Story 8.5/10
Season 2 's plot is straight-forward, right to the point, and focuses more on drama and having "goals" rather than having the main & supporting characters get involved in random, unexciting, and dull circumstances. This worked out well in season 2's favor because during season 1 it felt like things like the pacing was slow, and the new plot developments felt lackluster at best. The new director and team of producers working on this must have payed close attention to what was wrong with the season 1 to improve what they thought was best! Lastly, the improvements of the plot for each episode was well executed. From the story-telling narrative I was impressed with how well new developments in the story-line were made. My initial concerns during the beginning of season 2 (which were bad story-telling, lack of interesting new developments, gore for the sake of being edgy) were thrown out the window like a cold lifeless corpse as soon as I started watching. I began thinking to myself "Hmm, you know, this new team is doing a lot better than whoever worked on season 1." I enjoyed knowing that I could be fully engaged in the story & plot for each episode, and not complain the entire time about the directions of certain events were going. Now one thing I didn't like was that the story, at times, felt like both backstories, flashbacks, and often times new developments would drag on too long. Too much dialogue between characters was another re-occurring issue I had a hard time dealing with because I felt like the characters would converse so much that it would take away my enjoyment for the story. Lastly I would have also liked to see more detailed backstories on the Terra Formers because I felt like the additional information explained by Boa wasn't the least bit useful. Overall I was very impressed with the direction that the new team went with in the story of Terra formars revenge.
Animation quality looked pretty damn good. There are lots of obvious moments where I saw that CGI was used to improve the appearance of the Terra Formars in groups, often times ready to attack or die. CGI was used a lot last season so I cannot really add too much about the subject. Character designs and the appearances of both humans and roaches look a lot moderately better. I mean when you compare the anime character designs to the original manga, the anime versions look 1000% better. The quality of the special effects are also pretty good, again not too much I can add. I'm going to assume that the quality of animation was a bit better due to TYO Animations & LIDENFILMS working on it. Lastly, the background settings are very detailed. The work the animators did on objects like computer monitors and electronic devices was pretty amazing.
I have never been impressed with the soundtrack to the Terra Formar series. None of the opening & ending songs get me excited enough to watch the show. The background music sounds bland and boring, it sort of sounds like stock music. I don't think the composer put much effort into enhancing the shows dramatic moments and action scenes. The voice actors were pretty good. I actually don't have too much to add on the actors performances. Sound effects were alright, still sounds like the same effects used in season 1, JOHJ JOHJ. Overall I think the sound, voice actors special effects for vehicles, weapons, need to sound just a bit more realistic to enhance the quality of the show.
The old and new characters were alright. Like other viewers, I did notice that most main characters do seem to be "softer" and maybe just a little sillier in the personality department however, it that really doesn't have a big impact on how I enjoyed viewed the characters.. Personally I don't think that the comedy works with characters like Michelle because she's always been strong-minded along with having a serious personality. Having her be a "straight-man" to Joe's naturally hilarious & every-man personality felt kind of awkward at times. When characters do need to be strong and take action, for example Michelle, then she'll be strong. As shown in I believe episode 5 or 6. She's still the same bad-ass we loved regardless of how "toned down" her personality seems, same goes for the others too. Character growth and development is still relied upon in season 2. In a weird way, everybody learns something or the other to help them harness their strength and knowledge.
Enjoyment for this series would honestly be about a 7 and a half. While I did feel like this was much, much, better than what season 1 had to offer, the series wasn't exactly too exciting at times and had few to many moments of boredom.. I mean, episodes do feature moments where tension begins to rise and dramatic scenes are almost incredible unfortunately though, what damages the series enjoyment factor is that those moments aren't really consistent. Improvement that I think would work best is to tone down the overly dramatic scenes or make them less lengthy because as I mentioned early, certain episodes do tend to drag on with the "Oh my God we are going to die" and "Oh no, what are we going to do?" moments.
Overall I can say that season 2 was a major improvement to all categories listed above, and leaves a better impression of what the show is really about. What that thing is varies from person to person however, I'd have to say that it's determination and the will & strength to never give up. The final product was indeed "very good" and I had a lot of fun watching it. 8/10 from me mates.
