So soon? Oh, you know, I thought it was going to take like a few more years but damn, Kage No Jitsuryoku Ni Naritakute S2 hit the air waves again about a year later. Obviously you can tell I was not impressed with this series contrary to popular opinions that a lot of people liked this show. Otherwise, how it got a second season, right? Especially the main character who wants to be a background character but at the same time wants to be some superhero of justice and doing it all from the shadows. How confusing and conflicting. So yeah, why am I watching this then? Oh well, that silly hope of mine that perhaps this season would change my mind. Heh. I should already know myself better but oh well…
Episode 1
Shadow Garden report to Shadow as they note of strange movements of funds in Lawless City, a place that doesn’t belong to any nation. This piques Shadow’s interest as he tells them he will handle this one himself. At Lawless City, Goldy and Quinton think they can best this crazy dude. Got their ass whooped, that’s for sure. Now we see why Cid wants to come to this city. After Claire won Bushin Festival, she dragged Cid here to celebrate her victory. On the way to the Dark Knight Association, some slave trader wants to sell them human pets. Yeah, so badly beaten up, Cid can’t recognize they’re Goldy and Quinton. Later at the alley, he sees a few people beating up a hapless ghoul. But when the moon suddenly turns red, the ghoul fights back. Anyone gets bitten will turn into one too. Cid is in a dilemma whether to do something about it but is saved by this vampire hunter named Mary. He finds her cool?! So now he wants to play this game?! Soon chaos spreads through Lawless City as it becomes like Resident Evil. Sorry, it’s not Thriller Night. Shadow saves a prostitute named Marie from certain death. He spouts cool lines but all obviously borrowed from Mary. This has Marie decide to take her own future into her own hands. Screw whatever contract, she’s getting out. Claire thought her brother is dead but Mary tells her she just saw him alive. She believes Cid is still alive and at Crimson Tower, to be offered as living sacrifice to revive Blood Queen Elisabeth from her thousand year slumber. Both girls agree to team up and head there. Skel and Po are also in this town trying to lose their virginity. Better run if you don’t want to lose your life!!! Crimson watches his rivals, Juggernaut and Yukime fight each other. He thinks they’ll both die once Elisabeth revives. However there seems to be another player joining in the fray. It’s Shadow of course.
Episode 2
Juggernaut and Yukime don’t want to mess with Shadow so they part ways. Then there’s some bloodthirsty grunt thinking he could usurp Shadow as he sensed no magic from him. He attacks but before he knows it, he got cut up. Claire and Mary stumble into Beta in the library. Beta claims Shadow Garden is only here to do research of taking a blood sample from a progenitor vampire. History shows that the possessed and vampires were once from the same bloodline. She hints they don’t get in each other’s way and that is good enough. When #666 (Rose) hears something about Cid, she becomes agitated to know more. Beta tells her off to know her place since Shadow will be the one to deal with Elisabeth. Claire and Mary continue their way but they stumble into Juggernaut killing vampires left and right. Then he attacks them. Both take serious damage especially Mary a fatal one. In order to survive, Mary drinks a bit of Claire’s blood. She revives back to normal. However Juggernaut is still superior. Right before they get killed, Shadow saves them. A single hit is enough to send Juggernaut flying. Mary tells Claire the truth that she is a vampire. A thousand years ago, vampires used to hunt humans and live luxuriously off their blood. But once their weaknesses were found, the tables turned. Elisabeth was living among humans as a ruler of a small fiefdom. She wanted both sides to get along so she and her subjects stopped drinking blood. Haven was created for this. While her subjects evolved and lose some of their vampire touch, Elisabeth remained the same with the typical vampire weaknesses. Then the red moon phenomenon in which turned Elisabeth into a bloodthirsty vampire. This resulted in the destruction of Haven. In order for this mistake not to be repeated, she killed herself and hoped Mary who was her maid at that time, to scatter her ashes into the sea. As she is the Blood Queen, she doesn’t vanish like others so her corpse remained intact. Mary was forced to watch over it for eternity. However she was killed off by Crimson who took Elisabeth’s body. Now he is attempting to use her for his own ambitions. Claire hints she is a possessed and there were signs when she was young. She knows she’ll turn into a monster one day and hopes to have Cid achieve something before that happens. Shadow stumbles into the treasure room. Happy, he thinks of making a flash entrance. Just as Crimson put Elisabeth’s heart into a new vessel to revive her, Shadow kills him off!
