Ars no kjodžú

I wish I could give Giant Beasts of Ars an above-average rating. I was intrigued by the setting, liked most of the characters, and enjoyed learning about the various strange cultures on their planet. For a while, I even thought that there might be a cool plot around them thanks to all the "prototypes" (something along the lines of Chaika). I also wondered what was up with of all those animal "chapeaus" in the story. I started watching the series in a pleasant mood, expecting to get answers to a lot of questions, but when they were supposed to come, I just ended up confused. In the last two episodes, things seemed to happen for no reason. I felt as if I was missing crucial information, several times wondering "Why?" or "Where did this come from?". It was as if the writers suddenly went insane. They wanted to solve everything at once but didn’t bother to explain anything. They seemed to have suddenly realized they had run out of time and so they just threw in all their ideas and plot twists, leaving it up to you to figure things out. Or they thought you didn’t even need to understand it at all. I struggled to make sense of half of what was going on, and the other half was barely explained. "It’s just the way it is!" The last episode seemed like a load of bullshit to me. Another negative is that the animation was mediocre, or rather of erratic quality. The effects were decent one moment and jarring the next. As much as I'd like to give Giant Beasts of Ars an above-average rating, I just can't. 5/10 (24.03.2023)