Above average, but not a "9"

Above average, but not a "9"

This show, despite its insane popularity is about as good as any other shounen of its time. The characters are fun enough to see interact, and the greater story threads turn an adventure anime into a grand supernatural conspiracy, which was very impressive. There's just lots of individual little inconsistencies that stop the show from being great.

A lot of characters are introduced, have an explicit motive for being in the show, then do one thing and vanish, or do one thing and are put in the background, not really accomplishing much while the story figures out how to involve them again. There are entire swathes of the show barren of character development, and an ending arc that rushes several characters through to the end of a character development arc that never began.

For a battle anime, there are a lot of individual powers both heroes and villains have that they will use literally once and never again, probably because the writer forgets they are capable of doing them. Villains will just give up and stop fighting to allow themselves to be killed, rather than show any of the cunning that allowed them to become a threat initially.

On top of that, The show uses the backdrop of a fascist nation committing a genocide as a means of setting plot elements in motion, but it never really addresses the ramifications of that conflict beyond refugees existing and a few members of the invading army having ptsd. Rather, it uses the imagery of the genocide repeatedly and in such a way that neither is intended to traumatize the viewer the same way the "heroes" are, or to really talk about how they'll make things right beyond "not forgetting" and deposing the fuhrer. For a show about war and bloodshed, it absolutely backs away from talking about anything remotely close to the geo-political/societal ramifications of the genocide. It's somehow both a footnote and a plot device.

Barring all that, and the "haha, youre short" gags and wacky screaming that feels tonally dissonant in a show with this much gore, murder, and dark themeing, its actually an alright show. The fights, especially the ones near the middle and end of the show are genuinely pretty entertaining. Plot armor aside, there are plenty of moments you cna feel characters really fighting tooth and nail to kill or suvive. The music is solid, the world is interesting, the locations are refreshing, and most of the characters are fun to see interact with. With a bit better writing, it coulda been a 9/10, but the author seems to want cheaper catharsis rather than actual challenging story telling, so a lot of the interactions that could've been thought provoking conversations between two characters with conflicting ideals just turn out to be one person being angry and the other apologizing. A pity. Ending was pretty solid though.