GAKUSEN TOSHI ASTERISK 2

DESCRIPTION

CAST

ANIME ActionGakusen Toshi Asterisk
NOVEL ActionGakusen Toshi Asterisk
MANGA ActionGakusen Toshi Asterisk

REVIEWS

• 

  CodeBlazeFate

  38/100
  This second season somehow turned being awful into an accomplishment. I'm not sure whether to be impressed or depressed

  "Too little, too late" is a painful phrase.

  After 12 episodes of broken nonsense, this show somehow got a second season that attempted the impossible: being a competent sequel to The Asterisk War. By some miracle, it succeeded. Not to say that this show is even remotely good now, but this second season somehow turned being awful into an accomplishment. I'm not sure whether to be impressed or depressed.

  Part of why this second season managed to improve upon the first one is that it actually makes an attempt to have dynamic characters, giving every character something to do, posing an actual threat for the main character, and attempt slightly more meaningful character arcs. It doesn't necessarily succeed in many of these areas, as the asspulls are still as frequent as the world-building is disastrous. However, for the first time, I felt slightly engaged in what was going on. The new characters such as Sylvia had genuinely cool designs and personalities, and some of the returning characters that barely got any screen time last season actually become genuine threats that bring actual life to this show during the end of the show's tournament arc. Hell, the final bosses of the arc --two literal robots-- have some actual chemistry and character development, both of which were missing in this franchise. The irony here is adorable.

  Sadly, the tournament arc ends around episode 8, the show spends its final episodes trying at giving someone other than our main lead an emotional arc that was set up in the first season. The foundation of the first season had already collapsed in on itself, so seeing Julis' childhood friend that got teased in the early parts of season 1 was almost enough to keep me invested for an episode...before nearly falling asleep. None of the actually worthwhile side characters like Sylvia or the two robots Ayato would fight in the Phoenix Festa tournament make an appearance, and we're left with our dry harem, which only got marginally better than the first season. It's far too late to flesh any of them out now as we already spent an entire season enduring them as obnoxious caricatures with nothing going for them. There's no way for me to care about Julis's problems or Claudia's sneaky advances on Ayatofu. Even seeing some of the more neglected side characters Ayato hung out with in season 1 team up wasn't enough to get me to care about them, and that's because of season 1. If these characters were written as anything more than sleazy caricatures of archetypes beforehand, then maybe seeing the show try to do interesting things with them would have been more satisfying. It also would have helped if the show's idea of character development was natural growth instead of making Kirin radically more stern and mature than before out of nowhere. Sadly, all I can do is attempt to cherish what obligatory efforts the writers made to make us care about a couple of mediocre side characters.

  While the awful artwork and art style mostly hasn't changed, they are a few moments of impressive visuals, such as the very first scene of the season. The sequence where Sylvia sings to Ayato is also pretty nice, as it's both a visual and narrative highlight for the show. Sadly, the fights are still terrible overall, as like last time, they're either incredibly clunky or immensely difficult to follow. There's no real middle ground here. The closest they come to that would be the final fights of the two major arcs of the season, which are admittedly entertaining, if not necessarily well-animated.

  The music is still incredibly mediocre, with no memorable OSTs whatsoever. They do have the courtesy to throw in a new vocal track and a few new pieces of background music, but the only highlights are the songs that open and close each episode. The OP for this season --"The Asterisk War" by Shiena Nishizawa-- is incredibly frantic, albeit a tad unwieldy with the frantic techno beats in the chorus. Once again, it's the ED that shines compared to everything else, as Haruka Chigusa's "Ai no Uta -words of love-" is a catchy and relatively heartwarming piece with pleasant vocals and visuals of characters actually having fun for once.

