This one imo had a lot of potential. It could have been so, so much better than what it's. The plot seems pretty good on paper, and the material is great, but the representation has lots of problems for me. Too many not very realistic problems that it's impossible to turn a blind eye on.
First 6 episodes were fantastic and very well fast paced. As I said, the potential already was huge, and that was what the 6 episodes offered, but then the pacing went down hill, and problems started to appear.
The end of the first arc was an absolute trash. Way too much unrealistic things happening in such a story to overlook. The series could have very well ended in episode 10, but Reiji decided to act like a zombie stalking Scythe and became over dramatic just for the sake of it, and Eren managing to get in front of the bullet out of nowhere was pretty lame. The transition between the first arc and the second made absolutely no sense. Eren got shot in the heart, or at least the lung, a critical injury then fell in water, and Reiji was shot by 4 bullets from a close range and also fell in water, but 6 months later he's suddenly fully healed and even the new phantom.
How did they both survived such thing, how did Scythe have time to recover her from water, get her to a good place for a surgery and extract the bullet before her actually dying ? How did Reiji survived so many shots from close range and dropping in water ? How did Inferno manage to find him out of nowhere, and how did they have time to actually rescue him ?
Apparently the writer had no answer to these questions either so decided to jump straight into the second arc and cross fingers the viewers will forget all these unanswered questions which just became plot holes at this point.
The anime then managed to regain some of its quality in the second arc, not great as first 6 episodes, but still fun watch, but ultimately, I really found Cal's arc to be pointless. Cut her completely from the show, will you miss anything ? Will the story of Reiji and Eren change this much ? No it won't. At the end of the day it felt like she was just there to drag the show, which highlights how really slow the pacing became after the initial few episodes. The second arc was just one hell of a drag, and could have been done in fewer episodes in my opinion. The anime had the nerve to put in 2 freaking recap episodes, one after each arc. Makes absolutely no sense for only a 26 episodes anime. Just go on with the story already.
Another problem that might be nitpicking for some is the characters definitely not look their age at all. Reiji looked like a fully mature +20 years old man in second arc, but third arc came and surprise, surprise, he's just a high schooler ? He even looks much older than all school mates (By the way, it also made absolutely zero sense for him to use his freaking real name when he decided to hide in Japan. Is he stupid ? You're a wanted man by a criminal organization and freaking Mafia, bro, use a fake identity and start a new life to make them struggle to find you. By using his REAL name in his ORIGINAL country, I can't believe it only took Inferno 2 whole years to find him).
Cal in the second arc looked no older than 11-12 years old kid. Short, childish voice, and a body that's definitely not fully mature yet with still flat chest and stuff, but then 2 years later and she looks like a fully grown and mature woman, with 2 huge melons on her chest, much taller, changed face and much deeper voice. She changed massively in just 2 years, how exactly am I supposed to believe this ? Her hormones must have gone wild in these 2 years I assume, or did Scythe give her hormonal injections as part of her training ? I know some might say she's 16 by third arc etc, but she still looked way older than any 16 years old girl.
The points of conflicts seem to be solved pretty quickly which gives a sense of being underwhelmed imo. The anticipated conflict and fight between Eren and Reiji in episode 18 ended up with a pretty very short knife fight that barely lasted, then one conversation and it was over ? Claudia's plot line ended in a very abrupt and underwhelming way, that even till the end I was trying to think she might be alive or something. She was a very important character during the first 2 arcs so for her to die so quickly, so abruptly and for her goal to reach such end. Very underwhelming. The conflict between Reiji and Cal in episode 24 ended in no time as well. IMO, these conflicts didn't live to the hype built around them by the show, and considering how much the pacing was slow in scenes that could have been cut or even shortened a little bit, it made no sense for the anime to not deliver when it actually matters. The end result was that I wasn't satisfied after any of them.
Finally, while I have no problem with Reiji killed by Inferno at the end because actually it makes sense that inferno will get rid of its loose ends, however, both Reiji's and Eren's death came way too abruptly and out of nowhere as if it was just for the sake of having a shocking ending. This again highlights how the unimportant events get dragged, while the important ones are just rushed in this show. Again, I think it made sense, but it should have been built up and represented in a much better way than such abrupted one. It seems the writer valued the shocking value of an ending more and I don't agree with this thinking.
I know I sounded pretty harsh on this, but it's not a terrible show. It was still fun. I enjoyed watching it overall. The plot is good when you summarize it on paper and think about it. The characters, well definitely not all of them but many were done well and made me care about them, (well until their plot lines ended abruptly like Claudia), the overall atmosphere is great and OSTs were fantastic.
It just pains me that this show could have been so, so much better. It could have been adapted, written and represented in a much, much better way, so it hurts with all these problems imo.
Overall, I will give it a 6/10 that is closer to being 6.5. The first 6 episodes started as 8, then it dropped to 7 and by the end of the series it dropped to 6. |