The light show continues in The Asterisk War 2 as the Phoenix Festa tournament draws to a close. Given that what is left after season one is the quarterfinal qualifiers up through the tournament match, it’s clear that the fights will be the multi-episode monstrosities we never really had at the beginning of the tournament, but flashy fight scenes are about the one thing that The Asterisk War manages to do well in, so no complaints there. It may not leave a ton of time to flesh out the characters, and indeed any attempts the show makes to paint the characters in a sympathetic or relatable light feel stilted after all this time of seeing them as tropes, particularly when these attempts aren’t very well executed and fall in much the same tired patterns as we’ve seen up until now.
The key improvement this season, however, is that the emphasis shifts to these being true tag-team fights rather than a pair of one-on-one battles running in tandem—or worse, a one-on-one between the male lead Ayato and the monster of the week as his fully competent partner Julis sits unconscious on the sidelines, as was the conclusion from which this season picks up after. The vestige of this toxic mentality is still there, as Ayato is ultimately the one to lead their final charge against a male robot with Julis and the enemy female robot each providing little more than a power boost to their teammates, but the actual meat of the fights is much more steeped in teamwork and strategizing as a pair than before, to good effect.
The key example is Ayato and Julis, as they use Julis’ fire to lay traps, corner opponents, and create confusion and miscommunication between their foes as Ayato takes the straightforward approach of slashing them into oblivion. Even more then their teamwork on the field however is their dynamic outside the ring. Julis remains as tsundere as ever, annoyingly attracted to her partner and voicing it through blushing and yelling at him, but there are also many more scenes of trust and actual friendship, where they treat one another like peers and allies. By the end they are doing away with apologizing and feeling a sense of debt to one another, actively leaning on their partner for support. As a result of this it feels more genuine when they also begin to lean on their other friends and allies for support, bringing the side characters into the fold rather than them being generic harem sidekicks.
The enemies are slightly more lackluster, although their teamwork is also centralized in a similar fashion. The first fight is a quick throwaway, signaling the start of Ayato and Julis’ partnership at the expense of having a pair of engaging enemies. Ditto the semifinals, which almost seemed like an afterthought that was meant to be more substantial before the animation studio realized how much they had to fit into twelve episodes. The finals, while presenting an interesting enough enemy force, suffered from the issue of it turning into a manly one-on-one with each having received a major windfall to their powers somewhat arbitrarily in the previous fights. The robot learns how to be amused and respect opponents, which apparently is an upgrade, while Ayato looks within his heart and removes his one major weakness for free. The quarterfinals do feature a smart and sadistic enemy pair, presenting a real sense of hopelessness combed with a visually enjoyable fight, but Ayato’s power upgrade ends it within minutes after them having been on the defensive for multiple episodes in a row, which leaves sort of a sense of being cheated in my mouth.
There’s also the issue of Julis’ arc, based in her home kingdom after the end of the Phoenix Festa, which I feel conflicted about the show ending on. It is somewhat a mix of the early episodes from the first season where the characters run around fighting once in a while and having harem antics the rest, but it’s clear that this is meant to be more substantive, digging at the heart of Julis’ motivations. Unfortunately those motivations seem a bit shallow and naïve, with her wanting to save her old orphanage from gentrification and eventually her country from some evil overlords in the sky. It also seems like a vehicle for introducing a new enemy to beat in the upcoming festa, who is more powerful and skilled and destructive than anyone they’ve ever seen before, if that sounds familiar to every other episode thus far. With the promise that the next arc will be focused on another tournament, The Asterisk War 2’s beg for just one more season is probably aiming at the right audience, but ending on a weaker arc may not leave the taste of wanting to come back.