Having just watched the first season of Freezing, I had high hopes for the second season, since the first ended much better than it started, and I was not disappointed at all. Gone were the socially awkward moments in S1 that had me pausing the video and facepalming. Gone was all the plot armor surrounding the MCs from S1. And gone was a big chunk of the poorly done, shameless Ecchi in favor of some Ecchi related to the actual plot. S2 is a lot darker and grittier than S1, and although it's a bit less action packed in the beginning, it more than makes up for it in the end with a much wider variety of action than S1 had.
First of all, the story. The premise of S1 was mere SoL at a magic university, while Vibration starts off with a mission-based premise. It felt much more natural and, though it had less physical conflict at first, the pacing was supremely better in the buildup to the end. This season also focused a bit on a secondary story involving Satellizer that was done fairly well. Both stories going on in Vibration are darker in nature, which was a welcome shift from the rather upbeat and overly happy children from S1. The weakpoint in both main stories going on would definitely be the endings. Endings are make-or-break for me, and I felt that, although they didn't break the story, they could have been done much better.
The character developments in Vibrations were more varied than S1. Vibration focused on more characters than S1 did and, for the majority of the time, on characters that weren't the MCs. The female MC, Satellizer, still got a fair amount of development, but the Male MC, Aoi, got pretty much squat (he's a pretty boring guy anyways). Overall, I felt the characters to be more believable and making harder choices in this season than the first, especially the secondary characters. They seemed more like real people rather than plot-driven dolls.
Normally, I do not comment on art or sound, but one episode in particular had some... curious design choices. That is all I will say.
Overall, Freezing Vibration provides a much deeper and focused look into the problems plaguing the planet, and focuses more on difficult, meaningful decisions by the cast over the rather silly choices made in S1. It takes the solid final half of S1 and builds upon it.
P.S. My review may seem a little, perplexing, to some. I feel this may be because the story of the first half of S1 was not to my liking, and most people that would have liked it, may not like the premise of Vibration as much. For those that found all of S1 to be enjoyable, including the SoL at the beginning, the darker tone that Vibration sets right from the beginning will not be as appealing. It's a shame because I feel there are many people who would enjoy Vibration that were completely turned off to the show by S1.
