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This show must be some sort of deep state CIA psy-op to see just how much substance can be removed from a story without people losing interest. Whenever my opinion differs significantly from the general consensus I can understand what things people liked about the show even if I disagree. I truly can not fathom how anyone can enjoy any of this.

Characters are boring. Setting is boring. Music is boring. Plot is boring. Dialogue is almost exclusively wooden exposition or very forced humour. Stakes are non-existent as it is literally just people playing video games. If a character 'dies' they just respawn having lost a ... few minutes of progress. The lack of plot or stakes would be fitting for a slice of life but there is far too much action and the story takes itself way too seriously to realistically be called a slice of life. The world of Shangri-La Frontier fails at the bare minimum for an anime set in a video game: be more interesting than Sword Art Online.

On the topic of SAO, the show is filled with wish fulfilment such as the protagonist being le epic gamer who is just awesome at everything he plays and the cute girl who is love with him despite him not even knowing she exists. Does he even have irl friends? His 2 online friends use girl avatars to at least maintain the illusion of a harem. Maybe that is what people love about this show.

The action animation is the only thing keeping this from a 1. The production clearly started to struggle in its second half but even when only half watching in 2x speed the animation during the action was at worst above average. Good animation felt like more of an insult when its being used to produce something so mind-numbing. Can't imagine how poor the animation of season 2 will be after just 6 months between seasons. Even if the team performs a miracle and makes season 2 look good at the end of the day all that blood, sweat and tears will just be for Shangri-La Frontier.

If this review makes even 1 person reconsider watching this show then it will have been worth writing.

I went into this season with some of the highest expectations its possible to possibly have for a work of fiction, knowing only the reputation of The Shibuya Incident from general discussions online and I can safely say that even if the final 6 episodes are unwatchable slop this will still go down as one of the greatest seasons of television ever created that has blown every one of my highest expectations completely out of the water. The Shibuya Incident lives up to the hype and then some, easily placing itself in the upper echelons of arcs and in my personal top 3 with 6 ... episodes still to go.

Hidden Inventory creates some the most compelling flashbacks possible, keeping the audience guessing and confused despite knowing the fates of the characters with incredible action, animating and directing. The plot of the arc is fundamental to understanding the larger plot of the series and the events to come, making it clear from the beginning this is not a filler arc. The relationship between Gojo and Geto feels genuine with plenty of thematic substance to sink your teeth into if you're a school English teacher or homo erotic undertones if you're into that.

This season features a changed art style from season one using less detail, but the trade-off is massively improved backgrounds throughout the entire season (I'm looking at you, murky exchange event forest background) as well as fantastic compositing that manages to blend 3D and 2D almost as seamlessly as Demon Slayer. Even when the animation quality wavers between episodes due to the very publicised production issues of this season, the plot, directing, characters and voice acting (Japanese and English dubs) remain consistently some the best out there with very fast pacing and severe consequences for the characters' decisions made throughout the story. Plot threads constantly weave in and out with each other creating an overarching plot with lots of twists and turns that feel natural and obvious in hindsight but leave you stunned as they unfold.

The power scaling is consistent with no character feeling out of place. When characters that are essentially gods are fighting it still feels very grounded in the rules established in season one and the plot doesn't need to pull bullshit out of a hat to come up with an excuse to lose. Powerful characters get to feel powerful without the need for plot armour. Sukuna and Geto are truly terrifying villains in very different ways with a wide variety of other characters to fill in the villainous gaps each with unique and interesting cursed techniques, personalities, fighting styles, moralities and objectives.

My only real gripe has been the soundtrack, which has been a noticeable step down. Still an exceptional soundtrack with a few stand-out tracks so far but this is more of a compliment to how good the soundtrack of season one was than an insult to this season's soundtrack. Both OPs and both EDs are all bangers that I have shamelessly listened to on repeat for months.

Overall, if I could give it higher than a 10, I would. The team deserves better working conditions and we can only imagine what they could have created if they had more time.