Just to preface this, I started this without any background information whatsoever — I had never read the manga or watched the anime and didn't know what this was about aside from the gazillion (erroneous) comparisons to Squid Game.

I ended up loving this, especially the individual games; there's always a twist to them, and I was on the edge of my seat during all of them, no matter which category it was. The action scenes are just superb and the drama managed to do really successful and heart-wrenching character development in the little time they had, not for just our main leads but for all the side characters as well.

I have to admit that I don't love the later arc as much as the earlier ones; partly due to my preference for the "out-of-the-system" character and also because I managed to guess the game answers there, but overall the action sequences and fight scenes during these episodes were still great, and I love how the season ends and sets up the next stage of the story.

Cannot wait for season 2!