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- BirthdayJan 1, 1992
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- JoinedMar 9, 2011
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Mar 3, 2023
-I have made a new review with some heavy edits, because for some reason someone gave a confused reaction to the last one. This has made the review much longer and more in depth, be warned.-
I gave the first season a 9 out of 10. It was wonderful. Some of the best music and visuals I have ever seen in an anime, with a world that was, well, out of this world. The adventure they had, the way the characters were developed, the emotional pathos, overall it was an incredible show... Season 2? This is trash in comparison. I have given it a 6 out
...
of 10, but that is probably just because of how fond I am of the first season, as well as the animation and music.
Why do I consider this season to be trash in comparison? Well it isn't the music and visuals, like I said those are still amazing. The animation quality is wonderful, the music is superb, it is literally always wonderful to watch and listen to this show. The reason why this season sucks is because the story stalls, and the characters are assassinated.
What does that mean, to have 'character assassination'? If you google it, you come across this definition first: "the malicious and unjustified harming of a person's good reputation." That is a good definition, but I also consider character assassination to be the harming of a character's arc and their progression as a person as well.
In this season Nanachi has her character assassinated, reduced to nothing, all to get some cheap tears out of us and make the horribly written plot finally grind along. All of her emotional arcs and character progression from the first season are just thrown into the garbage in order to get more emotional responses out of the audience. She and Reg have dealt with the emotional consequence of killing/releasing Mitty. It was a moving moment that brought tears to my eyes in the first season. The reason why it was done so well, is because Nanachi and Mitty and Reg, all had their relationship built up over several episodes. Nanachi saying goodbye to her friend and constant companion of several years, who she had tried and failed hundreds of times to release from her torture (and who had also saved Riko in a way) was heartbreaking, but also a moment of relief and release. Nanachi was free to move on with her life, with her adventure, with new friends.
In this season, in the village, Nanachi comes across a clone (with the same soul and memories!) that was made of Mitty by Bondred, somehow. How?! She shuts down, and basically sells herself into eternal sleep in order to buy this clone. In the first season all she wanted was to release Mitty, that was her main goal upon first seeing Reg. She wanted both of them to be free, for Mitty to stop suffering and for her to explore and adventure and continue her life. By doing this to Nanachi, all of her character progression has been wiped out, her arc was erased, and basically restarted. By selling herself, she can no longer progress forward, and worst of all, Mitty is still alive and suffering! It makes no sense, and it done in order to forward the horrible plot of getting Reg to destroy a wall and allow Faputa into the village. When Nanachi is finally released, and decides to erase Mitty again, all of the emotion is gone. We have been here before, done this before. This is all pointless, except to make Reg do something he would never normally do: allow for the genocide of an entire people.
Instead of exploring and surviving, learning more about the Abyss and our characters, like in the first season, we end up stuck in an aggravating little village. There are hints that there is so much more than meets the eye, some people like the village prophets/elders have motivations and plans and see far into the future! Oh my gosh, what mystery! But it isn't. There really isn't anything in the end to this at all. Literally nothing of consequence happens. It is aggravating. It is a massive waste of time. A fake mystery to eat up episodes. All of this could have been covered in four episodes or less, and we still would have cared the same amount for the new characters we meet. Because we didn't really meet any new characters; they weren't given characterization. It is lazy writing, so lazy that I can't believe exists in this series.
We come to care for Riko, Reg, and Nanachi because we spend an entire season learning about them as they do interesting things. They fight, they survive, they explore, and they continue their adventure. In season 2 you get the occasional flashbacks to the new characters that have been introduced, but it isn't enough. None of them are given enough screen time, enough fleshing out, that they deserve to be called characters. They wind up being half baked, and so to ask us to care about them is silly. More time needed to be spent on these characters; but they make the cast too large, and they destroy the main story and plot: delving deeper into the Abyss and exploring more layers. Everything grinds to a halt, and it is so frustrating to waste time on these people.
Reg's character is also assassinated. He doesn't like violence, he doesn't want to fight, it is always a last resort for him. He respects life. We learn this about Reg throughout the entire first season. He acts in self defence for himself and Riko. Him killing Mitty, a defenceless creature and a friend, is one of the hardest things he has ever had to do. But in this season death and killing is fine, Reg blows up the wall of the village allowing the vicious mass murdering Faputa in. He condemns an entire society to death because he wants to rescue Nanachi, even though he could have done that with the piece of Faputa he brought back. If the characters had just communicated, or even just stayed true to who they were without being bent and broken for plot convenience, this season wouldn't be half as bad.
