Unfortunately, season 2, was a bit of a step-down from Season 1. There were some great tips on how to improve conversational skills, how to read a room. Room mood manipulation. But that was all in the first act. Everything else felt a bit off script. Instead of it being tasks for Tomozaki to improve himself, it's became Tasks for Tomozaki to just do. There's also just sometimes just blocks of dialogue without anything substantial to add onto. It felt like a bunch of fillers for a 13 episode season. Which is really unfortunate.
Spoilers Ahead:
Act 2 is the only reason I can't give my full approval of this season. The whole forced romance option Tomozaki has to deal with was done so improperly. Nanami and Kikuchi were the correct romance options. But Kikuchi was at a real disadvantage to appeal to viewers. I found myself rooting for Nanami, because she had so many scenes with Tomozaki, she actually felt like a nice foil to our main protagonist, and they kept backing it up with more and more scenes. But the only scenes with Kikuchi were her own developmental arc, plus just scenes of her and Tomozaki in the Library. To make it worse, 90% of their dialogue in the Library were them just sitting down. Talking for 5 mins about nothing substantial, so, seeing Kikuchi win in the end, just felt wrong. I genuinely found myself hitting the +15 second skip whenever it was the same scenes of talking about the script + and an Andi's reference. I don't want this to be described "this reviewer's choice lost, and he's salty". But it genuinely made me just lose interest multiple times. Just seeing the same scene over and over with just different dialogue just sucks. Like, I want to root for Kikuchi, but there's literally nothing for me to root for, other than she's cute and trying her best. But there was a huge need for more scenes for our romantic interests, and it felt rushed due to the idea that it had to be done before the Culture Festival.
But let's not focus on just the bad. I found the first act to be really great between Hanabi vs Konno. It had really great teaching on crowd manipulation, how you present yourself and the domino effects on relationships. I really like the push on Hanabi's character. It really helps her shine out compared to season 1. I also love the address on Tomozaki's self depreciation in Act 2. The fact he uses it as a relief and finally get called out on it was huge. Another great thing they did on this season is the inner demons of Aoi. I love how she's not transparent, was willing to tear apart Konno in act 1. But also showing viewers her dark past and why's she the way she is right now.
Overall, I really want to give one of my favorite shows a higher rating. But it's genuinely a step-down in the wrong direction, in my opinion. Hopefully, there will be more scenes between Tomozaki and Kikuchi being romantic, or literally anything to help viewers root for Kikuchi. I genuinely can't wait to see more into the past of Aoi, and also can't wait to see how Tomozaki improves, plus what lessons they'll teach next time.
