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At the time I wrote this review, the average rating for the second season was 8.17 while the average rating for the first season was 7.78. I believe that the first season gave some viewers the bad impression that the plot is all over the place since Sugimoto has the goal to get money to support his dead friend's family while supporting Asirpa in getting justice for the death of her father. I get that the stakes for Sugimoto seem misplaced since time is moving forward and there were probably better opportunities for him to get money if he wasn't so fixated on sticking with his morals. I do wish that the show explains why he is so willing to take his time to find the gold he needs to help his friends wife and why he doesn't check if she is okay from time to time. However, I believe that the second season offers some hints as to why it isn't easy for us to understand Sugimoto as some of the other characters. Sugimoto is a man who was changed by war and has the desire to change back to who he was before the war or at least remove the psychological scars left on him so that he can function as a proper caretaker for his friend's wife. I recommend keeping this in mind as you watch the second season of the anime (always ask yourself why we weren't shown Sugimoto's past before the war). The second thing I want to recommend is to be aware of the motifs of mortality (how each of the characters view life and death through how they see events and natural phenomenons go about around them) and the cycles
of life with the changing seasons as time goes on. If you watch from the first episode of the first season all the way through the last episode of the second season, you will have a greater appreciation for this story and the journey of each of its characters. From the first four episodes of the first season, you will feel incredulous of why this veteran is risking everything to find the treasure but by the end of the second season you will realize that this is the journey and path that he must follow to find himself and move on. I hope that you will come upon the realization that Sugimoto not only needs to get the money to support his friends wife, but also be someone that she can turn to for consolation as a family friend instead of being a burden as a husk of her old friend that is beyond recognition and frightening.
