Spoiler free!
Honestly, I got my hopes up in the middle of this season that it might actually be something better. It started off weak, giving you an introduction to a "flawed" character in a situation that he couldn't control. He starts learning about himself, his environment, and what's actually going on. This is about the middle of the show. It was good. Generally in an arc, you would actually expect something to happen by now, for the plot to develop in literally any way shape or form, for ANYTHING to happen. Nah though, nothing does. The show again keeps you sheltered in a little micro plot.
I think what this show can never do right is the characters, but at the same time it did some of them right so the main series author clearly knows how, at least sometimes. Subaru is one of the worst main characters I have ever seen. If any little bump in his road comes, he cries about it. If nothing happens? He trips over a rock he placed there himself. He somehow gets nothing done, EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. He takes so long to do the simplest task in the universe because he's somehow written to dance around what he should be focusing on. Not to mention he just conveniently forgets things, even entire episodes worth of character development, just to drag the plot along a little longer.
At least all those episodes had a decent op/ed and the voice actors were well picked. Thankfully all the screams I had to hear weren't high pitched and ear piercing (not talking about my own frustrated screams). Everything looked decent too, it had a somewhat "generic" fantasy style but didn't really slouch anywhere. It certainly wasn't mind blowing but it was done well enough that I don't have any gripes. I guess if I had to say something, the gore was a little weak and hidden. That might be for ratings purposes though, so I'm not docking anything.
I think the way the show gave you information was done well too, it wasn't spoon fed, but it wasn't shrouded in mysteries that required some sort of "big reveal". It was very distinct when something was going to happen, and how it was going to be applied was generally delivered soon after. This wasn't always the case though, there was a lot of useless information that took time to get, that at least as of the end of this cour, has/had no application. Why it was there? Dunno, maybe to try to break the MC some more just to tack on more stalling.
This time around, the story also delivered a bit more of a shock value from places I wouldn't expect. I certainly enjoyed it much more than the first. On the other hand, I don't understand how they could manage to make so much, but so little happen in 13 episodes. I get it's part of a two cour, but it didn't feel like this was much in terms of setup. It felt more like they were throwing episodes at story that didn't matter a whole bunch, just to get it out of the way. Almost like half of SAO Alicization. Hopefully this doesn't take the same path, because it does seem like it'll get a bit more interesting given a bit of time. On the other hand, I keep my expectations low so we'll see.
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