I feel like 7 episodes is more than enough to decide whether you like something or not.
This review contains some spoilers I suppose.
So, the first 2 or 3 episodes I quite enjoyed. They weren't amazing, but still enjoyable.
However, the longer I watched, the more the problems became apparent.
First things first, there are sooo many characters in such a short amount of time and very few of them you can get properly acquainted with to remember even their names. To be honest, I don't even remember the main characters' names aside from Bitter Sweet and Veronica (but they aren't really main characters), even though I just watched the 7th episode.
Most of characters don't do that much either. They're also mostly all pretty bland and mostly serve to just continue the plot.
Second, I have no clue what they're trying to do with the story. Finding pages of a black tome that had like a one-minute vague explanation (without really knowing its importance either) way too many underlining plotthreads. That could be fine, if the writers knew what they were doing. It feels like they're making it up as they go along. Instead, they never really resolve any of them, and keep adding more and more threads to it, to the point where it's difficult to keep up with what exactly is happening or why it's happening.
Third, some of the voice casting is really mis-matched. For example, the Jesus looking guy's VA doesn't fit in the slightest and I felt the same for some other characters.
Fourth, maybe they'll explore it later, but I find it odd how no one finds it strange how the fairy-people's existence has essentially been made illegal. Like, the main character just accepts that she either goes to jail, or join Dorothea, just because she exists. As I said, this could be explored later, but there's been no hint at that at all yet, so who knows. It would be a nice thing to explore, but it would've been good to have some of that in the beginning. It would've made for an interesting dynamic.
Fifth, the amount of times they're jumping back and forth between flashbacks and present day, makes the timeline very confusing, even with the time cards they put before the scene. They use their own calendar, so we don't really have anything concrete to hold on to. Personally, I couldn't for the life of me remember, what year it was in what scene. Most of the time I could figure out quite easily whether or not it was a flashback, but the time cards didn't help at all. Relatively minor issue, but it bothered me. Same thing with the place cards.
My final issue, which is my main issue somehow, is completely outside of the studio's control: it's the subs by Funimation. I've been finding most of their subs quite awful this season, but this one takes the cake. I can't exactly speak for the translation (though at some points, even I notice it's really off), but so little of the dialogue reads well or fits with the tone of voice. This due mainly two reasons: stiff text and god awful on-screen placement.
Stiff text speaks for itself, it just doesn't feel natural in the slightest for people speaking.
The on-screen placement however, is my main issue. Normally when there's two things going on at once, in this case someone speaking and text on screen, you spread them out so it's readable. Funimation said, fuck no, we're not doing that, we place all subs at the top of the screen, with the text (which most often is just an introduction of the character's name and occupation) AT STACKED DIRECTLY ON TOP OF THE DIALOGUE, SO YOU READ THAT FIRST AND THEN THE DIALOGUE. When that happens, you miss what is being said, because you're trying to read his introductory text, but since it's so cluttered, you struggle with it. Usually, what would be good to do in these situation is have one thing at the top of the screen, and the other thing at the bottom of the screen. My only guess for not doing that is to not cover up the japanese text (in the bottom CORNER mind you), but I think it's safe to assume, that most of us sub reading weebs, don't know Kanji anyway, so why bother. It's stupid, and for some reason, 'triggered' me by far the most about this show.
At other points, they randomly place the subs at the top, for no apparent reason (that I could find anyway).
To me that's just really offputting and bothered me the most about everything.
Or maybe, the dialogue is just that awful. I feel like it's not though, considering Funimation's other subs this season.
Animation and art is largely fine. There were some weird angles here and there, but animation is largely smooth. The fights are average at best. Sometimes I'm not entirely sure what style they're trying to got for: steampunk, WW1, or fantasy.
The CG doesn't bother me that much, I've seen much worse. It doesn't stick out as much to me.
Overal, I probably would've watched it for a bit longer if it wasn't for the awful subs, but probably still have dropped in the end, because of the other things mentioned. It's sad, because P.A. Works generally delivers good work.
Maaaybe I'll pick it up again if people are suddenly saying that it's really good all of a sudden, but that would be at the end of the season.
