Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya Review

Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers of the second season of Seraph of the End. If you wish not to know some plot details, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please exit the tab, and join me once you've watched the show. Or you know, you can continue to read, since you don't care about spoilers.

Anyways, with that said, thank you, and onto the review:

What I've liked about split cour shows in general is that even if the first 12 or so episodes leave off on a cliffhanger or exciting note, there's always more to look forward to by waiting a season in order to get there. Jormungand, Snow White with the Red Hair, and Gakusen Toshi Asterisk are all examples of this type, and each of the second parts were still pretty good in their own rights (though as a whole, both Jormungand and Asterisk had weaker second seasons compared to the first). 

Seraph of the End managed to do the same thing, but I waited a year until I actually sat down and watched the anime. And despite some problems, I thought Seraph of the End's first cour was really good, and it put me into an emotional state towards the end of it that typically doesn't happen that often for me (the last show was probably Angel Beats that made me feels as emotional as Seraph did). So, after wrapping that up, I decided to immediately jump into the second half, filled with some high expectations on how this cour could potentially top the first one in terms of development and emotional impact. 

So, after having finished this season in a little more than a week, how did it play out? Did it manage to improve some of the first cour's slip-ups and improve in things other than those?

I think at the beginning of this, I might have over-hyped myself too much, because Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya manages to be around the same level of goodness that the first cour had. All of the main positives still existed (along with one new one), and I found myself really liking almost all of the episodes. Plus, the shipping prowess of Yu x Mika gave me a ton of conflicting emotions, and scenes with just the two of them had me either fanboying or becoming emotional.

However, some of the problems from the first season return, and we also have a couple of new ones, including a stereotypical villain, and side characters that just don't really matter in the end (one of them is in the key visual). Considering that the anime managed to go ahead of the manga by a bit, and now that there isn't a lot of source material as of now to adapt, it's going to be a a while before we potentially get a third season, and I'm still looking forward to it. 

But I think it's mainly because of Shinya, and I just want to see if he's okay. PLEASE?!

Precious, precious baby! The way your last scene ended was cruel, so I have to know as soon as I can how that short conversation with Guren went.

Okay, time to put a stop to my pleading and fangirling. We have a story to continue to build!

Story

The 2nd cour begins with Shinoa and Guren sparring, with Shinoa still wanting answers from Guren following Yu's demonic rampage during the battle in Shinjuku. Though Guren is still not letting up about why he seems to be using Yu, he does mention more about Mahiru, Shinoa's elder sister who was a part of the testing of the Cursed Gear, became possessed by a demon, and had to be killed by Guren in order to stop her (some of this was mentioned briefly in the first cour). Though she now lives in his sword, and from the fact that they used to be boyfriend and girlfriend, Shinoa asks if Mahiru is controlling Guren for purposes related to Yu, to which he replies that she isn't (although for other things, I'm pretty sure she can and will possess you, Guren. Just a hunch).

After still not getting the answers she wanted, Shinoa goes to look for Yu, who is reading in the library (she wakes him up first) and trying to find a way to turn Mika back into a human from his vampire state. It is not long after their conversation where Shinoa mentions Yu's growing maturity that Yu is summoned by Kureto Hiragi, one of the top soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, who is also born from the Hiragi family, and is proposed to be the next family head if anything happens to Tenri Hiragi, the current one. He interrogates Yu, at first claiming him to be a vampire spy, and using Shiho and Yoichi against him in order to get Yu to spill some sort of information out of him. This was actually to test Yu's loyalty to the JIDA, as Kureto explains as to why Guren even saved Yu in the first place, and further thinks that Guren is just simply using him (much like Mika's thinking, but that's for the humans in general). He offers Yu to join his company, to which Yu flat out refuses to do (after all, Kureto's WAY too sketchy), and demands Kureto to let his friends go. Following this, Yu confronts Guren with this information, and asks for his help in order to rescue Mika and for more training regarding the Cursed Gear, considering that fact that the Shinoa Squad was rushed out onto the battlefield in the first place anyways, Guren give Yu his word (though I don't think he's being serious in Mika's case).

