Uta no Prince Sama Season 2 Review

Uta no Prince Sama Season 2 Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers of the second season of Uta no Prince Sama. If you wish not to know some events in the story, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please leave the page, since I don't want to damage a watching experience for you.

With that said, thank you, and onto the review:

Yeesh, I've reviewed a lot of second seasons this year. O_O I've watched (and written reviews for) Highschool DXD New (Incomplete), Kamisama Kiss Season 2, Jormungand: Perfect Order, and Freezing Vibration. This is the 5th alone that I've written a review for, and there's a couple more to come in the future.

Uta Pri ended on a positive note back in Season 1. Looking into this season, I was excited on what we were going to get, such as QUARTET NIGHT and possibly more development from some of the band members. Cecil also was going to get in on the action, and rivals were going to pop up sooner or later. Though I wasn't sure on how much I was going to enjoy this season, I was looking forward to see what was going to happen.

Well, in the end, I do think this season is weaker than Season 1. Though it still has some great moments with some of the characters, and I care about Cecil more than I used to, the main problem of this season lies in the fact of the cheesiness and the melodrama. 

It gets worse guys! Gah, it's mainly so bad! Add into the fact of STARISH's music being the bringer of world peace, unintimidating rivals that I didn't care for, the weak OST again. and STARISH all together becoming one person and one mind. However, I don't think the series is that bad. There were still moments that I highly enjoyed, some great songs that I may want to listen to more, and QUARTET NIGHT (mainly Ranmaru! YASSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), I think we still had great work on our hands.

So let's get ready to perform our first set, starting off with the story:

Story

STARISH has just gotten off of their successful debut with Maji Love 1000%, and are now professionals. But let's hold off the cake and the presents for now; we still have more to do. This is the Master Course after all! Our males need to prove themselves a little more to see if they have the drive. For this, Shining assigns them mentors from the professional idol group QUARTET NIGHT, who are also signed to Shining Entertainment. One member is assigned to two of the STARISH boys. Camus is left out of the picture, but that all changes when Cecil appears in real life to attend the school after being scouted by Saotome. Cecil is now offically walking on Earth now that his curse has been lifted by Haurka. OH NOEZ! MORE COMPETITION!

Though he has no interest in being an idol, Cecil is still participating in the Master Course only to sing Haruka's music. But then again, so does everyone Cecil; you're not alone. When the previous males gathered in the main room of the Master Course dorms, Haruka gave them a composed melody which they could write lyrics too. In the next set of episodes, Shou, Masato, Otoya, Ren, and Natsuki finish their songs and sing them, along with some "development" granted to them. I only felt it in Otoya and Ren's case though, but Masato wasn't far behind. 

In Episode 8, it's time again for the sand, the surf, the.... wait, wrong descriptions. The mountains, the views, the work, and resort houses! YEAH! While there, Haruka decides to work on a new song for the boys of STARISH, and it eventually becomes Maji Love 2000%, 1000%'s long lost twin sister. During the retreat, Cecil decides to officially become an idol, and later joins up with STARISH, becoming the divine and final member (THANK YOU SEVEN-COLORED COMPASS LYRIC! THANK YOU VERY MUCH! *sarcasm*).

Eventually, STARISH becomes nominated for the Uta Pri Award, which is an award celebrating the best in up and coming idols and idol groups. Of course, we have a rival group, who spend the majority of the time trying to be screen hogs than being intimidating.

And with the stakes high with disbandment being punishment, who will claim the Uta Pri Award? I guess we're going to find out, right?

First off, duh! Obviously STARISH is going to win the Uta Pri Award right off the bat! Their songs have this special "magic" to them that only Haruka and their voices can bring out, and people change due to their music. The feeling of that wonderful "greatness" spreads through people's hearts, taking them all around the world in a cloud of spirits, floating through time and space. HOW MARVELOUS! HOW WONDERFUL! WHAT A GREAT EFFECT! YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYBLECHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, that's one cheesy section to throw out there for you all. I'll talk a little bit more about the songs in the sound section, since there was 1 particular song that I really liked this time around, rather than liking them or just thinking they're average. Cheesiness also ensues in some of the show's dialogue and at various moments, leading to face palms and "RUSerious?" reactions. This all relates to Haruka being the miracle drug that she is.

I swear, nearly every single guy in the main harem this season talked about how Haruka changed them in at least one way, or, you know, all around to make them a better person at most once. Well, in some cases, it's kind of cute, but for most of them, it's very annoying because we hear it oh so often that it becomes drilled in our head about how awesome Haruka is. Since you know, she's a "goddess" at composing, and has made an impact on all the guys.

Now selling Nanamiprofen! Clear to give you a happy state of mind and all kinds of wonderfulness with the girl you love! It is currently available for prescription at Walgreen's while supplies last! Enjoy it while you can!

My FAVORITE *sarcasm* moment is this entire season is when Cecil sings the song that Haruka composed for him out on a bridge during the retreat. Everyone is drawn to it, and leaves whatever they're doing behind to hear him. It's during this where Otoya realizes that Cecil's voice goes well with the others' (no duh), and all of them decide that it would be best to become the last member of STARISH, Natsuki brings up something that would be a crime if I didn't bring it up, saying that he's always wanted Cecil to be a member of STARISH from the moment they met.

........................................................................................................................

So much fail, so much.

Aside from that, there are some really cute moments in the episodes focusing on the guys. Tokiya's episode is clearly the best out of all of them, even though it was Episode 11 (why wasn't it earlier?). He was such a sweetheart to Haruka, and I felt myself swoon during several moments. And no, Tokiya isn't my favorite guy, but this gave him some development the other episodes surely did not.

But the main reason why this story isn't as bad as it would have been was all thanks to QUARTET NIGHT. Even if some of them disappear in episodes in the middle (besides Camus, since Cecil is a piece of work), each moment with them was highly enjoyable, and always managed to crack a smile out of me. Okay, fine, it was mainly Ranmaru's doing. But what can I say, QUARTER NIGHT's pretty great.

