Protocol: Rain Season 1 Review – Guilt and growth

Episode Guide

Episode 1 – | Review Score – 4.5/5
Episode 2 – | Review Score – 4.5/5
Episode 3 – | Review Score – 4.5/5
Episode 4 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 5 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 6 – | Review Score – 3.5/5
Episode 7 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 8 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 9 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 10 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 11 – | Review Score – 4/5
Episode 12 – | Review Score – 4/5

Protocol: Rain, Crunchyroll’s fall release, centres around a group of friends forming an Esports team aiming to enter the pro leagues. The Esport is based on the game ‘Xaxxerion’, an FPS similar to Counter-Strike and other ‘defuse-the-bomb’ games. Despite the main focus being a video game, the anime’s selling point is the characters’ personal lives as complexities arise due to their situations.

Apart from the game, Season 1 of the anime is a collection of crossroads hit by growing-up teenagers who are burdened by the responsibility of both the past and the future. At the forefront of this is Shun. Shun blames himself for causing his sister’s accident as he was too busy gaming and had to send her in his place. The entire anime is based on Shun trying to make up for his mistake, but in the process ends up hurting his sister even more.

Another very interesting character is Mio, Shun’s sister. Mio is an extremely attached sister and depends on attention from Shun for her well-being. Shun used to not give her the attention and care she desired due to his video game addiction. The anime reveals an interesting psychological phenomenon when it explores Mio’s disability as it was a way to gain Shun’s attention and care.

Mutsuki, the antagonist of Protocol: Rain Season 1, brings it to his realization and reveals that he will have to deliberately push Mio away if he wants her to detach and become independent. A major part of the anime is Shun wrestling with this thought as he conflates it with harming her.

Another interesting character is Yu. Back in the day, Yu played online with Shun, Nozomi, and Akito as ‘Explosion’, and Shun had no clue it was her. Later upon learning about the recruitment, Yu joins the team without revealing that she is Explosion. This puts her in a position to meet Shun and also have more authentic conversations with him online by removing certain barriers.

However, Yu faces a challenge to hide her identity while participating in tournaments. The mask isn’t successful in hiding her personality for too long, and she is later caught by the media. This creates problems with her agency, which is concerned with her public image.

The anime purports to be about Esports; however, it does not excel on that front. It makes a good attempt at replicating strategies used by players in the real world, but the presentation isn’t great and the flow is unrealistic. Protocol: Rain, however, definitely makes up for it in its plot.

Certain scenes in Season 1 are taken a little too far. Mio being his sister is a little too clingy, and her actions make it feel like she has a crush on Shun. This, of course, is limited to a couple of actions, but it taints the image of the whole relationship.

To sum it up, if you’re looking to watch an anime based on the rise of an Esports team with stunning gameplay and amazing team coordination, Protocol: Rain might not be the best watch for you. However, the plot, interpersonal relationships, and complexities make it worth watching.

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