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storymasterb Since: Jan, 2011
11/16/2016 08:43:37 •••

Arc of Fatigue

Arc-V is a series I like for a lot of reasons. I like its Deconstructor Fleet treatment of the franchise's tropes, I like its nostalgic references to the previous series and I particularly like several characters. That being said, there is a point where too much of a good thing is bad, and there was definitely too much 5D's Fanservice.

For a good third of the series, the plot was put on hold so Kensho Ono, the series director, could do a rehash of his previous work in this franchise. Now personally 5D's is my favourite spin-off series for just how insane it could be at times, but there's a reason "Are they still in the Synchro Dimension" became a meme. The Synchro Dimension arc dragged the plot to a standstill as effectively as a lead weight and killed the pacing utterly. And in the long run, it's had very few consequences: Yuya hasn't Synchro Summoned since they left City, and the arc's only major impacts are removing Dennis via reveal of his traitor role and Jack turning up to deal with the Battle Beast. This isn't helped by the one time the awakening and dragons plot happened in City boiling down to a horrible tease with the plot being danged like jangling keys then rudely pulled away with no reveal about what the whole 'Become one' thing was about. And this mess resulted in the writers having to scramble out a colossal infodump in 126 and 127 to explain just what on earth was going on. At times it almost comes across as Writing by the Seat of Your Pants, like Ono was so determined to spend an arc rehashing 5D's that the plot of Arc-V wasn't filled out until the last minute.

This isn't to say that the series is beyond redemption, but I do feel it's an excellent display of why pacing is important. Leaving all of your reveals about important plot elements like the dragons and the Identical Stranger plot until the last sixth of the series tends to end with the audience getting tired of waiting more than two years to find anything out.

MFM Since: Jan, 2001
11/15/2016 00:00:00

\"Ono is solely responsible for every single one of Arc-V\'s faults\" is my least favorite meme.

Also the director is Katsumi Ono; Kensho Ono is Yuya\'s VA.

storymasterb Since: Jan, 2011
11/16/2016 00:00:00

My mistake, will fix that.

I don\'t think Ono is solely responsible for everything, I just think it\'s a pretty big coincidence that the last thing he did in this franchise was 5D\'s Season 1, and then Arc-V had an entire arc which was basically a rehash of 5D\'s Season 1. But in terms of things that aren\'t Ono\'s fault, Odd-Eyes Saber Dragon appearing out of nowhere was almost certainly Executive Meddling, and I wouldn\'t be surprised if Crystal Wing Synchro Dragon\'s first appearance was too since it wasn\'t foreshadowed or built up to and felt anticlimactic. Also the Starve Venom teasing for a year I\'d guess was due to Konami holding it back for Invasion of Venom. In general as the series director it feels like Ono\'d be the guy to work the overarching story out with the head writer and there needed to be at the least more hints to what was really going on sooner. Because it is sort of unforgivable to leave all your reveals about the important plot points to a two episode exposition dump in the last sixth of the series, especially on a plot arc this long. We knew nothing about Leo\'s motives for fusing the dimensions or Zarc and Ray until that point, and as I said, Episode 92 was the equivalent of dangling a treat for the viewer, then snatching it away.


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