hence their bond they share. Meeting up with Fujiko’s side, both agree to a duel of capture the flag in this warehouse. Aside from capturing the opponent’s flag to win, a slave goes out if any body part other than their feet touches the ground. Slaves can also hurt one another. The loser will all become the winner’s slave. We see Fujiko’s side taking the lead as she seems like outsmarting Ryuuou’s slaves. But when near Ryuuou’s flag, Julia electrocutes herself with a pool around the pool as warning. It seems one of the core rules as a slave is that they can disobey an order if they think it will kill them. Ryuuou on the other hand has quietly dismantled all the traps laid by Fujiko as he claims her flag. Fujiko admits her loss. In the aftermath, Fujiko is surprised that Julia actually electrocuted herself despite knowing the dangers even though it is Ryuuou’s order. She wonders why she would go that far for her master.

Episode 8
Ryuuou wants information on an SCM user that has a star mark. As it appeared inside a school, he wants Julia to infiltrate as a student. Fujiko also volunteers but since she is a nurse, she has the credentials to become a school nurse. They didn’t find any leads until Fujiko is confronted with Setagaya. At the same time Julia is confronted by Minami Kita who knows Julia is an SCM user and wants to duel her. Julia runs but is cut off by Setagaya and Fujiko who is now his slave. Julia is kidnapped as she learns he is the star SCM. Setagaya wants her cooperation as he wants to make this world a better place via SCM. As he tries to put in his star SCM into her, she struggles and loses her own. Setagaya is interested to see how long she can resist without an SCM. Eia schemes a plan to duel Nerima as Sachi is forced to ignore a call from her mad boyfriend, Takio Minato. Minami narrates how she wanted a better life. She mixed with the wrong company but eventually everyone around her disappeared. Until she met Setagaya who introduced her to SCM and assured she could win her freedom. She used it to enslave Nerima but notes nothing has changed. Eia comes in to duel Nerima. The challenge is to earn the most money in 2 hours. Money in the bank doesn’t count and you can’t use the phone or computer. This duel seems to favour Nerima as he has multiple businesses. Whatever. Challenge accepted. Nerima calls his men to bring in the money from his establishments. Meanwhile Minami follows Eia to a park where she sings and the people throws some lose changes to fill up a boot. But Sachi comes by and dumps hundreds and thousands of yen! Minami knows she is one of her slaves and part of her tactic. Meanwhile Yuuga disguises as a loan shark interested to loan Nerima money. 10 million. But it seems Nerima knows the catch and signs Eia’s name on it. There is a clause that says he must return all the money in 30 minutes. Crazy. Yuuga is caught and tied up. When Eia returns, it looks like she is going to lose but wait. The 10 million goes up in flames! There is a timer to set fire on it? With time is up, Eia’s 1 million beats Nerima’s 900 thousand. Eia explains the million she got was from Sachi asking donations from her friends. Phew. Otherwise the real 10 million they burn would have been for nothing. Literally all gone up in smoke. Eia reveals her plan to free everyone from slavery and destroy SCM. Nerima applauds her goal and believes she can stand up to a certain someone.

Episode 9
Gekkou Itabashi is an obsessed fan of a sadistic online counsellor, Maria Chiyoda. Yeah, he’s probably a masochist. He is ordered to spy on Ryuuou’s underlings believed to have popped up at his school. He spies on Setagaya and Fujiko’s confrontation. Setagaya made Fujiko wear a special SCM in exchange for info she is looking for. When Setagaya puts on his SCM, Fujiko immediately becomes his slave. It seems Setagaya’s SCM is also a special SCM and is able to pass down judgment and hence turning her into his slave. Gekkou got scared and ran away. Seeking forgiveness before Maria, she has another mission for him. Put on this SCM and rendezvous with her comrade, Kiyo Koto. Maria is reluctant to use him but since he can hear sounds of SCM, might as well use his talents to save her senior, Kiyo. Just have to put up with his annoyance. Ryuuou and Zero are at the school at night to investigate the disappearance of Julia and Fujiko. But before them is dumb Gekkou trying to stop them. Easily destroyed by Zero. But Gekkou thinks Zero is Kiyo. A switch is flipped inside Zero as he makes Gekkou enter a duel. Gekkou lost. Ryuuou puts on his SCM to transfer Zero’s slave to his however it doesn’t work. Zero is against Ryuuou? It seems this is not Zero but Kiyo! Chuo and Nakano arrive to help but Maria picks them up and escapes. Flashback shows Zero turning up at Maria’s place. Claiming he is Kiyo, Maria doesn’t believe him because Kiyo is a woman and died a while ago. Kiyo claims Zero is her son and her conscious somehow transferred to her. She wants her to help Zero. Going back further into the flashback, Maria once met Kiyo in prison after a minor scuffle. They became good friends when they got out but unfortunately Kiyo died in an accident. Next time when Maria visits Zero, Zero doesn’t have memories when he was out nor his mom. Soon Zero becomes Kiyo as she explains about Zero not knowing her because she died when he was young and the trauma made him lose his memories. Kiyo somehow reawakened when Zero put on the SCM. Their plan is to duel Ryuuou, defeat him and free Zero.

