Contains a few spoilers

If I’ll give a word that will describe this season, it would be “better”.

Despite really hating the first season of this show and being considered to be one of the shows that belong in the garbage, I found this show improving or made sense. Now that I’ve realized it, this is one of the shows that you should never take seriously. Watching a show that isn’t overhyping by many people can be something else. I thought this season will be something else but all hopes seemed lost. KOMI-SAN IS REALLY A GAG SHOW. Forget the idea of having 2 characters, fall in love, and expect something beautiful. Not your usual romantic comedy that will give something more than the sum of its parts. Even the proper portrayal of social anxiety in the first place. All of that is a massive joke.

So let’s talk about the second season…

The entrance of the second curtain was the usual mission of completing Komi’s list of 100 friends. One of the new concepts about this season was two characters joined the show. Then a new transferee student, Katai joined the class. He’s having a misconception because he looks like a delinquent. He’s a kind-hearted man and I think he suffers from the same shit Komi’s having. But they started to be friends with her and called himself a disciple of Komi’s. Komi is Katai’s “master” and he likes to talk with Tadano, asking some advice from her and it’s full of ridonkeylous tropes in the end. It seems like a BL, which pretty much looks like it.

The second one is a guy named, Naruse Shisuto. A narcissistic dude who believes that all people are his fans and that they are too afraid to talk to him due to his breathtaking handsomeness when in reality people avoid him due to his overly flashy behavior. In short, he’s too confident with himself. And there’s this companion of his that makes him the narrator of his side.

To be honest, when I watched the trailer, I thought the introduction of these two new characters would be made an impact and be interesting to the story. My perspective and expectation for Katai in the segment were met because I liked him to be goofier than the main characters. Like Nendo from Saiki K. He looks like a delinquent but he’s one of the characters in the comedy routine of the show. But for Naruse Shisuto, I thought he would be a deuteragonist in the series. Like we don’t know if he’s a rival to Tadano and steals Komi’s attention. But in the end, he’s just one of those random characters in the show. By seeing that, I realized that there’s no way this show will take seriously.

That’s the summary of the whole show to be exactly. It’s an episodic gag comedy with some progression from the characters. Like the relationship between Tadano and Komi became to bud into something more. Komi’s past in the field trip was shown and her development of finding new friends, without relying on Tadano. She made girlfriends at that time but still need some progress. The other characters are still the same and forgettable at the same time. Well, if I compare the previous characters into this season, they became worst than I thought. Especially Yamai and his poisoned obsessed henchmen. She became perverted bitch that even she crossed the line when she stole Komi's leggings, wore it and run into the hallway. Pretty disgusting, right? If I'm in Komi's shoes, I would stay away from her forever. Nevertheless, she still her friend like what the fuck.

If I pick a proper character that might be memorable to me, it would be either Tadano or Najimi.

“The comedy is still great, right?”

The comedy Is still stiff. There were parts from the second season that were just trying hard to make everybody laugh their asses out. Some new segments like the boys meeting and finding friends were instantly amusing yet hilarious. The love game from episode 2 was surprising as well. The part where Najimi became an interrupting tool to interrupt the closure of the characters was new. He acts like it was nothing at all, as long as he gets into the fun. Most romantic comedy shows, when the two characters become close and suddenly, the phone rings or anything else. But the rest of the comedy was either cringe or just missed. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the ridonkeylous comedy.

The sound is just the same. To be honest, I liked the OP and ED more than from the previous season. The OP gave some romance vibes that led to nothing, but I liked the way they use it when Komi and the others make friends with other people. Like in Katai and Naruse’s case. Yep! It was amusing when they play the OP when Katai speaks to Tadano and Komi like it was meme-fied. I remember in Angel Beats when they used the ED when they amusingly flew the building. The ED is more decent than I thought. I can say that the ED might be the ED of the season.

Overall, I still enjoyed the series. I couldn’t grasp the idea that this is just a gag show because it’s better when this show turns into a serious matter. Most of the parts from the show were easily missed and some parts were hard hit. The 2nd season is pretty decent, but at the same time, it could be better.

I can't really wait to watch a show about depression and treating it as a joke.

