Great Pretender

What we have here is an expression of love for art. It’s a treat in every sense of the phrase, being sweet to the taste beyond expectation and a dietary rarity worth your appreciation and indulgence. As time goes on, television ad rates plummet, and production committees get stingier and stingier with their limited funding and man power, impossibly ambitious original anime become more and more financially harrowing to fund and logistically nightmarish to create. Yet somehow, here we have it, the beauty to behold: Great Pretender. How much of what I’m about to tell you which you find completely obvious is entirely dependent on howblind, deaf, and senseless you happen to be, because if you ask even such a staunch critic as myself, this is the hardest masterwork to overlook and the single most broadly appealing triumph of entertainment I can name. From the drop dead gorgeous artwork and animation to the surprisingly thoughtful, endlessly amusing storyline, and from the delightful cast of lifelike characters overflowing with charisma to the fantastic music which itself is just as charming and built with just as much personality as any one of the characters, every facet of the show is delivered with expert craftsmanship awarding its audaciously dedicated production values. Given just how expressive, experimental, and downright weird the roots of anime are, most of the standouts which you can find therein are just as esoteric, and Great Pretender stands to be an exception the likes of little before. Inspired by Western crime dramedies which it swiftly outclassed in a single debut episode of exceptionally clever episodic structuring and excellent visual direction, Great Pretender follows amateur swindler, Makoto Edamura, as he gets swept away by the real deal, a gang of con men with whom he exploits others and entertains himself all whilst reaping the seeds of trickery they’ve all sown together…which is what I meant by “broadly appealing.” Yes, I conveniently left out the show’s thought provoking themes, all its discussions and ideals on social injustice justifying an individual’s turn to crime, but my basic summary of the plot is no lie, and it is such a cliche setup as to be almost embarrassing, so the fact I can even get close to calling it the masterpiece which I nearly have already speaks to the brilliance of all involved in its peerless creation. Great Pretender is solid proof a simple concept can write its way to a classic. It’s exploding with life, love, and lavishness in every way it can, and anyone unable to appreciate the monumental effort and unrivaled talent necessary to deliver on such a beauty or empathize with the unflinchingly human psychological core behind all its scheming and hilarity is simply beyond my comprehension, or somehow just contrarian enough to deny it all. If I had to oversimplify it, what makes Great Pretender so good in a single phrase is the tact with which each episode is handled and the way in which they are uniquely cared for by whichever member of the directorial staff headed its careful creation. Despite being an arc structured show which does not hesitate to grab you with low-stakes, hardly annoying cliffhangers, the true method to the narrative’s madness is every single episode feeling like an open and shut case nailing the finish and leaving you as gratified as you are dying for more, whether you be left hanging on the cathartic conclusion to a resonant character development, the satisfying resolution to an episodic or overarching plot point, or simply on the butt of an actual joke, landing yet another delightful punch line driving home the show’s damn funny comedic identity just a little more. Unlike most anime and, quite frankly, most entertainment in general, Great Pretender is self-aware regarding all its metatextual eccentricities and in-universe contrivances, so no matter how hysterically outrageous nor matter how artistically bold the story goes about presenting itself, it will always be tongue in cheek enough to come across as jest as opposed to being an irksome logical conundrum, and while not every episode is as perfectly balanced as the last, the show as a whole certainly is. Most anime which aren’t made for TV find themselves with the privilege to be as uncensored as they’d like, and by extension, they often end up leaning too hard on their freedom to finally incorporate vulgarity and nudity to their heart’s content, but Great Pretender stands as a complete and total exception. Accompanying its boisterous comedy and sensational personality is an incessant sense of realism offered by—yes, those brands of obscenity—but also by its deftly paced character time and nuanced characterization sewn throughout the hijinks. Comparable only to the best of Shinichiro Watanabe’s works from Cowboy Bebop to Space☆Dandy, Great Pretender has mastered the art of endearing and repulsing the audience with its duplicitous adult cast, the push and pull which invests viewers in the among the most human yet still the most entertaining on-screen individuals one can find in the most natural way one can find them. What makes building a character such a delicate science is you want to make them worthy of the screen by having their actions be somewhat absurd enough to be entertaining, but you also want to keep their passions down-to-earth enough to be emotionally engaging as relatable human beings, and this is where Shinichiro Watanabe truly excels. No one just throws on episode one of Samurai Champloo immediately invested in characters as ostensibly ridiculous as Mugen, Jin, or even the comparatively normal Fū, but given how well-written and smartly characterized these misfits are over the course of the show—the show which itself makes a point to show them at their lowest, most vulnerable points in life and at their happiest, most unapologetically free spirited—even the most jaded among viewers will finish the journey completely immersed in their stories, assuming, of course, they weren’t cynical