Review of New Game!!

Minor spoilers ahead, though this show is not really story driven, so that is not taht big of a deal. I actually feel a little bit let down with the sequel of New Game!. While I absolutely loved the first series, being my first SoL rated >8, I cannot praise New Game!! as much as I wish I could. First part was great due to the characters, interactions between them and their struggles and development. And at first, New Game!! continued on this premise, with it's first couple episodes being equally enjoyable as it's predecessor. Unfortunately, something broke around the middle of the series, with introductionof new characters. The first series told a story of Aoba, her relations with Yagami and her new collegues, there have been a fair amount of Yagami x Rin, with Ahagon, Hazuki and Nenechi adding to the comedy ascpects of the show. But Aoba's struggles and game development was in the centre of things all the time. This time around, the show left this premise at some point and never really returned. The game progression feels completly unimportant, later in the series there are barely any scenes involving any chemistry between Aoba, Yagami and the rest of the character design team. Instead, more emphasis is put on Nenechi and the programming team, which does not really make any sense whatsoever. Additionally, new characters are completly undeveloped, there are barely any interactions between them and Aoba's team, honestly there is barely any Aoba and Yagami at all leter on in the show. You just get the feeling that the story goes nowhere. Having more then 10 characters in a show that lasts 12 episodes and trying to focus a little bit on everyone is doomed to failure and that is what happend later on.

That said, I still enjoyed the show, despite it being inferior to it's predecesor. The art was good, the characters did not suddenly become worse and I am generally in mood for SoL series to begin with. It is just that it did some unnecessary things that did not work out.