Granblue has returned with the next season. It definitely goes by very quickly and makes for a good continuation. It does feel perhaps a bit aimless compared to season 1 at times even though we do have plot progression. That might be because in season 1 we picked up the main cast and got everyone’s mini arc while this one is mainly about learning more on the villains. Still good stuff, but I am ready for the heroes to make some proper headway against the government and learn more about what is going on in the background.

The story follows Gran and his friends as they seek to arrive at Estalucia, the land of the gods. Gran’s father should be at the end of this journey and in the meantime he is helping Lyria capture all of the gods so they stop causing a bunch of trouble. In the meantime the empire continues their attempts to recapture Lyria for their own nefarious purposes. These villains cannot be trusted, perhaps it is time for the heroes to take them down once and for all!

The first arc has the characters land on an island where Katalina is quite well known. The leader, Vira seems to hold her in particularly high regards. At first glance it seems like a fine place except it turns out that Katalina will have to stay on this island and leave the crew in order for them to be able to leave safely. Gran rejects this proposal and so the crew have to do battle with the government once more while also taking on Vira. As always you can’t really trust old friends in this kind of thing because over the years they tend to get corrupt and really join the other side.

It’s not a great look for Katalina though. I never really care for the “Heroic sacrifice” play in this kind of situation because it’s not necessary. She should have talked it over with Gran and the others right off the bat. Not doing so just implies that she doesn’t think they have what it takes. In this case she also had some feelings of guilt but at the end of the day all this means is that she would have completely abandoned her duties which is not cool. She did make an oath to protect Lyria after all and you can’t just stop that midway.

The fight with Vira is pretty fun though. Vira makes for a good villain and one of the stronger combatants that the heroes had to go up against. it would be nice to see her return at some point, maybe for a climax coming up. Would feel like a waste if she just never got to return although granted, if we don’t get another season then in a way that’s the fate of every character.

The second arc of the series is a lot shorter or it felt shorter at least. The heroes head to the next island where everybody is a zombie. That’s a bit strange and also rather unnerving right? Why did they die? What I liked about this mini arc is it felt like Grablue was finally trying something a bit different. This is an adventure show after all but a lot of the islands felt very similar. This one was really different even when it comes down to the tone. So that was impressive and while the villain was a bit of a generic scientist, he was still fairly strong. So this was a pretty fun pit stop on the way to the final arc of the season. It’s another case where they should have tried summoning Bahamut earlier but more on that later.

Finally we get back to what I would call the main plot. The heroes arrive on the next island where the government shows up again in full force. Gran finally has to take on the Black Knight while Lyria is faced off against her own shadow version. It’s pretty fun even if Gran feels completely out of his depth here. We also learn a bit more about his father like the fact that his moniker is the god killer. (Well it might have been Astral Killer or the equivalent of what they call the gods, but same effect) Then the Black Knight may actually have some ties to one of Gran’s members. These mysteries are clear set up for the future and the season itself has a massive cliffhanger with a trial about to start. I’d definitely be eager to see what happens there.

It was a good way to end off the season because that was probably the most action packed episode of the season. While the Black Knight did crush Gran, it was still cool to see them go at it after all this time. I’m not sure I buy what happens to the Black Knight at the end but it could still be part of some kind of a plan so I can’t judge too much just yet. There are still a whole lot of missing pieces to the puzzle.

Like last time, there is a bonus episode at the end. In fact this time there were two! The first one is about Djeeta and her group exploring a dungeon and it was fun to get a proper dungeon crawling episode. I’m not sure I’d want that for a whole arc or anything but for an episode it worked out well enough. I actually like her group more than Gran’s to be honest. It’s a solid stand alone episode with good action throughout so I definitely had no complaints there.

The second episode has two segments. The first one is about Gran wrestling one of the giant monsters and that was a fun one. He got to show off his determination and just how hard he can train when the stakes are high. I’s amusing in part because of how absurd the whole thing is. Then we have Djeeta and friends going to school in a made up alternate universe. A fun enough short. It would probably overstay its welcome if it went on for a whole cour but it can be nice to see familiar characters in brand new settings.

Okay, now lets talk a bit deeper about the show and some of the things that are holding it back somewhat. The first is the animation. I do have to say that it doesn’t look all that great. I would even say slightly below average. The colors aren’t strong and there isn’t always a lot of movement. We get the occasional fight scene but that’s about it. Stronger animation even for just the movement and all would really go a long way. Without it, the series just doesn’t have anything backing up the story.