enough to drop the show before then. Great Pretender is not only a master of the exact same craft, but one which has just as handily mastered the accompanying craft of outstanding voice acting. Complementing the prepossessingly sharp character designs of industry legend, Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, every character is deftly brought to life by a cast of talented actors and actresses who’s voices embody their respective characters to a tee. As Makoto and his compatriots march along the vibrant parade which the animation staff has made their lives, skeletons start falling out of closets just as you’d expect them to from the secret histories of real people, and the characters subtly progress in intimacy as they overcome problems of life and love alike. Be it Laurent, the mastermind fueling every fire under everyone’s asses; Abby, the blunt, stoic braun serving as the honest counterbalance to Laurent’s conniving brains; or Cynthia, the absolutely badass, electric heroine who you’ll be wanting as a best friend for life or desiring as a wife by the end of the show depending on your sexual preferences; every single one of the colorful personalities on screen has just as much to learn and love behind their beautiful faces as does the cover of the show itself. And speaking of having a colorful personality, Great Pretender is one hell of a feast for the eyes! Great Pretender, visually, is straight fucking unbelievable. While you may get this impression immediately, credit to Takeda Yūsuke’s ever legendary background art, all facets of this anime prove themselves to be crafted to the perfection of a Production IG classic back from the days of the Kamiyama Team who shared the same art director. Be it the explosive yet expertly balanced coloration and its astoundingly consistent shading, the flawless character artwork and the intricately detailed linework required by those razor sharp designs, or the flowingly lavish animation elegantly weaving it all together, every frame of Great Pretender is laudable to some degree even at its very lowest points and worthy of a standing ovation at its mountainous heights. Everything is overflowing with personality and branded with an unforgettable artistic identity such that I can promise with complete confidence you’ve never seen anything quite like it at such a high production value, and I promise just as easily you’ll never see anything like it again outside the purview of Production IG. This is the first project handled by WIT Studio with the exception of their debut series with Mitsuhisa Ishikawa’s full involvement, and his intimacy with this endeavor is no secret given the amount of IG names inscribed on this gem. With Takeda Yūsuke having already been mentioned, Kyouji Asano, the now legendary graduate of Team Oshii and Animation Director for Psycho-Pass and the first two seasons of Attack on Titan, has made his return along with too many animators to count, and Ishikawa also seems to’ve organized the recruitment of the best of the best not already under the illustrious IG umbrella. From the criminally obscure genius color designer behind works such as Space☆Dandy and Redline, Yūko Kobari, to the industry veteran sound director who’s so prolific and who’s been around for so long that he worked with Chiaki Konaka in bringing to life the brilliant soundscapes of Serial Experiments Lain and The Big O, Shouji Hata, Great Pretender is stacked with more talent than you could ever imagine, and somehow, every little bit of it shows. Great Pretender is the first time WIT Studio has fully lived up to both the technical perfection and unflinching consistency of their founders at Production IG, and it never ceased to take my breath away. The introductory paragraph of this review is worded in such a way to mirror the first anime review I ever read, which I’d directly quote if not for having unfortunately forgotten the address of whatever blog I saw it on. I only remember the impression its wordage left on me. Sentimental, I know. It was a review for an anime equally ambitious and equally outstanding as Great Pretender which shocked as many critics as fans it elated. It was a work also made at the dawn of a new decade, relatively speaking, and much like this decade, it was a time in which anime as a whole was on a downturn. Studio Madhouse had just thrown out Masao Maruyama in the face of their ambition fueled bankruptcy, and now, a decade later, their only remaining holdout of talent is Director Natsume, who’s work is the only excuse optimists have left to not call the studio dead. Gainax had been exposed for their toxic business environment which drove away Hideaki Anno only to then lose its remaining creative leads, who now, nine years later, are thriving in their own limelight at studio Trigger whilst proudly carrying the creative torch of the Gainax of old before it all went sour. More positively speaking, Kyoto Animation was redefining the word “polished” and winning award after award for their work on genres most powerhouse studios would scoff at, yet now, nine years later, a fifth of their staff was horrifically massacred in an inhuman arson which has gone down in history as the second most deadly mass killing on Japanese soil since the end of the Second World War. So much has changed since that review was posted, so much, except the studio which pioneered the anime it was reviewing. That’s right, the studio was Production IG, and the anime was Psycho-Pass. The reviewer offered his thanks to the pantheon of artistic prowess and creative genius which had, in such an incredible fashion and with such an epic production, restored their hope in an industry they saw as stagnating, and now it’s my turn to do the same. The son has grown into the shoes of the father, as WIT Studio has finally, unequivocally matched their founders at Production IG, and with their achievement, my own hope in the anime industry has been restored just as those of the cynics before me. Thank you for reading.

