Forum - View topicREVIEW: Seirei Gensouki - Spirit Chronicles Season 2 Anime Series Review
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MFrontier
Posts: 14348 |
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Honestly I remember a lot of people criticizing how fast the plot moved in season 1 but that feels more ideal compared to how slow-paced this season was. I mean, Rio finally meets his nemesis and the main villain of his series, reunites with Flora, gets revenge on his bullies, meets Liselotte, but that's about it as far as significant things go.
I know this genre also isn't known for relationship progression but I did want to see more instead of Rio just being unfailingly polite and humble around people, especially when Celia's interest is so clear and he's got so much unresolved with Miharu....not to mention Liselotte seemed to be falling for him and there's also Flora. Was the animation in season 1 this bad? I genuinely can't even remember. But I think the action looked better... It is kind of funny how Rio dismisses his past as Haruto...yet now so many characters know and call him Haruto. Not enough of Haruka Tomatsu's character. |
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Yune Amagiri
 Posts: 1111 Location: France |
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It could have been worse but as a reader of the novel ( up to date, vol 25 ) i've never recognize its original's atmosphere with S2 even less than the S1, that said for the sake of seeing some later parts i really enjoyed spoiler[( Erika's whole arc and powered Celia going alone at the ennemies HQ and humiliating about everyone )] in anime i wouldn't mind further seasons, considering how it ends with the same kind of anticipated trailer i think S3 is pretty much confirmed.
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Cryten
 Posts: 1169 |
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Does the light novel address all his actions with regards to Cecelia only for her to get promptly dumped for his old flame from 8 years ago (Rio perspective, time from his isekai consciousness awakening)?
Feels a bit like throwing away the idea it had that Rio wasnt just taken over by Haruka that the story had at the start. |
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sniper_samurai
Posts: 81 |
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That's a problem introduced in the anime, they skipped the arrival of the heroes and Miharu(this is also where Aishia is introduced in the novels) to get to rescuing Celia before having to go back and cover it. Celia doesn't meet Miharu there or go to the hidden villiage. |
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Flash33
 Posts: 85 Location: Florida |
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While I do feel it hasn't solved the pacing issues S1 had (probably in part due to both only having 12 episodes to work with) I found it to be better than S1, especially Rio's confrontation with his mom's killer, although I did find it odd that in the English dub at least the pronunciation for Miharu changed (Mi-haru in S1, Mi-ha-ru in S2 if that makes sense). I also found it odd how despite a returning voice cast some characters sounded different (Rio most notably), with them even rerecording S1 scenes with the new voices, though that could just be chalked up to their voices changing in the years between seasons, which does happen sometimes.
Animation wise there's definitely a noticeable change, if with nothing else than with Rio's Haruto disguise's hair color alone. That's probably due to the studio change but while I did get used to it after a while I did find it weird how they didn't stick with the color used in S1. Ultimately if a S3 does get made it'll need more than just 12 episodes to work with in order to solve some of its issues such as pacing, unlikely as that is to happen unfortunately. Last edited by Flash33 on Wed Jan 08, 2025 2:14 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Melicans
Posts: 630 Location: Canada |
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Thanks for the review Rebecca, I was hoping you would do one. Despite how much I enjoy the novels, I'll be the first to admit it is hardly high literature; but I think you nailed it in saying that regardless of the quality, it is a poor fit for adaptation (at least in the way they have gone about it). I'm a bit curious; do you think that if they had opted to adapt fewer volumes it would have at least improved the narrative quality in regards to Rio's perspective?