Following Yu and Shiho's demon training to establish their contracts (Yoichi's did his offscreen before heading out of the walls of the city, to my frustration, considering that I wanted more of a concrete arc from him), news of a proposed attack on Tokyo from the vampires reaches Kureto, and he asks Guren to use the Moon Demon Company as decoys in order to attack 10 locations of vampire nobles in Nagoya before their main fleet reaches Tokyo. While the Shinoa squad takes a break from training and has a group meeting, Shinoa lets Yu know that he almost killed her in his demon form in Shinjuku. Based on Guren's motives, the squad questions whether or not they should still trust him, but Yu thinks that because Guren saved him and has shown genuine kindness towards him, he thinks they should stay, because, as you know, family is family. *plays Kacey Musgraves song*

After being tested at the Ebina rest stop over just how serious battle can get (especially with stakes such as this) and after arriving late thanks to Shinoa's pranking, her team is paired up with another, the leader being a man named Makoto Narumi, who feels as if the Shinoa squad may not be the best fighters during the mission (what with the fact that the 3 males were basically all rushed out to the battlefield again). And after beating Lucal Wesker (though he manages to turn his own sword on himself), it's time to see our pal Crowley Eusford and defeat him. When the battle goes awry, and Guren manages to get captured, what will become of the Moon Demon Company, and what exactly are the Japanese Imperial Demon Army planning in the shadows?

Meanwhile, on the vampire side, Mika is still struggling with his bloodlust, and it's going to be no time at all when Krul's blood isn't going to satisfy his thirst. Speaking of Krul, she might have had some involvement with the Seraph of the End and gives Mika a special mission to rescue Yu without getting caught by other sides. Ferid is still doing Lord knows what with his allegiance, and Crowley has now figured out that someone is betraying the vampires and selling them out (Ferid of course). But in the end, the main game is on Mika as to whether he will rekindle his friendship with Yu and possibly still survive by the end. You know, since he's at threat for aging. When all the intrigue comes together, it's going to leave a trail of destruction behind it, but which side will be more affected? Our main heroes, the Japanese Imperial Demon Army as a whole, or the vampires?

Much like the first cour, the first half of Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya is SLOW. It takes a while to get going, and in some cases, it may be even more so than the first 12 episodes in terms of interest. I honestly seemed to care more about what was going on on the vampire side of the war rather than the human side, due to more information regarding Krul's involvement with the Seraph of the End and the hostility growing between some of them. Much like its first season, Episode 7 is, again, where things seems to start to pick up, and the show becomes more action-packed and engaging. The strong premise is still there, along with the great conflict between good and evil, but how about Yu and Mika's relationship?

Well, that's still as strong as ever. And their reunion in this season is only more painful because of the fact that Yu was unconscious from activating his inner demon power and Mika needed blood due to his injuries. However, he had no vials left of Krul's blood because they were all broken. Mika's conflict throughout the series of trying to not become a full blooded vampire was incredibly exciting, and I always found myself sympathizing with him and feeling bad for him because of his struggles.

But the scene in Episode 10 in the abandoned supermarket broke me. Yu offers his neck and arm for feeding so that Mika can survive, despite the fact that it will turn him into a full fledged vampire with the red eyes. Eventually, his instincts act up, and Mika takes his chance, which allows him to survive at the last cost of his humanity. The last shot of this particular scene ends with Mika's eyes growing from blue to red, and I kind of felt myself break on the inside.

Scenes with the two of them in the present are just SO FREAKING GOOD because they are so adorable together, and I'm surprised by the fact that they aren't canon. Pretty soon, Takaya Kagami needs to get on that. It's also really nice to see Mika in a frame with other members of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army rather than just Yu or the vampires. It helps establish that despite being an enemy according to the humans, the motto of "Family, either past or present, deserves to be protected" plays out really well when this is shown, and I do appreciate it.

I also appreciate the anime's time to further explore the Japanese Imperial Demon Army (more specifically Kureto), and see what they have planned regarding fighting the vampires. They're going so far as to use children in experiments for the Seraph gene (the terms Seraph overall seems to be angel in this show so basically, the angels are the ultimate baddies), along with killing their own blood in order to power up said experiments. It goes to show just how far Kureto will go for his own motives (which aren't very impressive in terms of creativity), as well as the Japanese Imperial Demon Army as a whole. They want to be strong, and while they are strong, they need to be stronger, and it's very scary to think if the entirety of the organization falls under Kureto's plan and are forced to do so. It'll be very difficult for the Shinoa squad to trust anyone, and by signs already, it seem like they already have.

There is, again, some character development that seems entirely skipped over in order to move the main story ahead (this time, it seems pacing is at fault), along with some others that are written to be important, but in the grand scheme of things, are not. I'll go more in depth in the character section as to explain why, but I do wish that the story as a whole did a better job to showcase these instances so that personalities don't become hive minds or the character themselves doesn't interest me. 

