Gakusen Toshi Asterisk 2nd Season

Story: 4/10
There's not really much to say about the story other than the fact that it focuses on the Phoenix Festa and the events that transpire during it.
Art: 6/10
The art is really good. I love the designs of the characters and the city itself looks beautiful. The action scenes also look amazing. Unfortunately, I have to give the art a 6 because I couldn't ignore the fact that there were times where the animation looked kind of stilted and 3D-ish and I hate when anime do that because in my opinion, it's lazy. At least put in the time and effort to flesh everything out.
Sound: ... 10/10
Two words: FUCKING AMAZING!! If there's one reason I would recommend this series, it's the music. Seriously, if I could, I would download every single song they use in this series from both seasons. That's how good it is. I'm not lying when I say I could listen to the music from this series ALL DAY LONG! The opening is amazing, the ending is amazing, the music during the episodes is just right and does an excellent job of setting the tone of a scene.
Character: 6/10
Although this is a harem anime, I don't hate the characters. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this season did a good job of fleshing them out more and giving each of them their time to shine. For example, I liked how they did Julis' and Saya's backstories because it made me like them more, especially Saya. When I first saw Saya, I thought she was going to be the typical childhood friend that tried everything to make Ayato notice her. But after seeing her backstory, I realized that she's actually a very supportive friend of Ayato. Yes, she does drop subtle hints and does cliché things, but honestly, I see it more as joking than actually trying her hardest to make him like her. I really liked how close Ayato and Julis grow as a team throughout the season, not only as teammates, but friends that can trust each other. I hope they flesh out Kirin's and Claudia's characters a bit more in season 3(Come on, if you watched this season to the end, then it's obvious there's going to be a season 3)
Enjoyment: 7/10
I definitely enjoyed this season more than last season because of the action. The action in this series is so good, there are times where I enjoy it more than the story(I'm not kidding)
Final score: 7/10
Although there are bad things about this series, I feel like the good things outweigh the bad things. In my opinion, most of the people that dislike this series just point out the bad things and overanalyze them(*Cough* Digibro). Otherwise, I recommend this to action genre lovers. Seriously, the action in this series is amazing and the music that is played during the scenes just make them so much better. Trust me when I tell you it's not that bad of a series. Give it a chance. I never follow the "3 episode rule" because in my opinion, it's stupid and I like to keep an open mind and watch the series to the very end. I can't wait for season 3.

Amongst the plethora of generic fantasy harem anime, there are usually a few gems that make the genre truly shine and not just some place where someone can attach themselves to their favorite large chested female harem stereotype that gets found by the overpowered male MC who aside from his best friend is the only damn guy in the series. Asterisk...is not one of those.

Story: With the series being made into a split-cour series, Asterisk season 2 directly follows our overpowered MC, Amagiri Ayato and his harem of similarly powerful but not as strong female characters who can all be described in 5 words ... in their journey to win the 'Phoenix Festa', a tournament where the Genestella, the 'special' kind of people who can wield Luxes, their swords, and fight for glory for an undisclosed prize at the end of the tournament.

Asterisk is not an extremely creative series and really shouldn't be seen as such. The general plotline is very copy-pasted with the greater majority of harem/tournament series out there (which is a surprisingly large genre) and really doesn't have too too much to show in the way of both originality and/or uniqueness. As such, there really isn't much to talk about positively to the show's credit since the whole story of it is so generic. If you really want an explanation, think your generic tournament-based anime with an overpowered MC and plot armor crossed with your generic harem-based anime and you basically have Asterisk in a nutshell.

There are however a few things that really grinds my gears about the show. The biggest fault I find with this series is the sheer amount of stuff that they try to hide from the viewer in order to keep 'interest'. Stuff with the organizations that are in control over the Genestella, the dastardly Dirk who somehow while being in high school has control over people higher in power, and the warnings as to why our protagonists shouldn't participate in the next plot driving tournament aren't really explained, thus leaving the viewer in the dark about what really happens and is really more aggravating to watch. The other really being not having enough screentime with my new favorite girl in the series, but hey, that's really more of a personal thing now isn't it?

All in all, Asterisk's story really isn't all that interesting or noteworthy to talk about. You can pretty much predict what will happen in the story from the synopsis alone and the series ends with a more or less cliffhanger 'read the LN' ending that either means A-1 is trolling us about a future Season 3 or you'll have to read the light novels to know what happens next.

Overview:
+/- Generic and predictable story (There really isn't anything bad or good about this cause...there's really nothing I can actually talk about in this series)
- Too many loose ends and unexplained 'teasers'
- Not enough Sylvie. More. Sylvie. Damnit.

Characters: I...Can you even call these characters? Personally, I don't really have much to say in the way of actually describing our main cast cause as I've said before, they're all pretty much copy-pasted character tropes put onto a new series. So...akin to the series, I'm just going to copy paste what I wrote as an explanation for the main cast from my first Asterisk review.

Julis = Token Tsundere
Saya = Kuudere Osananajimi (childhood friend)
Kirin = Dandere Imouto
Claudia = Sexy Onee-san

Oh, and Ayato is your standard OP MC with the denseness of a black hole. That's...about it. Time for side characters.

The majority of the side characters introduced in Season 1 are basically non-existent due to their arcs being finished, and are instead replaced by a new set of characters that bear equal importance. But unlike Season 1, there are a few that stand out, but for different reasons, but that'll get covered later. (RIP Sylvie screentime.) All in all, side characters don't really stand out or have much importance beyond plot-related details.

