Bloody Monday: Last Season

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Here I sit after having finished this series and I have to say that the Last Season of the manga was a letdown. I enjoyed the first two seasons much more than this one.

I think that the story goes a bit over the top in an effort to outdo previous seasons. As a result we end up getting a jumbled mess of a story, and we are lost trying to figure out who is on which side in the first couple of volumes. The fact that many characters were mask contributes to this confusion since it is hard to know who is acting. Finally in ... terms of the story, towards the end the developments get sillier and sillier, and I found myself almost not caring about how it was all going to end.

The art is good, but there are several spots where it gets sloppy and it is hard to follow the action and figure out whose face we are looking at. The characters are more of a dichotomy, since we have some really great ones in terms of how they have been developed consistently through time, such as Hibiki, Falcon, or Otoya, but others that act inconsistently throughout the story, most notably J.

Overall, I had fun with the manga series if you put together all these three seasons, but this last one definitely left a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth. It wasn't bad by any means, but had several issues it was hard to get past.

Ah where do I start.
Reading all 3 seasons of Bloody Monday, back to back, probably was a bad idea because this manga overall was just frustrating.

Story:
Season 1 was not bad though there were still a few issues I had with it. The main character may be a genius at all the tech stuff and what not, but he seems to lack basic common sense. For example, why the hell are you discussing top classified information in your school club room so freely without taking any proper precautions? And it seemed so silly and unnatural that a high schooler was able to outperform with ... the most basic tactics than the trained elite forces at 'third-i'. However, season 1 was much more bareable than 2 and 3.
Reading the last 2 seasons, I can not help but wonder if the author had a grudge on the Western world. I say this because the way he protrays the military service of America to be immature at best during the middle of a terror plot. I mean, if their leader is in a country, where it is to be known that there is a potentional danger looming ahead then wouldnt they take precautions and be cautious of every possible threat or suspicions?? Even if the possible threat may turn out to be just a prank - wouldn't they still practice caution? According to the author, the leader of America is the king of the world, after all. So why were the members of the different factions of law enforcements that were dispatched to protect the President of America acting like arrogant prideful brats? Ugh. After the 1st season, I really thought the next 3 would prove to keep the pace or level up but it all was just rushed and went downhill. And all I ended up with a bloody headache.

Character:
There is a lot I can write negatively about the main character but I won't because there was a character who frustrated me to no end besides him and that was Haruka Takagi - the younger sister of the main character. Man, I really wanted to smack her everytime she appeared. She was useless and annoying and always getting into trouble with the terrorists. It seems like all she was good for was to be taken hostage. Again and again. And when finally she was able to strengthen her resolve and decided to give a chance to protect her family and friends in season 3, she still proves to be useless and ends up becoming nothing but a heavy burden on the crew. Even screwing up the hero's plan because she couldn't listen.

But a character I did love so much was Jun or 'J'. Really, why couldn't he just have been the main character? *sigh* He seems and acts more like a hero than the actually planned hero. A better leader who knows how to lead.

And finally, Hibiki, who appears in season 2. You know, this character had great potential to be someone better given who she was and what she was after buuuut... the author seemed to only include her in the series to serve as a love interest for Fujimaru. Pity. The weird thing was how quickly the hero and she fell in love with each other once her true identity was revealed which resulted in no one barely trusting her. There was no proper gradiation on their sudden attraction. It just happened and next thing you know they are kissing and so in love that they can't keep their eyes or hands off of each other.

Overall:
Based on all 3 seasons, my opinion on this series is that...it's not worth the read. You may have some fun reading out of it but trust me, it is really not worth it. But then again, that's just my opinon.