Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. 2nd Season

I find it really funny that, despite the numerous amount of low-balling score and negative reviews made in the review column, at the time I wrote this, both Komi 1st and 2nd season still retain average score above 8. Perhaps people visiting this site still know what they want to watch and certainly able to form their own opinion on the show despite the raging biases. And that was such a reassuring thought on its own.

-------------MIGHT CONTAINS A LITTLE SPOILER, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK-------------

--STORY & CHARACTERS--
Komi 2nd season is the continuation of the rest of Komi-san 1st Year Journey in Itan high school, it ... certainly and most importantly still carried the hype and success from what the 1st season tried to convey. Komi trying to overcome her disorder and anxiety, opening up to the world, and completing her goal of having 100 friends. Sounds cliche? Sure it was, but it was done right and proper.

Let's start with Komi herself.
Is she still an anxious train wreck? Yes
Does she still stutter and writes on notebook? Yes
Does she still overthink every mundane shit that somehow her fault? Yes
Most importantly, does she grows? HELL YES

Komi is slowly but surely letting go of the helping hand that were Tadano and Najimi. She became more proactive, more thoughtful, and certainly getting more used to the environment surrounded with oddballs and weirdos that filled her school roster. Sure she is still dragged around by Najimi's shenanigans, Yamai's bullshittery, or Nakanaka's rowdiness. But she tried to make the best of the situation and opening herself up even more, and it does pay off in the later part of the season.

Does that mean Tadano and Najimi's role is now vanished? Nope! They now have far more important role rather than a simple friend, they now became her support system where Komi can safely fall back to, whenever she has doubt or fear on the incoming events she always have Tadano to vent and tell her problems to. While Najimi in the sideline creating Komi a friendly environment for her friend-making mission with their shenanigans. This trio might have the healthiest relationship so far compared to other SoL anime I've watched, and I genuinely love every second of it.

How about Tadano himself as an MC? He is far from every generic SoL romcom protag I've ever seen, and his introduction in season 1 definitely didn't do him justice. We were told he was average dude with nothing good going on, and I have never seen such a blatant lie being told to my face. The show never had those tendencies in other SoL-romcom with "Male MC fix every Female MC problems", and Tadano legitemately shows how is it done. He never took part directly in solving every Komi's problem, but instead actively approaching her and providing her space to consult and talk about it. All that with his insecurities of being a chuuni in Middle school and constant repercussion from their classmates? Someone give this man a medal. His consistent upstanding personality really pays off later on, as he steadily increasing his number of friends (and fans, lol) that slowly matching Komi as they grow together is honestly a sweet moment to see.

I have no problem with all side characters so far, and I genuinely found them all amusing (except Yamai ofc, but that's a given). For a comedy show that relies on having 100 different casts, the author made the right decision to name them all after a pun and their exaggeration of their name's characters certainly made things easier to remember them. Every side characters, despite being played with 'a week a monster' trope still provide decent environment on the storytelling, each of these characters have their own dynamic with other casts and Komi herself, making it more believable and certainly gave that 'rowdy high school' vibes which I will sorely miss.

-What about the romance? Anything good from the romance?-
Before you watch this, I must tell you that even in the manga, romance has always been 2nd priority before its SoL counterparts. So I would suggest to keep your expectation low. HOWEVER, I can proudly tell you that even the romance subplot is properly fleshed out with the current progression Komi & Tadano currently faced so far. One thing I love from this show is how both of the casts taking things properly, slowly and surely without overstepping each other bounds and limits. This entertainment imagery is certainly a fresh breathe of air, especially in the amidst of ecchi-riddled romcom for the past two seasons. Just a pure sweet wholesome relationship.

--ART-- (8/10)
Art is BEAUTIFUL, including both OP & ED. Compared to other SoL romcom, Komi definitely stands out the most. The production value is high despite Team Kojima split attention with Summertime Rendering this season, tho it must be paid with considerable price (Looking at you Ep 22). But other than that episode, it's safe to say your eyes will certainly love the sweets!

--MUSIC-- (8/10)
One thing I noted about this show is its exceptional amount of battle music. It's a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one as it really brings out the feeling of how chaotic Komi's school are. But in important moments, it will tone down a notch into melodramatic one, making it as soft as possible to keep you company in viewing Komi's journey, some of it legit coming straight out of automata (I kid you not, try Ep 15).

The OP song sucks ass tho, if they hired the equivalent of Lennon to sang Cinderella on the first season, this season they hired Brittany from the Chipettes instead. What a loss. The ED in the other hand fares better fate, I found Koshaberi Biyori improvement over Hikare Inochi. Still, I loved how the production team hired less known band to perform.

--CONCLUSION-- (10/10)
Not enough credit was given to this show, but among all comfort animes out there Komi definitely towers over them. It was a perfect show after such a rough day, either it was work, school, or life problems. It definitely hits that sweet spot between the ridiculousness of Saiki K supporting cast and shenanigans as well as the sweetness of Kimi no Todoke. If you're planning to watch this after Season 1, please do so! And if you haven't watched Komi at all, what the hell are you doing here?

