Well, it's been a while since I made this thread but it's the first time I've actually had time to say my thoughts about the series.
Final episode was pretty fun. Weird how they changed the villain to the sunglasses dude but his motives were pretty interesting considering how vile they depicted most of the humans (some times). This is something I'll mention later on.
Hitomi helping Gou was a HUGE highlight, because THAT is what I was expecting the series to be like. And then they just have to throw Rin in there again.
Finally, the final battle was cool. Loved the giant mech and the Sentai suits. A great love-letter to Super Sentai fans there. Not the biggest fan of the cliffhanger ending, but it DID feel very Sentai-like - right down to the clip-show end credits.
You see, this finale wasn't bad. But ep. 10 - 12 took the series in a weird direction by introducing Rin. Before it was all about the Hikaribito discovering human life, which this finale captured perfectly. Rin was such a distraction from that. Which makes me appreciate Hitomi's role in this episode even more.
See, this is the problem I have with the series. It's all over the place. It doesn't know what it wants to be. It's a sappy love drama one minute, a horror-porn the next, and then a comedy when it wants to be. When the comedy is the hilarity of the Hikaribito learning about humanity, it's good. When it's breaking the fourth wall left and right, it's NOT.
All the fourth wall breaking relegated to those 2 or 3 big-breasted female characters, which are only in the show because... well, that's why. Seriously, there was no point to them. I strongly disliked the so-called "supporting cast" as they detracted from my enjoyment as they were way too shallow to even be close to entertaining. Having Oba-chan come back after that emotional moment in episode 10 really cheapened it in my opinion.
The show suffers from identity crisis. When Gou and Jin are sitting, talking about how Rin loves him more, they decide to do it in a "old-film"-like style. Which is lovely, but does not work considering that most of the "serious" drama stems from scenes like this. Because of this, it's hard to take any "drama" scene seriously.
The acting, minus Shinkawa's, was not bad but it was overdone. Again, was this intentional? The whole series seems like it could be parody material, but again, it doesn't seem to be the intent of it, especially with the Rin story.
Jin's treatment, as much as I love Wakamatsu, was downright jarring. He starts out being the one who exposes all the horrible things about humanity. It's dark. He's evil. But it turns out he isn't the villain, and his "love for Rin changed him". What is this? It's strange because the amount of teasing they had (for his evil plot, not his goddamn secretary) was interesting but just thrown away at the end. And GODDAMN they think he can be redeemed that easy? Just Rin saying "be friends again with Gou!"? No. What a waste of a character.
I've said this once, but I'll say it again - I HATE THE "RAUNCHY" SCENES. They are out of place and COMPLETELY unnecessary. A LOT of this series is just pointless eye candy. The secretary, again, is not even a character for all I know, just some butt and boobs that they needed to up the sexual tension of each episode.
But you know, for all the things I disliked about the series, it did a lot of cool stuff too. I loved the suit design, it's really fantastic. They are all so varied and detailed, aw man it's beautiful. The fight scenes and special effects were truly top-notch for what I expected. The first episodes with Gou becoming friends with the others was exciting, hilarious, and well, fun. I loved seeing suited heroes doing things normal people would do, like going to the hot springs or playing dance video games, or even trying out natto. That kind of stuff I really enjoyed. Hell, I even liked some of Jin's scenes, such as the one where he fed money to someone. It had a dark message and it hit strong. It was good contrast to the Hikaribitto story. Hitomi was a fairly strong character but I wish she had more to do.
So you know what? I liked the series. It was different and I haven't seen anything quite like it. But at the same time, it wasn't a series I think I'll remember for a while. Maybe just long enough to finally finish the rant lol.
Overall, enjoyable but I wouldn't watch it again. But hey, it was fresh. And that much I appreciate. I definitely wouldn't mind a season 2.
