Reviews

Nov 25, 2016
First of all I have seen the first season of active raid before moving to this
season and as such im quite familiar with its concepts and characters.
So then lets get started

The story of Active raid season 2 is largely unchanged with season 1 in that
it revolves around the activities of the Mobile assault divisions unit 8
which is quite a mouthful lol so for the purpose of this review i would simply
call them unit 8. Unit 8 as a police unit is equipped with Exoskeletons that they
use to deal with criminals that use them as well. These are called Willwears
within the universe.

Unit 8 like most police units has a clear chain of command in that its led by
its leader Rin Yamabuki who's referred to as the boss by her subordinates.
The boss played by veteran seiyuu Masayo Kurata i felt was a great character
that held the members of Unit 8 together and serves as its glue. Although this is the first time i heard this seiyuu i thought her performance was pretty good.

Yusuharu Funasaka is the section chief of Unit 8 and though higher in rank
than Rin he actively participates in their antics as well. He mostly serves
as comic relief for the show.

Takeru Kuroki and Soichiro Sena are lieutenants that serve within unit 8
and serve as the main strength of the unit for most of the cases that the
unit faces. After season 1 Kuroki had a much bigger role in the anime due to
Asami's promotion while Sena had left the unit but came back in the course of this season.

Of the pair Kuroki is still as hot headed as he was back in the
first season however now he's somewhat more calmer. Sena is the more calmer of the pair and acts as the sniper of the unit. During the end of the first season Sena left the unit to form a trash company though he comes back to the unit as a consultant. Though loath to admit it both characters know that they have to rely on each other on the field and as such both have respect for each other.

The support staff for the unit consist of operator Haruka Hoshiymiya who serves as the main controller and Namihei Sado who's in charge of maintaining the units willwears as their mechanic. Of the pair Haruka is the more interesting one as she has a rather happy and cheerful personality which can defuse some tense situations. Madoka Amano who in season 1 was a member of the support staff is now head of a detective agency that she founded after leaving the unit. Her identity and abilities prove to be of much use during a rather memorable case in the story

Season 2 introduced a number of changes to the squad notably promoting Asami Kazari who was the main character in season 1 and played by one of my fav seiyuu's Ari Ozawa and giving her a new team to lead. I have mixed reservations about this move.

Asami was the main character in season 1 and her determination to improve the squad and her drive to punish the criminals was what made her one of my fav characters.

Taking her out and making her a support character instead felt like it was the wrong move. Still having her unit help in unit 8's cases though was funny.

Season 2 in addition to taking out Ari's character also introduced two new characters Emilia a transfer officer from Poland voiced by veteran seiyuu Yukari Tamura and Marimo voiced by Aimi Tanaka. While Marimo hardly gets that many screen time Emilia however gets much more. I found that Emilia was a pretty good character as she served as a foil to the hot hotheadedness of Kuroki and has a rather kind and caring personality that makes her easy to get used to.

Her backstory behind her willwear was also pretty interesting. Yukari Tamura was as usual perfect in that she was able to portray Emilia quite well.


As with the previous season active raid's story pairs weekly cases with the
anime's main plot with the main villain here being Hachijou while the previous main villain Mythos went to help Unit 8 instead. The relationship that Mythos established with Kuroki though was interesting and you can see the bond there is genuine. A sub villain within the anime was governor Inagi who was a support character in the first season. I find it funny how his grand plans were in the end discovered by unit 8 whom he trusted so much and whats more was hijacked by the anime's main villain instead.

The art for the anime was genuinely good and though the animation
was pretty good. The animation for the last episode was above of what i would expect from this anime and really surprised me.

The music for the anime was pretty good and i loved the series openings and
ending themes.

Relegating Asami to a secondary character was a poor move.


Active raid had always been about a unit of police officers with unique personalities that solve serious crimes that require the use of the units exoskeletons. In this season they tried to change the formula
by introducing more traditional foot missions and also introducing some rather unique cases. These range from giant monsters to invisible willwears and strange idols.

The overall main plot however proved to be pretty interesting especially with the twist near the end of the series. While the new characters certainly pull their weight particular praise goes to Yukari Tamura whose portrayal of Emilia was excellent in my books and made her character Emilia one of my favorites in the show.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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