Hol' up I gotta put on some Free Tempo for this one. Rubs Hands Together ALRIGHT! This second season is LEAGUES better than the first season in almost every department. Which at first seems like it should be a positive, but the problem is they decided to forget that it was the second season and get back to the first season's antics but worse! I think the reason why I want to explain this so much in detail is because when this show does something well, it does it REALLY well. But it's just so painful to watch those peaks followed by the lowest of lows. I have to clarify that although I'm tearing this apart and it's a harem, which aren't really known for their interstellar stories, this one tries to do more than just a basic story, but fails in almost every regard when given the chance. I usually tear harems apart with the understanding that they're not representing the best that author has to offer or the idea that they're not meant to be the most compelling in the world unlike SOME people... The start of the show up to episode 3 (Which I now acknowledge why this probably has such a dismal score on here) has amazing animation, coherent storytelling [Sounds like it should be a given, but compared to the first season it's a blessing], actual stakes, a real villain and so on... The animation between season 1 and 2 is basically like watching a 2014 harem vs one in 2023 and that says a lot. Considering they were made 2 years apart with the original coming out in 2021. -\_- I'm very aware of the still substandard animation considerably overall, but I chalk that up to the designs in general. It's really hard to evoke excitement when the main character somehow went from looking like a goofed up penguin in season 1 Post Evolution to looking like Dib from the Invader Zim movie in the anime segment. Once you look it up you'll never unsee it!
The animation expresses the characters heaps more without feeling like it's too much or assiasin's... assins's? Assassin's pride level. {I forgot how to spell assisn :( } When it comes to the jokes they really just hit that good ol' funny spot reminding how excessive animation used to be back in the good ol' days of harems, back when I used to watch them for fun rather than to complete a goal! Ah...~ Oh right, it lends itself super well while still allowing for the less passionate scenes to feel like they're being accounted for. Later on though? It's very clear that fun budget they were working off of either ran out or they got extremely burnt out. The animation begins to use scenes that are very easy to animate and the overly excessive jokes that appeared in the first 3 episodes slowly fade away and turn into a sparingly gag that leads back into the drama. But it's pretty obvious that's more of an issue with the actual writing than the animation... for the most part.
I should probably talk about that. Spoilers ahead for a harem anime oh noes!!!
For real tho I always hate reading reviews for harems because they're so overly negative and just bum me out from wanting to watch the actual show XP They're always picking out the most obvious problems that usually consist with the entire genre... Even though harems aren't really supposed to be giving good stories more so giving the viewer a gratification that they can't get anywhere else... For legal reasons. It comes off as high expectations for such low barrier animes. I just watched about 3 animes in a row that had little to no actual substance and still had a good time.
Lower your expectations people and just have fun!!!
Jesus.
People are so demanding now a day- Oh shit I forgot about the review. Uhhhh...
Spoilers ahead if you want to watch it I highly recommend you go watch it and come back and watch me complain!
The anime continues right after the end of season 1 well sort of. It shows a clip of the final episode to start it, clearly showing that the budget was dumped into all the blood Sechii had coming out of him after being stabbed! Just even as he drops to his knees you can see how over the top they really worked to hype this fight up. Then we're brought back and set into the carriage (Fun fact: Everyone's eyes are now smaller) They set off to the school and are introduced to the new cast. The teacher who I thought was going to be a stereotypical angry rule abiding teacher was actually given a bit more depth! Not much, but more than expected is always a positive. I can say she's definitely still a one trick pony in most situations which is sort of a bummer, but she has her moments of helping the students grow and understanding the situation.
Uhhh the Prez was pretty cool? When it came to the term over-excessive in the anime he was that guy. Mad respect in that regard I really enjoyed whenever the voice actor really put not only a voice to the character but a lot of actual depth and silliness in the voice even when it wasn't really needed. When he was supposed to be more serious though, it was quite obvious that he wasn't the most interesting of characters or have any real thing to say. The 11th episode is a clear portrayal of that when the viewer is shown a point where the villain was introduced and helped by him and his assistant The thing he does while he sits there and mourns his parents who were recently murdered he does jokes that are centered around word play. His parents just died, and some guy just comes up to and starts spitting the most random word play jokes you've ever heard. It's quite the oddity. Then his whole death really did nothing to expand on his character nor give any justification to the MC's actions or reasoning.