Great Pretender was exceptionally disappointing. What I thought to be watching was a modern Lupin, it ended becoming the classic 'predictable but not fun' kind of story. I wanted to like it and say originals aren't always bad... I couldn't. Nothing in this godforsaken anime makes sense. Every 'plan' is meant to show that our main cast is good at this, but everyone besides them are plain stupid so of course they're gonna succeed without breaking a sweat, or are they? Well, we're meant to believe that they're trying really hard but the 'challenges' are never found. All of the outcomes are painfully predictable and youcan see who is who and/or what she or he is up to based on their personalities alone. The supposedly villains are just there, often times without any reason and in the end they lose, as you would guess. What you don't know is that all of this feels underserved. You don't cheer for the main cast nor get to either love or hate the villains. You only feel empty. Like an emotionless humanoid who wanders in search of happiness. That empty. Furthermore, some of the characters are so smart that often times distort reality. "Predicting the prediction one character has predicted once his prediction was predicted" is the whole anime in a nutshell. When these guys start doing something you know they'll win, as aforementioned, undeservedly. Nothing can go wrong with them around and I don't like how their "everyday life" is portrayed. You see them walk all over and yet, after everything they've done, they still live. How's that possible? Because it isn't. The 'Great Pretender' world is modern and considering the whole thing is full of cameras (and more) I don't see any reason why the gang hasn't been killed yet or at the very least put in prison. Is this anime really expecting me to believe that despite all of that they keep outsmarting everyone? Because if that's intended to I don't buy it for a second. It's humanly impossible. "Great Pretender" has a bad cast, a poorly written story with a immeasurable predictable results and even its ending song (which is best thing this anime has to offer) couldn't save it. If you want to hear my advice, stay away from this. Just my two cents.

The Great Pretending that this anime is a well written story about con artists making well-crafted schemes and not a giant mess full of nonsensical plot twists and protagonism. The Great Pretender was in fact a good anime in the beginning and it quickly became one of my favorites. The first season is worthy of a 10, with great schemes and character development put together in three interesting cases. This anime was very creative and stood out of the ordinary with fresh new ideas and characters with well constructed personalities. And it even chose a Freddie Mercury song for the outro! What could possibly go wrong? Season2 happened, giving us a very risky storyline that could go both ways: 1 - Give the anime an epiphany and improve a lot with a great story that may have been unexpected when you started watching but had been slowly building up to this point, or 2 - Putting it as a giant bait and resolve it in an edgy, disappointing way of ruining the show. This arc was supposed to be Laurent's story as we finally get to know his flashback and why he is the way he is, and it all makes sense. With all that has happened in his childhood and after losing Dorothy, he basically gave up his soul to become a smart, unbeatable scammer who takes down gangsters, monarchs and rich bastards. All of that so he could avenge Dorothy in the future. This is why he is so selfish, arrogant and careless for the people he likes, he gave up on his human emotions with the trauma he suffered long ago. This adds well to Laurent and Makoto’s duality that makes them as perfect antagonist and protagonist. They work together, but Makoto is constantly trying to outsmart him and failing, and always falling into his schemes, over and over again. Laurent likes the boy, but because of his past he is not attached nor shows any sign of true friendship towards him, seeing him more as a tool for his schemes. And Makoto eventually gets tired of it. Makoto’s development is different from the rest. He starts as a low-level scammer who is actually a good guy, and he has a good heart, as we see in his interactions with his mom, Salazar, Abby and Cynthia. He has good ideals and wants to come out clean to live a normal life, something that Laurent’s team has taken from him a lot of times. This is why Makoto is an interesting character in season 2. He has always been easily manipulated by the people around him, mainly by Laurent and recently his own father, and now that he works for Suzako, who besides being a TERRIBLE person who sells children, manipulates him really well and he is with someone who actually shows any care for him and treats him like family. And after all he’s been through, he had all the development to hate Laurent and to be what this season teased a lot of times, a villain who would outsmart him. Laurent may be somewhat of a good guy in the series but he is an antihero, as he screws over murderers, gangsters and people who are actually terrible, having unusual means for that. And by that I mean using Abby, Cynthia and Makoto as tools just so his plans can work. As an example, he knows Abby is