DISCLAIMER: I am judging this season of the show based on it and the previous season not as an adaptation to the manga which I have not read and have no plans to so keep that in mind. Also theres SPOILERS Also changed the title i didnt like the original CONTEXT: skip if you dont care I just made a review of Chainsaw Man which was very fun so I figured I wanted to do one for this too because Im so fresh on it and the only review for it so far is not in its favor not throwing shade just stating how it is their review is very good they just have a different pov so check it out so I guess Ill be the only reviewer in its favor until someone whos better at making reviews writes one. Also for the last bit of context I never care about punctuation it just needs to be readable i do these to share personal thoughts and Ik this goes without saying but do not take this as a personal attack on you if you dont agree my standard is simply just different not better. Also please feel free to tell me how you feel or ask me anything on my account I promise I wont get mad even if I sound like it I promise Im not its just hard to show tone through text DEFENSE OF CRITICISMS: So you could call this the copium section or whatever but its basically just me defending the second season from common complaints Ive had and seen. Ill start will the big one which is that the show loses its slower emotional charms now to clarify this is definitely true I just dont see it as a downgrade but instead see it as an improvement the first season often felt too slow with not enough payoff still loved it. Like not trying to act tough but many of the more emotional moments and deaths didnt hit me or make me cry except 1st ep and a few others and Im the type of person where you can list common shows and movies that made people cry and chances are and if Ive seen it I probably cried too. I believe the reason for this is after several deaths you get kinda used to it and sort of expect it and some characters just didnt last long enough to get attached to. The other big Ive seen bounce around when people dont like season 2 is that the characters are bad and i gotta say... did we see the same season 1? Like not to sound sarcastic but like only a few characters stood out that season due to most of them dying too quick and being underutilized and they were all pretty one dimensional in comparison like they were either evil or perfect with few inbetween like take Kahak vs Hayase Kahak has more depth he is not 100 good and perfect but he is not 100 evil either but with Hayase theyre just evil and honestly corny and unrealistically written. or take Gugu vs Bon gugu is for the most part just perfect but while bon is still a good guy he also does bad things to Fushi like lie and use him. The characters this season got more going on with them and have more purpose theyre by no means perfect but theyre still leagues better. I CANT EVEN DEFEND: So while this review is supposed to be positive its not supposed to be biased and this season still has things I dont like. Ill start with my big one too much damn fighting like at a certain point theres so much action going on theres little room for the more intimate moments that the first season had more often and honestly the action overstays it welcome by the end even if it ends somewhat satisfyingly. Secondly I DO NOT like when characters get to come back in anything much less this which I thought handled how Fushi had to deal with peoples deaths due to his immortality was an interesting concept which they basically killed and it makes the characters deaths feel cheap its not too bad for me because while I found it interesting it also wasnt particularly well executed or utilized properly at least for me but it still hurts the show in a big way to where I can see why for some this alone could ruin the show for them. IMPROVEMENTS: So this is just going to be for things I think this season did really wel that werent part of the defense section. First the actual story progresses a lot better this time unlike last season it never felt like it was moving too slow or just not moving stuff was always happening but not too much that you dont know whats going on. Secondly I like how this season discusses interesting concepts like the idea of lying to someone to protect them and the morality of using someone even if using them is somewhat neutral or for self gain but not to hurt others and it shows that even good people can be selfish the show never fully leans into these ideas but I kinda like that it doesnt tell you how to feel about it it just presents the idea to you and then you get to interpret it how you please too many people and shows tell you exactly how to feel about everything so something being even partly left up to me is very satisfying. Thirdly the show feels like it has a bit more direction where as for me season 1 felt almost as confused as fushi must have been for this season characters last longer conflicts actually build into bigger conflict and resolutions. For my final improvement this is more a feeling than anything so take it with a grain of salt but the writing feels more confident it plays more to its strengths it doesnt attempt really hard concepts it cant properly do but doesnt stray from the ones it can like I said this is just simply a feeling I had when watching but to throw a bone to those that were disappointed by this season I can see why this more confident writing feeling may actually be a downgrade for some because it admittedly traded some uniqueness for it. CONCLUSION: I actually absolutely see both sides of the argument but I felt that the people who liked this season needed a bit of representation in the reviews and less people get pushed away due to the only one being negative and also so people can read just both sides so I wrote in favor of the season. I truly feel that this season could either ruin the show for you completely or just not and thankfully for me it didnt but I understand why it does for many so if you watched season one and are on the fence about continuing for whatever reason I would say try it but be ready for many changes and try to embrace them and if you simply cant thats ok too. Anyhows thats all sorry if its a bit of a mess Im writing this late and let me just say theres a lot more I could say and sort of want to but this review is already kinda long for me so if you have something you want to discuss like I said before please send me a message