[DreamSword]

I finally got around to watching Ultraman Arc. Currently 12 episodes in.

The short of it was that I rather enjoyed the first six episodes for what they were, but the latter six left alot to be desired.

The first half was pretty simplistic and fun, no issues there. But the second half attempts at going a bit deeper in terms of narrative, and the writing ends up falling flat in alot of ways.

For example, episode 7 is makes the argument that you need to sacrifice some of the comforts of today in order to bring about a better tomorrow, yet two episodes later, episode 9 makes the argument that doing so is insensitive if not outright bad. And that's not even getting into how I felt both episodes were weak.

And as someone who was fond of Blazar overall, the episode 11 and 12 two-parter kinda felt like a really weak Blazar fanfic. The Communication theme in and of itself is nice, but the way the message and the overall scenario is executed rubbed me the wrong way. My main issue being that every character was acting rather boneheaded to the point of being out of character.

The biggest example of that being Yuma, who after getting the message from Givas' pilot, completely blanks afterward and has to be told by Rin the exact thing that said message told him in order to save the day, when if anything it should be the reverse. This latter half really got me thinking about the old saying of "beauty in simplicity" and how that might be more of Arc's' strength. But hey, maybe later episodes will surprise me.

On a more positive note, the directing and cinematography on these episodes has been top notch; with every action sequence being rather cool to see. I really do appreciate the effort being put in toward making every Kaiju encounter feel unique from episode to episode. And all of that is only highlighted by just how cool all of Arc's' unique finishers have been. These aspects alone bring something to look forward to with every episode, and I hope that they never really go away as I get further in.

So, yeah. Mixed feelings so far, but I will say that I am liking the show more than not as of right now.