The showdown between HEAVENS and STARISH wasn't bad, but it could have been better considering that HEAVENS isn't really that interesting. Heck, I think Jiro is more interesting than these 3. Besides the obvious factor of STARISH obviously winning, we have more WONDERFUL qualities, such as desperation.

Congratulations Eichi, you have reached Lilith levels on how desperate an anime character can be. Do you need a gold star?

So to wrap things up, the story would have been much worse if it hadn't been for QUARTER NIGHT popping up and having an impact, along with some very cute moments in these episodes. However, the line with the show being cheesy and melodramatic gets stretched to its brim, often going overboard on how tolerable it should be. The comedy isn't as good as it was back in Season 1, though there were some funny moments despite them not being numerous this time around. It also wasn't as highly enjoyable, though some episodes still put me in a good mood.

In the end, I still find the story of Uta Pri to be its second weakest aspect. I'm not expecting any originality in reverse harem, that's for sure, but writers need to be careful on how much cheese is acceptable.

I'm just going to leave off this section with how many times Haruka credited Cecil to be the one person who brought STARISH together, and each time I'm like:

Haruka, YOU WERE THE CAUSE! CECIL JUST INSPIRED YOU TO BRING THEM TOGETHER! 

I rest my case.

Characters

Before we go into our new characters for discussion, let's talk about the main characters for a quick second and see what they're up to.

Haruka is still a goddess when it comes to composing music, even if in our minds. we've heard better in anime. She doesn't develop in this season, which is fine, since she doesn't really need it. She at least still has a brain and a soul, though I wish she could have been able to defend STARISH to HEAVENS much sooner than she did. I was definitely a little disappointed in her this season.

I don't want to bore you with what every guy is doing for at least 1 episode in this season, but we get more info on some of the guys, as I mentioned earlier. Some of these reveals were actually kind of interesting, though it doesn't get granted to every guy. Plus, some are shoehorned into a corner before they get a chance to shine.

This leads me to my biggest problem with STARISH in general. When they're apart from each other, they all stand out. When together, they all blend into one pretty mediocre milkshake. You know, the one that ends up to be more sugar than the flavor you picked out. This is because STARISH as a whole has pretty much the exact same personality, and there's instances where they all say the exact same thing or variations of it. Don't forget to include having the same feelings or emotions during a particular scene! They're just as bad as the Inner Senshi from Sailor Moon Crystal.

Oh, and the script writers thought it would be a FANTASTIC idea for Ren to give pet names to all of the guys. While I think it's cute in Reiji and Apollon's cases, here it just makes me want to puke. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Saotome is still very entertaining, being the troll that he is. Tomo is still forgettable and is in the opening, though only appears for a few episodes. And finally, our former teachers come in once in a while too! The gang's all here, and some of them really aren't needed! But whatever!

Let's first off elaborate more on Cecil before we step into the territory of QUARTET NIGHT:

Now, Cecil is the prince of Agnapolis, a musical country far far away from Saotome Academy. He was put under a curse which caused him to turn into a black cat. You remember Mr. Convenient Cat, right? Yup, that was him. Though Haruka actually gave him the name Kuppuru, Cecil in his cat from was really only there for the writers to make plot points happen or for a convenient turn of events. Though this season, I kind of grew to like him more in a way.

After Haruka breaks his curse (though I'm not sure how), Shining scouts him for the Master Course, where he stirs up some jealousy for the guys to chow down on. Besides his vast musical knowledge and how he knows a LOT of information regarding STARISH, he doesn't plan on becoming an idol, as he only wants to sing Haruka's music. After getting challenged in a training competition, and knowing that there was more bark to him than bite, Cecil decides to lay low for a bit, giving some assistance to the other males. 

It isn't until Episode 8 after Haruka gives her composed song to him that he realizes that besides making her happy (you know, those feelings), he also can make other people happy as well. From this decision, he decides to become an idol and joins up with STARISH. Though he does have to whisk back to Agnapolis for a bit, he does come back and rejoin the party, making our core set complete.

Cecil grew on me this season. Not only was I actually able to get his feelings for Haruka, since I didn't really get them in the first season beside showing affection to him when he was a cat, I managed to actually care for him as the show went on. Not only does he offer some good company to some of the other STARISH members, but he's basically a nice guy and not used for convenience this time. Plus, he did a great Saotome impression on this variety show he did with Otoya in Episode 5!

With a Poison KISS, QUARTET NIGHT has made their presence known to us. Let's meet them:

With the power of Maji Love 200%, they all are shocked, or in Ranmaru's case, a hybrid of angry and shocked. But you know, that's pretty much his main expression: angry or pissed off. Wait, both are the same thing, Okay, getting ahead of myself here.

From left to right, we have Camus, Ai, Ranmaru, and Reiji. Reiji's kind of the leader of the group, and is the only one with a cheerful personality. Everyone else is pessimistic, with Ai having cases of indifference. Really, that's all you need you need to know about Reiji's character. He's always in a good mood, gives everyone besides Camus (from what I've seen) nicknames, he's very mature, and he treats everyone with respect. 

Now onto Ranmaru. Give me a minute while I swoon:

Ranmaru is kind of a tsundere, though I'm positively sure he has more underneath that hard shell of his. He pretty much puts up with no nonsense, and seems to have a bad temper all the time.

He is constantly grumpy, and is also a Debbie Downer wannabe. If I knew him in real life, I would fix this by getting him some tasty food and blasting rock n' roll music from my computer. He mainly comments about things that happen to STARISH but makes everything negative, mostly about how they aren't ready for the spotlight yet. One of the most hypocritical statements that he makes is in Episode 9, after Cecil goes back to Agnapolis, where he remarks on how he's never going to return, and how music groups are messy and never work out. So basically, he's pretty much insulting every idol group, even though he's in one himself.

