Sasaki and Peeps Season 2's Slightly Deranged Formula Works to Its Benefit
Season 1 refused to pick just one item from the menu. Its magic was in picking everything on the menu. The debut episode of Season 2 immediately demonstrates that it's doubling down, as Sasaki and his companion Peeps find themselves in the middle of deepening political intrigue.
Episode 1 wastes no time throwing you back into the fray. Right off the bat, we're in a conference room with Shizuka and her bureau colleagues, then we jump straight to Sasaki coming home to his beloved Peeps, only to be joined in the next moment by Count Müller, whose daughter has been kidnapped by Duke Einhart.
Peeps, our adorable Java sparrow who's also a brilliant and powerful magician (!), coolly strategizes together with Sasaki how they can help Count Müller. This is the show's bread and butter: calm, level-headed negotiation by adults amidst absurd circumstances.
Adonis appears to share the news that they plan to bestow on Sasaki some land and the title of Count. Peeps is pleased with the development, saying he's got a plan to deal with the Ohgen Empire. The players are moving chess pieces into place.
One of the things that keeps this show working, despite its slightly deranged assortment of elements, is its full commitment to the bit. Nothing exemplifies this better than Peeps, and how, for the most part, being an adorable talking bird is simply accepted unquestioningly by the rest of the cast. By the end of Season 1, he's rarely played for laughs, and watching him act like one of the adults in the room makes it easier to accept the rest of the show's absurdities.
The episode's willingness to dive straight back into factional politics suggests that the table-setting of Season 1 is largely done, and our protagonists are starting to face some of the consequences of their choices. This isn't about a salaryman bringing modern goods into a fantasy world anymore. People are making decisions that actually affect others.
There isn't much in the way of action in this episode, but that hasn't been the show's selling point. I can't fault their heavy use of limited animation when it's never been about thrilling fight scenes. The show's charm is in its improbable mix of modern and fantasy characters carefully moving chess pieces around the board, and this episode suggests that's exactly what we'll be getting in Season 2.
The show's disparate elements sound ridiculous on paper, but somehow it all works. Just one episode in, this season feels content to assume the audience has already bought into its political factions and rules of magic. The way the characters all treat the world with complete sincerity makes it that much easier to accept it all yourself.
Sasaki and Peeps still isn't trying to become a conventional fantasy show or a conventional isekai. If anything, the premiere suggests the show is even more comfortable with the unusual identity it established in Season 1.
