A surprising sequel that blows Season 1 out of the water. Reignited my desire to go outside and form a new desire to start climbing mountains. Read my rating scale first before you decide to jump to the bottom of the review and read the score. Explaining my Rating Scale A common mistake with looking at ratings is assuming all of our rating scales are the same while realistically that is never the case. People rate average anime differently some rate it as 5 6 or a 7 depending on their own personal criteria which is subjective in nature. This explains why we all have different tastes. My Personal Rating Scale Anime: 4 and below = Considered dropped but I finished it for some reason. 5 = Meh no rewatch ever. 6 = Meh would only rewatch if forced. 7 = Acceptable and good entertainment enjoyable. 8 = Great entertainment not one of the best though. 9 = Loved the story Not lifechanging but incredible 10 = Chills intense emotional catharsis perfect and possibly lifechanging. 1080https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/411892546676195328/816576432703537182/5.png Setting expectations: This is a subjective review and mainly for enjoyment. A very critical opinion will not be found here my apologies. Spoilers will be as minimal as possible with images being all out of context. Ill try my best to explain what worked for me and what didnt to help you understand my point of view. This will help you come to your own conclusion about what this anime might be like for you. The preface is because a lot of people online expect reviews to fit a certain mold. For me I just like to talk about anime I enjoy and want to share my thoughts about it in reviewform. Alright lets get to the review already. 1080https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/411892546676195328/816576565638725632/16.png Verdict Yama no Susume Season 2 has 24 episodes with 14 minutes each. It was animated by 8bit Studio That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Infinite Stratos The Fruit of Grisaia and directed by Yuusuke Yamamoto B Gata H Kei Welcome to the NHK. This was airing in Summer 2014. The animes source material is from a Manga with the same name. This is a slice of life anime featuring the outdoors and CGDCT. The one unique thing about the show is how it features Mountain climbing girls. Review Summary Summary of: Background Firsttime watcher that had very low expectations due to season 1. The COVID pandemic has severely starved my need for the outside and adventuring. Watched Season 2 with Japanese Audio and English subtitles. Summary of: Story / Plot / Characters A slice of life story that features mountain climbing and travelling. Plot has a mixture of short and long arcs with simple characters that hit that realism aspect. Summary of: Visuals / Animation Incredible environment shots visuals have aged well. Animation is great. Summary of: Audio / Soundtrack / Voice Acting Realistic show audio with a stellar soundtrack. Memorable voice acting from Aois VA great and adequate deliveries from the other VAs. Summary of: Overall An incredibly chill and relaxing show that fulfilled my desires and destroyed my low expectations. Recommendation / Would you like it? I recommend this second season I believe the first few episodes deserves a chance if you liked season 1. It is possible for your opinion to change after consuming season 2 it is the same subjects and execution but done well. I do not believe you will love it as much as I did but I think you would notice an improvement in quality. Rating My rating is a 9/10 which describes it to: Loved the story Not lifechanging but incredible 1080https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/411892546676195328/816576616024637500/30.png Background This is considered my firsttime watch through. I have enjoyed the first season but never found it to be particularly anything special. Just a light popcorn show that was entertaining. During this COVID19 Pandemic I have been stuck inside since March 2020. This has impacted me a lot psychologically because I am stuck inside all day more than I would like. And while I have experienced this lifestyle before and enjoyed it this has gotten way too excessive. I miss the outdoors and the normalcy of it too before the pandemic. Before the pandemic I solotraveled for a few days before that feeling of freedom and adventure. This is something that again I miss. And so when this show fulfills the needs for outdoors with amazing visuals and the adventure feel of climbing a mountain. You are god damn for sure gonna believe this affected my watching experience very positively. Also I have a bias for slice of life stories. I like the genre and its stories. I used Japanese dub and English subtitles. Bless the YuushaNi group. 1080https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/411892546676195328/816576686338473984/43.png The Review Now the review. Ill be talking about the anime in the following categories: 1 Story / Plot / Characters Evaluation of Story I really loved the story. It featured mountain climbing and the daily lives surrounding the characters. It is a slice of life at the end of the day but to see these characters encounter new situations travel to new places and grow as people was genuinely heartwarming personally. Evaluation of Plot Structure From what I recalled it is a mixture of short and long arcs. Pacing felt quite perfect personally. Evaluation of Characters The characters are quite simple in nature but hit that realism aspect and are enjoyable to watch. There is not a lot of depth but that is fine for me. 1080https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/411892546676195328/816576767484756019/34.png 2 Visuals / Animation Evaluation of Visual Art Stellar visuals all of the environment shots feel godly. For a show in 2014 it definitely does not feel like it has aged to time at all. Evaluation of Animation Incredible. It was a good mixture of actual animation and slideshow nothing felt out of the ordinary. 1080https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/411892546676195328/816576878240071690/36.png 3 Audio / Soundtrack / Voice Acting Evaluation of Shows Audio I really felt that realism with the shows audio. Evaluation of OP ED I love love love the OP and EDs Evaluation of OST InsertSongs Certain songs really hit super hard I cannot recall anything bad besides maybe a weird birthday song but the OG is probably copyrighted lol. Evaluation of VA Every VA did a great job but I think Aois VA slammed it out of the park with her portrayal. The other VAs did a good and serviceable job in their respective roles. 1080https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/411892546676195328/816576938574610473/47.png 4 Overall This show has fulfilled my need for a chill and relaxing show. It also fulfilled my desire for the outside and adventure. My expectations were blown away from season 1 and combining this with my background explains why the rating is so high. I am very glad I have watched this show. Hopefully you learned something useful from the review. Thanks for reading. : 1080https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/411892546676195328/816576997320556555/56.png