Overall: this was a really enjoyable show with a lot of flaws, that was not as strong as the the first season. It probably could have been sped up, have some things fleshed out with others cut out, and been a shorter season. Good stuff: - The production isn't bad. The music is decent and the art looks like it got a bigger budget than season 1, although there are definitely episodes with super inconsistent/lower quality art. Still pretty decent for the time period. - There are a lot more story threads and interesting new worldbuilding! Overall just very enjoyable as a show. -Eagle is basically the best thing about this show. In fact, he's so good, I think it actually does a disservice to the rest of the show. Eagle is far and away the strongest best-written character, due in large part to him and Autozam in general having really strong and meaningful motivations, whereas the rest of the characters have either selfish, silly, or wishy-washy motivations. I loved Eagle's storyline, although part of me feels like he should have been in a different show.

Issues:

- As is common with older anime, the pacing is super slow. I had trouble finishing it until I started watching it at 1.5x speed - and most of the time it didn't even feel sped up.

- The majority of the characters are not very consistent or well-written:
* The Magic Knights - Hikaru has a very limited character arc with Nova and her emotional problems, but there's just not enough there to sustain through 29 episodes. It also feels like the writers didn't know what to do with Umi and Fuu, so they don't get much real development.
* Fahren and Chizeta - these characters feel like they're just goofy comedic characters, which would be fine except that they're held up next to Autozam who have a serious meaningful storyline. I really feel like this show would have been fine as a cute funny fantasy adventure if they had removed the more serious aspects, and would have felt more consistent in tone.
* LaFarga, Caldina, Ascot, and Mokona - they were clearly added only as nostalgia from the last season, and never seemed to have anything to do.
* Sierra - I won't spoil too much but her small storyline didn't end up mattering. This probably didn't need to be in the story unless they were planning to properly expand this.
* Debonair and Nova - they felt kind of half-baked as villains. There was a half-decent idea here but it lacked the depth it needed to carry the season.
* Annoying Fairy - I forget her name but why was she even here? She had no purpose or character growth, and eventually effectively disappeared from the story without it really affecting anything.
* Lantis - I think he had a lot of potential, but the writers didn't seem to have a plan for him. He had some interesting things laid out early on, but we almost never circled back on any of it.

- The romance storylines are all kind of mediocre or bad. Fuu and Ferio barely get any additional time or development, Umi's romance options end up being pretty vague, and Hikaru's romance is very insta-love and doesn't get the development it should for how much it's propped up as a really important part of the story. There are also several (unnecessary imo) unrequited love threads that don't go anywhere, and a side romance that had no real basis and also isn't really needed. I may be biased, but Eagle/Lantis seemed like the most compelling relationship in the show, even if it wasn't really canon.

- The continued lack of even a basic soft magic system led to an abruptness and lack of tension in the battle scenes. Maybe I'm too used to shounen, but it felt like they needed at least a tiny amount of explanation around what magic the knights could use and when. I'm still confused by why they didn't combine rune gods and use their super attack pretty much every time.

- The storyline overall is somewhat inconsistent and not very well planned. By the end I was rooting for Autozam? I also don't love the ending of season 2, as it feels like it undermined the story of season 1.