Needless to say, my opinion of the first series left me wary going into Season II. However, it’s apparent nearly from the outset that Season II addresses nearly every of the original's flaws, even if that doesn’t save it from a few flaws of its own.
The most immediately apparent improvement is that the humor is actually funny more than once every 5-10 chapters. The obvious cause for this is that there are actually jokes now besides the girls fighting over Tsukune. The humor is still often hit-or-miss, especially with out-of-place humor in tense moments, but it actually got to the point that the harem gags were spaced far enough apart to elicit some laughs.
Speaking of the girls fighting over Tsukune, the characters in general get much more balanced spotlight. Most every major character, both those introduced in the first series and those new to Season II, get ample opportunity to show off how capable they truly are. There’s also a much stronger sense of camaraderie between them; fewer arguments occur between them, those that do are juxtaposed with moments to show how close they are, and interpersonal drama is all either replaced with drama challenging them all as a group, or done in such a way that it comes off much less contrived.
Episodic antics also give way to long-running plot arcs, which all end up interconnecting with one another and coming together for the climax. In this aspect, though, Season II stumbles and swings too far in the other direction from its predecessor. While everything coming together sounds nice, the huge breadth of plot points and characters introduced throughout prior arcs means the climax and resolution are absurdly long, and eventually fall victim to Arc Fatigue.
Hampering the final arc further is that the ultimate antagonist eventually becomes so powerful, their defeat ends up feeling like a cop-out, even if there was slight foreshadowing to the method. The epilogue doesn’t help the feeling of being a cop-out, since it implies that at least one major consequence of the final battle’s resolution will get undone in time.
Overall, Season II is a marked improvement over its predecessor in nearly every way while still managing to retroactively add weight to what happened in it. It stumbles a bit on the way to the finish line, but the journey overall is definitely worth it.
Manga, Season II: Good, bordering on great
Needless to say, my opinion of the first series left me wary going into Season II. However, it’s apparent nearly from the outset that Season II addresses nearly every of the original's flaws, even if that doesn’t save it from a few flaws of its own.
The most immediately apparent improvement is that the humor is actually funny more than once every 5-10 chapters. The obvious cause for this is that there are actually jokes now besides the girls fighting over Tsukune. The humor is still often hit-or-miss, especially with out-of-place humor in tense moments, but it actually got to the point that the harem gags were spaced far enough apart to elicit some laughs.
Speaking of the girls fighting over Tsukune, the characters in general get much more balanced spotlight. Most every major character, both those introduced in the first series and those new to Season II, get ample opportunity to show off how capable they truly are. There’s also a much stronger sense of camaraderie between them; fewer arguments occur between them, those that do are juxtaposed with moments to show how close they are, and interpersonal drama is all either replaced with drama challenging them all as a group, or done in such a way that it comes off much less contrived.
Episodic antics also give way to long-running plot arcs, which all end up interconnecting with one another and coming together for the climax. In this aspect, though, Season II stumbles and swings too far in the other direction from its predecessor. While everything coming together sounds nice, the huge breadth of plot points and characters introduced throughout prior arcs means the climax and resolution are absurdly long, and eventually fall victim to Arc Fatigue.
Hampering the final arc further is that the ultimate antagonist eventually becomes so powerful, their defeat ends up feeling like a cop-out, even if there was slight foreshadowing to the method. The epilogue doesn’t help the feeling of being a cop-out, since it implies that at least one major consequence of the final battle’s resolution will get undone in time.
Overall, Season II is a marked improvement over its predecessor in nearly every way while still managing to retroactively add weight to what happened in it. It stumbles a bit on the way to the finish line, but the journey overall is definitely worth it.