Overview:
+/- Generic character tropes (If you like these kinds of characters, then hey, good on you. I like a few myself.)
- Plot-related and largely unimpressive and unimportant side cast

Art: Produced by A-1 Pictures, Asterisk has a pretty standard look for anime of this day and age. Leaning towards a moe-like style of animation to make sure that their girls look as cute and attractive as possible, the show also utilizes its same brand of flashy action as it did in the first season.

Admittedly, the action itself is pretty fluid and actually visually appealing to look at and witness. Any CGI isn't just shoved in there and melds pretty well, and does its job pretty well. Especially since the series is largely action-based, they're well done in the style of the series to provide some rather entertaining fights, even if sometimes they're TOO SHORT and/or quite predictable with its outcome.

Overview:
+ Consistent and good quality animation
+ Nice, fluid action scenes
+/- Moe-like artstyle (depends on your outlook with the 'cute girl' look)

Sound: The sound for asterisk is...while admittedly sounds pretty good, doesn't really ring as a unique or interesting track. The sound fits with the series but doesn't really have much merit in the way of being that one repeat track that you listen to OVER and OVER again. Both the OP and the ED, as well as the general tracks in the series suffer from this.

However, there is one song that I feel has to be mentioned. A 1:30 minute blurb of a song from the one character I feel we should've gotten more screentime of called 'Lonely Feather', which is this really quiet, graceful, and calm song of Engrish that was a really nice surprise to listen to.

Overview:
+ Lonely Feather (Give us more Sylvie, damnit.)
+/- Good sound, but mostly forgettable

Personal Enjoyment: I have seen many harem. And I mean MANY harem. Not all, but enough to have at least 30% of my list dedicated to the genre somehow. Asterisk strikes a firm middle on the harem spectrum. Not being too terribly unique or well-written for it to be good, but at the same time, not too reliant of generic tropes and/or your standard harem scenes to demote it to being complete fanservice material that could care less about story so long as they're DD cups plastered on the screen with some kind of white or clear fluid on them. At the same time, Asterisk doesn't really offer anything unique or interesting to make people seek out to watch it.

Did I enjoy this anime?

I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, but at the same time, I don't hate this series. I admit it's not the best, but it didn't leave me in agony watching it hoping it would end, nor did it actually make me anticipate the next episode with writhing anxiousness. It was just a watch I had on my list and I don't have anything much to say beyond that. I will admit I do have some character tropes that I do like, hence the reason why I like some of the characters personally, but beyond that there's really nothing that I can say is worth me liking in this series.

What didn't I like about this anime?

Flora. Dear. God. That voice. Flora is a side character from this season who has the most ear-shattering voice in this entire series. Her voice is so high, and she talks so much, I swear my ears were bleeding when I was listening to her talk a few times. Oh yeah, and 'read the manga' endings. No one, and I mean NO ONE likes those.

Would I recommend this series?

If you want a harem series and want some time to kill, there are admittedly much better series to watch out there. Asterisk isn't a show I would say is worth recommending since there are SO many other better things out there, but it's at least watchable in comparison to what else exists in the rotting cesspool that is the harem genre. (I've been to hell and back with this genre. I KNOW WHAT'S THERE.)

Have you ever hated something so much you went out of the way to hate it? If this sentence makes you judge me, you're probably right in doing so.

After all, if I really hate it that much, then I should just go watch something else. And I probably should. Regardless, it's gotten to the point that I derive some sort of twisted happiness from watching and hating this show. It's pitiful, to be honest.

But enough about my failure to act rationally.

Why do I have such a hate boner for this anime? Why do I go out of my way to hate it?

I hate it for ... a lot of reasons. If I got into all of them, you'd probably close this review. So I'll keep it simple.

Asterisk is a simple show. The Strongest Man To Ever Grace Our Good Earth With His Gorgeous Looks And Massive Penis arrives at a high school where students battle for ranking to determine status. He quickly assembles a harem of girls who fight to see who gets to sit on his crotch, has a roommate capable of spouting exposition like a broken sewer pipe, and always saves the day in the nick of time, and defeats all his enemies handily while making them reconsider their lives, despite his Dark And Secret Past. And shit, that's just the first season!

The second season delivers more of the same. Ayato's harem expands, and the only thing limiting his strength is removed nearly immediately.

And the first sentence there highlights the problem- it's more of the same. Normally that's not a bad thing, but in Asterisk's case it's bad because it doesn't want to expand on anything. It's completely comfortable with what it did, so it doesn't see a need to do anything else. Its "more of the same" isn't "the story and characters you loved, bigger and better" it's "cut and paste everything from last season, and hope that no one notices". Ayato is still a paper thin excuse for a character created so that you can project yourself on to him. Julis is still a tsundere trope rather than a character. Kirin and Saya are still just there to be in love with Ayato, and Claudia still only exists to proposition Ayato for sex and pull a convenient way to advance the plot out of her ass.

I hate Asterisk for what it stands for. The popularity of Asterisk promotes the making of anime that follows a formula, and has minimal effort put in because they know that it will sell. Asterisk takes no risks and contributes nothing. Its fight scenes aren't exciting. Its story and characters don't give any reason to care or feel for them. It's the Best Bits of anime- something for everyone. There's high school, tournament fights, power ups, cute girls, a Sci Fi setting, and the good guys fighting for the greater good. But this all falls flat because while it has all of these things, it fails to do them well. I preferred Julis when she was Taiga Aisaka. I preferred Saya when she was Yuki Nagato. I preferred the high school battles better in Kill la Kill. I preferred power ups in Gurren Lagann. I preferred the Sci Fi setting in Psycho Pass. Despite having all sorts of things I love, Asterisk falls flat because it doesn't do them right.

You can tell me that it's just not to my taste. That Asterisk wasn't targeted towards me. Honestly, you may be right. But that's beside the point. The point being that Asterisk War most definitely sucks.