I wish I could say I disagree :(
Season 1 was good (see the first review here for details).
Season 2 was... a bit monotonous. The returning characters with strong personality quirks went from being fun to being anoying and the main characters lost WAY too much (and were too looked down on) for their status as national chapians. I have no problem with them loosing some fights but it was just rediculous. I did like the variety thrown in with the new rules in each turnament, but then those rules were not used to their full potential and ended up being used for PLOT and not really adding aditional stratagy/complexity to the fights.
Esentually, the second season lost just about everything that made the first seem realistic and, in my opinon, better than most kids-merchandice shows I know of.
Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
The only good part of Season 2 is adorkable Ren and Great Daiyusha. Apart from that, Season 2 doesn't exist for fans.
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Season 2
Coming off of Season 1, Vanguard can be said to have ended on a bit of a low, given the idiocy surrounding the revelations of Psyqualia in Episodes 64 and 65.
Then Season 2 started and the plot seemed interesting enough. Aichi loses his Clan, with Royal Paladin, Shadow Paladin and Kagero being sealed and replaced by the Gold Paladins and Narukami. The idea was intriguing and separated Aichi from his comfort zone with everyone else unaware of the existence of the former Clans.
It rapidly descended into anything but interesting.
The Circuit consisted of three practically identical stages, with tons of Filler Padding in between just to really dull the mind. The plot was dropped for about thirty episodes to allow for repetitive, monotonous, dull circuit stages and episode after episode of Q4 angsting about not being good enough, when what was actually happening was The Worf Effect to advertise Limit Break. Misaki in particular got hit hard by the worfing. The Big Bad, Leon, wasn't even introduced until easily over halfway through the mess, bringing with him a chance for interesting plot which rapidly vanished into the third of the dull circuit stages. Once the fourth stage is finally done, being just as dull and predictable as the previous three, the plot suddenly takes a complete turn to Cray, with the winning teams being told they have been chosen to save Cray from the nihilistic power, Void.
Leon predictably pulls a More Hero Than Thou, only for the next episode to change him into Evil All Along in a rather bizarre twist. From there, he beats Kai following the removal of the pointless filler team, SIT, in a game which is painfully insulting with its liberal application of Leon's Plot Armor in the form of Kai being forced to make misplay after misplay. Moreover, Kai's character is utterly destroyed in a horrific sequence where he attempts to compare the gradual extinction of Leon's family and their despair and helplessness at being unable to bring back Aqua Force to save themselves to Aichi's plight. Aichi's plight being losing his trading cards for a few months.
Season 2 is a massive letdown. It is painful, dull, repetitive, full of Filler, carrying over the most irritating aspects of Season 1 without the redeeming qualities, destroying characters, and in general just acting as a Merchandise Driven dullfest.