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The most disappointing aspect of this series isn't that it's bland, it isn't the recycled cliches, it isn't the entirely recycled plot from literally any other light novel action harem.

No, the most disappointing thing, for me, is that this show could have been so much more.

If there's a single positive to this series, it's that it is fairly unique on a surface level. At least for light novel harems, having it set in a school without magic is actually quite rare, so much so that nothing else comes to mind.

But while there are no magic abilities, which in theory should open up a ... lot more creativity on the part of the author (which sounds strange now that I think about it, but it says a lot about the current state of anime), the author instead goes for the most traditional, by the book route of creating abilities.

The main character has a special item that lets him negate other people's attacks, yawn. It's the same thing that's been done over and over again.

My biggest problem with this series is just that, why have no magic even though you're using the same exact ability tropes as any other magical high school anime?

Everything from the character abilities, to the relationships, to the arc structure, to the character writing, to the sound design, to the shot composition, EVERYTHING feels extremely standard and boring, almost as if it's one of the many mass produced anime nowadays meant only to sell merchandise.

Even with all I've said, if you enjoy stupid battle high school harems either for the mindless fun, the T&A, the blushes, or whatever you fancy these kinds of shows for, it's everything you would enjoy in that type of show, and there's nothing wrong with enjoying some stupid fun.

There's certainly a crowd that enjoys these kinds of shows and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I would be lying if I said that I haven't enjoyed my fair share of these kinds of shows.

If you want a more full-bodied experience with a show similar to this, Chivalry of a Failed Knight one of the best in the genre.

[Re-Submission]
I'll try and explain why this isn't a good sequel, at all. [Spoiler Free]

I'd just like to get it out of the way that I'm watching this hot off the heels of the first season, as I binged the first and second season in about a day. The details of which are still very fresh in my mind.

This is also the second season of Kekkai Sensen, so I'm assuming you're familiar with the story.

Why does Kekkai Sensen 2 fail as a sequel? To put it bluntly, it's because this season is much more episodic in nature.

In the first season, almost every episode leading up ... to the finale had something to do with or laid down the subtext for the overarching plot of the story, which culminated in a satisfying, if a bit hollow ending. It was still episodic, but was also eluding to the bigger picture.

The second season has failed to do this mostly and has felt flatter and less engaging because of it.

This is a spoiler free review, but the plot point that ended up being the finale was the exact one I thought it was in my preliminary review, and was only mentioned a grand total of about two minutes before the final two episodes.

Every other episode just feels like exposition and world building that are just loosely strung together without any grounding in a plot structure.

That's why I feel like this fails as a sequel, it feels like a bunch of OVA episodes mashed together.

I'll try and explain why this isn't a very good anime, kinda.

With Net-juu no Susume, there's two separate but inter-connected story lines, one in game, one in real life.

Of which, the real life story is actually decent and pretty cute, if a bit bland, while the in game story is a cringey mess. To the point where I would actively skip most of the in game interactions not between the two mains because they were hard to watch, they were also predictable too so I wasn't missing anything.

Why is this? To put it bluntly, no one in game acts like an actual human being.

I'm ... an avid MMO player myself, I did myhic raiding in WoW earlier this xpac and have a max level character in most of the good MMO's available today. Throughout all my time playing those games I've never ran into anyone who acts like or speaks the way the characters in this story do. It's flat out cringey. While a lot of people, especially on role-playing servers, go to MMO's for escapism and to be someone you're not, they still talk like and act like real people.

I don't know if it's like this in Japan (I doubt it), but these characters don't talk like or act like real people, which is crazy to me because the real life storyline feels very human and genuine because they act like real people.

That's really the point I wanted to hit home with this review: In game, the characters don't feel human, while they feel exceptionally human in real life.

The game they're playing too also looks like it kinda sucks, to be perfectly honest.

This anime is trash, and I love it.

Comedy is the single most subjective genre of media you can possibly find, because different jokes get different levels of enjoyment based on who you show it to.

For me, this anime rubbed me the right way 90% of the time and made me laugh uncontrollably on some occasions.

The comedy is cruel, violent, slapstick, and absurd, with little touches of romantic tension to tie the whole package up. For me, it's everything I could ever want in a comedy that's only 10 minutes per episode, it reminds me of a trashier Konosuba in that regard, but for others ... it's cheap and attention seeking.

Which is completely fine, it's comedy, no two people are going to laugh at the same exact joke or situation.

