Short version: It's still bad.
A/N: Part of Organization Anti Social Geniuses' Fall Evaluation
Longer version: In a way, I have to be impressed at the audacity of a premiere episode that's three-quarters flashback. However, it's not like
Hiiro no Kakera is so dense with in-series lore that it needs to take extra time to remind us about the magic demon sword that shouldn't be released or else
bad things will happen (*insert spooky music here*) and that Generic Mary Sue and her equally generic harem are the only people who can prevent that. Nor did it need to show off some of the worst examples of animation from the first season, including that really bad slow-mo effect where all they did was rotate a still frame of a character. That said, I didn't remember any of the character's names despite having sat through the first half, so the flashbacks were good for that. Then again, isn't that what MAL is for?
Anyway, even for the parts that weren't in flashback, it's clear that nothing has changed in
Hiiro no Kakera. Despite somehow holding back the demon in the first half, there's still a chance for it to come back. Despite saying that she no longer trusts one of her underlings, the main villain still lets him go out and do whatever he's planning this time around. And despite the first season finale making a big deal out of overcoming the main harem member's demon blood with the power of love, it looks like that's still a problem too. So basically, this episode sets up that everything the characters did in the first season amounted to nothing. Now let's have a flashback!
The first season ran my expectations into the ground, and this episode didn't give me any reason to raise them. Aside from the stuff I've already complained about, the animation hasn't gotten any better. I didn't spot any melting wax faces this time, but the basic facial structure of major characters would vary between shots. Do the animators not have any key concept art to work off of? The CGI gods also make a return as well and still look like bad fan renders of Pokemon. The animation for the OP is amazingly angsty, and the ED is still images. Like last time, there is a cute fanservice scene after the preview, but it's not even close to enough to save this show. If you didn't like the first season, it doesn't look like there's any reason to come back.
Images from Crunchyroll.com.
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