Oh, and Riko is suddenly useless for this whole season. While she was defenceless in comparison to Reg, it was her knowledge of the Abyss that often got them out of trouble, through one layer and down to the next. In this season she knows nothing about this layer, but she blows her white whistle that powers Reg up! But in the end that is pointless. That all comes to nothing. His power isn't enough for him to stop Faputa, it isn't even strong enough to protect Riko from this layer's wildlife. Because of this, Faputa murders everyone in the village, consuming the rest to heal herself and survive. Then after all that they are just ok with Faputa? Really? After all the friends Riko makes in the village get murdered and eaten?
Are they really going to continue on their adventure with someone who literally committed genocide on an entire village? Most of the people living there had no idea about the history of the place, or what was going on. They had no idea how the village was created. So many innocents, dead. A safe way-station in the Abyss, an entire culture, destroyed. Yes, the way the village was created was obscene, but I honestly don't know what is worse in this scenario. What I do know is that I don't want Faputa, a horribly written, mass murdering character that devours and consumes other sentient creatures, to travel with the party. Made In Abyss was so great and full of tension because you never knew if they would be able to get out of tough situations unscathed. Riko actually didn't in the first season, nearly losing an arm, almost dying. Faputa is almost literally unbeatable, a killing machine. If they bring her along, that tension evaporates.
Overall this season just felt cheap to me. No real character or story development (with Reg and Nanachi moving backwards even). I can't believe I waited so many years with so much anticipation for, this. I can't fathom why people like it, or how it could possibly be rated higher than the first season. I find the fact that people like this to be unbelievable. Every moment of triumph, sadness, anger, was not earned, not like in the first season. This second season is pathetic in comparison, and I doubt I will be watching the third.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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Sep 2, 2018
-This review is long.- I don't often feel the need to write reviews, this is my second one after seven years on this website, so take heed: These last three episodes are probably the worst I have ever seen in any anime, ever. I have watched a lot of anime, obviously not as much as many people out there, but I have watched all sorts from almost every genre. At this point I feel as though I have some (subjective) grasp on what constitutes an enjoyable anime, and every fiber of my being screams out that this is not it. This is not enjoyable. In
...
fact, it quite literally ruined what came before it. I cannot help but look back at all the time I spent watching this series as lost, no, wasted, time. I hate that. I hate that the second season and these three episodes in particular made me feel that way.
The first season of this anime was good, I really liked it, which is why I am so surprised at how this all ended, and am taking the time to write this. The first season had a strange but funny story, with interesting themes to it, and entertaining characters. The second season, and then these last three episodes in particular, completely strip all of that away. Kirino is a conflicted person, she lives a hidden life, and the first season explores this. It looks at a portion of the population that thinks, feels, and enjoys different things differently, and asks: Why do we ostracize them? Why do we treat them the way we do? Is it right to treat them that way? Are they all the same, or is there a sliding scale? Can a person live in this dualistic state, both a part, and not a part, of that group?
Well, toss that out in the second season. Focusing on interesting themes and ideas is hard. Why not just appeal to emotion at all times, and really focus on fabricated filler drama?
What about the interesting story of a brother trying to help his sister? A brother trying to rebuild a relationship that he hadn't really noticed had died, and almost completely withered away? A story where someone needs help, where they cannot continue to live their life the way things have been going, and they need an outside source that will help them sort things out, fix things, and protect them as they go through all of this?
It is gone in the second season. Everyone knows about Kirino's secret, and almost everyone themselves is either an open or also a secret otaku. The conflict between the main characters, the supporting cast, and the world as a whole is gone. With no conflict, there is no story. At least, not an enjoyable one.
What about the characters then, at least we can still enjoy the fantastic characters that were created in the first season? Both yes, and no. Some characters do get their backgrounds explored, they do get fleshed out, and they become more enjoyable then before, but then they too also undergo changes which turn this anime into something it should not have been, and which was horribly ham-fisted in: a harem. Literally only one female character does not fall for Kyousuke. I will go into detail about the characters: (so stop reading if you don't want spoilers)
Kyousuke's character just gets straight up assassinated. What was once an interesting, thoughtful, multifaceted character turns into nothing more than the boring protagonist of your run of the mill harem anime. Anything you thought he was, or wanted him to be, is dead by these three last episodes. He was being pulled in a multitude of directions, his love for his sister and his need to protect her and fight for her, his strange fascination with Ruri and the way she was changing his life in weird and interesting ways, and his desire for a calm, peaceful, normal life with Manami. All of that ends. He throws both of those relationships away to be with his sister, which I suppose would be fine, if there wasn't a 'haha jokes on you' moment at the end when you find out it was all a game of pretend. When you find that out, and realize just what he threw away regarding those two, well, that is where the hatred starts.
