Miss Monochrome The Animation 2

Welp, I ended up watching more knock-off Miku, and I'm surprised how much better this is than the first season. I think it helps that the story focuses more on the business side of becoming an idol. Plus, the length of the episode has nearly doubled! This definitely feels like the animation studio has gotten the hang of things when it comes to this franchise. They even fixed mistakes that were in the earlier episodes, like how in the first episode the robot vacuum suddenly talks but then they remove that in the next episode. It also helps with their experiments using a play on ... words, such as the multiple definitions of an album and how they initially go on tour.

Episode 2 was my favorite episode - they did the Tokyo Drift! I was surprised that the robot vacuum suddenly gained magical transformation powers, but it fit very well in the context of that scene. I do wish that they stopped making Yayoi-tan so clumsy all the time, though. I find her constant tripping on nothing to be a bit annoying.

Episode 8 was weird. They probably needed to pad for time. I recommend skipping that episode.

The ending was somewhat satisfying, however Mana still owes Miss Monochrome from the first season!

I realize that I didn't talk about the music in the first season. However, considering that there was only one song, I don't have much else to say, other than the repetition was annoying. However, there are quite a few songs this season, and I enjoy them more than the song in the first season. Again, it felt like they were getting the hang of things this season. It feels like everything has more direction, from the anime to the music. Music theory-wise, I enjoy the ending theme, but I also enjoy the opening theme for its lyrics.

I still have no idea how she became so popular around this time, but I'm glad I enjoyed this one a bit more. Best part is you don't need much context from the first season in order to get into this one. All you need to know is she wants to become an idol, and you don't have to worry about the rest. There's just one more season in the main storyline, then a couple OVAs and the music clips. I'll let you know how those go!

To kick things off, I presume that you - the person reading this - has watched the first season of Miss Monochrome: The Animation. In that case I,ll get straight to business.

Miss Monochrome: The Animation 2 continues the story of Miss Monochrome, Maneo manager and Ruu-chan. Each episode focuses on one of the aspects of super idol life, like touring, fanbases, merchandise and so forth, much like the first season.

Each episode lasts longer than last season, allowing for better plots for the individual episodes. The show is as light-hearted and funny as ever, and all in all I'd like to say that Miss ... Monochrome: The Animation 2 does what the first season did, but even better :D

An enjoyable watch!

The Japanese T-Pain is back! Miss Monochromosome returns to bring us longer episodes! More songs! More rope to hang ourselves with! Yet despite my trepidation at returning to a short that I hadn't enjoyed previously, it seems something happened in the last two years that means this Miss Monochrome was actually a somewhat enjoyable watch (maybe it was the GF:Beta cameo? Maybe not).

Season two of Miss Monochrome picks up where 2013's story left off. Left penniless after being conned by Mana-chan out of her fortune, Miss Monochrome now lives in a tiny, tumbledown room with a newspaper bed with only her charging station, her job ... at the convenience store & her faithful robovac Ruu-chan left. But those setbacks clearly haven't put a dent in her determination to pursue her dream of becoming a top idol, so she's back on her feet with a plan to make an album & go on tour. If only she knew where to start.

The changes between season one & two of Miss Monochrome are pretty much all for the better. The story this season has a much more relaxed pace than in season one, which struggled with its shorter run time & less focused story to feel like more than something stuck in front of a music video promo. The longer length of each episode means that each story has more time to be setup & carried through, & since most of the characters in season one return to season two it means less time is needed for character introductions. It's also clear even before the announcement of season 3 that season two really shouldn't be viewed as a complete story in itself, which explains why its climactic episode feels like a mid-season finale rather than an actual ending.

The humour also seems to have improved noticeably. References are given more weight than just a passing quote or remark, & some episodes indulge in some particularly absurd scenarios. My personal favourite was when Miss Monochrome is briefly whisked away on a whirlwind romance - sorry, "friendship"- by a giant battery (Shocking, isn't it?) There are some atrocious puns (promoter...pro-motorist...Initial D reference opportunity!) & it does suffer the usual anime problem of repeating a joke ad nauseum, though.

The returning characters are all more or less as they were. Maneo continues to be Miss Monochrome's well meaning but not all that helpful boss & manager. Mana shows up now & then to remind everyone that she's happy to help when the opportunity to defraud presents itself. Kikuko is there to offer encouragement when her & Miss Monochrome's paths cross, & Ruu-chan continues to be the little robovac that could. The only noticeable change to the existing characters is Miss Monochrome seems to have learned sarcasm between season one & now, but not how to express it in a way others can pick up on it. This ties in with the main new character introduced to the show, Yayoi, who is a gullible klutz that will all too eagerly rush out to do whatever ridiculous thing Miss Monochrome tasks her with. The other main addition is Akiko, a coworker at the convenience who can also play a wicked guitar riff. Overall they're an enjoyable bunch to watch, though Yayoi's insistence of saying "I'm such a klutz" every episode gets annoying pretty fast.

It would be amiss to talk about Miss Monochrome without mentioning the music, since that's what it's really all about. I won't pretend to be a fan of what's normally considered idol or vocaloid music, so I wouldn't say any of it was particularly enjoyable. However, it all seemed okay for what it is & the OP in particular had some charm to it that meant I didn't skip it after the first listen. The same can't be said for the ED, though. Not because of the song, which was alright for what it was. However, the ED sees the return of the 3D Monochrome performing a mocapped dance routine & it's even more the stuff of nightmares than last time. The mocap is good enough that the body moves like an actual person, which makes Miss Monochrome's oversize anime head bobbling about on top of her shoulders look like something out of a horror film.

Much to my surprise, Miss Chromosome 2 turned out to not only be an improvement on season one, but actually rather enjoyable to someone who didn't really like it previously. It's not without its problems, but it has it's charm & the focus of lighthearted comedy rather than the usual teen melodrama that usually makes up idol stories is a refreshing change. Will have to wait & see if season three continues this, but for now Miss Chromosome 2 is a enjoyable first half & a notable improvement on what came before.