Isekai Shokudou 2

---*** CONTAINS SPOILERS ***---

Part of what made the first season pretty good entertainment, was getting to know the main characters and what led them to work at a restaurant as unique as Nekoya. I enjoyed seeing their love for the place grow as I got further into the season, but it settled down towards the end when the focus became more on the stories of the new customers that got introduced every episode, and less on everything else.

The second season continues this trend of introducing new characters every episode, and focusing the majority of the screentime on them, only to rinse and repeat with new ... ones the episode after, while every other character sort of gets left behind.

The main characters who we see every episode really get reduced to roughly the same lines every episode of just servicing whoever ends up entering through the door, and it is actually really frustrating.
With the format of storytelling this anime has, there simply just isn't any (and i mean that literally) room for character development, since every episode is roughly the same every time. The few stable customers from season 1 that still get screentime have also just ended up being screentime waste, making the same comments on their favourite dishes.

It's so difficult to get attached to or interested in any character or their story when you know they are not gonna be expanded upon in any meaningful way after that episode.

If you sit down with the intention of just relaxing and watching a bit of wholesomeness, this isn't a bad shout to get your fix for that. It's pretty innocent, non-offensive and relaxing, but not much beyond that. There is never any lasting conflict that the protagonists have to overcome, there is never any eccentric storywriting that breaks off from expectation, and if you want anything more than 20 minutes of harmless relaxation, this is just not for you.

The basis of the show is not bad at all, and I understand the purpose of it. It's not meant to be anything super serious, but it ends up just being very unsatisfying to watch after a while, because it never strays from the very strict format.

I'll be watching the entire show and any additional content they might release in the hopes of things changing, but I'm not optimistic.