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(Blanket warning for minor spoilers.)

What a shame - that's really all I can say at this point.

The second installment of Psycho-Pass - the riveting 2012 series which had all the makings of an intelligent psychological thriller - is terrible. There's no two ways about that. Considering that Urobuchi is merely supervising the sequel and not writing it, like he did for the original, the cracks show.

Being a sequel, Psycho-Pass 2 is susceptible to being compared to the original for obvious reasons and as such, it fails to deliver.

- SOUND (9/10): I enjoyed the OST used for the series and both the OP and ... ED are pretty fantastic. The OST in particular is excellent, especially with the orchestral pieces used to enhance dramatic tension. It was fantastic in the first season and this has been carried over to the second, which works for me.

- ART (8/10): Akira Amano's character design definitely has a couple of flaws - anybody who's read Katekyo Hitman Reborn can confer the same face thing, but it's a stylistic issue and a personal gripe for the most part. What I liked here is the minor design changes to reflect the passing of time. Shame that only Gino and Akane received these and not the rest of the cast. I liked the backdrops too and it's fairly the same as to what I'd come to expect from from the first season, including the gory shots of blood and guts.

The problem for me was perhaps the usage of CGI and how it momentarily distracted me, but it was otherwise pretty good.

- STORY (4/10): And here's where Psycho-Pass 2 begins falling apart.

The first season ends with the Sibyl System still in place and the initial problem still present. The second season deals with exactly the same problem as the first, but with about 200% less charisma and grace. Kamui's motives and his method of getting things done make absolutely no sense, Tougane starts off with obvious parallels to Kougami but falls flat at the end, and the less that is said about Mika's bumbling, the better.

Probably the second biggest oversight - after the cast of characters - is how often the previously established rules of the Psycho-Pass world are ignored and dismissed and, worse, how incompetent the MWBPS appear to be this time around. Sure, it's explained away as the collective Sibyl System's problematic judgement, but so is everything else. Psycho-Pass 2 is successful in establishing the fact that the Sibyl System is not perfect, but that in itself doesn't make it interesting or compelling.

Another problem is the frequent use of gore. Too many people blown to bits this time around, to the point that it feels like it's being used as a shock factor. Psycho-Pass doesn't shy away from difficult to watch scenes - let's consider the first episode of the first season, for one - but there's no purpose to them here. Virtually half of the secondary cast is killed off messily and there's no real emotional impact to their deaths, neither on the other characters, nor on the audience.

And, finally, probably something less people comment on but - fanservice. Male-centric fanservice to be specific, with Shion, Kunizuka and the 2nd Division's Aoyanagi being stripped down to their underwear. I have no problem with it since it's not very distracting, but I wish that they'd levelled the playing field with some female-centric ones. I mean, we got shirtless Kougami in the first season; I could've done with more of that. :P

- CHARACTERS (3/10): The meat of any good psychological thriller is it's story, brought to life with compelling and well-developed characters. What a shame that we get neither the story nor the characters.

Akane is perhaps the most interesting out of all of the rest of the cast, which is not saying much. Her growth and position as a respected Inspector is a good watch, a far cry from who she was at the beginning of the first series. I liked the little detail with the cigarettes, a good way to exhibit her attachment to Kougami.

The problem is that while Akane is a good character, the entire weight of the story is placed on her and the poor girl can't deliver while being exactly as pacifistic as she was the first time around. Akane needs a foil and for that we get three - Mika, Tougane and Kamui reprising the roles of Ginoza, Kougami and Makishima from the first season, and all of them fail at them utterly.

Kamui and Tougane's motives are lacklustre and they are explained via info dumps - something that automatically lessens their impact. Their development is non-existent and the chemistry between Tougane and Akane had potential, but it failed to deliver as such. Kamui's motives and actions have such laughable contradictions, and that's made even more annoying with Kamui being capable of doing nearly everything. Both Tougane and Kamui's methods of affecting a person's Psycho-Pass are explained, sure, but it's a hard swallow.

Let's not forget the side cast, which is mostly pushed aside. Shion and Kunizuka serve their minor roles to capacity, but the disappointment is the newer Enforcers, none of whom are given any room to grow. Explaining this away as the limitations of a shorter season is really no excuse - the show shouldn't introduce so many characters if it's not prepared to treat them right. Perhaps the biggest disappointment is Ginoza's treatment - he'd played an important secondary role in the first season, but he might as well not exist in the second. He's not used as well here and even though he gets his moments to shine, it's nowhere near enough development.

