Bastard!! Ankoku no Hakaishin: Jigoku no Chinkonka-hen

Everyone's problematic fave is back and it was a really good season. The stakes were high, the Jump tropes were in full bloom, and it was an enjoyable season. Of course there were the typical pitfalls of any manga from its time period but I overlooked these flaws in favor of the larger story as a whole. I think the best part of this season was how it illustrated how the characters have grown since the first batch of episodes with occasional exception. I also liked the hints of where the story will go from here if we get another season, which I really hope ... we do because despite its flaws, the characters and overall plot points are engaging and I want more.

If you liked the previous installments then you're going to like this one. It's definitely worth the watch.

I’m going back and fourth on my rating for this. Normally when weighing a show you add up all the elements and get your number, but in this case it seems like all the elements are opposed to each other and can’t be seen together. Like liquids with different densities. My general range would be around 4-6, which is what I rated it on MAL.

Now the details. Firstly, there is very little change at all from the first season. The personalities, the art, the theme, the structure, the tropes, the rampant over the top fanservice, the horrible music ALL OF IT. But this isn’t a ... bad thing. It feels like what it is. A continuation. And in that regard it keeps you interested in an odd sort of way with its lack of change from the first season. I didn’t even write a review for the first season, because literally everything I’m about to say would be the exact same for that too. That’s just about where all the praise ends.

The first complaint is the just insane level of lewdness. Ontop of the constant groping, sexual angles and nudity comes outright sex scenes too. This was present in the first season too, but guys, come on. Do better.

The second is about the characters. There are far too many. Dark Schneider (possibly the worst name in all of anime) and his close circle are all easy to recognize and understand, but by the end of the show there are like 20 something people, all with some kind of role and it’s just completely unnecessary. They just add confusion to the already hard to follow story, and leave you wondering who is who from their generic designs. They’re also completely invincible. If you’re not just a normal human (who the writers love slaughtering) it is nearly impossible to die. The plot armour is at an overwhelming level. Which I understand you need your main characters to be, you know, alive. But instead of having them be completely invincible maybe you could write scenarios in which they don’t always end up in inescapable peril which they manage to survive every time.

The story broadly is very difficult to follow and only gets harder as you get towards the end. The oddly named characters, the very large amount of landscapes and landmarks, all of it. But when you change your perspective, that doesn’t matter. I was viewing the show through a serious storytelling lens which is why I was so negative about it, but about halfway through the second season I realized I was looking at it wrong. When you see it much more as an over the top comedy, you get much more enjoyment from it. And that’s the one thing I’d like people to know above else. DONT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY and you’ll have a good time.

These Heavy Males and Their Dork 80’s Fantasies.

As much as I enjoy the nonsense of Bastard I have to admit the novelty of hammy 4Kids-sounding voice actors and unabashed shamelessness is starting to wear off on me now. There is only so much of my attention an ecchi fantasy with a ridiculously overpowered main protagonist can keep and compared to season one, season two doesn’t offer anything particularly new or interesting to the narrative.
Dark Schneider will eventually return and will make any character who isn’t Dark Schneider look useless in comparison, he will try to hit on Yoko and inevitably be hit back, ... etc, etc until the end of the season. That seems to be the routine the anime seems to have settled into now.

I think the Samurai faction was extremely disappointing. Not only were they hyped up by the end of the first season as something new and interesting at the end of the season one cliffhanger, but they were depicted as strong. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only did they get stomped in nearly every fight they were involved in, but some of them were boiled down to ecchi punchlines. Including the new enemy faction called the Sorcerer Shogun we don’t learn much about individuals on either side and by the end of the season’s main event involving everyone I just didn’t care about any of them.

The art and animation are still passable. This isn’t Lidenfilms’ best work and it's missing a lot of the grit needed for a dark 80’s fantasy story. Anyone who has watched an 80’s or 90’s anime OVA will know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, despite my gripes and full admittance that I’m probably done with the series I can’t lie, I still had a good time watching it. It can be funny, it can be charmingly cheesy, I like Kall-Su and Yoko (for bisexual reasons) and it's a nice pallet cleanser from the modern isekai skills, levels and stats video game garbage of modern anime fantasy. If you’re not already invested in the series then you probably won’t be biting at the heels to watch Bastard‼ Heavy Metal, Dark Fantasy.
It has admittedly worn out its welcome… and if a third season does get green-lit I’ll probably cave and watch it.

6/10 It’s Okay.