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Note that I didn't read the light novels the 2 of the sub-stories were adaptations on of. This review is also going to contain a lot spoilers, there is no getting around it for this one, honestly not too worried about it since I don't think this is worth watching if you are a YuYuYu fan or a casual watcher.

This is just awful. The story of Dai Mankai no Shou is a mixture of a prequel, midquel, and an epilogue. It starts with a midquel showing the original cast doing slice of life things, then a midquel of a new cast know as the Sentinels ... doing scouting missions in the void area, then a prequel of a different cast fighting the Vertex a few hundred years ago, then back to the Sentinels to show what they were doing at the end of Yuusha no Shou, then a retelling/retcon of the ending of Yuusha no Shou, then finally an epilogue. Does this sound like this has terrible pacing, because it does. Dai Mankai no Shou has the worst plot pacing I've ever seen in a 12 episode show, no event being given enough time to sit with.

The midquel with the original cast is a fine episode, actually probably the least damaging episode of the show, the original cast are sadly basically just memes of themselves and don't really have much in the way of character writing.

The first few episodes with the Sentinels are mixed bag, but are the most interesting episodes of the show and my favorite bunch. It shows Mebuki, the leader of the Sentinels trying to lead the other Sentinels into scouting missions, with the majority of the members not physically or mentally prepared to handle being attacked by Stardust. It then ends with a cliffhanger of everyone's memory being erased after the events of the beginning of Yuusha no Shou. Then they reintroduced towards the end with them having to protect priests while they pray a weapon into activating. During which those inside the sphere praying will disappear if they loose faith while doing it, except then it also just yeets some of the Sentinels outside of the prayer sphere. That annoyed the hell out of me, because now it harms the pay off of the first few episodes where the leader Mebuki more or less achieved her sole goal to get every single member out alive. It also then causes harm since there is no grief for the teenagers just get unceremoniously killed off. What the weapon is even suppose to do is confusing as well, when it gets activated it just shoots a beam that coincidentally matches with the attack of Karin, Sonoko, and Itsuki then breaks a glass ceiling or something. Also really lucky that it matched up with the hero's attack. So the Sentinel related episodes started off intuiting but got ruined towards the end. The characters in the Sentinel episodes aren't great, Mebuki is the best written one with clear goals and conflicts, though it is damaged towards the end with her not really being impacted with the death of some of the other Sentinels. The rest are just a single character trope with no depth.

The few hundred years in the past prequel on the other hand it terrible from start to finish. It starts of with 2 characters dead... alright, guess well never know them, except when they lazily just throw in flashbacks to try and add character to them. The plot revolves around 3 of the past heroes back when heroes were known to the public and how the public reacts to it and how the heroes deal with the publicity. Problem is that the general public is comically dismissive, the news of 2 of the heroes, who are teenagers mind you, dying is basically met with a "lmao" from what we are shown. Chikage is the specific target of bullying by her classmates and has abusive parents on top of it in case you needed more angst, but none of the other heroes suffer this problem. On top of this she is also emotionally dependent on Takashima, and just seeing her interacting with Nogi puts her in such a bad mental state that ends up trying to murder Nogi, only to then have her powers taken away from her by the Divine Tree. Then learning to error of her ways, she sacrifices herself to save Nogi from some Stardust. It is very poorly done, Chikage is written like she is a psychopath who looses her mind very easily, which questions why the Taisha or the Divine Tree chose to make a hero out of someone who is so clearly mentally unstable. Nogi's character is flat, her one goal is stated to be revenge against the Vertex but it isn't really translated well into the script. Takashima is literally just Yuki. That is it, she just a clone of Yuki. The ending of the prequel also just rips the payoff of Yuki willing herself into hero form from the first season but with no emotional weight to it. Just, "Hey remember that one scene from the season you like?"

Then we have the retelling of the ending of Yuusha no Shou, which was about as worthless as a recap episode. There wasn't much new added to it, but what was added either was just indifferent or damaged the already badly written ending of Yuusha no Shou. Not a lot to say here.

