ABOUT THE STORY:
This one was a hit and miss. It's sad that this series have really interesting and unique world-building elements but has failed to improve the narrative and just gets worse with each new installment, and here's why:
The timeskip is completely unnecessary and confusing. Everything about the ungoing story to this point was rendered meaningless for this story arc. Every mayor reveal and plot twist is now belittled in the portrayal of the season, and this was not the first time this happens. Sybil's true identity and Shinya Kōgami's reinstatement and transfer to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs along with Nobuchika Ginoza are neevr explained or even rendered relevant even though it is. With this last one we can assume he was offered the role at the same time as Teppē Sugo but it's never addressed.
This season did and awful job introducing so many new faces that no one really cares for during the season. The only thing keeping this afloat are the brief moments were we get to see Shinya, Nobuchika, Akane and Yayoi, characters that we as viewers grew to love/hate or at least got to really know. Even the analyst (Shion Karanomori) seems so uninterested towards what's happening in the Public Safety Bureau. And nothing gets to be explained at all, if the season were to be going in the direction of uncovering what happened to Akane during the timeskip, it'd be fine but it never gets addressed, on the contrary we're presented with a whole new plot. There's an organization all of the sudden that's comparable to the Iluminati but that definitely need to get their hierarchy order; it mixes up the terms (or ranks) "fox", "inspector", and "congressmen". When talking about "inspectors" might even include a translation error. The idea of the BIFROST organization was ok, but should have been presented, hinted or something in previous installments.
ABOUT CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT:
So... Everybody is doing fine I guess with whatever has happened during the last 3 years, I mean no one seems to really care, and that sent the message we shouldn't either.
• ARATA SHINDŌ: I loved the voice acting of Yuki Kaji (our so likeable Meliodas) but that's about it. It's common to develop overpowered characters but you have to do a really good job for the viewer to be ok with the fact they're overpowered. Satoru Gojō from Jujutsu Kaisen and Gilgamesh from the Fate Multiverse are great examples of that. On the other hand it's fine that Arata is a mentalist but him having supernatural powers because he's "overly empathetic" is such a poor excuse and is rather ilogical taking into consideration the laws of the world already presented to us years ago. We are suppose to be interested for his father even, a character that didn't even existed alive on screen. Who is his father and why would I care about that?
• SHIZUKA HOMURA: it's hard to criticize this one, he was presented as the main villain when they decided to focus on his promotion to "congressmen" but he never does that much as a character. Again he is another unsolved mystery that with whom we never get to connect as viewers.