This is probably the greatest example in recent memory of a "If the shoe fits..." kind of show, where if you watch the first episode and think it's funny, the rest is going to be funny as well, and the same is true of the reverse.

This was by far the best 19 minutes I've ever spent in my life watching anime on the toilet trying to shit out the biggest shit of my life.

It's not very surprising how much flack this... "Thing"... gets. It's done so horribly bad that it's literally the funniest thing ever that's not supposed to be funny. It's what I like to call the "Left Behind" effect.

You go watch Left Behind and you have two thoughts on your mind, first one is "Nicolas Cage just takes whatever role that pays, doesn't he?", and second is "That shit was fucking hilarious". For those wondering, Left Behind is ... a remake of a movie with the same name that pushes Christian religious propaganda about the rapture and whatnot, it was made with serious intentions, but has received nothing but laughter and cringe from viewers.

This relates into how Mars of Destruction has been hailed as the funniest pile of dog crap to ever grace their screens, the creators made it with serious intent, but complete botch everything and all we're left with is a hilarious, steaming pile of crap.

I myself am not the biggest fan of the comedy genre, most of the comedy entries these days are bland and generic with no substance that will only get a slight giggle at best. But, Seto no Hanayome is different, it's a unique entry that actually made me laugh out loud on every single episode, which is amazing considering I don't like comedy.

(There will be a tl;dr summary at the bottom for those who don't like to read)
[LIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD]

The story starts out with our protagonist Michishio Nagasumi, regarded by most as a useless person that shines in the most useless of ways in useless ... situations. He is on vacation on Seto island visiting his grandmother's. One day while he was at the beach, he went too far out and almost drowned, almost. He sees the image of what looks like a mermaid come to his aid, this mermaid was Seto Sun, the daughter of the Seto mermaid yakuza leader. Since Nagasumi saw Sun in her mermaid form, Sun has two options, she kills him and anyone else who saw her, or she marries him.

This sets up the series with a premise that allows for a lot of comedy to ensue, "But wait" you might ask, "Hasn't this premise been done before in things like To Love Ru?" You would be correct, but what separates Seto no Hanayome from the rest is the way that it executes its jokes.

Most of them fall under the "Ironic Comedy" category, basically setting up a situation where you think you know what's going to happen next, like a girl trying to confess her feelings to a guy, then throwing a wrench in the works and giving you something completely different then what you expected. Another plot device that produces massive amounts of comedy is the fact that if any mermaid gets water on their legs, their legs turn back into mermaid form

Also, since this is a parody anime, there are many references and jokes correlating to their respective franchises, such as JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Naruto, Dragonball Z, and even Evangelion and Sgt Frog.

While the subject of comedy is completely subjective and what people find funny varies from person to person, it's hard to watch this show and not get a hard laugh out of it.

One of the things I had a gripe with at first was the art style, I could forgive the animation seeing as it was made 7 years ago, but the art style didn't click with me at first, especially the design of the main heroine, Sun. She has these bang-things that are on the top of her head that go all the way down to her chin, I'm not sure if this is how she was meant to be or if it's just making fun of similar hairstyles in other anime, because it does resemble a lot of hairstyles from Naruto. Another major gripe I had in general, which were the eyes of the characters, the eyes in particular don't sit well with me, they look like someone glued legos to their eyes. But I completely understand why they are the way they are, it's a parody anime, and the art styles of which tend to be on the goofy side of the spectrum, who knows, it might be a light jab at other parody anime.

Another thing that makes this series great is its cast of characters, as generic as they may be. I'll start with Seto Sun, the main heroine of the series and love interest of Nagasumi, she comes off as somewhat of an airhead at times but shows a strong passion towards Nagasumi, with the sword skills of a master and a code of honor comparable to that of a medieval knight. Yes, as much as this show likes to flaunt it's comedy around, it really does have solid characters and character development.

I might sound like a broken record at this point, but there's another pro of this anime, that being its soundtrack. It has many tracks that are only played on only one or two episodes, which gives the soundtrack lots of variety, one of my personal favorites being 瀨戶之花嫁-Your Gravitation, which is the song that Seto Sun sings at about the halfway point of the series. It has these tracks that really do enhance the comedy as well as make the scenes of romance that more impactful. Hell, even some of the tracks are a parody, the track Hageshii Uta has a striking resemblance to Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce oddly enough.

Tl;dr: Seto no Hanayome is a unique entry in the rom-com genre that really hits home with the execution of its comedy and overall enjoyment with great music and lots of rewatch potential.