That's from Episode 1, but whatevs. After noting the progress that STARISH has made, and constantly shooting down Reiji when he brings up QUARTET NIGHT (I'D RATHER WORK ALONE! *storms off in a huff*), he starts to realize what it means to be friends and to be in a group. We get a little insight into his past, but we'll have to wait until Episode 7 of Season 3 sadly to see more (Stillcan'tgetovertheshowersceneinthatepisodetoo.UGH!Fangirlissues!) When HEAVENS bugs Haruka again, he intervenes, and I go into Grace Helbig mood just like YASSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

After Haruka thanks him and is about to go, he stops her by asking what friends are to her. She responds that friends are people who share their passions and feelings and create a bond out of that, Ranmaru calls back to something Reiji said earlier on, and decides he wants to do something about QUARTET NIGHT.

At this point, my arms are open and ready to embrace him in the best of all hugs:

Ugh! Fangirls issues! *fans self* Can I help it? Not really, since Ranmaru is now my favorite character out of the whole entire series. I really like his emotional depth, and how he can be a real softie despite his cranky remarks. He always brightens up the screen when the episode is going along poorly, and I missed him when he wasn't on screen. That doesn't happen to a lot of main characters, and a lot of my favorites are main. Weird, huh? Also, he is pretty hot.

Before I derail off the tracks and just start fangirling again, let's talk about Ai and Camus. Ai is the youngest out of the seniors (it's confirmed he's 15 in one of the games, and also his looks hint at it), and is very hardworking. He doesn't really show off a lot of emotion either. This is because he is a robot (yeah, a game confirms this, plus the 3rd anime season does too), though starts feeling emotion during the later episodes when realizing that STARISH may have a chance at winning against HEAVENS after all. Or, you know, has been under the effect of the first run through of Maji Love 2000%. He doesn't really believe in STARISH's potential at first, like the others, but as mentioned above, he kind of starts to believe in them. Though there isn't a lot of personality to him, at least he has a little development unlike Reiji.

Camus is last up for the QUARTET NIGHT boys. Like Cecil, he is a royal, reigning from Permafrost, another country far far away. He is also very cold and strict, and is assigned to Cecil once he shows up on the scene. Besides testing him on how to become an idol and what not, Camus also uses his authority to intimidate his junior. He also sees faith in STARISH as well towards the battle for the Uta Pri Award, but never admits it out front.

QUARTET NIGHT work well together unlike STARISH, since all of them have at least something that stands out about them, rather than becoming one when they're all gathered. Besides having some good lines and moments throughout this season, I just find them to be more interesting as a group than STARISH. Ranmaru has the most development out of all of them, but I'm looking forward for the others. I think Reiji would benefit from it the most.

Now onto HEAVENS. I don't want my time talking about them, so I'm just going to start off with 3 words: they bore me.

They aren't really intimidating, and the leader is beyond creepy every single time he appears. Seriously, do you want Haruka for her composing skills, or do you want her for yourself? Stop being so weird! Besides the creep, we have the brat and the boring person. Really, who cares about them? I don't. They're supposed to be big shots signed to Shining's rival agency Raging Entertainment, but really, I can overlook them easily. And even their song isn't that good. Yeah, it's supposed to be epic and what not, but that's more with the dragon display and the fire, not the actual content. So when everyone's in awe about how "amazing" the song was, I'm all:

I'm not looking forward to when they come back at the end of Season 3 with 4 MORE MEMBERS because we can't get enough of hot bishes. The Dazzlings are a MUCH better trio, and would definitely have a good laugh at how bad these guys are:

You know what that hand signal means? We need to move on. No more new characters to be had.

Animation

The animation for this series was once again produced by A-1 Pictures, who are also known for Black Butler, Sword Art Online, and Silver Spoon.

Is the animation still the best part of this show? Umm, can I get a hell yes? Though it doesn't shine bright like a diamond as much this time around, it still looks very pretty. Almost everything is polished very well, and I still gasp in awe when I see it. The chibi animation doesn't dwindle in this season as I thought, but it still makes an appearance about as much as Season 1 (maybe a tad bit less).

Although, to be honest, I think some bits of the animation in the last 2 episodes possibly hinted at what's to come in season 3. QUARTER NIGHT on the balcony in Episode 12 has only Reiji and Camus in proper detail, Ranmaru looked a little off when Haruka walked up the stairs beside him in that episode as well, and Eichi getting up after being creepy to Haruka yet again after their performance has him in the cursed reappearing chunky black lines. Since I'm positively sure that the TV version was put up on Hulu, let's hope the finalized DVD version is better.

Also, the ending managed to scar me a little bit. I think I've seen enough animated pelvic thrusts and booty shakes to last me a lifetime *shudders*. But still, more wonderful animation, and I'm not looking forward to see what happens with it in Season 3.

Sound

The score for this series was composed by Elements Garden, also known for their efforts towards the scores for Kamigami no Asobi, Bodacious Space Pirates, and the upcoming Dance with Devils (another reverse harem show that I'm probably going to watch when Fall comes knocking).

The OST for this show is still very boring, besides a couple of interesting pieces. I didn't really hear any new ones either, since the majority were from Season 1. In Haganai NEXT, this wasn't the case, as there was a mix of old and new. But here, it felt old mainly took over. Maybe that's just me?

Want to know something interesting? All of the songs sung in this series, and that includes openings and endings, are all written by the same person. No wonder some of them sound so similar to each other, considering the group will sing their name every time during a song, This isn't a bad thing per say, but some of the songs kind of suffer from the same formula being repeated over and over again.

As a whole, the songs aren't as great. But hey, at least no knocked out in Engrish! The best song of this season, and in this show so far, is obviously Poison KISS. I swooned quite hard when I first heard it, and I'm still swooning over it now. Some of the lyrics (depending on the translation) are kind of suggestive, but I think it's a good change of pace from the other lyrics of the songs. Since you know, cheese.

All of them are great singers too. Here's a link to the full song if you want to listen:

Full version of Poison KISS

Ah, I love good anime music. And ugh, fangirl issues! *fans self*

Not to say Mamoru and Kisho aren't slouches either, as they have the best individual voices out of STARISH. But enough of the singing portion. How's the voice acting?

Just as good as the first season, in case you were wondering. The returning seiyuus do a great job at getting back into the swing of things, and some of the new seiyuus don't do too bad either. All of QUARTET NIGHT does very well, with Tatsuhisa and Tomoaki obviously being my favorites (Tomoaki sounds a lot like Decim as Camus). HEAVENS doesn't do as well voice wise unfortunately. but eh, whatever. I don't care about them.

