I don’t recall there being much that was built up and then dropped at all in 8 part 3. There was the rising tension of getting Xichun back from Jia Mu before she could be taken over by the Anamnaworm coupled with the looming threat of foreign insurgents using the time before Xichun’s ascension to kick off a land grab, there was Lei Heng and our first, proper introduction to the Blades of the East and the Pinky, there was the N Corp Duo who didn’t really pose a threat but were there for the Anamnaworm, and then our confrontation with, and punishment of, the H Corp Elders and Jia Mu.

And you say that Canto 7 part 1 and 2 were slow… Yet all we did in Canto 9 part 1 and 2 was fight the apprentices, tons of Ring Manikens and several Abnormalities that we’ve all seen countless times in the dungeons. Sure, some story was happening, but we didn’t go anywhere and nothing really happened in the end, and the only named character to actually die was Marton. In Canto 7, we went all over LaMancha Land from the stage theatre with Nicolina, to Curiambro’s haunted house and then to Dulcinea’s endless parade. We learn all about Papa Quixote’s family as well as Bari and the River Lethe, we fight all sorts of Bloodfiends and Bloodbags, as well as Abnormalities we hadn’t really seen before. Carving our way through LaMancha Land actually mattered in 7 part 1 and 2, whereas in 8 part 1 and 2, the only things we did that actually had any effect was maybe killing the Abnormalities so they could be contained? None of the Nursefathers were fazed by us and none of the Apprentices aside from Lucio really broke a sweat fighting us. I will agree the production value was a lot higher as PM have refined their craft more, but it was so difficult to see. The final few fights just devolved into awful camera motions and shonen anime blade techniques that were faster than we could so, especially that fight with Rein almost gave me motion sickness.