While I wasn't too big on the first season of Rising Impact and thought it took a while to get going, I had a decent enough time with it that I was hopeful the second season could improve on it. Unfortunately, while I did end up enjoying it more, this season wound up being a mixed bag. If the first season's problem was that it started rough before eventually balancing out, this one suffers from the opposite. It has a pretty promising start but ultimately fizzles out without delivering on everything it started setting up.

The first few episodes are the strongest as we're introduced to the other Camelot Cup competitors from the American and British schools. Gawain ends up forming a rivalry with one of the aces of the American team named Quester Phoenix, and when he turns out to be more talented than Gawain in drive shots, it sends him spiraling into a slump, and he loses his ability to perform them at all. While Gawain isn't exactly unlikeable as a protagonist, a lot of what's carried him up to this point has been natural talent rather than hard work (especially considering it's acknowledged at several points that it hasn't even been six months since he picked up a golf club) so having a serious hurdle to overcome felt like something that his character needed. It even pays off in some genuine growth for him as he's forced to accept that there could always be others out there with talents greater than his and that the best thing he can do is focus on himself and his game, which is a good mindset for any athlete to have.

Sadly a lot of that is undermined by where the show takes all of this as Gawain improves too quickly. Once he regains his ability to perform drive shots, his natural talents in that area grow even further, and he ends up overtaking Quester in distance immediately and permanently. Not only that, but midway through the second half of the tournament, a head injury ends up causing Gawain to awaken to his dormant super golfing genetics (yes, really), and his level of innate talent for the sport is revealed to be even more insane than it was before. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't at least kind of fun in its way, as Gawain goes from silly and goofy to full-on edgelord during all of this, and the crazy feats he manages to pull off during this stint are all entertaining. For as cool as it is in the moment, though, it kills the previous message a bit to have Gawain learn a lesson about accepting that there are other golfers out there with talents greater than his, only to reveal that the actual depths of his talents have barely been seen. In a way, it almost ends up making it a relief when his injury causes him to lose right before the end. Since that's kind of the extent of what Gawain gets to do this season, it lowered my interest in Gawain as a protagonist rather than improving it.

Luckily, Gawain's not the only character in this show, and while the supporting cast wasn't too strong in the first season, they do manage to pick up the slack a lot more in this one. Lancelot has a lot more to do here than in the first season. While he does end up having a similar arc to Gawain's in terms of struggling with his confidence when faced with golfers better than he is, he feels much more grounded in comparison, making it a lot easier to root for him. I also did end up liking some of the new characters like Bilford, who is by far the most grounded player in this entire ensemble and one of the few without a massive ego, and Quester, who, in addition to being a pretty good rival for Gawain, thanks to their similar talents, also seems to have more than a few connections with him as Quester's father drops some pretty strong hints that the two of them might be half-siblings. My favorite of the bunch, though, is probably Percival, who is just a female version of Gawain in terms of personality right down to sharing a similar dream of wanting to be the best golfer in the world. Since Gawain hasn't had any other characters his age to bounce off of, it was cute seeing the two of them hit it off almost immediately and seeing them be a pair of goofy kids together, which made for a pretty fun dynamic.

Much as I ended up liking those characters, though, I can't quite say the same for Tristan, who serves as the biggest competitor of the season. He has the most going for him on the surface, as his motivations for wanting to be the best golfer stem from growing up in poverty and having his father die when he was young, but none of that comes through in his actual character. Within the tournament context, he just ended up feeling more like an obstacle for the other characters than much of a character himself, and I found him boring. I was similarly let down by the arc between Platalissa and her sister as we learn that Platalissa grew up wanting to be like her and trying too hard to imitate her as a golfer. In contrast, her sister resents her being spoiled by their parents and stealing their attention. That would make for some pretty good family drama on paper, but in execution, most of their match happens off-screen. The actual resolution has them reconciling without showing anything that feels like it would have improved their relationship, and it ends up feeling underbaked.

Probably the biggest disappointment is this season's conclusion or lack thereof. While it finishes everything with the Camelot Cup tournament, there's quite a bit left hanging elsewhere. Namely, Gawain never gets a proper one-on-one rematch with Lancelot, and the whole mystery surrounding Gawain and Quester's potential status as half-brothers is left unanswered. There does seem to be at least a few more volumes of material remaining from the original manga, so it's always possible that all that could be addressed in a third season, but as of now, one hasn't been confirmed. Plus, since the manga's run ultimately ended in cancellation, it's hard to know if the actual ending is satisfying enough to be worth adapting the rest or if this was the best place it could have stopped.

The production quality of this season remains as solid as the first and stays pretty consistent. While it never does anything too flashy with its visuals or animation, it does enough with some crazier golfing theatrics to keep the show entertaining. The dub remains similarly consistent, with Debi Derryberry continuing to deliver a solid performance as Gawain and nailing all of his goofy antics while also handling his personality shift during his brief stint with the dark side of his golfing powers. Ben Diskin also delivers a strong performance as Quester and balances his high levels of confidence with the huge chip he's wearing on his shoulder when it comes to Gawain sharing his talent for drives. It also features a lot more accent work regarding British characters since there are more of them this season. The results are a little more mixed as some performances, like Griffin Burns as Ice, sound shaky with the accent, while Daman Mills' performance as Tristan barely sounds like he's putting on an accent. It is not particularly distracting, though; their voice work is otherwise fine, so it's more of a nitpick than a dealbreaker. The dub is a good time overall.

Despite some problems, I enjoyed this second season more than the first, but the lack of an actual conclusion lets down much of that. While I wasn't in love with this show enough to beg for a third season, I did have a decent enough time with it that it would be a bit of a bummer if this is all we get. If this ends up being the total package, then it's hard to feel like this whole adaptation wasn't much more than a novelty and doesn't feel like it offers much purpose beyond covering more of Nanba Suzuki's catalog. As is, while it's certainly not a terrible show, it's not exactly memorable as a shonen sports series, and it doesn't quite have the same level of impact as its namesake.