That is because of the way the first season went. It covered volumes 1, 2, 3, and 5. I can understand why they did it this way, wanting to reunite with a familiar character in Celia rather than meet new people in Miharu, Aki, and Masato, but that meant this season started with volume 4 before then going on to volume 6 which is what probably caused that perspective of her being 'dumped'. In the story proper, Rio rescues Miharu, Aki, and Masato on his way back to the Strahl region and only after that does he find out about Celia's forced marriage and rescues her from it. |
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Princess_Irene
ANN Associate Editor
 Posts: 2664 Location: The castle beyond the Goblin City |
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Definitely. As you said, the books are hardly high literature, but they make Rio more of a person than a blank-slate over-powered isekai template, and I think that's what makes them fun to read. The plot's fine, but it's Rio's situation that I think is interesting. I also think that not skipping volume four initially would have helped, because ultimately the Rio/Haruto/Miharu issue drives Rio a lot more than Celia's situation. He cares about her, obviously, but there's no unresolved emotional baggage there for him. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18526 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I actually liked s2 more than s1, despite its flaws. (The biggest to me is Rio's weak characterization in anime form.) Comments made in this thread do clarify why the plot flow seemed at bit odd at times. (I haven't read the novels.)
This was probably my biggest issue with the season. Still, rewatching s1 to prepare for s2 reinvigorated my interest in the franchise, so I'll definitely watch a s3 if it's made. |
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Elfensjón
Posts: 61 |
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As for someone who does not read the original source material (the novels) due to it never released in my region, I think the series is okay. it's like Classroom of the Elite series. If you don't know the source material, the adaptation is solid but if you read the novels the adaptation feels way more flawed.
I guess, if could have read the novels of Seirei Gensouki, then my view on this series would be most likely a different one. I think the pacing issue was a problem in S1 already. I guess, 12 episodes were not enough to have a decent pace of the story. Maybe a split cour season of 20 to 24 episodes would have been helpful to create a solid pacing of the story with room for decent character and maybe world development. Now, it feels like that there is a lot of wasted potential. The anime makes Rio look like a cheaper Kirito rip-off (only with blonde hair instead of black). While, I think the anime did something new to the isekai genre when it first came out, it made me stick with the show, I feel the series had potential to do more. Do I want a S3 of this series? Most likely, yes. I would want to know how the story of this series progresses further. I think that the premise itself is more than a standard isekai story. And I hope that one day the novel find their way to Germany with a German-language release so I can dig into the story of the novels. Last edited by Elfensjón on Tue Jan 07, 2025 4:33 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Thesarum
 SubscriberPosts: 554 |
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For my sins, I'm fully up to date with the english releases of the LN (I kinda hope they keep going with the adaptation, because I want to see y'all swear about the the stupid ass-pulls further down the line) and I totally agree with pretty much every word Rebecca wrote.
This falls into the category of "things the anime doesn't adapt well in it's rush between poorly-animated action setpieces". It is, ultimately, a harem isekai (you forgot the girl from his parents home village who is also in love with him (his cousin? I think?), plus the ambiguous status of the three spirit village girls), so relationship progression is going to be slow at best. The LN does a better job of justifying that and giving it texture and nuance (limited, sure, but present). The in-universe explanation is that Rio is set on his revenge, but believes that makes him a bad person not fit to be anyone's partner. He's fully prepared, even expecting, for death to await him at the end of that road. So he keeps everyone at arms length, and keeps a lot of secrets, mostly (in his head) to protect them from the mess he thinks he is. I think the LN does a better job of showing the tiny incremental progress of his various relationships as he's less effective at this wall building than he thinks he is.
In fairness, I think the LN also struggles with the size of its cast. I think it's trying to be "an epic", with lots of players and factions distributed over most of the continent, and the narrative (and Rio) skipping around between them. I like that it's got that ambition to tell a bigger story ... I'm not sure it totally pulls if off, and the highly compressed nature of the adaptation makes the problem worse. Overall, I've enjoyed my time with S2 well enough. Mostly for that "getting to see characters you read animated" thing I guess. |
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Melicans
Posts: 630 Location: Canada |
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Not his cousin, her friend with the super jealous brother. His cousin has an interest in another character. |
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Thesarum
Subscriber Posts: 554 |
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Ah yes, of course. I knew I should have checked. |
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