For once, I’m in agreement with the zeitgeist about an anime. The second season of Shoushimin Series was way better than the first, and it seems that’s the consensus. It’s 8.03 vs. 7.33 on MAL and 3.9 vs. 3.5 on Anime Planet. That’s a pretty massive difference but in my view it’s entirely justified. It starts on the right foot with the OP, which is an absolute banger both visually and musically (right there with Kuroshitsuji and Uchuujin MuuMuu for best of the season). But of course it’s the content that makes the difference, and it’s leaps and bounds more engaging this time.

One could go deep into the weeds about why that is. And to an extent I suppose that’s my default mode on LiA anyway. But sometimes better is just better. There were basically only two mysteries this time, and they were both way more interesting than any in the first season. The seemingly endless navel-gazing cafe scenes were almost entirely missing. Kobato and Osanai were absent enough in the first half of the season to make me miss them. And when they returned to the spotlight, the series embraced their dysfunctional natures in a really compelling way.

There are still practical matters with Shoushimin Series  that kind of drive me nuts. Like the total lack of coincidence, though that’s a feature of so many series it’s unfair to single one out. And some basic logic stuff, like – why did Jougorou not just push the damn down button on the elevator? You’ve got a crazy nurse with a hammer chasing you and your first thought is “let’s go up to the roof”? It feels like it happened because it needed to happen for the story’s conclusion, not for any logical reason. But there’s a contrived quality to Yonezawa Honobu’s writing even when it’s really good, so I suppose this is all part of a stylistic thing with him.

As for what happened with the hit-and-run, in some respects it’s sort of a mundane conclusion. Shoutarou didn’t fake the first accident. He covered up his sister’s presence because he didn’t want anyone to know that he and Eiko were together. Why? Their parents were in the middle of a nasty divorce, the kids were being split up (Shoutarou would change his surname to Miura), and they were forbidden to see each other (which is why he hid the charm she gave him). Having unwittingly blown their cover Jougorou stopped them from seeing each other. And that meant Eiko wasn’t with him when things went south and in his life and Shoutarou tried to commit suicide (fortunately not successfully).

In a sense, I can sort of get why Eiko would feel homicidal towards Kobato-kun for that (as I suspected, Yuki’s presence at both accidents was – ROFL – coincidental). There is a sort of “no court in the land would convict you” quality to this pair – they’re annoying and smug AF. But where this season got it right was in showing us both the depths of their depravity and their self-awareness about it. I suspect Jougorou’s desire to “become ordinary” stemmed in part from his fear that he’d caused something terrible to happen to Shoutarou. Which is, in fact, pretty much true even if Shoutarou is decent enough not to really blame him for it. Kobato was, in his arrogant way, trying to do the right thing. But he was also doing it for the fun of it.

That’s the thing – we’re getting some nuance here. Osanai-san called Shoutarou (with Kengo’s help) because she wanted to resolve things and save Jougorou. But she also relished the idea that in exposing Eiko’s crimes to him, she could exact her revenge on Eiko for the second accident. Both things can be true. And the pair of them can laugh (till it hurts, in Jougorou’s case) about the whole affair while she can also show genuine emotion over Jougorou being safe and finding some peace with his role in Shoutarou’s troubles. They’re messed up people, but they are people. And as twisted as Yuki’s view of Jougorou as her “next-best option” is, they are sort of made for each other.

So what’s next for these annoying but interesting brats? Well, he’s set back for a year, presumably, having missed entrance exams and looking at a long recovery. She’s off to university in Kyoto, there to find new people to piss off and new cafes to squee over (believe me, we have plenty of both). But she extends an open invitation for him to follow her and find her, and one supposes he will. For all their give and take, Jougorou is basically at Yuki’s beck and call and has been from the start. She’s the one who pulls the strings, make no mistake, and he wouldn’t want it any other way. Is that love? Wiser minds than mine will have to make the call on that one.

There’s no question about it, Yonzeawa Honobu is an interesting writer. He’s not a mass-produced model, and he has a strange and often fascinating way of looking at the world. Sometimes it infuriates, sometimes it bores (this was all true even with Hyouka), but in the end it paints a picture that you want to look at. I was totally ambivalent about this season when it was announced, and I was certainly unsure about covering it. But if you told me now there would be a third (I have no idea if there’s enough novel material), I’d be quite pleased to hear it. So as for Shoushimin Series 2nd Season, I’d say it’s very much mission accomplished.