Hyakka Ryouran: Samurai Bride

tl;dr: A continuation that’s a bit stronger in some areas, a bit weaker in some areas, but largely the same for better or worse.

This is a direct continuation of Samurai Girls that’s incredibly similar. Thus, it has the same strengths and weaknesses, and for the most part I expect that the level of enjoyment one gets will be pretty much the same across both seasons. This season starts off with a group known as the Dark Samurai appearing and challenging the Yagyuu Dojo to a match, though they delay the match by a month to give them time to train essentially. Thus the majority of ... the season is pretty much a training arc for the cast from the first season. How they go about training is full of the standard comedy and hijinks that the majority of the first season had as well, though there being a definite goal in mind and there being slow but steady progress towards that goal does prevent this season from feeling like it was dragging on like the first season, though it’s still somewhat slow most of the time.

While it is pretty similar to the first season, it introduces enough new elements, such as the Yagyuu Dojo now being a maid café, and enough new characters, mainly the four Dark Samurai who randomly pop in now and then, and a mentor like character named Maeda Keiji, that change things up enough that even if you’re watching this right after Samurai Girls it won’t feel like it’s getting repetitive. The comedy too benefits from the increase in characters and elements and I felt that there was more of it and it was a bit better than the first season, though only somewhat. So like the first season, the cast is at their best when they’re being simply amusing or cheesy cool which seems to be most of the time. Along those lines there’s also some character and relationship development, both with the old and new cast, which is pretty shallow but due to the cast being pretty likable due to being amusing it’s enough to give weight to things and make it feel like the plot has more substance. Also similarly to the first season, the full plot comes into view in the final few episodes where things escalate tremendously and it leads to an epic finale, which while still really solid I felt was somewhat weaker than the first season but not by much.

The art and animation are similar to the first season in that they have a really unique style that looks really good and works really well and in this season I’d say the quality has been improved somewhat. Characters still look great throughout and the action is awesome when it’s being serious. The soundtrack is mostly the same as the first season, at least with tracks that stood out as memorable, but that was solid and the best tracks still don’t feel like they’ve been overused so that’s perfectly fine. The OP is solid enough in terms of visuals and the song. The ED I thought was pretty great though, in that I found the song catchy and I also liked how the visuals changed over the course of the season.

This franchise is horribly underrated. It's better than good and it's definitely better than so much of the crap that has a 7+ rating.

When it comes to voice acting and art, Hyakka Ryouran is top notch. Nothing changes from the first season you can still watch the anime just to see the art. The voice acting is just as good as the first season. Still hitting the right notes and really conveying the situation.

The story line is more focused on comedy and less on climactic battles. While the first season managed a very good balance between comedy and drama. Tjos ... season just doesn't manage it. Too much of the comedy is kick Knetsuga when she is down and then laugh at it. A little bit of that goes a long way, but when you literally have entire episodes devoted to it, you kill the joke.

You have a bunch of new characters and the old ones develop. Sen and Yukimurra really surface their inner nastiness. There were so many times where I was just rooting for the bad guys in their fights. Hanzo and Matabe demonstrate their loyalty to their respective mistresses without ever asking why they are loyal. Jubei, Munei, are all what they are no reall development but you see them being themselves. Gisen is still a cipher.

TL:DR if you appreciated Samurai Girls, you'll enjoy Samurai Bride but maybe not quite as much.

With Samurai Girls, I called it yet another fanservicy, anti-shounen, "cute girls do cute things" outing utilizing Japan's samurai era. I called it garbage and cussed out the National Rifle Association while I was at it. Now, NRA's situation had gotten worse.

My opinion hasn't changed with Samurai Girls, meanwhile. The real and long-departed Yagyuu Jyubei Mitsuyoshi must be rolling in his grave... But atleast the plot stayed in focus and gave the returning characters 4 rivals, the "Dark Samurai," to keep them on their toes.

The in-fighting in the "evil (but not too evil)" faction and the effort for self-improvement and chi-building in Jyubei's faction were ... a bit entertaining. But a monkey who, when kissed by Muneakira, transforms into a girl with "Master Samurai" powers? With incest, mileage may vary. But bestiality?

Well atleast Muneakira turned everyone into Master Samurai. (ABOUT TIME!!) And Kanetsugu spent some time showing some sense of integrity instead of just being some "nice butt of the jokes."