In more detail: (spoilers)
- The story doesn't really pick up until halfway through the series. Up until that point, the series mostly followed the "villain of the week" method, while dropping small hints for the events that follow. After episode five, I believe was the point where the show started revealing it's true nature. Suddenly, the story stopped following the "rules" and went in a direction I was not expecting, while analysing various philosophical questions. " What does it mean to be human ? "," If God exists, does he care about us ? ", " When a great threat to manking appears, will we unite and fight against it? ". These are all questions I saw being asked in the series. The only real issue I noticed was the pacing, which becomes rushed at times.
-Kiyotaka Oshiyama's art style is as good as ever. It feels like the animators gave it their all and the colour palette really looks beutiful. This becomes apparent especially in demanding scenes like Akira's transformation and the final showdown between him and Satan.
-The soundtrack, although not really my favourite kind of music, gave the series it's own theme and was unique.
- The characters is were the anime mostly relies on and is in my opinion the it's best element. I could go on and on with analysing the dynamics between the characters and the many clashes of ideologies that take place, but I am just going to use Akira Fudo, the main character as an example. He has faith in humanity and during the series, his views are constantly being challenged as he comes face to face with the human's worst elements. Despite that, he still defended them to the very end.
-I didn't mind the use of gore and nudity, but I can understand why it might turn some people off. Personaly, I saw it as a way to get used to the show's cruel nature, but it does seem out of place at times.
