Reviews for Sangatsu no Lion (2017) (5.16) 615k44

I was excited to watch this season because I kind of liked the first one and it may end up being one of my top ten anime. I started watching bits and pieces of this one and boy, was I disappointed. I watched up to episode 5 and then kind of just wanted to give up, especially after hearing about how dramatic this season gets. Okay, here comes my problems with this season.

They shifted the focus of Rei's point of view to Hina's. A lot of the season starts focusing on Hina and her reactions to the conflicts she encounters rather than Rei's. She encounters bullying during her third year of middle school and being the sweetheart she is, protects a girl named Chiho from it, who is like an acquaintance to her. But then the bullies start bullying her. Between her classmates bullying her and her friend moving away, Hina becomes depressed and solemn. This was inconsistent to the cheerful, easy-going, bubbly girl she was in the first season. It's like the writer ran out of ideas and started to make Hina's character similar to Rei's. She starts crying excessively, she has no friends, she is going through the trauma of bullying which is what Rei's character has been through. In episode 4, she cries even during moments that weren't even requiring that sort of drama such as the ladybug scene.

They changed the tone of the Kawamoto family. In the 1st season, the Kawamoto family was supposed to represent the light-hearted, comedic part of the series and contrast with the dark, gloomy moments of Rei. Now it seems like the Kawamoto family has become more melodramatic and dark like that of Rei's. I haven't seen enough to know if Rei's life starts becoming more comedic and light-hearted, what I do know is that he is recovering from his depression.

The bullying was really hard and sad to watch and I just wanted everything to be okay for Hina. I was wondering why nobody decided to home-school her or take her out of school, that may not fix the pain she felt after seeing Chiho off but it could fix the whole situation and the arc wouldn't have gone on as long as it did.