As a review of the second season of the anime, there will be spoilers of the first season here! And if you didn’t see my review of it, you can read it at: https://www.pixiv.net/novel/show.php?id=23626298

  While the games were more well-known than the anime, some people watched it back then, and perhaps there was a reasonable number of them, since we ended up getting a second season! Or that was part of them trying too hard to make Blue Dragon a thing, since this is more like another anime and not just a new season, as the first season did conclude its plot entirely, and this is about something else: the “attack” of the Investiture Beings!

  From wiki: “Two years after the final battle with the darkness, the world has escaped from the crisis of destruction. But war has yet to cease, as the Resistance continues to oppose General Logi and his Rosekstan organization.

  Shu joins the Resistance alongside Bouquet and Legolas. One day, as Shu investigates a mysterious crater, where he happens to encounter a mysterious boy named Noi. Shu then finds himself ambushed by a Rokenstan fleet, but soon taken down by a mysterious Red Dragon. Without a "shadow" of a doubt at literal, Shu finds himself cornered until Noi miraculously revives Blue Dragon and manages to repel it.

  During the same time after, mysterious individuals who call themselves "Investiture Beings" appear, where various troubles and unprovoked starts happening. Now Shu and Bouquet must travel the world once again to find his old companions, and discover the meaning behind the calamities from the sky.”

  What do you do when you want to have a second season or sequel of your anime, but you already concluded the plot, arcs, and everything else in the previous season? In the case of Blue Dragon, they did the same thing that others like Monster Rancher did and just made shit up.  Otherwise, it makes no sense that something like the Investiture Beings wouldn’t even be mentioned at all in the first season if the writers already thought of them as they worked on the anime back then! So, it’s obvious they made shit up to make a new season.

  Now, I do think the main idea they teased at the beginning might have worked on its own. Now that Nene and Zola were defeated and all, it make sense that Loki would use his forces to take over the world since it’s what he tried to do back then and not everyone wanted that which is why we have the Resistance, even if it make no sense that it was created by a character like Legolas that barely works as the comic relief in the first season. How on Earth Loki still didn’t crush the Resistance created by a guy like him in two years is beyond me...

  Anyway, yeah, if they wanted, maybe the timeskip and making the plot be all about the Resistance against Loki’s army, Rosekstan could work, especially since we see later that Loki still has access to the artificial shadows, which, once again, make you question how he hasn’t defeated the Resistance already in those two years. But in the very first episode, we have Noi joining Shu and Bouquet, so it’s all about the Investiture Beings from the get-go.

  It is weird that they added the White Guardians later, since they end up just doing what the Resistance was doing, opposing Rosekstan and all. Besides, it makes no sense at all that those guys would become such an almighty force that can oppose Rosekstan and yet neither Loki nor the Resistance ever heard of them before they showed up after two years? Why weren’t they just the Resistance to begin with?

  The plot has stupid issues like that when you stop to think about it. It’s not like the first season was amazing or anything, but it worked since it knew what it was and kept things simple for the most part, even if stuff like Zola’s “betrayal” and the details of it never made sense. But here, it feels they just made it all about the Investiture Beings and didn’t put thought into other stuff they should have, such as making Shu, a freaking 12-year-old boy, be the “chosen” to determine if mankind should be destroyed or not.

  That’s just beyond ridiculous. If they wanted that sort of plot that much, they should have elaborated more on it to make it more complex and interesting. Maybe it would be better if all of the “natural” shadow-users were chosen or something instead of somehow only going with Shu? And they all get into conflict with each other thanks to that?

  The first season also had a better structure and pacing, with the characters being on the same journey with the same objective almost from beginning to end, but here, it changes quite a bit. And it also has a couple of weird fillers that I guess try to be too much comedic for some reason (including one in which all was just a dream, the worst kind of filler), as if the plot they went with for this season even allowed room for that. Besides, unlike the first season, there are some plot stuff or “arcs” that don’t go anywhere, which just adds to the mess.

  It’s a shame since I do think there is potential here with this plot about the Investiture Beings. You know, this mysterious superior alien race that wants to judge your race and decide if you should continue to live or not was done quite better in other stuff. Maybe if they didn’t try to have the main characters fight against THREE villains at the same time, the season would be a lot better, but as it is...it’s okayish stuff at most that probably will only please hardcore Blue Dragon fans of the first season. After all, most of the anime is just Shu’s party fighting either the Investiture Beings (or “someone” connected to them thanks to the Dragon Scales), Loki’s guys, or the White Guardians with their fusions, which is a thing their shadows can do now thanks to Noi, and that’s pretty much it until almost the end.

