Sekaiichi Hatsukoi 2

I'm really binge watching BL right now, which might not have a good effect on my reviews, but is bound to make them more honest. Not that I don't always try to write honest reviews, but when one can directly compare one anime within a genre to another, one is bound to notice smaller differences in quality.

I gotta say, I am a little disappointed that something as solidly mediocre as Sekaiichi Hatsukoi gets not one but two cours plus an OVA plus a movie, when almost none of the excellent BL I've read gets as much as a pitiful OVA. Yeah, yeah, it's ... more popular, I know. Still, it rankles.

So here we continue straight from the first season, with the same couples, Takano x Onodera, our main pairing, Hatari x Yoshino as couple B, and Yukina x Kisa as couple C. Also added is an episode for Asahina x Isaka (the latter being Marukawa Shoten's Director, the former his childhood playmate and current executive assistant). And the "spoilers" are back as well, Yokozawa, Yanase, plus a standard slot "girl who walks with my beloved which is proof he is not true to me".

Story (5): More of the manga publishing business, more of our seme trying to get closer to their uke, more of the uke resisting. If it weren't for the workplace information and interaction, I would rate this a lot lower because at this point I am pretty much dead tired of the tsundere uke resistance, and the lack of good communication between the couples. But for those less demanding, there is actual story here, this isn't about the sex.

Art (4): Still not liking Nakamura's art, sorry. Good backgrounds again, typical BL animation.

Sound (6): I didn't like the BGM as much, nor the OP. Voice acting is as good as ever.

Character (5): Win some, lose some. At first I started to dislike Onodera because there is only so much hemming and hawing and avoidance and denial and vacillating I can take before I want to slap somebody with a large, wet fish. His saving grace remained that he is a hard worker and really tries to become a good editor. And then we get to see more of his high school self with Saga/Takano, and he was just a great kid -- he has some of the uke mannerisms, the blushing, the stammering, but it's not so bad, and he is so enthusiastic and caring, and actually pretty straightforward in what he wants -- it becomes immediately clear just how much the disaster with Takano has damaged his self-confidence, and how high the walls have become which he built for protecting himself from this ever happening again. I really felt for him. I think if the flashbacks had come much earlier, I would have never even started to dislike him, because I would have understood. I like Takano even better here than before because he's becoming quite good at trying to communicate, both with Onodera about work and their private business, as well as with Yokozawa, who needed some truth telling.

With the other couples it's mostly "lose some". Hatori remains mostly stoic until provoked severely, and Yoshino remains an oblivious idiot who IMO doesn't care enough about anyone, and in consequence I don't care about their pairing. Kisa, of whom I wasn't particularly fond already, slid into the "hate you now" column for being a total ass to Yukina, who was an even greater guy than last season. I get insecurity, I do, and I am forgiving of it, but not when it results in lashing out at somebody who has only ever been decent. FU, Kisa, Yukina deserves better. There is one totally fantastic scene where Yukina just blew me away; you'll know it when you see it.

Yokozawa I feel for; he's such a good friend, if a bit pushy, and he has the same strict but fair behaviour at work as Takano. I'd like him to find somebody. Yanase I feel for as well, but we never saw much of him; I hope he develops better taste in lovers. Isaka and Asahina didn't affect me; they felt like filler.

Enjoyment (7): The workplace interactions continued to please me, and there is a lot of interesting stuff between Takano, Onodera, and Yokozawa, and there is a reasonably satisfying conclusion (though not really as good as I would have wanted). Do I care enough to read the rest of the manga? Urm. I honestly don't know.