Anime 32867 Bungou Stray Dogs 2nd Season Reviews Filter Check 2

Bungou Sleigh Bells returns just in time for the holidays. And just like that, I’m already out of holiday puns.

To be honest, following Bambi Stray Dogs throughout the season was a surprisingly difficult task. Not just because of the weird and scattered narrative, but also because Crunchyroll changed its release schedule at least thirty-five times, just like the number of people Kyouka killed. So, my recollection of this series, which I only finished watching about twelve minutes ago, is rather hazy.

Looking back at the first cour from the spring, Stray Doggos was a decent time that seemed to have some sort of identity crisis. It ... had fun characters with crazy powers and an interesting concept with the main cast being a group of detectives rivaled against a mafia, but the story took some sharp turns in conflicting directions and was plagued by slapstick comedy about as appropriately-timed as someone’s ringtone of ACDC’s ‘Highway to Hell’ going off in the middle of their father-in-law’s funeral. Hey, I found it funny. Can’t say the same for the guy’s wife, though.

Now, the question everyone wants to know: Does the second season improve on the first in this regard?

Eh…

Like the first season, Stray Puppers makes a strong first impression. It kicks off with a prequel focused on Dazai and has a more dark and consistent tone despite Dazai being the silliest character of the series. Yet, even this gets tiring after a couple episodes.
For some reason, the arc stops focusing on Dazai, the fan-favorite of the series, and instead moves the spotlight to a guy who’s name I don’t know, because he wasn’t even in the first season. Who the hell’s this guy? Why should I care about him? He’s not particularly interesting beyond having one of the coolest powers of the series: a premonition-based power that activates when he’s about to die so that he can avoid it. The way Studio Bones visualizes it is entrancing. But the guy himself isn’t worth cheering for, because you know exactly how the arc is going to end. The point is that Dazai leaves the Port Mafia due to the events in this arc. A little clarification is nice to have for Dazai’s past, but did it need last a third of the cour?
Imagine watching this on a binge. You clear twelve episodes in a day or two. You’re finally invested in the people in the Armed Detective Agency and are excited about seeing the story evolve. Then, without warning, the anime cuts to new characters loosely related to the overall narrative and focuses on them instead, without looking back at the past season or even reassuring you that they’ll be back. I’d imagine it’d be a little strange.

Of course, after a few episodes the anime returns the spotlight to Sushi Guy, who got kicked out of thirty-five orphanages. The comedy doesn’t cut through everything as sharply and it introduces a new group of villains on top of the already-established Port Mafia, creating a three-sided war. It’s pretty interesting… but I could never connect much with the villains. Many of the people in this season just show up and leave after a couple episodes, and the shifting focus on Bucko’s myriad characters can make it hard to follow. It did for me, especially given that Pokemon Moon absorbed about a month of my life. Praise Mimikyu.

The more serious plotline leaves less room for characters to dick around all day, so there aren’t a lot of funny, memorable moments like there were with the first season, and no one really changes. With the first season, I thought Atsushi was a decent lead character who had a lot of room to develop, and I was interested in seeing that happen in the second. Nope. He still acts like a bitch all the time--in fact, his bitchiness seems to have increased somehow, because the slightest of mistakes will trigger the Naruto-level repetitive flashback of thirty-five people kicking him out of an orphanage. Yeah, that didn’t stop happening either. I’m not even sure why he’s the main character. Everyone else hypes up his tiger-transforming power as if it’s the most impressive thing in the world, but it’s actually not when he gets his ass kicked by literally everyone, just like how he got kicked out of an orphanage. And although he has the determined, ambitious attitude of a common anime lead, his reduced screentime makes it even more difficult to justify his placement in the series.
Kyouka, who killed thirty-five people, is a gem from the first season that also deserved some more polish. Eh… She develops a little more, which is nice, but I can’t say that anything about her is remarkable aside from her gorgeous character design, but frankly that can be said for basically everyone else. She’s the cute, quiet girl who’s trying to fit in. There’s nothing else to say about her, besides the fact that she got kicked out of thirty-five people, which makes the end of the season pretty hilarious. They try setting up a big emotional moment even though she was almost as useless as Sushiman.

