Arifureta Season 2 was exactly as good or bad as you expected it to be, depending upon your opinion on its first season. While it was demonstrably better than the first outing in some aspects, the others are more contentious. Let’s see how the series was in this review!
Arifureta Season 2 Overview
Arifureta From Commonplace to World’s Strongest Season 2 or Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Season 2 in original Japanese is an Isekai, fantasy and romance anime brought to the medium of anime by Studios Mother and asread. Asread is known for anime such as the first season of Arifureta and Mirai Nikki. Meanwhile, this season is Studio Mother’s first anime adaptation of any kind.
This season was directed by Akira Iwanaga, the mind behind several anime projects such as Corpse Party and Kingdom. The series is adapted from a light novel written by Ryou Shirakome and TakayaKi. We reviewed this show weekly and episodically, and those reviews are great for a rewatch or if you’re a first-time watcher. You can click here to read them!
– Arifureta Shokugyou de Sekai Saikyou Season 2 Review does not contain spoilers –
Arifureta Season 2 Review- The Plot
“Transported to another world and left behind by his former friends, Hajime had to make his rise from literal rock bottom. It was in the labyrinth where he strengthened his weak magic and found several beautiful allies. Now after saving his classmates, he ventures for Erisen to escort Myuu and her mother. He’ll fight and defeat anyone he has to in order to find a way home—including a god!” – Funimation.
Arifureta is a highly contentious show to talk about. You either like it, or you really, really hate it, and the people who do like it know all about its shortcomings and appreciate it despite all of them. They like the show for what it is and don’t hate it for what it isn’t, which is a great way to go about life in general and not just anime. What this means is that if you watched Arifureta Season 2, you were probably a fan of the first season and wanted to know where the story and characters went after the first outing.
Unfortunately, the answer to that question was absolutely nowhere. After the initial setup, Arifureta settled into this pattern of “Go to the Labyrinth- Fight Monsters- New Team Member Joins- Repeat Endlessly”, and this same pattern continued onto the second season. There were new villains and new challenges to take on inside those labyrinths, but on the whole, you would be forgiven for misidentifying some of the newer arcs as a part of Season 1.
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The challenge this time consisted of Hajime fighting the Demon Lord and an angel sent by the God of the world themselves. Everyone reading this is smart enough to know how those fights ended, and they didn’t lead to any special character moments or something to set up the future plotlines or new enemies. This was a pretty self-contained season that was pretty inoffensive but boring and trivial for the same reasons. The villains weren’t a challenge, the heroes didn’t do anything new, and everything just followed the season 1 formula to a tee.
The fights themselves were great and well done, especially the one towards the end of the season, but the obvious nature of the results dampened the experience. The Myu arc also did not have the emotional impact that it should have due to the show’s perplexing need to make everything about romance. The labyrinths were also the least interesting they have ever been, mostly due to them not giving Hajime any noticeable advantage in battles. Anything he gets in this season feels like a bucket in a well of power. Let’s talk about the most glaring issue in the next section.
Arifureta Season 2 Review- The Characters
The only different thing about Arifureta Season 2 was also the worst part about it, and that was how much it focused on Hajime’s classmates instead of him. Hajime and his party are the draws for the series, and they are good characters to build a show around. They have backstories, aims, goals, and dynamic relationships. They are also strong, and it’s fun to watch them kick all the villain butts. They are not equally great and have some issues of their own, but they are a highly entertaining team.
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On the other hand, Hajime’s other classmates are absolute nobodies. They are charisma vacuums alongside being useless and unexplored characters, leading their arc in the story to be the worst Arifureta has ever had. I discussed this in great detail here, but in short, we never knew what any of them were all about. They just existed in the background of Hajime’s tale, and when the show tried to include them as a central part of the story, it felt weird and tacky. It seems that they will play a greater role in the later seasons, which is the biggest reason for not caring about the show yet.
The villains were also quite uninteresting despite having a ton of potential to be great. They were portrayed as too weak to cause any damage to Hajime and his party believably and didn’t leave much of an impact by the end. Hajime’s party was also suffering due to the addition of Kaori, who is easily the worst member we’ve had so far. She also took a lot of shine off of Shia, as Shia barely had anything to do through Arifureta Season 2. This is something that fans of her and the show will not and should not abide by.
Arifureta Season 2 Review- Animation and Music
The one aspect that was certainly an improvement over Season 1 was the Arifureta Season 2‘s animation. The show was heavily rushed in Season 1 due to production issues and looked awful. Meanwhile, the animation in Arifureta Season 2 looked crisp and competent, which was nice to see. The CG was also used more conservatively and in a manner that didn’t stand out much and look as awful as it did in season, for which most eyeballs are glad.
The music was hit and miss, particularly the OST. Some gems were among the tracklist, including a few insert songs, but it was otherwise pretty forgettable. On the other hand, the opening and ending themes were fantastic and retained the quality that the show has always had. The opening was entirely in English, and that is something that weirdly suits Arifureta a lot. The ending was quite groovy and will be a fun addition to any playlist.
Verdict
Arifureta Season 2 was exactly as good as you expected it to be. If you liked season 1 and are a fan of the series, you will love the second season as it is just more of the same with a few things done better. Meanwhile, if you didn’t like Season 1, stay away from Season 2. It had more of the same problems as the first one and did nothing to fix them.
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Your review was garbage, not the show.
I like and was a fan of season 1. But 2nd season is a total garbage I dropped it on the 3rd episode.
I can’t really blame you for that. I would have casually done so too.