Review of Diabolik Lovers II: More,Blood

Well, this was a step up from season one. If I'm being honest, I hated season one. I just found it to b a whole lot of rape and assault with a sudden random story line thrown in at the end. While season 2 was by no means a masterpiece, I would encourage everyone who despised the first season to stick around at least to read this. To begin with, I have to say that I might be a little biased because I read the manga. In the manga, all the character have more personality, including Yui (if only by a bit), most don't assault her,she's only one vampire's food (she picks one guy, the others kinda just stay away), and nobody tried to force a story line-- it's handled as semi-romantic-ish oneshots with whichever guy you pick for Yui. It's a much better way to handle this type of show.

That being said, I greatly preferred the story of this season to the last one. It made more sense, in my opinion, even if we didn't know a real full depth. Would I call it a commendable plot? Heck no. But is it okay to have in the background if you're watching for vampires and reverse harem? Yeah, it is.

The art is okay. There are some moments where it seems that the art wasn't thought through or suddenly dips in quality, but in particular, the hair and eyes are very beautiful and the tree scenes are nice to look at as well. The other backgrounds are a little dull, and as usual, no work was put into any of the characters outfits other than their original design, but I think that the character design itself was enough to make up for it.

The opening theme and closing theme aren't anything special, but I guess it got the 'this is a supposed-to-be-dark-show' point across well enough. Sometimes, they played the meme-worthy smexy jazz music in the background in the weirdest parts, which made me laugh, so I'm not sure if that was intentional.

The characters were better this time around. Again, I may be a little biased by the frankly better manga, but the Sakamaki's were disappointing rapists as usual. Whenever they assault Yui, they like seeing her struggle and know she hates it, but when someone else does, she 'fell into their arms and asked for it'. They get mad at her for no reason because of it too. I'm glad they finally burned Teddy, I hate Kanato if I'm being honest. That being said, the Sakamaki's aren't the main focus here, but the new four characters. Some were weird, but I found them to be overall nice dudes because they had been human, I suppose. I found that I could sympathize with them. Ruki had me sold when he offered Yui a choice. (look at me, female in 2018, falling for a guy for being decent and giving a girl an actual choice... a basic human right... wow, I've sunk pretty low, haven't I?)

Overall, this was decent. I wouldn't say it's amazing and I don't think I'll be rewatching this any time soon, but I didn't hate it and even though I was continously checking to see how much time was left before it was over, I kind of want to see a season three just so they can tell us who the founders are, if I'm being honest.

I would recommend this if: you like hot guys, you like hot guys with tragic angsty backstories, you find yourself liking Ciel Phantomhive's backstory, you like extreme reverse harems, you like the whole degradation and BDSM-y style relationship stuff, you fantasize about being kidnapped and fought over

I would NOT recommend this if: you're looking for a deep plot, you want character development, you're looking for meaningful romance, you're into explicitly stated consent, you're even the least bit feminist (what am I doing here? how low I have fallen)

Have a great day everyone!