Episode 10
Ryuuou reminisces his normal and happy life with his mom. Until she started working more frequently and was rarely at home. Then Julia came into his life and he got to know about SCM. With Julia always by his side since, he noticed she has been starting to do a lot of things for him despite not being ordered around. Was it because of SCM? As Ryuuou is reading at a bookstore, surprisingly Eia comes to talk to him and give him her doughnut. Ryuuou wonders if she is unaware of who he is. He just had that look he wanted to eat a doughnut and thought it would be nice to share. Ryuuou initiates his plan to get Julia back. As Masakazu also went missing after Julia and Fujiko, Ryuuou’s slaves have caught him and trying to extract info. They find a message of a place to meet. They lie in wait to ambush as they see Setagaya and Fujiko appearing. When they have them cornered and as soon Setagaya learns Ryuuou is not among them, he uses his SCM to turn them all into his slaves. He then makes a courtesy call to Ryuuou that all his slaves are his now. But Ryuuou is only concerned about Julia and gets worked up after hearing how dutiful she is. To add insult, he sends a picture of Julia licking his feet! Setagaya reveals to his slaves that this was all part of his plan to bait and get them in one fell swoop. They have become perfect specimens to collect SCM data. Meanwhile Maria believes she has lost her trump card to defeat Ryuuou since he now knows about Kiyo. She thinks of putting on SCM to make Zero her slave to save Kiyo. Thinking Gekkou is at the door, however it is some crazy sniper gas mask dude as he attacks her and is going to turn her into his slave.

Episode 11
Nerima explains to Yuuga and Eia about the star SCM. After Minami enslaved him, Setagaya popped up and with his star SCM, he became his slave. He was ordered to pretend to be Minami’s slave. Setagaya made a deal with him that for every slave he gets, he will be paid. It is a win-win for them as Nerima would get the money and Setagaya the data he wants. The plan is to approach Setagaya without becoming his slave but soon they realize Sachi isn’t around. Just in time, they get a message from Setagaya that Sachi has been captured and to come to the warehouse. So when they make their move, Setagaya’s slaves corner them. However it is a trap as these are Nerima’s men in disguise. The real ones make their way in to find Sachi only to fall into a pit trap. Setagaya is impressed with his big catch but notices Eia not among the group. Yuuga pushed her away before they fell in. Now she is on the run. Setagaya is now talking to Fujiko as he explains how SCM works something like Pavlov’s Bell. As I understand, it is when you realize you have lost that you become a slave. As his star SCM gives off that similar sound, it brings back memories of your loss and thus the reason you lose before any duel is made. However this only works on people who have lost. This is why he wants to improve on it from the samples he collected. However he starts to bleed as it is taking a toll on his body. Suddenly he is attacked by people in a gas mask. Their master is Takio and he wants to duel Setagaya. In this lying game, Takio explains Fujiko is his slave and hence he knew all about the star SCM. Setagaya thought it is a lie but it’s not and loses. Flashback shows Takio hates people looking down on him but ever since he got the SCM, he hasn’t had any duels and became frustrated. His friend invited him to a cabaret in which Julia and Sachi became their companions. Takio targeted Julia but it was Sachi who lost to him. But as his first slave, he ordered her to have sex with her and realized the true potential of SCM. After a while, Sachi started to ignore him and he became even more frustrated. He bumped into Shinnosuke for a while and soon took things into his own hands. He observed the SCM map and those wearing it and targeted Maria to become his slave as he views her as an easy target. Extracting info from Zero, he found out about Shinnosuke and used it on Fujiko to become her next slave. Now Takio relishes he is the master of the most slaves in town.

