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| Overall | Art | Animation | Character Design | Music | Series Story | Episode Story | Reviewer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buy | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 9 |
 Ggultra2764
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[series:2009#1552] |
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Wow. When I thought the first season to Birdy the Mighty: Decode was an entertaining gem, this one blew things out of the water for me with its darker mood. Continuing off from the events of the first season, this season is more focused on Birdy this time around where her dealings with a group of terrorists responsible for usage of the Ryouga from the last season lead her to reunite with a childhood friend named Nataru who is killing off said terrorists out of revenge. These events allow the viewer to learn more of Birdy's past when she was a child and what past connections she had with Nataru and said terrorists, which two episodes in the middle of the series take the time to explore. It also allows one to better understand why some within Birdy's squadron during an episode in the middle of the first season showed prejudice towards her, providing more depth to signs of hostilities towards certain Birdy's alien race due to past events connected to said race. This sets up two elements to this season of Birdy: Decode that set it apart from the first season. The first noticeable one is that this season of Birdy takes on a more darker edge where the violence is more intense and Nataru comes across as a tragic character of sorts upon what is learned about his past. Second, Birdy is given her opportunity at contemplating love in this season towards Nataru, especially when she comes to realize the vendetta her old friend carries against the terrorists that she is trying to capture. In terms of visuals, there are some improvements where scenery and character designs are slightly spruced up, as well as more moments of fluid animation in action scenes. On the plus side, this season doesn't implement as many shortcuts with the animation this time around and even has it moments of intense and lengthy action sequences during later episodes of the series. On the negative side though, said lengthy action sequences tend to degrade the quality of character designs and scenery with the breakneck speeds of movement from alien characters. Overall, Birdy the Mighty Decode's second season did rather well at expanding on what was delivered from its first season while delivering a more darker mood and introducing a tragic character in the form of Nataru. I enjoyed this take on the series even better than the first season and that is saying something considering I was finding many titles between 2008 and 2010 pandering too much to the otaku fanbase. Last updated Friday, September 16 2011. Created Friday, September 16 2011. | ||||||||
| Unevaluated |
 Stretch
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[series:2009#628] | ||||||
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(Three episodes watched): I felt that the first season of Birdy Decode was a disappointment compared to the neat OVAs of over a decade ago, and therefore my expectations for this second series were lowered considerably. My first impressions are that the quality seems pretty much the same as last time, with credible quality but for the most part a lack of the spirit and style which such a colorful character demands. Still, Birdy put her skills to good use a couple of times, and the plot might prove interesting. I like the fact that the alien criminals have all disguised themselves as humans. I reserve judgement as to whether this show will be particularly good or not. I get the feeling that this show is trying to be "cool", but the music, timing, dialogue, etc, just aren't up to it. There is some pretty nasty violence at times, which seems unjustified by the overall mediocre quality of the series, and thus gratuitous. In other words, a modest quality series doesn't justify intense violence. I find it hard to maintain interest. Nobody would have been happier than me if this had turned out to be a major improvement over the first season, but somehow this show manages to be so downright boring that I think I will settle for not immediately watching it but instead downloading the episodes just in case I ever get the urge to do so. ...actually, I didn't even bother to do that. I would prefer to leave my pleasant memories of the OVAs unsullied as much as possible, so I'll skip this series altogether. Last updated Monday, December 28 2009. Created Sunday, January 18 2009. | ||||||||
