Inazuma Eleven: Orion no Kokuin

Inazuma Eleven Ares was one of most disappointing series comebacks I've ever seen. The story was incredibly rushed thanks to it's dreadful pacing. The writing was shallow at best, most of the new characters sucked and the visuals were underwhelming . It had some good moments but those moments didn't save the anime from being painfully disappointing. Before Inazuma Eleven Ares finished airing OLM announced a squeal for it called Inazuma Eleven Orion. Like with many Inazuma Eleven fans I was super excited for it as I thought Orion would be the tasteful main course that would overshadow its amateur hour starter that was Ares. I thoughtthis series would be amazing. So, I watch it and I wish I haven't. I just going to say this right now Inazuma Eleven Orion is not only the worst entry of the series but is also one of the worst animes I have ever watched in a long while. It's like the staff took everything that was wrong with Ares and managed to crank it up to 11. One of the main problems you will notice right out of the gate is its fan-fiction nature when it comes to it's writing. This was a massive problem in Ares that ultimately plagued it but Orion takes it to the next level to a point where became unbearable. The writing in Orion feels like it was written by a clumsy student who had no creativity and passion. The same student thought it was a brilliant idea to add dark themes and topics on a franchise that rarely had dark themes and topics in it. Ladies and Gentleman that's the plot of Inauma Eleven Orion in a nutshell. It's vapid, boring, hollow, ham-fisted and most importantly tedious to watch. As for the Orion Foundation plot itself it was hot garbage. Not only it was terribly written it's also incredibly generic. This plot is only interesting if haven't seen an organisation plot in your life. It is the most generic and stock evil organisation plot imaginable and it's not even handled well. This generic written plot was only made worse by the inclusion of politics in the second half. I wish I was making this up. The show had the nerves to throw in politics in a series that was meant for kids. This wouldn't been a problem if the politics stuff was foreshadowed in Ares but nope it popped out of nowhere just like the rest of the so called plot twists in this show. With the inclusion of politics the tone, pacing even dialogue go to shit as the devolved into this uninspired and badly written political, sports, spy series that contradicts everything that this franchise has stood for since 2008. It doesn't help that the main villain of the show Irina Girikanan is so one dimensional. She is evil for the sake of being evil. She has no motivation whatsoever other than to use children from various countries to take over the world with her contrived Orion Foundation plan. Now if you thought the pacing in Ares was bad than guess what the pacing in Orion is somehow even worse. For a long semi-tournament arc we don't see the characters actually train let along bond with each other. Sure the show has some downtime moments but it's not the type of downtime that you expect. It uses its downtime to focus on the Orion Foundation plot instead of developing its characters through training and bonding. The lack and character bonding really hurts the pacing as well the characterisation because the show would rather focus on it's contrived written Orion Foundation plot which was very rushed instead having a couple of episodes where the characters are just getting along with each other. Inazuma Japan never felt like a actual team. Sure they play in matches with each other, and they attend coach meetings but the majority of the characters in Inazuma Japan have little to no chemistry with each other. When Endou interacts to Gouenji or Kazemaru it feels natural because they have been good friends and teammates for a long time but when he interacts to any of the new characters it felt so forced and unnatural especially when some of the new characters like Kira, Hazaiki and Hiura never had a single sentence with each other. That's not all because there's hardly any training all of the hissatsu that the characters pull off for the first time felt like asspulls. The biggest problem with Orion's plot by far is the over-reliance of plot twists. Not only they were heavily abused but the majority of them were just stupid. Don't get me started with the final plot twist that happened in the final 3 episodes. I won't mention it here due to heavy spoilers but I want you to imagine the worst type of plot twist. The type of plot twist that completely betrays everything that the show previously set up. The type of plot twist that rips off another series plot twists in the different continuity. That's the final plot twist in Inazuma Eleven Orion in a nutshell. It's so bad, so tasteless it made me want me to slam my head on a wall for half an hour. Oh the characters aren't much better at all. I even go as far that the characters were way worst than the god awful plot. Inazuma Japan has over 20 characters yet almost all of them aren't develop for shit. Prime examples include Kira, Gounji, Nishikage, Hiura, Iwato, Mansaku, Norika Sakanoue and