New highlights from this season of Uta Pri include Kosuke Toriumi, Tatsuhisa Suzuki, Shouta Aoi, Showtaro Morikubo, Tomoaki Maeno, and Tsubasa Yonaga.

Verdict

At most moments in this season, the show got to be just as good as the first season. But for most of the time and overall, the season manages to struggle more than its predecessor. With unrealistic things happening, STARISH all together being one person, HEAVENS being oh so boring, and all of the cheesiness, it impacted this season more than I think it should have. Is it a bad 2nd season? Absolutely not. But it could have been better or just as good as Season 1. QUARTET NIGHT at least made it slightly better for me.

As for Season 3, I'm looking forward to it mainly for the development of the QUARTET NIGHT members. I'm not expecting anything to change for STARISH sadly, but meh, I'm going into this with mixed expectations, though mainly on the lower scale. I think Max kind of taught me something in warning for what I've heard of the not so good 3rd season:

Not taking this all of course, since Max is very cynical at most times.

Anyways, I'll be waiting for you Ranmaru. I haven't felt this much liking to a side character in a long time.

Again, I apologize. These damn fangirl issues! *shuts fangirl mode off*

Score: 7.5/10

Positives:

RAN-RAN!

QUARTET NIGHT have more personality than STARISH do as a group.

Good progression for some previously introduced characters.

Nice animation.

Some interesting events take place.

Grew to like Cecil a little more.


Negatives:

More "so bad it's bad" moments that outweigh the good.

Uninteresting rivals.

Score is still very boring.

Some aspects to STARISH's music become unrealistic.

K-On! Review

K-On! Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers of the first season of K-On. If you wish not to know some events in the story, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please leave the page, since I don't want to damage a watching experience for you.

With that said, thank you, and onto the review:

After I re-entered the anime world after a good 2 to 3 years off, this was one of the first shows I watched. I found it to be a great show with lots of entertainment and was overall just nice to watch. However, I don't remember if I finished it or was close to doing so. Flash forward 3 years later, and I was hoping to get a good chance to re-watch it. That opportunity presented itself when I found out my library carried the series thanks to Sentai re-releasing it back in September of last year after Bandai lost the license. This also worked for my vacation as well, considering I could watch some episodes in the car between destinations.

Besides also watching the 2 OVA episodes, I think I fully completed the series this time. So, what did I think? Was it just as good as the first time?

Well, yes it was. I still find K-On! to be a great slice-of-life anime that's very charming in its own way. All of the characters have very entertaining (at points) in conversations, and it isn't bad to not have a main story once in a while in anime. However, K-On! still has its few problems, such as the personalities not being as good as when I first watched it, band "crises" not actually being that, and a few other problems. Besides that though, I have another slice-of-life anime that manages to hold well for me, and I hope I can see more.

Time for our jam session. This story's in the bag:

Story

Yui Hirasawa has recently just entered high school, but doesn't really know what club to join. Well, sure she has several options, but the decision is SO hard. There's a lot of interesting clubs Yui, I can understand your pain.

Meanwhile, Ritsu Tainaka decides to drag her friend Mio Akiyama into the Light Music Club, only to find out that it will be disbanded if they don't get 4 members by the end of the month as all of the old members graduated. Later, they convince Tsumugi Kotobuki to join as well so their membership goes up to 3. Now since we have a bass, keyboard, and someone who plays the drums, it's now time to find a guitarist to join the ranks!

After putting up posters, Yui finds one of them on a bulletin board outside. Misunderstanding the term "light music", thinking she can get by by playing castanets, Yui realizes that they are actually looking for a guitar player. This is a bit of a pickle, considering Yui can't play guitar at all. Though after arriving in the clubroom, the other 3 convince her to join the club, and Yui resolves to learn the guitar.

Throughout the 1 and a half years that this show travels in time, the girls perform a few live shows, get a club adviser, get better at playing overall, and manage to get a new member in their second year at school. What else will the girls learn throughout the year, and what problems will they have to face? Let's find out, shall we!

This is how the main 4 meet each other, and how their bond grows. Like many slice-of-life shows, this doesn't have an overarching plot, and that's fine. The girls still have great chemistry, and have funny conversations while dining on sweets and tea in the clubroom. My main problem is that the characters don't really change or evolve as the series goes on, and I think it was needed in a way. Yui is still the same Yui as she was introduced from day 1, and the characters don't really go through any crises as a band.

Also, the band dynamics aren't as good. Sure, they play off each other and have good chemistry as I mentioned earlier, but something's lacking when they perform. It may be the fact that the main characters are mainly just one thing in personality rather than having more depth, which is fine for a slice-of-life. Also, it feels like Yui and Mio only really matter on stage. I do think if they had a more interesting balance in their personalities and made sure that Tsumugi and Ritsu involvement on stage, it would have made this anime perfect. Well, at least we have Mrs. Yamanaka for that, since she's the surprising one.

The OVA episodes were also pretty good, but did get a bit boring at parts. I preferred the Winter Days one over the Live Show.

Character bio time!

Characters

The Light Music Club sure are an interesting bunch of girls that come together, all with different personalities and quirks to each other to create hilarity.

Our lead, Yui, shall be up first:

Besides Ritsu, Yui is a member of the club who is highly energetic and a bundle of joy the majority of the time. She nicknames her guitar Gita after buying it, and eventually becomes excellent at playing it. This is slightly unrealistic to me, considering I've been playing guitar for 4 years and haven't gotten to the level she has yet, but mastering it in such a short time? I don't know whether to be shocked or jealous.

Besides playing lead guitar, Yui is also on main vocals. She can be a little bit of a klutz, and spaces out from time to time, but when pushed hard, she can achieve great things and grades. Her younger sister Ui acts more mature than she does, helping take care of her since their parents are always on business trips. She also has something similar to Stocking and Orhime, as when she eats food, she typically doesn't gain weight. Though Stocking has it a bit differently though, since she can eat just sweets and her weight goes straight to her boobs.

