DESCRIPTION

CAST

NOVEL ComedyOtonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsunomanika Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken
ANIME RomanceOtonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsunomanika Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken
MANGA ComedyOtonari no Tenshi-sama ni Itsunomanika Dame Ningen ni Sareteita Ken

REVIEWS

• 

  melamuna

  70/100
  I was a fan of season 1, but unfortunately, for this season…

  ---

  

  Before I share my thoughts about Season 2, I definitely have to put my opinions on Season 1 as a reference.

  Season 1 is a polarizing anime for a lot of people. On one hand, some viewers argue that the series feels “artificial,” with both Mahiru and Akane coming across not as fully realized characters, but more like self-insert figures designed to fulfill fantasies of a whimsical, lovey-dovey high school life—devoid of serious consequences, tension, or logical friction between or around the characters. This is a valid criticism of the anime. However, despite these points, it didn’t stop me from enjoying the series, and it has even become one I often rewatch, mainly because it’s the kind of show where you can easily lay back and just have a good time watching something comforting and low on tension.

  It’s a clean 12-episode run that wraps up its season in a satisfying way, which is why I was excited that a second season was on the way. Now that it’s here, however, that same appreciation I once had for the series has grown cold. The characters I once found endearing have started to feel like monotonous self-insert archetypes, a criticism I could partially ignore in Season 1 but can now fully see. As a result, this second season doesn’t feel like a strong continuation of the series, but instead like something that’s beginning to unravel into a disappointing anime of the season. ***

  One of the main reasons why Season 1 of these characters worked for me is because it plays on the innocence of love at a youthful age, and the experience of watching them awkwardly and carefully navigate that turbulent “will they, won’t they” tug-of-war of their own feelings, which is satisfyingly resolved in Episode 12.

  That formula worked for me in Season 1. But in Season 2, instead of finding opportunities for these characters to grow beyond who they are, it unfortunately stays stuck within the same archetypes established earlier. That approach doesn’t blend well with the characters’ current situation—namely, that they are now officially in a relationship and are meant to be navigating what comes after that.

  The series, however, largely reuses the formula from Season 1 without much evolution. In theory, this could still produce the same kind of lovestruck cuteness on screen, but in practice it ends up feeling worn out. While Season 2 does make attempts to introduce more drama—such as exploring Mahiru’s and Akane’s pasts, and giving side characters like Itsuki and Chitose more prominent roles compared to Season 1—it still isn’t enough.

  Ultimately, the entire second season feels like a reskinned, less interesting version of Season 1.

  Another factor as to why this series no longer works for me—and perhaps for many other people as well—is the large gap between Season 1 and Season 2, which definitely killed the momentum of the series, especially for those who watched the first season while it was airing.

  Times have changed, and since then, many romance anime have come out that handle whimsical, cute, and wholesome relationships far better. Meanwhile, Season 2 feels like it has stagnated in its style, romance, and overall progression despite the long wait between seasons. ***

  The short 12-episode run of Season 1 made The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten a genuinely good one-off romance anime season, and with many of its ideas and character dynamics already resolved or explored well in the first season, this continuation ends up feeling lackluster.

  Sure, you still get the same wholesome and cute moments that made the first season charming, but this time, they just don’t work for me anymore. ***

  Continue on AniList
• 

  viid

  62/100
  A disappointing sequel.

  A preface: Season 1 of TAND went down as the most enjoyable anime I've ever watched. So good that nothing else was remotely close. Seriously, I loved and loved and loved it.

  Naturally, I went ahead and read the Light Novel, and loved it even more. The plot clicked, side characters grew on me, and Mahiru + Amane moments had my kicking my feet giggling in joy.

  So, obviously, when word got out that TAND was greenlit for a Season 2, I was over the moon. Fans did well to build excitement, especially in the Discord Server.

  At last, the time came upon us.

