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On a very long train ride a while back, I read the webnovel of this series. Amid a sea of generic "villainess" manga and manhwa tropes, this series stood out for its commitment to humor, character development, and moving the plot along without getting bogged down in the tropey-ness too much. The whole WN was under 50 chapters, and this anime adapts the entirety of it, start to finish.

The anime, while great in parts, does not quite manage to capture that same magic. As much as I enjoyed the series, I can't bring myself to give it above a 7/10. Let's break it down.

Art (6/10): ... You ever see an anime that makes you go "Holy crap! They must have had an unlimited budget!"? This series is the opposite. The OP has so little motion and fluidity in its animation, it's hard NOT to notice. Most of the episodes have a similar amount of rigidity, and the ED is effectively a slideshow. The character designs and backgrounds are lovely, don't get me wrong, but it was clear from the first episode that this niche series did not get a full commitment from the production committee. The story centers around an otome visual novel RPG and I suppose it has slightly more animation than a VN. There was some spiffy animation in select "climactic scenes" but those were the exception rather than the norm. It's not terrible, but it is apparent, especially if you look at the shape of the game controller the MCs hold (it looks like a brick phone from the 80s half the time).

Sound (7/10): The voice actors are an ensemble cast of people-who-were-in-that-anime-you-really-liked and they do a fine job. They range from passable to very good, though the characters as written for the anime do not necessarily have enough depth for the VAs to show off their range. The background music generally does a solid job of reinforcing the scene, but there were a couple times where it seemed to take itself too seriously for a comedic moment.

Characters/Story (7/10): It's a good story. It's a creative non-isekai take on the otome game villainess trope, and it has its moments... but it leans too far into the melodrama to appreciate the comedy, which was the strong point of the source material. Some of the best punch lines/tsukkomi of the original work (and even the manga adaptation) were cut for time or to keep the tone serious rather than humorous. One example: one major subplot of the original story is resolved via a massive comedic anti-climax that relies on the development and long-term growth of a number of the main characters. The anime portion of this story has a giant fight scene with the usual montage of supportive messages that you'd expect from a shounen series. The anime production went for flashiness over tone before moving on to the comedic anti-climax. More intense moments were also not necessarily handled deftly, including a scene where Endo explains how his shounen-esque pushing himself in baseball permanently affected him both physically and mentally. The in-game characters still have some moments, but are also relatively one-dimensional (and a bit dumber) than their original counterparts.

Now, most of these moments I'm whinging about are due to the condensed schedule: the anime's pacing is *zooming* through the material: they've got 12 episodes to cover ~48 chapters of the novel and they are committed to finishing it in one cour (the monthly manga is only up to Ch 28). The story moves along at a brisk pace, with drama leading to jokes leading to exposition and reactions, with occasional dalliances in the narrator-gods' Japan school lives. A lot can happen in a single episode, and while it occasionally seems a little crammed, it does a decent job of keeping things fresh.

Enjoyment (7/10): At the end of the day, this anime is going to cover (on a very limited budget) a complete story that has moments of humor, originality, and heart throughout. The source material is excellent and well-regarded (9.21 rating on MD for manga) and the anime does a passable job of adapting some of its quality moments. However, the anime lacks some of the punch, comedic timing, and dedication to the characters that put this entry above the endless ocean of tsunderes, otome isekai, and villainesses. It's still way better than Bakarina. If that's your vibe, give this a watch.

I thought the source material was a 4koma based on how formulaic this entire series is. Every single scene is: set-up; development; climax; tsukkomi, with essentially no variation across a half-dozen episodes. You may attack your typical isekai for not having the courage to have a regular fantasy setting without the relatability of a modern-day self-insert Japanese teen getting reincarnated, but this goes a step further by having the Japanese teen have all his adventures entirely as flashbacks in front of his tsukkomi audience of nephew and not-quite-girlfriend, while being a classic sexual assault NEET ugly bastard himself from the age of 17 to 35.

Story/characters ... (3/10): They're just simply not good and lazy trope writing. Clueless protag, tsundere, kuudere, idgafdere with enough sexual assault to start your own hashtag and enough miscommunication for an 80s shoujo.

Art: (5/10): Mediocre. To say that the art in this series is an upgrade over the manga's first few chapters should not be considered praise for the anime.

Sound (6/10): The voice actors played their (poorly-written, one-dimensional) parts just fine. The OST was nothing worth noting. Same with the OP/ED.

