[Locke]

Gonna marathon 21 - 23, take a break, then watch 24 and give my final thoughts, in the final post.

Still not quite made up my mind on the all CGI battles, on the onehand, making everything CGI helps make the cheap CGI blend in more, as there is nothing worse than seeing two practical armours fighting a blurry, jerky, CGI abomination. But of course the only reason the bad CGI blends in better when everything is CGI, is because everything on screen is a jerky, blurry mess and that isn't a good thing at all. Although the weird, ultra clear, cell shaded CGI they used towards the climax was even more jarring.

Although it was super cool to see Zero and Kouga get backed up by the Thunder and Lightning Knights! However it was a shame Wataru had to sit out, when Tsubasa appeared. Tsubasa got a whole movie to be awesome, but Wataru has had barely any screen time at all, and I assume as next season is a whole new story, this will one of his last appearances. Still makes you wonder how much hell is happening in the world right now if all the Makai forces are fighting a single enemy.

How does the armour thing work? Why does Zero, Waturu, Leo and Tsubasa have unique armours, and everyone else has a generic bronze and silver one? I kinda get why Kouga would have one, but this doesn't really make sense...

Then again, it isn't as bullshit as all the power of love stuff. I thought they'd totally abandoned the romance bent, as Kaoru was barely in this series at all but despite totally destroying the emotional resonance of this relationship with the audience, they decide to make it the linchpin of the climax. Although Kouga is a lucky guy, having three babes charging in to save him.

I found it really funny, that of course the two girls fight Shion (I know that isn't her name here) and as it's a fight between three women, there has to be copious amounts of boob and leg fondling. I'm not complaining, but it was just distracting.

The whole 'Kouga is awesome and that is why we must save him' scene felt out of place, in this season. It was the first season really, where Kouga had lots of focus and growth, his character arc over the first season was really amazing. Here however, in the second season, with a more focused villain, new characters like Leo, greater focus on characters like Zero and a higher quantity of action Kouga really hasn't had much of a chance to do anything except swing his sword around, so I didn't feel nearly as much investment in him, as I did at the end of the first season. So I felt a lot of the lead into the climax felt fairly flat, and made Kouga feel unnecessarily like a Gary Stu.

The person I oddly felt the most for here, was Gonza. Gonza is basically Kouga's father, now Taiga is dead, and yet Gonza can do nothing. Kaoru has the power of love, the Knights have their armour, the Priests have their wands. On the one hand Gonza is a lovely guy, and probably, genuinely, didn't want Kaoru in harms way but you could also almost feel his frustration and jealousy as well, as he knows that he can do absolutely nothing to save the most important person in his whole world. Every time Kouga suffers, all he can do is watch.

So what did Red Mask need Ganon for? He seemed to make Edea just fine without Kouga or Ganon. But yes, why are they interfering so much? Zero and Kouga clearly want to have normal lives, and Sigma has built a device to eradicate all Horrors, I don't understand why they are trying to stop him?

So basically they're just doing the same ending from the last series? Spend the whole show establishing a villain, just when he has the upper hand he's consumed by some all powerful female Horror, who claimed to be behind everything the entire time? Blergh.