Anime

Netflix’s Controversial Anime Returns After 2 Years With New Episodes

After two years, Record of Ragnarok is back with its third season, and itโ€™s the biggest one yet. Record of Ragnarok has been one of Netflixโ€™s biggest anime since it premiered in 2021, although itโ€™s seen its fair share of criticism over its poor animation and its controversial depiction of Shiva, the latter of which got it banned in India.

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As controversial as Record of Ragnarok may be, that doesnโ€™t change how vital it is to Netflixโ€™s library, with the series consistently being one of Netflixโ€™s most popular anime titles and most popular shows, in general. That level of popularity has allowed it to run all the way to a third season, and surprisingly, it was well worth the wait.

Why Record Of Ragnarok Season 3 Is The Animeโ€™s Biggest Season Yet

Despite Record of Ragnarokโ€™s objective popularity, expectations for season 3 were undeniably low; while the Record of Ragnarok manga is famous for its gorgeous artwork and fight scenes, the anime has consistently failed to capture that with its poor visuals and even poorer animation, and itโ€™s always been hard to watch because of that.

That makes it all the more surprising that Record of Ragnarok season 3 was so fun to watch. Visually speaking, while season 3 still had its shortcomings, there was a notable improvement in the art and animation, especially for the fight scenes, and it was easily the best-animated season of Record of Ragnarok to date.

It also helps that the story is especially strong in season 3; with new characters like Hades, Beelzebub, Qin Shi Huang, and Nikola Tesla, Record of Ragnarok season 3 has some of the animeโ€™s best character writing yet, and when combined with its surprisingly good visuals, itโ€™s probably the first season that was fun to watch from start to finish.

Is Record Of Ragnarok Finally Redeemed?

Every season of Record of Ragnarok has seen some sort of overhaul in the staff, and season 3 was no exception, as with the addition of Maru Animation and the removal of Graphinica, who had been with the series since season 1, season 3 had the biggest change in production of any season, by far.

The results of that process were fairly minimal in season 2, but with season 3, the change in quality is undeniable, as even if it still isnโ€™t perfect, itโ€™s far above the previous two seasons, which often struggled to be passable at best, all of which is great to see.

Itโ€™s hard to say if that fully redeems Record of Ragnarok for how poor its first two seasons were, but at the very least, the anime has finally evolved to where its visuals can at least attempt to match the quality of its writing, and hopefully, the series will only get better with time.