Enjoyment: (4/10): I've read and watched more crappy isekai than I care to admit, and the formula can often be useful for showcasing an odd or obscure interest in a novel context with a relatable protagonist. However, this series lacks any such purpose and is just a cringey pandering mess through and through. Seeing this on others' "top anime" lists, I waited and waited and waited for it to get better and it just never did. If you're a SEGA-obsessed millennial NEET, maybe this is your cup of tea, but as for me it was a major step back both in storytelling and character development.

Healer girl is halfway between a music/idol anime and a magical girl medical serial. Bottom line: it's quite good! The singers harmonize well and the instrumentation is meant to be emotive and at times tearjerky, but you're not going to find a whole lot of straight bangers on the level of Zombieland Saga Revenge (S2). It is nonetheless a pleasant entry in the genre of music anime.

Story (6/10): The premise is fairly simple. There is a semi-magical branch of medicine that can be done with singing, and each of the episodes revolves around the main characters (healers in training) helping people, including each other, with ... their songs and learning more about music and themselves. Most of the episodes follow the "someone needs healing but standard medical treatment isn't available" pattern [enter magic music Healing], but a few episodes are dedicated to exploring different settings, skills, and character backstories. There was one particular episode where the plot seemed quite contrived to establish a "reset" by the end of the episode, but I'm nitpicking.
Being semi-formulaic is by no means a crime, but if you are looking for a deep overarching, consequential plot or a really deep character exploration, this ain't it. It's good, but nothing to write home about.

Characters (6/10): As is the case with many anime surrounding niche interests/disciplines/fields/whatever, each of the main characters as well as most of the supporting cast is color-coded and represents some aspect of that discipline in which they are especially skilled... and most of them don't really have many more character traits than the couple they need to fulfill that role. They did do a nice little character exploration of their inferiority complexes and imposter syndrome later in the season, but for the most part each of them stays in their box. All together, the cast harmonizes well, but individually their characters don't have an abundance of exploration or development. The fact that one of the character's main traits was "simp for sensei" got on my nerves for a bit, tbh, but even she gets some last-minute self-reflection. Overall, good, not great, but with a sizable cast and only 12 eps to work with, what can you do?

Art (8/10): The art is overall very pretty. There's a little too much "green field with lakes" for my taste in all the infinite musical "images" that the Healers can propagate, but they're well done and expand on their repertoire as the series goes on and do a fascinating visualization of a surgery assist later on. The OP is animated very well... perhaps too well, as their effusive hand gestures honestly creeped me out on my first few viewings. The characters are animated very well overall, and the animators knew how to draw the eye away from scenes where they needed to cut corners for one reason or another. All in all, the visuals accompanied and enhanced the music skillfully and brought the most out of their characters while also not necessarily being breathtaking. Quality stuff.

Sound (8/10): This is a music anime, and the singers are good. That's the most important thing in my book. The voice actors give good performances for their limited characters as well. There were an abundance of songs used (at least one new song per episode) both in Healing and as a narration device, which the musical-lover in me enjoyed. That being said, I wasn't necessarily blown away by any one of the specific performances. They were all pretty, competently to very well done, and fit what was happening in the story, but there is a limited range of emotion involved in many of the songs. The subtitle of the series is "Kindhearted, powerful songs heal the world", and virtually all the songs in the series fit the "kindhearted" description. Again, nothing wrong with a series accomplishing exactly what it sets out to do, but I do feel like there was a missed opportunity to explore via music some of the frustrations and feelings of inadequacy that the show at least cursorily explored.

Overall, this was an enjoyable series about cute girls singing cute magical songs to help the people around them while learning a little bit more about themselves. I had a good time with it, though it did not heal my COVID. 7/10

An analogy: imagine you're listening to a singer perform a brand-new song that has four verses. Their voice is nothing special, but the first two verses and the chorus tell a deeply relatable, at times heartwarming and at times heartwrenching story... then on the third verse the singer stumbles for a bit and ends up having to repeat the second verse, and on the final verse the entire tune changes and is distorted until it's unrecognizable. How do you rate such a song? Was it good overall? Do its exceptional parts outweigh its stumbles and ultimate failure? Does it matter if the sheet music had ... a fifth unsung verse even worse than the performance you just saw?

KareKano was a promising series that suffered a late-term budget and directorial abortion midway through. The honest romance, strong characterization, realistic relationship struggles, and unique art style got abandoned halfway through and replaced with clip show recaps and a back half of episodes that never quite manage to find their footing after the interruption.

