rocky02 - 2016-12-31 05:48:31

Great series

calista43 - 2016-12-26 15:28:55

recommended for sure!!! 3rd season is coming on May 2017!!!

brian82 - 2016-05-18 23:47:49

Not as nice as everyone says, first season was okay, but the second one? A total disaster.
Of course, a lot of girls loved this season due to the "MikaYuu scenes", but this is so overrated. Animation awesome as always, but what about the characters, the story? I don't read the manga, but the people that reads the manga and watched this season is SO unhappy with this.

camilla.hammes - 2016-02-16 12:50:26

The story itself and the effects are according to me really great. What I am kinda sad about is that I feel like the end of this anime was a little bit chaotic and the brother love was overdone. >.>

herzog.cleora - 2016-02-08 18:01:11

I feel a bit silly reviewing this when I never even reviewed the first season, but since I just finished, it's much more fresh in my mind than the previous season. For a real quick overview of my thoughts on the first season, I found it to have boring episodes that dragged, a cliche cast of characters with generic backstories and motivations, improbable scenarios/logic (mostly just bad directing), lazy fight animation, and a main character that is nothing but annoying. 

Imagine my surprise when I found that this season fixed three out of five of my initial gripes with it! The episodes didn't actually almost put me to sleep this time around, the fight animation was actually animation and more than just shaking stills with speed lines- which we all knew that WIT could do much better, and Yuu was no where near as annoying as before and honestly had some sweet moments. Sadly, even though these problems were cleared up, it just brought forth a whole new slew of problems.

Since the story and character section will most likely be long, let's start with the easy stuff.

Animation

As I said earlier, the animation was greatly improved this time around, especially with the fights. Anyone who has seen Attack on Titan could probably cough up at least one positive- the animation done by WIT was visually impressive. We all knew that they could do better than shaking stills, speed lines, and repeated frames. Even though it's still nothing spectacular, it's definitely a great improvement.

Other than the fights, the rest is pretty mellow, but more than stiff people with moving mouths. And yes, the backgrounds are still like a painting.

Sound

The music is, again, done by Hiroyuki Sawano. Most people like Sawano, and I am no exception. He's not my favorite composer or anything, but he can certainly create adrenaline-rushing music with good composition that adds to making a dull moment epic. Speaking of the music, there was a slight problem in the first season where the music didn't fit the scenes. Fortunately, they seemed to get the hang of where to place which track so that that issue wouldn't occur.

As for the opening, I didn't think it was as cool as the first season's, but I will admit that it did grow on me, although the woman's voice made the opening seem almost enchanted and... magical. Not sure if that really fits with this type of show, but it did fit with the opening sequence. The ending was boring with the only good part being the choir-like vocals in the beginning. The ending sequence itself was rather boring, it was stills with all the main characters dressed in casual clothes in ordinary places.

Story (Minor spoilers where names aren't mentioned. Spoilers for the first season.)

Oh dear, where to start... OK, so at the end of the first season, Yuu and Mika were reunited but soon after Yuu turned into his "Seraph of the End" mode. Everyone remember that? Good. Once Yuu recovered after going on a freaky rampage, he wakes up forgetting everything that happened when he was the Seraph of the End, and Shinoa and the rest of the team decide not to tell him what happened. Thus ends the first season.

We don't really pick up exactly where we left off, and the first couple of episodes have next to nothing to do with the Nagoya arc, which is the main meat of the season. So we're just going to skip that.

Basically, the entire premise of this season is the Japanese Moon Demon Army going to Nagoya to kill some Vampire nobles. That's it. Obviously, there's conflicts, and some hidden schemes underneath the surface, but that's basically what we're told.

Within the story, there's a bunch of problems. First, we're actually going to start with the directing of the story. I guess you can argue that this could technically go under the "animation" section, but it's not the animators fault, so we're leaving it here.

