So I am watching an anime called Monster, released in 2004 I believe. Its great and all, definitely above average based on what is available these days. The short non-spoiler story is: there is this evil mastermind character who, while with a certain pattern behind his actions, gets a lot of people killed. Currently, I am a little over 30 episodes in and there are about 70 in total.
However, still the writer has never really once made an effort to show with a decent degree of detail how this 'mastermind' is supposedly getting things done. The viewer is constantly reminded he is a 'mastermind' mainly only by showing the result of his actions. Or the viewer is given a cliche explanation like 'throwing a little oil on the fire'. But never HOW, for example, he manipulates, kills of a couple of trained bodyguards, influences the financial world, etc... Not once is there a scene where his next kill or manipulation is set up, happens with some degree of detail followed by the results (up to where I am in the series at least).
Of course, writers can do whatever they want, but this just doesn't do it for me. It is really making it hard to enjoy this series as I can not get invested in any of the characters. Is this a legitimate gripe though?
I feel that with a lack of at least one or two scenes in which a decent explanations of how this genius character does things, this becomes kind of a missed opportunity on the one hand and is plain lazy writing to m on the other. It is lazy, because with writing like this you can basically do whatever while having as a prerequisite that you assume the viewer will take whatever you throw at them. Although, I can never take it serious to some degree (in the context of the story), especially in cases when an anime aims to be seen as a serious anime. The viewer is basically required to suspend their disbelief and take whatever the writer shoves down their throat.
Its a missed opportunity to me, because the results of the actions of this supposedly genius character could have been so much more powerful in the bigger scheme of things. It is not that every action requires such an explanation. Hell, even one or two throughout 30 episodes would have been enough to not be required to explain in more detail the others, but leave a much bigger impact overall.
I do not mean that all anime are required to do this, but I do have this expectation when watching anime that aim to be serious and revolve around some genius character.
Psycho Pass does the same thing, however, it covers it up with extended deconstructions from the perspective of other characters involved. Which still makes me mad, because these deconstructions, usually only a single deconstruction from a main character that is not the criminal, are the only explanations the viewer gets while fundamentally they only exist to support the motives of the character(s) who makes them and not the actual criminal.
Do I just have ridiculous expectations or do others here feel the same?