Record of Ragnarok Season 3 is precisely what it purports to be – no more, no less.

Dear reader, I'm not completely sure how to approach this review. In part, that is because this work is exactly what it says on the tin, no surprises and no curveballs. I would save us both a lot of time and say, “My review for the Record of Ragnarok Season 3 is that it is Season 3 of the series Record of Ragnarok.” This is no grand misdirection or playful jape on my part. It's just the simple fact that the third season is delivering exactly – and I mean exactly - what the first and second season delivered.

I am an American, so by way of analogy, imagine a burger. Say I go to a local diner for lunch on Monday and order a bacon cheeseburger with tomato, lettuce, and onion. Then on Tuesday, I go back and order the same thing, and the same cook makes the same meal and gives it to me. Then on Wednesday, I go back and order the same bacon cheeseburger for a third time, and the same cook prepares it for me. I might begin to tire of eating the same thing every single day, prepared the same way. But then, who is to blame here – the cook didn't make the order, I did. Is there even any blame? Maybe I wanted the same burger three days in a row, and I got precisely what I wanted. Perhaps this consistency is something to be lauded rather than avoided.

That, dear reader, is the rub. Record of Ragnarok Season 3 is more of the same. If you liked the first and second seasons, then you may like this season too. It has literally the same tempo as those seasons. Each battle is a one-on-one contest between a mortal champion and a divine being in a giant arena. The pre-fight drama involves the Valkyries running to and fro for a bit, some light chatter between the gods, and then we jump into the battle. We get three such battles this season, all following the same cadence, much like the fights from prior seasons.

During the fight, both parties take turns throwing huge attacks at one another that are purported to be amazing, undefeatable, unavoidable strikes that no one could hope to survive. The attack will hit and cause an absurd amount of carnage portrayed in such a manner that we, the audience, exclaim, “Oh, there's NO way they survived that.” But lo, they're still standing, and we get a flashback to some event from their past. This flashback gives us some context for their motivation, usually someone they were close to that they tragically lost, and that recollection inspires them to strike back. The second fighter throws their own amazing, undefeatable, unavoidable strike, which will surely dispatch their opponent. But wait, they survived! Then we get a flashback, and the cycle begins anew.

This ping pongs back and forth until someone can't flashback guard their way out of the damage and falls. Then it's back to the Valkyries and gods before the next fight starts.

This format should be no surprise if you've watched literally any episode of the series before this point. Sure, the individuals in play change – Beelzebub versus Tesla is not strictly identical to Apollo versus Leonidas. Their techniques are different, and the flashbacks have novelty, but the tempo of the fights remains the same. It's a featureless arena where two titans throw knockout haymakers at each other with the cadence of a slow-motion tennis match. The pattern is maintained regardless of combatants.

I'm not sure what to think about this format for an entire series.

In one sense, I grow tired of the repetitive nature of it all. It's the same thing playing out the same way over the same runtime ad nauseum. In theory, there could be compelling drama outside of the ring, but most of those discussions are simple setups for throwaway comedy bits; a touch of levity between divine struggles. This is a tournament arc in the strictest, purest sense: two combatants enter the ring, one combatant leaves, repeated until the twelve rounds are concluded.

That's not to say there is no novelty or originality involved. As per prior seasons, the real attraction is less the fights themselves and more the surprise of subverted expectations. Sure, it may say Beelzebub versus Tesla is the next fight, but what does that mean exactly? How outrageous will these characters look? How closely will their backstories mirror the commonly accepted myths/history/folklore about them, and how far will they deviate? These are the curious surprises each fight has in store. Even during the more expected sequences, there can be a lot of enjoyment - Qin Shi Huang's flashbacks were the most interesting of the season for me, even if I wasn't quite as enamored with the main fight between him and Hades.

And to be frank, there are novelties and surprises in this regard. I didn't expect Beelzebub's backstory to be a brooding murder mystery (even if the ending was somewhat predictable). I never could have guessed that Nikolai Tesla would fight using a suit of electro-coil power armor that utilized teleportation attacks. These are the moments where Record of Ragnarok truly shines and sets itself apart with its bursts of relentless, almost reckless creativity. There is a bold disregard for anything resembling “reality” but in a way that remains true to the underlying emotional reality that these mighty figures represent.

For me, though, this charm only goes so far. After the initial burst of excitement, the fights fall into familiar parts that fail to excite by the end. I've enjoyed many a tournament arc over the years, but the lack of any real spice to shake up the proceedings makes it all kind of run together for me. Maybe a fight with some special terrain, unique win conditions, a varied number of combatants, something of that variety. Heck, even professional wrestling will throw in a cage match or a ladder match to add variety to a one-on-one bout. There are ways to modulate the drama without fundamentally altering the formula too much, but Record of Ragnarok seems averse to doing anything other than what it has done since the beginning - whether or not this is a strength or a weakness will depend on your own preferences.

This repetition underscores the series' other shortcomings, too. The animation has improved since season 1's rather rough start, but it's nothing to write home about. The overall fight choreography is very simple, with most fights lacking that critical back-and-forth flurry of motion that makes for great martial arts action. The voice acting is perfectly serviceable, but there's not enough going on for the characters to do much more than shout or make startled exclamations between blows…except for Leonidas being voiced by David Hayter, aka Mister Solid Snake himself. That was a truly inspired choice and one that worked out brilliantly. I won't try to pretend the Apollo versus Leonidas fight was my favorite for any other reason than his participation; I have a clear bias.

It's a show you can just about set your watch to. There is nothing inherently wrong with that, and in fact, I appreciate that the show is at the very least sticking to its guns. Record of Ragnarok aims to deliver on precisely what it has this entire time. In a world where rapid changes are frequent and often unrequested, it can be comforting to have a show that is consistent almost to a fault. For myself, a bit more variety would have gone a long way to making the war for the fate of humanity a bit more memorable.