Saori gets an interesting (but ultimately pointless) exploration of her background, and how she came to be an otaku. In the second last or last episode (I can't remember) the entire conflict between her and her older sister, whom she hated and who she felt ripped apart her life and her friends, gets resolved in a throw away line. Literally one line where she says they fixed it while they drive in a car looking for Kirino. What was the point? Why waste time exploring her development from a shy child into a shamelessly otaku adult, and her relationship with her family, if in the end it comes to nothing? Like I said above, it feels like this series wasted my time. At least she doesn't become the older, big breasted part of the harem. She keeps her dignity.
Ruri is elevated for a time from a minor secondary character, to almost a main character, in the OVAs of season 1 and start of season 2. She confesses to Kyousuke, and this relationship is the only one in the entire series (other than Manami) that actually feels earned or real, and that is due to the end of season 1. Not anything season 2 did. In fact, season 2 ruins what ever real character Ruri had, and what ever plans and motivations she was hatching. Why date the main character and break up with him, hinting that there is something going on, only for it to end with, again, nothing? Her character goes from background, to main, then right into the background again, like something interesting was planned, but there wasn't enough time, because there needed to be more cute girls added to the harem. They even break up a second time, while already being broken up, in one of the most needlessly dramatic, and character rending moments I have ever watched. Ruri as a character is turned into scrap.
This brings us to Ayase, and even more confoundingly, Kanako.
Ayase hates Kyousuke, and loves Kirino. What she wants most in the world is what makes Kirino happy, and believes that her brother has corrupted her. So why does she fall in love with him? The fact that she spent a month cooking and cleaning for him just makes it seem like some kind of weird Stockholm syndrome to me. There was no point in this anime previously where she expressed any romantic desire toward him, when he came to her house she would put him in handcuffs. She was not a Tsundere, she was just disgusted; then in love? What? I don't understand this. She even starts to become some sort of Yandere, with a knife and everything. At one point there is someone taking photos of Ayase and Kyousuke, and you wonder, is this how he gets her to fall in love with him? Does he protect her, show her that he really is a good guy? No, nothing happens, it never comes up again. She doesn't even find out that he lied about playing erotic games to cover for Kirino, which is what literally caused him to become scum in her eyes. She doesn't even mind the erotic figurines Saori gets him as a housewarming gift. She loves him anyway, and for no discernible reason, other than 'because harem.'
At least Ayase gets somewhat better treatment than Kanako, Kirino's other friend. By better treatment, I mean more screen time. Kanako literally meets Kyousuke three times, I counted, three times in the entire anime, before she falls in love with him. She meets him once at the start of season 1 and thinks he is a pig due to a misunderstanding, and then twice IN DISGUISE, as Ayase's manager. Then in season 2 she starts coming to his house to make him lunch, literally out of nowhere. I wanted to laugh at how absolutely ridiculous it was, because I thought it was building to some sort of joke, or a fiendish plan on someone's part. It wasn't. They needed to add a loli to the harem, and that was the best they had! Oh dear lord, how did this anime fall so far?
Kirino is essentially the same. You either like her or hate her.
Then it gets to the most disappointing part: Manami. This show should have been, in the end (because he can't ACTUALLY have his sister, come on) a love triangle between Manami, Kyousuke, and Ruri. Manami is everything Kyousuke wanted, the 'Queen of Normal' as he calls her, the epitome of a quiet life. That is what he states he wanted, what he always ever wanted, throughout the series. She is his childhood friend, the person he had slowly fallen in love with naturally over time, and who came to know him better than he knows himself. In the second season she becomes some sort of manipulative bitch, who seems to have been toying with and plotting against Kirino since their early childhood? What? She was the sweetest, most understanding character. She encouraged Kyousuke to help Kirino, it was at HER urging that he took up Kirino's fight, and throughout the series it is because of her that he continues. Why would she do that if she was plotting to have Kyousuke to herself from the start? She should have been driving the wedge between them in further, at every turn! It was a complete 180, out a the blue, and ended with Kirino and Manami literally coming to blows, punching and slapping each other. What is worse, it is Manami, one of the sweetest, most understanding and compassionate, most pacifistic characters I have ever seen in an anime, that throws the first punch! What?!