**Contains a few spoilers**

If I’ll give a word that will describe this season, it would be “better”.

Despite really hating the first season of this show and being considered to be one of the shows that belong in the garbage, I found this show improving or made sense. Now that I’ve realized it, this is one of the shows that you should never take seriously. Watching a show that isn’t overhyping by many people can be something else. I thought this season will be something else but all hopes seemed lost. KOMI-SAN IS REALLY A GAG SHOW. Forget the idea of having 2 characters, fall in ... love, and expect something beautiful. Not your usual romantic comedy that will give something more than the sum of its parts. Even the proper portrayal of social anxiety in the first place. All of that is a massive joke.

So let’s talk about the second season…

The entrance of the second curtain was the usual mission of completing Komi’s list of 100 friends. One of the new concepts about this season was two characters joined the show. Then a new transferee student, Katai joined the class. He’s having a misconception because he looks like a delinquent. He’s a kind-hearted man and I think he suffers from the same shit Komi’s having. But they started to be friends with her and called himself a disciple of Komi’s. Komi is Katai’s “master” and he likes to talk with Tadano, asking some advice from her and it’s full of ridonkeylous tropes in the end. It seems like a BL, which pretty much looks like it.

The second one is a guy named, Naruse Shisuto. A narcissistic dude who believes that all people are his fans and that they are too afraid to talk to him due to his breathtaking handsomeness when in reality people avoid him due to his overly flashy behavior. In short, he’s too confident with himself. And there’s this companion of his that makes him the narrator of his side.

To be honest, when I watched the trailer, I thought the introduction of these two new characters would be made an impact and be interesting to the story. My perspective and expectation for Katai in the segment were met because I liked him to be goofier than the main characters. Like Nendo from Saiki K. He looks like a delinquent but he’s one of the characters in the comedy routine of the show. But for Naruse Shisuto, I thought he would be a deuteragonist in the series. Like we don’t know if he’s a rival to Tadano and steals Komi’s attention. But in the end, he’s just one of those random characters in the show. By seeing that, I realized that there’s no way this show will take seriously.

That’s the summary of the whole show to be exactly. It’s an episodic gag comedy with some progression from the characters. Like the relationship between Tadano and Komi became to bud into something more. Komi’s past in the field trip was shown and her development of finding new friends, without relying on Tadano. She made girlfriends at that time but still need some progress. The other characters are still the same and forgettable at the same time. Well, if I compare the previous characters into this season, they became worst than I thought. Especially Yamai and his poisoned obsessed henchmen. She became perverted bitch that even she crossed the line when she stole Komi's leggings, wore it and run into the hallway. Pretty disgusting, right? If I'm in Komi's shoes, I would stay away from her forever. Nevertheless, she still her friend like what the fuck.

If I pick a proper character that might be memorable to me, it would be either Tadano or Najimi.

“The comedy is still great, right?”

The comedy Is still stiff. There were parts from the second season that were just trying hard to make everybody laugh their asses out. Some new segments like the boys meeting and finding friends were instantly amusing yet hilarious. The love game from episode 2 was surprising as well. The part where Najimi became an interrupting tool to interrupt the closure of the characters was new. He acts like it was nothing at all, as long as he gets into the fun. Most romantic comedy shows, when the two characters become close and suddenly, the phone rings or anything else. But the rest of the comedy was either cringe or just missed. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the ridonkeylous comedy.

The sound is just the same. To be honest, I liked the OP and ED more than from the previous season. The OP gave some romance vibes that led to nothing, but I liked the way they use it when Komi and the others make friends with other people. Like in Katai and Naruse’s case. Yep! It was amusing when they play the OP when Katai speaks to Tadano and Komi like it was meme-fied. I remember in Angel Beats when they used the ED when they amusingly flew the building. The ED is more decent than I thought. I can say that the ED might be the ED of the season.

Overall, I still enjoyed the series. I couldn’t grasp the idea that this is just a gag show because it’s better when this show turns into a serious matter. Most of the parts from the show were easily missed and some parts were hard hit. The 2nd season is pretty decent, but at the same time, it could be better.

I can't really wait to watch a show about depression and treating it as a joke.

Story: 5/10
Animation: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Sound: 7/10
Entertainment factor (Comedy: 3/5, Romance: 2/5): 5/10
Enjoyment: 6/10
Score: 5/10

When reviewing part one, I said this show suffered from unfunny comedy and too much repetition, but even having read the manga myself beforehand, I don’t think I ever truly realized how much worse my own complaints could get. Part two of Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu is excruciatingly shallow, and it proceeds to accomplish little aside from proving my point that there was no substance to be had beyond the very first episode. In my first review, I explained how the manga this anime is based on was originally a one-shot, and how it was clear that the one-shot's success is what prompted the long-running ... manga's serialization and never-ending chapter count. My argument was essentially that the story and characters were perfectly fine vehicles for achieving what the author originally set out to achieve, but what the author originally set out to achieve was accomplished throughout the course of the one-shot (the first six chapters of the serialized manga and the first episode of the anime), so by cynically saying, “Well, the story was satisfying and complete, but look at those sales figures! People really like this shit! I know this concept and these characters were only designed to exist for a single, well-paced, tightly-written one-shot, but if we wanted to, we could make a long-running never-ending manga out of this to capitalize on its popularity, so let’s do that!” the author/publishers were condemning the series to a fate worse than death. Rather than allowing the one-shot to be a brief success that was remembered fondly, they opted instead to turn it into a manga (that was then turned into an anime) that will be endlessly dragged out until the sales figures drop low enough to justify axing it, and the result, I think, speaks for itself.