If you're feeling like an anime archaeologist and want to see a classic romance series that has the bones of a good story with a depth of emotions, characters who actually push themselves and each other forward, and a sometimes hypnotically calm and thoughtful pace, you could certainly use to flip through a few episodes of KareKano, but it never quite delivers on what it promises at the outset.

That being said, hungry for more, I pursued the manga, which concludes on some... deeply problematic notes with enough red flags to make the Beijing Olympics look tame. You've been warned.

All right folks, let's talk Kaguya.

First, Kaguya-sama is a seinen series. That means that the target audience is young adult men. "But Alq! It takes place in a high school!" Right. It is written with hindsight in mind from the very beginning. The premise from Season 1 is about how over-dramatic and high stakes having a crush on someone feels when you're young and still in school and still trying to figure out your own identity among everyone else.

There's a lot more social pressure that teens experience in asking their crush out than 20-somethings experience swiping right on Tinder or Bumble. That's the point. ... It seems really foolish in retrospect, but in the moment, these are critical, seemingly life-shaping moments for teens. Even the "Ultra Romantic" title is tongue-in-cheek and is used for ridiculously grandiose confession ideas that teens will come up with the express purpose of avoiding explicit vulnerability or putting themselves out there. Kaguya delivers on all those fronts: the embarrassment, then the trepidation, then the commitment to decisive action. The show achieves exactly what it sets out to do, with better all-around quality than any of the hundreds of other romance anime I have seen.

As a show, Kaguya-sama has a few things going for it that might appeal to you as a viewer as well:

>Pacing: faster than your typical anime at 3 ch/episode rather than 1-2 for most series (or ~0.3 for OnePiece)
>Animation/Art: started off good, got better with each season. 2D and 3D animation (sparsely used) are blended better and more seamlessly than most series (looking at you, sliding dodgeball Anya), and there are many moments where the animators are clearly flexing. I hope the in-betweeners survived.
>Voice acting: People were skeptical of Koga Aoi before S1's release. They changed their tune. The rest of the cast (from OPM Miyuki to Daddy Daddy Dio) is also phenomenal.
>Themes: It's written as a seinen, with all the retrospect of "lol remember when you were cringe and too embarrassed to even talk to someone you liked?" which is relatable for lots of folks. The issues they face seem trivial but are very real at the time. I'm not convinced that all the people here complaining about "lack of progress" were bold, insta-confession Casanova Giga-chads in high school themselves for all their supposed impatience.
>Character development: As we learn more about each character, they become more fully fleshed-out, rather than one-dimensional characters used for repeated gags. Their decisions and actions have consequences on them and the people around them, bit by bit, and all of their arcs make sense for them as people, rather than plot vessels, and the flashbacks at the end make it clear just how far everyone has come.
>Comedy: It's still funny, and it's even funnier for understanding why the characters are acting the way they are, rather than having them do so because of their assigned trope. The comedy has heart as well as humor.
>No BS: not a shounen ecchi harem. If you're looking for a seinen with a ton of panty shots and boobs/baths/beaches, this ain't it.
>Easter eggs: makes an absolute crapton of references to 70s/80s pop media and classics, both visually and in OST, and there's nothing adult guys like more than profuse references and in-jokes (looking at you, Marvel...).
>Extra goodness: This season got an entire extra episode, which was extra long, because it was aired without any commercial breaks. The producers and studio really committed the extra care necessary to stick the landing in this pivotal climax season.

This is a series to laugh at with your friends, bond over with your girlfriend or boyfriend, or just enjoy how the chaotic crucible of youth can forge resolute and more mature adults. It's not an overnight process; it's a day-at-a-time grind to face your fears and take care of yourself and the people around you while reaching for your goals. Kaguya-sama executes this arc masterfully. 10/10

Chihayafuru is an incredible and oddly compelling series. At its heart, it's a classic sports anime (with occasional romance) but with the extra nerdy element of having the sport center on centuries-old classical poetry. Somehow, inexplicably, it works.

Story/Characters: 8.5/10. Chihayafuru leans into the sports anime tropes pretty heavily (childhood friends, training, strategies, tournaments galore, etc.) but it covers the topics from multiple angles with a solid amount of development. While each minor character in the club starts out effectively as an archetype for an aspect of karuta (e.g. hearing, memorization, strategy, fundamentals, poetry, athleticism), they eventually are fleshed out into more cohesive wholes. The presentation ... of the story makes it very easy for a complete novice to follow and appreciate the premise of the series and the sport as a whole. The series also touches on some unique aspects of karuta that may not readily apply to many other sports series: the struggles of building interest in an obscure and intense sport, the physical toll that the sport can take, but also its relative gender and age equity and accessibility. The series is in many ways a love letter to an obscure but fascinating traditional Japanese sport, and the passion shows through in many ways, tournament after tournament after tournament. For reasons I still don't quite understand, I couldn't look away. The Romance subplots are fairly predictable but consume so little time in the series (the focus is always on karuta) that the frustration of "romcom hell" is for the most part avoided.