Likewise, the soundtrack isn’t particularly good. I’m not going to say that it’s bad or anything because it’s not but none of the tunes stand out. The opening theme song is really uninspired as well. You’d almost think it’s all free domain type music and it doesn’t help the show break out of its shell. That is the core of the issues after all, which is that the show feels like a nameless fantasy title. Not the kind of story you will remember all that well even a few years from now.

The show needs a stronger hook. The main cast is okay but not all that interesting. The plot is fine but you don’t tend to make much progress on it at all. It feels like a classic mobile game plot in that sense with the carrot being dangled at the end without any sense of the progress you are making. The show just needs to do something because it all feels a bit too ordinary. I would also say the power levels feel off and in part it’s because the heroes never seem to get any stronger.

They have Bahamut and a bunch of other summons at this point. I would say that it’s about time they started using them. The fact that they don’t use Bahamut at times and get absolutely devastated tells you all that you need to know about this. Bahamut doesn’t get used throughout the whole season and Lyria only tries to use him once. That’s just not mart and in general these bad decisions are the only reason that the fights tend to be close. If Gran was allowed to use his energy moves then perhaps he would have beaten the Black Knight.

Gran’s also a bit of a cardboard cutout character. He doesn’t have a whole lot of personality to him at all. People tend to hit the Isekai leads with this critique, but I dare say he deserves it over most of those. It’s hard to really say what his personality is beyond being there to do the right thing. I would also like Lyria to show a bit more agency. She has had her quick moments where she has to confront her fears and step in to help but it is always a bit of a last resort.

Io doesn’t get much to do here but at least she has one key moment during the haunted village. Rackam’s role is also a bit on the small side here but at least as the driver he is always helpful. Rosetta is almost like a running gag where she shows up to help in just about every arc and then runs off. At this point she may as well just become a main character. Eugen has his big secret coming up but still feels redundant to the party as a whole since Rackam already has the guns angle.

On the villain’s side, I do like the Black Knight. She definitely earns her keep and always keeps things interesting. The rest of them though? Drang and Sturm are trying for a Team Rocket angle but it doesn’t really work. They really just have one gag that they repeat over and over again in the hopes that it will get funnier but it never really does. You’re just left shaking your head the whole time as a result. Finally we have Orchis who doesn’t have much of a character yet although they’re clearly setting her up for a big role. She certainly did way more here than in season 1 so I appreciate that. She will be a good foil to Lyria for now although eventually I do expect her to be one of the heroes eventually.

That seemed like a pretty negative stretch for the series but on the whole it’s just that there is a lot of potential here that is not being maximized because the series is trying to really stretch things out. The world building isn’t quite big enough to pull that off. If it could just focus on the actual story a bit more and the characters getting some action then it could really hit the next level. We absolutely should get more action at this point as we presumably get closer to the final island.

On a small note, it does seem like a crazy coincidence how the heroes bump into all of the same characters on every island. This is a pretty big world after all so the title may want to dial that down a bit. It comes off as a bit forced at times. The series has a massive cast in the games so it’s time to let other characters have their fun and maybe even switch up the main crew a bit. I think that would be a pretty interesting idea. The season at least tried that by adding two main characters which I appreciate. First is the character who is actually one of those god deities and then you have the girl from the supernatural arc, Ferry. So we need to keep doing that but with more of the pure fighters like the cool thunder guy from the season 1 climax.

In general this season was going for a more low key type of ending I would say. Sure, we did have the big fight with the Black Knight but it would have been really nice to have had an all star ensemble like in season 1. That was a whole lot of fun after all, especially since you usually don’t see that until a later season. Perhaps that set the bar too high for this season but there are so many characters that you can definitely do it again for season 3.

Overall, Granblue Fantasy is a perfectly serviceable show. I would say it’s a very safe watch and feels like a standard anime. If you wanted to recommend a title to someone who is not familiar with anime then this would be a pretty good option. It introduces you to basic anime concepts, doesn’t really have any fanservice or weird anime elements, and is about a hero and his party as they save the world. It’s a very innocent anime that is just trying to do the right thing and takes you from place to place. The episodic nature of the arcs can also keep it from being too overwhelming.

Overall 7/10