As a main character, Yui's pretty funny and clever. Though her advancing in guitar may seem a tad unrealistic, I think she still has a great personality and lots of charisma. I found it to be pretty funny when she focuses so much on one thing that she forgets others. Even through her moments, I can still respect her since she just has high energy.

Mio's turn up on the stage:

Mio originally wanted to join the Literacy Club, but was dragged into the Light Music Club by her friend Ritsu. Not a bad idea for sure, because Mio is my favorite character in this anime. Though she is very mature and strict, especially when Ritsu's goofing around, she has her weakness. Her weakness is that she's scared of pretty much everything relating to horror. OMG, I can totes relate! I hate anything that creeps me out, but it's definitely not nearly as comedic as Mio's fears are.

She will often freak out if things involve ghosts, blood, any sort of injury she'll think will be disgusting, corn barnacles, and haunted houses. She also has the habit of getting nervous on stage, having to do lead vocals at the Light Music Club's first performance due to Yui getting sick, where she suffered from horrible stage fright. Another thing is that she purposely chose the bass since it's not the center of attention in the band. She also is the main songwriter.

I don't know what first attracted me to Mio. Maybe it was her look or how I could relate to her personality later down the line, or a mix of those two. I just think she's very charming and has a lot of good qualities to her that I like. She also has some flaws, which I can get behind, and she is very respectable.

Tsumugi's up:

Tsumugi is in my opinion the most bland out of the core set. Though I do really like how kind she is, it only takes a matter of time from where too much of just one element to a character makes them quite stale and forgettable. That lies in Tsumugi's case unfortunately, and I wish it didn't.

Besides being the keyboardist of the band and coming from a very rich family, Tsumugi is also responsible for bringing the snacks to each club meeting, such as dessert and tea. Her family also owns many summer homes in Japan (and one in Finland), though she prefers not to flaunt her wealth in front of her friends since she doesn't want special treatment. She also likes trying new things, and can occasionally break out of her shell, surprising Mio and often no one else. She is given the nickname Mugi by the others.

So overall, I don't really hate Tsumugi. I just find her to have the most boring personality out of the Light Music Club. I think she could have had a little more depth to her that would have made her interesting, but she's fine the way she is.

Ritsu's last up:

Ritsy is VERY hyperactive, and is Mio's childhood friend. She is the cause of some of her shyness, considering how much she embarrassed her throughout elementary school. She does get a bit jealous when Mio does become closer to Nodoka, Yui's childhood friend in their 2nd year. but I think that's because she's just really close to Mio herself. She plays drums in the band.

Besides being the person who kind of started this revival with Mio, she made herself the Club President, though she can be irresponsible with forms. She also likes picking on Mio, but doesn't quite know when to stop, so the others have to warn her about that. She is a ball of energy much like Yui, and they bond rather quickly.

I think Ritsu is the most enjoyable out of the club. Being the complete hyperactive person that she is, I can see how easy Yui and her bonded, and she also does justice to the show's humor, her moments of comedy being some of the best. I also liked how she can bring life to the cast, and has some great antics.

Other characters include Azusa, a first year student who joins up with the Light Music Club later on in the show, Yui's younger sister, Mrs. Yamada, who eventually becomes the club's adviser and is another great comedy character. Nodoka, Yui's childhood friend, and Jun, a girl who Ui becomes friends with in high school.

Animation

The animation for this series was produced by Kyoto Animation, also known for animating series such as Free! Iwatobi Swim Club, Air, and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya.

I've always liked this series' animation. Though the characters and the environments for most of the time do look pretty simplistic, it comes to life when they play music. Whichever song that the girls perform is perfectly synced to the animation, and the instruments have this really nice shine to them that caught my attention when I first watched this. Moments like these help me notice something unique in a show, and I think this is a great quality for K-On!

So overall, the anime does look pretty simple, but the instrument animation helps raise it for me.

Sound

The score for this anime was composed by Hajime Hyakkoku, who has also produced scores for animes such as Gugure! Kokkuri-san and Saekano.

Much like the score for Gugure! Kokkuri-san, K-On's score can be a little generic at parts, but there are some nice pieces in the score to make it at least somewhat memorable. But the songs stand out more than the OST does. Some of the lyrics are a little cheesy, but I think some of these can also be pretty cute. It's like Uta Pri in a way, the songs are pretty nice (not all BTW) despite some cheesiness in their lyrics.

I first watched this show in its English dub, and I still prefer it today. I did watch its first 2 episodes in Japanese when I first started rewatching it, and its not bad, but I'm more used to it in English. It's like Rosario + Vampire, though the majority of the Japanese voices in that show are intolerable. 

The dub is pretty good, and it doesn't even matter if they didn't dub over the songs. All of the actresses do respectively well at showcasing off their respective personalities, and I think Cristina Vee shows Mio's panicked side better than Yoko Hikasa for example. They still keep the suffixes for Yui and Mrs. Yamanaka, which still doesn't really work like Nyan Koi's dub, but it's less insufferable.

Highlights in the original Japanese so far are Aki Toyosaki, Yoko Hikasa, Minako Kotobuki, Asami Sanada, and Madoka Yonezawa.

Highlights in the English dub are Stephanie Sheh, Christina Vee, Cassandra Lee, Shelby Lindley, Christine Marie Cabanos, Karen Strassman, and Laura Bailey.

Verdict

Much like other slice-of-life shows I've seen, K-On! manages to bring a lot of personality onto the screen and into me.  I haven't encountered a bad slice-of-life show yet and that makes me happy. Hopefully this trend manages to continue, since this will still be one of my favorites, with Lucky Star on top.

I'm interested to see what will happen in the second season, because it's twice as long as the first season and should have more content. Speaking of second seasons, my next review will be one of them. Bring out the microphones guys!

Score: 8.5/10

Positives:

Great set-up for the series.

Core group of girls do have some good aspects to them.

Nice animation.

Good songs.

English dub is enjoyable to listen to,

Chemistry is superb between the girls. 

