It's dread and dreary back in Hinamizawa Town. This season had reduced the violence as compared to the previous season. I got into this show because of the horror and shock element introduced in Season 1 but I actually didn't mind the drop down in violence as I had started to adore the characters. I was interested in seeing more of the character development rather than the psychological horror which season 1 offered me.
I preferred the first opening of the show rather than the opening of Kai; 'Naraku no Hana', I felt the opening too had toned down the horror element which was present in Opening 1. Loved the ending though!
The season starts with a continuation of the Time Wasting Chapter Arc giving us an insight on the 30 year timeskip from the events of June 1983. The story arc (Episodes 2-5) following the first episode was truly heartbreaking. The creators of this show do like to torture us with repeated tragedies in new scenarios that keeps on repeating every single time, if it weren't for the goofiness of the club members, I surely would have been living in depression.
We've been getting entire arcs based on Keichi, Rena, Satoko and the Sonozaki Twins, season 2 is basically Rika's time to shine, the Massacre Chapter arc (Episodes 6-13) entirely focusses on the misfortunes of Rika Furude plus we get a reveal of the chaotic evil level antagonist of this entire show and their dastardly schemes. The anime finally makes some sense for now.
The final chapter of Kai ran for 11 episodes giving us the primary motive of the actions the antagonist was making, wouldn't like to give you spoilers but the final chapter was underwhelming for me. This arc focused more on the 'adults' rather than the members of Club, which actually was disappointing because I wanted to see more of Keichi, Rika, Shion-Mion, Satoko and Rena for the final time. It was a satisfactory finale for me, I'm not gonna complain more about it.
I'd give 8.5 to Kai only because of the toned down violence which was thrilling to watch in the first season.
Now, onwards to the sequel, specials and reboot!
