Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc remains as surreal, violent and funny as the anime was. The choice to present this arc as a movie was well made as the shorter arc naturally translates to the structure of a film and the format keeps the momentum without breaks. The highlight of the movie is its characters. Denji remains as naïve and silly as he always was, but it works for the narrative....
Season 3 of Jujutsu Kaisen is the series at its most intense version. Animations are the best the show has ever had, battles are visceral and impactful, and there is no shortage of epic moments. The overall momentum of the series has always been breakneck, and this season, like the previous ones, is not concerned with offering breathing room between the action. The problem with this relentless rhythm is that it trades character development for action, leaving no time for the cast outside of combat....
The final season of The Boys was disappointing. It concludes the story in a sensible manner but with lackluster execution. The series feels a bit lost on what this season should be other than the final confrontation with Homelander. More than ever, the series relies on satire for humor and gore for impact. These, however, have diminishing returns. The satire of political affairs feels very on the nose this time. Admittedly, The Boys never was subtle, but after four seasons, it really is tiring....
The feeling left by Season 2 of Frieren is that nothing really happened. This is not true, but the break of momentum from Season 1 is strongly felt. After a thrilling ending of the first season with the first class mage exam, the second season returns to the episodic travel and odd jobs. You cannot have Frieren without the episodic travel as it is essential to worldbuilding and character development. However, the narrative works better when these episodes are paired with more focused arcs, as the lighthearted nature of the travel reinforces the high stakes of those conflicts....
The fourth season of Invincible feels different from the previous ones. The series is determined to raise the stakes and focus on the Viltrumite War. To achieve this, the episodic nature of the first half is put aside, and a more focused arc is presented in the second half of the season. To this end, this new structure works. The Viltrumites stop feeling like a random, occasional threat and become the main antagonists of the series....