Episode 12
Takio is using his slaves as target practice. Eia notices a number Yuuga left her. Calling it leads to Shinnosuke. After telling him what happened, Shinnosuke explains how he and Yuuga met (some brawl he was saved from). Yuuga became interested to form a partnership to do business with him but he changed when he learnt about SCM. Instead of selling it for profit, he became interested in them. He then took their money and run. So Shinnosuke is going to help her as he wants to settle things with Yuuga. But will the duo be enough to take on Takio and his slaves? This is where Ryuuou joins in. It seems Eia knows where Takio is thanks to a reliable source (Kiyo who is pretending to be under Takio’s control). Takio has Setagaya explain how many SCMs are out there. 23. Takio has the ultimate slave master as 18 slaves. Only Eia, Ryuuou and Gekkou are not his slaves. But as he counts them, there is 1 more missing. It is believed that Shinnosuke has it but sold it to someone else. Before Takio could start his next round of fun with his slaves, Eia pops up and challenges him to a duel. Whoever begs for their lives first loses. However his slaves capture her. Meanwhile Shinnosuke is putting homemade bombs all over the place while Ryuuou is on the lookout. Takio beats up Eia in hopes of making her lose. Soon, explosions occur all over. Takio panics and orders his slaves to come but they will not put themselves in danger through the fire, hence ignoring his orders.

Meanwhile Yuuga spots Shinnosuke. Both have a weird judo bout and it ends with both of them ‘declaring their love for each other’. I believe it is more of bros love than gay love. Takio mocks Eia’s plan to free all slaves. Suddenly Kiyo walks in and frees Eia. Takio tries to escape but Shinnosuke stands in his way. With fire everywhere, they have no way out. Shinnosuke has no choice but to carry them all and jump through the window! This scary ride has Takio scared sh*t as he pleads for his life. You lose. Don’t worry. They survive. Thanks to that flimsy zinc roof… Yeah… Meanwhile Ryuuou heads underground to try and free Julia. Other guys come in to help break down the door. In the aftermath, Gekkou arrives to help! It’s over, dude. But it’s not over yet as Eia and Ryuuou are both undefeated masters. The final duel is a coin toss. As the plot would have it, Eia wins. She frees everyone and bans the use of SCM or enslaving everyone. Ryuuou and Julia emotionally reunite. Nerima repays his dues to free Ryuuou’s mom from her debt. Nerima uses his influence to set up this fire thingy as some movie shoot but that’s not going to fool the authorities. Now he needs to think of what to do with Takio. But too bad Setagaya has escaped. He has his men search for him as he wants to repay his kindness. With everyone free, Eia throws away her SCM and returns home with Zushioumaru.

12 Episodes A Slave
So, uhm, that’s it? No plot twist at the end in which Eia suddenly changes her mind and reveals her true colours because and won’t free the slaves and instead goes on to dominate and enslave the world? Okay. I guess we will have to make do with this boring happy ending. What a bummer. But with Setagaya still free out there, even though SCM seems to be ‘disabled’ by Eia, as long as this guy is free, he can still make new prototypes and continue his game thereafter. Nerima better catch this guy quick if we don’t want to see history repeating itself again. Also they trolled us with that 1 missing SCM but we’ll never get to find out how because even if they teased us that some random stranger is in possession of it (for some reason his enslaving sadism kicked in late), perhaps another round of possible slavery and a possible teaser for next season! But hold on. How can that person with the only SCM left go around enslaving others? Well, the other used SCMs (assuming they have been thrown away) may be picked up by others. Hey, Eia freed those affected by SCM but this doesn’t mean the SCM itself would have stopped working, right? If Eia had foresight, she would have collected and destroyed them all! Oh boy. Didn’t think that through enough, did you?

Sometimes I feel that the irony that the term slavery is used in a very loose fashion because from what I can see, it is more of BDSM than anything. Or maybe it is just me having this old fashioned mindset that a slave has to be in very pitiful conditions and in chains. So having the people here as slaves feel like just being very obedient people as far as I would explain. Lackeys, if there was another word for it. Although the duels and games played here in challenges are nothing special and are just really simple, it also shows how terrifying that something this simple could actually end one up in a lot of mess. This is why the world is full of sh*t as long as there are greedy and evil people around.

