[Winter 2022] Princess Connect! Re:Dive Season 2 Discussion Thread

[Buckeye]

プリンセスコネクト! Re:Dive Season 2

The gourmet adventures continue after learning that one of the startup guild's members is a princess who renounced her throne to live the live as an adventurer. And there are more girls out to have adventures with.

Airs: Monday, January 10, 2022

Studio: Cygames Pictures

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Second season of Princess Connect! Re:Dive.

Notes
As usual, please try to follow these two easy forum courtesy habits when replying:
1) If you're the first person to post about an episode in any given week, please indicate in the first line which episode you're posting about.
2) If someone has already posted about an episode before you, please quote that post (or a relevant reply to that post), or include the episode title in the first line. ("Re: Episode 1") Just make sure the episode is indicated.

For more guidelines please refer to this thread.

[Buckeye]

Episode 1

No rest for the hungry.

And it's back and just the way I remember it. Yuki is being the same useless hero he is, while the girls are always on the lookout for great food, all while each week features a different set of guest characters. Here, it's a party led by an old man, and these guys wee a bunch of failures. But they were great pals and they met their demise in a coral forest. The old guy is still there as a ghost wanting to liberate his fallen comrades and with Pecorine and company's help, they do just that. It's as fun and amusing as I remember it, and it's great to have more of this.

[Buckeye]

Episode 2

Song for smiles.

The guest characters this time around are the idols that form the group Carmina as they are quite a hit in this world. And this is an episode centered around Karyl as while she has been welcomed with open arms by the Gourmet Guild, she's still working as a spy for Christina. Carmina's songs are really something as even ruffians can't help but to smile at them. As for Karyl, she ran away and the rest of her guildmates had to go looking for her, but no matter what she will always have a place there, so it's all well and good. Quite a nice way to reach out in a time of need, and this goes to show that anybody can smile under the right circumstances.

[TnAdct1]

Episode 2

As for Karyl, she ran away and the rest of her guildmates had to go looking for her.

I wouldn't say she ran away. Rather, Karyl had some important business to attend to with Christina (basically, the two had to defeat some stray shadows that threatened the Carmina concert), and given how she's still torn between the Gourmet Guild and her boss, Karyl's inner conflict caused her to be out later than the Gourmet Guild expected her to be out.

[Buckeye]

Episode 3

Learning is more important than the truth.

Next guest is Team B-B as Aoi returns, and she now attends an academy and is part of a team of scholars. So the Gourmet Guild visits the academy, and they go on a test of courage outing of sorts heading out to a graveyard where they end up meeting a skeleton and other ghouls. It turns out that there was nothing to be afraid of there as the skeleton just wanted the girls to learn the truth. And then that got Yuuni to realize that more important than the truth is learning. That was an amusing adventure once again as the girls of Team B-B are really cute, all while it made for another great experience to be had.

[Buckeye]

Episode 4

Unleash the beasts and protect the beasts.

Next guests are a group of vigilante beastfolks in Maho, Makoto, and Kasumi as a bunch of shadows have been popping up around them. Those girls sure are strong, but now they need to take down a golem surrounded by an army of those shadows. This is going to be quite the battle there, and the easy thing to do is to take out the one powering it. But that was easier said than done, and instead Pecorine delivers her Princess Strike on that big hunk of junk. It packs quite a punch, but that thing is still standing even after all that. Quite an action-packed episode that was, but that thing is going to be really tough to take down.

[Buckeye]

Episode 5

There's no shadow of a doubt about it.

Pretty serious episode this was as there were a lot of things going on, as well as providing a reminder that this is all happening inside a game. First, there's Pecorine being teleported by the one who stole her identity, and while she's no longer a princess, she's perfectly fine just being Pecorine the adventurer. As for the shadows, they are being drawn to Kiiri for some reason, and just when it looked like they could use her to lure them into a lake where they would become sitting ducks, Kiiri suddenly disappears and while her consciousness was saved by Queen Labyrinth, her body wasn't. In the end, everybody somehow made it through, and while the thought of having dinner with the identity thief was something she though she could have, it wasn't meant to be. Pretty serious stuff there as it's a reminder of everything that happened at the end of the first season.

[Buckeye]

Episode 6

Not ready for slime time.

Here comes Jun, the captain of the Knightmare unit as she's fighting monsters that have infiltrated the town. And then there's Monika, and she unearths a huge slime monster as slimes have been spotted throughout town, and from that toy monkey that can repair itself. And once that giant slime was discovered, it attacks the town in full force. But Jun was there leading the charge to defeat it, and Pecorine delivered the finishing blow once again. Crazy stuff once again as after things got serious, it's back to being what it usually is.

