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Honestly, I was kind of skeptical coming from the second season. I was fearful S3 would suffer from the same dreadful pacing and voice acting hiccups and that it would be just as stale and lifeless. Mind you, at the time S2 was to start, expectations were sky-high for what S2 had to offer after that incredible first season, and everything came crashing down...

All I got to say is that all my fears eroded away with the initial scenes of the first episode, and that binge-watching it to put up to date has been a breeze. Everything feels... how it should, simply, simply right.

We'll ... see how it develops, but I have a funny feeling it's not gonna let me down, don't know why.

What a time to be alive.

Being honest, I thought I was done watching this series after the woeful start that it undertook. The pace has nothing to do with the earlier seasons and, at some points, even made me fall asleep, which I definitely wasn't happy about, and Kanroji Mitsuri's fanservice galore, although enjoyable in its own right, also made nothing to startle my interest for the show. I believe it could've been less hampered by pace if they just shrank this arc to a movie or a seven-episode season.

Although all that I've just stated is true about how I feel about this season of KnY, the middle episodes start ... introducing more and more details about the story, and the final episodes are all emotional payoff, everything leading up to them was rewarded with pure tears of joy. Not gonna get into details 'cause spoilers - there are plot summaries elsewhere.

Although the story was a bit lacking in pace and content, the visual and auditive aspects remain intact and as fantastic as they've ever been. Even the inclusion of CGI was well implemented: the rooms feel immense, and the spatial setting truly sets it apart; and the characters really benefit from it too, for instance, one of the main villains, Gyokko, has an airy vibe to it that I believe was achieved with CGI, it further separates the character from reality and gives it a truly eerie and nightmarish aura; and the demonic fish also look disgusting and as if they had come out of my subconscious, they are truly a reptilian fear of mine. The ambient music, although I never pay attention to it specifically, never cuts the immersion by being obnoxious, and the track used as intro just screams KnY like no other, a true banger.

Tl;dr, I'd just say go out and enjoy it now that it's complete. Many of the pacing problems, though still there, may be helped by doing a binge watch, though they wouldn't be quite over, I fathom. Still, the final chapter is a true emotional rollercoaster, and will leave no one untouched.

[[[Spoiler alert]]]
[[[Contains minor and general details about the plot]]]

It was great fun (second anime movie that I watch in a theatre), and as a Makoto Shinkai follower, this one strikes me as yet another masterpiece in animation, cinematics and artstyle, but the story, or rather the storytelling, falls a bit behind his other works.

Most of my complains lay within the first 30 minutes - the door mechanic is just too overused there, when it didn't need to. To me, they could have used it less and use the remaining time to explain more about the stuff that happens later in the movie (excellently ... narrated, by the way).

As for recommending it, I would still say to watch Kimi no Na wa first if you haven't watched any of Makoto Shinkai's movies, but it's a good starting point if you have the opportunity (specially since it's in theaters at the time of this review, at least in Europe); if you've watched them (my case) or some of them, it's another great experience to add to the bag.

It was a trainwreck for me. Out of all the anime released in 2022, I never thought this would be the worst one. But, even though it started poorly, as the episodes went on, I started to like it more and more. Some of the excitement that the first season's story and setting gave is still present in this one - the source material really shows its worth -, though the voice acting hick-ups and scene construction are abhorrent, and the thing why I give this season a 6.

This season, more than anything, makes me want to read the manga or light novels.

[THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS] I discovered this and I said: I might as well chek it out, shall I? It surprised me that they hired the same guys that made the intro of 3-gatsu no Lion, one of my favourite anime intros. Gotcha! focuses mainly in the characters from the Pokémon games - no Anipoke characters to speak of, for what I can see.

I got to say, it has touched my sensitive fibers quite intensely: I'm a Pokémon fan since my early childhood, and this is a breath of fresh air into the Pokémon animation scene. It's short, but very emotional.