suicidal and takes advantage of it to put her in risky situations that may result in her death, because she doesn’t care about her life. And we also have Makoto, whom he plays a lot with. Makoto went through a lot during the series. He was a petty thief in Japan who had to flee the country because of Laurent, who also got him involved with narcotraffic, then he got tricked for the first time for trying to do what his moral compass said and denounce the international scammers to the FBI. After that, he tried to come out clean, spent some time in prison and tried to live an honest life as a mechanic, but Laurent won’t let that happen, he will set up a fake mentor for Makoto to look up to and believe that he is rebuilding his life, just so he could be completely broken when the truth is revealed afterwards and accept working for him again. Even so he tried to do the “honest part” of the work by just being a mechanic, but ended up playing a major role in the scammers’ plan against the brothers and almost died for it. Once again he tries to come out clean, but Laurent sets up another plan and makes Makoto get into it. After that, one more time Makoto tries to live a normal life but, surprise surprise, Laurent manipulated everything so he could accidentaly join the Yakuza and become a tool to Laurent's plan to avenge his wife. At that point I would have become paranoid with Laurent, and this is Makoto’s case as well. Many times he tried to be an honest person, just so Laurent could break his moral compass and show that there is no escape from him. After years with this guy and three schemes, he is told that his only purpose was to train for this big scheme of avenging Dorothy. And because of the father he hates, who also happens to be Laurent’s best friend. In his last attempt of being a good person, Makoto tries to free the children that Suzaku is trafficking, just so his father could betray him. Then he has to watch two of his friends die in front of him, kill his own father and be left alone for MONTHS, without any information from Laurent nor knowing the truth about Abby and Cynthia. And Laurent planned for it to be that way, it all made sense in his head as he clearly underestimated Makoto. He believed that he would never turn against him, and even if he did, he would not manage to outsmart him. Don't get me wrong, they may have forced the opposit but Suzaku is a TERRIBLE PERSON, she SELLS CHILDREN. And by choosing to stay on her side, helping her and liking her, he is choosing the dark side. And it makes sense that he does so. Because Laurent showed him that there was no escape from the life of crime, lied to him and played him like a toy, over and over again. And, because of him, Makoto is living the way he is. He has all the reasons to HATE Laurent and has the perfect construction of a protagonist turned into a villain. And this leads to the final scene. The scene where Makoto betrays Laurent. He follows his plan of defeating both companies and stealing their money, and then brings up an armed group to surrender them and protect Suzaku. And what could the french scammer do? He didn’t think about this at all, he was trying to avenge the love of his life, the only thing he cared more than schemes and heists. He was hallucinating with Dorothy on his chair, Dorothy talking to him, and even bursted into anger in the end by attempting to kill Liu to avenge her death. His only trace of humanity was also his fatal flaw, and Makoto took the chance to finally outsmart him. Then he has his own Kira moment, he laughs and give us a speech that sums the entire series perfectly. Con artists are supposed to be lone wolves and independent, but when the hard times come, they will sacrifice everything for the group. Oz let himself be imprisoned, abandoned his son and wife and let her die alone just so he could help Laurent avenge Dorothy. And he is honest about the scammers, even though they’re in the right here, as you know, he is working for a woman who sells children. He finally confronts his dad, Laurent and the group and shows that their actions towards him had a consequence. Just so, in his arrogance, he makes a mistake and dies. I wish that was the ending. What happens next is a bunch of nonsense that shows that this is not a single story. Rather, a lot of different stories squished into one. They wanted to do Makoto’s bastardization and revolt, but also wanted to make a happy ending where the protagonists can all be friends and make a possibility of a third season. They make all of this be a plan, and it makes no sense. Makoto showing his true feelings and hiring an additional group to throw off one of his allies makes no sense. Their reactions and the unnecessary acting of all that makes no sense. Makoto’s character construction of becoming a villain and Laurent messing up his biggest plan because of his decay into madness and the trauma of losing Dorothy, all thrown into the trash. The second season had other problems like Oz’s introduction and quickly redemption with his son that ends in a betrayal that is very predictable for how fast the entire thing is. Another one was the recycling of the first arc’s fakeout deaths of two main characters who turned out to be alive and working together with the person who killed them. And also Makoto’s second