  Sadly, this season is still not worth your time if you didn't already enjoy the first season. It tries to do what legitimately good sequels do, yet it fails thanks to its own incompetence and the borderline irredeemable failings of its predecessor. It's still a mess with largely terrible characters, nonsensical world-building, and asspulls galore. It still fails to animate good fight scenes. It still fails to be captivating for more than a few minutes at a time. At the very least, the attempt was there, which is more than I can say for the first season. That doesn't mean people like me are going to care since it's the sequel to The Asterisk War. No matter how good a sequel it may be, it would always be limited by the unsalvageable foundation that series built for this now dead franchise.

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• 

  LiyuuSix

  45/100
  The definition of the average-bottom tier anime

  __Summary : __ We have a lot to talk about here because I feel gutted, disappointed and disrespected about this anime; and for many many reasons. Lately I've been in that particular mood of eating every 12 episode anime in one day and I wish I never spent 2 days for this double season anime. Personally everything I found was bad, really bad but few things can be saved.

  ---

  #Gutted for such a boring story Story, or by any means the EXECUTION of the story, is almost pointless and broken many many times by stupid stuff. Don't get me wrong you cannot actually ask much from an anime from 2015 which is only about cool students fighting in a tournament, but even here we have to talk a lot, but here there were many other things which were damn interesting such as Julis' royal family or the full backstory of Ayato, which was completely insulted with no screen time. But let's put away all of this stuff _for now_. I'm mad, really mad, because this one is officially one of the worst executions of the story I've ever watched, and said by someone who often likes mid tier anime and enjoys everything, I'm really disappointed. Everything felt so flat, pointless and sometimes even rushed. There's NO fucking point on giving to the viewer such an interesting background of everything and then delivering such a shame; What happened to the cool Ayato's background story? Julius? Who is Kirin? Give to Saya some more personality! And what about Claudia? #The fights The duels at least were a little interesting, for sure not in season 1 because I almost fell asleep many times, but Season 2 was much better in almost everything and, I have to say, really big props for the first and second fights of S2 because I really loved them; they were actually good and almost epic. Other than that everything is just the same : slow pacing of the story, becomes boring and there are many useless plot twists. This, for me, is the worst part of all. The characters, EVERY SINGLE OF THEM, is POINTLESS and FLAT. There's no personality, nothing special about them if not the average stereotype : -Ayato was a boring MC with no personality, nothing interesting and overpowered without telling us the reason (at least yet) but instead becomes GOD in the duels. I mean are you joking right? He has such a cool and interesting background : his being so strong, her sister, his arrive at the school but you don't give my any answers? Why? -Julis was the only character I wanted to save, as she had some interesting stuff and actual character development. I'm feeling gutted that she didn't give us some proper explanations, such as being one of the best fighters in the school, but in the end she was good at least. -Kirin was boring, boring and boring. Just the average loli able to kill you physically and in the soul both because of the fighting abilities and because she is just a lolicon material. Other than that there's nothing, completely empty. -Saya was just the peak of the boring, even with the voice. Flat, no personality, not interesting at all and, as usual, overpowered. I truly cannot think any more than that. -Claudia was, how can I say, the most wasted character of all, maybe even more than Ayato because of two main things : she could've been one of the best antagonist I could've ever seen or one of the best supporters; but instead they loaded me with informations just in the last 2 minutes of the last episode, WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT. And now my usual space for the side characters which I will resume with just one person : **the maid**, MY GOD I HATE HER SO MUCH UNDER ANY ASPECT. If we forget about her horrible voice, she is just one of the most stupid characters in existence at this point, easily by that. Jokes aside every other side character gets forgotten at some point with no return, funny. #one of the biggest debates in history is this anime against Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, is this any better than Rakudai? In my opinion, no and not even close. Rakudai delivers a better story with better characters and some of the best fights I've ever seen, all of that with one of my all time favorite romance story and more than anything else, I love the MC of Rakudai. The definition of climbing from the bottom to the top. __Conclusions :__ Did I enjoy this anime? HELL NO I would NEVER recommend this to anyone on this planet, not even to my biggest enemy or ex gf; this is the ultimate torture. Story : 10410 Characters : 1/10 Music : 6/10 Arts and animations : 6/10 Personal enjoyment : 4,5/10
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