September 13, 2004
Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi Episode 3
"Tennis"
The second season of Ai Yori Aoshi continues to be a big disappointment for me, after really enjoying the second half of the first season. This is another big filler episode, where basically the personalities of the various characters are applied to a new setting--tennis, and there's some romantic stuff between Kaoru and Aoi that almost feels like the show's creators going, "Well, I guess we have to show them together."
Kaoru's character felt fairly abused in this episode, as he acts about 500% more perverted than he did in all of the first season. There also seemed to be an inordinate amount of super-deformed characters, and other stylistic departures that were much rarer in the first season.
But why should two seasons be the same, anyways? Unfortunately, even taking Enishi by itself, it's still barely better than mediocre. The production values are still great, but considering the second season is only half as long as the first, I just expected things to get to the point a little faster. Instead, we've had three episodes of lead-in filler, despite the fact most of the audience is probably reasonably familiar with what's going on.
The show's still gorgeous, but everything else is straight average.
Rating: C+
Posted by Kei at September 13, 2004 01:19 AM