Art: 10/10. While the animation is not flawless, it handles a lot of motion very well and manages to keep a card-grabbing game interesting for hours on end. The choice of having the protagonists play in traditional garb was inspired and helps to reinforce the traditional (and very Japanese) roots of the sport while adding in some gorgeous costumes that don't seem out of place. The art also does a commendable job of making the texture of the poetry reading more obvious to the uninitiated. Bright and warm colors abound for throughout much of the series, interplaying well with the overall tone.

Sound: 9/10. I wasn't super thrilled by the VAs as children. Beyond that, I felt that the voice acting was consistently good to excellent from the main ensemble. Sports anime are all about emotions, and the VAs definitely carry the audience through the card games on waves of emotion. The soundtrack is largely typical shoujo background music, though there were a couple pieces that stood out as particularly interesting.

Enjoyment: 10/10. It was oddly enjoyable, doing the things that I enjoy most about classic sports series while also incorporating aspects of intellectual rigor and traditional culture, giving Chihayafuru a unique spice among sports anime. Slice of life fans may also be pleasantly enticed by this strange but very watchable series.

Long ago, the cultivation clans lived together in harmony. Then, everything changed when the Wen clan attacked. Only the Yiling Patriarch, master of harnessing negative energy, could stop them. But when the world needed him most, he went kinda batshit crazy, killed a bunch of his friends and exploded. Now, my brother and I have found the new Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, a lunatic named Mo Xuanyu. And while his fluting skills are great, he's got a long way to go before he's ready to save anyone.

Ok, I promise I'll try to keep the ATLA comparisons to a minimum from here on out, but you ... get the picture. While this series has the bones of a good story and some awesome art and sound, its plot languishes unnecessarily for almost the entirety of the series. All the information in the paragraph above is revealed within the first 2 episodes, and the next 16 or so are exclusively flashbacks retelling those events in incredibly long detail, meaning that there is little actual progress or character development happening in those episodes beyond what is already revealed early on. The end result is that the vast majority of the series (stretching into the second season) is written as its own unnecessary prequel with all the subtlety of a 16-ton weight dropping from the ceiling.

Story/Characters: 5/10. The story had a lot of possible directions it could go from the start: starting a new life without the baggage of notoriety, hiding one's identity from former friends/frenemies, learning how the art he invented has grown and changed in the years he's been dead, observing the social changes that occurred after the overthrow of both the Wen and the Yiling Patriarch, living as a freelance demon-hunter, etc. etc. The story chooses to explore none of these and instead re-tell what it already told in the opening episodes. While toward the end of the second season we do get a glimpse of things going on behind the scenes, unfortunately most of the episodes are spent telling us stuff we knew from the get-go: Wei really likes his sister-figure. His relationship with his adoptive brother soured. He developed a way to harness negative energy, which makes him a hero to some and a heretic to others. Various miscommunications, misunderstandings and petty partisanship have cast him as a villain when really he is just trying to protect his people. etc. About 10 hours of the series is spent slapping the audience in the face with things they already know, while what was introduced as the main plot (Mo Xuanyu) is abandoned. The length of the exposition steamrolls any nuance out of the plot and twists itself in circles to justify the purity of its characters rather than exploring their flaws. Most of the characters have fewer than 2-3 character traits, one of which is almost always "loyal to family/clan" so the vast amount of time spent expounding on just how justified Wei Wuxian was or how much of a major asshole Wen Chao is was a vast amount of potential for actual storytelling in a fascinating setting wasted.

Minor gripe: the character designs are far too uniform, especially Mo Xuanyu and young Wei Wuxian. I suppose since basically everyone immediately recognized Mo as Wei Wuxian anyway, it's a bit of a moot point, but it felt lazy. I don't know if they were TRYING to make the Wen clan leader look like Fire Lord Ozai, but they did. The ubiquitous sun and flame motifs among the Wen does not dissuade this comparison.

On to the good parts:

Art: 9/10. Docking a point for lazy character design, but the art and animation were incredibly compelling. There's a good amount of noticeable-but-not-terrible CGI interspersed throughout, which works effectively with the storytelling in parts. The art really makes me wish it had a more compelling story to fill it out.

