The synopsis didn’t appeal to me at all - it sounded like just another one of those tedious shounen action perpetual motion machines that, if you look past the superficial differences between one enemy and another, are just repeating the same basic arc over and over and over again.
I finally gave in and tried it because it ended up with a much better reputation than it seemed it should deserve. But although it was stylistically very impressive, I still couldn’t initially see it, since it not only did seem to be broadly predictable and repetitive, but the characters were basically just walking stereotypes.
Except not quite. There were little hints from the start that that wasn’t quite what it was, and as it went on it kept introducing more and more things that defied the stereotypes and the formulas until it had somehow morphed into something entirely its own, with an actual story that appears to actually be heading toward a conclusion rather than just a contrived framework on which to hang an endless series of battle arcs with no lasting meaning, and characters who are surprisingly complex and conflicted rather than just unchallenging cliches with maybe a highlighted quirk or two to disguise the fact that they’re basically the same characters you’ve seen so many times before.
So I ended up going from half-heartedly giving it a shot to binging the rest of the first season, and now looking forward to the second.
Most recently, Sentenced To Be A Hero.
The synopsis didn’t appeal to me at all - it sounded like just another one of those tedious shounen action perpetual motion machines that, if you look past the superficial differences between one enemy and another, are just repeating the same basic arc over and over and over again.
I finally gave in and tried it because it ended up with a much better reputation than it seemed it should deserve. But although it was stylistically very impressive, I still couldn’t initially see it, since it not only did seem to be broadly predictable and repetitive, but the characters were basically just walking stereotypes.
Except not quite. There were little hints from the start that that wasn’t quite what it was, and as it went on it kept introducing more and more things that defied the stereotypes and the formulas until it had somehow morphed into something entirely its own, with an actual story that appears to actually be heading toward a conclusion rather than just a contrived framework on which to hang an endless series of battle arcs with no lasting meaning, and characters who are surprisingly complex and conflicted rather than just unchallenging cliches with maybe a highlighted quirk or two to disguise the fact that they’re basically the same characters you’ve seen so many times before.
So I ended up going from half-heartedly giving it a shot to binging the rest of the first season, and now looking forward to the second.