I guess with additional context it makes more sense, so the manga is probably fine, but that was a really weird ending. I guess everything was tecnically already introduced before, e.g. the trumpets, but that's just it - it was only introduecd technically, nothing was explained in a useful way.
Also, everyone is too stupid to live. The moment *anything* happens, they lose all self control. Except maybe Shinoa, maybe because she already got dealt a stupid card with "female protagonist MUST fall in love with male protagonist". Just waiting for her to also fall in love with Mika. Yu is the worst of all though. "Hey Yu, if x happens, don*'t do y, ok?" "Ok". 5 Minutes later: X happens, Yu does Y. Not once, not twice..dozens of times. And the only thing he knows is charging at the first enemy he sees. He was less than a fly to a vampire like Crowley, yet he goes straight back and of course loses again. The worst thing is they don't even call him out on it. IT wouldn't change anything of course. Instead they seem to be taken by surprise ever time.
Might also be related to the action bar world they live in. No, hear me out. It' absolutely must be some sort of action bar or action point system with time based AP recovery or so. Either Final Fantasy action bars or Fallout VATS. It's not real time, because they often jsut stand around when they just talked about "everyone attack at the same time", or when someone gets attacked they wait for a minute before taking action. But it's also not strictly turn based, because sometimes they DO start taking action before the other person finished their action.
Both systems also explain why they scream for half a minute when rushing at an enemy who's already in range of their weapon. They do take their time depending on skill in FF as well, and with VATS time is slowed, but it's not a complete pause. And enemies tend to move faster than the player, that exlains why they always block even when Yu and friends finally manage to attack at the same time (as in, everyone starts attacking before the first person finished their attack...).
Yu is also extremely egoistic, and also never really called out on it. He's always going on about savig his famliy, but him rushing him usually leads to everyone having to follow, and if they didn't have plot armor, they would have died dozens of times. He also complains when the others try to do some heroic last stand because he doesn't want to let anyone die, but he died several times due to his actions..
He was annoying in the first season, but that was "normal" annoying, he was stand-offish, thought he knew everything better etc. By the second season SHOULD know better - that he is nothing. He fought against Guren and lost terrible, but he think he can bit a vampire who handled Guren as easily as Guren handled him.
For me, he may not be THE most annoying main character, but he sure is way up there somewhere.
I also noticed how in those mass fights, it's always the women who first get hit, and only showed a guy afterwards. And Guren's harem was kinda useless, except the guys. Mitsu is also the third wheel of the group. Or fitth i guess. And Krul got taken out as well. Why have such a great cast of woman and then do them dirty? Aoi at least is shown as competent, but she doesn't really get time to shine, either.
Overall, the anime tried to do too many things in by far not enough time. It should have firmly established one concept first, and then continued with the next. E.g. they "train" by talking things out with their demon, they then suddenly have new abilities, but except for the one that when Kimizuki caught Yu in that coffin, which was idiotic because Yu was far to fast to get caught, and the moment he was out of commision they all should have died, their new abilities never played a role. They used like twice, the enemy easily blocked them, and then the show was over. Similar with demon possession, or the multiple different factions both within the vampires and the imperial demon army, or how the squad grows from strangers to friends or with Shinoa apparently beyond. We also don't see anything about the years Mika spent with the vampires. Probably Ferid indoctrinated him with the idea that the humans are only using Yu, but he simply is like that suddenly.
Surely a third season or beyond will pick up some oft the slack, but it's a mess either way. |