Kagewani: Shou

Kagewani: Shou is the second season of Kagewani series. I would recommend watching it after you finish the first season because some parts could be a little bit confusing if you jump directly into the second one. And for you who already watched the first season and enjoyed it, you must definitely watch the second one too, because it’s amazing.

The episodes are pretty much all connected together and the plot is really exciting and easy to follow because it mostly revolves around Banba and his fight with Kagewani. The origin of Kagewani is also explained and there are some interesting new characters and new types ... of monsters as well. Some of the old characters will also appear but in a new light. The animation is beautiful and unique and the storyline is chilling and tense. The show ended on a massive cliffhanger, so hopefully there will be a season three.

Kagewani: Shou (Act II) is the second season to Kagewani which continues the interesting story which tells an intriguing narrative of the main character Sousuke Banba a genetic engineer and his investigations of surreal monsters in Japan. Kagewani: Shou continues after season one where Sousuke Banba constantly battles for equilibrium with the powerful Kagewani. Kagewani: Shou continues to use comic-like animation and suspenseful ambiance music that perfectly captures mise-en-scene, to create a thrillingly, interesting show that will leave you hooked and craving for more as the plot thickens. Although, the episodes are only roughly seven minutes and fifty seconds long it crams a lot of ... drama, events, narrative progression and action per episode.

What makes Kagewani: Shou a must watch anime show is the artistic portrayal of the characters and their involvement with the narrative and each other. The animation is unlike anything from other anime, it honestly looks and feels like a living and breathing coloured story straight from a Manga printing press. It also portrays the shows narrative to the ultimate climax at the end which deadly fight scenes and addictive dialogue. The music and sounds continue to feel like they were specifically chosen for their duty to create suspense, and giving that feeling of danger by sucking you into the story. Giving you feel you are there with the characters themselves, as they traverse the next chapter of the story.

The only downsides are one, the show will most certainly leave you craving more. and two (once again) the season is too short. Overall, this cult-classic of an anime show deserves attention of anime lovers all over the world. A must see for the anime obsessed.

Kagewani Shou is one of those typical sequels that tried doing something different and new, but in that process it lost sight of what was actually good about the original and became bad as a result of this. If you liked the original Kagewani, then you will most likely not enjoy Kagewani Shou, because it went on a completely different route than its predecessor.

The original Kagewani was a collection of short horror stories that were only loosely tied together by the central recurring characters of Banba and Kimura. In comparison to this Kagewani Shou tried to have a story, a controlled narrative and a ... basic plot, which directly follows the ending of the original anime. This wouldn't be a problem by itself, but the sad fact is that the story that the writers of this anime came up is bland, generic and full of predictable clichés that you will see coming from a mile away if you are experienced in the genre. Worst of all, Kagewani Shou is more of a supernatural thriller than a horror anime, which is all the more reason you will not like it, if you were a fan of the first one.

The fact that the original Kagewani didn't have much of a central story was something that actually worked greatly to its advantage in combination with the 8 minute episode limit in creating a mysterious and creepy atmosphere. Unfortunately Kagewani Shou is neither creepy nor mysterious. The reason it is not mysterious is because it tried too hard to be scientific and explain its monsters (even though it was not necessary), and like all dark monsters that are brought into the daylight, they too have lost their aura of mystery, because the audience was given too much information about them. And the reason the anime is not creepy (aside 1-2 episodes) is because most of the episodes are centered on characters who have supernatural powers (read: not normal, vulnerable humans) and as a result of this, the creepiness factor is completely lost because the characters can effortlessly fight back and destroy the monsters. In short, there is no real tension in this anime, which would be essential.

In regards to the characters, this anime introduces two new recurring characters. One of them is an evil corporate executive whose sole purpose is to make Kimura (who already belongs to the same character archetype) look less evil by being even more evil than him. The other one is a ninja girl who might as well have come out of Naruto, because she behaves like a typical shounen character and can effortlessly eliminate all the supernatural creatures with just a swing of her katana. Neither of these two characters brought anything positive to the story, in fact they only brought it down with their presence. Aside from this, the relationship of the characters is also quite juvenile and makes little sense, for example Banba trusts and allies with Kimura for most of this season despite his betrayal at the end of season 1, while Ninja girl tries to kill Banba for no valid reason, then the next time they meet they are allies all of a sudden.

The only things I can praise about this anime are its music and art. The music is very good at hyping up the shitty episodes and it is also similar to the soundtrack of the previous season. This season fortunately kept the unique aesthetics of the original anime (which is quite good looking), and on top of that, the animation itself improved a lot compared to the previous season.

Overall this was a sequel that shouldn't even have been made, as it is worse than the original in all the important aspects. They didn't need to create anything new, they should have just done the same as season 1, but better and with more improvements. I wouldn't recommend this anime to anyone who liked the first Kagewani as a horror at all, instead I would recommend it to people who enjoy fast trainwrecks, because that is what Kagewani Shou is. The anime also ends on a cliff-hanger that is clearly setting up for a third season, but I'm genuinely hoping that their sales will trash and the studio abandons future Kagewani projects.

I feel like they were trying something new with this and failed miserably. The first season was a set of short horror stories tied together by certain characters. With the second one, there is a confusing story line.
They tried to squeeze in 20 minuets worth of story into only 7 minutes. As you can imagine, it became very clear that they did not know what to do with it.
The art and sound were okay, with the 'squelching' noise being the most clear. I liked the touch of binuaral here and there as characters voices shifted from ear to ear. One complaint I have ... about sound is that I feel that they rely too heavily on it. The 'jump scares' rely purely on noise, as they are very predictable. While I understand that sound is there to submerge the watcher in the video, I feel like it was over-used here. They should've focused on making a more unpredictable jump scare, if that's what they were going for.
In conclusion, I believe that the first series was better and more enjoyable :)