Anime: Haiyore! Nyaruko-san W 1y2t6p

Nyarlko is a series that you need to watch with a certain frame of mind. Forget intricate stories and forget meaningful character development, this series is all about fun and making fun of stuff. The second season of Nyarlko (I'm adapting Commie's naming conventions) is essentially more of what you found in the first season, which is a lot of nonsense, a lot of girl-girl and guy-guy relationships, and a lot of parodies of other series. If you like Nyarlko's over-the-top personality, she will most likely be enough to carry you through the season. While an interesting ride overall, the second season doesn't contribute much plot-wise from the first season. In short, this is a fun watch if you liked the original and have nothing better to do.

Animation:
It's been a year since the prequel aired and you can definitely notice a few animation touchups. The uplift in quality includes an overall cleaner drawing style, increased sharpness, and improved color shading as we've seen from other recent shows. The characters from the original all return and are just as distinguishable as in the original. You even get a bonus as Shanta, the hippo-bat-bird chimera, gets a special episode dedicated to herself.

As with the previous season, you get a few action sequences though nothing is really standout in general (a lot of the fights even resolve while the camera conveniently shifts to something else). The action is totally overshadowed by the fan service as expected in a Xebec work. Expect Nyarlko to make plenty of advances on Mahiro; well to be honest you should expect everyone to make advances on Mahiro for he is apparently the center of the universe. Accidental fondlings, suggestive positions, love potions, you name it and they've probably got it.

Sound:
This one was actually an interesting surprise. The new OP for Nyarlko is actually quite a catchy piece with a fair melody while still sounding distinctively like the first season's OP. The show has an abundance of EDs, unlike last time. A lot of these EDs are also quite good and range from calming and melodic to chaotic and techno-based. I personally like the calmer EDs (Yotte SOS and Sister, Friend, Lover). All the OPs and EDs are performed by the VAs. The BGM is identical to that of the first season and indeed includes the weird chant song.

The VAs do a very good job overall with Kana Asumi as the standout by far for giving Nyarlko such an outrageously outgoing personality.

Story:
Nyarlko W takes place after the first season and pretty much has the gang face off against completely random foes. Much of the series is episodic each with its own rising action and climax. The show doesn't really have a central story until the last two episodes where just a tiny eye drop's worth of plot progression takes place. The point of this season doesn't seem to be to further the main storyline but rather to present isolated, ridiculous cases for our protagonists to face. From giant gorillas to squid-like creatures from Pluto, all of the bizarre antagonists and stories are resolved in fairly idiotic ways. The challenge here is to figure out the resolution before the show gives it away (as there are foreshadows hidden throughout each episode).

As with the original show, there are plenty of shows that are parodied. My "obvious to find" list to look for includes DeathNote, Dragonball, Chuunibyou, Code Geass, Toaru Majutsu, and Da Capo. The intelligence level of the overall story isn't very high, so I recommend sitting back and just enjoying some laughs rather than trying to critique the virtually nonexistent plot.

Character:
So we already know that Nyarlko is 1000% dedicated to Mahiro, and we already know that Mahiro is an indecisive prick who chooses to make everyone's life miserable by not ending the harem route. As with the previous season, all the relationships are pretty much static and you'll hear characters repeat lines over and over throughout the show. At one or two specific points in the show, I got a tiny whiff of character development, but in general don't expect too much here other than Nyarlko's eccentric personality and body movements.

Value:
While I wouldn't give this any prizes for its storyline or character development, there is definitely some humorous and enjoyable moments in this show. If my pacing is a sign of anything, expect this to be more entertaining than other recent shows such as Mondaiji-tachi and Photokano. If you liked the original Nyarlko, this has more of the better parts while sidelining the bare bones plot of the original.