The highlight of Bouncy is the fights, for sure. I wasn’t too interested in the powers from the first season beyond the incredible diversity, but this season introduces a new cast inspired by Western authors with matching abilities. My favorite was probably the last one, ‘The Great Fitzgerald’, which powers up the user depending on how much money they have and are willing to spend. Obviously there’s no real logic behind this or most other powers, but it’s still creative and a lot of fun, and that’s what counts.

Production’s about the same, not much that’s new to comment on. The art is as good as it was from the first season because based Bones, though I don’t know how often they used blank faces back then. For some reason, most scenes will just remove people’s faces entirely when they’re at a distance. I somewhat appreciate the artistic approach here, but it just looks strange.

Taku Iwasaki still remains a mixed bag to me, some of the backing music sounds hype as hell, and some of it sounds like he put a randomizer on some music studio on his computer. The opening song isn’t as good as GRANRODEO’s ‘Trash Candy’, which for me is one of my favorite’s this year, but SCREEN mode did a pretty nice job regardless. The accompanying animation wasn’t very memorable, but still appreciable because there are three different sequences, with the first two only showing up for a single episode. The ED sounds familiar because it’s by the same band who did the first season’s; it’s as good for me because its slow start makes for a great transition, and the moderate energy of the song makes it a good way to end an action-based show. Strong marks for this. Insert joke about Kyouka murdering people for consistency.

Overall, this second season of Gumball improved the show somewhat, but still opened up some new holes. It’s like sitting on a nice boat in the middle of a lake, but then you notice a hole, and now the boat’s sinking. You cover up the hole with your hands, but then another hole opens somewhere else, and it just keeps repeating. You can’t cover them all because you only have two hands and there are thirty-five holes. And the boat’s actually an orphanage.

Story - 5/10
Art - 7/10
Sound - 7/10
Characters - 5/10
Enjoyment - 5/10
People killed by Kyouka - 35/10
Overall - 5.0 (Score range: 4.0-6.0)
Recommendation level - Medium

(This is a spoiler-free review adapted for this site)

[Synopsis]: With the conflict between the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia already raging on, the appearance of The Guild further endangers the balance of the city. The stage has been set for a three-way gifted war between the organizations and by the end, only one will be left standing. Atsushi (Uemura Yuto), Dazai (Miyano Mamoru), and the rest of the Armed Detective Agency confront their strongest foes yet as the city wavers on the brink of destruction.

[Characters]:

Perhaps the most marked difference between the first and second season of Bungou Stray Dogs is the second ... seasons’ first 4 episodes which feature a stand-alone, prequel arc centering around Dazai’s past and the founding of the Armed Detective Agency. It offers a far more serious tone than the season that proceeds it and the characters and subject matter are similarly adjusted to fit this alternative kind of story. Gone are the dopey gags and whimsical suicide jokes and in their place is a mystery thriller full of organized crime, action, and subterfuge. It’s a promising start to the new season and it does away with many of the aspects of the first installment that most significantly hampered its success.

Due to the shift in tone, the cast of the prequel arc behaves fundamentally different from that of the first season. The characters have actual depth to them. Dazai isn’t bogged down by his cripplingly stupid suicide gag – he’s menacing and intellectual. Oda Sakunosuke, a newcomer, is wonderfully compelling and offers a genuinely engaging personality, skill set, and moral awareness that really embodies what makes the first 4 episodes of the show so interesting. For the first time you get a sense of purpose from these characters that isn’t derived from asinine comedy or Atsushi being hung up on the same orphanage flashback for over a season. In this regard, Bungou Stray Dogs pulled off the impossible and actually made me enjoy watching its characters.

