Anime

The story has come together oddly, and unfortunately unsatisfyingly, in this.

Early on, I wasn't even sure if it was going to have a plot to speak of. It was pretty much a slice of Alina's life and her trials and tribulations as a guild receptionist who, if all else failed, could one-shot a boss monster just to make the world easier for her to deal with.

Then it started pulling in little bits of a broader plot, with the secret dungeons and dark gods and man in black. Okay - great.

But somehow none of that has really been incorporated into the story. Instead, it's felt like it's still a slice of Alina's life (expanded to include tsundere romance), and it just has some little bits and pieces of a broader story awkwardly stuffed into place here and there. Like nobody is actually focused on that part of it - that they're just going along with slice of life and gag humor and tsundere romance, then they come to the part of the script that says "insert dark god here" or "trigger encounter with man in black here," so they just do a scene that meets those requirements and bolt it into place. Then they hastily exposit, or just handwave, whatever gaps exist between the current bit of awkwardly inserted story and the previous bit.

I suspect the broader problem is just trying to stuff too much story into too few episodes, having to cut things to get it all to fit, and doing a relatively poor job of deciding what to cut.

It has accomplished one thing though - it's reminded me of why I generally don't watch currently-airing anime.