Some general thoughts on Kratos VS Asura now that it's out
Overall, it was pretty good. Probably not a favorite of mine, and still some notable flaws to it, but solid stuff to start the year off with. Both of their analyses were genuinely pretty good, covered their stories very well and as someone not too familiar with either beyond a surface level, their story coverage got me really interested in both and especially enjoyed they way they compared both of their relationships to their anger, Kratos learning to take better control of it and grow as a person, and how Asura used his fully for good till the end.
The fight itself is mostly alright. Do think it suffers from some weird pacing issues (especially with it's weird setup), stiffness, and odd deliveries, but as with any of DevilArtemis' fights lately, also filled with some damn good shots for the hype and some good lines for the both of them. Gets to show a lot of the cool shit for the both of them, and while I do have some issues, definitely still cool. More got that on a second viewing of the fight than the first, but good work.
Think more of the problems from this episode stem from the high expectations it got. With a way longer wait period than the episodes of last season, a very heated debate in the fandom for that period (and NOT of the fun kind), and the extreme levels of hyping up this MU got in the final week, this episode really had a lot to live up to for people. Yet, being a matchup where I don't know as much about either combatant going in, and generally being less passionate for it than some of the other recent ones last year, in hindsight I realize that level of hype was a monumental task to accomplish. On first viewing, my reaction to the fight was a lot more mixed, and I think those expectations piled into that.
While I was mixed before, overall the episode's pretty good in my eyes. Not the hypest there is in my personal experience and has some pretty weird issues, but still, clearly brewing with the passion the team had the whole way through (plus the alternate ending was a nice surprise and legit hype for me). I likes it.
