First and foremost, no one can top Ren Meguro. With his bright eyes, that wide (yet mischievous) smile, and a body sculpted by the Gods he’s like… Mr. Perfect. The sly and boastful Haru Tennoji in the 2023 drama Trillion Game seems light years away from everything I know about who Meguro is as a person – which is one of the reasons why I feel like he did such a great job on the series.

So, when it came to an anime adaptation, I Initially approached with skepticism. Without Meguro’s charm, to be honest, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to bring myself to care or not. However, my doubts were partially alleviated by Madhouse’s faithful adaptation of Riichiro Inagaki’s original characters in the manage. Takurō Iga’s captivating music and &TEAM’s energetic opening theme, “Beat the Odds,” also helped to keep me engaged. But, even so, without Meguro or his nervously sweet counterpart Hayato Sano as Gaku, it didn’t have the same magic as the live-action series.

However, the more I watched, the more it grew on me. Obviously a fan of the live action score (composed by Hideakira Kimura) Takurō Iga did an impeccable job with the music of the animation. The script (written by Ryunosuke Kingetsu) is incredibly engaging and (again) while nothing with top Meguro, the anime is quite enjoyable.

The 26 episode series airs on TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) the same as the live action, and is rated 18+. The series streams on Crunchyroll in both its native Japanese with English subtitles as well as an English dub.

Originally published by Shogakukan, VIZ media has started releasing the manga in English. A live action continuation of the series will be released as a feature film on 14 Feb 2025.

More Trillion Game soon so…

Stay Tuned.