THE STORY:
Ah! My Goddess: Flights of Fancy is the second installment in the calm
Comedy-Romance series, and in many ways I can't help but feel that it falls
short in comparison to the first season. The first season had a great
balance and story progression, but, in this season, the Romantic side of things
was far more prominent. At a few key points in the series it seemed as
though the writers noticed this shift and attempted to cover it up with some
quick, somewhat appeasing but ultimately ineffective, filler.
I watched the series continue, and I couldn't help but notice some skeletal
similarities to the first season which made it a tad annoying, as it become
redundant. More useless quarrels over false placement in jealousy, simple
and ultimately far-fetched promises, and a warm embrace to lick the envelope's
seal, shut it, and throw it in the mail-box.
At the end of the series it seemed as though they ran out of ideas for the
continued plot-line and decided to wrap things up prematurely, and finish off
with a couple filler episodes which I will admit weren't horrendous. Focusing
more on the Romantic development in the characters was a bad move for me as
they didn't get anywhere in the end, nothing was confirmed that wasn't already
said or touched on in the first half.THE ANIMATION:
The animation continues with the traditional style that the first season
started and it cut out much of the magical flair that the beginning portion had
to offer since it spent so much time focusing on the romantic "development"
of the series, if you can call it that. Now without its main attraction, that
allure, it became a bit of the same old, same old. Some very normal lightning,
dust clouds, and scenery art. One of the praises in my review for the first
season was the near non-existence of Ecchi style throughout, throw that out the
window, it would seem that the women are now sex objects.
I do pity the artists, if I had to draw people blushing as much as they did
in this series I'd probably shoot myself or my boss. Honestly the
repetitive plot ultimately leads to repetitive animation, and this season
doesn't disappoint in the regard of consistency.SOUND:
Eh... The sound is still good I guess, I didn't notice it again, aside from
the one time they threw a variation of the theme song in there which still has
those bagpipes that I loved from the first one, too bad they were played by an
elementary grade student still learning their scales. I may be alone on this
one, but the opening to the intro song hit me like a frying pan to the face
every time I started another episode, maybe they needed to adjust or normalize
the volume or maybe the bagpipes were merely being played badly, I couldn't
tell. Regardless the sound is nothing to appreciate the second time around.
CHARACTERS:
The characters are still well done and the voice acting has not lost its
luster! The new characters are interesting enough to entertain although
they do seem to be re-hashes of some characters that appear to have completely
disappeared from the first season. As I've already said the attempt at a
more Romantic approach for season two wasn't well executed and thus the main
characters Keiichi especially suffered because his voice actor recited eight
different variations of the same thing, I feel like I'm back in sixth grade
algebra,
"I don't understand..."
"O well let me make my tone more condescending and I'll use a few
synonyms to change what I said a bit, did you understand this time?"
I realize that I am being harsh on the characters despite my appraisal, the
entire cast voiced their lines with great sincerity and I would be hard pressed
to find many other casts with equivalent talent.OVERALL:
In my conclusion, I have to say that I'm disappointed in the second season.
The first season is a handy stand-alone and doesn't require a follow-up,
especially one such as this. If you have just seen Ah! My Goddess and are
wondering about Flights of Fancy I don't recommend it, but if you are anything
like me you'll finish it anyways just because you wanna know what happens. It
wasn't a terrible watch and it is easy enough to get through, it does offer
many of the same antics that warmed our hearts in the first season.