Writing reviews has never been of any interest to me until I found myself awake, today, at 5 am. But I thought writing some reviews might actually help someone later down the line, so here I am.
I won't recount the story or characters as I think they are worth seeing on their own, just know that the art is drop-dead gorgeous, and the dub is great (coming from an almost exclusive sub watcher). This seems like a great anime to share with friends who aren't too into anime, as it feels like it could be a successful live-action series.
Great Pretender has one major issue, however, that being how outrageous some of the scenarios are. If you feel you would be bothered by jury-rigged plans with 10,000 moving parts going just wrong enough to cause some drama but not wrong enough to make the heroes lose, then you will not enjoy this series. Up until the final arc, I was personally able to suspend my disbelief mostly due to the likable characters and the rule of cool. The 3rd arc, Snow of London is the emotional high point of the series and the best it has to offer. The 2 prior arcs build nicely to it and set up the characters. However, the final arc Wizard of Far East goes too far off the deep end for my taste. It starts to make you ask questions, and these questions start to pile until you are thinking about them more than how hot Abbie is or how cool Lareunt is.
I am not sure if I can advise you to skip the final arc, it's one of the greatest questions when it comes to consuming media. Do you only watch the original Star Wars trilogy because the others are commonly considered not as good? Do you stop watching Game of Thrones or Supernatural because later seasons ruin what it once was? I am unsure, but I can at least say that Great Pretneder's first 14 episodes are worth watching on their own, and the final 9 are there if you want them.
