Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki II

First, let me just say that I'm a fan of the first OVA, St. Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki. While I'll admit that it wasn't perfect, I still thought it told an interesting story and did so fairly well. This sequel tends to fail in many of the aspects where the first succeeded, and ends up being not as impressive. Even on it's own, it ends up being a pretty poorly made production. Let me explain why.


Story: 3/10

First, the story it tells is not very interesting. It expands on the plot of the first OVA, but it does so in the most convoluted way. With sci-fi shenanigans ... that are not only difficult to follow, but also completely not compelling. There's also plot twists that end up feeling forced instead of natural occurrences within the tale. Things are also presented in a slapdash manner, without much context going from scene to scene, and it just feels very poorly put together.


Characters: 4/10

The characterization also seems to be styled differently in this film. The first OVA had somewhat realistic personalities for all of the characters, but this takes those personalities and turns them up a notch, making the characters feel a bit over-exaggerated than they used to be. This creates kind of a mental disconnect from the somewhat realistic nature of the first OVA, and the now slightly more cheesy nature of this one.


Art: 4/10 (Art Style: 5/10, Animation: 3/10)

The art also takes a slight dip in quality, and while it's not horrible to look at, it doesn't feel as well produced as the first one. Even though I feel like the first one was of a middling quality, it had a few glimmers of really nice animation in there. However, this sequel tends to get rid of those few glimmers and simply stays in the area of middling production values.


Sound: 5/10 (Soundtrack: 4/10, Sound FX: 5/10, Voice: 6/10)

The soundtrack is forgettable and doesn't add much to the overall production.

The sound effects also feel somewhat dated, and don't have any kind of specific appeal to them.

The Japanese voice actors did an alright job, but some of the lines ended up feeling pretty cheesy sounding. They weren't horrible, and they all brought their characters to life, but many of the actors just felt kind of middling.


Enjoyment: 5/10

Overall, this is not a great sequel, and it's not a very great production on it's own. It's not something I would recommend to somebody, but it also isn't incredibly bad. I have certainly seen worse productions, but I also wouldn't tell somebody to waste their time with this.