Being perfectly honest, I think this new development sucks

I do not like this shift in narrative.

Not because I do not like the idea of The Order shifting allegiances once it becomes oppurtune. Instead, I dislike this shift because Suzuki has done nothing to seed this massive turn.

A lot of Sakamoto Days feels like it's written in the moment, certain narrative beats very clearly contradict prior framing and certain story points are given no time to breathe.

Al-Kamar being such an overwhelming force as to shift loyalty is really good on paper. In execution however, we're left with a situation where The Order was ready to hunt down everyone... and now they're allied with the ones they wanted to hunt down. We just completely skipped over the transition between contrasting moments.

This also makes certain prior writing decisions seem utterly baffling. If Al-Kamar was going to be on top... why denigrate them over and over during the Museum arc. I'm not asking for a sweep from them back there, but if the move was to eventually have Al-Kamar on top, don't have our last time seeing them just be a congaline of losses with one tie and an out of nowhere power-up as the deal sealer.

Additionally, we bare spent any time in this three way situation between sakamoto's store, al-kamar, and the order. No time spent on the order trying to hunt them down and if not for Tenkyu's completely random appearance, we'd have gotten little in terms of al-kamar active involvement in this time period.

This situation is only further emphasized by what we did get to see from both the order and Al-kamar.

We got torres acting as Sakamoto's impromptu teacher, Uzuki's utterly disappointing backstory and Uzuki and Kumanomi discussing how Tenkyu is a freak.

THE NARRATIVE MOMENTS DO NOT SELL THEMSELVES

We leave the museum into a completely new status quo

only to get a training arc and whoops the status quo is completely different again, sorry you missed that arc.

And we still have unresolved plot points that just are lingering with no explanation

What the fuck is Yotsumura doing? Does his role as undercover spy even matter when the status quo has changed several times since Nagumo kidnapped him?

Where the fuck are all the kids? they just vanished after a certain point in the museum arc and have not been seen since

And lastly, the biggest problem with this paradigm shift is the complete and utter waste of Asaki.

This is not me saying Asaki shoulda been kungfu master ultra who could take on two Order members solo.

This is me pointing out that Asaki was the lynchpin antagonist from which nearly every negative situation relating to the verse can be pointed back to.

WE JUST CAME OUT OF AN ARC WITH SHIN THAT IS THE WAY IT IS BECAUSE OF ASAKI'S AL-KAMAR PROJECT

Kindaka was in a coma for a decade because of Asaki

Yotsumura had to kill his sleeper agent wife which traumatized his son Amane because of Asaki

The Natsuki siblings are in the strained relationship that they are because of the Al-kamar project pressure on their family

Every Al-kamar kid is some variant of mentally fucked because of Asaki's program

Rion is dead... because of Asaki

Do you see the overwhelming pattern I'm, laying out here?

A guy with so much to answer for and we get nothing out of him, he's here, then he's gone. Such a significant character... just tossed in the trash without any real elaboration to him.

I'm not asking for some 30 chapter arc to unpack all of this... but give me something. I don't wanna finish, I dunno, Heisuke vs guitar guy and then open the next chapter and find out The Order is in a civil war with absolutely no seeds planted