[Locke]

I absolutely agree we needed the first half to make the twist work, but I guess I just think the twist is the point where the show actually got good, not at the point where the show began to actively betray itself. And while I do think the first half was necessary for the twist, I don't think it was so good it needed to be as long as it was. I feel like you could have easily dropped this twist 10 - 15 episodes into the show, and it would have felt like a significantly healthier whole. At least personally, of course.

[Layton13]

Personally think the twist was perfectly placed.

It cuts the show cleanly in half and not placing it at the usual point where the show shifts direction helps make it more impactful. I also think that it'd lacked as much impact if it was sooner.

But that is coming from someone who enjoyed the slow buildup to that point, so maybe I'm biased.

[Locke]

Yeah I guess it is like weird, because I don't think the show had like outward filler episodes in the early parts. Like it isn't one of those Toku shows where you could like skip like 15 episodes over the course of the run and have a better show. But I just think what they achieved in 20 odd episodes, just didn't need 20 episodes to achieve.

And had I caught up to the show sooner, I would have possibly dropped it before it got to the twist, as those like early to middle teen episodes just dragged for me, almost as much as the opening episodes did, which is part of why I wasn't watching the show weekly from the start as I watched the first couple of episodes and just didn't like the show at all.

I eventually went back and pushed through them because it was getting hyped on my socials, and I was glad I did overall, I think the show found a better rhythm and flow and identity when it got the opening episodes out of the way, but then I dunno along the way I thought that got lost again, at least until the twist.

[Mesnick]

Speaking of the twist, I still preferred to push it back from the very beginning of show. Because the chosen option turns Fujimi and Nasuka into plot dead weight, hanging around in the background, waiting for the right time to be used. That is, in Baku`s premonition, at least they had something to do. Perhaps the most correct option would have been to not add them to the team until it was time for them to play their role.