Otome Game no Hametsu Flag shika Nai Akuyaku Reijou ni Tensei shiteshimatta... X

Hamefura X is basically everything from season 1, improved and turned up several notches. In short, if you liked season 1, you’ll love the second season as the stakes, plot and characterisation see dramatic improvements.

Hamefura season 1 was one of the most talked about shows of 2020. It was really a breath of fresh air for the isekai genre. There hadn’t been many otome style isekai, focusing on female MC’s with harems. There was comedy, a ditzy MC and lots of fun slice of life moments. While the season was great, I feel it lacked depth at times. I struggled to really get an idea ... of the direction of the story other than Bakarina having to eventually choose who she’d be with romantically.

This season did a much better job of advancing the overall story, developing Bakarina and the side cast and creating drama. With the exception of a couple anime original episodes, I really enjoyed the more serious tone that we got this season. While that usual comedy is definitely still there, it does feel like there’s a lot more serious heartfelt moments with characters this time around. I think the pacing was awesome as well. The mini arcs that characters got in episodes were the perfect length and flowed seamlessly.

The art is just as good as the first season, it feels like they picked up everything right where they left off. I hope that will be the case for a season 3 as well. Really, watching this is a no brainer if you enjoyed the first season you’ll find the improvements a welcome addition.

I think Hamefura could be a turning point for the isekai genre and as a result we’ll see more Otome style isekai series adapted. While I love the usual OP male MC shows, it’s nice to get a change of pace, different scenery and a different type of story every now and again. Given the commercial success of the anime, BD and LN’s, I’m confident this is the start of something great.

Hamefura X gets 9 out of 10.

The season of this anime is nothing but a disappointment compared to its predecessor season. The element (kidnapping, etc.) that has been used to progress the story has been recycled throughout the season. To put it simply-- it's plain boring and offers nothing new to the audience. I just continued watching it for the sake of completing this anime.

The harem genre often follows a certain pattern and is full of cliches.
MC *exist*
and then everyone falls in love.
They attempted to push the story forward by having character development (Nicol, Geordo, Keith, Mary), but they failed in the execution. Mary, specifically, gets more annoying. Sora ... is the only new character that has more depth than the established main cast.

OSTs and sound are pretty mediocre, and the only saving grace of this anime is the art, which is as good as season 1.

Overall, I rated this anime 5/10 as it is average in pretty much everything—just your average cliche harem but with no exciting development.

When you come to watch a harem series, you know basically what to expect: A dense MC, a cast full of characters that will love the MC, gags, troupes with reactions and phrases equal to their stereoype. Also, some of these shows can still make the viewer reflect, relate, root for a character to win because you developed symphathy by it, its not only pure entertaiment.

Hamefura S2 overuses the first part and completely ignore the last one.

The show ultimately lost it interesting premise of S1, the touching moments like in the irl side of the MC in S1, back there she had a purpose for ... her actions, she affected the other characters in a more meaningful way. Actions actually matters back then and the MC was committed, it had a purpose.

Now Hamefura S2 is unimaginative. It got worse. Every single comedy gag is a copy pasta of what we got in S1. Hell, we even got an episode that was the same in S1, but in a different setting. Katarina says the most frivolous things that she barely gave much thought about it and other characters buys it right away fixing the "problem". They even advance physically in order to provoke her, but the show insists to take that effort and put it in the trash.

The tropes are multiplied by 100, specially Katarina's dense mechanism. It is so over the top that render any moves a character do to improve anything with their relationship status with her pointless. It's so aggravating that a guy on top of her in bed kissing her neck is considered by her "that was just a mosquito bite". When kissed she even tried to distort reality and thought it was a dream, even when the kisser do it again right after, she negates, blush or whatever and that stituation never actually makes her reflect, care or debate in her head what she gotta do, how to react, what's going to happen with their relationship the other day. Interactions have no continuity.

This is beyond a comedy formula, you ruin the most potential move a character can do with her (a kiss) in other to spice the harem, and you just ignore character development or any character progression whatsoever. It's insane. It's not funny anymore when you just realize any interaction with the MC will be disposable 10s later and never brought back again. This is my biggest criticism as any action a character do is not meaningful. You don't do this with your story ever, even if you prioritize the comedy aspect (that's subpar) you just ruined the romance part.

The problems are just solved so easily, sometimes painful to get involved when things are so simple, effortless. I think the episode I have the most fun wasn't a comedic one, but when they developed Nicol's struggles with the introduction of a new character that was a breath of fresh air. It's hard to say, but when things are supposed to have Katarina as the center of attention, the anime becomes so predictable and bland that the outcome isn't rewarding. It were indeed a few instances where I could laugh because it wasn't a gag used in S1.

The designs are fine, but the animation is pretty poor, with a static model of the character in place and just the mouth moving, if you're attentive this may hurt your experience.

Overall disappointed with S2. I thought they could be at least funnier and creative with the many situations presented. That the characters that got development and realized their feelings and decided to take action torwards the MC could be at least rewarded. This show is stagnated, it is in an endless spiral of overused trope lines, repetitive gags and mired relationship - with every character in the same spot as S1, because kisses are irrelevant, confessions doesn't affect the MC for more than one episode. Life is just this convenient and bland in the world of Hamefura S2.