Negatives:

Band dynamics aren't as strong as I would have liked.

No real crises.

Characters don't really evolve.

Freezing Vibration Review

Freezing Vibration Review

Warning: The following review may contain spoilers of the second season of Freezing. If you wish not to know some events in the story, or simply don't wish to find out what happens in the series, please leave the page, since I don't want to damage a watching experience for you.

With that said, thank you, and onto the review:

Wow, that was fast! O_O It's been a month since I published the first season review for Freezing, and bam! Here's the second season review coming on the scene. Now I must say that I was looking forward to this season, as I've mentioned before. I saw some parts of the first few episodes on Youtube out of curiosity, and overall, this season looked like it would have a better story then the first season did.

But there also some comments on how this season wasn't as good as the first one. I wasn't sure exactly why, though it mainly had to do with mentions of Kazuya being shoved to the side, and the show not being as interesting overall. Of course, I had to see for myself to properly make an opinion. So, what did I get?

First off, to the people who I've seen constantly bashing this season on the MyAnimeList forums, I actually really liked this season, so:

I understand that the manga may be better than the anime adaptation, but I'll just have to wait and read it. But that aside, this season was again quite surprising and managed to be very good. The first half is certainly better than the first half of Freezing, not shying to get dramatic and make the viewers feel things. The second half does slip up a bit though, due to its pacing and not having as much of an emotional impact. Though overall, at most parts, this is another great example of a fanservice show that manages to not be annoying and can be quite enjoyable.

Some of the more negatives reviews of this season were right about Kazuya, but I'll address that more later. Let's start off with the story of this season:

Story

Kazuya, Satellizer, and Rana, our fabulous main 3 from the first season, are off on a helicopter to Alaska to help out with an new project headed by the organization Chevalier. This project is called the E-Pandora Project, or Evolution Pandora Project for its long name. This project allows girls who were not born with any Stigmata compatibility to have artificial Stigmata implanted inside of them to become Pandora. Kazuya and his Pandoras are invited to the base along with several other students from West Genetics and from other Genetics schools around the globe.

During the flight, they are called to defend an oil field from a Type S Nova who mysteriously appeared on the ground. After help from Chiffon and Elizabeth in defeating the creature, the girls discover that the Nova was a fake that was sent to test them. During the first press conference, Scarlet Ohara, the head of the E-Pandora project, confirms why Chevalier called Pandora and Limiters to the base. The purpose is for the scientists to collect data from the original Pandora to use to put into the E-Pandora.

So as you see, we have a rather interesting beginning, but more comes. Pretty soon, some of the Pandora question the treatment of the girls who volunteered for the project, and more comes when one of the main 3 E-Pandora, Jina Purpleton, turns into a Nova after the Mark IV experiment and has to be killed. Let's also include how the Secretary of Chevalier is pushing for Scarlett to keep on testing, even if she doesn't approve it.

Elizabeth decides to investigate into the matter, and asks her family to look into things. Satellizer feels the same way, though Elizabeth lets her know that it isn't her business to intervene. Due to Scarlett using her data to be inserted into Jina for the Mark IV test, Satellizer finds herself partially at fault because of this, and wishes to get her family involved. During a short spat, Elizabeth purposely shoots Satellizer in her arms and legs, and says to "go and cool off outside." This allows Satellizer to be able to go to Bali where her family is staying, even though she is supposed to get treatment back at West Genetics.

When Elizabeth's investigating goes haywire, Satellizer finds it her duty to get her family involved since Elizabeth failed. However, while at the mansion in Bali, Satellizer encounters someone she never wanted to see again, and that person is her half-brother Luis. Luis pressures Satellizer into being his toy again to have him talk to their parents, and Satellizer agrees, due to Luis's power over her. This leads to Luis trying to get Satellizer to stay at the mansion, and involves his Pandora, who is pretty much a replacement to Satellizer for his abuse, to fight her in a battle, which Satellizer wins. I'll discuss the outcome of this a little more when I talk about Luis later in my review.

Yeah, me neither Koko. But I don't want to give away TOO much per say. Besides, the outcome after the battle is a bit on the "Um, what?" side of things.

Meanwhile, back in Alaska, the Mark IV tests are still planned to go on. After them getting upgraded without Scarlet's authorization, Rattle is scheduled to be the next test subject. Since Amelia doesn't want any more of her friends to die, she asks Scarlet if she can be the subject again. Scarlet refuses, which then leads to a revolt at the lab between the E-Pandora and others. Which side will the Pandora take? Are they against the cause or for it? Who is right, and who is wrong? What are their reasoning for it? All of this leads up to some pretty entertaining fights, and one half climatic and anti-climatic battle. What will happen in the end?

Well, probably not something you expect. But overall, this was another great story for this season, especially in the first half. This season of Freezing isn't afraid to go darker than Season 1 went, but it actually does well with this. Most of the time, dark storylines don't work well with me, except in rare cases. This is one of those shows that manages to pull through with it in the right way, and doesn't overdo it to the point of scaring the s**t out of me,

After the Sibling arc wraps up with a lackluster defeat, the Rebellion arc doesn't go over as well in most moments. Don't get me wrong, some of these episodes I did really enjoy, but as a whole, this arc wasn't as good.

Some of the specifics behind a couple of the reasons will be discussed more later on, but a couple of the fights weren't really that engaging and interesting besides Cassie vs. Julia, and a bit of the Elizabeth vs. Charles one. The animation falls a bit in the second half, and some glaring errors aren't fixed in the finalized version. The pacing of Episode 11 is horrid at parts, often going WAY too fast in order to move the progression of the plot along, and it just generally doesn't have as much as a punch. Finally, Kazuya does pretty much nothing in this arc besides one thing.

These problems don't bury this show in a grave though. There were some great qualities to these episodes that I really liked, but this wasn't the best ending. All in all, the story was enjoyable yet again, and I was fascinated by most things.

Character time!