But what I think is easily the standout of the entirety of the second cour is the final episode. This is because s**t goes down, things get incredibly dark, and my feels felt like they were going on a roller coaster with no signs of stopping. Considering that the episode adapted past chapters that hadn't even published is astounding, because that finale glued me to my seat and didn't let me go until a few minutes later.

I really hope we will be able to get a third season ASAP, because I am very interested in what's going to happen next now that the Shinoa squad are on their own. Though I'm not expecting the character development to get any better in terms of our main unit aside from a select few that have gotten it (and some that have potential to receive some). I do hope the pacing is faster for next, and I want to see more of the JIDA's dirty little secrets (even though it will come with more f**k you Guren's and I hope you die Kureto's). Oh, and more Yu x Mika. Because I think I'm now trash when it comes to the two of them.

But before we enter the character section, I'm honestly really nervous for what the vampires have in store next, especially now that Krul is currently out of commission, and Lest Karr has come to take her head position. I can't help but wonder:

Characters

I'm going to start off with an overview on the development of characters that I discussed about in the first cour review, starting off with Yu.

Yu has continued his development from Season 1, and is no longer bratty and over-confident. He may share similar attributes to other various shonen leads, but I think what makes him better is that he genuinely cares for his comrades in the army and for Mika and we actually get to see it and understand as to why. The fact that he can go to great scarifies in order to save family or friends (such as consuming more dopamine pills than the average limit, which I still don't know why they take those other than the fact that it makes them stronger  and going over the edge for more power that he awakens his demon side). He's pretty strong as he is right now, but I hope that he is able to get stronger, but not to war-god levels. His powers need balance.

Mika has also been progressing with his connection towards Yu and the fact that by the end of the cour he seems to trust Yu's squad members at least enough to know that they won't hurt Yu. Like I mentioned before, his struggles this season were really sad to watch, and it managed to show more to vampires that some other anime don't often experiment with when it comes to darker series. His desire to rescue Yu was still as strong as ever, and the fact that he's now a full vampire doesn't mean that there still isn't a chance they could have some sweet lov- I mean, bonding time. You know, where he and Yu can catch up on their lives. They need to do that a lot, aside from the apparent experimentation on them while they were in the Hyakuya Orphanage and the plans for the use of the Seraph gene by the Japanese Imperial Demon Army.

Again, I apologize. It's just that Yu and Mika make me gooey inside. Not as much as Shinya, but it's still a good amount. I'd probably not write dirty fanfiction about them if I was given the chance, though.

Meanwhile, I still hate Guren. Though he does still show good qualities, the imbalance still exists, and I'm still unsure as to why Yu still fully trusts him as much as he does despite the fact that Guren saved him and has shown to be kind towards him. And the fact that Mahiru has easy control over him doesn't really make it any easier for me to like him. He's still got the complexities that make him a memorable character, but I honestly don't think he's going to keep his promise towards rescuing Mika because of Yu, Plus, he even has his own plan to destroy the Hiragi family so that the Ichinose family can take over when possessed by Mahiru, and has been secretly working with Ferid while Mahiru is taking the wheel.

Oh, did I mention that he also seems to have more secrets regarding 8 years ago as of now in the manga? Because I'm pretty sure he does.

Seriously, f**k you Guren. Unless you don't get development to show you're a better person, you're still on my Hate List.

Ferid is still Ferid, being as unpredictable and manipulative as he wants to be for the sake of messing with characters and trolling with bits of the plot. I'm still waiting for something to come and throw him off his already made throne, but only time will tell.

Shinoa is still awesome, but dials down her sass so that she makes sure that she doesn't accidentally cause her friends to perish. The other squad members (Yoichi, Shiho, and Mitsuba) don't really get development aside from brief glimpses from Shiho's past during his training with Kiseki-O, and they sometimes act as if they are one entity. Look, I get that they are a unit in an army, and they have the same main goal by the end of the day, but I've already seen what happens when a group of characters are put into one situation and have the exact same thoughts (this time, it's "Gotta protect the fam."). The best thing about this though is that in a couple of scenes, glimpses of personality are still seen. So thumbs up for that at least, even though it's still annoying.

But let's move on to exploring some of the cast that we got to see more of this cour. First up is Krul Tepes:

Krul is the vampire queen of Japan and resides in Sanguinem, the Third Capital. Despite the fact that she looks like a young girl, she is actually around 2,000 years old and is the most powerful vampire in Japan as she has Third Progenitor powers.