  Episode 1 released, and I was mostly satisfied. Episode 2 dropped, and save for the atrocious remarks Amane makes, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

  Then Episode 3 released, and for the first time in 15 episodes, I had it at a below 7/10.

  Why? It finally dawned that they kept repeating the same dialogue.

  Mahiru would say for the millionth time: "Amane, you're so handsome. Girls will love and steal you from me!"

  And Amane would reply: "Mahiru, I'm not handsome. I'm a bum. And the more you get closer to me, the more my primal urges strengthen. I'll pounce on you."

  "Pounce on you." What the hell is this? You aren't a wolf, Fujimiya Amane, and your girlfriend isn't some bunny waiting to be ravished. I don't know what the author was on, and which teenage boys she met, to write him like this.

  As for Mahiru, I promise you one parting of his hair and a little extra weight won't attract every girl in the world. You're safe.

  With that, my dissatisfaction only grew. Any Mahiru + Amane scene became an instant unbearable watch, and since they're the main couple, about 90% of my watch time was me in annoyance.

  Strange, is it not? I practically frolicked through fields of daisies whilst watching Season 1, and now I sit here in disappointment writing this review.

  However, I am an honest man, and as such, I'll give this show its flowers. Daiki and Itsuki, Kido and her boyfriend, and every Chitose scene(s) were fun to watch as they helped either provide a thicker plot or relief from our primal beast wolf bear main character Amane.

  I also found the part where Amane confronted the bullies of his past as good. (10/10 representation of Altruism, Heroism, Prevalence, Confidence, Optimism, and Anti-Nihilism.)

  It sucks that they were too short to shift my liking.

  You might read this and wonder, "Buddy. If you loved the Light Novel so much that, why do you hate this? Isn't it just an adaptation?"

  To that I'll mention the animation.

  It's already impossible sitting through this rinse-and-repeat dialogue (Lord, it's sooo bad. We KNOW you think he's an 11/10 in terms of looks after you began dating. Relax please), and when you add still images, and I mean STILL images, it becomes even more impossible.

  The character designs are not bad on their own but completely crumble when compared to their LN counterparts (especially our heroine.)

  The kissing scenes were awkward and seemed like two PNGs were dragged across a screen and forcibly touched together. No movement whatsoever. And they thought giving us kisses every episode would make it appear better than it is.

  No, I don't want you kissing every time you see each other. I want them to feel special.

  Take a gander, if you're bored, at the Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. It does couple's arcs much, much better than TAND and completely dismantles the argument of, "Mahiru and Amane are inexperienced: of course they'd act this way!"

  The kisses felt earned and not thrown at you like candy to quiet an annoyed child. Even after getting together, they spend a while before getting ready to engage in this intimate act, which makes the buildup so good (especially on Kaoruko's end of the relationship)

  Yes, I'm aware Season 1 of TAND was spent with them hiding their feelings, and now they it's they're going to erupt with this intense, sexual desire (even though they're 16 lol) But that doesn't mean a random kiss in Episode 3 with no prior buildup except a "Mahiru, I want to touch you," will satiate my hunger.

  To add on, Mahiru's character took a big hit this season. She was the reason (other than Chitose and Itsuki) why I enjoyed Season 1 so much. She wasn't submissive, she spoke her mind, she was talented and self-sufficient, she had trauma that made her stronger, and she YEARNED for our boy. Plus to 16 year old me she was the most beautiful thing ever.

  Now, she's been reduced to a damsel who blushes every three seconds and ruins the mood. She'll ask for a kiss here and there, yes, but to me, it feels like she doesn't even want them. No passion in her movements (maybe this is a fault of the animation)

  Where is my bold queen?

  As for our hero, good God, he's such a bum. How are you as a high schooler having thoughts of ------ every WAKING second? That you can't even stand normally next to your girlfriend without having to stop yourself from doing something. Wasn't he the same person that had no dirty magazines in his bedroom? So where is all this horniness coming from???

