I initially didn't plan on writing a review, but I wanted to more or less try to tell about how... Mixed the feelings when watching this show are.
First, it was heavily criticized by the viewers it seems, and like them I totally agree with the negative point. This show was awful in its structure and totally cliché with fanservice all the way. No originality.
There was a plot. We pretty much forgot about it until a few reminders sometimes, the pace is horrible. To make things worse, they rushed it totally at the end of the show, with nothing answered at all even though something was
...
starting to get interesting(I liked the little development at the end of episode 10, that was a pure detail but the character was one I liked and it was interesting to see more of what she can do).
And there's a awful lot of useless episodes, the main one, totally ridicule, being the one with Charlotte and her disappeared panties, which I didn't enjoy at all... There are a lot of cheesy situations too, while I don't mind, sometimes it's a bit too much (still Charlotte's episode, or the measurements scene, as said by other reviewers. Hell, good thing the action was off-screen because I don't even know HOW he can lack anatomy knowledge to the point of mistaking it this much and how he ends up doing what he does).
Honestly , a few less of those nonsense and a bit more development on the plot or better introduced gags would be welcome. At least, I hope they'll make a season 3 because else that would just be truly a pure shitty show judging from how it ends with questions. TO me, it's bad, but there's worse, and I hope they'll make better in S3. I think this season would have gained some benefits from getting 24 episodes instead of 12 (well, 24 is a bit much, more like 20. Ep 13-15 being plot related to develop a bit of what was going on at the end of 12, 16-17 being a bit more comedy-centered, and back to the plot on 18 to 20 to reveal the intentions, motivations, and some final fights)
Yet, I liked it. Well, not as much as I liked others harem shows, but well... aside from the few useless episodes, I liked the cliché setting. Yeah, sure, no originality, but why always seeking pure originality? It's also rather enjoyable sometimes to see good ol' scenes in other shows, when you enjoy the genre.
Like, I dunno, Death note. Death Note was a nice thrilling story and I liked it. Then Lost Brain was published with a similar plot (student with great intellect fooling the police with great "tactics" and all), and everyone was like "this is just a death note copy with hypnosis instead of killing books". Heck, I liked it because it was similar to Death Note! The "it's not original so I don't like it and don't want to see it" mentality is comprehensible, but then I think it's a bit of a waste as you can never be allowed to get into the same ambiance than the first you ever read in that style.
So yeah, I enjoy seeing the harem cliché, that's rather funny seeing them back. Although I have to say a lot of the gags were bad-written, some were quite enjoyable anyway, as some relaxing show.
I can understand the lassitude of always seeing the same things, and if you're watching a lot of harem oriented shows recently, I suggest you don't watch IS. Not now. What I usually do is getting into periods of anime style: watching a few shows of serious, good plot without much of a comedy (duno, for example, Psycho Pass, Kara no Kyoukai, Shingeki no Kyojin), and then switch the change to mood and not being too overwhelmed by the heaviness, dark ambiance of those animes, by watching a few lighter things, like harem, simple romantic comedy, stories with a plot but still having somewhat of a plot or pure WTF colorful shows (dunno, for example, watching To love, Dog Days, and D frag).
So indeed the harem cliche was strong, but I did enjoy quite a lot IS and IS2, because that has been a while since I've watched a good old harem show with colorful characters like this. The last light animes that I saw were a bit less cliché, but not as lively in consequence as there's not a whole bunch of girls trying to get your attention, more like a few scenes here and there without much boldness coming from them. So it was kinda refreshing seeing a show like IS. Back to IS2, I was grateful for the new characters, Tatenashi being someone that lacked in the harem, the almighty always-plotting-troublemaker who only gets things worse, and is the boldest of all (even if her timing isn't all that great), and yet is strong enough to be able to keep doing this without fear.
Also, the voicecast is good. I was pretty happy to hear Kana Hanazawa, Marina Inoue, Yukari Tamura, Megumi Toyoguchi and Yukana(the last one being awfully rare in the shows I usually watch, yet I really like her. Still, I think Yukana was playing a bit too high-pitched in this). Sure, the show isn't great, but it's rather enjoyable to hear those voices when you like them.
So, to conclude, IS is a mere continuation of the first season, with an interesting background not exploited at all and it just feels like an horribly long intro plus a few OVA-type episodes mixed in the middle, but while it's not a good show, it's not the worst of what we can see either. It's abit frustrating sometimes, true, but well, just watch it when your brain is off. Seeing IS after a while of not watching typical harem anime can be nice, if you want one without much of a thinking, just for relaxing after a long day.
Let's hope a season 3 will be coming to finally develop that poor plot who was totally neglected during this season.
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Feb 12, 2015
IS: Infinite Stratos 2
(Anime)
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I initially didn't plan on writing a review, but I wanted to more or less try to tell about how... Mixed the feelings when watching this show are.
First, it was heavily criticized by the viewers it seems, and like them I totally agree with the negative point. This show was awful in its structure and totally cliché with fanservice all the way. No originality. There was a plot. We pretty much forgot about it until a few reminders sometimes, the pace is horrible. To make things worse, they rushed it totally at the end of the show, with nothing answered at all even though something was ... |