Story: 5/10
Animation: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Sound: 7/10
Entertainment factor (Comedy: 3/5, Romance: 2/5): 5/10
Enjoyment: 6/10
Score: 5/10

Notes:

• Spoilers alert.
• It’s IMPOSSIBLE not to address the previous season (and my respective review), as this particular show is its direct successor.
• Seriously, the Christmas episode was scheduled broadcasting in the middle of Spring 2022, instead of on 23rd December 2021, the last day on air of the prequel. ===k.
• It took me so long to realise that ‘Komi’ in fact abbreviates and epitomises the term ‘komisch’, so I will make use of it when referring to the series.
• The cat girl wasn’t at her peak, yet my protecc instinct remains the same.

---

‘For the better half of my life…’ Hold on, there is something wrong, as the relevant time period was much shorter, and quite recent. For the better half of the year 2021, I had been looking for something with a concise plot packed within one episode, but still in need of an anime season (or more) to execute, as HorribleMiya, Bottom-tier Character Tomozaki, and partly Non Non Biyori Nonstop let me quite down. Then I stumbled upon OLM, the studio behind Berserk and the legendary franchise Pókemon, and Odd Taxi of Spring 2021 has become one of my favourite. With such impulse coming into Fall, the anime producer continued to offer another modern classic, namely ‘Komi-san wa, Komyushou desu’, or Komischan in abbreviation. Sincerely, OLM.

I believe school is more an imitation of society, as people could obtain academic knowledge through self-studying or tutoring, so there is no other reason to force children going to that place. That is to say, we were, are, and will be there to form connections, relationships, bonds, which I find quite important for any individual. The easiest way to do so is via verbal communication, or talking and chatting with others, which is the most common method to know and learn about your partner(s). However, there exists such complex called ‘Komyushou’, a communication disorder that makes people very anxious, to the point of being unable to verbally interact with others. Imagine the frustration you would get, when you have a voice but couldn’t express yourself, which always reminds me of the scene Colin Firth had to say it furiously out loud in The King’s Speech, ‘I have a voice.’, and that was just his incapability of coherently finishing a speech. Komi was in a much worse situation, her lifetime had been in void of such common thing, with the cause as such. Reading each word she wrote on that black board, I came to realise communication is not simply a product of evolution, but also the most human desire to transmit thoughts, feelings to the receiving end. Being unable to do so is quite painful, unhealthy, depressing, it makes people only want to run away from the pain they get. Luckily, there was someone at that place, willing to patiently listen, to understand her situation, to lend a helpful hand, to tear down the barrier preventing her from experiencing the joy of befriending, and not the very least important, to be the first in her life. Such moments are very rare in the span of a lifetime, so there were very few reasons to stop my heart from getting moved. Friendship is indeed beautiful, it’s always darkest before the dawn, and overcoming hardship together only polishes more of a genuine relationship. Standing before such appealing portrayal of humanity, I could only wonder if there would be anything surpass this masterful Official Video Animation, as they had to air it twice, in order to flesh out the awesomeness, and if I would ever be able to obtain something genuine as such… STILL, WHY HADN’T HER FAMILY DEALT WITH IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?/?!? //Mystery//

As the compensation for the missing plot in the rest of the work, Komischan was heavily character-driven. We had a cute, all-rounded cat girl who couldn’t express herself as the protagonist, which has given us the will to protecc, as all her moves were loved and welcome, instead of being a sore in the eyes like Wata… someone’s waifu. Then came a bunch of troublesome kids, who were incapable of speaking their minds at will, without being archtypes like yandere, masochist, narcissist, delinquent, furry, ninja, background, chuunibyou, childhood friend, [redacted], rival… Even more of them are yet on screen, as the goal is to set the count up to 100, thus there is a hopeful and eerie future awaiting the audiences, to witness their growth out of those shallow cocoons. Last but not least, the staff would never be complete without a plain normie in trouble with his own existence, which was quite ordinary, yet indeed irreplaceable for the story to proceed.

Though Slice-of-Life usually doesn’t have much of knowledgeable information, it would instead be an absurd observation of Komischan, however. We were portrayed how Japaneses would spend their time with friends, on occasions like weekends, summer, exams, field trip, Christmas, New Year, Valentine, Reversed Valentine, Golden Week, Lunar New Year, Independent Day of United States of America, Her Majesty’s Birthday, French Revolution, Technology Evolution 6.9, Olympic Tokyo,… In addition, OLM also paid attention to the tiniest details of their production, such as references of April is Your Lie, Saiki K, Detective Conan, Naruto, Sasuke, Itachi, Bleach, OnePiece, Megaman, RPG, Oregairu, Monogatari, NisiOisin, Senryuu Shouko, One Week Friends, Classroom of The Elitists, Studio Shaft, Studio Ghibli, Gainax, Hayao Miyazaki, Hideaki Anno, ‘Anime was a mistake’, Netflix, Nozama Prime,… and that was only the first episode. Also, in contrast to the spent time amounting to 9 hours, after having finished the adaptation(s), even the newest bie into anime would become a veteran weeb with vast knowing of entertainment industry, an expert in Japanese culture, traditions, customs, and pass the Japanese N1 certificate exam at ease, enabling them to watch raw anime on daily basis, not to mention a folder full of memes at the end of the day. Putting the pros and cons onto the scale, there is no other word could describe this situation more precisely than those of Mark Ruffalo himself:

When it comes to enjoyment, I have got mixed receptions from many sources. On one side, critics have laughed their ass off at a seasonal super-, mega-, ultra-overhyped, the style-over-substance stuff, the style-to-fake-substance thing, a trainwreck and the sum of all its wagons,… On the other hand, the drama, the cute, cozy stuff and the happy moments would serve those ready to take them for what they are, hence the fans have praised its symbolism, parody, awakening of protecc instinct, message of world’s peace, god-tier artistry,… Hey, surprisingly, there is, at the very least, something aligned, as they have been all in agreement with OLM’s high production value. Everyone has got some pieces of the cake, therefore, it is my honour to put Komischan on the A-side, since Odd Taxi, as well as Summer Rendering Time, have never been canonical MYSTERY to begin with, and no longer hesitant to celebrate this anime with a 10/10, just like how it had taken my 10/10 remaining heart beats. Masterpiece!!!

Much like the first season, the biggest question I reflected on was “Did I find that funny?”. Yes, it’s still pretty hilarious, but these students really need to put on some kind of watch list, like seriously, this is quite the messed up school. The romance between Komi and Tadano continues, at a snail’s pace, but even so, it’s still quite enjoyable to watch.

My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

STORY: 16.5/25

Mostly still very episodic, with your typical school rom-com tropes. The romance is still very slow, but cute when romantic moments occur. Not a whole lot to say about the story, as it’s mostly comedic moments and a character based show.

ART: 8.4/10

A definite step down from last season, as some elements are inconsistent, such as character expressions, and the overall flow of the animation. Didn’t look as cinematic as last season, but the animation is still overall very solid.

MUSIC: 8.3/10

Mostly the same type of comedic music and sound effects, but the opening from Season 1 was much better. I will say I appreciate the higher effort on the ending this season.

CHARACTERS: 11/20

The characters just make me go “???” at times because they are just SO WEIRD that it takes away from the immersion. If we removed Yamai from the show, I bet it’d be much better, and not so weird, creepy, and out of place. I’m not gonna lie though, some Yamai moments are pretty funny, but most of them are just outright off-putting. The other characters like Nakanaka, Najimi, Onemine are about the same as last season, and they don’t have any extra developments this season.

I did not enjoy watching Tadano’s character this season compared to the last, because he just seemed way more uncomfortable towards Komi. I get that the romance is in the air, but it just wasn’t as enjoyable to watch if Tadano and Komi are both just blushing all the time, and not talking as much as they did before.

Now, the new characters, and I’m only going to talk about Katai and Naruse Shisuto (a play on narcissist obviously). Katai is a very solid addition to the cast, and he’s probably one of my favourites in the cast. On the outside he looks like a delinquent, and talks like one, but on the inside he has a heart of gold, and just wants to make friends. Loved the interactions between Katai and the rest of the cast. For Shisuto, his comedic gag revolves around him thinking he has the attention of everyone around him, when he actually doesn’t. He even has a narrator that commentates on his every action. Seriously, just stop pulling your shirt down though.

Overall, the characters are still the biggest problem of this show, because they just aren’t very interesting to watch, and for the ones that are interesting, it’s usually in a negative way, or if they’re fun to watch, they’re merely side characters with not enough screen time.

ENJOYMENT: 13.2/15

Still very funny, and I admit, the comedy is still decent.

THEMATIC EXECUTION: 16.6/20

The comedy is obviously a subjective thing to judge, and I will say the comedy is still pretty good, though a bit cringe at times. The romance is slow, but there are big pay-offs occasionally with the cute moments.

OVERALL: 74/100

A decent sequel to the first season, but arguably a little worse. It’s mostly the same type of comedy, and the romance is still moving slowly. I expected a bit more from Season 2 for sure.