If you remember from the first season, there was this one really badly directed scene that just stuck out like a sore thumb. Ferid Bathroy, the white-haired Vampire noble, had Guren in a chokehold for literally 20 minutes, but he never actually started choking him. They were just talking the whole time in the same position, so you're just left with "Is he even going to try to kill him or what?" That might be all fine and dandy in a manga, but you can't have that in an anime since time is actually ticking and it's a lot more noticeable. The director has to change things from the manga in order for things like this to not happen, but he doesn't. You don't want Guren to die? Fine. Then find a way to not have him strangled for twenty minutes before somebody comes to rescue him.

This season has even more badly directed scenes. For instance, you're fighting a Vampire who can catch arrows flying toward him with his bare hands. Clearly, if you get a chance to kill him, you're going to take it. But no. Instead, despite the fact that he's totally oblivious to your presence since he's distracted by someone else, let's instead shout out one-liners that make him notice your presence and make you miss your shot. If you were actually quiet, which is common sense, you could've saved yourself and your friend a shit ton of trouble. Ugh.

Besides the bad directing, there is even more story problems, mostly having to do with the last two episodes. I will actually admit that I was enjoying this season, kind of as a guilty pleasure, but the last two episodes were so terrible that all my enjoyment flew out the window. 

There were things that were really confusing and left unexplained (King of Salt...?) There was a major plot-convenience that was nothing but plot-convenience. They could've had a random character or something, but no, let's pick her because she has a tie-in to a main character. Why? To add edginess and angst? What's the purpose? Why is there a big box with weird wire-arrows coming out of it? The entire atmosphere of the last two episodes reminded me of the last couple of episodes of Soul Eater, which is not a good thing. There's just more and more plot holes coming up and they're not getting resolved. I wonder what the writer of the original source material is thinking!?

Oh yeah, and let's not forget the amount of plot armor the main cast has. People are stabbed through their stomachs, shoulders, lose limbs, get beaten and tortured, heck, someone's organs even rupture, but no one dies and all walk away with nothing more than a blood stain. What the hell. It totally ruins any suspense and investment you could have with the series.

Characters

The characters are about the same bland caricatures as before. Yes, Yuu isn't as annoying and lost his Eren Jaeger vibes, but he's still your typical shounen protagonist who doesn't have anything really unique to add to the table. Mika could've been interesting if he wasn't so obsessed with Yuu and angsting over his bloodlust, Shinoa is as smug as ever, Yoichi is still an Armin ripoff, though his weapon is cool. Kimizuki still has his cliche motivations, Guren remains as, in my opinion, the only good character, though they did slightly ruin him with the Mahiru thing, and Mitsuba... actually, I don't really know what to say about her. She hardly got any attention at all.

Besides them, we still have the typical Vampires, which besides Mika, only three of them are really recognizable. We have some people of the Moon Demon Army who were introduced before but probably no one remembers them. Then there's the other colonel, Kureto Hiiragi, who has plans and motivations that make zero sense whatsoever.

Finally, we're introduced to a new squad with this dude who looks like a girl as the leader. Besides him, the other people in the squad aren't memorable at all. Basically, we have a bunch of new characters who mostly really add nothing to the story and are one-dimensional. 

Unfortunately, Mr. I-Follow-The-Manga-Too-Closely director decides to cut out some dialogue that actually adds some character development and doesn't make things as confusing. That doesn't make me want to read the manga at all, but it does make me curious as to what else the director is cutting out, and if he even knows what he's doing. Like dude, didn't you want to follow the manga? Make up your mind. Regardless, not everything is the guy's fault, since it seems the original source material is almost as weak.

Lastly, thank you for reading this rather long half review half rant, and I hope that you have/had a better time with this show than I did. Later!

gerald.homenick - 2015-12-27 21:08:35

I loved this anime's second season! The angst between the characters and the change in their relationships as many surprises unfolded before my eyes in a thrilling sequence of action, drama and tragedy. If you're here i will assume you've watched the first season of this anime. In my opinion second seasons can be quite disappointing however this anime executes all the things you wanted and leaves you with the hint of more to come.

