Mar 26, 2021
"Who would believe in such a cheap emotion?"
The first issue is that that arc lasted for so long. 50 episodes to get out of that forest would be acceptable if the environment was interesting. However, here, we are placed with 1.forest track, 2.the village, 3. Echidna's tomb, 4. the mansion and that’s it. The rare interesting scenes all happen in 3 and 4, the other places serve as placeholders. In fact, 3 is only interesting thanks to the tea parties, as in itself does not hold more value than a Windows xp saving screen.
The episodes felt long and that is because they are. The studio
...
decided to go on systematic 30-minute episodes. Overtimes were admirable in season 1 because they usually held narrative value and emotions (and cliffhangers). Here, the only thing that matters is what happens at the beginning and at the end of an episode. This is reinforced with the interaction between the characters which are .. pretty bad. For instance, at one point Subaru tells Garfield to believe in his friends (🙄) then the very next frame, he asks Emilia to let him handle Garfield alone and starts fist-fighting.
In fact, every time Subaru opened his mouth felt like someone who was trying his hardest to sound cool.
This leads to what Roswaal calls "cheap emotions". What is usually done here to make a character dramatic is to show a flashback of the character's youth with [sad piano music]. I do not think there is a single character who does not appear in a flashback. Even Elsa at some point starts one but is interrupted by Garfield who reminds her that no one asked. I do not need to hear about every character's backstory. That is lazy characterisation. Season one introduced a whole bunch of characters and most of them did not have to show me what happened in their childhood.
The episodes being 30 minute long, it is reasonable to think that the quality of the animation would reduce. And indeed the fights do not make up for the dialogues. Take a few fight scenes of season 1 :
- Subaru vs Felt, an unimportant fight, yet very dynamic which reminds me that Subaru is supposed to be pretty beefy (something totally forgotten afterward). The environment matters in this fight, Subaru uses a chair to defend himself and Felt her own shack against Subaru.
- Rem vs fanatics, another minor fight, still each hit is packed with energy. When the fanatics throw a fireball at Rem, her skin is visibly burned by the impact despite her shielding. The scene is filled with tension.
Not much to say for the scenes in this season. Every opponent: Garfield, Elsa and even the rabbits are content with standing still and waiting for the final blow.
Tdlr : Overall a huge disappointment. Long and empty episodes, very slow pacing, inferior fights and weak characterisation. At least, the relationship between Beatrice and Subaru and the finale as a whole were cute I guess.
Reviewer’s Rating: 5
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