Characters

Among the returning characters that make a reappearance, some of the ones who didn't have as much screentime do get more development. The main person who doesn't get this is poor Kazuya the pushover. And as such, the anime treats him like this:

This isn't as bad for me, considering that I find the Pandora far more interesting than I do Kazuya. The majority of the people I've seen pretty much despise Kazuya to the moon and back, besides the video review that inspired me to watch this series in the first place. But because of this, his bond with Satellizer isn't as strong as it could be, though it hits its peak in Episode 7. Let's not forget that besides doing a couple of things to assist Satellizer, he pretty much does jack squat this entire season. 

Like I said earlier, not as big of a problem to me, though it makes his bond with Satellizer weaker. Also, we have some of the more interesting side characters that debut this season not appearing as much, such as Roxanne. But I rest my case.

First up is the most developed character out of the ones reintroduced, Elizabeth:

Probably one of the few screenshots where she isn't swimming naked or is just in the nude. But hey, I did my best. :)

Known at West Genetics as the Executor of Ingenious Schemes, Elizabeth is well-respected among the third-year students, and acts somewhat like a leader. She was the one who wanted to keep a close eye on Satellizer, but later dropped it after Arnett and Creo failed their fight against Satellizer and Rana.

In this series however, we see more of Elizabeth than what was displayed before. We see her in a more positive light here, and she plays a very important role in the overall story. Even though she has a tough stance for authority, she still feels the need to help out others who don't have as much power, otherwise known as noblesse oblige. She befriends Amelia, and eventually supports their fight to not be treated as guinea pigs. When she tries to get her family involved by investigating and doing a report on what's going on, it gets tracked by Chevalier and she is tortured through electroshock therapy. Chevalier also taints her family's name by getting them involved in a scandal.

Her Volt Weapon is known as the Stigma Satellite System, a pair of drones that are able to fire energy beams or create barriers. She also has a very strong relationship with her Limiter Andrei, who nearly sacrifices his life in her fight against Charles.

Over the course of the season, it's quite hard not to start to really like Elizabeth. There's many things about her that aren't shown in Season 1, and seeing them here was great. I really liked how she knew the risk of investigating Chevalier and what would happen to her and her family, but she still did it anyway. This take a lot of guts, and it wouldn't be something I would do. I also enjoyed it when she and Satellizer shared a little argument in Episode 9 after Elizabeth thanked her for her help. I honestly think that she was one of the best parts of this season, and it's easy to see why.

Amelia's up next to the plate:

Amelia Evans is the core girl out of the E-Pandoras, and acts as their leader. She, according to herself, is three times stronger than the other E-Pandora when asked about it before her mock battle with Elizabeth. Unlike Rattle or Jina, she is able to produce a Volt Weapon and fight with it. She is much like Satellizer with her determination, and how she wouldn't back down until she became unconscious during the mock battle after sustaining several blows to the head by Elizabeth.

The main reason why Amelia joined the E-Pandora program is to help out her younger brother, who is currently in a wheelchair back at home. Amelia was also the first E-Pandora to volunteer herself for the Mark III test that barely kept her alive, and deteriorated her hair color from red to silver, though she has a part of her hair that is still red. After Jina turns into a Nova from the Mark IV test and she learns that Scarlet is planning to continue the testing of it, she decides to lead a rebellion later on in the story. Their goal is to try and expose what's been going on in the lab by taking test doses of the improved Mark IV drug.

Amelia was my favorite out of the 3 main E-Pandora girls that we meet. Not only is she the one who gets the bulk of the speaking lines, but she is also a very responsible leader, and has trust for her fellow comrades. Elizabeth and Satellizer grow to respect her for her personality, and her effort in trying to showcase what's been happening behind closed doors. Also, she has a nice look.

Up next, Scarlet:

Scarlet Ohara is the founder and the head researcher of the E-Pandora Project. Even though she disapproves of the E-Pandora being treated horribly, she has to follow orders anyway. This is because she believes her work will redeem the girls who had to die during testing.

Besides working on the E-Pandora project, she is also developing clones of the original Pandora Maria Lancelot. She has always believed in using Marie's genes to create artificial Pandora, which back in the day, was outed by Gengo Aoi, who she used to work for. After being asked to leave, she still decided to develop the project on her own. It is only when they start activating in Episode 11 where she recalls something that Gengo told her when she brought it up to him, about this work being like the building of the Tower of Babel. The way she realized this too little too late made me have a deep eye roll.

Scarlet's not a bad character, but she's clearly not the standout of the new characters. I found her to be a little robotic at times, and I kind of wanted her to take a little more defiance to Spencer regarding the treatment of the E-Pandora, and finding out that she was doing another experiment along with the E-Pandora Project kind of feels like a slap in the face to the E-Pandora, and it doesn't really feel like she cares about them. Anyways, moving on.

Okay, Luis is last. Are you guys ready for the pitchforks?:

This symbolism, all of the symbolism in this arc. Those chains doe! More will come with that in the Animation section. But now, let's talk about Luis, and why he's a bit of a conflicting character.

Now, Luis first appeared in Episode 7 of Freezing in Satellizer's flashback sequence before she kicks Arnett's ass afterwards. Luis is the younger half-brother of Satellizer and the youngest in the El Bridget family. Immediately after seeing Satellizer, he loathes her, and beings to torment her. This tormenting leads to sexual assault, thanks to Luis threatening to tell his mom to kick her out if she doesn't follow what he says. After Violet asks Satellizer to leave the mansion for a bit, she winds up back there due to the E-Pandora project, where she reencounters her worst nightmare.

Luis may look nice and friendly in his first appearance, but this doesn't last long at all. After assaulting Satellizer again to break her, he tries to wedge Kazuya and Satellizer apart, and keep her at the mansion. It's after the assault where Luis's outer appearance starts to change, with him looking way more sinister than at first glance, and donning a chain-like necklace (LOLwesopunnymoresymbolismya'll!). Of course, we have to remember the bond between Satellizer and Kazuya since it's kind of been left in Aisle 2 for a bit, so it's not going to be THAT easy Luis.

