Jun 14, 2016
I am new to this site, but I have watched a wide variety anime over the years, and this is the first time that I have seen an anime with so many plot holes and such a frenetic ending receive so much undeserved appeal and 10 out of 10s (since SAO). What I write does not come from a hipster-like desire to stand against popular opinion, but from my own notes taken while watching the show.
Story --
The story has an interesting premise that drew me in at first. This idea that there is this guild of renegade, all powerful knights who were first exiled,
...
but are now needed to combat a greater evil is an idea that I happen to be quite fond of. However, this story gets confused among all the side stories, flashbacks and plot twists used to manufacture tension and build characters during their fights with their rivals. There is one point toward the endgame, where the protagonist spots a plot aspect from what seems like thin air before destroying it, saving "the girl" and appeasing his rival (I was befuddled until I watched 3 more times). Another, where a character spawns from nowhere simply for the purpose of interluding to set up the second season. Events like these, for the astute viewer, serve only to muddle the main conflict. However, I will give some credit to this shonen for bothering to show the backstory for characters like King and Guila (although, this makes it more apparent when characters like Jericho don't receive proper background).
The interweaving of characters is rather interesting, as all characters seem to be connected to others in some way.
ALSO, might I add, that there are four instances in which characters escape the inescapable or breech the unbreechable. These frustrate me to no end as it means that tension is truly manufactured in some instances.
Characters --
The characters tend to frustrate me, since, although they are Knights of an esteemed order, they seem to lack chemistry in battle until the last battle, behave like pouting teenagers despite all being adults (except for Goat Sin), and they never wear armor in combat, eroding any semblance of their being these legendary knights, especially when compared to other knights in the show. There is little tension in combat, since at least two of the sins are absolutely unkillable and at least three have no clear limit established for their abilities, meaning that they could be even more powerful then they demonstrate when the PLOT needs them to be. Other characters tend to hide their power, some times to a grave fault, as many of the characters have OP abilities that they don't use in some battles, for some reason.
Personally, Hawk the Pig and Elizabeth are my least favorite characters, as the Pig is trying VERY hard to be funny and Elizabeth is practically a Fairy Tale character with all the crying, name-shouting and power-of-friendship-ing that she does.
There are some funny characters like Goat Sin and Dragon Sin (early on) that serve to keep the anime light-hearted in spite of all the edgy themes.
There is some fan service, but it is rare.
Art and Sound --
This is an A-1 pictures production, so both are bog standard. Not amazing, but not terrible. The first OP and the last credits theme are pretty good, not much else sticks out.
Overall --
For a shonen, its mostly predictable, with the least developed and most annoying characters(Elizabeth, Hawk, etc.) taking up more time than the more developed and most interesting ones(Gil, Gowther and Jericho). Character designs are erratic (some seem as though they are from entirely different animes, or at least in the wrong time period) and major plot elements are predictable (except for one RIDICULOUS one).
If you like shonen, you may like it, otherwise I wouldn't recommend it except for a laugh at how ludicrous its final episodes get.
Please don't believe the hype.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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