Like most of the vampires, Krul doesn't think highly of humans, but manages to take interest in the Hyakuya Sect orphans, being the one who took them to Sanguinem and the fact that 2 of them have the seraph gene (being Yu and Mika). The fact that Ferid let one escape and nearly killed the other makes her angry, though she doesn't seem to care about the other children. Though she did manage to save Mika's life against his will when she turned him into a vampire, she does show some genuine care to him, providing vials of her blood and comforting him from time to time. She also tells Mika of her secrets plans, which we don't know about yet.

She is very proud of herself, not tolerating getting challenged by Lest Karr, the Third Progenitor of Europe (he mainly resides in Germany) or having any of her subordinates make her lose her temper. She would very much like to get rid of Ferid Bathory, but he blackmails her in order for that not to happen, such as getting information on Yu's demonic rampage in Shinjuku. She also is very secretive, as it has been confirmed that she had some sort of involvement with the Seraph of the End as well as confiding with Mahiru Hiragi. It is unclear exactly how much she knows and what her goals are, but as of now, we aren't going to find out, considering the fact that she's out cold. Perhaps later when she gets interrogated?

Overall, I managed to really like Krul. Though she is pretty intimidating being the most powerful vampire in Japan (and possibly the oldest), I do like that she seems to care for Mika's well-being, considering that she was the one who turned him into a vampire in the first place. I also like the fact that while she is a clear villain, she still has secrets that could show her in a possibly better light compared to some of the other vampires and members of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, at least for me.

Also, I'm looking forward to see if she'll be able to kick Ferid's ass if she is able to get out of the pickle she's currently in. I mean, we have seen what power she could possibly have if one flick of her wrist can destroy part of a floor.

Now it's time for my favorite out of the anime, and that is:

Shinya of course. ;)

Whenever I see Shinya, my typical reaction is this:

He's just too pure and precious and all around awesome. I love him so much :3. And not just because he's voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki (even though that's one of the reasons why). But let's go into further detail on his character.

Shinya was adopted into the Hiragi family when he was young from one of the many side families of the Hiragis to compete with other various children to be the fiancee of Mahiru (I won't spoil on how it turned out, but it isn't confirmed or mentioned in the anime). He is typically good-natured, often cracking smiles and being relatively chill in tough situations. He and Guren are also close friends, typically teasing the ever-loving crap out of him. However, he is able to become much more serious in battle, especially when close friends or comrades are in danger. Oh, need I mention badass as well? Because he is.

His Cursed Gear is Byakkomaru, which takes the form of a very long pistol that is able to shoot out materialized white tigers.

Overall, I really loved Shinya. He reminds me a lot of Saya Sasamiya from Gakusen Toshi Asterisk, in terms of his demeanor (though Saya is definitely lazier), and the ability for the both of them to become badass in battle. They even have a similar saying before they fire their weapons:

But of course, I like Shinya a lot more. He's just so much fun and charismatic, and I was able to go through all of the emotions with him as he personally went through them.

Such as In Pain Shinya. Poor, poor baby.

I'm really sad that we weren't able to conclude your shock about Guren getting possessed by Mahiru, but here's a virtual hug for you:

Until later my friend. And hopefully you will get your answers soon. Please provide me with more tingles when you say "Bang" when firing Byakkomaru, please and thanks.

Time for Crowley:

Crowley Eusford is a Thirteenth Progenitor (though he could reach Seventh Progenitor levels) who is very relaxed and relatively composed compared to some of the more ruthless vampires. His aides, Chess Belle and Horn Skuld (who are Seventeenth Progenitors), typically fight with him in battle, though he does the majority of the heavy work. He serves under the faction that Ferid leads, and seems to base his motives on whether things are interesting to him.

Despite his demeanor, Crowley can become more vicious in battle, willing to kill any human without hesitation and also thinking of them as nothing but livestock. He is also very aware of the evolution of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army in terms of their weaponry and their powers. Crowley also is able to immediately pick up on the fact that there is a traitor among the vampires and easily deduces that it it Ferid because he was seemingly the only one who knew about the nobles' locations that got out to the Japanese Imperial Demon Army. He also doesn't seem like he's susceptible to fear, whether if he just hasn't faced a notable opponent or isn't one to get scared so easily.

