The second season of Seraph of the End is again at 12 episodes long. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where virus killed off most (if not all) of the adult population, and monsters known as Horsemen of John roam the streets. However, these monsters are not the focus, rather, it is the vampires, and there is a currently a war between the remaining humans and the vampires. Vampires take humans as livestock as they require their blood, but the end of the first season has shown that humanity has done some cruel things as well, partnering with demons to obtain their power and match the vampires, as well as other types of experimentation.
Following Yuichiro, along with the rest of his squad mates Shinoa, Yoichi, Shiho and Mitsuba, they are part of the army that battles against the vampires. For newbies, they’re pretty tough and abnormal, in that they contracted with a demon of a higher tier. Continuing directly from last season’s finale, Yuichiro mysterious power he displayed is in question by pretty much everyone, and only Yuichiro’s mentor, Gurren, knows and he’s keeping it to himself. So in that aspects, it leaves that hanging in the background as it continues to introduce more powers provided by their demons.
The first half of the season focuses a lot on the political side of the army and the vampires. Each side has their own individual factions vying for their own self-interests. If you thought the first season was melodramatic, it’s even more so here, with a heavy dose of cheesiness. It tries to give epic moments but comes off as stereotypical and over the top. It constantly goes on about family and protecting each other, and Shinoa, more and more, is being reduced to someone who’s infatuated over Yuichiro, instead of the cool and snarky character back when she was first introduced. It gets worse when we see Shinoa not actually displaying any confidence when reporting to others in the army, whereas Yuichiro became the de factor leader. It’s just too different.
Yuichiro, as a character, continues to get worse as the season progresses. He had already shown these traits before but it is magnified here. His disregard for any sort of plan or authority, in order to just rush headlong into things and try to fight it out, is really annoying in the second half. Yes, we get that he will sacrifice and do anything for his “family” (i.e. his comrades), but when it gets to the point that whatever he does will only make things worse as he is so outclassed by his opponents, then it is idiotic and irrational. You end up not be able to rally behind Yuichiro, the protagonist, and the anime suffers as a result. The worst part is that there are no consequences for his idiot decisions, he’s still universally beloved by all the characters even though his foolishness gets many many comrades killed.
The setting of the post-apocalyptic world is only used for a cool-ish background (if that). Despite it being years since the “end” with buildings and vehicles overrun with nature, there are plenty of slick and clean vehicles to use, helicopters, good looking furniture, no shortage of resources like petrol, running water and electricity, and collapsed buildings next to the multistorey one that’s in perfect condition used as the headquarters of the human army. It stretches that setting too much when on the whim of the writer, they’ll just pull a sweet sports car or multitudes of army vehicles, whilst most of the characters are still fighting with melee weapons.
The halfway point in the season is when the characters start gearing up and engaging in the titular battle in Nagoya. It’s pretty much an all out battle between the humans and the vampires. Vampires are still shown to be physically superior but humans have created their own advantages, to the point now where they can dispatch them so easily, compared to last season where it took several members to take down even one. The battle sequences have improved a lot, and coupled with the rousing music, this leads to several solid scenes depicting victory and sacrifice.
The season finale promises the reveal of the titular Seraph of the End, and all the continual teasing of human experimentation etc etc. Unfortunately, like the rest of the anime, it’s too generic and as a result, the writing feels amateurish. There are continual power ups of the characters, and especially Yuichiro, who will pull power out of nowhere, and there’s no sense of caring on whether this makes sense or not from the writers. Mika’s appearance was teased from all the way back from the first season and yet there was no meaningful clash until the end of this season. The lack of consistency across the anime is a big flaw, and the ending leaves a lot to be desired.
Overall, Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya is more of the same. If you liked the first season, then you’ll like this one. It is a fairly generic anime though, it tries to take all the elements that made other anime successful and merge them into one, but it does it in such a clumsy and amateurish way that it destroys any credibility. The constant mention of Yuichiro’s motivation to protect his family, his idiotic brashness, the continual increase in power, and the lack of any consequences (or even just logic), significantly holds back the anime. The only saving graces are the music and the animation.
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