Then we have the epilogue. It is also bad, it is basically trying to add to the world building showing the general public not trusting the Taisha anymore. Sonoko makes a really good suggestion of starting a coup to overthrow the Taisha. That makes sense, not only is the general public not happy with the Taisha lying to them all the time, but also at least 4 of the 6 heroes should be furious with them at this point, I mean everything they have done has cause immense suffering. Nah, the other 5 talk her out of it pretty easily. This is honestly character damaging for the original cast, especially for Fuu. Then we have a 4 year time skip, Karin, Yuki, and Togo are doing expeditions into the new territory that was revealed with the destruction of the void area, Fuu is a scientist now I guess, weird considering she wasn't characterized as being particularly interested in science or particularly intelligent, Itsuki is a singer, and Sonoko is the new leader of the Taisha I guess.

Art is fine, not much to say on that. The OST and voice acting are is still great, shame the voice actors got wasted on such a terrible script.

This might be the single most disappointing thing I've ever watched. Pacing is awful, characters are either flat or written downright terribly, and the story is functionally broken at times. Emotional moment have no weight to them since the characters aren't well written nor have I been given enough time with them to Stockholm Syndrome my way into caring about them. It feels like someone cynically went, "Crying scenes and characters yelling is what made YuYuYu popular so we'll do more of those, also throw in some gore in the middle because people like that in magical girl shows now." The first season got me to tear up multiple times during it, Washio Sumi no Shou got me to tear up a few times, even Yuusha no Shou got me feeling things occasionally, Dai Mankai no Shou I felt nothing but apathy towards and only really finished out of obligation. Just, absolutely disappointing.

This is written after having just binged this in a day, so I might be in a bit of a honeymoon phase. I was initially worried that this sequel season wouldn't live up to the fairly good first season, but those worries are put to rest. In fact right now I think I might be even better than the first season.

Story | The story is gets from point A to point B with little issues, though I did find myself asking questions in the first episode like "Why is Kobayashi just walking into what I assume is an employee only area?" This is a slice ... of life story at heart so it isn't exactly what I would call great, but it doesn't need fantastic plots to be engaging, just good character interactions. The story takes more of a specific character focus approach than the first season, which helped flesh out the characters more, especially in regards to Elma. There is a bit more of a focus on the fantasy elements as well than before. I will say that the first few episodes, dedicated to introducing Ilulu, were weaker than the rest. The comedy is got a laugh out of me fairly consistently.

Art | Art continues to be very pleasing. The animation is well done, with fights having lots of energy in them in particular. Not really much to say here.

Sound | The OST is pretty much similar to before with lots of light hearted easy-listening classical. The voice actors also do a good job with their scenes. Sound design on the other hand has the same problem that most anime have, with sound effects being very generic sounding.

Characters | The bread and butter of Dragon Maid, and of slice of life in general. The characters are solidly written, and interactions with them are very well done. As I hinted at up in story, Elma got more devolvement with her character and with her interactions with Tooru. The rest of the cast continues to be very likeable, though I did with there was more development for characters like Fafnir. The new additions to the cast are good as well. Ilulu was initially off-putting, but grew on me as she got more scenes to show her softer and more playful side.

This was overall an very enjoyable experience, I would love to see more done with Dragon Maid in the future. This is must watch if you have seen the first season, and Dragon Maid overall is a must watch for fans of slice of life.

Another season another 5/10 fantasy isekai. 'Slime Taoshite 300-nen' is quite frankly, mediocre at everything it does.

The story is just fine with no glaring problems, it is basically CGDCT slice of life but in a fantasy isekai format. That is fine, these sorts of things aren't really designed to have fantastic stories. It gets from point A to point B generally competently with minor exceptions. Comedy got a laugh out of me only on a couple occasions, the rest were just smirks or left me completely deadpan.

The art you have seen before if you have seen a medieval fantasy anime. Bright colors, and average animation. ... Though oddly enough episode 6 seems to have downright great animation, but it is the only point in the show where it does. The character designs are fine, though Azusa and Halkara are honestly way too similar looking.

Sound is fine, it is used in appropriate places. The SFX are pretty stock sounding, like they came from a sound pack. The OST does it's job but is ultimately forgettable. Voice acting is fine, I felt initially that Rosalie's voice doesn't fit her at all though that wore off over time.

Characters are pretty much the same, all are variations of the 'good girl' trope. None of them have really any personality beyond just surface level elements.

The overall enjoyment was hit and miss. If you are just starved for anything to do with CGDCT, fantasy, or isekai, then this will probably fine. If you are just looking for something to veg out to, then this will be fine. If you are expecting anything of quality then it is a pretty hard pass.