And, of course, the biggest beef I have with Psycho-Pass 2 - Shimotsuki Mika.

It's never explicitly stated at any point, but Mika played a role in the first season. She's nowhere near the same character though, and watching her bumble through the entire case is an exercise in frustration.

For the record - I didn't like Akane initially. She's easily one of my top three characters in the Psycho-Pass 'verse now, given how we've watched her grow as a person. I was expecting the same from Mika but, sadly, that does not happen.

The problems with Mika are numerous, but the one most obvious is her tendency to be snotty and high-handed, without actually having the talent to back it up. She talks back to her superior officer, undermines her decisions despite them showing results, ignores her Enforcer's advice and she can't handle situations effectively when actually placed at the helm (episode 4. Just... episode 4). All of this would be understandable if she were a fresh recruit but, nope, she's been working under Akane for a year and a half.

Mika is more concerned with her Psycho-Pass than she is about doing anything useful. Her only shining moment comes when she cracks the Tougane secret, but even that proves to be a bust. She becomes an accomplice, indirectly causes the death of a citizen, but she chooses to never take any responsibility. She serves herself for the most part and isn't developed at all - no talk about her past, her family, her circumstances. I couldn't empathize with her, because Mika blindly accepts everything about the Sibyl System, despite how fucked up it all is. Her conflict is non-existent and it only serves to prove that she's downright useless and incapable of utilizing her own agency.

Yes, her story-line is basically how an average Sibyl-System-grown citizen would handle being in the same situation as Akane. However, that alone doesn't make it interesting and/or exciting to watch. Mika is frustrating from the start to the end and one can't even ignore her, because she's a part of the main cast.

At least Makishima isn't completely ignored and is mentioned multiple times. The Kougami cameo was a nice touch, but I particularly enjoyed Akane-Jouji interactions and, well, Jouji in general. Perhaps one of the better things about Psycho-Pass 2 is that we get to watch Jouji work his magic.

OVERALL (4/10): Where the first season starts off slow then picks up momentum and ends on a high, the second does the same... except it all crashes and burns around the finale. Again, Kamui and Tougane were not compelling enough antagonists, the plot has holes, the characters are not developed well enough and then there's Mika. I imagine that the staff's intention was to make us feel sorry for her, but I couldn't do that with how much she frustrated me with her actions. I honestly wish there was a better character arc for her; it would've certainly elevated my enjoyment of the series a lot more.

Such a shame, because I really did want to like the second season. :(

To any enthusiasts of the original - just pretend that Season 1 is all that exists. The second certainly doesn't do well to live up to the first's legacy.

I have read my fair share of fantasy fiction and anything involving the demons tends to be on the darker side of horror and it is not usually fit for mainstream consumption. The ones that are mainstream, unfortunately, tend to be a mere shadow of the original.

Yeah, Beelzebub is nothing like that.

I wasn’t quite sure if Beelzebub would live up to its hype – despite the acclaim it has received. But within a few pages, it had me in splits.

To start with, Oga Tatsumi is a terror to be reckoned with. He picks up a strange green haired baby who, he’s informed, happens to be ... the son of the Demon Lord. Enter Hilda, the violent wet nurse; the Tohoshinki, the four big powers at Ishiyama High and Furuichi, the only normal guy.

Hilarious shenanigans ensue.

Aside from the ‘life raising a young demon lord’ thing, the other central plot point within Beelzebub happens to be power struggles on various levels but without the politics and with 100% more humour. Baby Beel and Oga seem to get inadvertently caught up in them and deal with it the only way Oga really knows – with sheer brute force.

They’re not kidding when they call him the ‘Strongest Delinquent’.

Probably the biggest plus point of Beelzebub is how it constantly delivers. I have read through 167 chapters and, so far, there hasn’t been a single one of them that I’ve disliked. It (literally) punches any conventional proceedings in the face – screw super-stretched out fights with ‘evil’ villains waxing eloquent on their greatness, Oga just nonchalantly takes them out with one of his attacks before they can do a thing.

The humour is not sophisticated – given that it’s a shounen, Beelzebub has a juvenile edge to it – but perhaps that’s what really increases its appeal. There no talk of adhering to the principles of Shounen Jump, there’s just a lot of bizarre situations which are brilliantly interspersed with even better character interaction.