So what then when the story shifts back to its previous setting and cast of familiar characters. Does it relax into its old ways and forget its recent progress? Luckily this isn’t the case but its not a complete turn-around either. The tone lightens up a good deal after the prequel arc concludes however in its wake remains a sense of gravity and seriousness that continues to influence the show for the better. The tonally disrupting humor makes a return but appears far less frequently than before, almost disappearing entirely during the show’s later episodes.

The cast remains much the same as they were before. Atsushi is still Atsushi and the rest of the Armed Detective Agency and the Port Mafia go about their business just as they did before. The majority of the characters remain fairly one-dimensional and the things that motivate them are pretty underwhelming but there are a handful of interesting additions to this season. While the convention of slapping the names of renowned authors on to various characters and giving them superpowers had about as little depth as it did before, Lovecraft and his style of horror beyond comprehension was fairly well conceived. The cast features a small number of improvements in this regard but as a whole remains almost insultingly simplistic and leaves a lot to be desired.

[Art/Animation]:

In respect to Bungou Stray Dogs’ visuals, not much has changed and the second season maintains the fluid and consistent style of the first series. There are a number of new flashy abilities to look at and the fight sequences are well animated and generally entertaining to watch when they don’t boil down to play-by-play ability exposition. Bungou Stray Dogs is a good looking show and if it could stand by its solid animation, great environments, and vibrant colors alone, it would be a relatively strong show.

[Story]:

As highlighted earlier, the beginning of the new season begins with a flashback arc consisting of 4 episodes that immediately surpassed all of the proceeding content. The more serious tone and far more measured approach to the show’s poor sense of comedy does it a lot of favors. It doesn’t escape moments like Dazai screaming his head off about a mobile game while his men recover the bodies of 3 of his underlings but this initial arc presents a significant step forward for the show none the less. It plays out as more of an organized crime mystery than the superpower action show that makes up the rest of Bungou Stray Dogs. It’s got a good character story at its core centering around Dazai, Oda Sakunosuke, and Sakaguchi Ango and features some compelling plot developments and action scenes.

The rest of the show that follows is far more in the vein of the previous series though as I’ve said it thankfully takes a slightly more serious approach this time around. While the offbeat comedy doesn’t get in the story’s way in the same way it once did, there are still a handful of narrative issues afoot that keep the second season of Bungou Stray Dogs from creating anything as compelling as its introductory arc. The season as a whole revolves around the three-way conflict between the Armed Detective Agency, the Port Mafia, and The Guild however what they are actually fighting over and what drives their conflict is a bit obscure. To some degree, its the city itself but the Armed Detective Agency is mostly out to save people, the Port Mafia is out to… do bad stuff and The Guild wants to capture Atsushi the weretiger… or find a book… or some such thing.

Though their reasons for fighting each other are a little flaky, what’s perhaps even more disconcerting is the way their bouts actually pan out most of the time. Despite boasting truly powerful and terrifying abilities and spending most of their dialogue threatening opposing faction members, none of the characters seem to have much of an interest in killing anyone. Sometimes two opposing factions clash and they fight to the death but in other instances, they simply nod and see each other on their way. It’s supposed to speak to this high-minded elegance behind the scenes but when each faction-head claims they want to win and don’t seem to be taking the most straightforward steps to doing so, it somewhat compromises the seriousness of their conflict.

Though it presents these weaknesses, between the prequel arc, the shift in tone, and the more interesting subject matter, the second season of the show is markedly more entertaining than the first. It tends to repeat itself for the sake of oversimplification, the characters are pretty one-dimensional but its got good production standards, plenty of fight scenes, and somewhat inciting character interactions to keep things fresh.

[Sound]:

The soundtrack sees a return of the previous themes that made up the bulk of the show’s music with a few new additions. For whatever reason, the music stood out to me more this season than it did during the first and I can say it supported each scene reasonably well.

[Final Thoughts and Rating]:

This second season of Bungou Stray Dogs was more entertaining than I would have expected it to be going in after such a forgettable first season. The conclusion of the show was fairly tight but the mentalities of all of the characters involved left me kind of baffled as to why any of them would act the way they did. This season was a significant step in the right direction but not to the degree that it became anything ‘great’.