Kozoumaru. They don't do anything noteworthy in the plot and they have no character development whatsoever. Heck some of the members are literately there just for memes I wish I was joking... The OG crew are somehow even worse. All of the character development and personality quirks have been thrown out the window and what you left with are empty shells of characters we grown to love. Fudou went from being a likeable jerk with a heart of gold to an annoying edgelord who just exist for bench memes. Hiroto went from being a well written badass to a worthless background character with no personality. Kazemaru (My favourite OG character) went from being a competitive and loyal friend to Endou to a boring and hollow background character. The biggest insult of them all was Endou (My second favourite character). Endou went from being a likeable, funny, well written and developed character to a infuriating, overpowered Gary Sue with no personality and development. The only two OG characters that still had their personality quirks from the original series is Kidou and Goeunji and yet they were victim of the shows plot contrivances where they were shafted in favour of Ichihoshi who is garbage. Ichihoshi is not a character. He's a husk. A husk that is so contrived and unoriginal . He's backstory is a complete ripoff off of Fubiki with his tragic backstory. He even go as for antagonistic the OG characters by either getting them injured in a match or kicked them out of the team with some evil scheme. All of this happens because Ichihoshi couldn't control himself and he had to take out his frustration towards others. I honestly cannot for the life of me stand characters that behave like douche-bags just because they love ones have died. I understand losing your loved ones is tragic but there's no reason to take it out on others. By the time this Fubiki knockoff opens up to the team he becomes a total plot device where the only two things that he does is to be loyal to Asuto and be the tool for the Orion in the second half. Why Inazuma Eleven Orion why did you have to ruin one of the best written characters in Ares Haizaki. In Ares he had a well written backstory that made him more then just another typical soccer player. He was fighting through the Ares system as a act of revenge due to what happened to his childhood friend Akane. It was an amazing subplot that had a strong payoff. So what did the writers do to him in Orion? Well you take all of his character development, threw it out the window and turn him into the second coming of Shadow the Edgehog. The only good character in Orion is Nosaka. I really liked his character development in Orion. He went from being a distance individual who barely interacts to anyone to a badass tactics captain who is able to lead Inazuma Japan as the secondary captain. Finally we Asuto who is without a question the worst character in the entire show. Not only he was one dimensional as hell but he was also downright infuriating to watch. He's basically Tenma without the charm and quality that made him a great character in the first place. Sure Tenma did some dumb things throughout the GO saga but he's character development across the series as well his personality and interactions make up his shortcomings. Asuto has none of that. He is just a soulless, annoying, inpet, vapid, and exasperating little dipshit from beginning to end. Let's not forget that he's a total numskull. He aggressively defends Ichihoshi even though everyone in the team is against him due to his nasty actions that he committed to the team. One of those actions almost had a teammate (Endou) killed and yet this asswipe still has the nerves to value him as a teammate. Get the hell outta here with your contrived bullshit. The final nail in the coffin for this pathetic excuse of a protagonist is that he has no character development at all. From episode 1 of Ares to episode 49 of Orion he's still the same static character that we all know and hate. There's bad characterisation and there's not giving a damm and Asuto is down the ladder leading towards the rabbit hole. That's why I cannot stand this dipshit of a character and he's the main reason why I hate Inazuma Eleven Orion so much. If it wasn't for this sack of shit I wouldn't have hated this show so much. It would still be a massive disappointment due to it's character shafting and terrible plot but I wouldn't have been so mad at it but because of Asuto annoying presence I went from mildly disliking Orion to utterly despising it. Curse you Asuto you good for nothing dipshit. So how about the supporting characters? Aren't they any good? No. They are just as bad as the main team. The teams that Inazuma Japan face-off have no personality as they were full blown plot devices especially the Perfect Spark and Ole de Samba teams. Now let's talk about this show technical aspects Let's be real honest with our self's. This show came out in 2018-2019 and yet the show looks it was made over a decade and a half ago mainly due to the because of the terrible production values. The animation if you can call it animation at times was terrible. It had a lot choppy animation, heavily relayed on stock footage which