Overall, Luis does have good tactics. Despite being a complete douchebag who only views Satellizer as a puppet (this is also true with his Pandora, Holly), he knows Satellizer's weak points, so that's a plus. But let's be real, he isn't supposed to be a likable character, and he sure isn't one. During Satellizer and Holly's fight, he constantly mentions about how Satellizer is weaker than Holly (then again, Satellizer is able to fight despite the injuries Elizabeth inflicted in her. Perhaps fast healing?), and how she won't even beat her. It's fine if he did this once, but oh no, he does it several times to the point of annoyance.

And that's not even the worst part. The worst part is when he realizes that he can't control Satelizer anymore once she beats Holly. Then, knowing he is now alone (OF COURSE HE IS! *sarcasm*) he pitches himself off a cliff. Holly jumps off with him in order to save him, and then he realizes that Holly's been by his side the entire f**king time, and now they're both going to drown. Thankfully, Kazuya and Satellizer manage to rescue both of them, and BAM! Complete 180 redemption! YAY! CUPCAKES AND ROOT BEER FOR EVERYONE!

*deep sigh* Seriously?  At least it's better than Laxus's redemption, since he is boring to tears and no reason was given at all for his new bright light and how we can respect him now. But still, I don't understand how Satellizer can instantly forgive Luis after they rescue both him and Holly. It's going to have to take time, considering the torment that Luis put her through. So the redemption was just unrealistic.

Other characters include Holly (Luis's Pandora), the return of Dr. Gengo Aoi and his assistant, Roxanne Elipton, my favorite out of the new Pandoras of this season, Charles Bonaparte, Julia Munberk, Marks Spencer, and the 2 other lead E-Pandoras, Jina and Rattle. We also get to see Satellizer's half-sister and mother in the present, and her half-father.

Animation

The animation for this series was once again produced by A.C.G.T, also known for Seven of Seven, Koi Kaze, and Kino's Journey.

For the most part, the animation is on par, and if not better at moments than it was in Season 1. Facial expressions are very good up close, and there's a lot of pretty backgrounds. The chain symbolism in the Siblings arc is probably the stand-out of this season for me, as it looks really cool and had a great impact on me. I really liked it when they rattled when Luis first showed up.

Of course, there's moments in the latter half where the animation starts decreasing in quality, even more in far away shots. Hair looks horribly detailed, faces look odd or off model, and it doesn't feel as polished. There is also moments where a character's hair is a color it's not supposed to be, and only Chiffon's is fixed in the final DVD version. Looks like Julia's Limiter didn't matter that much.

FUNimaton released their simulcast version onto Netflix, which I'm pretty sure is a mix between the censored and the uncensored versions. And if that's the case, the censoring for the most part is MUCH better and far less distracting then what I saw in Season 1. The censoring is mainly directed to bare breasts, which are most often covered by white clouds, slashes, or diamonds. An example is below:

Though there are some very odd censors in this that did make me laugh, mainly with the 2nd one that's shown here:

Yeah, that looks lovely. I mean, it's best to cover her head while you're at it too, right?

And also, this anime got a little something wrong that made me laugh so hard, and that would be a spelling mistake. This one's pretty hilarious too. I hope you're all ready for this:

I can't, I can't even with this. Even though I make typos in my videos all the time, those are accidental. I get this probably was too, but this should have been fixed. FAIL!

Overall though, another great animation effort from a mainly unknown studio.

Sound

The score was once again composed by Masaru Yokoyama, also known for his efforts via scores to Your Lie in April, Queen's Blade, and Hyperdimension Neptunia: The Animation.

Once again, the OST for Freezing is one of my favorite parts of this anime in general. It slays, has great emotional impact, and is just so enjoyable to listen to on its own. While some of my favorite pieces from Season 1 make a reappearance, some new pieces do as well. Here are some of my favorites out of those:

And now onto the topic of acting wise. This time, I was able to watch more of the English dub for this season, which has an ADR director switch and Jaime Marchi's voice as Rana pitched slightly higher. Besides a couple of things again, such as reaction sounds and some actors preforming poorly (well, mainly one), the dub is again quite good, as with the Japanese. The new arrivals do pretty well for the most part, some of course better than others depending on the language, with a few sounding awkward or a bit robotic at parts.

New highlights in the original Japanese are Aimi Terakawa (also the singer of the The Ambition of Oda Nobuna theme), Rikako Yamaguchi, Hisako Tojo, Takashi Matsuyama, Fuko Saito, Suzuko Mimori, Izumi Kitta (another character for her! First a third-year at West Genetics and now an E-Pandora. Also, there's a scene where she and Suzuko talk to each other as their characters, and I kept on getting serious Japanese Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash vibes), and Yuuki Kawahara.

New highlights in the English dub thus far are Tia Ballard (officially credited in this season as such. She's fantastic as Elizabeth), Keith Kubal, Austin Tindle (brought more of the nastiness that Kenji Nojima didn't have so much of to light), Felecia Angelle, Angela Chase, Megan White (who might also be credited as Megan Vanderpluym in D-Frag, considering Charles's voice sounds like Sakuragaoka from that show), Sarah Wiedenheft, Krishna Smitha, R. Bruce Elliot, David Wald, Whitney Rodgers (who does FANTASTIC at showing more of her emotional range since Yozora and Chitose are more dry characters who don't have that), Megan Shipman, and John Swasey.

Verdict

I do get why some people would say that this season of Freezing is weaker, but I think some are to quick to bash it because they view it as a horrible adaptation. In my opinion, without reading the manga, I would say this season is on par with its first. Yes, this season does have its problems, more mainly in the latter half, but it doesn't make a full impact unlike other second seasons I've seen.

If you were a fan of the first season, I would recommend watching this one as well. With that said, I'm curious to see if there is going to be a third season, since I hear there's more exciting stuff coming up.

Score: 8/10

Positives:

Story is quite good once again.

Side character development for people introduced in first season.

Score is fantastic, as always.

Symbolic animation in Sibling arc.

Close-up animation is nice.

Very enjoyable first half.


Negatives:

Luis's "redemption" is unrealistic.

E-Pandora Rebellion arc not as strong.

Dip in animation quality during E-Pandora Rebellion arc.

Kazuya does jack squat this entire season.