Rating: 5

I gave the second season of Bungou Stray Dogs a 5 because, while it still suffers from uninteresting characters and a handful of narrative complications, the more sincere tone allows for the show to take itself more seriously and thus adds at least some legitimacy to its conflict and cast. The prequel arc was engaging and the action scenes that crop up throughout the rest of the show were entertaining. Bungou Stray Dogs isn’t a show with a lot going on behind the eyes. Its predictability renders it rather uneventful on some occasions but its action scenes and animation at least provide something stimulating to tide things over.

[Recommendations]:

If you already enjoyed the first series and are looking into checking out this sequel season, then I’m sure it will meet and surpass your expectations. If you enjoyed it for its comedy, it’s still present. If you liked its action scenes or supernatural abilities – there are more of them than ever. If, like me, you didn’t care for the first season, I’d give the first 4 episodes a shot and see if it catches your interest any.

It's been a long time since S1 aired back in 2016 and for one reason or another, I never felt compelled to pick up S2 until recently. I enjoyed S1 initially but it was still a fairly mediocre anime in my eyes. For context, let me lay down some of the problems I had with season 1 from what I can remember. I've only seen S1 once and that was watching it weekly while it was airing so forgive me if I miss anything.

- Characters are introduced well but are given little screen time after that even if they seem important
- Villains are given little ... to no development
- Animation is decent at best, boring at worst, final fight of S1 being an exception
- Comedy straight up ruins most scenes and is unfunny
- Tone nosedives frequently from dark to funny
- Characters are one note (not necessarily a negative, expected for a show's S1)

So with these criticisms in mind I hoped that S2 would fix these issues. The reception to this season was extremely positive so I was excited to see what was going to happen. So, I dived in and watched the first four episodes which were an immediate step-up. The dark mafia tone was handled extremely well. The characters new characters were enjoyable to watch. The comedy was placed in fitting scenes and actually funny most of the time. It was shaping up to be a really good season. I was pumped to get back into the present to see the Guild in action and to witness a potential three-way-war.

Then I watched the rest of the show. Somehow, Bungo Stray Dogs S2 not only manages to be worse than season 1, but it's problems are even more egregious than before.

First of all, the way this show handles it's characters is honestly idiotic. I want to chock this down to a poor adaptation, but I'm not familiar with the source material so I don't know. The members of the Guild are visually really well designed and they were hyped up to be some awesome antagonists. They are a lot more interesting than Port Mafia and their powers were a lot cooler as well. So, the war begins and we see two new Guild members surface. One of them being Margaret Mitchell, a character I was really excited to see. She's the most distinct character on the poster and her dub performance is done with a southern accent so it's different from most anime villains. She's also hot, not gonna lie. So, for the first fight we see against the Guild, the two members get destroyed by Aktugatwa, just because he's angry. What a stupid way to introduce a new villain group. It's writing 101. If you want villains to be threatening, don't have them be beaten so easily right when they're introduced. It's idiotic. Especially since it's by one of the show's most annoying characters. So, for the rest of the season, the Guild never once feels like a threat and Port Mafia takes the role of dominant villain because we're supposed to think they're cool. Because a generic modern day mafia is somehow cooler than a group of people dressed in 1800s costumes that are named after famous authors that you'll actually recognize who have superpowers named after some of their books. The main villain suffers immensely because of this. He has such an interesting and unique power, and they make little use of it in this show. The final battle fails because of this. It happens out of nowhere, it's way too short and it doesn't feel like a climax in the slightest.

This character problem extends into the protagonists as well. Despite this being a 'war' the only Agency characters that do anything of note are Dazai and Atsushi. Everyone else either does barely anything or gets treated like Ranpo and gets half an episode dedicated to a mystery that was way better than anything that came before it this season. Why is every character handled so incompetently? It's not that hard to write a compelling and entertaining battle story. This was definitely a rushed adaptation, it's the only way this amount of mistakes actually makes sense. This show has so much potential to be amazing but it was squandered. It's got three seasons for god sake, it doesn't really have an excuse.

