Spy x Family Part 2
Short Synopsis: The second half of Spy x Family Season 1, where a spy, an assassin and a telepath must live together as a family without any of them knowing what the others are.
Lenlo: It’s the second half of Spy x Family, don’t act like you don’t know what this is. Production wise it’s still just as solid as it was before. It’s well directed, well animated, and overall just looks good. I have no idea how that will carry for the rest of the season since Cloverworks is involved, but we can at least assume a good number of good looking episodes. As for the content, this is something that actually surprised me. I didn’t think that Spy x Family would dive back into the plot that quickly, especially not that seriously. At the very least I figured a filler episode, or some kind of fluff piece. Instead we come back to bomb threats, death, and Starlight Anya. It was a shockingly good time! I thought I had grown a bit tired of the show after its first season didn’t really live up to my expectations, but this episode reminded me how good it can be. Hopefully it manages to keep it up!
Potential: 70%
Mario: While watching the first season, I remember feeling odd about the dog plot thread that the show forgot about in the finale. Turns out they saved it for the premiere of the second season and I can certainly say that it’s well worth the wait. Immediately the dog feels like a worthy addition, even though he hasn’t met Loid yet – he’s smart, funny and goofy at the same time – all the qualities the Forger members have. As for the episode, well, I feel that this new return has all the distinctive characteristics that made the first season such a hit: the episode looks polished; all the core characters have their time to shine (my favorite: Yor jumps 2-step into the roof out of panicking); the terrorist plot doesn’t overwhelme the fun of watching these dysfunctional members reacting. I have a lot of fun watching it.
Potential: 75%
Uzaki-chan wa Asobitai! Double
Short Synopsis: Short hair, well endowed underclassman forces her senpai to have fun in college, despite him just wanting to play videogames all the time.
Amun: Woah, pretty rare to see the season’s finale in the opening seconds. Bold move, Uzaki-chan. That bit aside, we have a key improvement here over the previous season: character designs. It’s interesting to see Studio Engis development and growth on their flagship franchise – I hope the upward trajectory continues. The sketches (3 of them this episode) are crisp and self-contained, albeit a bit flimsy in the plot departments (but not the “plots” department, amirite). I wouldn’t expect anything terribly substantial before the final arc, but this show is still amusing enough. I mean, it could be worse.
Potential: 50%
Yuusha Party wo Tsuihou sareta Beast Tamer, Saikyoushu no Nekomimi Shoujo to Deau
Short Synopsis: Nice animal-loving guy gets kicked out of the hero’s party, because they don’t realize he’s carrying all their bags.
Amun: Cool, so we’re now combining two different mediocre genres – adventurers with slaves and monster tamers. I’m a little surprised there isn’t a slime in sight (and this from someone who likes slimes). Nice guys get harems, I guess? I’m pretty sure that isn’t how it works, but I’d have to check with Andrew Tate to be sure (please don’t cancel me, that’s just a joke). You can tell I was very enthralled with the episode – OP catgirls and super species and yeah, other important stuff. I mean, let’s be honest here, ENGI does this every season or so – puts out a B-tier feel-goodish anime to go along with their headliner. It starts off passably, then completely falls apart by the end. I won’t be fooled again! Okay, I might still watch this though, just for kicks – at least until the production inevitably falls apart.
Potential: 15%
Lenlo: And here we have our required seasonal sad-boi fantasy show of the season. Job/Classes with defined party roles and loot? Teammates/characters designed to be nothing more than blanket assholes for an MC pity party? A power that’s initially presented as useless that’s going to become OP by the end? While it may not be an isekai in name, it’s got all the trappings of one. It even has a magical bond that the MC is no doubt going to put on every member of his all female harem of anthropomorphic animal girls by the end. I don’t know when this became the trend, maybe I should blame Shield Hero for this crap, but it’s starting to get annoying. Anyways, the point is that there is nothing in here that you haven’t seen before. Maybe you’ll like the cat girl, or the dragon girl, or whatever, and manage to have a decent popcorn time with it. But I wouldn’t expect anything more than that from what is, for all intents and purposes, seasonal isekai schlock. Only this time without the isekai. So that’s nice. I guess.
Potential: 10%
