Sengoku Youko season 2 is a sequel that I wasn’t as hyped for as I ought to have been because the first season was a bit of a downgrade from the manga, but, as a diehard Satoshi Mizukami fanboy, I gave it a go anyway and had a pretty good time. Swapping out Jinka for Senya as the main protagonist was a pretty ballsy move that ended up playing into the story’s central themes regarding the cycle of violence and self-acceptance extremely well, and seeing Senya grow and mature through the support of those around him made his final confrontation with his own self-doubt quitegratifying. This is also an incredibly unpredictable series regarding the direction of its plot, and Mizukami’s deft melding of fantasy and sci-fi flavors crafts a vibrantly fun setting.
Unfortunately, this season still has mostly the same issues that season 1 did. The pacing always feels like it’s a bit too fast, leading some of the pivotal emotional moments to lack the lasting impact they could have had, and the overall artwork is just barely above average on the whole, very rarely presenting anything truly sensational and leaving Evan Call’s soundtrack to do a bit more heavy-lifting than it would have otherwise needed. At the end of the day, it’s still got all the things that make Mizukami one of my favorite authors, and with an immensely satisfying and thorough conclusion, I’m glad I stuck around to see this one through to the end.