Sound: 9/10: Music is used as both theme and symbol throughout the series, with the guqin and the bamboo flute offsetting each other. Both are traditional Chinese instruments, but their use in the series underlies the difference in tone of their characters: the guqin's music is usually calm and resonant, while the bamboo flute instrumentation is often high-pitched and frantic. It was a masterful way of showcasing the light side/dark side interactions as the characters became closer entwined. Unfortunately, because the main plot spent most of its time flashbacking, the audience gets a very limited amount of the most compelling musical dynamic in the series. The VAs were generally good, although I have a feeling that they gave about five too many people the voice direction "You are an angry but scholarly middle-aged man," though that would arguably be a problem with character design.

Enjoyment: 5/10. I went into this series and loved the first few episodes, so I was incredibly disappointed to spend almost the entire rest of the series waiting for something new to happen. The art and music kept me afloat long enough to reach to the end, but ultimately it never gets far enough away from its starting point for me to have enjoyed it.

There are a lot of good things to say about Usagi Drop as an anime, and many of the reviewers have already pointed out many, ranging from the realistic depiction and struggles of being a single parent to the slice-of-life wholesomeness that everybody needs sometimes to the strangely fascinating watercolor style, so I will only add one thing:

If you liked this anime, DO NOT READ THE MANGA. Those who don't mind can look up why (heck, it's on Wikipedia), but suffice it to say that doing so will likely destroy any rewatch value for this series.

MAL demands a longer review, so I guess here's more.

Story: ... 8/10 basic wholesome parenthood slice of life moments, with a smidge of flirtation among the adults.
Art: 9/10. While it took me an episode to get used to, I really enjoyed the watercolor-esque art used in a number of scenes.
Sound: 8/10 VAs are quality and the music was good enough to reinforce the emotional plot points.
Characters: 8/10. Let's be real, that 6-year old acts nowhere near her age most of the time and almost takes on a Takagi-san-like teasing quality in parts, but there are really good moments of genuine connection in this series
Enjoyment: 9/10 before reading manga. 1/10 after. I might vomit if I watch this series again now.

Top-line summary: Selector spread WIXOSS is a weird chimera of a card game and magical girl series that serves as a deconstruction and commentary on the implications of both. If you're familiar with shows like Yu-Gi-Oh and Madoka Magika, Selector spread WIXOSS is a fascinating and thought-provoking watch. Don't bother watching the first season (Infected) though.

Story/Characters/Enjoyment: 9.5

Now, you're probably looking at this review and thinking: a 9.5? This guy must be crazy. That 9.5 rating comes with one major caveat: I am rating Selector spread WIXOSS as a *stand-alone* series. Why? Well, due to my own foolishness, I mixed up which season to watch first, ... so I went into Selector spread WIXOSS having never watched the first season (Infected). From what I could tell, the first season was entirely unnecessary (drawing out revelations and character development that could happen in a single episode), and watching just the second season (spread) makes for a much more compelling experience. My real-time response was, "holy crap they're not wasting any time. The flashback and indentifiable character tropes make everyone really clear and that really enables them to tell a compelling (though not hugely original) story without a lot of bull$#! time wasted introducing generic characters." Sadly, season 1 was all generic character introductions, and you don't really get to the real plot until season 2.

The second season by itself has an excellent story, pace, and consistent themes that stand out compared to other series in its genres. A friend recommended this to me as "the bastard child of Yu-Gi-Oh and Madoka" and it lives up to that assessment. This series fascinated me though for how much of a different direction it went in compared to those series.

While Yu-Gi-Oh spent most of its time effectively as a commercial for trading cards and was written in long, drawn-out fights to showcase them, WIXOSS barely explains the rules of the card game, and frankly, it's not necessary. Sanderson's Law states that magic systems only need to be as well-defined in fiction as their importance to the plot (e.g. Gandalf's powers are really nebulous, but it doesn't matter because he doesn't solve everything with magic. Contrast with Harry Potter which has strict magic rules because everything is done with magic). The plot in WIXOSS has nothing to do with the card game and everything to do with communication, friendship, betrayal, and catharsis. You can tell by looking once at the characters their relative ability at the card game; the game itself is irrelevant because what actually matters in the plot is the relationship between them. Watching WIXOSS flipped the traditional card-game anime script in a way I found oddly compelling.

