The longer I think about the disaster 01 turned out to be post-break, the more I'm convinced something went down bts. The whole Gai redemption thing, Horobi going back to square one after actually making a lil bit of process after protecting Jin, the new ZAIA guy turning up so late in the game, the shock value thing with Aruto becoming Ark-One. The moment the break was over, 01 felt like a different show, one that didn't even bother to make any sense.
On the one hand… I’m like… Okay. Pandemic. You don’t know if you’re going to get put on hold again.
And I’m also like… Okay, maybe they sprang on you that you would only have 45 eps bc Reasons.
On another… There is an amount of sense to Horobi’s initial response, it’s pretty in character.
On the third… I wouldn’t want to watch most of this at normal pacing, either????
Like. Okay. I absolutely agree the tone has been totally off since we came back. Every single ep since the return, everything, and multiple characters, have felt… ‘Off’ is the only way I can describe it. Jin (though we are finally getting back into a more natural beat for him) esp, but also Yua, Gai… Just… Off.
I do have to admit that Horobi’s initial response… Does make sense, esp regarding the fact that his singularity point is Jin, wanting to protect Jin, and wanting to be Jin’s father, and humanity… Would, from his point of view, be a danger to that, and also one to his son, bc he is right, they did, literally, create the Ark.
It’s where they decided to go immediately after that went super off the wall.
I mean, other stuff went off the wall already.
So. My suggestion for what maybe could/should have happened:
Nix Gai’s personality doing a one eighty. Have an alliance of necessity bc the Ark is just that badass (she is). Do everything up to a point mostly the same (though… Maybe also nix Jin’s ooc behaviour towards humans he barely knows, and bc I am a glutton for angst, the simulation idea came from him bc that was how he ended up at the point where he thought he had to kill Horobi, in the vein of becoming convinced he couldn’t save his father but could at least spare him a more painful death, and only really starts warming up to humans when they do something that defies those simulations, or something… I just like the simulation idea for Jin), you can even have Horobi being like ‘human destruction’ if y’all really want that, though it does smack of an ‘f you’ to Horobi fans, bc gods forbid he be allowed any… I’m digressing. Anyway, instead of… Whatever this episode was, maybe there’s still a big fight, but at an integral moment Izu (and maybe also Jin) jump in and are like ‘no, stop!’ Izu shields Aruto and starts prodding Horobi, but Jin shows up and steps in. They manage to at least temporarily calm things down, there’s emphasis on the fact that humans need to give HumaGear a reason to believe in them, too. But all of this upsets Gai, maybe bc he has some kind of personal history w/ Horobi (hey, remember the time he stepped on Horobi’s chest? Bc I do, that was the moment that made me love to hate the character), maybe he had some shemey plan that this is fucking up, and he goes, you know, Gai™—but then the Ark is like ‘hey, free bastard!’ and possesses him instead.
Or some bullshit (Takahashi, if you’re listening, please, some bullshit) where it looked like Horobi killed Izu but it was actually Gai or someone else (Takahashi, I will literally pay money, I will buy the fucking rings, just some bullshit, I’m begging you). Aruto can still go nuts (I… Guess? It’s… Super weird how he’s going psycho over this, but is apparently a-okay w/ Gai just getting a tap on the wrist… Did I miss something? Bc I may not like Aruto much, but… This feels ooc), but eventually manages to snap out of it when that’s revealed. Or bc Izu is resurrected. Maybe bc Horobi brings her back. (admittedly, one of my original ideas for Horobi post-series was him working on recovering any HumaGear who were ‘lost’ when they were hacked… Though now that seems more like a job he can share w/ Naki while he and Fuwa also deal w/ remnants of the Ark/protecting peace as a new AIMS… Ah, spoilers, spoilers…!)
If Takahashi really wanted to make me a happy camper, he’d reveal that Horobi didn’t actually kill Izu and have Horobi bring her back. Sweet, sweet justice.
Anyway.
But yeah, ever since we came back, it’s been… Off. Like… Some of it I’ll attribute to the situation, being even more janky than it was already janky (imo, of course, other people seem to adore it), I mean, global pandemic, we don’t know how unexpected the cut down was for them, and they didn’t know if they were going to be locked down again.
But.
The subject matter is… Not great, despite that. Like… If I felt like we had a logical, coherent-ish, even for Takahashi, story under there… Yeah. Okay. I’d be more lenient. But… This is just… So off the wall. Like, this doesn’t feel like ‘oh, they had to rush bc eps got cut and they were flying blind.’ This feels like… Something else entirely.
If that makes any sense.
I mean. I suppose this could all be wildly popular w/ the kids in Japan. I know the show owes me nothing. But… Still.
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