So when I made my season one review I was already well into season two and finally got time to sit back and put my thoughts on this page. Two years have passed after the events of season one and the protagonist Dark Schneider mysteriously stopped appearing. Kall-Su the remaining member of the four heavenly kings has assumed control of most of the world with his army of sorcerer shoguns. Yoko has fled with Lucien to join the Samurai and together they are rebelling against Kall-Su’s rule and seeking to find the characters that went missing at the end of last season.

So right away season two introduces a lot of new characters and for the most part they are really interesting. The samurai are your very stereotypical good guy characters which is an interesting new addition to this show in contrast to Dark Schneider’s more antihero persona. However, like most anime any character that’s on the side of good that isn’t a main character is relegated to a mostly useless fodder character for the enemy and this show is no exception. The sorcerer shoguns seem to easily have the advantage and it’s only when the situation is dire for Yoko that Dark Schneider finally show’s up again to reek his usually havoc while somehow saving the day in the process.

Overall I feel like the samurai are mainly used as a filler to have characters doing good things while we wait for Dark Schneider to come back because once he returns I found they added very little to the plot till roughly the end of the season. They are cool characters but they really served most of their purpose in the first few episodes. The story of this season is actually a little better than season one as a whole even though it’s quite a bit shorter. While season one focused on Dark Schneider versus the four heavenly kings this season is focused specifically on him versus Kall-Su and that added focus on the one central combat fleshed out both Dark Schneider and Kall-Su far more than what we saw in season one.

I really like how this season we got to see more of who Dark Schneider was prior to the events of season one and it showed there was a lot more to his character than what we thought. Underneath the layer he shows a majority of the time we see elements of compassion and it really humanizes this seemingly larger than life character. He shows an understanding of the hardships of other c characters like Kall-Su which is why it works seeing these characters elaborated on together since we get the same treatment of Kall-Su.

While one of the four heavenly kings had any kind of elaborated story in season one, this season we get to see a much more comprehensive look of Kall-Su and in doing so it made me empathize with both Dark Schneider and Kall-Su in their inevitable fight with one another. So where season one the fights were entirely just highly exaggerated versions of your typical anime fights season two manages to do that but with characters that we have a bit more of an attachment too and that added element really separates itself from season one.

The story also does a great job with raising some questions about Lucien and Dark Schneider as we get a lot of hints that there’s even more to these characters than we initially thought. It’s hard to really address this without going into too much detail but it seems there’s some sort of ties between them and the events with the dark god Antrosax 400 years ago as well as ties between them and the dragon warrior that defeated Anthrosax in the first place. None of this is elaborated on which I like because it’s a hook that is really keeping me invested in the show.

The humor is still on point but it appears less frequently this season. Where this season is clearly more focused on lore and character building it has less time for humor which in an odd way works well as the less frequent jokes makes the timing appear more unexpected and I found them to be a little funnier in the process. The fourth wall breaks are still here as well and I really enjoyed them.

The end of the season was a massive chaotic fight just like season one but it spanned a majority of the cast as it was full of intense attacks, rallying speeches, and this time a lot of characters got at least a brief moment in the spotlight which I liked quite a bit. Then the season ends with a massive teaser for things to come in what will hopefully be season three.

Overall even though season two is significantly shorter it has a much greater focus on the story and lore building versus season one and it’s nonstop action. By doing this is separate’s itself from season one to give the viewers a new experience with characters we’ve gotten to know as well as a lot of newcomers. The season elaborates more on who Dark Schneider is as a person underneath the surface as well as hints at his connections to the major events of the world. It does a great job at fleshing out everything in this world and leaves you wanting to know where it’s all going to go.