__ Read to the end because I really like this show eventually!
__

I came into this show having expectations that did not serve me well, and it's first half went in a very different direction than I thought we were going. More often than not we would go spend time hanging out with friends, or go chillax with Hina and I would feel frustrated with the scenes bc I thought Takemichi should be solving a mystery we didn't understand from the future, or protecting an important character who' life was in danger. To be frank, I personally struggled to connect with our protag most of the time. I was not able to understand why he would act courageous sometimes during inconsequential moments, but never when he needed to the most. Honestly I can def see why getting to relive your life a second time would make you want to indulge in activities you did as a kid, or enjoy relationships you no longer have, as much as you possibly could. This makes sense to me, but if that is what the author wanted me to think Takemichi was doing, it wasn't very clear. Maybe doing something like showing a few timejump trips back to Naoto without achieving progress, and seeing Naoto' frustration mirror the audience' frustration, would have conveyed this to me so much better. Takemichi has the ability to go back and forth but it was very underutilized. But without getting an explanation of his behavior, the way most scenes read just had a glaring unexplained disconnect between the seriousness of the situation and Takemichi' attitude towards the situation. That is until the moment when it becomes too late to act, ..then Takemichi seems to remember what he was supposed to be doing. It made the oldest character in the show look the least mature, and it was hard to understand and watch sometimes. Also the romantic Hina stuff did not hit for me. And I was too dense for some of the early comedy.

But during Bloody Halloween my opinion of the show started going in the other direction. The Baji/Kazutora stuff was so unexpected and so real and each turn of the reveal of their backstory was an entertaining way to get me to understand how we got to this point. Its hard to forgive Kazutora, but its hard to hate him either, and that really shows wonderful writing of a realistic character. Baji' sacrifice was so memorable, he was an amazing friend, and sometimes it feels like some of the gangster backstories are based on real events. I wish we could have started to meet the founders of Toman before the second cour. I think the author' talents are most obvious when we are exploring Mikey' crew. Draken is probs the best written gangster imo but there are a lot of other interesting ones too. The more gangster stuff we do the more I want to see. If the plot stays with the enegery of the second half then I will most likely enjoy the rest of the story. And I thought that Takemichi' friends joining Toman under him or with him was really dope, because he sure could use their help. I hope we see more of Akkun and crew in S2. I really like Naoto' and Chifuyu’ relationship with Takemichi and I have really become attached to Draken (author you better not kill Draken). Some people shit on the animation but I think it does the job well. Finale was maybe the best episode of the season. Invested in the story and looking forward to a well funded s2.