Back in Spring 2021, author Yuka Tachibana's only series came out in a season of both wavering and high-profile shows (e.g. 86, Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, Fumetsu no Anata e a.k.a To Your Eternity), and despite the premiere season getting lost, even to the point where it's unnoticed, I quite like the show's combination of the typical Isekai and Shoujo romance story, laden in with the sole feature being in the medical department in the rather Iyashikei slice-of-life entertainment that it offers. Fast forward 2.5 years later, and the series is back with the sequel, though, in hindsight, I'm of the belief that the anime should've stopped then and there. Not because the content was bad, but because Season 2 was a rather cumbersome sequel to have been through for a while. As someone would put it: (I'm) still waiting for SOMETHING, ANYTHING, to happen.
With Season 2 adapting Volumes 5 to 8 of the LN, clearly, the one main plot point that the sequel will entertain its viewers is of a pure, dark miasma that tests the strength of the already established female MC, the Holy Saint Sei Takahashi herself. As she continues parading around the Medicinal Flora Research Institute trying to come up with new potions and develop new magic for herself, it's no more than the same old fashion of going around domains and clearing out the miasmas upon sight, wherever they may come from. If that isn't the main topic at hand, then it's just continuous scenes of Talk no Jutsu here, there, everywhere, as Sei has to now face one of the most feared aspects of her life in the Kingdom of Salutania: her eventual marriage, which has everyone on guard and interested about whom she will choose, especially between the trying leads of the kingdom's 3rd Order of the Knights' commander Albert Hawke and the Grand Magus-cum-Director of the Royal Mage Academy Yuri Drewes. If you can sum up Season 2 in a nutshell, it's Sei's political marriage and the same-old fashion of what you've already seen in Season 1 (that is, if you've watched it beforehand, which I'm expecting you to), that if you didn't like the slow-moving nature of the prequel, the sequel will definitely make you feel like pulling a giant tyre that's tied to a rope that's slow and arduous, for God knows how long this is stretched by the author's imaginations and thought process.
Sure, you have some new characters sprawling up to help Sei develop her cosmetic business, from a foreign prince on a study exchange trying to understand what the Holy Saint is up to after hearing the praises of Sei's name far and wide to keeping it a well-regarded secret should their unknown prince one day either be an ally or an enemy. With the bulk of the characters having already unveiled themselves since Season 1, it's more of the same Saint Isekai you could ever want for the hardcore fans of the LN and the anime, which generally isn't all that bad. But for the sequel, it felt like the push-and-pull mechanism where Season 1 really (and I mean, REALLY) pushed for more and Season 2 pulled back on the promises of its progressing content...that makes you feel like the same expectant magic was somehow missing from its core premise.
Despite that, I'm happy to report that on a production standpoint, Diomedea and director Shota Ihara's staff team have managed to keep the quality consistent, even if it does feel like we've not seen Saint Isekai in the rather long wait of 2.5 years. The one nitpick I have, however, is the OST for Season 2. Sure, Aira Yuuki is back for another decent OP song, but to me, nothing beats her Season 1 OP song, even miles away from real life to fantasy, which is just on its own masterpiece level of majestic superiority that sets a rather high bar to surpass. And while Aina Suzuki's ED song is a good follow-up to NOW ON AIR's rather cheerful Season 1 ED song, it stands well on its own adornment. But still, I find that the prequel edges much better than the sequel here, which is more of the same, just less refined.
Overall, Saint Isekai does feel as safe and sane as it is being an Iyashikei series from Season 1 2.5 years ago, but Season 2 (I feel) is a mistake that Yuka Tachibana didn't really progress that much between the adapted LN volumes here, which apart from the usual and that one significant marriage trope, there's just almost little to nothing of interest to discuss about. Don't ever hope for a Season 3, as the LN only got about as far as Volume 9 (which was released in March earlier this year), meaning that Season 2 is definitely the anime's stopping point, which I am rather relieved about.
If you can, stick ONLY with Season 1 for Saint Isekai and never turn back on progressing into Season 2, if you'd think that the prequel still carves your incentive to watch further.