So, Bungo Stray Dogs S2. A show that somehow most people love despite being one of the most obviously flawed things ever made. It's unfortunate that a cool idea like this show got wasted with one of the most underwhelming anime adaptations ever made. I haven't even read the source material and I'm still made. This is a show I really wanted to like but everything it does from the characters, the fights and especially the poorly handled comedy just ruin the experience for me. If S3 is better than feel free to let me know, because I really want this show to be good.

Just so I end on a positive I'll quickly list some of the stuff I liked:

- Character designs are fantastic, definitely the best part of the show
- Powers are fun and creative
- Episodes 1-4 are really great
- Soundtrack
- Fights are better animated this season
- Margaret Mitchell ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

So far this is the 1st anime to end for this winter season of 2016 (I think) and now a new season begins on 2017. What we have here isn't much of a new season but a combination of a prequel, referring to Dazai's past , up to a continuation of the fist season, where a 3rd party comes in, called the "Guild." So in all aspects , this is how I rated it:

Storywise, is was very good when we were introduce to Dazai's past as to how he came to be, it was even better when a new party comes crashing in between the ... Agency and the Port Mafia. You could say that the genre did played the way it was suppose to be so kudos to anime writer Yōji Enokido, so , it's a very good 8, here.

Artwise: pretty decent, don't expect any zettai ryoki around here, nor any panty flash from Akiko Yosano, Kyōka Izumi, Kirako Haruno, Naomi Tanizaki, Kouyou Ozaki, Louisa May Alcott and Margaret Mitchell, But fashionwise, the cooler ones are Dazai, Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, Chūya Nakahara and Doppo Kunikida. The dorky ones were, Ranpo Edogawa who kinda looks like a awful mix of Sherlock and a Scottsman, Akiko Yosano, could have been the sexy femme fatal , but wasn't exploited, too bad she could have been the eye candy here, the same goes with Kouyou Ozaki and Margaret Mitchell , they, also, if illustrated as sexy risque eye candy would have added some spice to this anime's art. Aktugawa's fashion on the other hand, has that poor combination of goth and Dracula outlook, and I really don't get the long thing behind Nakajima's pant's , I mean , is that a very long belt or some string that needs snipping? So it's a decent 4 for this category.

Sound, though, I have no comment as who did the character's voice, I simply attribute a very good 8 for the opening theme, "REASON LIVING" by Screen. It definitely matches the anime itself.

Character, it was as mediocre as number 4, since they're the same character from the 1st season, also, the characters themselves, were the usual people with special abilities who were either trying to be heroes or just running amuck, Also, I kinda hate it that creator Kafka Asagiri, has to named them after famous literally authors, where it kinda desecrate them in big way, since they don't look like people who would resort to such violence in real life.....I think.

Enjoyment, it was a god 7 but.....not very good , since it left us with another villain in the name of Fyodor Dostoyevsky, so in this anime it may be a clean open ending, it really wasn't, that clean, since only two Guild member who met his demise, and the rest were just allowed to go free as it nothing happens, so in this anime's overall it was fair enough to be a 6 and that' as far as it gets.

Happy Holidays to everyone.

How is this season scored higher than season 1?? This is my first time writing a review for a anime that finished more than a week ago and its because I'm so confused. I think season 1 was a solid 8/10. Season 2 however, spends little time on the only likable characters in the series, and introduces a whole host of forgettable ones!
The mini arc in the beginning (episodes 1-4) were all a good 8/10. Episodes 5-12 however were 5/10 each at best (probably more just 4/10.)
The plot of season 2 made absolutely no sense, as the motive of the villain was totally ... cliche. The best way to save his daughter is to blow up a city?? Makes sense.
Every thing in this season was so predictable and lazy, only the animation/ art was praiseworthy at the end of the day.
The Atsushi x Akutagawa push was so painful to witness, there was virtually no development there. Give us more Dazai and Ranpo!!!
The first 4 episodes were good enough that I'll spare this pisspoor season a score of 6/10, defined as "fine."
I hope season 3 is better than this rubbish.

