To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts 3 - DROPPED
This whole adaptation has felt like a mixed bag, from the colossal mistake of a first episode to the mostly competent second episode. This one, though... just felt like it missed the spark needed for the emotional beats to land. It's not like the material is devoid of anything that would create some emotional stakes in the conflict or have something to say about the way people treat those who suffer from mental illnesses suffered during wartime, but it's just not well directed enough for any of those things to land properly.
It doesn't help that the adaptation (and I imagine the manga as well) feels the need to deflate the tension of what's happening a bit with some flagrantly juvenile humor at almost a routine clip. There is a time and a place for all of that, but seeing the remnants of soldier's corpses in a scene that looks like a 19th century remake of Rambo followed up with a gag about Charlotte losing her footing and almost getting cut in half with a hilarious reaction from her after the fact feels like it does more harm than good. It's not to say that Charlotte's presence isn't a good thing, but that having her be the butt of physical humor to ease the mood of the show takes away from the impact the themes could have had.
It doesn't help that Sacred Beasts draws more comparisons technically speaking to Overlord than I care to admit. While the difference between the source material's art is quite a bit smaller than in Overlord's case, there's a particular lack of polish to Sacred Beasts that also saps away at the potential of transporting the viewer into the show. MAPPA usually has a higher standard than this technically speaking, though given how much of a hack-job of the original manga this has been so far, I'm not surprised if this didn't get much more resources or time than the latest seasons of Overlord did at Madhouse. But in a season with Fire Force and Vinland Saga setting the expectations for this season's action shows, Sacred Beasts looks like a very low-level production that can't hold a candle to Wit and David Production's output.
Combine this with the thematic missteps from earlier, and I think it's easy to say with so much on my plate, I think I would be better off passing on Sacred Beasts and just checking out the manga instead.
Cop Craft 2
It's kind of hard to know what to say about Cop Craft. It's so pointedly calculated to be a typical police procedural with a supernatural edge, and it manages to be just that without anything extra distinguishing it. It's kind of impressive in a way just how pitch perfect it is at replicating an average cop drama; but it comes at the cost of having anything in particular that makes it stand out.
I think the easiest way to put this is your mileage with this kind of material will greatly effect your enjoyment of the show. It's so thoroughly aping the structure, tone, and pacing of the genre it represents that you aren't going to enjoy Cop Craft unless you have a certain affinity for those kinds of shows to begin with. That said, in comparison to a litany of shows like this I suffer through because of my job that are either so pro-cop that it makes you want to puke or unrelenting in having their heroes act like action stars taking out armed nobodies by the dozens, Cop Craft feels a lot more responsibly grounded in reality in a weird way. Kei works a hard beat on a tough street, and while that's turned him into a miserable loner, he still maintains a sense of duty as a cop that feels earnest without being sycophantic. And while Tilarna's position in her society make it hard to judge her motives, it's clear she has some kind of personal drive to live up to her title, whatever it is. It's the one thing they can bond over, as much as they bitch about each other.
The thing is, I don't see this particular plot thread carrying all the way through the entire season. At most, there may only be one or two more episodes on this initial story before I imagine other cases will come to mind. However, I wonder what will convince her to stay? Perhaps the necromancer introduced here will be a re-occurring villain should he get away, or some other politics in her homeland force her to continue in her current duties. I guess we'll see, but things are moving too quickly for this to continue endlessly at this rate. How it chooses to wrap up this story block may make my decision about sticking with it for me, but as a sucker for this stuff, I may continue regardless of whether it manages to improve beyond what we've seen so far.