天下制覇

Not even trying for much of a mid-season finale, are we?

Impressions:

I haven't been shy about my antipathy towards this show's frequent focus on the geopolitical situation, and this episode was nothing but that. You could sum up every four minute span pretty much with some old dudes going "Things are getting worse" and then shots of either the protagonists or antagonists in transit. The antagonists walking and shooting people/throwing bombs, or the protagonists sitting on a train. The closest thing to any kind of action (and forget any kind of Persona action) is the one boss lady kicking some grunts around, but the animation budget was apparently thrown out with the flashback budget, so there ain't much of that either.

The end result is a twenty minute episode that starts with menacing some random old dude who's supposedly important in some way, and ends with menacing some random old dude who's supposedly important in some way. Not really escalating things or raising the stakes here, and especially not in any way driven by or elevating the characters. I'm ready for this season to be over. I should probably get going on that season preview for the next one.