  Maybe, just maybe, I rode such a high while reading the Light Novel that it was better than it actually was. Maybe this season showed me the series' true potential.

  Sucks.

  My rating of this season is a 6.2/10

  My rating for Season 1 remains unchanged at a 9.1/10 (revolutionary and life-changing. The anime that solidified my enjoyment for the genre of romance.)

  Continue on AniList
• 

  anemoiaanime

  37/100
  The disappearance of the angel, the disappearance of Mahiru

  Something that in any other romance anime might be its main strength or competitive edge when compared to others —such as the fact that Amane and Mahiru are already an established couple by the start of this second season— became instead a burden for Otonari no Tenshi-sama, a burden the show was unable to shake off.

  

  In this review, I’ll summarize the reasons why I believe this second season undermines the foundation laid on int first season and how it seems to fail to understand its own strengths

  To begin with, we need to identify the strengths of "Otonari no tenshi-sama" first season and where this second season picks up from, so lets start by pointing out how on its first season Amane and Mahiru’s relationship stands out mostly due to how different their relationship is from the average romance anime relationship even though it is based too on the now-overused premise of “popular girl + introverted/antisocial guy”. For starters, the show doesn’t treat this “class/caste divide” between the characters as the main conflict but rather as a consequence of something bigger: the reasons that lead each of them to fit into that archetype, and how those very reasons are ultimately what bring the characters close together.

  Mahiru, the angel, always perfect, puts on this persona as a façade to get her parents acceptance. Parents who see her as nothing more than a burden and a mistake they hope to get rid of as soon as possible (at least, according to Mahiru’s perception so far). On the other side Amane is introverted and somewhat withdrawn from others due to his past experiences with bullying and abuse at his previous school, which is why he chooses to fly under the radar in class —more as a defense mechanism than because of a genuine inability to connect with others. Mahiru, acting as the angel, tries to get the love she wants to thing she deserve from her parents; Amane, putting distance between him and the rest runs away from the love he believes he doesn’t deserve.

  Thanks to this characterization seeing how Mahiru and Amane complement each other as they get to know and trust one another feels natural —and even like the expected outcome once they manage to break through the initial barrier of getting to interact with each other. They are meant for each other, they form a beautiful relationship in which they are there for one another. Thanks to this relationship, by the end of the first season, neither the introverted Amane nor the angelic Mahiru exists anymore. Neither of them needs to keep up appearances because they have each other now and can face the world acting as who they really are as long as they have each other.

  Unfortunately, with its second season this development fades away

  On this season, Mahiru’s character is completely reduced to almost being an object. She is no longer Mahiru Shiina, the angel, instead she’s now Fujimiya Amane’s girlfriend. Her entire character development throughout this second season revolves around how much she loves Amane, how much she wants to please him and how perfect she is as a housewife: she cleans, tidies up, cooks, waits for him to come home after his work, helps him get ready in the mornings before they leave for school and never stops fawning over him or reiterating just how perfect her boyfriend is. With the apparent resolution of her internal conflict over having to “be the angel,” Mahiru finds herself stripped of a sense of purpose, and faced with this emotional void, her character becomes merely instrumental to Amane’s development. In this season, Mahiru is constantly stripped of her agency as a mean to highlight Amane’s “resolution as a man”.

  

  On the contrary, Amane —who throughout the entire first season comes across as an insecure boy, somewhat aloof from others and reserved— is suddenly the new popular guy in class. The girls in the class find him handsome —though they don’t make a move on him since as the show tells us to oblivion, he’s already taken— while the boys envy his looks and his popularity with the girls. His friends and parents agree with him on everything, no one questions him, and, above all, he is reduced to being the perfect man he never was nor pretended to be.

  All of this unfolds over the course of 12 episodes, in which the season’s main theme can be divided into two main topics: first, Amane and Mahiru living their honeymoon as newlyweds (their not married yet, but they do act as a married couple since S1) and a second one: sexual desire.