Likewise, WIXOSS handled a number of plot elements better than Madoka, especially the critical examination at the themes of constant self-sacrifice that (somewhat questionably) permeate magical girl series as well as shoujo series in general. It examines both the power and cost of making wishes into reality in a much grittier and compelling form than Madoka. Mari Okada (O Maidens in Your Savage Season) has consistently impressed by examining the character depth and realistic consequences of classic character tropes, and does not shy away from the strife, confusion, and anguish in the process.

Art: 8. It was good, and I enjoyed a lot of the set piece designs, though some of the characters felt a little flat.

Sound: 8. The voice acting was generally good to very good and the BGM set the mood well, but nothing stunningly noteworthy.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by this series (ignoring the pointless first season), and would recommend it especially to more experienced anime-watchers looking for more self-aware and critical series.

Kaguya-sama's second season has an obvious tone shift from the first season which could throw off some viewers, especially in the first few episodes. Right from the get-go, if you pay attention to the OP theme, it's even more obvious: "Once I make a move there's no turning back/It's time to take this mask off/To fire a shot/And As I do/I know it's not a game anymore." It certainly has a lot of the mind-game aspects of season 1, but it does something relatively rare for romcom anime in that it spends time fleshing out its characters (including minor characters!) as well as their interests ... and desires in a way that it actually looks like they're growing and maturing.

Story/Characters: 9-9.5
You can't escape the feeling that the second season was really a "linker" season between what the author thought they wanted to do (Love is War!) and what they actually wanted to do (build a more thoughtful and mature romcom that acknowledges and confronts a lot of serious issues with classic shoujo/shonen romcom tropes). Very few mangaka have the audacity to throw the base premise of the series out the window to build something bigger, and Kaguya-sama pulls this off fairly well in its second season, though it leaves a tangible feeling that a third season is necessary to get all the payoff from a lot of the character development in the second season. While the first few episodes focus on the main ship, the remainder of the season is used to more or less to incorporate and develop new or previously under-developed characters, and it pays off: the secondary and tertiary characters in Kaguya-sama have more background and realistic character traits than many anime romcoms' main characters.

The pacing of the show is upbeat, with most episodes covering three storylines. Several episodes have four chapters and a couple of those admittedly feel rushed. Compared to the glacial pace of most romcom series, I'll take the faster pace. The writer seems to be screaming, "Just hold on, folks. I swear we're getting to the plot. In the meantime, the set-up is going to be loads of fun." The tone struck by the second season is clearly transitioning to more serious than the first and actually does a good job of showing how the characters are still limited but are gradually maturing. If Kaguya-sama gets a third season, I have no doubt it will easily be ranked as one of the top romcom anime of all time for the development and depth of its characters as well as for the care and self-awareness it shows in its messaging.

Art 9.5/10
The art is a step up from the solid quality of season 1. A number of very creative visual gags serve dual purpose as an homage and satire to classic media: 80s sports movies, medical dramas, shoujo manga, Street Fighter, 50 Shades, etc. My biggest gripe is that in a couple chapters, the character designs seemed slightly inconsistent (e.g. Shirogane's chin).

Sound: 10/10
The soundtrack reuses some music from S1 and adds in some fantastic additions, further conveying the continuity of the story's themes. The tracks reinforce the mood and are used consistently to augment similar scenes. In addition to the normal "mood" BGM, a lot of the one-off satire/parody scenes also get their own unique accompaniment. There are few shows that will make an extra opening theme and title sequence for a 5-minute post-credits parody. That's the level of dedication that went into the soundtrack.
The OP song is also used quite well in a number of episodes to build tension after a "cold open" and its catchy, fast-paced Big Band feel works to create that suspense. The ED is fine. Nothing to write home about, though the subtle changes to the ED as the season progresses are interesting.

The real treasure of the sound is the voice acting, which is consistently very good to stellar. The voice cast is a mixture of veterans and talented newcomers, but by far the standout performance is given by Kaguya's VA, Koga Aoi. Off the top of my head, I counted SEVEN completely distinct voices that she uses that are immediately recognizable as unique personalities for a single character. The courtroom scene and the Shoujo satire really gave Kaguya's VA room to show what she can do, and she did not disappoint.

Overall: 9.5/10
Don't be fooled by the lack of "progress" in season 2. A lot of pivotal plot and character moments happen that point toward a thoughtful and mature coming-of-age story that isn't just about people eventually hooking up, but about actually having the tools to understand each other and work out their issues. Quality humor, visuals, and sound add to the depth of the story and characters as Kaguya-sama keeps adding layer upon layer.