Moyashimon Returns...with the same plotlines, just to the extreme?
Moyashimon Returns brings us back to Sawaki and co. as Sawaki continues his education in the agriculture college and really Returns is more or less the same as the first season sans the introductions but taken things a step further as it were.
Why?, because Returns has ANOTHER school festival in this case a harvest festival, another experiment with Professor Itsuki this time with rice in making miso and sake, bringing back Sawaki and his dilemma of not telling Hazuki of his ability as well as Haruka's plotline of his overbearing and strict father comes in, just this time placed having Haruka's fiancee Ryuuta voiced by Tooru Ookawa in the place of the father and is Haruka's main obstacle. So yeah, the same plotlines are pretty much the same as the first season but taken some plotlines to the extreme and for characters, well they get development to a certain extent, this time mainly Hazuki and Haruka and the newest character come in halfway through the season in the form of Marie voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro who has similar problems with Haruka and Sawaki and shown more as a manifestation of the problems the both of them have, that of her not communicating with their father and taking over the business (but in Marie's case, it a bit more complicated than what Sawaki is going through). Hazuki gets a mild development during Professor Itsuki's miso and sake making as she found a mysterious opening in one of the warehouses and she investigates it.
Really in terms of character development giving screentime to Hazuki was great and at first LA thought bringing Haruka's father problems back was odd but by the end of it and with Marie tied up in all this, Haruka and by extent Marie was greatly developed, even though it was something Haruka somewhat already learned in the first season but maybe put into a bit more depth. Mutou, Yuuki and the two idiots are regulated to comedic sidelines though the two idiots do get screentime thanks to Haruka and the most mixed character development LA had with this season was....Sawaki himself. See LA saw that Sawaki was mostly a reactionary character and he just got roped into everything in the first season, sure this second season does something similar but at least in this second season he does things of his own will (mainly in trying to help Hazuki, Haruka or the two idiots) but thanks to Marie and her similar dilemma to Sawaki he gets some too, BUT he's ONLY needed when he's needed where Hazuki or Haruka and even the two idiots get more screentime and development with their friendship with Haruka more than Sawaki as a result of this second season, so it's a kinda two steps forward, one step back for Sawaki's development, like it was needed and it did it to a certain extent but he was in the sidelines. Haruka once again took the forefront of this season even if her development only started halfway through the second season with some thematic notion of "everyone working together" and it was...decently handled especially since it was tied to Marie's development.
The microbes once again takes exposition about the information on agriculture, that mostly on miso and sake creation as well as wine making. The only thing LA will say about the expositional microbes is that they got more screentime as usual and as a result reduced Professor Itsuki's screentime but not only that but sometimes the expositions were kinda tangential at times, like yes the information in miso, sake and wine making was decently interesting but just how it was transitioned into it wasn't.
On the other side of things, the seocnd season really ship teased the main cast, mainly Sawaki with Yuuki and Marie but it's taken for laughs mostly while Haruka and Misato was GREATLY teased through most of the second season, only because of the incident that happened in the first season that actually pushed it even further this season and really that's all it really ended up being, only teasing us, nothing more.
The animation done once again by Telecom animation Film and Shirogumi was pretty much the same as the first season so LA won't say much as LA's first season review pretty much says it all.
As for voice cast, well the the regular cast is back with the addition of Miyuki Sawashiro as Marie, she was a nice addition and though LA doesn't know any French, she did good in that too. Nonetheless LA LOVED Mamiko Noto as Mutou as she was the best comedic relief of this second season and her one liners and drunk-like delivery made the comedic moments shine, while on the other perspective, Sayaka Ohara did great in the dramatic department with her development getting serious and once again Noriaki Sugiyama and Katsuyuki Konishi as the two id- Kawahama and Misato respectively were great as always as comedic relief. All in all, MVP's being Mamiko Noto and Sayaka Ohara but good voice cast nonetheless.
Moyashimon Returns is really the same plot beats as the first season but taken up to an eleven...as much as it's about a kid who can see microbes with the naked eye but this is merely for the first half of the anime, for the last half however it does spice things up a bit with a new environment with it also trying to give resolutions to the main cast's minor plot threads it kinda felt hanging in the first season as well as the new character who somehow has the same dilemmas as two of the main characters but it was new, whether it was done well. All in all, if you WANT to see resolutions or more development from Haruka and Hazuki then this second season is a good enough as a sequel even with the almost same plot beats as it's first season but cranked up even further.
Moyashimon Returns was stirring something big but stirred all the same and the result was some decent miso, sake and wine, much like the first batch of food.
