Depending on what your expectations are, this season may feel a bit dragged out, but they really make an incredible ark out of everything, and it's a very fitting ending. Yet again, the characters you think you knew have layers and layers beneath that. One thing I find fascinating is this story's ability to repeatedly take very unpleasant characters and through a mix of development and reveals, turn them into your new favorites. There's also just so many twists, and possibilities, and what if's along the way. Some things may feel predictable, but then others are just totally against all expectations.
As an aside, you can tell they tried to update the animation values and style a bit in this season. Somehow they managed to accomplish that without really disrupting the established style from previous seasons. It's like the show is blooming and growing with the characters.
Anyway, this series somehow covered 27 (out of 37) light novels (the anime finished a few years prior to the novels), in 4 seasons, while managing to be an apparently quite faithful adaptation, and an absolute joy to watch. Suffice to say I'm in awe of it, and it's truly found it's way into my heart. I look forward to rewatching it someday, after I've completed the novels!
Depending on what your expectations are, this season may feel a bit dragged out, but they really make an incredible ark out of everything, and it's a very fitting ending. Yet again, the characters you think you knew have layers and layers beneath that. One thing I find fascinating is this story's ability to repeatedly take very unpleasant characters and through a mix of development and reveals, turn them into your new favorites. There's also just so many twists, and possibilities, and what if's along the way. Some things may feel predictable, but then others are just totally against all expectations.
As an aside, you can tell they tried to update the animation values and style a bit in this season. Somehow they managed to accomplish that without really disrupting the established style from previous seasons. It's like the show is blooming and growing with the characters.
Anyway, this series somehow covered 27 (out of 37) light novels (the anime finished a few years prior to the novels), in 4 seasons, while managing to be an apparently quite faithful adaptation, and an absolute joy to watch. Suffice to say I'm in awe of it, and it's truly found it's way into my heart. I look forward to rewatching it someday, after I've completed the novels!