We get the cliched scenes of Tora trying to adapt to the modern world. Forexample, his failure to realize that people on the TV aren't real is atruly tired gag which has been done to death. The reactions of the variouscharacters to the bizarre circumstances seem to border on the absurd,Ushio in particular seems to take being haunted by a bloodthirsty demonrather well and no sense of danger is ever conveyed. Or how about theattack on a high school by a pair of huge centipede monsters, surely anearth-shattering event, that gets bored commentary on the nightly newsrather than the expected military intervention. The plot is rife withthese types of inconsistencies and incredible coincidences that stretcheven the jaded anime viewer's suspension of disbelief.
Violence is another issue that anime viewers have always had to defend intheir art.
Often heard is that explanation that anime violence is not thesame as action in American movies. The violence is realistic and painful,not an incentive and not glorified. Ushio in particulargets severely beaten in almost every episode. Things like severelacerations and impalings are resolved at the end of an adventure withsome bandages. It's almost like a setting a Wile E. Coyote cartoon in atrauma center.