In the first cour, I did like Crowley. He just seems like the kind of vampire who doesn't really care about what happens unless his side wins or he is able to get a really good battle in. Because of his suave nature, he definitely became a favorite out of the group (though Krul is still the number 1 queen, which is ironic, considering she is a queen). However, when he made his first appearance in Battle in Nagoya, I found myself growing to loving Crowley at various moments. From his dialogue to his attitude to the fact that I can imagine him seemingly yawning during a battle, wondering if the members of the JIDA attacking him are done with their chitchat while filing his nails make him a pretty enjoyable character. I also like the sense of distrust in Ferid for leaking his own location out of the nobles but not wanting to leave his faction because, after all, things are only getting more interesting. Hopefully he still remains a standout.

Last but not least, we have Kureto:

Typically, my reaction to seeing Kureto in the anime was this:

It'll probably stay the same in the manga, too. Because let me get this out of the way: I despise him.

Kureto is a Lieutenant General of the Japanese Imperial Demon Army, and like mentioned earlier, is slated to be the next family head of the Hiragis. He is very arrogant and cruel, even to the point where he can patronize his own siblings. His main goal is to wipe out the vampires, as well as the other human organizations fighting against them, making the Japanese Imperial Demon Army the ruling power of the world, uniting the other countries under his rule. 

Kureto also seems to have no qualms with sacrificing even the JIDA's own members for his plans, especially when awakening the experimented Mahiru Kimizuki as a Seraph of the End, needing several lives in order to power her up. He is also very confident in himself and his plans, and wants absolute submission from the army branches in order to make his dreams come true. His Cursed Gear is Raimeiki, which hasn't taken a solid form yet but can emit sparks of lightning.

When reviewing the anime weekly on Anime News Network, Gabriella Ekens mentioned how Kureto is there to make Guren look better by comparison, and I can agree to this. Despite the fact that I hate them both, Guren is more of a complex character, who has his good and bad moments. Everything is bad with Kureto, but this is mainly because he's generally an asshole. He's the "been there, done that" stereotypical shonen villain that we've seen time and time again. In short, Kureto is very similar to Hendrickson from Nanatsu no Taizai, though I'd say Kureto has a better explained motive. Both are very cliche in the sense of their actions and appearances, as they are both stoic and honorable and want world domination by using a forbidden race or power to get what they want.

And that aside, Kureto is just boring, insufferable, and kind of stupid. His plan seems to have holes in it, seeing as when Yu activated his own Seraph powers, he gets enraged. Like, "HOW DARE YOU DISRUPT THE AWAKENING OF MY SERAPH BABY! GRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!"  It's incredibly strange, since Kureto also has the opportunity to control Yu if he wants to. But considering Yu had that gene in him since birth possibly, and Mirai got it from experimentation, I guess I can see why he got pissed.

But still, you have another Seraph of the End dropped on your plate. Take the opportunity to go take it, you freaking idiot. 

Now time for an aside, since I need to talk about Makoto Narumi and his squad. While the writers try to frame him and the others as important characters to the plot, it incredibly backfires. For starters, we get absolutely no development on our leader or Shusaku, Rika, Yayoi, and Taro. As such, the Narumi squad just blends into the background, and sometimes, they completely slipped my mind until around Episode 9, when Yayoi and Taro are killed off.

Even with their deaths (aside from Makoto, who manages to survive), I didn't feel a thing since the writing didn't even give them a chance to showcase their actual personalities other than Makoto's. It's one thing where a character's death is executed poorly and you don't feel any sadness for them, but when you feel like you want to laugh? Yeah, I didn't need to go back down the road to Divine Gate, where the deaths at the end of Episode 10 had me chuckling in my seat. Rika and Shusaku's death scene was an example of this, but I don't think the real laughing's going to start until I rewatch this season (it's going to kick in around the "RUN!" I just know it). 

But since Makoto is now with the Shinoa squad, maybe we'll get to see more of his character. It could happen, and if it does, I can celebrate.

The most bland character out of the entire thing shouldn't stay that way, you guys.

We don't have a lot of new characters this time, but we do have 2 members of the Moon Demon Company that pop up; Eita Kusunoki, whose only use is to show how Guren gets when he loses a comrade in the army and is given so much focus for about 2 minutes. We also have Aiko Aihara, a squad leader who gives up her life in exchange for giving Mika information about where Yu's squad was headed since the rest of her squad committed suicide or died in the Battle of Nagoya, so to her, it means she has nothing left to go back to. She also tricks Lacus and Rene on the location before purposefully attempting to stab Mika before getting impaled on his sword. The anime does a better job with her, getting her a little screen time in Episode 4 before she appears again. Her mini arc serves as a nice divider between the battles with Lucal and Crowley, and her death had much more impact until the slow version of X.U. plays.

