Interesting premise, poor execution. And by "poor execution," I mean that they attempted to lop its head off with a very dull axe, and had to take multiple agonizing swings in order to finish the job. Then, being a zombie, the plot got up and continued wandering aimlessly anyways.
The BBEG has a tragic back story filled with betrayal and disillusionment... But we have to infer this from circumstances, because the show doesn't bring it up in spite of this being the keystone of the entire plot. We don't explain what happened to bring him to such a point of desperation, or what kind of time frame this took. We don't divulge the origin of his extraordinary powers which are unrelated to what little we know of his background. We don't get into the rationale for persistently denying his ethically reasonable request, even when the lives of friends and, indeed, an entire city (which may or may not have a population of over twelve people) are at stake. We do, however, specify that he likes penguins, because that's very relevant. Because it explains why he looks at penguins. *sigh*
The trite yet severely overstated running gags are irritatingly tired before they even become running gags. About half of the characters are genius imbeciles of implausible power, and pretty much all of the characters are self-caricatures. Dialogue is mostly pretty predictable, except for when a character goes off the rails for the purpose of ham-fisted exposition. The plot needlessly writes itself into a corner multiple times, then escapes either by ignoring the situation, throwing continuity out the window, and/or the liberal application of Deus Ex-Sensei. There appear to actually be multiple plot lines (and pointless red herrings), but they're all wadded messily together into a lumpy screenplay play-doh snake because 'all weird things are directly connected, and writing is hard'. I don't believe that the writer(s) had any real understanding of plot structure, or at the very least they lacked the competence to meaningfully fill that structure.
I think I can summarize the nature of this whole mess with one teensy-weensy spoiler: vampire ninja maid string ensemble ghost busters. If that sounds like word salad to you, then imagine it as an actual scene—a scene included exclusively to wedge a central character into the plot climax without actually involving them in it. In fact, that's basically a synopsis of the entire plot right there, and the list of characters it applies to includes the protagonist. All of the frenetic conflict is just filler surrounding a single dramatic-ish character interaction—there is little actual material in this season which could not have been more effectively covered in one non-violent OVA.
...Speaking of which, I'll murder the OVA in my next review.
There was one moment of genuine dark drama. I don't mean "manically grinning vampire anti-hero" edgelord darkness—I mean a gruelling scene which demonstrates a character's extraordinary burden of power and associated self-loathing. Sadly, the writer(s) thought that the dramatically necessary end of that scene should be sacrificed in order to set a logically inconsistent (and immediately dropped) limitation on that power, and in order to make the utterly nonsensical introduction of the BBEG. I guess the tragic tone would have put a bit of a damper on all the tedious running gags.
Did I enjoy it? Well... sort of? At this point I feel like the show somehow hacked my brain. It's objectively mediocre to sub-mediocre, and what stands out about it is all of the flinching and cringing it inspired... but I watched it, and I was entertained, and I don't understand why. I guess that's the bottom line. It's watchable, but it isn't good.
