Maken-Ki! Two

tl;dr: A kind of not really sequel season that is very different from the first season in that it completely drops the overarching plot, but in the end is still about as good.

This is called the sequel to the first season of Maken-Ki, but I really don't think that's the right way to think about it. Rather, it seems to be a completely new work inspired by the same original work. Most of the cast of characters, the setting, and the general atmosphere for most of it is the same. However, it drops the plot threads from the first season completely, instead now focusing on ... smaller episode long adventures rather than anything that ties into an overarching story or any character or relationship development arcs. The episodes also focus on a different character each episode, with the main character from the first season barely in a lot of them. That alone is just enough to make it the standard filler that a lot of anime have, but what makes it feel like a completely different work is that it also drops a lot of the characters from the first season as well as the relationship development from characters that weren't dropped in such a way that it leads to major inconsistencies with the first season. Hence, its best to view it as a completely different work. Now as for the value of the work, ultimately despite how different it was I would have to say the quality was about the same. It was small episodic stories where the quality varied tremendously with a lot of hits and misses. Some were good, some were okay, some were just bad. The stronger episodes were generally those focusing on those that were important in the firsts season and the weaker episodes were generally those focusing on what felt like not as important characters. It also felt like it was getting repetitive at times. Though the last episode was completely different from the rest of the series and focusing on basically a completely new set of characters and I think the highlight of the series, so all of that isn't always true either. The focus very much was on being amusing and funny, similar to what it seems they were trying to do with the OVAs, but it felt subdued compared to them, and hence not as good. Ultimately, I'd say overall it was as good as the first season, just decent.

The animation, framing, and art were still great, even better than the first season though not as much as the OVAs. The OP and ED were still good. The soundtrack was decent but not particularly memorable. The specials were better.

So, like, I don't know all the inner workings of how this is all made, but even with my low expectations going into the second season I at least expected there to be some sort of PLOT to it. Instead, all this season has to offer is 10 glorified OVAs with no connection to each other (hell the actual OVAs had more plot relevance than this season) and no real character development (and any character development that does happen gets erased by the next episode). My guess is that they didn't have much material to work with? Although I see the manga has a decent ... amount of chapters so I don't know if that's the case, but like this season adds nothing if you watch this for the plot (I mean, to be fair that's probably a small amount of people). If you like all the ecchi stuff I guess you might like this, but don't expect answers to any of the mysteries created in the first season. It's seasons of anime like this that make me question why I don't just read the manga.

Sometimes I think it's impossible for a anime to completely shoot its own foot but this "sequel" proves it's possible AND can self-eviscerate in the process. With the title featuring 'Two' you'd rightly think this to be a sequel, however, any actual continuity is absent from this iteration. Save for names, places, and a few inconsequential references to prior events this series bares no resemblance to it's prior self. It's more like what Pokemon did with the AU movies starting in 2017, where knowing a bit about the anime might help but overall you don't need to actually know every reference. It's still ... a disappointment because it somewhat acts like a follow up but it's more like NISEKOI's S2 and THAT wasn't even the adapters' fault, just forgets everything and goes slice of life.

It's like Xebec, who was responsible for the wreck of To-Love-Ru's first season followed by a more 1:1 MOTTO, just saw the story, thought it was meh and decided to make every episode like it's part of another anime. It's trope bingo here, every episode goes for what normally is an anime's whole concept, a memory loss, teacher x student, cat girls, crossdressing girls where the one doing so looks suspiciously like Tomo-chan, manga convention participation... How the mighty have fallen. One good grace is that the characters are at least more consistent, no more out-of-character moments from people like Uzui turning righteous or Himegami suddenly becoming too passive in any interaction. Though don't celebrate since it doesn't really amount to anything and for whatever reason Takeru lost his glasses between seasons and we never find out how that happened. Remember too how he has no idea about his power? Yeah, that's also missing here. Remember his harem? Well, the season's more an ensemble so it really doesn't get any attention whatsoever. Only 3-4 have it and even then most of it are just moments than the focus.

What really stings, however, is that it's like this season KNOWS it's actively stepping away from the story. The opening stinger montage is a shpeal spoken by one of the characters and while it seems aware of the main point, the villains it alludes to have been reduced to nameless NPCs who're just causing havoc for the sake of it rather than the world conquering villains alluded to throughout S1. The opening itself also seems aware of its continuity yet none of it's part of the season. The only episode that seems to be canon is the final one but even that one acts rather oddly about it's validity. One thing that is consistent is the fanservice, so if that's appealing and you find To-Love-Ru's art style amazing, this will satisfy.

It's NOT BAD, but if you were curious about the deeper, darker plot, this won't due. Only episodes really worth mentioning being eps 1, 6-7, 8-10.