It all Works Out', 'If there is one major problem with this anime, it is the fact that it is a massive anime. While this is by design, it does not work all that well in anime form. Especially in canonical anime form. Several different things happen and could just be mentioned, and maybe a separate OVA series or even a side-story series can be made. Take, for instance, the goblin king bit. That happened, and there is clearly stuff that has to happen to handle that event. So it is casually mentioned along the way. However, the other instance where the kids go off on their own is an example of something pointless.

Shiro is the only character in this series really worth following. He is the one who knows how to handle things and is a great deal more fun to watch than some bumbling kids with crushes. I understand that some of this stuff had to happen to establish plot points, but there is plenty of anime with political intrigue where the character can learn or do research or something like that without having to have action all the time. I guess that stuff is harder to write, but still, the arcs that tell extra stories are pointless. This anime has enough substance on its own without relying on filler like that. That is what side stories are for and can be an easy cash grab for fans who want all the stories. Then there is the degrading of Shiro.

By degrading, I mean he loses the qualities that made him remarkable, to begin with. The main one was that he got along on his own. At least, that is the vibe I got from him. I know he had this whole complex around the Debauchery Tea Party, but that is secondary. I like how he has a plan and can do stuff. How he realized that all the losers were taking advantage of him. As well as how he played his own way. True, all the people around him wanted him to join a guild because he could do infinitely more in that kind of capacity, but there is no reason for him to do that. He was a free agent. Then he fell to the pointless comradery and stuff like that. Slowly over time, he becomes a standard anime protagonist. His intelligence remains, which is nice, but he starts to stand out less and less as time goes on. Which is necessary for the other characters and other major political characters to stand out. However, he is still the protagonist who really drew us to the series, to begin with. Then there is how everything works out.

Time is a factor in a lot of anime. So you need a lot of stuff to just work out, and this anime is the master at exploiting that part of anime. Too often, Shiro can more or less peer into the future. I guess on occasion, he mentions "in expected parameters", but that is pretty rare and not something you see enough to make it seem like there are issues that arise. There is always a reason or loophole to exploit that results from Shiro thinking everything through. Which is just as much a positive character point as it is a negative one. It would not kill Shiro to get hit by an exploit that he managed to miss in all of his machinations. However, that is not something that can happen when we have our god characters who need to get as far as possible in the allotted time.

So this could be called a case of the little big anime. The anime is massive and has many rich characters and stories to follow. However, an overarching plot has to be followed to make the story worth watching. As such, there are shortcuts that need to be completed and taken whenever we can. Then at the same time, there is a bunch of pointless filler side-story which could have been left for a short set of OVAs as a shameless cash grab. In the end, I guess the anime has to be forced to work out. Otherwise, there is just random chaos, and nothing gets accomplished and what could have been a great anime becomes a crappy one.