In Another World With My Smartphone 2 is the second season based on the light novel series, and again with 12 episodes. It continues the story of Touya as he lives in this another world with his harem. He is the ultimate wish fulfillment character as he not only has a growing harem, but he is also pretty much the most powerful person in that world. The season continues with him building up on that power, as he progresses on finding the rest of Babylon, a technologically advanced property, or laboratory, from someone in the past that had left it for him.
There are also the mysterious crystal beasts that had been showing up from time to time with a few more details being teased out to Touya. Otherwise, the rest of the season has Touya tending to his harem of fiancés. It can get a bit much, since Touya is the type of protagonist who has it good but tries to act chivalrous. This ends up coming off as annoying instead. The same goes for his constant increase in power, which can be hard to stomach as he gets it handed down on a plate.
Touya is humble to a fault here, and he can start crossing the line over to becoming annoying. He gets upgrades too easily, and when you have a protagonist that keeps getting everything their way, with little in the way of obstacles, it makes for a boring protagonist. Yes, he is the ultimate wish fulfilment character but at the same time, it starts to make you resent him, especially when the anime tries to make him act all innocent and awkward in the relationships he has with his harem.
Touya makes fast progress on his goals. Given that he manages to get almost the last members of his harem in the first few episodes of the season, he then finds the next few pieces of Babylon in subsequent episodes. It flies by way too quickly, not allowing the viewer to absorb what is happening. Before too long, he rapidly rose in influence, rank, and power. Having it be this speedy makes the anime’s shallow plot even shallower. It's severely lacking in substance.
Unfortunately, the relationships with his harem are shallow. All of his fiancés basically fall in love with him at first sight but lack the explanation and background of why or which parts of him they love. Again, it is shallow and could have been heavily improved upon if writer just put in the tiniest extra amount of effort. As it is, it’s hard to invest in the characters.
It’s not just the fiancés that have shallow personalities, as most other characters are too, with one element that dominates them. The problems that Touya faces are easily solved, and they are distilled into extremely black and white scenarios. The bad guys are always bad because they are bad in nature, while Touya will always be the shining knight that helps them. There’s no depth to the characters and this means it isn’t that satisfying when Touya easily dispatches them. There’s little thought and no consequences to his methods.
There is a little bit of promise where Touya begins to put into motion various plans and contingencies to fight the weird crystal monsters. It’s mostly regulated to the background though, from the powerful weapons to the giant robots. Still, at least there is something more than the harem he is amassing. The season finale lays it on even thicker than normal, where it can get too much. Yes, we know Touya is super lucky, but it all feels superficial.
The animation quality is average. There are many scenes where it is noticeable that the animators are trying to limit the amount of movement as much as possible. While it’s not a slideshow, it’s getting there. Since the anime is not too action heavy, it can get away with most of it. That said, whenever there is supposed to be action, the anime usually just cuts to the result, which can be jarring and obvious in what it is trying to do (i.e. not showing it).
Overall, In Another World with My Smartphone 2 is pretty much more of the same, so if you liked the first season, then you’ll like it here. The low budget animation can be distracting but given the anime isn’t that action heavy it manages to get away with it. The same can’t be said for the plot where there is barely any. Touya doesn’t have any challenges, and due to that, it’s hard to keep invested or keep rooting for him. The pacing is too fast, and girls fall in love with him at first sight, so all the relationships with his wives are underdeveloped.
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