I knew this would happen at some point. This time around brethren weve got the Pokemon trainer season. Naofumi mostly hands off spamming Hyper potions X specials X defends X attacks and the occasional mega stone. His team isnt something to sleep on either. 600https://i.ibb.co/HDYKS3Fg/Screenshot20250924182033.png 600https://i.ibb.co/tTPntjL1/Screenshot20250924182424.png Kyogre Ninetales 2 shiny Zeraoras1M1F Pidgeot Charizard Theyd struggle against rock types steel types will cry against them but Ill say weve got quite the squad. A tale of 2 halves.... The half which focused on ATLA and the other half which didnt. As a member of the AntiATLA Association you can imagine which half was a decent watch and which half made me want to tear my hair out. 500https://i.ibb.co/dwWDnLkn/Screenshot20250924182559.png This creature gave me grief. First of all I recommend the subbed watch over the dubbed. I watched 10 episodes of Dub and 2 of Sub and I dont know if it was because those 2 subbed had zero ATLA but they were far more pleasant to watch. So where does this one rank? S1 opening 7 episodes S1 SUPER GAP S4 YOU ARE HERE S3 GAP S2 So overall not too bad Im here for season 5 and lets be frank if youre still here you might as well join me on this journey till the end. Plot Rough and smooth. What happened to the wave timer? This season felt more structured it set out its goals early on and they were definitely completed. The greatest issue is that the crisis and the great existential threat we introduced to in S1 as the reason he was summoned is put on the backburner yet again. Im here for the main duo and for the cardinal heroes so it wasnt too terrible for me but for others that were enthralled by the major plot line this season will be a tough watch. This instalment consists of 2 Arcs one bigger than the other with the larger one being the one thats actually somewhat decent. The other one is truly forgettable all you have to do is read the preliminary reviews to get a gist of what people felt during it. They try to make some attempt at some more advanced political discourse and it falls flat on its head mostly because of the annoying little racoon mutant tramp they decided to make the object of development. Its quite funny they set up the Arc seemingly in a way to show off Naofumis character growth in intellect discernment and leadership. Halfway through its highjacked by that silly little striped munchkin consequently exploding into abject mediocrity. The antagonists this season are poor especially during this segment nevertheless when we arent dealing with waves in this show thats definitely on brand. The arc I liked was more relaxing focusing on our fanfavourite main duo and I must say when theyre together the binge is very easy. We also have quite a few other side characters lots of action less dialogue more impulsive action. This time their attempt at politics was more modest they seemed to know their place so they didnt try to overcomplicate it and well it passed the brainon test quite barely. I will say it does become very tiring with female antagonists. They arent very cool they never exude any presence at all. They turn very serious events into a laughing stock and they end up cheapening any sort of tension or pressure in any situation. Story Slow and inconsequential. Splitting into 2 arcs again the story of the first Arc was just terrible. The character development somewhat negligible and it was just all too easy so not only is a development not believable it ends up seeming cheap. A complex intellectual dilemma solved by throwing it into a deep fryer convenient asspull powerups. All for that blind zebrastriped cat stealing oxygen as well as everyones development. No one was allowed to be in the spotlight not without that tramp what a suffocating experience the show would genuinely be better without her. People were using words like Filler to describe it and theyre not wrong apart from visible changes before and after that arc nothing really happens storywise. The other arc again dialled it down focused on simplicity played it through somewhat linearly with a couple of twists. It does seem that we are bearing fruit to the Naofumi they planted in S1 hes shining a lot more the maturity hardened by the tough lessons learned. Raphtalia is probably the star of the show here which I dont think anyone has a problem with. Definitely felt the development here compared to S2 2nd half which attempted similar development. What I did feel was lacking was that we were due a major conflict of interest between the main duo If youve watched the end of S3 you should know what Im talking about. If the events of this season were to be completed these 2 characters cannot remain as a duo in the same respect but it doesnt even explore this even though it was the logical conclusion. Very disappointing a very apparent issue swept under the rug. Im hearing a bit of it is filler so maybe thats why. Characters Exhausting People complain about too many side characters I agree only in part. It was stated that the world is a Matriarchy. So it has a more female focused important character pool and theyre so lacklustre and boring as character devices. There is also the relegation of the Cardinal heroes to side characters a true travesty of the writers. Theyre grunts now I will say it seems like one of them has caught a few pokemon of his own that was I suppose a spark of hope. The side characters this season? Not memorable and just not worth mentioning. Our MC? Naofumi. Hes back mostly he had a few remarks which were quite enjoyable. Nothing he did annoyed me If it continued like this I think weve got nothing to worry about. It seemed hes gotten accustomed to his style of battle which is more of Pokemon trainer. Sending his monsters out and supporting from a distance its mostly fine but if you wanted him to jump in there and get dirty with his shield hes definitely using his shield but hes no vanguard. Raphtalia was very active this season her general behaviour was one which I definitely prefer much more over any season other than S1. I just cant help but notice theyre dodging the massive elephant in the room. These developments were supposed to tackle their relationship It just cannot technically exist the same manner as it was before. Sound Same Old? Kevin Penkin made the first season sound like a dream this season we may have gotten too familiar with the score. It does the job but never reaches the ethereal heights we know theyre capable of. OP and ED were as good I did prefer the OP the visuals looked very stylish and invoked the kind of character we needed in the cast. Sound effects nothing special nothing takes you out of it theyre fine for the most part. Animation Overall a little worse than S3. We will again divide into parts: 1st part animation was absolutely not on standard at all. The show looked great in slow moments and stills but in motion it wasnt there at all. Once the action started the movement was too slow they abused slow motion way too much they interrupted tense fighting with annoying chatter then an unwanted break with exposition. They just dont know how to do tense combat it showed with how bad of a tournament Arc S3 had and it shows up again. Weightless combat lack of respecting of environment terrible choreography dumb antagonists hitting the ground and choppy transitions. If you want examples Chinese showsdonghua are great to see what fight choreography should look like this comparably was genuinely awful. 2nd part thankfully fixed a lot of the weighting issues and had a much wider range of abilities and attacks and there was a tamer vision in the way they conducted their storyboarding and it just kind of worked enough that I couldnt really complain. A bit of CG in there I thought it was good enough however it wont get past the CGphobia of the weaker ones amongst us. Last Thoughts If youre still here you truly like the show I do too. Lets steel ourselves and finish the damned thing. This season does okay but please kill your hope of ever feeling like you did in S1. We must now become accustomed to seeing The Rising of the Shield Hero as a somewhat delightful seasonal chore to which we still retain some fondness for.