This was one of the weirdest seasons I've ever watched, of anything. The pacing was weird, the ending was weird, the core premise was weird, it was all so unconventional! But does that make this a better or worse season than the first? I'm not sure...
Where the first season ended with Franchouchou's biggest success yet, Season 2 starts with a time jump right off the heels of their greatest failure, with Kotaro nowhere to be seen. It's a gusty move to pull such an awful Happy Ending Override, but it leaves the rest of the season to focus on Franchouchou trying to pull off their big comeback. Frankly, most of this season is actually pretty episodic, with Franchouchou slowly improving their reputation as it goes on. Although, the pacing during this season was strange, we had three flashback episodes in a row near the end. But despite that odd choice, Revenge makes sure to end on a bang. The massive three-part arc that ends off the season is climactic and puts a lot of important events into a new context, making that rough start a bit better in hindsight. I particularly like the concept of this "Saga curse", which prevents anyone from bringing fame and fortune to it. It leaves me wondering about its influence on certain characters (most notably Sakura's awful luck), and it adds a nice element of fighting fate to the anime.
But what about the episodic stuff? Compared to last season, which spent a lot of time going over the characters' backstories, poking fun at the idol industry, and mining some juicy drama out of it all, I felt like much of Revenge's episodic stuff was a bit more comedic. Lily essentially gets to hijack the show for an episode, Tae gets an entirely comedic episode where she wanders around, and Ai and Junko's second two-parter doesn't deal with the same heavy themes as the first. Nothing this season hit the same as Lily coming out, or Sakura's depression, or Junko's time displacement, but I can't say some the comedy didn't really work. I thought Maimai's episode was absolutely adorable, Tae is always a joy to watch, and overall, I think this season was funnier than the first. As for the presentation, I think the CGI animation was improved a lot, but there were noticeably less new songs this time around, with a smaller variety of genres. It's a shame, that was something I found really cool about the first season.
Despite my gripes, Revenge did have its great episodes, particularly near the end:
Pure-Hearted Electric SAGA: The ending of this episode had my favorite concert of the entire anime. A stellar power rock song headlined by the zombie with the best voice (Junko), simultaneously being a fun performance to watch and a satisfying resolution to this season's first two-parter, and ending with a reprise of the EDM scene from last season? Just pure, unadulterated awesome.
The SAGA Of How These Zombies Will Get Their Revenge: Sure, this one was a bit of an info dump, but as mentioned above, I loved the Saga curse twist, and it was great to finally learn what happened with that failed concert.
All It Takes Is For You To Be There SAGA: I was skeptical when I saw all of Saga get flooded, but I love where it took the anime. It was a way to trap Franchouchou in a room with the rest of Saga, perfectly illustrating their role in helping the prefecture out. Even with the risk of being outed as zombies, the main cast puts everything into supporting their fellow civilians and even performing for the kids. And it leads to two great moments, one being Okaba coming around to the zombies, and the other being Franchouchou's makeup cracking in the middle of a concert, only for the kids watching to claim they can't be zombies because they're too cute.
The Greatest SAGA In History: I'll be honest, while I loved last episode, this finale was a bit weaker than the first, mostly being a greatest hits concert for Franchouchou. However, it was still a really satisfying and climactic finale with a hysterical Avengers Endgame reference and one of the most out-of-left-field cliffhangers I've seen since Agents Of SHIELD's fourth season (oh wait, they're kinda the same cliffhanger, aren't they?).
Overall, Zombieland Saga Revenge was a strange season, with odd pacing, a rough start, and the loss of several elements that I liked about the first season. However, its manic energy, surprisingly epic ending, and intriguing story beats still made for a fun time even though I found this one to be a bit weaker than its predecessor.
3/5 Stars
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