Bastard!! Ankoku no Hakaishin Part 2 (ONA)

Bastard is an ambitious anime that clearly shows the animation studio’s readiness to create a new classic.

It’s a shame it only remained a wish. It’s not a bad anime, but in the end, it wasn’t the success they hoped for.

The reason? The lack of a compelling narrative. It takes much more than a story based on an ancient curse and fierce battles to create an epic-level story.

At some point in the plot, the author loses the thread and focuses on sending monsters and more monsters to our protagonist, the legendary Dark Schneider, without any kind of plot or storyline.

This ends up, while not being a ... disappointment, boring and leaving Bastard in the drawer of animes that could have been incredible but weren’t.

THE GOOD. It has an interesting ending.

THE BAD. A repetitive narrative where the same plot is repeated over and over again.

I REPEAT. It ends very well, leaving questions for the next season

Heavy Male, Dork Fantasy Part 2.

The second coeur of Kingdom Hearts (What a faux pas! I’m keeping that in this review. Didn’t even realise I called Bastard!! Kingdom Hearts until I re-read the draft. Probably called it that because the show uses the phrase “the darkness” so many times) and honestly there’s not much else to say that I haven’t already said in my part 1 review so read that if you want something more in-depth.

It’s still refreshing to watch a pure dark fantasy without having to keep track of video game levels and skills which don’t matter because the protagonist ... is so overpowered. Of course, Dark Schneider is still the strongest, most handsome hero (self-proclaimed) of a dark wizard, but even he gets messed up by the forces of evil.

I will say that the weird charm this show had and the big, guilty pleasure smile I had during part 1 wasn’t felt so prevalently during part 2. There’s only too much hilariously cheesy 80’s dialogue, big titties, thicc thighs and large magic explosions you can take in until you start to focus more on the show's flaws, and this is coming from someone who loves all those things. Those flaws are the repetition in the explanation of exposition from main and minor characters, the not-great looking background art and characters, ninjas just not shutting up during fight scenes and I swear to god if I have to hear the name “Anthrasax: The God of Destruction” one more time I’m going to cast my own Halloween spell at LIDENFILMS and it will involve piss.

But despite its flaws that come from the age of the source material it is still entertaining in its own way. I couldn’t imagine what a pubescent teenage boy in 80s Japan reading this in manga form for the first time could’ve possibly felt. They’d probably be like “Dark Schneider is just like me” and then start sexually harassing their classmates and call themselves “the handsome hero”.

This is still not a show for everyone, but if you’re like me and like stuff like Arifureta for its audacity, then you’ll probably like this too.

6/10 It’s Okay *Thumbs Up*

The pacing of the story was already getting bad towards the end of part 1, but in part 2 it simply drops off a cliff. There's literally a 5-episode battle with a single villain. Just try to imagine that: A full 100 minutes of over-explained attacks that happen *extremely* slowly.
In fact, the entirety of part 2 is back-to-back fights, and not even good ones with funny moments or emotional depth. The sheer number of death fakeouts is simply insulting, and they make everything happening onscreen feel utterly inconsequential because a character being "killed" by an attack doesn't matter as long as they have plot armour.

All ... this time wasted on bad fight scenes means that all the comedy, emotion, and lewdness that gave part 1 its charm is mostly absent.