But it was all blown out of the water, I'm so happy. The content of the game's story is adapted incredibly well, and in many ways this season also worked to place a lot of anime original scenes and reactions, to further build this part of the story up fo the future, even more so than the original chapters 7-8 did years ago. And by jove, they managed to add in the crucial side story Darknights Memoirs as well, albeit crammed into one episode. This is the one flaw of this anime between previous seasons and now, as always, the lack of time, so the pacing in dialogue is too fast at some points, it doesn't get to land.
The artwork and drawings are all genuinely top tier, best in class for anime, this production LOVED it's facial expressions and detail. I'm especially happy with Sakamoto Maaya's performance as Talulah, who knocked it out of the park. And hell, this season had MOVEMENT too, we got some fantastic animation to bring out the full potential of the direction and storyboarding this anime already had an intriguing approach to.
As a fan I couldn't be happier to see the first arc of the story tied together like this with such reverence and respect for the original story. Having gone from doubting the first season for how it censored it's own brutality and barely showed a drop of blood, alongside the bland and unimpressive animation, to now seeing Arknights flourish fully without being afraid to show any of the tragic, brutal contents of it's story, it fills me with joy. Since as the story goes, we cannot shy away from the darkness and the sadness, we can only confront it, and how could a story like that have weight if it cowered for it's own material.
If you're like me, a longtime fan, I encourage you to watch this to bring further life to the memories of the Reunion story arc in your mind. And if you're someone new, perhaps someone looking for a series that's out of the box such as a gacha game anime adaption, I can tell you with confidence that the journey has a great end, and with my entire heart I can now recommend this series to you without hesitation.