Episode 3
Shadow doesn’t find anything he wants here so he leaves. Meanwhile Mary and Claire just stumble into a resurrected Elisabeth who quickly pierces Claire and then drinks her blood. Shadow Garden a little too late to come to her rescue and even if they fight and slay Elisabeth, she can easily regenerate by using their blood. Not even Yukime and Juggernaut jumping into the picture for some fun could do anything. They’re easily taken out. Claire then starts to have an awakening. However she finds herself inside the infirmary of a high school with Aurora before her. Some explanations about her power. Basically what I understand is that her blood types have merged and although she has gained some power, she finds it hard to control. Hence Aurora gives her some weird symbols on her left arm to help control it. When they return to reality, Aurora takes over Claire’s body. As the original vampire, she easily turns the tables on Elisabeth. However Claire’s body cannot handle all the power and breaks. Aurora isn’t panicking and knew this would happen. All this is just to buy time for him to arrive. Who? SHADOW! Now we see him fighting on par with Elisabeth. Beta thinks he is protecting everyone rather than attacking Elisabeth (which he could easily do) but the way I see it, he is trying to protect and minimize all the coins and treasures he stole. The fight reaches its climax and just like that, not sure what Shadow even does, the red moon is gone and everything reverts back to normal. WTF. What just happened?! In the aftermath, Cid tells us about whatever names theses monsters have, ghouls or vampires, they are all just the effect of magic overload. Claire seems sad and lost as she tries to tell Cid about this new power. However whatever it is, he assures her he will always support her. That at least cheered her up. Cid notes Claire will continue to face some struggles but that is how kids grow up. More importantly, he manages to save all his treasure and that translates into a lot of cash back home. Even if it is not enough for him to be set for life and whenever he is in a financial pinch, he can always come back to Lawless City because it’s his piggy bank.
Episode 4
Shadow Garden kills off shady people working for the seemingly respectable Mr Garter who serves Mr Gettan, the president of Major Corporate Alliance (MCA). Everyone has their dark sides. Shadow now goes under the alias of John Smith as he meets Yukime who tells him Garter has a meeting with MCA as they are plotting Mitsugoshi’s downfall. She notes both companies will destroy each other and warns him about Gettan and his exceptional sword skills. He is a dangerous fellow and it sounds like she wants revenge on him. As Cid hangs out with his friends, he notices a different money note. Looks like MCA made their own note and that is why today they have some grand sale to commemorate its release. However this only makes Cid mad because while the Mitsugoshi’s notes were more refined, this is a much cruder copycat. So he goes back to talk to Yukime and I don’t get this money economics he brings up. From what I understand, because people find it troublesome to carry heavy coins around, hence the popularity of paper money and the creation of credit that allowed Mitsugoshi to reap hefty interests from the coins sitting in the vault. The irony that paper has more value than real metal. He has this suggesting of making a profit in counterfeit bills. But Yukime points out it is not legal tender and for it to work, it can only be done on a small scale. With Shadow in shock, Yukime misinterprets his actions that he is not impressed. So she further adds that perhaps with the counterfeits, this will make people doubt the value of the paper money and they’ll run to the bank to exchange it for gold and that’s where they can monopolize the profits. Shadow leaves so Yukime thought he was testing her sincerity. Then we see Delta bugging Shadow to go hunt with her. Raiding one of the secret bases and Delta killing her useless brother. Don’t worry, she has hundreds of brothers and sisters so less 1 weakling makes no difference. She suggests Shadow defeat her father and he too can have hundreds of kids! He’ll pass. Garter reports to Gettan about their reducing personnel over the past few months. This will affect those running their public enterprises. After all, they’ve invested a huge sum in bribing legislators to set up their bank and print their money. However Gettan tells him to do as he is told and is reminded who put him in this place that controls the commerce of this city. Realizing Mitsugoshi is tougher than he thought, he is going to take drastic actions to steal their trade secrets.
