This season as i stated before is a huge change of pace; its not action packed for the most part and it's set in mostly just one place, because of this it is often seen as lazy and generic. As a light novel reader i can say that it has a lot more to it than many realise. The whole point of this season is having Rudeus and other characters settle down, and don't forget that the whole university thing was the whole point of Rudeus ever meeting Eris. I can tell you now that very soon the plot changes up and it gets hype. The world isn't necessarily meant to be a huge action packed setting, it's meant to be a mix of action and immersion, also a lot of what happens in this season despite seeming pointless and meaningless actually serves major roles later on.
As for the animation controversy, its really not that bad, in fact it isn't even too noticeable. I think because the past season spoiled us with such amazing animation, when this season showed to have great but not quite as good of animation many seem to think it's worse than it actually is.
Overall I HIGHLY recommend watching it if you were a fan of the first season, it is a much slower paced season but that helps add to the immersion and character development, and as i said before, it gets f#cking hype later on so just wait till April 2024 for the second cour and you'll realise how good it gets, and the plot later on does not go in a direction you'd expect and by that i mean their are a lot of plot twists that are very very well written, plus its only uphill from that point, but i won't spoil anything.
