[GoldenXtreme]

The pacing is totally breakneck, but at the same time that's just kinda how Takahashi rolls. My real concern is the possibility of blowing through the plot too fast resulting in things slowing to a crawl later on.



I'd personally call this one "densely packed, but good". One thing I always think Takahashi is *super* good at is how he slowly delivers information on the mechanics of his world and character motivations. We learn about how players can lose points for attacking others and about Geats and Buffa's rivalry, not through some big exposition dump, but by letting the scenarios around them naturally play out. Similarly we get to see things like Keiwa's gentle nature show through how he focuses on rescuing civilians, which also shows that characters can earn points from "secret missions". The show doesn't spell out that Neon wants freedom, because it trusts us to be able to follow the plot. It's all very self-confident writing that I appreciate. The humor is also on-point, the bodyguards fanboying over Ace and Neon asking if the game had a gacha both got me to laugh.