The story is penned by Nakashima, whose stories are all woefully similar, but they do scratch that itch of wanting mindless carnage with shallow philosophical ponderings. It's the same in TTGL and KLK, and it's the same here. Especially with the part in the middle that meanders a bit and gets boring, and the part where the MC gets all emo. It isn't entirely original, but it's still a fun ride nonetheless. It's your typical JRPG plot where you start at a small town in a mysterious world and end up killing (or at least in this case trying to communicate with) God with a lot of trying to understand the meaning of the world. The climax is what you'd expect, and I do love me some hot blooded screaming. But the lousy ending just turned it all into kind of a sour note for me. Oh Nakashima, when will you pen a good ending after TTGL.
The characters apart from Arrow, Shu, Fine, Zetsu, and Rudolph all feel underused. I do think there's a point where there is oversaturation, and episodes do introduce seemingly important characters who are never seen again outside of cameo roles. The back and forth between Rekka and Lutoh lasted too long for me, I do think they really should've hastened the pacing to explore the true meaning of the world from the second cour onwards instead of continuing the war angle, which would have alleviated the incredibly rushed pacing of the endgame.
All in all, Back Arrow is a good throwback anime, if flawed in certain aspects which hasn't been fixed in the decades since anime of this type were popular, but it's still a fun watch regardless.
6/10
