made in abyss book 12
6/10.
===Part 3: Poseidon Arc===
The final arc of the original
anime was the Poseidon Arc, which was a definite step down from the previous two. It did at least try to be less formulaic by not having it's standard opponents be in such a linear road, but that means little when the execution is still repetitive and, unlike with the two previous arcs main group of villains, the Marina
Generals are for the most part a major disappointment. Kanon was good due to his role as a manipulator and Isaac was decent due to his ties to Hyoga (though mainly only to serve as character development for Hyoga), yet the rest were completely bland beyond a gimmick or two. It doesn't help that power-wise, only Kanon, Krishna, Isaac and maybe Sorrento felt that impressive, with the rest
getting steamrolled pretty quickly once the Bronze Saints got serious.
It was good that the battles required more than just beating the opponent, but it didn't really matter after the first battle since the destruction of the Sea Pillars was no longer a big deal with the Libra Cloth. Having a god as the main antagonist did
increase the scale and Poseidon's desire to reshape the world wasn't too hyperbolic from his perspective, though he felt very underwhelming for such a powerful god when he was overpowered twice by the combined power of the main cast (the second time in which he'd gone through a gigantic power up of his own) and coming close to his full power didn't change much overall. It also doesn't help that the sense of tension, like the previous arc's, is nowhere near as great as Sanctuary due to having no solid grasp of how much time Athena had left. If anything, it was worse due to not even being told a solid time limit or constantly shown her physical condition prior to the end of the battle, which in both anime and manga lacked any sort of build up for the next arc (though this is expected with the anime concluding on this arc until adapting the Hades Arc over a decade later). 4/10.
Going back to the aesthetic qualities and expanding on them, it's truly where the series stands out as rule of cool.
"New York Times
Manga Best
Seller List, January 31-February 6". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on June 12, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2022. Ressler, Karen (February 19, 2016). "New York Times Manga Best Seller List, February 7–13". Anime News Network. Archived from the original on December 13, 2020. Retrieved April 25, 2022. Ressler, Karen (May 13, 2016). "New York Times Manga Best Seller List, May 1–7".
Metal Slug 5 (2003, NeoGeo)
Metal Slug 5 was
more of what people had come to expect from Metal Slug games, only there were more enemies onscreen at once, the animation was better, and the character designs were significantly more "out there. " It didn't take long before the sea of soldiers and rocket grenadiers were replaced by dozens of giant robots, all carrying machine guns and grenades. MS5 gave fans a new vehicle to use, the gunner robot, in addition to the tank and submarine that featured prominently throughout the game. The new gimmick for this game was the slide move, which let you duck and slide under bullets. For the most part, the biggest complaint people had with Metal Slug 5 was that it was too brief. There were only five missions in all and just a single branching path per mission. Samurai Spirits Zero (2003, NeoGeo)
This game was also called Samurai Shodown 5. Samurai Shodown got
back to its 2D roots with this prequel, set before the events in the original Samurai Shodown. You could choose from any of 24 different fighters. Taking into account the complaints of fans surrounding the bust and slash modes found in Samurai Shodown 3 and 4, SNK removed these options from Samurai Shodown Zero and combined the different repertoires into a single set of moves for each character. The backdrops were gorgeous and set around the countryside of Japan during the year 1786.
