Kagewani: Shou

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 :)