[Layton13]

I get the feeling I'm gonna be the stick in the mud again.

First I'll say that Z was the first Ultra show I actually finished, got halfway through X before kinda forgetting about it, and it's defiantly not bad, but it's an incredibly average toku.

The characters are charming and some ideas are nice, but ultimately, they just end up being very... Unengaging when it comes to emotional moments for me? I can't really point my finger on it, but they almost feel flat at times, even when I understand where they all are coming from. Haruki sadly falls under that as well. I get why he acts the way he does, but it just doesn't connect with me in any meaningful way.

The second part of the dynamic duo is even worse. Z... Yeah, Z is almost none existent in his own story, beyond his "hip" way of speaking. He only ever matters when a fight starts. He feels like an afterthought honestly.

Now to the antagonist. First Juggler. Why is he here? Why did this need to be a legacy character when it doesn't feel like there is anything meaningful being done with him? I'm gonna use that to harp on about the way Z uses it's legacy aspects. Remember, I have not seen any other show to completion and my knowledge is nothing but hearsay, but it feels incredibly intrusive without any sense that it adds to the material most of the time. For example, Celebro is tied to Belial in some way. Ok, I know roughly who that is. Are they gonna use that relationship in any meaningful way, like when Geed showed up or with Beliarok? No? It's just there to give the villain a backstory? The second being Juggler's motivation "Long ago... I cut down a big tree. It was to stop a war and carry out my justice. But it was all spurned. That's why I need this toy. To show those who think their justice is absolute, just how fragile their assumptions are." It doesn't really give me any good ideas about what his deal is. It almost reads like a joke at the expense of people who don't know.

And Celebro... Dear god, he's just a big amount of nothing. He doesn't feel like a threat. He never really manages to achieve much of anything beyond being an annoyance. He has next to no relationship to Haruki, which robs the final fight of a lot of its weight. These two don't even know each other! For the most part of the show, he is just there. And that ties back to his motivation and the themes of the show:

Quote:

I've enjoyed many planets so far, but this moment always excites me. It's a wonderful spectacle. To see fools destroyed by a weapon of their own making, and to hear their cries of agony! I implant fear into planets with civilizations. They make weapon after weapon to defend themselves, and finally, with a weapon they created, they destroy their own civilization. I have a name for it - The Civilization Self-Destruction Game!

That humanity is its biggest enemy. That our fear can destroy us and how he manipulates it into dooming ourselves. Really cool idea. Would also work in execution if he would have been responsible for more than half of what went down in the show. If he wouldn't have gotten involved, the earth would have still developed the robots. Maybe a bit slower, but still. STORAGE was established as the story started. they were dealing with monsters and already had a robot. It makes all of the themes of the show kinda fall flat on its face and the Celebro as an antagonist as well. Because he claims things he just didn't do, or at least nearly enough.

That said, I still enjoyed my time with the show. I just had a few frustrations with it.