Episode 5
Gamma offers to take care of intruders entering their premise. Well, Gamma being the clumsy oaf, blunders all the way and you bet the intruder is pretty confused. Yeah, he knows she is more than he can handle and tries to escape but Gamma’s clumsiness proves to be her greatest luck as she somehow defeats him. Is there anything else to say? And those guys were supposed to be some elite team under Gettan? No wonder he is disappointed. He also laments with the cult running low on resources, it is the best time to show his power. MCA is just a stepping stone until he fully gets all the power he wants. Shadow meets with Yukime as they talk about the distribution of the fake bills they have made. Yukime is hell bent to get revenge on Gettan for taking everything from her. She won’t stop until she takes everything from him. Shadow won’t interfere but advises not to stray into the wrong path. As Alpha realizes the seeping in of counterfeit bills into their store, the same too for Gettan. He narrates about his plan to collapse the faith in the credit of paper money. This is why he has also circulated their own fake bills. By bringing the downfall of credit, this will bankrupt both MCA and Mitsugoshi. But this wasn’t supposed to take effect until all the cult’s assets in MCA were recovered. However those assets are mixed up in the various public businesses and organizations. If they sit back and let this counterfeit circulate, they stand to lose more money. A small group of Shadow Garden that #666 is in, infiltrate a train carrying counterfeit goods. However they are caught by surprise in a trap set by Shadow (in his John Smith disguise). He boots them out of the train. While #666 clearly wants to continue the fight, her comrades advises her not to because they will definitely fall for the same trap since their enemy is strong. #666 laments being weak.
Episode 6
#666 reports to Alpha about how formidable John Smith is. He is in fact on par with all of Shadow Garden. Alpha has more pressing issues like some mission she sent Zeta on. She has not been contacting them so she is assuming the mission going on smoothly despite heavy resistance from the cult. Delta is sent to deal with John Smith. She attacks the train but we know Shadow doesn’t even break into a sweat as he deals with this rampaging maniac. But soon Delta realizes he is Shadow from his scent. She learns he is undercover and doing this as a secret. That is why he forbids her to tell Alpha or his mission will fail. This means she also cannot help him on this mission. In exchange, he gives her another mission to hunt Juggernaut instead. Because Delta has not contacted Alpha and some memento of her was found, they assumed she got killed?! Alpha starts to believe this is all part of John Smith plans to destroy both MCA and Mitsugoshi. With the fake bills circulating, Gettan continues to order his men to search for the source and this means setting checkpoints of everything that comes in and out of the capital. Now it is angry Alpha’s turn to attack John Smith. Try as she might but she cannot best him. Soon with all those unique moves, she realizes he is Shadow. Why do this? He claims he has tossed away that name to become John Smith. This only leaves her madder and more confused. She thinks he believes she is not good enough to support her. In her desperate bid to prove she is of worth, she attacks again but this time loses badly. She is saddened Shadow has abandoned her. Now Shadow meets with Yukime who explains their plan is going well and at this rate the cult will be bankrupt and MCA finished. This will affect Mitsugoshi and soon the kingdom’s economy will fall into chaos. Yukime then narrates about her origins. Especially her lesser clan who always fell victim to conflicts from greater clans after the fall of some god of theirs. Hence they tried to deepen ties with those allied to them. Gettan and Yukime were engaged to each other and she truly loved him. However he soon killed everyone who was a pacifist because his belief is that strength is power. If he doesn’t take it from them, they’ll take it from him. Yukime wasn’t spared and got slashed too as he believed she too rejected him. She survived and made her way up via prostitution at Lawless City after losing everything. Hence her true goal is not to amass a fortune but to find Gettan and take everything from him.