Speaking of characters – practically everyone within the main cast is either: a) a Demon, b) a Delinquent or c) Furuichi. So, you have chock full of comic opportunities that are rarely wasted and each of the characters are interesting and do not grate the nerves in any way.

Furuichi provides delightful ‘tsukkomi’, being the only sane individual throughout the manga and is usually the butt of several pervert/paedophile related jokes. The Tohoshinki are amazing – each of them is distinct and memorable, The Great Demon Lord is a hilarious, flaky individual who's sole purpose in life is to make you choke on your own laughter every time he comes up with a new frivolous scheme, Oga is a brilliant protagonist with both strength and denseness that is always amusing and Baby Beel is just plain adorable.

Another thing I approve of is the way the female leads – Hilda and Aoi – are portrayed. There is a distinct lack of airheaded, helpless bimbos which only adds to the Beelzebub experience and the two ladies are more than capable of holding their own in an all out brawl. I personally enjoyed the inclusion of an all girls gang, though I wish they had more panel time and the fanservice is not as blatant as it could've been.

Beelzebub’s biggest hindrance remains its art. If one were to compare it to other shounen series within Jump, it’s drawing style is heavily lacking. For one thing, the backgrounds in most panels are neglected and intricate detail is not present. Most of the men in the series adhere to a rather boxy build and it feels off sometimes. I have a personal gripe for the way Hilda’s shoes are drawn – the heels on her stiletto lace-up boots are just plain ugly.

At the same time, Beelzebub is suited to this sort of art and it’s not as bad as to be unreadable. The characters are well drawn with crisp, sharp strokes. The male character designs are varied, though I find that most of the female characters have almost the same base. But the latter can be forgiven since there aren’t many prominent females anyway.

That said, I commend the mangaka on his expressions. He captures the incredulous expressions so well, it certainly adds to the humour. I particularly love any of the ‘demon faces’ that Oga takes on from time to time.

Overall, Beelzebub takes a solid 9/10 since the art doesn’t deprecate the series’ enjoyment in any manner and manages to compound it instead, like any good manga should.

Beelzebub doesn’t make any lofty promises – I’ll take down the great demon king and save the world? No sir! – and continues on in its own charming, if somewhat dysfunctional, way. It captures you with its puerile humour, delinquent characters and the ever-loved high school setting with just a dash of Demons (who are equally hilarious in their own right) and happens to be the perfect mood-lifter right in the middle of any normal, tedious week.

Definitely recommended to anyone looking for a light shounen manga series.

EDIT:

Having finally finished the manga, I decided to bump down my score to a respectable 8, even though most of my other thoughts on Beelzebub still hold true in the intervening years I have been away from it.

On rereading Beelzebub as a whole, it's still hilarious and I must commend Tamura Ryohei's comic timing and exaggerated art for it. I did appreciate how Furuichi was ultimately handled though; he did remain my absolute favourite to the very end. I also liked the romantic resolution (rather, the lack of thereof) because it remained true to its characters.

The epilogue chapters don't add much to the story either; it's just more of the same - not that that was a problem with me. I was particularly happy with the chapter focused on Aoi, but apart from that, the rest were okayish.

Unfortunately, one of the many pitfalls the series encounters is at par for a cancelled series. The ending is rushed and much of the humour is sacrificed to get there, the ending itself is not really an ending at all and some characters remain underdeveloped (looking at you, Natsume).

I can actually forgive a lot of that because Beelzebub never promises a deep story and it gives you exactly what's on the tin. It has its problems but they never outweighed the good for me, so my enjoyment of this series remains at a solid 10.

In closing, I feel that Beelzebub should be taken at face value if one wants to enjoy it to it's fullest. I'm additionally glad that it was cancelled when it was, because it didn't overstay it's welcome (or maybe it did, but I digress). All in all, I look forward to what Tamura Ryohei comes up with next.

If there were one shoujo manga I could have everyone read, regardless of gender or personal preference, it'd be this one.

I first heard of it when it began being scanlated (is that a word??) and the summary made me scoff. "I will always protect you.."? What kind of crap is that? Sometime in early 2010, I went by the Dengeki Daisy page on mangaupdates.com and looking at the ratings, I was shocked. An average of 9.1/10? It is a standard unheard of in shoujo manga. The shoujo genre is always one riddled with criticism due to its reliance on cliches and stock characters, however, this ... one had one glowing review after the other. There must be something great about it if it were rated so high...right?

