Score: A

My goodness it is so good to have this show back! Marin and Gojou are as great as ever! I was excited of course to have this show coming back. But it’s just another thing to actually see the first episode and remember how much I enjoyed the original season when it was airing. This episode captured all of that magic without feeling like there was any break at all between seasons. These two had the same chemistry as ever and I’m certain to be enjoying the development of their relationship as the story moves along.

Never change Marin!

I do think one great element in this show is how expressive Marin is. This girl is utterly in love and she shows it! It nails the cute reactions and expressions that highlight her feelings. It doesn’t need to have moments like her acting giddy on the train heading to Gojou’s place. Not over the top in a way that’d be silly, but just enough in a way that gets across her absolute levels of excitement! Naturally things weren’t as date-like as she was hoping, but that’s just how Gojou is! Marin’s incredible ability to recover and take action was clear in this episode too. She got over any disappointment that it wasn’t a date and kind of made it one by getting Gojou to go shopping with her! It was shopping for cosplay sure, but that’s the kind of thing that suits them right now.

There’s no escaping that the fanservice is such a big part of this show. And I mean that in the best of ways. It doesn’t shy away from enjoying the moment and just taking full advantage of Marin being an absolutely gorgeous character. And we got a visual feast. Marin isn’t wrong. Bunny girls are a treat! It utterly helps that so much of it just feeds right into the charged relationship between Marin and Gojou. He struggles to handle how much of her he can see and how utterly gorgeous she is. While even Marin now that she’s fallen for Gojou can’t help but react to being seen in certain ways. When she’s all into cosplay mode she’s fine, but moments like her being partly dressed hits differently. If it was just Marin looking great it’d be lacking. But it’s the moments themselves that make the fanservice shine.

This girl really screwed him up!

It was a good time to tackle some of Gojou’s trauma and the way he’s been viewing things. That experience in his childhood was utterly traumatic. But it was so traumatic that he’s effectively presumed everyone will react in the same way. And some people do suck. The painful reality is that some would mock him. But he’s constantly run into people that simply didn’t do that. He braced himself for being mocked and kind of froze up. But the situation resolving itself just got across that he hasn’t been facing people head on. Gojou has simply presumed the worst and stopped himself there. I don’t know much about this Non girl and I’m sure she’ll re-enter the story at some point. But for right now he’s got a chance to make some friends and show off who he actually is. It’s a scary thing, but it’s a great opportunity.

This girl is serious about karaoke!

I’m glad someone jumped up and threw out the question about Gojou and Marin dating! It was basically a grenade to be sure, but a good one. All the better because it cut off Gojou’s epiphany moment! No idea what kind of reaction Marin has (I presume blushing is involved), but I’m sure we’ll see at the start of the next episode! Props to Nowa for at least noticing enough signs. But maybe less props for actually throwing out the question in a public setting like that! This is definitely not a situation that Gojou is built to handle! Marin may have to do the heavy lifting here. But maybe Marin will struggle with that since she does want to be dating him!

Welcome back!

This was a fantastic return! The potential for this season is through the roof. Nothing about this show will exactly catch people offguard with how great the first season was. But it should be a great ride that maintains that level of quality. CloverWorks looks to be on their A game once again here. The only thing I lament is the lack of Juju. But I knew coming into this season that she probably wouldn’t have much of a role in this part of the story. I’m sure whichever characters get the attention this season will warrant it and shine as a result.

This show has so many things that make it an absolute win. You have a great looking show, enjoyable characters, a beautiful budding romance, and it really explores the world of cosplay in a way that makes it engaging. I’m still not particularly into the cosplay scene, but I can appreciate it thanks to how much love this show has for it. There’s a good chance I’ll stick with this show for the season even if I’m hardly the only one that will. It’s such an easy show to talk about. But whatever happens, I’ll be following along.