The main villain? Oh man I feel bad for him. Not because of the sob story they tried to give him at the end, most of that is the same guilt trip bullshit (Hey that rhymed!) they did back in season 1 to make the viewer feel bad. I mean that he was barely given any screen time or any real time to grow. Whenever he was on screen he was acting as a foreboding presence. The writers really wanted to show how dangerous he was... By not having him do a single thing and even mocking him in most of the less important scenes including the ending scenes which were decent this time around. He was too busy being overshadowed by his fellow colleagues that somehow had a single episode of growth and have more depth than he was given over the course of the series? Wiiiiiild bro. When he wasn't being the evil bad 4 year old that's watching over the crew (which is basically never btw) He's a pouting child who doesn't want to give up the past. There is one scene where he mistakes Saria to be his teacher. And it's never properly communicated??? She was there in the final battle with no purpose other than to remind him as well I guess??? He really has such a flimsy goal, to kill god because he made him sad. Oh wait no he caused the war that killed his parents. Forgot that part since it was explained in 2 seconds lmao. But yea he blames god for his problems and it's really annoying to hear him rant about how it's not fair that he has to suffer and his fix for that is by killing the people who started the war. I guess that makes sense? But it seems more like he just wants to kill himself lol. Especially in the last episode he talks about how alone and misunderstood he feels. Wanting to get rid of all the pain he feels and literally destroy the world and himself. Couldn't be more on the nose could ya? -\_- I just really feel like his motive is more so spurred out of the need for it rather than the cause of it. This is a problem because THE ONE DAMN IMPORTANT PIECE OF INFORMATION IS GLOSSED OVER IN 2 DAMN SECONDS. This show has an extremely bad habit of trying to show every second of side plot and enemy planning as if to pad the show rather than actually explain what's happening. To prove my point, I skipped every single one of those scenes[Aka any scene without the MC] because it really just didn't add anything into the story. I can say legit, I didn't miss any important information after going back. It's almost embarrassing how much stuff they put in there you could skip... Actually, it IS embarrassing.
Oh yea the new 4 students I really liked :D They were honestly one of the best parts of this new season giving a sense of purpose for Seiichi being at the school, and just having a more coherent plot to follow as they make up the plot for those first 6 episodes. Surprisingly right after they're essentially cut from the story it goes downhill. When they're on screen they feel like a sense of purpose has been given to the entire anime. As they try and figure out how they can beat the S class and not just be the laughing stock of the entire school. A lot of animes I watch that are based off of light novels, have very one sided conversations where the main characters are made to suffer and take such extreme verbal abuse without any push-back. It's genuinely infuriating to watch because they just sit there and take it and then do some fancy shit later on basically to negate all that anger. Which is extremely stupid. But I feel like this anime did a good job of having that same energy, but still understanding that the characters wouldn't just sit there and take that shit! The S class really is just one person all things considered, and this character SHOULD have ties to the overall plot, but is relegated to being a power scaler for characters that don't really get a chance to shine besides one fight (WHICH IS 100% SKIPPABLE WITHOUT MISSING A SINGLE STORY BEAT) I think their bond is what really holds me to them. Although they fight a bit, they're very sincere with one another, and really encourage each other to do their best. They act like a family... A family of outcasts that just want a place to feel accepted :'-) It's really nice... That is until they're dumped for the next plot. I will never get over the fact that they never were given a chance to actually use their powers against the S class despite that being their entire damn goal... Man I miss them. :(
Since the Childhood friend although present, but not really important in the 1st season is given much more time to grow after the "tossing out" of the students... BWHAHAHAHAHAHA yea that's bullshit. She was given a total of 1 episode of proper screen-time in which she is treated like a joke and plot device for the main character's woes. I really don't have any problem with her she's just so basic. Besides the whole sniffing thing and that's weird af. I have nothing else to say about her or the other childhood friend(Those two episodes with the second childhood friend can be skipped even if the title and the episode is about Sechii fucking dying LMAOOOOOOOO) and that's about it.The main characters while being there... have somehow been dumbed down a ton. Which a bummer because I really wanted them to grow and become better people. Which also includes the harem element. That was toned down to the max. Even Saria was taken out of the picture... Man, boiling this entire anime down comes to really one big factor that plays into it's downfall.
