Story/Plot
Was this second season a great continuation of the plot? Did this show amaze me and surprise me as much as the first season? Did the plot throw me over? To be honest, not at all. The story was kept going, the show went on, however there was definitely no originality, and I also found some major flaws to the storyline that ended up in a bad ending altogether. Don’t get me wrong: The show was still awesome; But many things in it made me rage. A lot.
First of all, the biggest flaw I noticed in this season was how incredibly slow the pace of it was. Basically, since they didn’t really have enough time/manga content to develop the side stories, they decided to focus almost all of the 12 episodes to Sawako and Kazehaya. Now, had this been the first season, there would have been a lot of content. However, considering this was a second season, and since the first season already had rivals/jealousy bitch fights/conversations where it was obvious both Kazehaya and Sawako liked each other, this season didn’t really have much to play with. The only thing left needed was a confession and that was it. What they tried to do in order to add more content was to bring in another rival, Miura Kent, and that worked for about half of the season, however even with him there was not enough plot to fill in the whole season in the end. This resulted in slow pacing, and slight boredness as I watched the episodes come out every week.
I was also slightly surprised because there was barely any development in secondary characters. The first season got really popular not only because of the main couple, but also because the secondary characters had great development as well and it gave the show a lot more content. This season, the secondary couples were barely even touched, and apart from a couple of scenes that were there basically for us to fangirl, the plot involving these characters was very low. This deceived me a lot, considering I loved the side plots in the first season.
Apart form these 2 major flaws, I was kinda satisfied with the show. It was still quite funny, quite dramatic and kept the same style as the first season of Kimi ni Todoke, which is basically what made me want to watch it until the last episode.
6.5 / 10
I might’ve made it sound like the whole show was terrible, but I still have to admit that despite the major flaws, overall it wasn’t so bad. It definitely could have been better, though.
Characters
The first season had completely blown me away with its amazing character development. This season, I found much of that and I was quite happy (it was one of the reasons I was even watching this show), however, once again there were a couple of flaws that seriously deceived me, this time one in particular. Despite this, I still think the Kimi ni Todoke series is very good at developing characters and giving them amazing personalities.
The one thing I was really bothered by was Kazehaya’s actions towards Sawako around halfway through the show. I had a lot of trouble tolerating him, mostly because he didn’t act like himself. Kazehaya was thought to be a shyless, nice person who talked a lot, and for a long time in the show he acted in a really shy way, doing nothing but staring, and he made me think of Sawako much more than anyone else.
Sawako herself, however, was once again very well developed and her improvement really shows as the episodes go on. By the end of
the season, she has definitely integrated herself into the class, she’s happy, has realized that she isn’t a nuisance and speaks her mind. For her, that is an absolute exploit, and the way every part of her character was gradually implemented really made it seem real and made us realize how strong of a character she actually is. As a main character, she was amazingly well described.
As for the personalities of all the characters, overall they were kept as they were in the first season, which means I was definitely not deceived on that part. It was very easy to distinguish people apart, considering they all had such unique yet real personalities. Every character was amazingly well followed from the first season. As for the new characters like Kent, once again I was definitely not deceived by their very rich personalities.
8 / 10
Still as amazing as the first season, however Kazehaya’s personality was horrid for a few episodes and it is literally the only thing bringing the score down.
Technicalities
The technicalities are pretty much the only thing I have nothing bad to say about. For me to have read the manga, and now seeing the anime, it was amazingly well animated and I found myself enjoying this much more than when I actually read it.
The romantic scenes especially were incredibly well done. Instead of looking stiff and unreal like some romance shows, the show managed to portray these scenes almost perfectly and also added many effects that simply made everything much better. It is the one thing that I would say, if compared to the first season, it looks a lot less unreal and magical, leaving us with amazing effects that make everything look fantastic.
The character art never completely amazed me in the first season, and since this second season used the same characters I was still a little bit annoyed by it, however after being used to it I must say it wasn’t so bad as I had thought at first. There was also a little bit of CG that was used in this, mostly for backgrounds, and although it was noticeable it wasn’t particularly displeasing for the eye either, in my opinion.
The opening and ending were also great, what made me like them the most was probably how short they were. Openings tend to take a lot of time in the episode, and after a couple of episodes it gets annoying, however this one was cute and short, and I could never tire of it.
9 / 10
Everything was quite better than for the first season, especially concerning the animation.
Overall Impression
Compared to the first season, I definitely wasn’t satisfied with this show. However, if you take this fact out and look at the story simply like all the other shows, it could be considered a little bit higher than average, considering the art and character development was still quite impressive. In the end though, since the first season needed to be seen absolutely in order to view this, it wasn’t so great. They provided an actual ending to the story, which wasn’t there in the first season and obviously wrapped up everything pretty well, however it could have been done in a much better way.
6.5 / 10
Recommended: If you feel the first season needed an ending, yes