I honestly don't know how to end this review, just don't watch this. If you REALLY want, watch the first season, but stop there. If you REALLY REALLY want to watch the second season after all this,WHY? But DO NOT watch these last three episodes. Just, wow, I honestly can't believe how awful this show turns out to be, it is literally one of, if not the worst, endings I have ever seen, to anything. Seriously, don't watch this.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading my inane 6 in the morning ramblings.
Seriously, don't watch this anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 3
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Apr 12, 2017
I don't normally feel the need to write reviews, but I felt rather, disgruntled, after watching this through to the end. Maybe this is the sort of, wait a day after watching then see if you want to write a review sort of situation? Eh, screw it. If you enjoy the main focus of the story, the 'calling upon Hell Girl and watching her banish people' no matter how trivial or silly some of the reasons become, then you will still like this. However, if that isn't all you are looking for, then you will be disappointed. I know I was, despite wanting to like
...
it.
Maybe we should start with what was good? First of all, the sound and the art were good. The visuals, sound effects, and music, were really quite nice and add something special to this show. When it comes to the 'the person is going to hell, here is the pseudo-torture scene' sections, they got a bit lazy. However, they also recycled the 'transformation' scene just like they did with the 'flying flaming carriage' scene in the first two series. That got kinda tiresome. The music was nice, but there was little to no variation to it, and if you -actually- listened to it long enough, it got boring.
The characters are all still as you remembered them, with an extra side character added to Ai's cast of servants. Yamawaro gets a single episode to flesh out his backstory, like the others, but gets little to no other sources of exposure like Ren, Hone Onna, and Wanyuudo did in the other series, and do in this one, acting as her eyes and ears. He is mostly just there to support the most annoying character in the entire world, Kikuri. Why they added her in I do not know. The show would be vastly improved if she was gone. Seriously, we know who she is now, we found out in the second season, why is she back? There is no reason for her to be back.
Anyways, lets get to what I wanted to talk about, and what really annoyed me: the story. If you are reading this without watching the series first, just know that it is bad, and move on. It is bad. That is it, its bad.
*Warning, Spoilers*
There is a glaring plot hole, in the very first episode. After the last series Ai is no longer the Hell Girl, she became human, then died. So, why is she back? It is never actually explained. You can make a few guesses. She is back because she hasn't truly left her hatred behind, and so cannot go to heaven or hell? She is back because the master of Hell has pulled her back into doing her old job? She is back because she has to pick a successor? She is back because the plot gods demanded so for a third season? All I know is that this annoyed me throughout the series.
In the end it seems it is because she has to pick a successor? Maybe? If you take a leap of faith and make that assumption, because they still don't explain it to you. But even if that is the case, why? Why does -she- have to? That isn't really explained either. Can't the master of Hell just pick a new Hell Girl like he picked Ai? Why couldn't he have shown Yuzuki the truth about her life, and created a new Hell Girl? Seriously, that is what Ai did and it worked, but it took 26 episodes. The first 12 of which have nothing to do with the plot at all. Maybe they are there so that you start feeling for Yuzuki, and her friend Akie, you know, drive the character development along, but that fails. She does exactly what Hajime and Tsugumi do in the first season, which is fail at trying to prevent everything from happening, and even at times, helping it to happen!
OH, and speaking of useless returning characters, guess who is back? Tsugumi. Yeah, it was neat seeing her in the second season for that short amount of time, a brief cameo appearance, but now she is back as a character (for the latter half of the series) and does absolutely nothing. Nothing. In fact, she is almost more annoying than Kikuri because she does about as much, and isn't a cute loli anymore. She has two important scenes, the first is at the festival at the portal/gateway, the second is explaining to Yuzuki that her life is a lie. Both scenes could have been done by other characters, easily. Especially the latter example, because Ai goes and explains it to her anyways, revealing her past.
Turns out Yuzuki's life is a lie, and she is a ghost. Nice, a Sixth Sense move. Somehow though she is living and participating in human society. Her friend Akie comes over, but doesn't realize the building is derelict? Her teachers don't realize that there is no paperwork on her, because she died a decade ago? Somehow she lives the normal life of a middle-schooler without anyone around her noticing? This isn't explained very well. Just that everything has been 'an illusion'. But then why does she care about Akie? Why does Akie become her companion? It all just -almost- makes sense, and -almost- works, but it just doesn't get there. That is what got me so upset. I watched 26 episodes waiting for it to get better, after the first 12 it does get better, yay! Validation! But wait, then it starts to go downhill. Then it ends like it does: like a lukewarm beverage on a hot day. Not satisfying in the least.
I hope you enjoyed my angry inane ramblings that I have written at 3:30 in the morning.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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