For the vampires, we have Lucal Wesker and his servant Ester Lee (who kind of just vanishes after being seen once), where the former fights both the Shinoa and Narumi squads. Finally, there's Lest Karr, a Third Progenitor who manages Europe and is in close competition with Krul.

Animation

The animation for this series was once again headed by Wit Studio, who are also known for their work on the anime series Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress and the movies Hal and The Empire of Corpses.

Once again, Seraph of the End's animation remains very consistent. Colors are still as shiny as ever, the settings are still pretty cool, fight scenes are well animated and have very good movement, plus there's still the nice attention to detail between the humans and vampires that I really liked. How Mika's eye color turned into red by fading out of blue was well done.

Episode 7 had a couple of issues with animation, such as detail on Shinya's battled scared face disappearing and Shinoa's eyes going off-model for one frame, but it's not as bad as compared to the quality of Episode 11 of the first cour. But what has improved is the movement of the characters outside of fights. It looks far less choppy and much more realistic compared to what it was before. It's more free-flowing compared to various instances in Season 1, and that's always good.

But aside from a few nitpicks again, I still really liked this show's animation in general throughout watching it, and I'm really interested to see what Wit Studio has up their sleeves outside of Attack on Titan.

Sound

The 4 composers who worked on the score for the first cour stay on for the second season, with again, I'm assuming, Hiroyuki Sawano at the helm.

Like various other 2nd seasons, some new pieces do sprout up in this season, and I have grown to a couple of the pieces from Season 1 that I've heard of before, but again, the score for this series is quite boring and seems to blend together more often than it tries to stand out. Hiroyuki Sawano still needs to do more in order to impress me, considering that I heard a Kabaneri piece in Gigguk's video about it that sounded the EXACT SAME as the first Seraph opening aside from a few instrumental differences. He's done work for the more popular series nowadays, and I'm still hoping to be impressed by him down the road.

But at least we still have the good voice acting. While the performers mentioned last time still do a fairly good job with their characters, we get to see more of the characters briefly shown in the first cour. Tomoaki Maeno gets more than 2 lines as Kureto and has a great psycho laugh. He also does a good job at the stoic traits of Kureto, and his voice demands authority. Whereas Tatsuhisa Suzuki gives more of a range involving Shinya, where I may have liked seeing Shinya in pain at moments (or angry) because I got to hear more of his voice in various ways aside from bubbly and in a good mood. Both Yoko Hikasa and Nozomi Furuki also get more lines as Horn and Chess respectively, and still continue to show off good voices based from their first impressions. Also, Yoshimasa Hosoya does a good job with Makoto, even though the voice he uses I've heard countless times before (and better elsewhere), and Takehito Koyasu gives off a royal version of Yoru from Sukisho as Lucal Wesker.

I also saw a little bit more of the English dub (curious to see Monica Rial as Krul and some of Alexis Tiption as Mahiru), but I still don't have a concrete impression of it yet, so that'll have to wait.

Other new highlights in the original Japanese include Emiri Kato, Ayumi Fujimura, Yoshiko Kobayashi, Hiroshi Naka, and Tomoyo Kurosawa (as Kiseki O, though I'm more excited to see evil Bryn Apprill like how I'm still looking forward to more of a showing of evil Alexis Tipton).

Verdict

So, despite the fact that this season of Seraph of the End had a couple more nitpicks this time around, I still found myself liking it just as much, though slightly less. This is by no doubt a strong shonen series, and I'm still happy that I was able to find a time to sit down and watch it. There are still a few aspects that still could be better, but for what it's worth, Seraph of the End still has exciting fight scenes, memorable moments, and a very entertaining visit on the line of good vs. evil and how that can get blurred. 

I'd recommend the second half of Seraph for fans of the first cour, anime viewers who are interested to see what this series does next, lovers of amazing action, and to see how the story can wreck us with more great Yu and Mika scenes.

In the meantime, I'll be starting the manga to see how that compares and hope that a 3rd season can come our way. Hopefully that announcement can come in the next few years. I'll be waiting for more great moments.

Score: 8/10

Positives:

Story is engaging (especially the vampire side in the beginning).

Final episode.

Anime still does a fantastic job exploring both sides of the war.

Yu x Mika feels keep on churning!

Great development towards a couple of characters briefly shown in Season 1.

Animation retains great colors and fluid fights; overall movement is better.

Voice acting is still strong.

Negatives:

First half still moves pretty slowly.

Kureto is a stereotypical antagonist. 

Some buildup of Shinoa's squad is still missing.

Character development of Narumi's squad is really poor.

Score is still dull.