The World God Only Knows II is the second season based upon the manga of the same name. It continues from where the first left off. The high level summary is that the protagonist, Keima, is a heavy gamer specializing in dating sims. One day, he encountered a demon called Elsie and forms a contract such that he has to help capture loose souls that had escaped from hell. These loose souls hide themselves within girls' hearts, feeding off their emptiness and negativity. In order for the soul to reveal itself and be captured, Keima has to win the girl's heart, thus filling it and forcing the soul out. This second season starts off with exactly the same structure as the first. Another girl turns up with a loose soul possessing her.
There is a slight difference as now, we start to see these girls before they had souls inside them, so that we can see the effects the loose soul has on their personality. Keima will then form his plan to conquer the girl and capture the soul. After the first girl is won though, the anime shuffles things up soon enough with a new demon arriving. All this time, we had only Elsie to determine what demons were like, and what she had to say as to how the loose soul business was structured. The new demon, Hakua, is much more knowledgeable than Elsie. Hakua reveals a lot more interesting tidbits about the loose souls, the underworld and how demons have to go to a special school to qualify for capturing souls.
The other conquests afterwards are different from the typical ones you've come to expect. For each one, Keima has to plan a strategy to target that girl's unique trait, which helps keep things fresh. However, despite showing Keima scheming, the viewer is never really left impressed since the ways things slow into place isn't clever or planned out from the start (that is to say, Keima is more reactive than proactive). In terms of girls featuring in the second season, the first is a martial arts master who doesn't want her feminine side to be dominant. The second is a demon who's Elsie's classmate and the top student at the demon school. Then there's a girl who's in love with someone else and finally a student teacher who is overly passionate.
Returning characters have bigger roles, including those that Keima had already won the heart of before. Thus this second season shows off the after effects that even when the girls have lost their memories, they have still changed for the better and have lingering feelings for Keima. With that being said, the new characters aren't as memorable as the first season's, maybe because they're not your super stereotypes anymore or maybe it's that the structure of the plot is starting to become repetitive and predictable. However, the plot does try a few new things such as how after a particularly tough encounter, it starts to cause Keima to question himself and his way of living. Or how it makes you wonder with Elsie's lack of knowledge, how did she make it this far.
There are less filler episodes than the first season which is welcome as they were usually the weirder moments of the anime. The most interesting subplot is probably the last one with the student teacher Nagase. With Nagase's portrayal, you question how can someone so positive and passionate about their role have enough emptiness for a demon? Keima is likewise stumped in how to appraoch the conquest and as bit by bit, Nagase's past is chipped away, you realize that there is a little bit more depth to the character than first impressions had revealed. By the end, you will be surprised at feeling happy and sad for the character. It is highly recommended to have some degree of gamer knowledge and have already watched a few well-known anime as The World God Only Knows references those a lot.
The final episode is especially heavy in the anime and game references, which started off as feeling like another filler episode where nothing much happens. It ends up turning out to be a pretty good parody of a few well-known animes and has a really funny clash of ideals between the essence, staples and cliches of dating sims. The episode is then finished with an excellent song that gives a strong emotional impact. Just like the first, the ending confirms a third season. Overall, The World God Only Knows II continues on with what made the first season enjoyable. While there were periods where it felt like it was going down the path of being repetitive and predictable, it just manages to avoid that with various deeper developments.
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