I think we can all agree that things were good up through the Ragnarok arc, yeah?
and then the slow introduction of the members of Yomi, beating Radin and fighting with Boris, building up Shou as a major threat, and introducing some of the Yami masters. Culminating with the D of D, which I think was absolutely excellent.
After that, it fell into a sort of pattern - send Kenichi out with a Master for some hijinks, have Kenichi fight the disciple and his master fights the enemy master. But Kenichi was still the primary focus of the story and stuff, and the enemies were all ones that had been built up before. Boris and Gaidar, Rachel Stanley and Diego, all felt good to see them dealt with.
Then the Weapons Division got introduced, and I think this is the clear beginning of the drop in quality. Even though it was refreshing to see weapon fights, and it was cool to see the Masters fighting (before a rare occurrence), it meant that Kenichi and especially Shinpaku got relegated to the sidelines. The Okinawa arc gave Kenichi a great fight, but Shinpaku came all that way and did squat. It also felt like the Masters weren't really even challenged, as opposed to when they fought Yami. Meaning that all their fights were just foregone conclusions and show-offy kung-fu bullshit. which is fun enough, but in moderation please. also the ecchi started to truly let loose, and seemed to drive the plot at some points.
The problem that then happened, was that the nice job of establishing enemies and giving them development and character, just kinda stopped. Personally I had been hyped for Junezard for a while, but I can admit he basically showed up and got defeated in a single arc. And the weapons division were even worse. I even though some of the Hachiou Danzaiba were interesting, like the archer chick and the kodachi user (who actually had appeared before and been alluded to being top-tier) or shigure's brother.
Who represents the problem that really did the series in - too many characters who didn't get the fight or resolution that was offered villains earlier in the series. I'm glad we resolved Tsutomu Tanaka's arc, but Kensei never got his just desserts. Shigure never even fought her brother. Ma and his brother didn't reach a satisfactory conclusion. The hindu master just may as well not have existed for all he did for the plot. Shinpaku just got random brawls, except for Takeda who got to fight Lugh. Who then swapped sides along with the rest of Yomi for no real reason.
ugh, I'm just organizing my feelings and thoughts out loud. I don't know if I even have a point anymore. Just that this shit was rushed and I wanted to see it done correctly, but for that to happen different decisions had to have been made like 250 chapters ago.
here's hoping the final chapter gives some more emotional closure.
