The frustrating part about Ao no Exorcist and especially this season is that the story seems amazing. It is wildly intriguing to watch the story of the Blue Night, of how Satan fell in love with a normal girl, of the part that Rin and Yukio's dad played in all of it. All of the characters in this season are really interesting - in fact, more interesting than their children, in my opinion.
Unfortunately, this adaptation just doesn't do it justice. Though the animation seems to have improved slightly after the last few seasons made by Studio VOLN, it's still far from being up to today's standard. The art style is also still... A choice. I still missed the season 1 art every time I started an episode of this season. The editing has a slightly weird pace which doesn't exactly help when your animation & art does absolutely nothing to fill up the unnatural slowness of dialogue. The overall direction just wasn't good, though I'm sure that also has to do with budgeting.
Man, was it frustrating to watch such an interesting story be butchered by the execution of its presentation. This series deserves better.
In conclusion, never have I wanted to read a manga more after watching an anime. But not for the right reasons, I fear.
