The World Ends with You the Animation

Episode 10

Episode 10, “The Countless Wrongs of Our Day”, is an ominous title if there ever was one. Considering the events of episode 8 and episode 9, it definitely feels like something's going to happen to Neku, Beat, or the both of them. That said, let's get into what happens in episode 10, and see whether or not my gut feeling plays out in-show.

Episode 10 starts off with the brainwashed denizens of Shibuya at the famous Scramble Crossing. Everything, save for Beat and Neku, is washed out and diluted, cast in red, black, and grey. It's suitably grim coloring that matches the somber, pensive BGM perfectly. Beat and Neku are faced with a series of monumental tasks: they need to get Rhyme back from Miss Ironface – that's Konishi – and also defeat the Composer at the Shibuya River as well. It's a tall order, but if anyone can do it, it's probably going to be Neku and Beat. But before they handle up on that, our pair's gonna have to take care of the zombified hordes heading their way.

Post-OP, the souls residing in the RG cross the scramble, all thinking the same thoughts: to right their wrongs, they must make the UG a paradise. It's properly haunting, and because of all the buildup in the past few episodes, feels genuinely creepy. Still, Neku's got his eyes set on the bigger problem: figuring out who's behind this. Beat thinks it's CAT, otherwise known as Mr. Hanekoma. Neku, on the other hand, refuses to believe that Mr. Hanekoma could be the Composer who also crafted these pins.

But there's scarcely any time for bickering or doubt, so the boys turn their attention towards AMX, only to encounter loads of Reapers. Eyes blazing red, they're chanting that same haunting message as the RG citizens. Unfortunately, those red eyes turn their gaze towards Beat and Neku, who spring into action with their psyches and thrash some reapers, pixelating them out of existence. It's strange behavior on part of their “foes” – reapers tend to show a lot more humanity. But it seems like these red pins can overtake anyone, regardless of strength of will.

Now, for a perspective change.

If you watched to the very end of episode 9, you saw my favorite Messy Hot Boy, Sho Minamimoto, come back from unexistence. Well, here he is, and he's hungry for revenge, and looking hotter than ever. He's also looking a lot more inhuman than before, which dovetails right into the next scene where we're back with Neku and Beat in front of a shattered wall. Beat speculates that the wall looks like someone blasted it from the inside, instead of breaking it from outside. However, the boys don't hesitate to pass through.

On the other side of the wall, they encounter a fresh Taboo Seal, just like the ones Sho was drawing back when he was the Game Master. Neku snaps a picture, only to reveal Mr. Hanekoma kneeling in the middle of the seal… as if he drew it. It's a bit too suspicious, and viewers most likely won't cotton to the notion of him drawing them, but before we can even consider that, a brainwashed Uzuki and Kariya show up, and they're definitely out for blood. Thankfully, Beat is able to knock off Uzuki's pin in the middle of their fight, and he helps Neku to free Kariya from the red skull pin's grasp.

Episode 10 is chockablock with plotty tidbits in its back half. Like a good stew, all these ingredients come together to make a feast that's both moreish and utterly satisfying. (and I'm not just saying that because we get to see my hot, messy boyfriend Sho again!) I want another taste, another sample of what TWEWY the Animation has in store next week, and the week after. My gut feeling I had early on definitely played out, but that was just part of the plethora of feelings coursing through me.

Overall, a lot of episode 10 is table setting for the end game, which feels more imminent that I could have imagined back in the premiere. But trust me, that's a good thing: a very good thing. I think that TWEWY the Animation has the chops to pull off a satisfying finale, something I was leery of up until episode 5. The back half of this series has been really, really satisfying, both as a video game adaptation and a standalone work to hook anime-only viewers into the upcoming Switch sequel.

This might be the first time that I genuinely feel like I don't know how everything is going to resolve. While I do know how the game ends because I've played the game multiple times, I don't know how it will be executed here, because there are only a few episodes left to resolve everything Neku's entangled himself in. Yet what I do know is that TWEWY the Animation has what it takes to be one of those rare video game adaptations that are genuinely satisfying. I really can't wait until the finale episode in a few weeks.

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The World Ends with You the Animation is currently streaming on Funimation and Hulu.

Mercedez is a JP-EN localization editor & QA, pop culture critic, and a journalist who also writes & reviews at Anime Feminist and But Why Tho?. She's also a frequent guest on the AniFem Podcast, Chatty AF. This anime season, she's all about Super Cub, which is great because she's also reviewing it here on ANN. When she's not writing, you can find her on her Twitter or on her Instagram where she's always up to something.