  

  This theme if treated well would of have make this season a really interesting one as it is something regular teen romance anime always choose to avoid or if addressed it is so as a comic relief. Cases like “Horimiya” where although off screened for obvious reasons there exist heavily implied intimacy between the main couple or “Kaguya-sama love is war” where it is directly confirmed are rare to come across and although “Otonari no Tenshi-sama” was probably never intended to be a mature enough show for it to discuss intimacy between Mahiru and Amane it was for sure a nice surprise to see it implied. Until it did in an incredibly awkward and borderline dangerous way.

  Not only does Amane repeat to oblivion he’s “holding himself” when referring to his desire towards Mahiru, both of them talks about that desire —or “male urges” as they call them— as some kind of uncontrollable will they have to be wary about. If Amane were to make a move on Mahiru because of those “male urges” then there’s nothing to do with it, it’d beyond Amane’s control, according to their logic. They talk about it almost as they’re risking him sexually assaulting her with a shocking naturality.

  This is particularly interesting as this self restraint Amane imposes on himself to not move forward on their relationship feels more like him being afraid of doing something “out of his control” or “harm her”, again, giving this idea that having sex and remain in control of one’s own actions are uncompatible ideas.

  It is heavily implied too that when he says to her that he’ll be ok with moving forward once he “can take responsibility” he’s assuming said consequences can almost only meant for her to get pregnant and his only logical solution to said problem seems to be getting married once they graduate from high school. That’s it, that’s his solution, and every character he talks about said solution with seems to think of it too as the obvious logical solution. No one questions him —not even his own father who even goes to the length of saying he’s willing to pay for the wedding— no one asks what does he think about intimacy, no one suggest the existence of birth control methods and most importantly, no one takes Mahiru’s opinion into consideration.

  

  Mahiru’s role throughout the whole season is to please Amane. She’s more of a tradwife than ever and although she’s been the one in charge of moving forward their relationship since S1, all of her advances can only go as far as Amane allows them to. She clearly shows interest in kissing, cuddling and having sex as most teenagers their age would do giving their circumstances (living alone, next to each other without adult supervision) but her opinion seems to lack any relevance from the moment Amane uses his “male urges” and “taking responsability” as an excuse to impose his point of view as the mature and correct one. He’s the logical one in the relationship while Mahiru’s the emotional, thus, such an important decision can’t be trusted to Mahiru’s desire. Mahiru’s agency ends where and when Amane decides to.

  All of this problems gets exacerbated as most of this season’s screentime is taken by both of them, with all the secondary cast being tossed aside or brought up only to reaffirm Amane’s opinions. All in all, by trying to dig deeper onto Amane and Mahiru’s relationship this second season gives away everything that made its first one different and tossed away most of Mahiru’s character development, turning this season into an incredibly tedious show.

  Believe it or not, I’m still hooked up enough to see where can this story go from here and I’ll give it another chance to redeem itself if there’s a third season but this time ready to drop it.

  Continue on AniList

SIMILAR ANIMES YOU MAY LIKE

• ANIME

  ComedyFuufu Ijou, Koibito Miman.
• ANIME

  ComedyHorimiya
• ANIME

  ComedyTonikaku Kawaii
• ANIME

  ComedyBoku no Kokoro no Yabai Yatsu 2nd Season
• ANIME

  ComedyKaoru Hana wa Rin to Saku
• ANIME

  ComedySeihantai na Kimi to Boku
• ANIME

  DramaGolden Time
• ANIME

  ActionRakudai Kishi no Cavalry
• ANIME

  ComedyKawaii dake ja Nai Shikimori-san
• ANIME

  ComedyClass de 2-banme ni Kawaii Onnanoko to Tomodachi ni Natta
• ANIME

  ComedyKubo-san wa Mob wo Yurusanai
• ANIME

  ComedyKono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga Aru!