While the concept of slaving people this easily using SCM looks like an interesting idea, however the pacing and development didn’t really play out nicely out here. There are so many mind boggling questions about the SCM that seemed to contradict itself that I got confused on how it actually works. Yes, on the outside it is that simple of both players putting it on and duel, winner becomes master and loser becomes slave. Then when you try to think a little more on the technical stuffs, it just gets a little confusing. For example, if a slave doesn’t wear his/her SCM, he/she cannot enter duels and risk become slave to others but if that is the case, can he/she obey their master without wearing SCM? If they are free from master’s control for this short period without wearing SCM, wouldn’t they have run far away? At least far enough never to see their master again? I was also wondering how Yuuga was going to make Eia his insurance if she was not initially going to wear the SCM. I thought only other masters can free slaves? If a normal people can do so, don’t you think this defeats the purpose of SCM? Another boggling thing is that if your master has become the slave of another master, then why didn’t Gekkou become Takio’s slave when Maria became his slave? Probably they kept this character for stupid comic relief that is pretty pointless but if you ponder this, doesn’t this break its own rules then? Who is Gekkou’s master then?

Another point of contention is how it works on animals. Even if Zushioumaru is a very intelligent dog and can understand some human commands, I feel Zushioumaru is a bit unrealistic because it feels like a human trapped in a dog’s body. It is to a point that little doggy could perfectly understand everything that has been said. This brings me to the next question if both SCM users are from different countries and speak different languages. Will it take effect? And how does the device actually detect when the game starts? Sure, it looks like when the users say the word itself but how does the device recognizes this?

As pointed out by Setagaya, a caveat of the SCM is that you really lose when your mind thinks you have lost. This means it is all in the mind. So if a person is particularly a very sore loser, even if he/she has actually lost and not think have actually lost yet, then the SCM will not work, right? You won’t become the master’s slave, right? So I guess that everyone we have seen so far in this anime are not really sore losers since they accept their defeat so easily and become their master’s slave in no time. Just like that saying, you don’t really lose a fight because you fall, you lose the fight because you refuse to get up. And hence SCMs are somewhat perfect for stubborn and sore losers who will never ever give in. Because it is all in the state of your mind. Hence the battle will never end! Makenai zo!!! Yeah, the not having a loser mentality is ever so important here. Heck, as proven in Zero’s case, if you have multiple personalities, you are practically ‘safe’ from being a slave. The more the better. Just don’t let that personality out. Ever again. Truly it is all in the mind.

If one of the rules for a slave is that the master cannot order a slave to die or at least put his/her life in danger, so what if a master orders the slave not to eat? It is not an immediate threat but if left alone, the slave will eventually die of starvation. But if the slave will take steps to break this and start eating, then think about this. If a slave deems something to threaten his/her life, he/she will not do as command. So if the slave is a wuss and a big pussy in life who views everything so negatively and cowardly, then theoretically the slave will not do anything the master commands, right? Example: Master: Slave, go buy me a beer. Slave: Sorry master, I’m too afraid to cross the street due to my past trauma of being knocked down by a speeding lorry and survived. Can’t do that. So again, it is all in the mind, no?

One of the biggest downfalls of this series is having too many characters. You see, this series has a total of 23 characters (or is it 24 because the official title says 23 slaves and me)! All of which are supposed to be an integral process and development of the overall series. Although there is some good points having this much characters, this means that some of the characters are nothing more than superficial and there to make up the numbers. This is particularly true for characters that appear early on in the series and are not really main or supporting character material such as Rushie, Masakazu, Seiya, Ayaka, Shiori, Nakano and Zenichi. Those like Minami who popped up late also felt like nothing and just to add up for the numbers. Even if they have like half an episode focused on their story, once that is over, they become just a number in the slave pack and forgotten. It makes you wonder if their story is really important. Yes, it is important as we get to see how their story connects to others and hence the overall big picture. However with too many characters and such little screen time, such characters have been reduced to become less important as the series reaches its closing stages.

Even if these characters had more screen time and if this series was expanded to 2 cours, I believe it will not fare any better and would lead to even more confusion. Because for one character, how much of a drama is there to be dragged out? Everybody has their own reasons and goals when they put on the SCM and many are as cliché as wanting money, power and dominance. Therefore if these characters were to have more limelight, it will be frustrating and the plot will further be at a loss. Because there are simply too many characters already so adding more screen time will not do justice to anything. That is why I suppose those aforementioned characters having their screen time and then forgotten is probably the best for them and for the overall story not to suffer. Although it is still that bad just to a lesser degree.

