Advance leaves off where the first season did just with newer characters and Amanchu going off in it's own little new element it incorporates into all the slice of life moments Teko and the Diving Club goes through.
So who's the newer characters, well we get Kodama Kohinata voiced by Aya Suzaki, Pikari's younger sister, Kokoro Misaki voiced by Ai Yamamoto, a friend Pikari encounters who actually has an infatuation towards Pikari (which makes MUCH more sense later on) and Kotori Misaki voiced by Ai Kakuma, who is essentially the same as Kokoro cept, towards Teko. Mainly Kokoro gets the most screentime in terms of new characters as Kokoro's focus towards Pikari is heavily used in this season, Kodama and Kotori gets some but they are pretty much satelitte characters in some sense towards Teko, Kokoro and Pikari but still they have some sense of development as they are around the main characters nonetheless.
The "new element" of Advance that it implements in this season is Teko's "daydreaming ability" which somehow gets an entire arc to itself with the "Peter & the school festival arc" involving Ai and Mato of all people. See Teko from the first season daydreamed ALOT and this manifested into her "supernatural power" of imagining lots of things and somehow...the rest of the cast can do this too in the Peter arc and one episode where Teko shows off her power. Now in saying this and this being Amanchu, this isn't entirely serious (besides Peter's arc) nor is this a shounen series so take this element with a grain of salt of how it proceeds. Nonetheless Teko's daydreaming ability does bleed into if things are a dream or in reality at times but for Amanchu, LA doesn't think it's something to dwell on it, especially when the daydreaming somehow allows Teko to meet and know someone in both their dreams and somehow Teko knows them in reality by the end of it as well. Again it's Amanchu so LA can actually let this slide a bit. But nonetheless incorporates this season's "meetings and partings" especially when involves the new characters and it only solidifies the nature and theming of youth of Advance.
So with this new element into the mix, yes it means that the focus on diving is diminished BUT diving isn't all that Amanchu is all about as the core nature of Amanchu is about having fun, making friends be it through supernatural or genki means and the solemn greatness of youth and with it's new characters in hand, Amanchu Advance doubles it's efforts in this statement making it even more solid than the first season, heck the "Advance" in the title at least incorporates Teko trying to get her advanced diving license and though that gets talked about and shown at times, it's more or less the through-line for the plot while it can do it's supernatural elements and new characters for the bulk of this season.
In terms of animation once again done by JC Staff, well the animation is pretty much the same as the first season just with the supernatural elements added to it allows for more creativity given especially in it's backgrounds. The animation is pretty as always from the first season as well as keeping the original character designs is good too. Overall Advance's animation is the same as the first season just with a bit more flourish due to it's daydreaming element and it's still beautiful nonetheless.
Voice acting is pretty much the same as well but adding in the new characters voice actors, with Aya Suzaki, Ai Yamamoto and Ai Kakuma were nice additions to the anime all things considered, not to mention all of them blended well and had great chemistry with the main cast especially Ai Yamamoto to Eri Suzuki's Pikari and Ai Kayano's Teko for the majority of the time. LA wanted to once again put Shizuka Ito as MVP this season but that's just LA's bias talking, it'll go to Ai Yamamoto and Ai Kayano all thing considered with Saori Oonishi as Ai during the Peter arc especially was great on Saori's part.
Amanchu Advance is by all means is goes through the same notions as the first season just with Advance going through some new directions and new characters, especially with it's supernatural elements taking Advance into a newer and interesting direction which actually does make Advance for LA at least much more interesting than the first season, sure the first season had narrative focus on Pikari and Teko's friendship but Advance...well advanced Pikari and Teko's friendship not only towards themselves but to the the rest of the cast, new and old, add in the character development of certain characters LA wanted like Mato and some unexpected ones like Ai and Amanchu Advance...literally advanced it's plot for what a slice of life anime without much tension or character development and solidified it's core focus of youth and "meetings and partings" that much better.
Amanchu Advance is one of those anime season where you can both turn off your brain and revel in it's beautiful yet comedic slice of life moments as well as be wrapped up in Teko's daydreaming plots...be it lethargic or serious it becomes...