Story: 3/10
Art: 8/10
Sound 7/10
Character: 7.5/10
Enjoyment: 3/10
Overall: 5/10

Bungo Stray Dogs is one of those animes that people either seem to hate or love. I for one, am neither of those -- actually I am both. I hate and love this series. I love this series because it offers so much potential. The story is interesting, the character designs are so pretty, the animation is so cool and smooth, the character origins and how they represent famous authors is so damn cool; and even the music, sound effects and VA's are done really well. On the other side, what Bungo 'fails' to do, is the execution of ... the anime. The flow and pacing of the anime is atrocious: some episodes that are boring seem to go on forever while the interesting/funny bits seem to be neglected, or quickly discarded. The anime is supposed to be a mystery, therefore suspense should be in it right? Absolutely not. As I said before, the pacing of this anime is really bad. The boring and unessecary parts are dragged out while the parts needed to build the climatic scenes are non existent. Moreover, sometimes the dialogues between characters are so boring and they state the obvious. Like hello? I have eyes and ears, I'm sure I can follow along the story... Once again, the characters have so much potential to be brought out but it seems like they're just there to fill up the screen. Atsushi ffs, he has been 'weak' for almost two seasons now. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO SOMETHING. It's been almost friggin 23 episodes and only then you're starting to develop... Besides Chuuya, the nurse woman and Dazai, I don't think anyone really stands out to me.

I would definitely read the manga after I finish this whole series. I'm not a hater but I am only leaving this review because I believe Bungo COULD HAVE been one of those really good animes, but the production team just ruined it.

TLDR: watch BSD for the beautiful art and animation. But if you want a good mystery or a good paced anime, I think the manga would be a better option.

Reviews if you don't have time.
*SPOILER-FREE*

If you like good shows with awesome characters, “Bungou Stray Dogs”, one of the most popular shows in the genre, might be worth to waste a little time on. It is a manga adaptation with powerhouse studio Bones at the helm of animation.

As one might expect from the name alone, Bones did an amazing work with this adaptation. From the design of the characters and scenes to the powers each of them have, it is all very well executed and done. The fights are good and exciting and have a good flow and balance to them. It is not a ... Bones masterclass, like shows such as “Mob Psycho 100” but still is a noteworthy show, animation wise.

The plot is actually well written and despite being, specially at the beginning, isolated cases that change every few episodes, the major and overarching plot points and mysteries remain interesting and captivating and normally end up in a pretty satisfying climax towards the end of the season. Some stories are better than the other which makes it a little hard to watch some parts but overall, they are all pretty good.

However, if there was one thing that the shows in the genre and “Bungou Stray Dogs” does beautifully is the characters. They are unique and amazingly design. Their powers are well thought out and used in a way that makes sense and it is not pointless. Overall, a show worth watching if you like good characters and detective-like shows.

---oiginal language: portuguese--- ---additional language: English---

English: First let me congratulate you on this wonderful season
The first arc about the past of daizai was great, I like this model of explains well the past of the character, at the end of the season we see that the past is much deeper still
The guild arc left me very neutral, it was neither good nor bad, it can be said that the anime did the basics the right way.
The development of the protagonist is kind of dubious yet but I have nothing to complain about
Anime super recommended but would not get into my favorites, Anime 8/10

PT-BR: Primeiro deixe-me ... parabeniza-los pela essa temporada maravilhosa
O primeiro arco sobre o passado de daizai foi otimo, gosto desse modelo de explica bem o passado do personagem, ao final da temporada vemos que o passado é bem mais profundo ainda
O arco d'guilda me deixou bem neutro, não foi bom nem ruim
Pode-se dizer que o anime em questão fez o basico do jeito certo
O desenvolvimento do protagonista é meio duvidoso ainda mas não tenho nada a reclamar
Anime super recomendavel mas não entraria nos meus favoritos, Anime 8/10