Episode 7
With panic setting in, the public is trying to change their notes for gold. At the same time, many of MCA branches have closed down. Gettan learns Yukime is behind this counterfeit and sensing her nearby, he goes to confront her. Meanwhile Alpha is depressed. She believes Shadow has abandoned them for failing to live up to his expectations. Even with MCA collapsing and Mitsugoshi slated to be next, she doesn’t care anymore. But when she receives news that the cult was supposed to circulate counterfeit bills, she realizes could it be Shadow’s plan to usurp them by flooding their own fake bills before the cult? Then Beta enters with good news as she has deciphered Shadow’s mystery letter to her. Shadow admits he turned traitor to beat the cult in their game. Now that they don’t have MCA on their side, they will be the only losers. He went alone so as not to tie all of them together. Like they say, to deceive your enemies, deceive your allies first. Alpha is relieved that Shadow has not abandoned them. Shadow has been defeating those who want to steal his money. But it seems a huge stash has been stolen and Yukime’s subordinates claim they saw Gettan doing so. He is going to take back what is his! Uhm, I thought he stole them?! Gettan loses to Yukime. But because of the cult’s drug, he powers up to defeat her. He still thinks he can take it all as long as he has the power. Before he deals the finishing blow, Shadow arrives to beat him up. Taking back what belongs to him. With Gettan defeated, Shadow forces him to say what is needed. If he refuses, Shadow beats him up until he does so. While lamenting things would’ve been different if he had that power, he thinks maybe he didn’t want them to take it from him. All he wanted was just to protect. Gettan dies and leaves Yukime in Shadow’s care. As Shadow buries Gettan, Iris inspects Garter’s vault. It is empty and she arrests him. Alpha approaches Yukime and passes her a letter from Gettan. She believes the cult was the reason that led Gettan astray. Telling Yukime the truth about Shadow Garden and all, she wants Yukime to join their side against the cult. She agrees. Mitsugoshi survives the credit collapse since they have stacks of gold lining up for the people. Shadow and Delta are digging through the snow to find his stolen coins. None. Delta trying to get Shadow to make good his promise but he is trying to shift the goalpost and confuse the hell out of her with some guilt trip.
Episode 8
Skel and Po go bug Cid to go hit on some chicks. However he is not in but they see some premium tickets to some hotspring inn. Losers decide to take them and invite some Mitsugoshi chicks. But when they see them in possession of those tickets, they are captured and interrogated! They want to know how they got those tickets. Did they steal them? Obviously they lie that Cid gave it to them to invite the girls. Unsure of this, the rest of Shadow Garden convene to discuss about this. Could this be another secret test from Shadow? Flashback shows long ago when Shadow defeated some guy over some Dragon’s Tears, he told Shadow Garden to keep digging to find it. Well, it hit a hotspring mine and that’s how the inn was established. Since there are 6 tickets and assuming half of it is reserved for the guys, this means only 3 of them can go. Since Shadow Garden wants to be with him, you bet they’re going to fight for it. Well, just rock-scissors-paper. And the lucky ones are Beta, Delta and Zeta. They are not pleased Skel and Po showed up. Where’s Cid? They lie he’ll come later so okay, let’s get going. Of course other Shadow Garden girls are in disguise. Looks like all having an awful lot of fun time as Alpha thinks this is Shadow’s way of giving them some time off. Of course the losers decide to go peep on the girls’ bath section. Security sprays gas into their eyes. It seems their tears cause the water to react. This has Shadow Garden remember the Dragon’s Tears legend. A dragon and a princess were close friends until war broke out. With her kingdom in ruins, the princess cried but the dragon cried more, flooding the entire area. When the princess came to be, the dragon was nowhere to be found and the area is now a lake. So everybody bullies Beta into shedding some tears. The water then activates and turns into a dragon spirit. Shadow Garden goes into action to subdue it. They believe it is Shadow’s intention to free the dragon. The result now rains golden tears. They take advantage of this ‘special event’ to sell them to customers. Alpha has only thanks for Shadow for giving them a great day off. Yeah, Shadow/Cid was never to seen anywhere this episode! The losers return home, not remembering much of what happened today but they think they ascended into adulthood. Dream on!
