Recommended
The never-ending journey of heartpangs, tears shed, vessels and companionship reels forward into the sequel season that continues like Truck-kun's worth of feels. Continuing the trend that famed mangaka Yoshitoki Oima has done with Fumetsu no Anata e a.k.a To Your Eternity, with Season 1 released 2 years prior in Spring 2021 that set the stage for this emotionally heavily invested series, it was a blast that at the time, really resonated with people, especially after coming off with KyoAni's marvellous movie adaptation of Koe no Katachi in the mid-2010s. The story about a blob and the guardian, both Fushi and the Beholder really stood bythe promise that the sole existence for Fushi ridding the world of pesky little octopus-like beings called the Nokkers, it was more than just an ordinary story, but one that was constantly filled with despair and suffering, but also hope for the future that Fushi would come to serve as the Jesus Christ of his world and save humanity from the external force that would haunt him wherever he goes.
With Season 2, the anime takes an abrupt turn into township, covering the contents that would define the season overall: The Guardians, Uralis Kingdom, Bennett Church and the Renril arcs which covers Volumes 7 to 12 of the manga, officially completing the Previous Era saga of the manga up until this point. No spoilers for the next saga and arc(s) that IMO, would make or break the series, but that's a story for another time when Season 3 rolls around in the future.
But for now, this is at a time where Fushi was just coming out of the Jananda Island arc after defeating the long-time foe that stuck around pretty much in most of Season 1: the yandere villainness Hayase, which to me, is a great antagonist that was abruptly killed off before her character could ever flourish, earning the ires of both manga readers and anime-onlies. Instead, we have the somewhat inferior replacement in the form of Kahaku, part of the cult-like defense unit of "the Guardians", and coincidentally the first male successor in a long line of what is supposed to be a women-only legacy. The problem with Kahaku, apart from cultivating the Knocker on his left arm that could be both a blessing and a curse, is that although he received the same education and training as the predecessors in the Guardian Force, he was the one that was shown the most disrespect, solely because he was a man and not a woman. But despite the troubles lingering around him, he is a dedicated driven, charismatic and confident young man who goes far to achieve his ancestor's goals in his own way and protects Fushi with his life, even so much as to spite trouble for those who dare to oppose the Immortal in any way possible. But remember, Fushi can turn into vessels of those he remembers, and when he specifically changed to Parona's form, to put it simply, Kahaku is just like Hayase to develop an unhealthy obsessive and obstinate infatuation on Fushi and going one step further as to force his feelings onto Fushi, despite knowing that he can take on the forms of both sexes. Still though, Kahaku can be somewhat of a confident leader, knowing that his Knocker-infused left arm would at times help Fushi locate the Nokkers moments before any semblance of attack, especially in the Renril arc where the war between Immortal and entity attempts to drive a nation to its knees. You may not like Kahaku, but he's there to help progress the story, at least in this period ot the manga where his role is pretty much stated for him as Fushi's protector, despite the cringe of the Guardian leader trying to force his ambitions onto the Immortal, knowing full well that there'll be pushbacks when he tries to act out of the ordinary.
By far the most prominent person that drives the majority of Season 2, comes from the Uralis Kingdom arc, in the form of Bonchien Nicoli La Tasty Peach Uralis. The potential king of the Uralis Kingdom, Bonchien (or Bon for short) was like many other descendants, destined for the highest spot of the kingdom. But when his younger brother Torta was announced for the right to the throne as the next successor, almost suddenly, Bon has no right of power, and must find a way to prove himself as the rightful heir to the throne. Which is how He met Fushi, simply because he has an ability to see, speak and hear the dead that follows him from their afterlife but cannot touch nor ineract with them, and that's how his relationship with the Immortal essentially started to become a life-changing encounter of the cruellest kind. Initially appearing as an eccentric, if not overdramatic young man with constant mood swings, filled with emotional outbursts and tantrums when plans don't go his way, to the extreme contentious effort of disrupting people to get his point across. Despite that, he is well liked by people, getting onto the ground with the people of Uralis, even knowing his small guard of loyal knights by name and their own personal lives, Bon is truly the people's president that knows inches better than Torta on how to rule a kingdom through its people, only double-crossed by the ways of old kingdom authority to be ineligible for the position that he had fought and worked so hard for. Despite Bon's somewhat wonky personality that's like Kahaku at the very beginning of his first encounters with Fushi, he is caring person at heart and carries no grudge, even against his own family which abandoned him on the right of nobility. His flamboyant personality is a key to why he went through an enormous change throughout Season 2, from his certain degree of cunningness and self-awareness at the Bennett Church arc when the Church labels Fushi as a heretic to be burnt to death, and saving him by the skin of his teeth and losing the nobility status as a result of his actions, to the Renril arc where he finally understands the reason for Fushi fighting for his very life staving off the Nokkers and committing his very life into a full-on conribution for Fushi's character progression through the season. Love or hate him, Bonchien Nicoli La Tasty Peach Uralis is the MVP/star support character of Season 2 as a whole, and I'm glad that he stuck around to oversee Fushi's life, in sacrifice or in support as a versatile man who can think on his two feet.
Not to discount the others that help Fushi get around in this seemingly trivial kingdom's euthanization of its hard-lived themes of salvation and discord, and people like Renril's Hairo, Messar, Kai; the Bennett Church's stingy lead priest Cylira; and the Doki a.k.a Earthenware People of mute girl Eko who can only converse through her claypot, all of them play a vital part in the developing Immortal's story of continual despair and hope that's the lifeblood of the series of its most essential.
Instead of Brain's Base and director Masahiko Murata continuing on the production side, the sequel is handed over to studio Drive, along with the replacement director Kiyoko Sayama, whom I feel that she has been out of her element in recent times when it comes to her directorial biography, the most recent being the disappointing follow up to Amanchu! in the form of Amanchu! Advance all the way back in Spring 2018. Even though she has been more prominent in the old times with 2008's Skip Beat!, her track record nowadays stems from only being more involved in the storyboarding section of shows as recent as Ao Ashi, and I don't know about you, but I barely noticed the difference in directorialship that's thanks to returning series composer Shinzou Fujita, adapting the manga throughout its paces just as well as Season 1 did. And though the pacing is a bit fast here, it still manages to capture the essence of the manga throughout its many compositions, and that's all it matters.
On the music front, while reusing Hikaru Utada's "Pink Blood" isn't wrong, it's just getting old really quick of just the song itself, updated with visual cues of Season 2's content, and yet still being the same heavy spoiler-ish type of content. Music composer Masashi Hamauzu is back for another instrumental ED, and though "Roots" doesn't hit as hard as "Meditator", it's still a good song written just for the narrative of Season 2 as a whole. Overall, I felt that the OST with Season 2 improved aesthetically, given how much of the love and suffering that Fushi and Co. has to go through this season that hits just as heavy as Season 1.
Taking everything into account, Season 2 here should be better and improved upon from Season 1. But the sense of whimsicality that the prequel had, it kinda got lost in the sequel as more is engaged and done to get from Fushi's next arc point to the end of the Previous Saga with alleviating Renril out of the Nokkers' harm. That's not to say that the show is less engaging, it really still is, but feels like it's dragged on for just a bit. Still thankful that this show can be done in 20-episode seasons, and because I've heard that the manga from this point on goes downward with the Modern Day saga, that's where my dropping point will be for now with the anime.
This show is still just as good, but obviously not as great as Season 1, though your mileage will vary.
