Honestly, consider me surprised. I half-expected things to go largely in the same vein as last season, as in slow, back-and-forths, and ladened with barbed dialogue. Shockingly, however, this season jumped right into the plot and in less than half the episodes already provided resolutions (firm and temp) to many of the overarching questions and problems posed last season. Instantly the whole thing with Gasou is settled, the whole "why can't Aki recognize Masamune" thing, and even cuts to the chase on Masamune's whole twisted personality. Just kudos to the mangaka for writing so efficiently; normally this isn't really worth noting, manga and episodic anime pacing are totally different things but the quickness with which Revenge R eschews the old questions with answers is awesome, meaning that any expectations are thrown out the window. Heck, one of the things that was this season's calling cards was a brand new girl but Muriel was merely there to provide a perspective for one episode and then she vanishes, pretty efficient and quite unexpected! I like that. "New character? Nope! One time use and she's outta here!"
The narrative we're then presented with is a slightly unpredictable affair with some very good soap opera-like cliffhangers. Unlike those The Bold and the Beautifuls and Coronation Streets of daytime TV, however, the drama here actually works really well, the lack of firm footing at the beginnings lends suspense as each episode seems to want to pull the series and its characters into different directions. It's something I'd normally roll my eyes at with other series but it works really, truly well here.
The art style is an interesting change. I don't know if the change was to bring the series' art style closer to the manga or if the semi-realism of Season 1 being picked up by other studios caused them to want to change it here but I like it. It's very cute. Very fun, if you liked the first season, this satisfies. The story for the characters in-universe isn't over yet, and hopefully they'll adapt the following Engagement next.
