Unless I state otherwise, assume everything I said about the first season applies here as well: the art and especially sound are absolutely top-tier, and the characters continue to be treated well in a way that makes each and one of them memorable. Over all else, the immaculate storytelling technique continues to hold anything thrown at the plot very tightly together.
Now for the criticisms. (Note: I still think the series is very good as a whole. I'm digging deep to point each of these out.) From the get-go, the trials seem like a weirdly contrived plot device to force character development in our MCs. A whole episode is wasted as Subaru resolves his isekai background in the most generic way possible. I get that this whole season is loosely about the concept of family, but it still feels forced and out of place. The narrator's constant reminders to us about a comatose character also feels just as forced, though I appreciate that the studio is trying to keep Rem best girl alive through the long arc to come.
In general, repetitive settings and situations like the Trials and the Witch's Graveyard make this whole season just a bit of a drag to get through. Frankly, it's extremely hard to recall the sequence of events with any accuracy even right after finishing the episodes, and there's no question that this whole arc could have been a lot more concise and clear at many points.
The next part is the biggest red flag of this season for me. Lore is sacrificed heavily for dramatic effect. For instance, non-Subaru characters seem to develop heavily over the course of Subaru's lives and have their behavior changed for the sake of the plot. Furthermore, the viewer is left confused as Subaru dies to wake up in a snowstorm that wasn't there before, or in a sudden confrontation with the Witch, et cetera, only to wake up normally in his next life. Flashy, vague, and theorist-appeasing "foreshadowings" are thrown around to the point of meaninglessness. All this leaves us with more questions than answers. My earnest hope is that everything will be resolved in the seasons to come, but it is hard to keep faith when so many great lore-heavy series have been completely derailed by this exact scenario (recent Webtoons, Dice and The Gamer come to mind). I don't want to make any calls too early, though, so I'll continue watching with an open mind.
