Nanbaka's second season starts off with an episode that restates a certain quote and reinforces the meaning of this quote multiple times during the episode - "Nanbaka is a gag anime", Nanbaka has always been at its best when it's portraying the daily lives of our eccentric innmates and guards of Building 13 in all their fun, frolic, heavily contrasted colors, sparkles and comedic glory. The occasional appearance of characters from other buildings adds some nice diversity to the regular formula delivering an overall fun and enjoyable experience. After a first episode that seemed to draw focus to the show's best element, it felt as
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though the show was signifying a return to it's roots as gag anime and this most certainly felt like good news to me. After the serious action oriented episodes of the middle half of the first season, this focus on comedy was exactly what I felt the series needed. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the second season of Nanbaka is far more serious and action-oriented than the first season ever was.
Of course I'm not saying that the action is Nanbaka is bad, in fact the action scenes are actually really cool at times and are pretty enjoyable to watch. Though sometimes, this seriousness and over the top superpowers that do not in the least seem anywhere near believable given the setting and nature of the show can require some immense suspension of disbelief. The weird thing is, the shift to a serious tone is in a sense what allows the comedic episodes that follow post the seriousness to be so effective, this is especially true when you take note of the last 3 episodes of the first season which were both really funny and even heartwarming. Ultimately, this comedy-serious-comedy structure of Nanbaka works and is what makes the show what it is.
Going into the second season, I expected the same thing from it, I hoped they'd keep the action and seriousness to a minimum with focus on the comedic side of the series, but boy I didn't think I'd be this wrong. In all honesty, the first two episodes of this season are the only ones which can even be remotely considered comedic and fun episodes, from the 3rd episode all the way to the very end the show becomes more action-oriented and all serious again. Once again, this doesn't mean that these episodes are bad. There are some really good stories wrapped within this serious arc that deals with the escape of a former guard captain who was imprisoned for murder. Samon's (Monkey Guard Captain) backstory, Upa/Liang's backstory and some of the past history of the prison are pretty cool. There is a decent amount of character development for Jyugo as he learns to grow out of his insecurity and confidence issues but his constant musings and the fact that he gets antagonized by certain characters during this phase can get a little annoying. At points, it also feels like the show is trying too hard to showcase this arc as something special when in reality, it's really nothing ground breaking. The battles themselves as I stated above are still cool to watch and while all these superpowers seem unbelievable, you can't deny that they're quite entertaining to watch. With all that said, the main issue during this whole action/serious oriented phase is the fact that this phase is dragged on endlessly to span over the rest of the season. This ends up as a complete contradiction to the expectations set up by the first episode - "Nanbaka is a gag anime" seems to have been completely ignored. This is not to say that there is no comedy during the main arc, there is some comic relief at points but this feels like the kind of comedy you'd find in a Battle Shonen not a 'gag' anime like Nanbaka and often this comedic relief just falls flat. As you witness this over and over again, the show starts to feel tedious and at points it feels like the series just discarded it's original identity to try and become something else.
Summing up, I honestly felt the first season was much better. It had a better structure and the episodes played to the strengths of the series, the action had an element of fun to it in the form of games and competitions. Nanbaka's second season has none of this and is in a sense nothing more than what you can call an arc of an action anime which ultimately downplays the comedic strength of the series. If you liked the action oriented episodes of the first season you will probably like this season as well. However, if like me, you like Nanbaka for the comedy then you will most probably be disappointed.
With all that said and done, you know what the worst part of this entire season is? The arc is still not over. So if we do indeed get a third season, it's just gonna be more of the same action Nanbaka. All I can do now is to hope and eagerly await the day Nanbaka truly returns to it's roots as
'Nanbaka is a gag anime'. (Both me and Mitsuru cannot stress this enough XD)
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Mar 22, 2017
Nanbaka's second season starts off with an episode that restates a certain quote and reinforces the meaning of this quote multiple times during the episode - "Nanbaka is a gag anime", Nanbaka has always been at its best when it's portraying the daily lives of our eccentric innmates and guards of Building 13 in all their fun, frolic, heavily contrasted colors, sparkles and comedic glory. The occasional appearance of characters from other buildings adds some nice diversity to the regular formula delivering an overall fun and enjoyable experience. After a first episode that seemed to draw focus to the show's best element, it felt as
...
Dec 22, 2015
Hidan no Aria AA
(Anime)
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When they first announced a new Aria anime I assumed we might be getting a sequel to the original Hidan no Aria, Granted the original was by no means a great show but it was at least half decent. However instead of a sequel we got something called Hidan no Aria AA a spin off series that takes place around the same time.
Spin off's are normally an outcome of a surge in popularity for the main or parent show, From my viewpoint I don't really think the original Hidan no Aria was popular or even good enough to adapt a spin off but nevertheless we ... |
