Before you skip over this because of the low score, do me the courtesy of reading through the review, first.
I came into the second season immediately after watching the first. It might be a good idea to read my review of the first season, to give you some context.
Even if you don't, the short story is that I really, really liked the first season. I was this close to giving it a 9, which for me is an amazing grade.
The point is, I came into the second season with very, very high hopes and expectations.
They were not met. In fact, they were crushed.
Let me get some good points out of the way. The animation is still very good, with some very powerful moments here and there.
The music, surprisingly, fit in a bit better and actually left an impression at times rather than being nonexistent like in the first season. The closing song sounded better this time, too.
Now, on to the plot:
Disappointing first few episodes. In fact, the first 7 episodes were a total disaster. Cheap drama created by characters thinking but not actually saying what would fix an otherwise simple situation.
Total reboot of the relationship, invalidating the last several episodes of the first season and cheapening the plot overall for pointless drama.
A lot of the things that I hate about drama anime surface on the second season, while they were absent the first. Namely, it's the retarded misunderstandings. The sort of situations that arise only because a character took something someone said completely the wrong way, or didn't say something simple yet vital. These sort of things are easy, cheap drama generators and would never happen in real life because in real life people are not that stupid.
Similarly, Sawako seems to have taken the same steep dive the show itself has. There is no sign of the backbone that she had in the first season. She's turned into the depressed, passive and utterly stupid classic anime chick who believes whoever's mouth is moving at the time. What the hell? Sawako in season1 spoke her mind and, even though she was afraid, always tried her best for what she wanted to achieve and wasn't afraid to contradict other people. What happened to that? For f-'s sake, even Kurumi admitted that she didn't expect Sawako to be such a mindless sheep.
Similarly, Kazehaya seems to have realized he's starring in an anime and started doing all the retarded shit anime characters sometimes do, even though he'd made it a point to contradict those expectations in season 1. Things like being led around by the nose by everyone who speaks to him, having no personal conviction, and not respecting other people's right to a decision, like he demanded in season 1 for himself. The latter episodes kind of fix this, but the damage is done by then.
I mean, what the actual f-? Did they seriously make more than one episode's worth of drama based on the misunderstanding that both think the other meant a different definition of 'like'? How can that elicit any emotion other than bafflement from the viewer? How are we supposed to empathize with the characters when their only problems consist of having exactly 0 communication skills?
When the answer 'Does your anime's conflict get solved if the characters say a single reasonable sentence to each other?' is 'Yes' then you're doing something wrong, goddammit.
I wanted to drop it on the first 4 episodes. I really wanted to drop it on episode 5. I should have dropped it on episode 6. I kept going because I'm the kind of guy who can't look away from a train wreck, and because after watching the first season I at least wanted to see how the second one concluded.
The episodes after 6-7 seem to merely be trying to reel back in the shit parade. They're not bad. In fact, they're fine. However, that doesn't erase the fact that none of this should have happened. Much as I enjoyed the episodes from 8 onwards, the fact remains. The last few episodes are spent resolving situations that arose out of pure and unadulterated stupidity that are definitely not the kind of thing I was expecting coming into this.
The last episode is appropriately heartwarming, I'll give the series that. However, imagine the last two episodes being, in fact, the FIRST two, and then the rest of the season being the two of them exploring their new relationship. There was no need for the pointless and outright silly drama of the first 7 episodes.
The fact that the last few episodes were good kind of softened me up by the time I finished it, but it doesn't change the fact that more than half of the season was garbage. I want to rate it high because of the last two episodes, and I want to rate it very, very low because of the first few.
I guess I didn't do myself any favors by having high expectations.
As it is, I'll just sigh and give it a 5/10.