However, I also said in my review for part one that despite dropping it, I didn’t actually leave the manga with a bad impression of it, so then why has my score for the anime already dropped from a six to a four? I mean, the anime still hasn’t reached the point in the manga where I stopped reading, so why is it already worse? Well, I’m actually not sure, but if I had to guess, it would probably be because I don’t know how to read manga. When Made in Abyss first came out in 2017, I was absolutely dazzled, and when it ended, I felt empty. Crumbling under the weight of unbearable longing and impatience, I said fuck it and started reading the manga, and that was such a huge mistake. It was good—don’t get me wrong—but it was not the same for many reasons. Firstly and most obviously is the fact that the majority of what made that show so deeply special to me were aspects of it which could only exist in an anime format. Aspects including but not limited to the music, the colors, the voice acting, and most importantly, the directing. People who prefer manga over anime will often say the reason they like manga better is because “they decide how fast it goes.” They like that they can just pick it up whenever they want, read it at whatever pace they want, and put it down whenever they want, and while I definitely see the appeal of this, I personally could not disagree more. I agree that most seasonal soup is not particularly well-directed or well-paced, but most anime fans don’t even appreciate good direction or good pacing wherever it does actually exist, and whenever you come across anime that do have these qualities, the resulting experience is in my opinion far more engaging than any self-dictated session of manga reading could ever be.

When you watch something written and directed my true masters and artists, you feel like you’re watching something truly masterful and artistic. You feel no needed to turn up the playback speed, check the time, or modify the viewing experience in any way, because what you’re watching is already perfect the way its being executed and the way its being paced. Maybe this level of immersion is possible with manga as well, but if it is possible, I personally have never experienced it. I don’t read much manga, so I’m not very well-practiced in the art of doing so. When I read Made in Abyss, I found it impossible to figure a good balance between reading the text and looking at the artwork. Indeed, I’m sure there were many pages where I didn’t even look at the images at all and just read through it like a book with nothing but dialogue. I was so invested in the story and characters thanks to the anime which I had originally fallen in love with that this obsessive interest in seeing what happened next made it so I couldn’t appreciate the manga properly. There was no director or screenwriter forcing me to focus on certain shots for certain amounts of time, thereby forcing me to appreciate everything as intended. There was no musician cluing me into the emotional tone of the scene, and instead just the quiet hum of my air conditioning turning on and off in the background. There was no art director making things pop, thus guiding my attention where it needed to go visually, and instead just vaguely paneled, monochrome images for me to glance over as I pleased. Again, this is one of the things manga readers say they like about manga—this control they have over the experience—but I don’t want this control, because when I have the control, I risk warping the experience.

Case in point: Made in Abyss, the unequivocal creative masterpiece, was warped into something I found to be frigid and emotionless thanks to my tendency to read too quickly, while Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu, a one-shot that was unceremoniously stretched almost four hundred chapters beyond its intended limit, was warped into a fun little experience where I could carelessly skim through each chapter without really paying attention to or focusing on anything, but always be rewarded nevertheless with the shallow, repetitive, yet wholesome moment provided by the end of every chapter. THAT’S why the anime became less enjoyable to me so much faster than the manga did, and why I’m already giving the anime a four while the manga which I read over a hundred chapters of managed to keep a six the whole time—because I don’t know how to read manga, but I definitely know how to watch anime. If I’m reading the manga, then I can just see Katai, or Nakanaka, or fucking Yamai, and immediately start flipping pages. If I’m watching the anime, however, and I see one of these annoying fucking characters start doing their annoying fucking unfunny gimmicks for the millionth fucking time, then I’m trapped. Then I’m bored; then I’m turning up the playback speed; then I’m checking the time; then I start thinking, “You know what? This show just isn’t for me.” Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu isn’t awful. No matter how creatively bankrupt it is, it can still be touching and cute, and considering some of the downright torturous characters it has, it also has a lot of characters who are undeniably lovable—the main duo being the biggest sweethearts of all—but sometimes I just find myself wishing there was more than one dimension to any of them.

They say repetition is the mother of learning, but learning is very rarely entertaining, and this show stopped teaching after episode one.

The MAL synopsis provided by Netflix currently reads the following:
“Second season of Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu.
Komi and pals are back! Who else will Komi make friends with? How will her relationship with Tadano evolve?”

The answer to the first question is nobody important, and the answer to the second question is simple. “It won’t.”

Thank you for reading.