Review of Seraph of the End: Battle in Nagoya

Ah, Shonuen. For most, it's the gateway genre into anime as beating the shit out of people through epic action sequences with swords, magic, what have you is quite amusing to many, and the power of friendship or something like that is also quite fun to watch, apparently. But then you have series that just...sort of push the envelope on what they want to do and it just sort of...falls flat. Story: Picking up from where the first season of Owari no Seraph ended off, Nagoya, as I'll call this second season continues our adventures of our merry family of vampire killers as theycome across more secrets, more vampires, and well...a lot of spare blood dying.

Owari no Seraph has a very glaring issue when it comes to storytelling, and that is balance. Like the season before it, Nagoya focuses heavily on the 'bonds' between the members of the main cast and their bond together as 'family.' Now, as a concept, this would be ok, since most shonuen have this kind of concept to their storyline since most protagonists feel they need to SAVE EVERYONE or what have you. But in Owari's case, they really shove it down your throat. You can't really go five minutes in the show without someone shouting out either the word family or alluding to it, and it's just irritating. They focus so much on these bland characters and their 'connection as a family' that the show as a whole takes a nosedive in quality because they try to make us care about them more so than the actual plot of the show, thus bringing me to my next point.

The world of Owari no Seraph is decently crafted. Contrary to the first season, we get answers. Not many answers mind you, but answers. As such, the plot and what is happening does start to make some sense, and I genuinely think that the way this world was made is actually interesting. But because the show puts so much focus on the people of the show and not so much as to what is happening, the show really suffers since it's not really able to expressively give itself out as a story while it has these half-assed characters drag itself down with it. (Seriously though, the concept of the seraphs, demons, vampires, etc is all really interesting.)

And then we have one of the bigger issues aside from its bullshit family motif, the pacing. The pacing of the show is subpar at best. At time, it really drags itself out, while other times, it rushes itself a lot. For the most part, these pacing issues occur during the 'character' and the 'plot' parts respectively since, as I've mentioned before, the show puts more focus on its characters rather than its plot. In the end, we got a lot of possibly great storytelling with a lot of not so great parts in between it. Especially since the last episode had so much, but was a horrible end because they rushed it to all hell without any explanation and essentially set up a season 3. (Wit Studio, plz. Don't do this.)

Overview:
+ Good World (Honestly, the world that this show is in is quite interesting)
- Pacing issues
- Family motif. (It's not so much as a motif as it is a word they shove down your throat when you're watching.)

Characters: Oh, characters. I have quite a bone to pick with these character not only because they're bad, but because they...are...insufferable. A good majority of them are really quite bad to the point that you don't even want to root for them.

Contrary to most second season reviews I do, I have to mention these ones again. Yuu, as our main protagonist has shifted his role this season from an Eren clone vampire-killing maniac, to the guy who cannot go a single sentence or set of lines without mentioning the word family. It's so bad to the extent that I cannot really describe him any other way simply because that's what he is. He's a very one-note character with literally one character trait and he just isn't very interesting. In fact, he is a character, is one I could not really care much about simply because he's just so insufferable at times to watch.

Then we have Mikasa. Now, I am a strong believer that Mika would've made a much better protagonist than Yuu did before, since his entire deal in the series was to protect the last person that he considered his family, (still insufferable, but it made more sense here) and he dealt with the conflicts of now being a vampire when he was previously human. In this season however, he comes back more as a one-note character since his entire purpose is to "Protect Yuu-chan. Protect Yuu-chan!" which really isn't all that interesting and just adds to how average the characters are.

Other characters in the main cast, Shinoa, Mitsuba, Kimizuki, etc, are all pretty much shafted to the side. Guren however gets this trait that isn't ever really explained (but you can kind of infer) but really, these characters all don't change and are less important than they were made out to be in season one. That's not to say that's a bad thing since a lot of their character traits (except Shinoa, though, she is less snarky than she was before, and that's what made her great) are intolerable to listen to or deal with at times.

And then we have the side cast, or spare blood. Now, a lot of the characters that we are introduced to in this new season are for the most part, just fodder for the series. A lot of them get killed and it really doesn't really tug your heartstrings. This is mostly due to the fact that the show tries to really emphasize its 'character' half of the show but fails on account of its generally one note cast. As such, you have a lot of deaths that really either don't matter or are made without really any explanation as to why they were killed. (Note, what happened in the last episode.) Another issue is the lack of antagonist motivation. Ever villain has a motive for doing what they do, but in this case, the show doesn't really have much explanation. Both humans and vampires have villains with their own agenda, but because the show never fully devotes itself to the actual plot of the show, these 'villainous agendas' are left quite hung up to dry and really are just stupid for the most part since what they're doing is obviously dumb when you look at what's going on. (How do you save humanity by killing your own people? Anyone else see the fault in logic here?)

Overview:
- One note characters
- Most of the main cast kinda gets shafted
- Most of the cast is just spare blood for the most part
- Villains have unclear motivations
- Mika kinda sucks now...

Art: Produced by Wit Studio, Nagoya boasts the same kind of animation quality that its first season had. Having fluid battle scenes, high quality animation, and overall very nice effects, details, and stunning backgrounds.

There's not really much to say about the art because it genuinely is good, and there's really nothing bad to say.

Overview:
+ Good, high quality art

Sound: Inversely, the sound is a bit...meh. With its new OP made by Fripside called "Two souls", Nagoya has a bit of a different feel to its first OP since it's a bit more generic than its first opening. Fripside is a good artist, as she's done OPs for other shows like Black Bullet and Railgun, but this one...just doesn't seem to cut it.

The ED on the other hand has a more of a gospel or choir feel to it, harking back to the "seraph" of the show which similar to its respective OP, is a good song, but isn't really memorable or really all that special.

Overview:
+ Good songs
- Not really memorable or unique

Personal Enjoyment: I don't like Owari no Seraph. As a series, I feel like it had so much potential, but falls VERY flat because it tried to make itself a character-based show, when it really should be a plot-based show because it had so much potential and so many great concepts that just were either not explained, or were rushed with little to no explanation.

Did I like this anime?

I like the concept of the seraph and what it is in this series. Lack of explanation didn't help the show, but hey, it's the concept that really intrigued me.

What didn't I like about this anime?

Pretty much...everything else. The characters are insufferable, the concept of family is complete bullshit, the story is crap, the villains are crap, the amount of spare blood we have is stupidly large...need I say more? If it wasn't clear enough, I personally think that Owari no Seraph is just bad. There're far too many problems with it to make me even consider it as a half-decent series. Also, that goddamn ferrari in episode 6. Just...why was that even in there. Why?

Would I recommend this anime?

No. If you want to know anything about the series, read it. The timeframe that this anime provides and the amount of family stuff they choke you with equated to a lackluster story and lack of explanation. As such, a lot of the concepts that this show has is just not explained, the biggest reason as to why I say that this show is just not worth the time to watch.