As for some of the main characters especially those who are supposed to be the big main players of this series, they don’t really impress too. Like Eia and Yuuga who started off giving us the impression that they are the main characters but as other characters are introduced, they slowly feel light they have been slightly relegated to the side. Eia seems like the main character only because of the need of a character to defeat the ‘bad guy’. Even Ryuuou somewhat loses his charm after being introduced. At first there was this enigma and mystery to the person who might be the biggest slave collector in town but after we get some important details about his past and other plot twists, he doesn’t seem so interesting after that. He is after all just a kid who longs for a real mother figure.

The only thing that surprised me was having Takio as the final boss. I was always thinking that Setagaya would be that role but I guess I was being confused and bored and didn’t pay attention for this plot twist. I mean, I sometimes keep wondering about this character as he pops up from time to time (in fact, he is one of the first characters to pop up when the series started) but never give much thought about it. Could it be just a red herring even if they show a little prominence of this character? So it’s like the ‘final boss’ keep changing hands. At least in my mind. From Ryuuou to Setagaya to Takio. It just shows that it is a dog eat dog world out there and if you’re not on your guard, somebody is always there waiting to knock you off your high throne and take over your spot.

The wild card and joker among all the characters is Shinnosuke. He could perhaps be the biggest link to all those involved in SCM despite his character being shown as some hippie or something. However his real final episode appearance wasn’t really mind blowing or exciting. Just because he isn’t an SCM user, he is that wild card and convenience needed to get the plot through the final episode. With their initial money up in smokes, I suppose Yuuga is going to have a hard time paying him back now. Hope he learnt his lesson from this little thrill he got. It’s been fun for a while. Now back to his boring mundane life.

Heck, Eia’s goal to free everyone and the world of SCMs must be so easy because it is revealed there are only like 23 of them. You mean Setagaya didn’t mass produce them?! Holy sh*t. I was under the impression that there are at least thousands of them free flowing around since Eia made that bold statement of wanting to rid of SCM slavery.  This means Eia could actually not go on an international personal crusade of every nook and corner of the world to find and destroy every single SCM. Phew. Only 23 of them. No sweat to track them all. And conveniently they are all in the same town. What a catch! Of course this is assuming Eia doesn’t know how many are there are first but in the end we see her freeing everyone like as though she knows that these are all the SCMs users ever. What an easy job. Now where did that 1 remaining SCM go to…

Artwork and animation feel like a mixed bag because I noticed the quality sometimes fluctuates between passable and mediocre. It’s not like it is heavy on the action side either. Some of the hot female characters like Julia and Fujiko, it feels like they lap up their sexiness like as though they come from another anime if you think too much about it. But I want to point out that the first time I looked at Setagaya, I was shocked to see what the f*ck is this evil version of John Lennon doing here???!!! This series is co-produced by TNK (High School DxD, School Days, UFO Princess Valkyrie) and Zero-G (Tsugumomo, One Room, Nil Admirari No Tenbin). Prior to the anime adaptation, there was a live action movie adaptation of this series back in 2014, Tokyo Slaves.

The opening theme is Kara Kara Na Kokoro by Shougo Sakamoto. He sounds a bit sleepy although I thought he had some cold when he recorded singing this song because it sounds like he is singing through his nasal. Not kidding. It’s one of those generic kind of songs that tries to give you a generic feel of the series. Like the ending theme for Kamisama No Memo-chou. I don’t know, hearing this piece somehow reminds me of Asunaro even though they are different as night and day. The ending theme is BJ by Pile. The hard rock piece feels more suitable to be the opener. The ending credits animation here feels weird because it shows the mug shots, actually the leg shots or body shots without the face shown of all the concerned characters. Like as though they are lining up for their mug shots to be taken at the police station.

Overall, this series had an interesting concept but failed to articulate and express such ideas into an appealing and fascinating series. Too many characters all trying to be linked together contributed to the messy plot of who could accumulate the most slaves. It is not a very bad anime but it is just unfortunate that it is haphazard and hence limiting the understanding and overall enjoyment. You try to keep track of the characters and the story but soon realize it is better to just forget the whole thing and watch this mindlessly like a slave if you want to get to the end. Take it from me who have been a ‘slave’ to watching anime for umpteen years now. You just stop questioning your master’s orders (in case this, the logic of the anime) and just go with the flow and accept everything as it is. It’s so much easier that way. After all, slaves don’t think and don’t defy their masters and continue to serve them no matter how crappy they are. Yup, it’s the reason why I will continue to watch mediocre animes for years to come. And I don’t even need to be subjugated by an SCM for that. I guess slavery won’t be ending anytime soon.