Episode 9
Rose still has nightmares of killing her father. Now she joins her fellow comrades as well as #559 to do recon over the cult’s suspicious activities at some ruins in Oriana. #559 claims that only she and #666 have received special blessings from Shadow. However she doesn’t trust #666 and will see if she is worthy to serve under Shadow. As they spy at the ruins, they see the cult gathering to activate something and retrieve some ring. However, to #666’s shock, the one who is the key to activate this is her mother, Reina! It seems royal blood is needed. #559 orders to kill everyone and obviously #666 can’t kill her mother and protects her. Reina even pleads for help. #559 deems this as betrayal as the fight rages on. Meanwhile Cid has been wandering around as he notes the situation in Oriana continues to be in chaos. As there is no official ruler since the king’s death, now the fight is between Perv’s faction and those who are still loyal to the old regime. Cid has this idea of a mysterious character coming in to save the kingdom’s situation. He wants to make Rose the next ruler and since she might become lost and a tyrant, he too will step in to guide her to the correct path. Such great dreams. Cid is currently eating at a diner Marie is running. However, ruffians come in to extort their usual protection money in which she doesn’t have. Cid plays the lame pathetic guy to tell them to lay off Marie and gets his ass whooped. Of course later he goes to their hideout and kills all of them and takes all their loot. As Marie is having financial trouble, she is about to resort to selling her body again but Shadow leaves a bag of gold coins. She is happy that Shadow has been watching her. #559 is about to lose to the cult’s general but the moment she sees Shadow in the background, she powers up and kills this f*cker! She is thrilled with his presence as she tells about #666’s betrayal although the other comrades try to reason her actions. It seems #666 has left Shadow Garden and returned to her previous life as Rose. Shadow doesn’t understand a thing they said until he finds out Rose is getting married! He gets angry! What was the killing of her father for then? This is betrayal! She will pay dearly! Shadow dashes off into the sky to hunt down Rose.
Episode 10
I don’t know how but Cid is able to walk into the royal palace because Epsilon is working as some associate to Perv. Whatever. Due to some changes in protocol, ordinary people like Cid are not supposed to enter but Perv will have him demonstrate something. And so Cid dazzles everyone with the piano with his Moonlight Sonata. During that, Cid steals from all the unsuspecting guests their rings and jewellery. Especially that ring from Perv. When Cid wants to go tour the place, a maid who once served Rose, volunteers to do so. Because she has zero silicon as boobs?! WTF?! I don’t know what she’s blabbing about but all Cid cares is asking about Rose whereabouts. Of course she tells him but she also notes how much she hates her because she killed her father and threw the kingdom into chaos. Cid then bumps into some fat ugly guard who starts ranting away about his jealousy because he is in love with that maid. Whatever. Cid sneaks away and makes his way to where Rose is held. She misses him a lot but when he asks about her marriage, she changes her tone and wants him to forget all about her. He reminds her of all the struggles she made up till this point. Is she going to throw it all away and go back to that perversion? All Rose wishes for is for Cid to find his own happiness. That is all. Later, we see Perv abusing Rose. He reminds her that Reina’s life is in his hands so she better improve her attitude. Obviously Cid witnesses it all and now his mind is set. Epsilon talks to #559 about Rose and wasn’t the latter’s fault since the mission failed as she was not told about Rose’s mom. In fact, Shadow Garden knew about it but hoped Rose would never find out. They talk about some ultimate destruction as described in the legends that will destroy the land. They continue to believe Cid has a further goal since he is handling this case himself. Speaking of which, he returns and claims it has been solved. Wow. So magnificent. Meanwhile Perv reports to Mordred that their plan is moving along smoothly. If all goes well, their power in the cult will be secured. This means Perv will be granted a seat in Rounds. And what’s this? Perv having an affair with Reina?!
