Meng Qi Shi Shen: Zaijie Liangyuan

I honestly didn't know how to rate this one, but I definitely found myself enjoying season 1 A LOT more. I was wayyyy more bored with this sequel. I watched it because other reviews said the romance between the MCs progresses more, because there wasn't much in the first, and I wanted to know what was going to happen with them.

That being said, there was definitely way more scenes between the two in the first season, so if you're going into it hoping for more you don't really get all that much.

STORY
Season 1 was lackluster, and season 2 is even moreso. There really isn't much ... of a setting here, and absolutely zero conflict. Season 1 at least had some tension and fighting. This season is more slice of lifey, but focuses more on cooking and less on drama and romance.

If you were disappointed by the amount of cooking in season 1, you'll be happy to know they added more to this sequel.

Other than that, nothing really happened. I was really hoping for more between the MCs. Especially considering the ED contains a bunch of modern-day photos of them as a couple.

CHARACTERS
I still liked the MCs, but everyone else was rather dull. They introduced some new characters that I sort of liked, but they didn't add much and I didn't find them interesting enough to want to pay attention to them.

ART/SOUND
The art and animation in season 1 is definitely better. It becomes a little more of your average anime in this sequel. The music is nice though, and I liked the OP and ED. Very cute!

Overall, it was meh. I'm not sure what they plan to do with season 3, but considering their status by the end of the sequel, I would hope they include more scenes between the MCs. I mean, they really don't know much about each other. One could assume Chunyu only likes Jinxuan because of her cooking and cute looks, and that she saved him that one time /shrug.

Do you have to watch this season? Nah. If you're here just for the romance, skip to episodes 11 and 12 for some progression. And yes, I know this is a COOKING anime, BUT as mentioned, the romance between the MCs is canon and made very evident by the serious lack of rivals and the ED credits.

*SPOILERS............
I'm not a Jing fan but damn. Seeing him walkaway at the end just hurt...he really had a pointless role in this sequel. It's hard to not pity the guy. Also, how did no one realize Jinxuan was a girl this whole time?? I find that really hard to believe. I sound like a major critic, I'm not. I'm just a romance junkie and am disappointed, lol.

STORY: 7/10
Season 2 of Meng Qi Shi Shen delivers more fun food adventures with the introduction of new characters and even more mouth-watering food scenes. The story continues by focusing on the female lead's food adventures and her career as a rising chef in this world, which I really enjoyed.

Besides the food challenges the female lead faces each episode, there are other subplots that help drive the story. The romance does get more development this season. There's nothing new brought to this genre and there are definitely plot points that get glossed over, but characters are fun and the story execution is still much more ... solid compared to similar donghua I've watched. Overall, I thought the pacing was good and Meng Qi Shi Shen did pretty well on its delivery of comedy, drama, and romance.


ART: 8/10
Food still looks amazing and many backgrounds and scenes looked gorgeous. There were definitely times where the animation looked a bit awkward and slightly less polished. Overall, it's still one of the better animated donghua I've watched.


SOUND: 9/10
Voice acting was great and the music was lovely.


CHARACTER: 9/10
As I've said in my season 1 review, Meng Qi Shi Shen has a fun cast and the interactions are really fun to watch. We got to see more characters introduced this season.


ENJOYMENT: 8/10
There were some seemingly major plot points that were brought up, but they weren't followed through or were glossed over. It didn't ruin my experience too much, but I wished they were addressed within this season. Still, season 2 ended at a good milestone and I'm excited to see what season 3 will bring.

Meng Qi Shi Shen, also known as Adorable Food Goddess or Cinderella Chef, is the story of modern day Best Chef winner Ye Jiayao, who has a mushroom poisoning incident and finds herself back in time in the body of Ye Jinxuan in medieval China, in a bridal procession! After the bandit escape, Season 2's focus is on Ye Jinxuan's adventures masquerading as a male chef!

Story 07/10, Character 06/10, sound 07/10

The source story is fairly predictable as the modern day chef tries to make sense of ancient China, playing her cooking skills to stay alive. The cooking world in medieval China seems rather dramatically cut-throat ... (literally), man, I knew the Chinese took food seriously but I did not realize they took food THIS SERIOUSLY as if it were a life and death matter! Which it is in Season 2!! The sound, music and OST are all good.

What lets this entire arc down is the main character is the stereo-typical whiny heroine everywhere except the kitchen (where she's a supremely confident Boss Lady), and at times it got so annoying I wanted to slap her. She's still the same annoying person from Season 1, I had hoped there would be some progress but everyone else around her is getting more depth of personality so it's kind of sad that she's running in the same spot and hasn't improved at all.

Art 10/10
Everything else aside, this is a very, very pretty anime. The scenery is gorgeous and the food looks very tasty.

Enjoyment 08/10, overall 07/10
If you turn off your brain and just go with the flow, this is an easy to watch anime with nice touches throughout. There's twists and turns in the story with the Hero Guy getting a lot of development this season but the romance angle of this has still not reached an inkling of its full potential.

Subs 10/10
Shout out to Mizore x 33 for the wonderful, humorous subs with current anime pop culture references, interesting vignettes and historical references explained. These subs alone were worth +1 points in Enjoyment.

Foodie Rating 08/10
* 10/10 Visual appeal of food - mouth watering
* 09/10 Reaction of characters to food - the reactions are pretty over the top and quite creative, but not ecchi.
* 08/10 Difficulty or complexity of food featured - Has a good mix of simple and complex - some of these recipes are not for beginners. That Beef Lantern was just a WOW!
* 05/10 Preparation or Cooking Instructions - it's show, don't tell. I could figure out some of them but a narration would have helped a lot.
* 08/10 Desire of viewer to cook or buy dishes featured after watching show - Now craving that bowl of noodles, geez my mouth watered just watching it being cooked. I tried but I don't think I quite made it as tasty as it looked in the anime.