The first season was much more about Raku's journey to find who gave him the locket. This was driven by the fake relationship between him and Chitoge, and the gangs who were constantly on the brink of war. Now, in season 2, those plotlines are almost completely gone.
Sure, they exist, however they are not included in the same capacity as the first season. I don't remember Claude even being mentioned in Season 2, and the relationship was only brought up at times when a new character who wasn't in the loop needed to remind us.
Similarly to the first season, this season of Nisekoi does two things exceptionally well. It's art-style is out of the park, and the use of single episode stories to flesh out characters is performed spectacularly. Most of the characters are still stereotyped, however the story that these single arcs have been building at least allow us to see what type of characters they are. Interestingly enough, this season also allowed for backstory of some major characters, which was severely lacking in season 1. My complaint about the characters being "cookie-cutter" rings much less true by the conclusion of this season.
Still, this show is blue balls the anime. I swear to God, I like this show yet the only characters showing some growth are side characters like Ruru, Shu, or Odenara's younger sister. If this glaring issue could be fixed, this show could easily be an 8 or a 9 for me. However when previous episodes seem to rarely have relevance to a current plot, it's hard to build a lasting investment.
I'm gonna give this show the same rating as I gave the first season. They changed some things up, however they didn't really improve the issues I had with the first season.
