King’s Game the Animation (Collector’s Edition Blu-ray) Unboxing

King’s Game the Animation (王様ゲーム The Animation, Ōsama Game) is a 2017 television anime series based on Nobuaki Kanazawa’s cell phone novel King’s Game. The series was adapted by studio Seven, and the staff credits include director Noriyoshi Sasaki, series composition writer Kenji Konuta, character designers Kan Soramoto & Yōsuke Itō, and music composed by Naoyuki Osada. The series first aired in Japan on October 2017.

Note: This post has been updated in May 2024 to reflect the current blog layout and some minor tweaks to the original write-up.

Background:

“A class of thirty-two high school students receive texts commanding them to complete strange tasks. Do what the messages say, and more will follow. Fail to go through with them, and face the consequences. Nobuaki Kanazawa has played this game before and knows that these demands must be met. But until penalties for failure become lethal, no one is ready to step out of their comfort zone.

With death around every corner, and as orders and punishments become more and more gruesome, the worst in people manages to tear its way out.”

Plot Synopsis via Anime Limited, March 2020

Well, this is going to be a fun one to talk about. King’s Game the Animation is an absolute train-wreck but an enjoyable one to watch. It’s part of a sub-genre in horror that involves a group of people stuck in a life or death situation caused by a real-life game, and in this show’s case a text message. Honestly, I love it but it’s not anime of the year, heck the studio who animated the series is known for working on a whole bunch of hentai projects. At least the series introduced me to Coldrain, which the opening song itself is an absolute banger to listen to.

Crunchyroll acquired the rights to King’s Game the Animation and Funimation offered the simuldub and home video release. It didn’t do well enough to warrant a limited edition in the US & Canada territories. Meanwhile, Anime Limited acquired the UK & Ireland streaming and home video rights and reportedly it did well enough during simulcast to earn itself a collector’s edition release. It arrived just over a year later than the US release but at least it actually got released in the end.

Collector’s Edition Contents:

Anime Limited are known for their special collector’s box sets. Saying that though, King’s Game the Animation somehow managed to receive the treatment as well and honestly the end product is pretty good looking.

This release is presented with a rigid box containing a digipack to house the Blu-ray discs. The box also comes with a 20-page booklet and a fold out poster. The booklet contains character designs from the anime series.

The artwork is free of any information or BBFC content and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Anime Limited releases. The collector’s edition Blu-ray has 1000 units printed for an SRP of £59.99. This is also a Blu-ray only release and is expected to get a standard edition over time.

I acquired King’s Game the Animation during the special early bird offer on Anime Limited’s 12 Days of Christmas 2019 event. I liked the show enough to grab it sooner than later.

Physical Contents:

• Rigid Box with digipack packaging and clean artwork
• Info sheet for specification and BBFC description
• 20-page Booklet
• 34 x 40cm Fold-out Poster

On-Disc Contents:

Distributor: Anime Limited
Released: 9th March 2020

The collector’s edition release for King’s Game the Animation contains all 12 episodes of the series across two Blu-ray discs, with the encode & authoring done by Funimation. The audio options available for the series include Japanese with English subtitles and the Funimation English dub.

The white subtitles were locked during playback and the disc regions were locked to Blu-ray players set to B.

Now despite the nice packaging, I should clarify that unfortunately the censorship shown during the Japanese Broadcast remains on the home video releases, including the Japanese Blu-rays. It seems studio Seven didn’t want to spend additional time uncensoring the materials, which is an absolute shame because this series would have aged a lot better had they put in the effort. Also worth noting Anime Limited assumed the series would receive an 18 rating for the BBFC but in reality it’s just a 15.

Blu-ray Specs:

Languages	English, Japanese
Audio	English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0
Video	1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio
Region	B
Subtitles	English
Locked Subtitles	Yes
Discs	2 (1 BD-50, 1 BD-25)

Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:

Disc 2:

• Textless Opening “FEED THE FIRE”
• Textless Closing “Lost Paradise”
• Funimation Trailers

Unboxing Photos:

Final Notes:

King’s Game the Animation is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Anime Limited in the UK & Ireland. The collector’s edition Blu-ray release can be bought through Amazon UK, AllTheAnime Store and Anime-on-Line.

For the standard edition, it is also available across different retailers including Amazon UK, AllTheAnime Store, and Anime-on-Line.

(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills.)