Amphibia (Season 2)

Amphibia's first season was solid, but it spent a lot of time laying the groundwork through its many standalone episodes. Season 2 is a noticeable improvement with a stronger sense of plotting and adventure, even if it still makes some compromises to justify its numerous standalone episodes.

This season of Amphibia is quite a bit more focused on plot than the last one, starting with the family finally leaving Wartwood to go to Newtopia to figure out how to get home only to run into Anne's other friend, Marcy. Meanwhile, the king of Newtopia has his own sinister plan that comes to light in the finale, and Sasha and Grime plot their revenge after the last season. Having the characters leave Wartwood and explore Amphibia as a whole for a large portion of the season is a great change of pace, widening the scope of the series and adding far more world-building. There's a real sense of adventure this time around that felt a lot more compelling than the slice of life vibe of last season. Marcy is also a really great addition to the cast and a really fascinating character. I like that she's not nearly as toxic and antagonistic as Sasha (that would just be repetitive), rather her clumsy and oblivious nature are a double-edged sword that make her both endearing and a bit of a walking disaster at times. I also much prefer King Andrias as a villain over Grime due to how he jumps between affable and terrifying, and once again, the finale is excellent, bringing all of the characters and story threads together and absolutely blowing my mind. Amphibia definitely has its dark moments, but True Colors shows just how dramatic and compelling it can be.

However, this is still a season of Amphibia, so there are still a lot of standalone outings. Thankfully, these fare a lot better than in Season 1. For starters, the humor is generally much stronger than in the first season and I found myself laughing far more often. The standalones are also far more varied, with many focusing on giving minor characters in Wartwood like Ivy, Maddie, and Mayor Toadstool a lot more depth. However, I feel like the structure of this season feels a bit choppy at the cost of these standalone episodes. Sometimes it works well, like obviously the Plantars' road trip to Newtopia would have them make pit stops, but other times it feels forced, like how the family has to wait a week in Newtopia for King Andrias to get back to them. It feels like an RPG where you have to grind for XP until the story starts happening again. Frankly, I think that applies to a lot of Amphibia, which already feels like a love letter to video games in and of itself. This does lead to a lot of cute references, especially once Marcy enters the picture, but it also leads to an incredibly videogame-esque structure to the season that might just not mesh as well with a TV series. Case in point, the three temples that might be cool in a Zelda game but get a bit repetitive in the series proper.

There are still plenty of highlights this season, especially the plot-focused episodes:

Toadcatcher: This episode was a fun sequel to Prison Break, focusing on Sasha and Grime both dealing with the events of Reunion. There are some great emotional beats and Grime is surprisingly aware of what Sasha is dealing with, but the highlight was one-off antagonist Yunnan whose gloriously hammy personality led to some of the funniest moments of the season.

Marcy At The Gates: There's a lot to love about this one. We finally get to see Newtopia, Marcy makes her (excellent) first appearance, and the groundwork is laid for the next storylines of the season. However, the biggest surprise is that there wasn't a cruel twist of Marcy secretly being an awful person. The parallels with Reunion were interesting, and I actually really liked that Marcy was exactly as she initially appeared, clumsy flaws and all.

Day At The Aquarium: While probably not as satisfying as Toad Tax, this midseason finale is definitely still emotional as the Plantars try to say goodbye only to be reminded of all their past adventures. It's pretty obvious that Anne isn't really being split up from the rest of the cast, but the callbacks are still effective and there's another interesting cliffhanger about King Andrias.

After The Rain: After nearly a full season of buildup, After The Rain finally has Anne learn that Hop Pop buried the music box, which leads to an incredibly heavy episode for the series. Following up Sprig's reveal in Hopping Mall, Anne learns how his parents died, and seeing her and Hop Pop made at each other really stung.

The First Temple: Out of all three temple episodes, I think this was definitely the best of the bunch. It serves as a good followup to After The Rain as Anne and Hop Pop finally make up this time, the big Flipwart game at the end was visually-stunning, and the general design of the temple was easily the coolest of the three.

Barrel's Warhammer: Another strong Sasha and Grime episode with a ton of interesting world-building for the toads, setting up a big toad rebellion for the finale. But the most impactful aspect of this episode is Sasha's development, between her learning that Anna and Marcy are teamed up, along with her alienation of Braddock and Percy not too unlike her aforementioned friends.

The Dinner: The entire storyline of Sasha and Grime pretending to get into the Plantars' good graces was a ton of fun, but The Dinner was easily the best of the three episodes because of just how hilariously uncomfortable it was. Grime was probably the highlight here due to how much he sticks out among the frogs, but finally getting to see the human trio together once and for all was great on its own.

True Colors: Look, I'm not the biggest fan of Amphibia but, wow, do they know how to end a season. I didn't think we could get better than Reunion, but this might be one of the greatest season finales ever. The Toad rebellion, the fight with King Andrias, the music box, Anne's conflict with Sasha, the Newtopian technology, Marcy's secret, General Yunnan's return, Polly getting her legs, Anne's Calamity Box powers, Frobo's death, Marcy getting stabbed, we get all of that crammed into a 22-minute episode and then some. It's dramatic, action-packed, shocking, funny, intense, tragic, and ends on one hell of an insane cliffhanger. 

Overall, Amphibia's second season has a strong sense of adventure, better writing, and an even better storyline that leads to an even better finale (somehow!), however its videogame-esque pacing doesn't quite translate as well to a TV show.

4/5 Stars