[Buckeye]

Episode 7

Everything is so Foggy.

Chika of Carmina has returned and she's not exactly herself, all while Kurumi and Ayane drop by. As it turns out, this is the result of a mischievous spirit known as Foggy that manipulates memories, and it was hiding inside the Puchiki. But once Foggy was found out, Chika's song weakened it and Pecorine finished it off. Pretty amusing stuff once again, especially seeing Chika being so childish, but it was all well and good in the end.

[Buckeye]

Episode 8

Everybody gather around.

And now, an episode about Suzuna and Misaki as they are struggling students who attend a school that's about to be shut down, and they are given letters of recommendation by their master Io. They were about to be sent until a bunch of bandits rob the bank and take everything and anything they could get their hands on. While the money is one thing, it's quite personal that they stole those letters, all while Kokkoro has her letters stolen as well. So they get back at them and it's thanks to Io that those crooks got rounded up. In the end, those two realized that they would be better off without those letters and give their current life a second chance. And then everybody gets together to work in the garden, and then enjoy a great feast. Great way to bring everybody together with that grand banquet and stuff after a hard day of working out on the fields.

[Buckeye]

Episode 9

While everybody was having fun...

For the Gourmet Guild sans Karyl, it's just another eventful day in town where there's a festival going on. But while that's happening, Labyrista is squaring off against the Kaiser as the fate of the world depends on the outcome of this battle. And that was quite an intense battle there as Mana unleashed special attack after special attack. Labyrista survived all that and with Mana running out of power that it looked like she was going to deliver the finishing blow, but little did she know that Mana had a doppleganger who snuck up from behind to impale her. And while Labyrista could have taken Mana down with her, Karyl got in the way to protect her. That was really intense, and the way the battle ended sets the stage for something really ominous to go down.

[Buckeye]

Episode 10

Real princess, come forth!

Quite an intense episode that was as Mana is about to turn the townspeople into sacrifices for her shadows, and she's making Karyl do all of her dirty work by controlling her as a puppet. But Pecorine is undeterred as she really came through there in the end to reach out to Karyl, as well as to let everybody know, with Yuni's help, that she is the true princess and that Mana is a fake who is pulling the strings, both literally and figuratively. This sets up things quite nicely for the big finish now that Pecorine is making her big move to right everything that's wrong in Landosol.

[Buckeye]

Episode 11

Come home, Karyl!

With Karyl doing her best to resist the Kaiser's puppet strings, the Kaiser sends a mind-controlled Jun to battle Pecorine, and in the end Pecorine got Jun to break the mind control seeing that it's a knight's duty to serve the princess, which is Pecorine and not Mana. And thus, it sets the stage for the final battle as Yuuki drops by and show why he's a hero. While that's going on, Twilight Caravan is fighting Christina, and things were not looking too good until Ruka and Anna show up to save the day. Quite a lot of action here as it does a solid job of setting the stage for the final episode, and I look forward to seeing how it all ends.

[Buckeye]

Episode 12 (Finale)

This won't be the Last Supper.

And to end this show, the Kaiser gets increasingly desperate as after losing control of Karyl and Jun, she controls Labyrista and Neneka, but Yuuki throws the brakes on that. Then the Kaiser gets swallowed up by the shadows to form that gigantic monstrosity, and despite everything she has done, Karyl won't let her go out like this. So Karyl goes out to save her and with help from all the adventurers they befriended on their journey, she manages to pull Mana out. So with that, the day has been saved, Pecorine has regained her identity as the princess, and instead of being a sacrifice, Mana is thrown in the slammer and is looking to be rehabbed so that she can meet Karyl at the dinner table someday. And thus, the crisis has been averted and while Pecorine is now recognized as the princess again, she decides to remain an adventurer seeing that she's not ready to take on such a demanding job. Quite a nice way to end things as this season is a huge improvement over the first that was far more story-driven as opposed to episodic.

Overall, this season is an improvement over the first as the one big problem it had was its repetitiveness with the largely episodic nature of the show that really didn't get serious until the final episode. This season, it's more story-driven and it does a great job in implementing it without going against the grain. This leads to great fights, drama, and emotional stuff as the buildup made is possible. And of course, there are the fun and diverse character cast that is the backbone of this show that also adds to the improvement of this season.

MAL Rating: