My initial response was this; who'd have thought that an "old" element such as karuta would produce two masterpiece animes? Indeed, who huh. If I did, I'd have gone and taken all the credits. Ah well.
I have written the review for Chihayafuru as well, and when I did, I was quite glad that the second season had begun as soon as I had finished the first season. Pretty fortunate of me if you asked.
Now that I talk about this, let me just tell a little story about my God-given timing. For those who haven't seen Steins; Gate, just ignore this and go to the review written below.
My brother is also an anime lover (He's not really Otaku...cuz, well, he's not that serious) and told me to watch Steins; Gate if I didn't want my life wasted.
However, I fell asleep right at the end and told my brother that STEINS GATE WAS BORING. (Blasphemy! Burn him! oh wait I said it...)
My brother was shocked. "It was? But...there's no way!"
"Yeah it was boring. It was so boring that I slept."
"....When did you fall asleep?"
"Right after the elevator opened and there was a blinding light."
My brother cried out of my God-given timing. He asked, almost begged me to watch the after of that blinding light. I got annoyed and watched it after two days.
"Yeah, he got the mail. Yeah he's kinda distressed. See, elevator open......................................"
I finished it in one day. I slept only 2 hours that day.
Haah......
Anyways, I loved Chihayafuru, so I was pretty certain that I was going to love this one too. However......I don't know why, but I just don't get that feeling I got from finishing first season.
*Minor Spoiler*
Maybe it's just because I'm pro-Mashima, but I didn't like where the story was going for this one...or maybe I'm solo...(sob)
*End of Spoiler*
Still I enjoyed the second season to much of my part. It was weird for me to sweat cold sweats from just watching anime. That never happens....right?
Well, anyways, let me start with the review.
Overall: 9
To see the reason, just go to the bottom and read the last paragraph. Just make sure your hands are empty cuz you might throw them into the monitor.
Story: 10
Need a question? Really, the story was so densely packed and perfectly fitted that I was swallowing my saliva from just watching them. And mind you, I was watching this in my school, with a teacher behind me. The way the author creates a godly suspense and "event" after another made me almost spew my heart out (means my heart was thumping too fast in my country's dialect). I really didn't like where the romance seemed to go, but still this is another way of capturing audience, so I will allow it....probably.
Speaking of romance, the romance did elaborate itself more in this season than the last one, and, according to other reviews, ideas are pretty much divided with romance being an important part of story and unnecessary "annoying" part of the story. However, I don't see why romance can be annoying to some people. Chihayafuru was never a series of karuta battles. It was a development of a character who likes karuta. If the author wanted to show karuta over the development of the story, the author would've created a shounen anime that illustrates the epic sportiness of karuta. That wasn't the case. The author wanted to develop both Chihaya and karuta. Either was important. Moreover, since romance became a strategy to develop karuta, it was never an annoying factor.
Simply put, don't underestimate the power of love.........huh?
Art: 8
Loved it, I'll admit. However, I didn't quite get the feeling I got from watching season one. The first season was as if I was in naniwa river, listening to the beautiful melodies of the certified karuta reader, looking into the blooms of "such blooming autumn red". For this one......I don't know, it felt a little too rushed. It was as if the anime production studio was no longer focused on its aesthetic beauty and more on the production benefits. In other words, while the first season's art felt like a beautifully designed katana that took years to finish, the second season's art felt more like mass-produced katana. It felt too "artificial" (I'm putting quotation because it is really artificial).
Of course, I can't be biased and say that the art was artificial for all of the anime. It was near the end I felt this "artificialness" As mentioned earlier, the production profit had a lot to do with it.
Still, the art was lovable...just not as much as the previous.
Sound: 8
Although I haven't said it, I have three musical talents: absolute pitch, perfect memorization and tuner pitch. Most people are probably aware of the first term, but maybe not the second and third, because they are terms I just came up with. First, absolute pitch is ability to tell the pitch of the sound with just hearing. Second, perfect memorization (which I came up with) is 1) ability to memorize song fastly or 2) ability to memorize every single details of the song in a short period of time. Fortunate or not, I'm both (I say 'or not' because when I memorize a song--be it a sexual song or political song--I never forget it). I consider, therefore, sound aspect of an anime quite seriously. I don't live in Japan, and so do not really care about the background or the adversary of the anime, but I do care about sound quality. In the first season, I gave ten for the sound because of its dramatic timing and proper tune. For this season too, I would have given a ten if not for two things--one, the ending doesn't fit to karuta. The ending of the first season is so loveable that I listen to it even now. It might be because I've never listened to the full version of the song, but the song was in six eights, giving it a rather upbeat rhythm. It was not something you'd want to give as an ending for a traditional anime such as chihayafuru. I'm not saying that I didn't like the music. I just mean that the song didn't fit the occasion. Opening too, was rather irritating. If there is one thing I hate the most, it's ruining the song of a good singer because of the horrible tune he/she sings. Imagine LiSA or linked horizon singing hare hare yukai. Does it ever fit? The singer for Icon/Takaroni has a wonderful voice and I like how he mild out his voice when he reaches a high tune to give a peaceful melody, very much like karuta. This song wasn't as bad as LiSA singing hare hare yukai, but it was like her singing crossing field. Crossing field is a good song...at the start. However, it ruins itself at the climax by repeating G and A. Repetition of a short melody is NEVER a good idea. When Chihayafuru II did the same thing...I almost threw the computer away. The chord didn't fit or have complete coherence to each other.
Another thing I didn't like was the BGMs. I didn't expect the second season to have a completely different sound from the first season. Still, the BGMs were exactly the same! I wanted to hear at least one or two new rhythms. Listening to same BGMs for nearly 50 episodes is both boring and tiresome. Also, the dramatic timing and appropriate choice of sound was a little flawed. It's not that it was no longer there, but it was that compared to the first season second season had less dramatizing by sound.
...A little disappointed I was.
Still, this could only apply to me, so rather than giving my desired score, I compensated it with 8. After all, not many audiences are as hard on BGMs and op/eds as I am.
Character: 10
Chihayafuru did it again.
One thing I said while writing the review for the first season is that greatest animes rarely have extras. Another thing I haven't said is that I am also a writer and I don't like any of my characters being heard for ten seconds and no more. Chihayafuru, of course, had such characters, but that was natural, given the genre of the anime. This isn't exactly shounen. However, all the characters who had been named were developed wonderfully. For example, Retro (he might have different name in accordance to the tlr) deployed some beautiful scenes that, I can almost say, was main-characterish. He is an obvious minor character, but the words he used and ideals he had touched me and changed the anime as a whole. An anime with all the characters getting involved...now we don't get to see those too often, do we.
Enjoyment: 10
What can I say? It's karuta. It's more breathtaking than watching boxers kill each other.
For all of you who came all the way down here, I just wanted to tell you something; I don't write as much in aspects with high scores because I don't see the need to elaborate on it. While it's true that I have to explain the reason for their high scores, it is very difficult to elaborate on their outstanding quality without spoiling. So...sorry, but.
JUST WATCH IT. IT'S GREAT, I'M TELLING YOU.
