The Winter 2017 Anime Preview Guide

SUPER LOVERS 2

It's been three months since Ren began living with Haru, Aki, and Shima in their house with its attached café. Ren's more sure than ever of how he feels toward Haru – and it definitely isn't brotherly. However, with the reappearance of his adoptive mom Haruko (Haru's biological mother) and her plans to whisk him away to Switzerland, Ren's been wondering if Haru really sees him as more than a brother. One night, he finally tells Haru that he not only won't leave with Haruko, he never plans to leave at all, and if Haru can't see Ren as anything but a brother, he needs to speak up. When the two are finally home alone, Haru decides to give Ren his answer. SUPER LOVERS 2 is the second season of the Super Lovers manga adaptation and can be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Thursdays at 12:00 PM EST.

Rebecca Silverman

Rating: 2

You already know if you're going to enjoy this show, ignore this show, or hatewatch this show based on its first season, so I'll just get the basic issue out of the way: yes, Super Lovers 2 is still about the romantic/sexual relationship between two adoptive brothers, one of whom had a hand in raising the other. Moving on.

This season opens not long after the events of the first, which had mom Haruko blowing into the guys' home like a squall at sea and declaring that she was going to take Ren back to Switzerland with her. While it wasn't entirely clear if her motives were her own personal loneliness, fears about Ren's education, or because she figured out what was going on between Ren and Haru isn't immediately clear, and this is one of the two main issues that the episode seeks to resolve before moving the story ahead. Ren is the point-of-view character for most of it, which is interesting since he keeps himself to himself around people he isn't entirely comfortable with. Through his narration and eyes we come to understand that he will never be induced or enticed to leave Haru's side, even if that means that he has to live with him platonically. That makes Ren the more aggressive party in their relationship this time; Haru seems stuck on his jealousy of Haruko, who is seeing more of Ren than Haru during her visit. A flashback to when the twins were little indicates that this may be jealousy of Ren rather than Haruko – his mother, the only parental figure he has left, is basically ignoring him in favor of her younger son. It's an attempt to add a bit of depth to the characters, and while it isn't perfect, it does work more or less.

Of course, this is a romance, so is there any romantic action in the episode? The answer is yes, and primarily towards the end, where Ren and Haru have a poorly animated, non-explicit make-out session. It's very short and it comes after Haru has had time to think about Ren's question about whether or not Haru can see him as more than a brother, and it's also instigated initially by Ren, who kisses Haru. However, if you're watching this for fanservice, it may be a disappointment – it has some of the worst animation of the episode in terms of bodies, how Ren interacts with the couch (the angles are all wrong) and it doesn't do a great job with implication.

The production quality was actually my chief complaint about this show in its first season – if a relationship is consensual, I'm pretty good at leaving my personal sensibilities at the door. But the art and animation continues to be stiff and weird for people and furniture (oddly the dog looks better), and jokes about trans character Kiyoka still not “really” being a woman sit badly with me. But this is moving more quickly in terms of the romance than the first season, and being in Ren's head makes for a better introduction, especially now that we've had time to get used to the premise.