meeting with the father he supposedly killed, not acting surprised or shocked, that tied up in a 2-episode flashback sequence without explaining anything of what was happening in the current time. And don’t forget that Makoto, who spent months imprisoning and training child slaves, doesn’t get that mentioned at all afterwards, as they force us that he has never done anything fucked up like a villain would do. Talking about Oz, I gotta mention that he is the absolut worst character of this series. He neglected his family for decades, didn't care about his wife dying in a hospital bed, didn't care to go after his son, hid the truth from him, and that's just him on the "good side". He worked for the chinese mafia for YEARS, dealing with human traffic and helping Liu and Suzaku SELL CHILDREN, and it's a huge thing to justify by saying that somehow this was part of the Avenging Dorothy Master Plan. All of that just to make Makoto's final confrontation with him a complete JOKE and make him instantly forgive him afterwards. But, yeah, for me the thing that ruined this great anime was The Great Fanservice at the end and the discarding of what could have made this anime really stand out. And also they bringing up the first three villains, Cassano (narcotrafficker, murderer, rapist), Ibrahim (scammer, pedophile, murderer, crippled Lewis) and Coleman (scammer, thief, manipulator, ruined Cynthia's boyfriend's entire life) as friendly and living happy, wealthy lives, just to ruin the first 3 arcs. And also Dorothy being alive this whole time, just to shit even more on this season's story and to take out the sense of Laurent's motivations. By the way did I mention that they bring up human traffic, romanticize the person who does it and this whole plot is totally overshadowed by the revenge one and literally NOTHING happens to the traffickers afterwards? The first season was good and I recommend it, but the second one was a huge awful mess. It's like a pizza cutter. Too edge, no point. Between this and Yesterday I think I won't watch anymore animes whose titles are references to great songs by legendary musicians. They tend to turn out terribly.

Man, in all of my years watching anime, I've never watched such a good show that left me with such a bad taste in my mouth. Before I get into the meat and potatoes of my review, let me first say that I will try to avoid spoilers for those of you who aren't watching the sub online off of Netflix, since the final arc isn't available on US Netflix yet. Furthermore, a lot of my harsher scores in the story, character, and enjoyment areas are heavily influenced by the final arc, and especially the ending, so if you don't want to be jaded beforethe final arc officially releases, just stop reading here. Story: 4 The story follows the exploits of Makoto "Edamame" Edamura, a two-bit scam artist who took advantage of old people in Japan until he meets Laurent, the first person to con him. After joining up with Laurent, an enigmatic and charismatic confidence man, Edamura gets roped into several schemes all targeting wealthy criminals who have used their influence to avoid justice. The series takes a mostly light-heated and fun approach to each of these cons, although there are moments of genuine emotion sprinkled throughout that help make the cast a lot more likeable and relatable. Furthermore, there are enough twists with each of the cons to keep them exciting, though some of them do require a good deal of suspension of disbelief. This fun story manages to stay consistent for 14 out of the 23 episodes before taking a sharp turn in the final arc. In order to avoid spoilers, I'm not going to talk much about this final arc, but basically the plot becomes silly at best despite the grim subject matter -- international child sex trafficking -- and the resolution feels like a slap in the face given how the story had played out up until that point. One of the interesting ideas of the show is that Makoto is one of, if not the only good person in Laurent's crew, and he essentially acts as the heart of the group comprised of manipulative narcissists. Because of his earnesty, Makoto ends up being taken advantage of constantly in Laurent's schemes, often finding himself completely in the dark about what's going on until the final minutes. The final arc deconstructs this aspect of Makoto in a really interesting way as well, essentially exploring the hypocrisy of Laurent's group and how their actions might actually push Makoto far enough to turn on them. However, in a massive cop out that I will not reveal, this whole character arc gets completely uprooted, leading to an unsatisfying conclusion that completely ignores the previous 3 arcs and just feels hollow. On one hand, I understand why the show did this, given that one of its core themes, especially in the final arc, is forgiveness. In every previous arc, one or more of the characters learned either to forgive themselves or one of the people they were scamming, so it makes sense that this theme continues in the final arc. Hell, you could even try and call the ending a subversion of expectations given how it really does subvert the viewers expectations; however, subversion for subversion's sake isn't inherently good, the payoff has to be satisfying, and it just isn't here. Furthermore, the