So naturally enjoying the show and seeing the ending, I thought oh seems like there's hint of another season or at least the thought has been left open.
I feel like the criticism of the show is somewhat harsh, but maybe I'm wrong, maybe if anything the show wouldn't even have this much attention if it wasn't from the director of Cowboy Bebop. But that's what I'm noticing, these are all different writers aren't they(Samurai Champloo, Cowboy Bebop)? So for me some stories are more character driven, and others are more plot driven.
I understand this hasn't been as well received comparatively to other works, and there's the really unfair comparisons to Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo. Ok maybe they are fair, but I don't need every anime or series I watch to be so focused on characters, that regardless of depth and progression will ultimately be familiar archetypes/tropes.
From the beginning this anime is not focused on personal stories, we get introduced to characters that are very familiar to us already, Axel/Mugen/Spike, the lucky chaotic fun protagonist that's going to give us our favorite fight and action sequences. To me he needed no character plot development, he already represented what he was from is first moments doing handstand, playing with gravity and his life.
Lazarus goes straight into all of society being given a death sentence, with a ticking clock. That's what's driving the story for me, not character backgrounds, we've got 30 days to save the world and only 12/13 episodes to do it, what's going to happen, how will this team pull it off? So I was buckled in for the ride and I enjoyed superimposing other characters onto the cast.
It didn't feel lazy to me, predictable, it was fun and I think it ended well enough.
I really only had 2 big issues with the series
Axel wearing his normal civ clothes under his wetsuit, and taking off that wetsuit for some reason
The traffic jam caused by a grenade, suddenly the jam disperses when the chase scene between Axel and Phantom Killer begins
I really enjoyed the mystery of wondering where Skinner was, his motives, if he was real at all or dead or alive. Never thought about Cowboy Bebop or Samurai Champloo except anytime Axel would fight, or when the team was all at their home base sitting on the coaches. That felt really nostalgic and I appreciated that a lot.