New Anime Review - Senyuu 2

Anime Name - Senyuu 2
Aired - July 3, 2013 to Sep 25, 2013
Episodes - 13
Produced By - Ordet, LIDEN FILMS 
Staff - Yutaka Yamamoto (Director), Robinson Haruhara (Original Creator), Ushio Tazawa (Character Design), GRANRODEO & Hiro Simono (Theme Song Performance)

Senyuu 2 was the sequel of Senyuu, which was a very unique short which is mostly focused on mocking other shounens and the general fantasy setting as a whole. The season 2 somewhat deviated from the 1st as it tried to focus a bit more on story and as a matter of fact that sacrificed some of the wacky humor that the show had in the first season. It also introduces a bunch of new characters who might not be as fun as the old ones as a whole but some of them truly are very funny.
Story
It still follows the hero Alba in his epic(?) journey for peace, but this time he is estranged from the Royal soldier Ross as the initial group gets separated. And the eventually has to face many new obstacles and villains to finally be reunited. What this season does is focus on the story a bit more occasionally sacrificing the gag anime like humor, specially the stuff like mocking other animes bit was almost absent from this season. And at times I had to ask the same question as the narrator does, "Where are all the jokes?'' In the end it still had its funny and really enjoyable moments and turns out quite fun for its short duration, but it does lack in this regard compared to the last season, so gets 7 out of 10.

Characters

While Alba, Ruki, Rudlof, Hime and the masochistic cat are really as fun as ever, some other old characters like Ross really went in a sad direction as they almost lost their defining characteristics due to the plot line. Among the new characters Samejima was really awesome with his manly man attitude, but the rest of the new ones really lack the flavor or uniqueness of the old ones, so this was also a step back. It gets 6.5 out of 10 for the disappointments.

Art/Animation
The change in art to convey the humor was almost like the first season, although it really was noticeable less this season due to the focus shifting from the wacky humor a bit. Sadly the varying opening sequences which I liked quite a lot from the last season is missing and that fact was quite sad. It gets 6 out of 10.

Sound
The show received the most improvement in this regard which was quite odd actually. While the in-show was not anything special, the opening "Canary" by Granrodeo was very good and the ending punky and wacky "QUESTERS!" by Alba (Hiro Shimono) was really something that the show really needed as music from the start (just check-out the lyrics if you don't believe). This gets 8 out of 10.

This season was definitely a step back from the last one, and specially the cliffhanger ending really was quite annoying as there is no news of a 3rd season anywhere and even the mangas are not completely translated. But the whole season was a very short watch, still had some amazingly funny moments and was never quite boring despite its lacking.

Overall Score -
                         6.5 out of 10.

"Believe ~Eien no Link~ (Believe ～永遠のLink～)" by JAM Project
Read more at http://myanimelist.net/anime/15751/Senyuu./#DyIPv5e7CCR8hMqW.99

If you want more info and other reviews of this show check out it's MAL page -
http://myanimelist.net/anime/18523/Senyuu._2