Ambition.
It can be seen in the animation, all the effort was put into the first minute of the episode, the op, and ed. The plot began coherently, but as time went on, they tried to introduce more people, more story beats and paths to new ideas, and focus on others besides Sechii, different dangers and threats. And for what? An engaging story that has tons of depth? It's 12 episodes???? And a harem????? Why include so much if there was no proper way to implement it? Like the best example of this is stakes at the very end. Sechii has lost all of his powers because of poorly explained extremely important plot points. The villain has Sechii at a strong disadvantage because he's literally been stabbed. Saria is killed and all the other villains are dead. Oh yea I guess the prez too, but that's negligible. Sechii is forced to suffer the same way that the villain has to feel the pain that he's had to harbor this entire time. The Villain shows Sechii all his past memories and how his entire life has been filled with pain and every good is reciprocated with a bad. Forced to question if any of this is truly worth it only to suffer. His response...? "Nah fam I love my life" Proceeds to dance That's basically how it went yea. I've spent more time writing about this review than the actual writers probably thought about that ending. After pushing back against the cringe. He becomes ultra based by unlocking a new power and using it on the villain and that power is... Love. The fucking end of this damn show turns into an RPG about friends facing off against the shadow versions of themselves and accepting it through the power of love and friendship. Sechii sends out a spell From a different dimension might I add and RAISES EVERY CHARACTER KILLED IN THE ENTIRE SERIES. So that awesome. Now I will say I was expecting Saria to come back since she was resed before lol. But everyone else? What the fuck. What's the point in having any sense of danger if everything was going to be reversed before the first episode with no consequences whatsoever??? I get it, I cried when I even THOUGHT about killing off one of my characters in my own story. But that does not permit that from me killing them and bringing them back. It's boring and gives no real sense of satisfaction to the reader in any sense of the word. And all that build up. For nothing! So much of the anime's time was used to build up all those characters that it literally forgot about the main plot. You don't see that every day, but I do. It's really sad to see such an anime go to shit because it decided to try an actually be good. I'm sorry my friend, but harems are cursed to be bad besides the CHOSEN FEW but yea. The anime is pretty good. I guess that should be it-
WAIT I FORGOT. So recently I've been studying Japanese (俺が本当オタクですが‼）and subtitles become more and more of a pain to read because people aren't faithfully interpreting the words being said. And for this anime in particular. They butchered it so much. Look, I'm not the best at Japanese but as I've been watching this damn anime the most basic stuff is being changed in meaning like this is some damn funimation dub! Sechii and Saria's relationship was stepped down from wife to "partners", Ar's relationship was dumped from Girlfriend to Friend Ouch. and the many lines that were just misinterpreted so badly. Like in one scene Saria called the prez a "エッチおじさん) Echii ojisan which using how he acts most of a time \A total weirdo should be interpreted as "Perverted/Dirty Old Man" but instead is interpreted as "Sexy old man" I guess it's not an incorrect translation but given the context...?????? What? The line after is calling him a "Masochist" and that's the sub's translation not mine. There's tons of other examples, but I've already wasted too much time talking about a literally on this basic anime that I could probably find 100 fold.
Oh wait...
I have. I would personally give it a 7.3 just because of the jokes, insane leap from season 1, and coherent plot when compared to 1. This is actually part 1 of a 2 part review! It probably won't have a part 2 this got so boring to make after the like 5th sentence. I might go back some day and look back on how season 1 is just... BLEH. I really don't want to, it's just too tedious If you've enjoyed reading me rambling about an anime that's obviously bad then give this a like! And maybe check out the notes on the animes I've watched if you want to read more. They're like 50 times shorter than this tho lmao.
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