One of the best things about this Anime is that it never treats itself with simplicity. Everything is grander, colorful, and sometimes hilariously weirder, but never spiritless or generic. Maple, our OP cinnamon roll, is just that cute girl who found about the wonders of the gaming world, and fun exploring that world with found friends. But she doesn't want to get hurt soo... She wanders around and finds the most demonous & outright unfitting abilities. Like I would be pretty weirded out if I see an Anime girl getting a hand full of tentacles, and that's not even the weirdest moment of the Anime. Like once Sally said, we can never predict what Maple is about.
The hike in animation quality is worth some praise. I remember watching a few CGI moments from S1, thinking how better it would've been if it was 2D, and the animators did make most things 2D in S2. Not saying it's flawless though, there are many blink-&-u-miss shots and also a fair amount of CGI monsters, especially in final episode (probably a result of delay). But the direction during its action sequences keeps things engaging despite the flaws. The music is your generic isekai/fantasy OST. Nothing noteworthy there.
As stated before, this Anime is all about having fun with friends that have a common interest. And I agree that is a wonderful thing. But what left me a bit concerned is not showing the characters outside the game. A fun part about gaming comes not only from the game but talking about it outside, making jokes, seeing how that brought small changes in ourselves, whether it's healthy or not. This is something S1 did. Maple's so much in-game time made her say attack names while playing dodgeball, in real life. Despite being about gaming, S1 made sure that these are not just gamers with no life, but actual students who still have something of interest outside gaming. In S2, we never got to see what happened outside the game.
And also, wouldn't it be interesting to see these characters, who formed so much of the team, meeting in real life, having a chat in a cafe or something? That might not be the best part, it also might beat the premise, but it's definitely important, to show that these characters are true friends and not just online buddies. Atleast, I want to see that.
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