I sincerely think that more character development within certain aspects could be improved, but with more to come I hope to be relieved with more quality anime because after this season, my expectations are high. If you were looking for an exciting action packed story, then you will be happily intrigued into the ongoing battles and fights in this anime, as Mika and Yu force themselves in a world of protecting the ones they love no matter what cost to themselves.

You should watch this :)

dooley.fiona - 2015-12-26 19:13:42

If you're here, you've probably watched season one, and I'll say this from the start. Season two improved a lot of aspects from the first season. There's "less" of the annoying rivalry between Yu and Telephone pole-chan. No one even mentions the school that came out of nowhere. It's more focused and driven. It answers questions rather than bringing up more. But it isn't perfect.

Story
The story is something. From the first season, we know Yu's been experimented on and he's got this thing inside him(homosexual undertone) that makes him go crazy and kill shit. And that's basically where we left off. Just, "what the fuck is that thing, oh, the show's over. Well, that's disappointing." But now in season two, we're focusing on, as the title would suggest, the battle in Nagoya, and the few events that lead up to it. We're given more about the people in charge, the weapons themselves, and a whole bunch of other neat things that would have been nice to know a little earlier. But the story still does its best to make you hate it. Like Mika. He's trying to "save" Yu from the humans because they did bad things to him. This spoils a little bit, so here's your warning, but fairly late in this season, Mika and Yu are finally alone together. And Mika says, "Yu! I have something extremely important I need to tell you!" And Yu literally puts his hands over his ears and says, "LA LA LA LA, NOT LISTENING!" Yep. That made me laugh pretty hard because that one scene is a pretty good representation of the story as a whole. Just ignore everything EVERYONE is saying and do whatever the fuck you want. It also told me that the show is somewhat self aware of the shit that spills out of its figurative mouth, which made me love it even more just based on the subtlety. Or maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Animation
Sorry, too busy cumming to talk about this stylish masterpiece. Those backgrounds! Oh my God. The demon weapons! Ughhhhhhh, Those character designs! .......wait, never mind. The only thing keeping this from being a ten is certain scenes where some characters faces kinda sorta morph into potatoes, and the sparse use of CG. And even then, most of it isn't noticeable. One in particular was a CG sports car that got cut in half, which would have been fine, if most of the other cars that were shown up to that point weren't regular animation.

Sound
Yes. Much better opening that doesn't IMMEDIATELY GIVE AWAY A MAJOR SPOILER THAT COULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD AND IMPACTFUL REVEAL. *cough*cough* Mika's alive. Sorry. That has nothing to do with music. The music is good. I don't like going too in depth on music because it's all a preference thing and most people don't analyze music. They just listen.

Characters! Fuck!
Retarded faggots. That's all there really is. Or does that make me a homophobic abelist? Autistic cocksuckers? To be fair, I don't hate every character, but lets be real with ourselves. All the guys were all written to be shipped by the fujoshi community with the girls not getting nearly as much attention or development. But! They're less annoying this season. Or maybe I've given up on being frustrated at them and just laugh when they go full retard. Shinoa has her moments, Ashuamaramaru(demon sword. Can't be bothered to look up actual name) is always a treat when she shows up, and maybe I'm a rotten girl myself cause I have caught myself imagining the undertones rising to the surface. Anyway, despite their mental disabilities and sexual orientation, I've actually found myself caring about them.

Enjoyment!
Sorry, I'm too busy cumming. The fight scenes are enough for me to practically ignore the various issues I have with the story and characters. I can't help but get invested in this show. It's enthralling and makes me wish I had ovaries so I could moisten my panties at the thought of Yu and Mika.

Just to sum up, this show is beautiful, but is held back by bad writing. The manga might be better for story, but I don't care since story isn't why I'm watching.