INFINITE DENDROGRAM EPISODE 5 REVIEW

Much like the last episode, this one is still an okay adaptation despite the rather fast pacing and the fight scene being quite off, which I will explain later. First, let me talk about some of the skipped scenes they cut in favor of progressing through the storyline.

The first half is almost the same as the novel. The gacha machine part, though glossed over and reduced to a brief flashback, was still on point more or less. But like all the previous episodes, they cut off the expositions, especially how Rook could get a UBM item in a gacha.

Now remember my last review where I said they cut a scene which should have introduced the antagonists, the Gouz-Maise Gang? That scene was no longer added into this episode, which is quite okay but also disappointing because it would have added more character background for the antagonists.

There were only two things that I really didn’t like in this episode, which were both related to one another. First, they toned down the gore and fight scenes. In the novels, Infinite Dendrogram was a pretty violent game. The story itself is not as violent as Goblin Slayer, but there is still blood and gore in almost every major battle. Think of Sword Art Online, specifically the Alicization arc. That’s the level of violence that Infinite Dendrogram has in the novels. But here, they watered it down considerably.

Second, Hugo’s fight scene was never shown. In the novel, he was a badass mech pilot with ruthless and efficient combat skills, and I was hoping to see that here. The fight with all the gang members was a literal bloodbath, limbs and other body parts flying everywhere. However, they entirely skipped that part in this episode.

One thing I’d like to note, though. Hugo is a lot more dramatic here, even though his dialogues were almost copied word for word from the novels. On the other hand, the portrayal of Cyco is spot on.

Overall, this is still a solid episode. A 7.5/10 for me.