To answer why I'm giving the show high praise, it's like watching one of those grindhouse movies of old. Yes the show lacks any kind of refinement or thematic presence but that's not what HOTD is trying to achieve. The characters, plot, and everything else about it is painfully mundane, but what the show lacks in intelligence it makes up for in pure entertainment. In other words it's a ridiculously fun guilty pleasure with high octane pacing, and a stupid plot that's cobbled together JUST enough for the audience to be immersed in the show's atmosphere. It's like watching Kill Bill if I had to make a film analogy. Not as good as Kill Bill per se, but in the same vein. An anime close to it is Ga-rei Zero which I originally absolutely hated, but after a while I put my mind on autopilot it became amazingly entertaining. I consider Tetsuro Araki to be the Tarantino of anime, he executes his shows very well and his adaptations are always a blast to watch. Not saying it's all him, he had good source material to work with, but he still does a good job transposing the action from paper into animation in a viscerally enjoyable way.
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