That being said, it pissed me off enough to remember to review it here.
I watched the first series mostly because I saw it had Micah Solusod voicing the lead role. Hey, Soul (Soul Eater) was cool, so surely some of the coolness would rub off?
Which brings me to the sound of the series. I watched the english dub, and the cast was stellar. Big industry names were everywhere and it was a pleasure to play "guess-the-actor". However, this is just about where the good news ends.
The first series could be considered mediocre. Birdy was fairly cool, the shared-body spiel was mildly entertaining and the aliens were ugly. Fine. No problem. The second season was nothing like it.
I'm not sure exactly where the producers wanted to take this show. Where ever it was, it is a dark, dark place. Most of the ridiculous gore and hammy dialogue could have been endured, if they didn't bring kids into it.
Yeah, they were aliens in kid's bodies. Yeah, the person killing them had some sort of revenge backstory. I don't actually care. Watching this made me feel ashamed, unclean and morally bankrupt. They didn't die painlessly; they were mutilated and while they screamed and begged for mercy, the guy told them they deserved it. There should be lines, and for me, this didn't merely cross a line, it bulldozed it with a frikken tank. Where do people take a step back and go "no, this is wrong, we should not encourage the production of this sort of media"?
And the worst part was, this killer was actually supposed to be some sort of sympathetic character. Hell, he was the love interest!
Additionally, Tsutomu barely features after being built up as a protangonist in the first season. You are instead deluged with flashbacks and backstories, which, while explaining some of Birdy's history, had moments that were largely irrelavent.
The story ended up being quite predictable. Not to throw up too many spoilers here, but the aliens are going to get picked off one by one. Then there won't be any aliens left, which pretty much concludes the season.
The art was fine, till the last few episodes, where funding ran out and the art team made some creative decisions in the fight scenes that pretty much remove background, gravity and proportions from the show. For me, the show also lacked any sense of catharsis: it's clear that they way is being left wide open for another series. Which I won't be watching.
There was a lot of blood, a lot of screaming, a lot of Birdy being pathetic. I really wouldn't bother with this season if I were you.
