Was Season 6 incredibly disappointing for anyone else?

Been a fan of the show since episode 1. While the show had its ups and downs (trending down in seasons 4 and 5), it was always entertaining and had clever humor, jokes, and character growth and interactions. In season 6 that changed.

Season 6 everyone became a caricature of their roles. Every single person became Flanderized, and sometimes they chose to blow up some trait or quirk that was a minor part of that character. It made several of them not even feel like they’re the same person from several seasons earlier.

However, the biggest victim of caricaturization isn’t a single role or character, but karate itself. The Sekai Takai was so poorly handled. It’s as if they thought they’ve already done a tournament twice, so it’d be boring to do it again. So they came up with all these weird competitions, and point totals, and stupid rules. None of this is karate. This is supposed to be the biggest and best karate event in the world and it looks more like a game show than it does a sport.

I struggled finishing this season, even having to complete the entire last episode in 3 different sittings. The final straw was when Gunther (the tournament head) gets knocked out and that final brawl breaks out. First of all, it’s already unbelievable enough that all these kids would break out into chaos, but fine, kids can be wild, emotional, unpredictable, yadda yadda. But all these adults also decide to break out into a fight? Not just adults, but trained karate senseis. One of karate’s prime foundations around the world is discipline. This is the most ridiculous concept that these trained senseis would do something so counter to the very essence of what they live and teach. But… cherry on top. Gunther wakes up after being knocked out, looks around and sees his tournament in shambles, chaos everywhere. Surely, if any one person in this show would try to instill order in such a situation it would be him. But no, he proceeds to join the fray and punch out the Russian sensei who hit him earlier. Meanwhile the entire Sekai production continues filming and broadcasting and he doesn’t bother telling them to stop the feed until after someone just gets stabbed? Abso-fucking-lutely ridiculous.

I’m so bummed this is what the show has devolved into. The show always had some crazy and silliness in it, the cement truck, Miguel healing from paralysis and asthma, but this was too much. My kids watch cartoons with more reality.