Moshi Juexing: Ruqin 2nd Season

This donghua was reviewed after watching all 3 currently released parts (season 1 part 1, part 2 and season 2). So I will review this from that perspective.

Note for entire series: I don't know who did the directing and cutting, but this donghua should have been split into: Season 1 - 28 episodes, Season 2 - 24 episodes. This is because Season 1 cuts off randomly in the middle of an event with no real conclusion.

Please note this is season 1 part 2, so this review may contain some spoilers for season 1 part 1, and this season cuts off randomly in the middle of ... an event so I suggest at least watching season 2 episodes 1 and 2 for a conclusion, even if you decide not to watch the rest of season 2.

Plot Summary: After the events of Part 1, Mason and his friends have been forced to escape following the "dream" he had in the prologue, despite his efforts to prevent, at all costs, from walking the path that he had seen in his dreams, an attempt to escape Rabid Dog Slum to the "Safe Area". Now, using his precognition from the dream, he prevents his friends dying to the threats he once saw. He succeeds temporarily, only for the final outcome to remain the same. Depressed by his failure to prevent his friends' deaths, he is shipped back to Rabid Dog Slum to be used again as a pawn in someone else's plan. And due to his participation in the destruction of the "Safe Area" extraction team, he gets embroiled in a greater conflict involving the DS (the company who created AI and currently controls the world) and the "Safe Area" resistance, those fighting to free the world from DS control.

The story continues with the "dream" that Mason has been having, as seen in the "prologue" of Season 1 Part 1. The most interesting part was about how knowing the future can change one's actions and how those actions can change (or not) the final outcome of an event. Because of the fight at the beginning that causes the decimation of a "safe area" extraction team, the safe area deploys a team to investigate the cause, dragging Mason and others into the greater conflict between the DS company who has created AI

The core cast within Rabid Dog Slum surrounding Mason were the main characters in Season 1 Part 1, but now that Mason has met up and gotten involved in struggles between powers within the Rabid Dog Slum and even the "safe area", we see a host of new characters from those factions introduced. All of the groups have their goals and are interesting, though they aren't developed that well. Our knowledge of them only surface level, but they are still interesting enough that we can understand them.

The animation quality and character models are still the same as Season 1 part 1, little has changed. The models are still pretty good and the animation is smooth, for the most part. The main flaws in the animation are with the close quarters combat, the gun battles are a bit simple, but still pretty exciting.

The season has a wierd cut-off, without resolving any of the ongoing conflict of plot, considering Season 2 has been released, if we include the first 2 episodes of that, this Season has a good ending, with a lead-in to the next arc of the plot. This was enjoyable, mainly because of the whole butterfly effect from knowing future and thus making decisions to avoid what he had seen. The gun battles are enjoyable, though some of the philosophical/grandiose stuff does kind of go over one's head. I would still recommend this to someone who likes post-apocolyptic and sci-fi genre shows.