Review of Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World Season 2

Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, the Second Rumbling — A rough journey of a trip that by all means should've failed, but ending up actually somewhat surprisingly better than expected. It's no secret that out of all of the authors I've come to loathe over the years of watching anime, one such name stands out for all of the wrong reasons: Kei Sazane. Simply put, this guy's Modus Operandi is to see what's popular with similar works in its stated genres and come up with stories that are more or less inferior versions of existing works, which, if you've been inthe AniManga scene long enough, the footwork of cliches and tropes soon becomes overbearing to the point that there's nothing wholly "original" about his works. This was certainly the case last year, with the author getting a "resounding" trio of his works up for anime adaptations, consisting of last Spring's Kami wa Game ni Ueteiru. a.k.a Gods' Games We Play (which is just a poor man's No Game No Life), as well as last Summer's Naze Boku no Sekai wo Daremo Oboeteinai no ka? a.k.a Why Does Nobody Remember Me in This World? (which has the better story of the 3, but with Project No. 9's fumbling in endless production mediocrity) and of course, the "long-awaited" sequel to Kimi to Boku no Saigo no Senjou, Aruiwa Sekai ga Hajimaru Seisen (shortened to KimiSen) a.k.a Our Last Crusade or the Rise of a New World, which its Fall 2020 premiere shows quite the severe lack of lustre in its story depiction of a "Romeo and Juliet"-esque romance that's backed by traditional fantasy and action.

And come almost 4 years later, when KimiSen arrives back onto the anime scene last Summer...only to wander its way into the "because of COVID" excuse of an elongated delay that almost took a year until now to be resolved by another studio that's shoehorned in at the last minute, I'm looking at the anime gods to see the "notion" that Kei Sazane's works are truly cursed in one way or another.

With the anime adapting Volumes 5 to 8 of the LN, the "Romeo and Juliet" fantasy fashion takes us straight to the Ice Calamity Witch Alice's home of the Nebulis Sovereignty, where the next signs of proceedings are to be taken with the direction of succession by bringing the "Land of the Witches" into a new age of supremacy — siding with its long-time rival of the Imperial Empire and ending a long drought of conflicts that has since then resulted in endless heaps of war. This, however, triggers the people involved in the movement, because these astral mages were the same tribes of people who got persecuted by the Empire, and had to make a faction of their own to establish a place for themselves and the survivability of the mages, which is how the Nebulis Sovereignty came about in the first place. The very idea of the unification between the Sovereignty and the Empire is a big deal to finally come together as one kingdom and progress together as a nation, though with all things "yin and yang", where the former chooses peace, the factions from within it choose war.

To give even further context, the Neublis Sovereignty is made up of 3 Houses: Lou, Zoa, and Hydra. The House of Lou consists of Alice and her sister family of mother Millavair, the current Queen of the Sovereignty, alongside her other sisters, eldest Elletear and youngest Sisbell. These astral witches are fierce in their own right and have the biggest influence on the Sovereignty. Compared to that, the smaller Houses of Zoa and Hydra each also have their influences, with Zoa being on the neutral side and Hydra clearly being antagonists, subjected to the people that will ally with them if it's to their benefit. It's with this in mind that we continue with the story. Also, since Iska and his small unit team have yet another Nebulis problem on their hands that doesn't belong to Alice (but is related to her), Sisbell is quite the joker to the gang, who have been dealing with the Empire's problems since Season 1, and the coincidence only meets more ire with Alice, who's already seeing Iska in secret.

Combine all of the seemingly unrelated circumstances that will pose a big threat to the Sovereignity in totality, and KimiSen as a series, for better or for worse, at least has a story plot going for it and to be maximized in its adaptation, for better or for worse. I know I gave a lot of flak to how the story was written cookie-cutter style, but at least I can tell you now that the series is not as bad as I'd assumed it to be 4 years ago, after much of the sobriety that I had trying to understand KimiSen as a whole.

Undoubtedly, the production side of things is one of a fair share of what used to be the "planning catastrophe according to COVID" cases of excuses of meltdown. And with Silver Link beging at the heart of the matter, it has quite the schedule that is backfiring against everything that the studio is churning out at the time: the more popular Yozakura-san Chi no Daisakusen a.k.a Mission: Yozakura Family (which started out last Spring), and the much-maligned Maou Gakuin no Futekigousha a.k.a The Misfit of Demon King Academy, with its sequel split-cour seasons. Unless you're J.C.Staff and can handle multiple projects at once, Silver Link unfortunately was not the exception to the latter, and in trying to run 3 separate production lines all at the same time, the studio was undeniably overtaxed and underprepared. It's only with the good relations with the AniManga industry that Silver Link got Studio Palette to help things out, but by then, the nearly year-long delay had resulted in permanent damage to not only the anime but also the studio and its mismanagement, even if the latter studio does a better job "remaking" the entire sequel altogether.

I know I did give a rather harsh critique to the OST, which actually served its purpose well. If you're a fan of AliA, her OP song here is not that bad, actually, but between hers and Kaori Ishikawa's Season 1 OP, they're about even for the most part. The ED with Sizuk feat. AYAME sounds like a song for the angsty teen, but whatever it is, it's there and you can't miss it.

The only lingering question in my mind is this: Does Kei Sazane have the elements to create some compelling stories, even if they're generic at best? The answer I can give you is one that requires some level of thought: while NazeBoku certainly had an original (and much more interesting) story from the get-go, and Kami wa Game is the poor man's No Game No Life that isn't even worth appealing in the first place, going back to KimiSen after quite a while, I'm able to see through the cracks that the author himself was trying to make a generic story work as hard as it could be, even when it doesn't incentivize readers and watchers of either medium (be it the LN, the manga (which got cut halfway in its adaptation), or the anime itself) to be so.

KimiSen certainly got better as the plot progressed, which picked up the enjoyment factor, though its mileage will depend on you.