[DL22003]

Well, I finished the series, so:

Overall, I kinda like it. I liked the designs, the choreography and gore were neat, the music, although repetitive, was nice. I don't have much to say on the stuff I enjoyed about the show.

Now for the stuff I didn't like:

The series didn't do a good job in the story-telling aspect of the series; a lot of stuff was left hanging on the air, it felt lack lustered in some aspects and other stuff downright didn't make sense. The whole thing with the stones, they didn't really explain the origin of them, or their function inside the kaijins since they can be removed and yet able to maintain their transformed state, etc.

For the characters; even though most were OK, it made me sigh at the fact that Kotaro is a convictionless blank slate that only does what the plot drives him to out of seemly convenience. Aoi to me was the worst character of the series. I didn't care for her well being in any point on the series. Mainly because I do not enjoy being lectured by a whiny screeching teenager that doesn't know S about life or the world surrounding her and being a liability more than being useful to the story. The worst transgression was to make her (or at least the writers intention to make her) the main focus of the story while leaving Kotaro essentially on the sidelines. Also I find people are way too prone to forgiveness in the series, you see them at each other throats in one episode, and in the following one they're working together, thought I get they were only working together to achieve a higher goal, there wasn't a good amount of signs of mistrust between the characters while they were in working together. A particular one that made me rise an eyebrow is how easily Nick was forgiven, yeah we know in the end he has a good reason for wanting to become a kaijin, but Aoi and Kotaro didn't know (or they didn't seem to know) and he was forgiven just like that.

As for the politics aspect of it, I didn't really mind it, but it felt very one-sided, sometimes preachy or sometimes literally beating you over he head with the message than actually trying to paint the situation in a moral grey. Even when in some situations the kaijins were in the wrong the writers seemed to try to paint them in the right. As for the other side, reducing the concerns that humanity might have towards the kaijin to just be a shouting match of obscenities and essentially be moustache-twirling villains or scum assholes. When there could've been more nuances in portraying on why having around other humans with the ability of turning into killing machines on a wimp is something a regular human would be afraid/opposed to. That being said, the anti-kaijin movement honestly looked more like controlled opposition since they shifted their rhetoric towards immigrants by the end of the series, because like it was said in the series at some point: "a new distraction is needed".

As for the conclusion, oh boy...

I know it sounds clich?, but it would've been more...hopeful or perhaps more proper if there was some sort of time skip and an adult Aoi was elected prime minister or some sort of high government official so she could enact the changes needed to ensure a better future for the kaijin, but NOPE, Aoi essentially becomes a terrorist leader and start recruiting children into the cause is the worst lesson she could take away from this whole situation. She essentially made a declaration of war in front of the UN. Not to mention that now the government wants to expand the military and the fact that a kaijin killed the former primer minister (though we don't know if that was revealed to the public or if his popularity with the people dwindle) is going to gather a lot of hostility towards the kaijin and possible support towards their extermination, she's getting herself setup for failure.

TL;DR: I mostly enjoyed it, but there are things that could've done better and some other that stuck out like a sore thumb.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

I was half expecting that scene to end with the whole building exploding because a preteen improperly wired a fuse.

Gotta say, that made me laugh