[DreamSword]

I finished all of Ultraman Arc(sans its movie). And overall, it was decent.

The short version of my opinion is that I felt like the show had alot of good ideas, but the execution of those ideas left alot to be desired.

I think the main issue I took with the show was how it never really felt to me that SKIP grew as a group. As individuals, sure, but scenes like Shu talking about how important Yuma is to him would've hit alot harder to me if there had been more scenes of the two bonding throughout the show. Not to say that there were none period, but "just barely enough to scrape by" is maybe the phrase I'd use to describe it. Great job from Shu's' dub VA though.

Speaking of phrasing, Arc likes to use the term "Imagination" alot, and while I get it, I don't think it really lives up to the idea all that well. Personally I think the word "Ingenuity" fits alot better.

Where the execution of the concept really flounders is in the finale, where rather than doing anything unique, creative, or cool to beat Sweed, all it amounts to is firing a beam and then doing the wiggle thing again from episode 3. I've seen other superhero media. The orbiting the globe aspect isn't anything new to me.

But as I've said before, where the show really shined was in its direction and cinematography. Not just the actions sequences, of which most are really unique and well done, but even in terms of episode composition and atmosphere; An easy example being basically the entirety of episode 22 with its dreary mood and callbacks to famous works of art.

In the end, Blazar was alot more my cup of tea, even despite the issues I had with it. And again, I don't think Arc is out and out bad; I think it's overall just okay. It just wasn't the type of show that super clicked with me.

PS: Count me in on the people who were disappointed in the Blazar crossover. Like, they couldn't at the very least get Gento's' actor back? Jeez...