Episode 11
Cid ponders the situation of Rose being forced into this marriage because Perv holding Reina as hostage. WTF the maid and Epsilon trying to fight over Cid? How unsightly. So much so, Cid had to strip and escape from their clutches and play Moonlight Sonata in his undies to the crowd. Yeah, a better option. Later Epsilon talks to him about some Black Rose legend but Cid’s priority now is to find Reina. Not hard to find. Making out with Perv as they plot they won’t need Rose anymore once the ceremony is over. Rose is surprised when Shadow shows himself before her. He takes her to see the truth. Oh man, how long have they been doing it because Perv and Reina are still making out! More revelation as they reveal they were the ones who drugged the late king. Rose is in so much shock that she faints. When she comes to, she sees Cid playing his piano. Realizing she has nothing left, no more kingdom, betrayed the organization who took her in, only Cid was the one who stayed by her. Let’s run away from this madness. Well, not sure what cryptic lines Cid said but I believe it’s more like don’t give up. He gives her that ring. Cid is now confident that with everything in place, the rebellion will take place at the wedding and that is when the lion will awake. Before the ceremony, Perv realizes his ring is gone. Panicking, he thinks of making an excuse to delay the ceremony but a call from Mordred confirming once this is over, a seat of Rounds will be his. As the wedding starts, Rose makes a shocking statement when she says she will not marry Perv. She accuses him of all the plot and with this ring her father left for it, she puts it on. Suddenly a recording pops up all over the kingdom. It is her father doing his last recording. He knows he is being drugged and by the time this video is out, he will already be dead. He points out Perv as the mastermind behind all this but assures his citizens not to fear because Rose will be their new leader. His final words are his love for his daughter. With the video over, all the nobles turn against Perv. Don’t want to be associated with this scumbag. Just then, Perv gets decapitated. Yeah, his head rolling before Reina’s feet doesn’t even move her! Feeling bored?! She too gets decapitated! The culprit: Mordred. He then activates Rose’s ring to summon the Black Rose. This is the truth behind the legend. A huge demon named Ragnarok starts decimating the place. The kingdom going into ruins again? Not if Shadow comes to play!
Episode 12
As Shadow relishes fighting Ragnarok, Mordred fights off Beta and Epsilon. He thinks his special sword can best them but how wrong he is and it will be him who will soon know his place. Rose and other Shadow Garden members help fight off other magical beasts. Yeah, the whole kingdom is a mess. Again. When Mordred is defeated, it’s time he spills the beans. He starts off explaining that there are several other dimensions and realms. However as observed, these many worlds revolve around a single point. Maybe that is supposed to be God. However the more interesting stuffs are the revolving worlds. Taking a certain planet as an example, magic did not exist until a world collided into it. Magic then flowed into it. Damn, are they saying this was what wiped out the dinosaurs?! This also begs the question if humans came from another dimension! With this logic, there are also stuffs that went to another world. Lost city of Atlantis is an example. Holy sh*t! You mean that is not fiction?! Thus it is also believed Diablos came from another realm. So back to Oriana’s history, in some war when monsters from another dimension popped up to slaughter all, the cult rescued them by closing the gate. This means the royal blood would be the price to pay and this means Rose was to be offered to the cult when she was an infant. The king refused to do so and look what happened. You think Ragnarok will destroy everything? Well, look at how Shadow is having fun mincing it to bits despite its regeneration! Mordred can’t accept this absurdity so he merges with Ragnarok to become some hideous monster. Even so, no match for Shadow. Yeah, nots sure what Shadow rants about some scientific stuffs. But he kills off Mordred and a light so bright that can be seen from the entire galaxy! Amazing nobody went blind. Shadow sees a strange vortex and touches it. He gets absorbed into it and disappears! Oh no! Well people, you remember Akane? Yeah, it has been years and she has been doing her own investigation over ground zero. She’s still bitter about that tragedy and each time she looks at the moon, she is reminded of him. Then she is kidnapped by punks. This time they are part cyborg! Déjà vu as she might be raped and beaten to death but a familiar sound crashes in. Yeah, it’s that Stylish… Uhm, whatever! But nope. Not him anymore. Because he has upgraded to Shadow! Your worst nightmare is back!
