Nana MarfoA student with a passion for game development and all things Japan. Archives
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New Game! Season 2: Review27/7/2020
Took me long enough to get to this review! Always, it's over! Unless you keep reading the Manga, which I'm going to because I love this show. Hell, I already bought and read the first volume of it. It’s good, and shows how sometimes things can change given the transition from the Manga to the Anime. But Manga or otherwise, was the Second season of seeing girls making cute games fun?
Rules: 1. Spoilers are abounding here folks. If you want to watch it blindly... go watch it. Spoilers are here. 2. Depending on the Anime, this can get NSFW. 3. I am watching the subbed version. Let’s make a game about bears! This is my review of New Game Season 2.
So yea, this time we are make a game about bears called PEKO, though this time there is a bit more of a story, though it mainly happens in parts. Episode 2 has a contest to design the main character of the game, and during the middle of this episode, Aoba gets her design approved,and she asks Ko for help, Ko gets frustrated at her, due to Aoba doing better than her, and for the first time in a while, being knocked down, after talking with Rin, her and Aoba team up to design a character, and Aoba ends up getting the lead character role with Ko as her supervisor. From there show begins to get more character focused again,as another contest comes up to design the key visuals with Ko winning over Aoba, but later down the line, we get some new hires, one of which is very familiar to us.
Nene in this season is working her programming and even shows off her games to Ahagon(pls don’t shoot me), Aoba, and their other childhood Hotarun, who I will talk about when I analyse Aoba’s character for this season. Thanks to this she’s able to get hired on a temporary contract. We also meet Momiji Mochizuki and Narumi Tsubame. Momiji(who I will just call Momo from now on) realises that Ko didn’t do the charter designs, and upon entry, targets Aoba as her rival and also gets her name wrong.
These 2 are interesting duo, with a lot of scenes with just those 2 show Narumi being the adult, and Momo being the creative child. It’s a nice bond they share.
The last episode brings in a storyline that I think will just remain in the Manga. I’ll speak about this more in a different blog post, but Ko decides to go to France to work on a game, in order for her to gain more experience and get better. Aoba and Company make their feelings known, and episode ends with Aoba looking forward to the future. This story isn’t a lot, but it’s a pretty decent spine for what is a LOT of character development, and the effect of a publisher’s demands really helps, as Christina has to get use to working with the people from the company. Hell, she even stops Ko from retiring completely, as she wants her to work for Eagle Jump when she becomes better.
Let’s start with the smaller developments. Hajime is has been adapting from being an animator to being a designer, and she ends up leaning on Aoba and Yun for a bit of help. She’s also shown to be working very hard, and also still an Otaku, which becomes a plot point towards the end, as she talks about having to fit in during high school, while Yun on the other hand didn’t try to fit in at all, and they realise they are more similar than they thought! It’s a really nice change of pace, as these tend to dislike each other with their banter in season 1.
Hifiumi’s arc is more focused on becoming a leader for her the character team, as learns to conquer her social anxiety. However, I feel like her arc is a lot smaller than last time, as she doesn’t feel like she has the impact that she had in season 1. She is still learning along the way, and while it’s cool to see, I guess I just expected a bit more because of how good her arc was in season 1. She does have a lot of good moments though, which once again, is all Hazuki gets. I mean, yea, she does have a storyline with Ahagon about trying to not change specs so much, but getting your forehead flicked doesn’t really count as character development!
Speaking of, it feels like Ahagon has mellowed out a bit thanks to working with Nene. While she does have her insane moment, it honest to god feels like Nene has made her a bit calmer and it comes across well, with being outright told about it, it’s really good. Speaking of, Nene feels like she is evolving at an astonishing rate, learning to fit in the workplace, and even help Narumi when she messes up big time, even though she can be kind of a dick to her, which is is very mature of her. Finally, lets go into Aoba’s story arc. Yea I’m missing Ko and Rin, but I want to save that for the Episode 12 blog post. Aoba’s arc pretty much is her evolving into the next Yagami Ko, a character designer who can carry the company for the next few years. Ko was instructed to do the key visuals, so that she can be credited as the character designer, but Aoba, more experience than she was just over a year ago, isn’t going down without a fight, and asks for another contest. Sadly she loses, but it shows the strength need to be a future character designer, not giving up, and having the guts to stand up to corporate PR bullsh*t.
The 2 ending themes are great! Jumpin Jump Up is awesome and the visuals are CHIBI, which makes the girls even cuter! Yumerio Compass feels a lot more grounded in it’s tone and visuals, which works for the 2nd half of the series.
Overall, the 2nd season is something every fan of New Game should watch! This series is very near to my hear, and it sucks that people either don’t talk about it, or dismiss it as “Cute Moe bulls**t”. I want to see more people talk about New Game, because it is a masterpiece in my humble opinion.
This was SOO much fun to write! I love New Game so much, it makes me happy to like Japanese Media.
Before I go, I want to once again promote the anime dormitory. I’ve always been a fan of these dudes for providing better conditions for animator in a country that makes it hard to move up the ladder. They do great work, and is a good way to support anime without worrying where your money is really going. However with the state of the world, I’m worried they won’t reach their goal this year. So please, if you can, donate to an amazing cause here. I have done so twice and will do so a 3rd time if needed! But yea, for now, thank you guys so much, and I will see you guys next time!
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