This led to the following lesson - never underestimate overtly good ratings.

I would start by stating that Dengeki Daisy (or DD, as it will be called now on) is not some incredibly ingenious and new story. I am pretty sure that this story has been done in a lot of media, by a lot of people and to death. Where it differs is execution. Motomi Kyosuke is a brilliant storyteller - he takes this mundane and done concept and puts his own spin on things. He knows what the target demographic wants and he gives it to them without making it obvious and leaving room for wanting more.

STORY - 9/10

There is no surprise in who Daisy is - it is made pretty clear in the first chapter itself. The events that unfold in the manga speak of a larger plot point and the proceedings towards it has been great. What I liked best about it is that despite the fact that DD is a predictable story, the mangaka handles it well. Everytime we're told a little something more about the story, I wasn't surprised by it but it didn't make me bang my head against the wall or scream at the computer screen in frustration. I consider that a good thing in any shoujo manga.

Another great thing about DD is that the romance flows at a believable pace. Midway into the 7th volume and nothing really earthshattering has occured between Teru and Kurosaki but whatever has leaves me to think that this is one of the sweetest shoujo romances I have read in a long time. And how the age difference between these two doesn't bother me is a testament to how great I think this manga is.

The comic timing here is nothing short of absolutely flawless. All comedy comes whenever you least expect it, literally doubling the funny factor. I particularly like the self aware nature of the manga and its cracks on the shoujo genre. An early example of this comes in the first chapter itself when Teru, rather honestly, proclaims that she was the one to break the window and is poor. Kurosaki sweetly claims that it'd be alright and not to worry about it but takes it back almost immediately stating incredulously, "You really think I was going to say that???"

ART - 8/10

I don't judge manga based on art but the story it is telling. I am yet to decided if this is a good thing or bad. DD has a typical shoujo style without being excessively flowery. I enjoyed seeing all of Kurosaki's overhyped reactions and getting his ass kicked by Riko. I must say, Motomi Kyosuke does a great dark and dangerous Kurosaki face.

CHARACTERS - 9/10

DD has a great array of characters. That said, my issue was definitely the fact that some of the back characters stay exactly that till the 7th volume. I could even go far as to state that only Teru and Kurosaki have received any development. However, I am willing to overlook that since the manga isn't finished yet.

Teru is a great shoujo protagonist and I love her to bits. She is the main reason I read shoujo, hoping to find someone like her. While she has suffered hardships in her life, she does not dwell on it and instead chooses to move forward. She does not have any of the unnaturally excessive traits I have come to liken with typical shoujo girls - unwavering optimism, airheadness, naivete and helplessness. Teru is far from these stereotypes. She is independent, intelligent and rational. There are times in the manga when she reacts in what I call a typical shoujo-girl reaction but she always, always turns it right around and surprises me. I love the fact that she breaks all these molds but remains pretty damn human as well, with her own weaknesses.

Kurosaki Tesuku is close and at the same time, pretty far from the shoujo boy stereotype. He is a tsundere character (always my favorite type) which lends to much in terms of the shoujo bashing I mentioned earlier. He is flawed - excessively so. He is rude, violent, mean and he smokes like a chimney (I usually hate that) but is remarkably intelligent and a competent hacker. But offsetting this 'bad' side of him is his inner turmoil relating to the main plot and his feelings for Teru as both Daisy and himself. In these places he is vulnerable and sweet. I love this guy, his dedication to Teru yet the distance he puts between himself and her is a part of the plot too and I am frankly dying to know more.

That said, my favorite back character is definitely Teru's brother, Souchirou. At least the incredibly idiotic side of him. He is hilarious with his sister complex! I am pretty sure we'll be seeing more of him.

ENJOYMENT - 10/10

DD caters to all my needs - shoujo romance, mature angst, nerdy factor (well, I am a computer engineer...) and most of all, comedy. Best of all, its well put. I enjoyed it a lot. My biggest complaint is its addictive nature. DD is so good without it being overtly in your face. It leaves subtle hints along the way making you want to read more - just another volume. Not much to ask right? I can't stop wishing for faster scans.

OVERALL - 9/10

DD is a great manga. I can't stress that enough. While it is no epic love story, it works with what it has so well, you can't help but want more. That is one of the primary reasons I want it to end soon - if it did, I could read the whole thing with satisfaction and stop checking if the latest scans are in yet or not like an obsessive fangirl that I am.