Shadow(per)verse & Shadows House
So haven’t you heard already? Well, there is good news and bad news. I’ll tell you the bad one first. If you’re wondering why this season is shorter than the first season, that’s because there is going to be a movie sequel! Oh my God. The next arc is a movie?! Yeah, that’s bad news to me. But the good news? Because it is a movie so you bet it gives me an excuse not to watch it! HAHAHA!!! I’m set free from this! Hooray! I don’t have to watch this crap anymore! Unless they make another season after that and returning to the TV format… Oh boy… Then I would have missed another arc… Sighs… Why am I even agonizing over this…
As you can already very well tell, I am still not impressed with this season. It continues to confuse me and truth to be told, I don’t even know what is happening but more or less the same thing. Oh you know, Cid playing his Shadow persona and being the overpowered motherf*cker he is, continues to throw his weight around seeing nobody else is close to give him a challenge. Then as usual, his Shadow Garden harem are so trusting of him that they believe all his actions have to do with the good of the future that they can see, only which Shadow himself has envisioned. Yeah, makes you wonder if he is so damn good, why does he need Shadow Garden in the first place if he can do everything himself. Oh right, I almost forgot. He doesn’t. They’re just tagging along and assuming everything by themselves and hence the biggest chuunibyou following ever. Heh. Though I have to admit that the final episode revelation about different realms did sound interesting a bit. No, not because of the existence of many other isekai worlds but rather how the worlds collide and transfer/disappear its essence into the other. Have to admit that is the most interesting theory I’ve heard. And now that Shadow is back to his own world, maybe he can do make do what’s right. He is more powerful than before. Yeah, now he can literally stop an atomic bomb with his own bare hands!
Just like last season, this one splits its season into smaller story arcs. Looks like they stayed true in destroying everything whenever the arc finishes. Yeah. So we start off with this Lawless City thingy and as usual, I don’t really understand what that arc is all about. Perhaps to introduce some new characters and that vampire thingy which I don’t see how relevant is that for this season. Maybe in future arcs but as far as this season is concerned, I was left confused. Next we got that economic thingy arc that also confuses the hell out of me. Spice And Wolf it was not and yeah, perhaps it was just some revenge thingy for Yukime and Shadow Garden to secure more funding. Why need so much more money? Aren’t they already dominating everything? Money is never enough! Finally, Rose’s arc. Oh yeah. I guess I was wrong predicting Rose will get a training arc because screw that and let’s throw Rose into more despair! But hey, at least it gives her character some closure and kill off that pain in the ass Perv. So I guess he won’t be the main antagonist in the long run. Just a small fry. Good riddance. Yeah, looks like Mordred too. Just when he makes his full proper appearance, Shadow erased him. Now he can be one with God. Oh sorry, these people will be burning in hell. Now I have to wonder if the many layers of hell is it because of all the different dimensions’ version of hell clashing together!
Also as you might have guessed, I don’t see the characters changing in much ways and I am still not impressed with them all. Especially Cid/Shadow. Yes, this guy because he is so overpowered, he can do anything he wants. Then as usual, he spews us a lot of his sarcastic monologue. I supposed this is supposed to be the punch line and joke to whatever but I don’t really understand them. Yeah, seeing how bias I am towards this character, I will continue to accuse him that such monologue jokes just fall flat! I don’t find them funny, Cid! I still hate his character of wanting to show off in the shadows despite wanting to be the biggest mob AKA background character. In fact, there was one episode that puts Skel and Po into the limelight. To be honest, that was actually the best episode and my favourite episode of this series! Really! These background characters might be idiots but at least they stay true to their perverted goals. Yeah, surprised that I actually find them more likeable than Shadow and his female operatives. And as cherry on top of the icing, that filler episode has no presence of Shadow or Cid whatsoever! So refreshing!
The other big disappointing characters are Shadow Garden themselves. Here I thought we would at least get a better fleshing out of their past but unfortunately, none of that. Yeah, with only a dozen episodes, looks like the fleshing out will have to wait for future stories in future seasons. But because of that, it feels like they are insignificant. Which is an irony since they are shadowy operatives and should be shrouded in mystery. The closest drama that came was when Alpha thought Shadow abandoned them because she and the rest couldn’t live up to his standards, My dear girl, all of you can never be on par with his standards! It’s not like Cid really cares about it all and lets them do as they wish. And because of that, their perception of Shadow as God puts him so high on the pedestal that it has blinded them in so many ways. Shadow can never do any wrong! There must be a reason why he did so! Because Shadow’s success is 100%, this continues to further clout and cloud Shadow Garden’s perspective of him as they grow bigger and bigger. Yeah, Shadow Garden is just a huge Shadow fan base, RIGHT???!!!
