My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU was a big surprise, it had been recommended to me on a number of occasions but during a time of high school rom-com overload, I wasn’t interested. Fast forward to March of this year I finally sat down to watch the first season and I was blown away by what I had witnessed. The sequel title My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU TOO! had been hailed to me as the superior of the two and I was excited to get stuck in.
If you haven’t read my review of season one and you wish to then you can do so here. In season one the focus was very much on the comedy elements rather than the very clear underlying romantic relationships between our main characters. It continues on that way throughout the series only at the end does it take more of a turn to the serious. I really enjoyed the series’ use of character and social paradigms that exist within a high school environment. Seeing our main character mature throughout the series really helped lay the groundwork for what was to come within season two.
Season two picks up exactly where the first left off with the huge shift in tone firmly stuck in place. If you’re expecting the same amount of comedy as the first season then you may be sorely disappointed here. If you’re like me, however, then the tonal shift is very much welcome and it runs throughout the entire season. I definitely enjoyed this season more than the first mainly based on this aspect. I had hoped to see more in the way of romantic developments between our little love triangle but was left largely wanting more. Here however the whole season, for the most part, is centred around this triangle.
The love triangle between Hachiman Hikigaya, Yui Yuigahama and Yukino Yukinoshita really gets some much wanted, and more importantly, needed development. Yui and Yukino are starting to realise their feelings and work towards being true to themselves. Each of the three has issues that they need to work through throughout this season and watching them try and overcome them before they can settle back into their usual routine has been an enjoyable but tense ride. Hachiman becomes a more dependable and reasonable character this time around, in my eyes anyway, and while he may like to do everything alone he can’t help but want to help others around him. Everyone matured and developed in their own ways this season but Hachiman even more so and I can’t wait to see more. Hopefully, a third season is on the cards, if not I might just have to dive into the light novels.
Immediately noticeable when watching this season is the change in animation quality. Now, I rather enjoyed the artwork, animation and character design of the previous season; those angular faces was pretty unique in this genre of show. Brain’s Base, however, has been replaced with studio feel. who have done an impressive job with the series. Sure the angular faces have gone in favour of the more traditional rounder faces but it definitely is a more attractive show for it. Those that may have disliked the first season for its unique style will feel a lot more at home with season two.
No English dub available as with the first season, but to be honest with such great voice actors on hand in the Japanese dub I don’t know why you’d want to experience it any other way. Given the more serious tone of this series, I feel that the VA’s had a much better overall output which in turn gave a lot more emotion and feeling to the characters they were portraying. The opening theme “Harumodoki” by Nagi Yanagi I really enjoyed, the rhythm gave me a Persona feel which is awesome. The three ending themes which are sung by Yukino Yukinoshita (Saori Hayami) and Yui Yuigahama (Nao Tōyama) are a good accompaniment to the series I felt.
Extra on-disc includes Clean Opening and Ending Animations plus a Special Opening Animation and a selection of Sentai Filmworks trailers including Rin-Ne, When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun and Wolf Girl & Black Prince.