way that this theme is explored in the final arc with Makoto just isn't satisfactory and honestly felt very contrived. There's honestly no reason for Makoto to forgive these people, especially considering what they put him through, and yet he does anyway. Maybe this speaks to my own poor character more than poor writing on the part of the show, but still, there are still examples of undue forgiveness past this moment in the finale that are even more contrived and a lot harder to rationalize for me. Finally, there's the post credit scene at the end of the final episode, which I don't even want to think about and I honestly can't make sense of. It seems like sequel bait, but it completely spits in the face of everything the final arc was about, making the last nine episodes feel like more of a waste of time. All this being said, the actual resolutions for each character outside of all of this are really sweet and pretty satisfying, though what comes before it is legitimately awful. tl;dr: a great story that manages to drop the ball spectacularly in the final few episodes. If you're going to have a tonal shift in the final arc, at least follow through. Also, the way they pulled off the final con was stupid at best and reminded me of a quote from Community which I will paraphrase: So, according to the Sting, in order to pull off this grift, we need a full crew, a bunch of briefcases, and a fake hospital for some reason. Art: 9 Yeah, the art is mostly really great and expressive, but the CGI looks genuinely awful. Even though the CGI is stylized, it still looks super jarring and it's even worse when characters are modeled with CGI. Everyone keeps comparing this show to Lupin, but Lupin's recent anime and films blow GP out of the water completely. Muisic: 8 A pretty above average soundtrack overall, though there are quite a few tracks that blend in with one another. The vocal tracks are all pretty excellent, though. Characters: 6 Again, for the first half of the show, the characters are all really great. Edamura is a likable lead, Laurent is incredibly funny and commands the screen when he's on, Abbie is one of the most charming characters of the year, and Cynthia just oozes with charisma. Plus, each of these leads has a really compelling backstory and character motivation, and each is given some genuinely superb character development throughout the series. The villains are all fairly one-note, but it works in the show's favor because it gets you to really despise them. The one stand out is Suzaku, the villain of the final arc, who is not only despicable, but sympathetic in a way because she develops a really compelling relationship with Makoto, almost becoming like a surrogate mother to him. Unfortunately, the main cast outside of Abbie all become genuinely insufferable during the final arc and that's when you realize that they've been self-serving, hypocritical narcissists for the entire series and have been insanely cruel to Makoto for almost no reason, seemingly enjoying his suffering and treating him as a joke throughout the entire series -- literally none of the characters actually call him by his proper name. As a minor spoiler, I think it's really telling that while Makoto is basically in the middle of a mental breakdown after a severely traumatic event, the rest of the cast is at a hot spring having the time of their lives -- it really shows how awful the rest of the cast are, which makes the resolution even more frustrating when none of them actually get what's coming to them in spite of Makoto's really passionate and eloquent rant about why he hates them all. Again, like the story, the characters are great until you realize that everyone but Makoto is a legitimate piece of shit who never gets theirs. Enjoyment: 7 I think the one takeaway from my review is that it's a really enjoyable show and if you just ignore the final arc, the show's probably like a 9/10. Unfortunately though, you can't just pretend that almost half of the show doesn't exist. Maybe I'm an outlier in terms of how I wanted the ending to play out, but from what I've seen online, I'm not the only person upset with the ending in general. A bad ending can really mar what could have been a great show -- just look at GoT -- and Great Pretender has joined the ranks of other really promising shows that just couldn't follow through in the final stretch. It's the first show in a long time that has genuinely made me feel conflicted after watching it, not sure if it was worth my time or not. I enjoyed it, but I was only able to tolerate the show's absurdity up to a point. Overall: 6 I was really rooting for this show, and it was genuinely the most fun I've had with anime in a really long time. However, I just can't look past its ending and final arc in general. The writers seemed to through everything fun and compelling about the show out the window in the final arc in favor of a forced tonal shift that they didn't even have the guts to follow through with. I know my other scores average out to about a 7, but I felt that it deserved to be docked another point for the post credits scene, which just felt like a slap in the face after an already flawed and frustrating arc. Overall tl;dr: A good show that had a lot of potential, but completely squandered it in the final 9 episodes.