Then the other girls too are disappointing. Again, blame the lack of episodes but it feels that those that have appeared in last season, are even more insignificant here. Remember Alexia and Iris? Yes, still around but they have no prominent role. Just cameos to remind us they are still around. Better than Annerose and Beatrix who didn’t even pop up at all this season. What a disappointment. Better than those useless guys, Goldy and Quinton. Still remember these jokers? The most disappointing of them all? Remember Sherry? Oh yeah. I thought she would return this season to exact revenge on Cid/Shadow. But I guess this is not her season. Hey, can’t rush revenge. Sadly, didn’t even appear here either. Even Akane gets a final episode cameo. This shows she wasn’t a one-off character and might have a bigger role to play. Let me guess, will she be part of Shadow Garden in the future or a new Shadow Garden will be formed in this original world?! So I guess this girls whom Cid/Shadow have all broken before, I suppose don’t want to break them again. Because look at Rose. The sh*t she has to go through before she regains her pride and strength. This all part of your plan, Shadow? And to think he really got mad when he heard Rose went back to be Perv’s bride. Oh yeah. I thought I should see more of that expression especially when his plans don’t go as planned. Oh right, almost forgot about Claire. From the way things look at the end of Lawless City, looks like she is a broken woman. That’s another girl to add to your broken list, Cid. Now it’s your sister. Happy now?
Action wise, still pretty much the same stuffs. By now I should resign to the fact Shadow is so overpowered that not even God can touch him. He isn’t as flashy as last season only because there isn’t any huge events like fighting Aurora or Iris. Art and animation remains like last season and yes, still a lot of dark scenes. While last season’s seiyuus were retained, I thought Cid/Shadow sounded different when he impersonated John Smith. Yeah, they employed another legendary seiyuu for that: Jun Fukuyama. Don’t forget other cameos like Saori Hayami as Elisabeth, Shizuka Itou as Yukime and Tomokazu Sugita as Crimson. The other new casts are Daisuke Namikawa as Gettan (Rock in Black Lagoon), Tsuyoshi Gugita as Juggernaut (Vassago in Sword Art Online: Alicization), Miku Itou as #559 (Miku in Go-toubun No Hanayome), Mao Ichimichi as Marie (Bada in ClassicaLoid), Ai Kakuma as Mary (Rossweisse in High School DxD), Chafurin as Garter (Henpeita in Gintama) and Yuuko Minaguchi as Reina (Akiko in Kanon).
OxT is retained this season to sing the opening theme, Grayscale Dominator. Although their trademark rock style is still there (in fact, sometimes I sound it’s like a copycat of their other songs), this one doesn’t impress me like last season. This season’s ending theme is Polaris In The Night although all have different versions sung by a different Shadow Garden member who did not sing in the first season. So now it’s their turn, huh? This means the ending credits animation remains the boring fashion like in the first. Just a still picture of the Shadow Garden girl in focus as the special effects slowly reveal the whole picture. Yawn… But I have to admit that the special ending theme for episode 7, Everything Is Changing by Mayu Maeshima as a slow rock sounds better than the rest.
Overall, for the umpteenth time, I am not impressed with this series despite my initial fake optimism hoping to change my mind. The stubbornness is strong within me. Mainly Cid/Shadow as the main culprit who bulldozes his way through everything. Yeah, sounds like I’m jealous of him. Okay, maybe I am. Even Superman has a lot more realistic issues than this pure fantasy garbage! Heh. Bet you don’t even remember this was an isekai anime until the final episode to somewhat remind us, right? Only true fans will continue to love this trash because for viewers like yours truly who are still not impressed in the end, this season is more or less the same like the first but only worse because more confusion in the story and characters. Sure, the light novel is still ongoing but you know me, don’t read the source, don’t even want to watch the upcoming movie and certainly hell no I didn’t play the mobile game version that was released back in late 2022. YOU MEAN THERE WAS AN RPG MOBILE GAME OF IT???!!! Don’t tell me they’re going to come up with a Broadway-like stage play! Considering Cid/Shadow, it might crazily happen! How much f*cking attention does Cid/Shadow wants?! All I want is to be a background character and happily watch some decent animes. Is that too much to ask?!
Chua Tek Ming~*Anime Power*~ !LiVe FoR AnImE, aNiMe FoR LiFe! 