became jarring fast and match choreography was clunky. The only decent thing about the visuals is the art and even then it's inconsistent as character models would go off model. The soundtrack is just as lame as the plot. The old tracks while good lost a lot of charm thanks to how overused they were. As for the new tracks they were absolutely terrible. Not only they don't fit the tone of the show at all but the tracks seem to mindlessly drown in the background with no melody to it. To Orion's credit the opening themes were catchy and memorable tho I cannot say the same thing for the ending themes as they were dull. All of these problems ties up to the biggest problem with not only Orion but this alternative timeless as a whole the lack of creativity and passion. When I first watched Orion I thought the series would go back it's classic routes that we all know and love but just after watching the first quarter of Orion I started to notice that there was a little to no passion towards this series for example almost all of the matches themselves were a void of life and excitement. The production values for the matches didn't help it at all and the matches feel like a vehicle for the shows pathetic and poorly written drama. What makes it even worse is how hamfisted the plot is. The series tried to tackle serious themes and topics such as child abuse, political control, grief, acceptance but not only they were poorly executed due to poor writing and direction but it also has the nerve to shot out how brilliant and complex it is when it's actually not. If, you don't know how handle and execute than don't put them in the show. It's makes your series more vapid and dumb than it already is. Even with my bias love with this franchise I still detest Inazuma Eleven Orion with a burning passion. It's an insufferable garbage fire that completely contradicts everything that's this franchise stood for. It's like this show was done by 25 Inazuma Eleven fanboys who had no communication with one another. As a result the plot, pacing, themes, dialogue, characters, visuals and music is broken. Not even Nosaka can save this pile of waste. Orion is not only the worst anime I have seen in 2019 (worst than Fairy Gone, Wise Man's Grandchild Index S3 and Arifureta) but also one of the worst animes I have ever watched from this decade. It's a boring, insulting, unfocused, lifeless, miserable and broken mess of an anime that has no passion and soul. I feel so betrayed.

Orion in my opinion is a masterpieces and is the best Inazuma season of all time. No one is too minor in the team, everybody gets decent screen time, and the animations are way superior than they used to be. The matches are not too long nor too short and the best part of the show being Nosaka. Not gonna spoil much but how he is in control of the entire team during match and outside of match as if he knows almost everything and haizaki and Kira Hiroto give the show sufficient amount of comedy. Its a masterpiece. On top of that you can'tpredict what's gonna happen next its so exciting to watch. And as many people want in an anime we say major character development and see backstory as season progresses of Ichihoshi.

This anime has way to many characters like I have no idea what the writers were thinking. You want a shit ton of strikers for no reason? You want 3 goal keepers? Unlikeable characters? cough cough Goujin or characters with absolutely no personality? Like many the only reason I watched this was to see my favourite OG characters in action like the Fubuki brothers which I was most excited for but my excitement quickly faded. Fubuki barely had any screen time to begin with like all the other characters since there was simply to many but then they had to get him injured and becomesome spy for no fucking reason. Then they added Atsuya to the team who also got barely any screen time you could write him out the show and nothing would of changed that's how pointless most of the characters were. I do not recommended watching this most characters get shafted after a like a episode.

Inazuma Eleven, what happened to you? I tolerated Ares as a show of wasted potential, but now Orion made me feel hollow inside. At this point, they seemed to stop trying. The story basically repeated events that happened in the original FFI arc; the difference was that they removed all the emotional weight. The characters didn't seem to grow as people. Certain plot lines and acts made no sense. Interesting ideas were wasted and the finale was a complete joke. What was sadder was that it started out pretty strong. There was something corrupt in the soccer world, something that may bring up mature and thoughtprovoking topics. Unfortunately, they didn't run with that and what I got was shallow recycled plot lines. They nearly got the antagonist right, but they did certain unnecessary things. Not even the OG cast could save the show. I tried my best to watch Orion with an open mind. There were things I found enjoyable. The artwork and OST were great, and the preliminaries were my favorite. However, I just couldn't help but be disappointed. The show literally wasted 49 episodes on bad writing when they could've done better.