  Now I will talk about my issues with the anime and the ending. If you want to avoid spoilers and want to see what this anime offers for furries, which is the main point of my review, then please scroll down to the "KEMONO SCALE JUDGEMENT" section!

  MASSIVE SPOILERS ABOUT THE ANIME

  - It’s sad that with three whole groups of characters, the cast got quite bloated, so obviously some got a lot more attention than others. Guess that’s why Bouquet and Marumaro got nothing this season as far as arcs go, unless you count Bouquet being nice and befriending Rottarace by pure chance as...something. The only character I think they did quite a good job in this aspect was with Kluke. And the worst ones were definitely Jiro and Delphinium.

  They were probably struggling with what to do with Jiro for this season, unless someone in the new writing team hates him because...it’s so weird. For no reason, they made him not rejoin the party once they met, but also they made him so strong that he can hold on his own against Shu with Blue Dragon, which is fucking bullshit. It was nice to make him want to train and get stronger, now that he no longer had the power of a shadow. But since he now wants to kill Delphinium, why on earth would he refuse the chance to summon Minotaur once again? He would help him get that! Besides, when the characters fuck up, and Delphinium gets her shadow back, he has even less of a reason to want Minotaur back.

  And why does he want to kill her so damn much now? She wasn’t even in the village the day his family got killed! If the logic is because of how she was part of Nene’s army back then, that means it would make a LOT more sense for him to have his massive hate bone for Loki, not Delphinium. That being said, even if the way they did it didn’t make much sense, this was still a good idea for an arc for him. Shame that it ended up going nowhere since it was just dropped off by the end. Even after we lose a few episodes to this...

  - And Delphinium’s arc made even less sense. Just what was her deal? Her goals? Was she trying to spy for Loki, the White Guardians, or what? We never find out, it’s so strange since she joined the White Guardians...for reasons that were never explained, and always acts like she was doing it to spy on them to report to...someone. But we never find out who that someone was. It’s not like we see her only doing that because Deathroy ordered her to for some reason. So, by the end, even her thing with Jiro and Matilda goes nowhere, making it all a complete waste of time.

  - Speaking of Maltilda, her existence is insane and a big plot hole for this season. She wasn’t even there in the first season, and yet this random lady got a shadow that can teleport! This proves that Loki still has access to the technology to put an artificial shadow on his soldiers! Why has he not been doing it all this time? Imagine how useful having more people who can teleport like Matilda would be, not to mention the other powers those shadows might have. And since only he and his army have this technology, he has no reason not to use it and to have defeated the Resistance in those two years already.

  - The stupid “twist” that Loki was pretending to be dead all this time makes no sense, given how his army didn’t collapse or something, and somehow none of the characters wondered what was up with that; maybe it was done only to try and add a twist for the sake of a twist. But worse than that is that nobody cares about what happened at Albarose, which was destroyed by Rottarace. Not only was the only reason Loki didn’t die that Matilda was there with him to teleport him to safety, but nobody else who was important to the main characters died in that big city. This is a good example of the anime being a coward and not going all the way with its own plot, since nobody has to care that Rottarace killed so many people there, just because they didn’t have family or anyone there. Would Bouquet still want to be friends with Rottarace if she had killed her entire family? Would Shu try so hard to “avoid” the fight if his village were the place that was destroyed? Of course not, not with the level of writing we see in this season. That’s why they never tried going that far with the stuff in the plot.

  - Of all the Investiture beings, Noi is the one that makes no sense. From hiding who he was for no good reason to falling in love with a loli, bringing into question his age...and seeing him in action really brings lots of questions about those guys as well. Can any of them, including Noi, do the things we see the Dracon Council members doing, including the dragon scales? Seriously, the stuff we see with the dragon scales is quite insane, and in theory, if Rudolph wanted to exterminate mankind so much by the end, why didn’t he order all of them not to just spread their scales as much as possible? A single scale can destroy an entire town. And to add on top of the mess with those guys plotwise, the anime wants to add the twist that Blue Dragon is one of them too, and even part of the council...? What? How? Why? Everything about that guy is half-assed at best, especially with Noi.

  - The whole deal with Primella had the potential to be quite good, and maybe it would be if it were what the writers focused on, but that’s not the case. So annoying seeing her being as vague as possible, especially when barely talking to Shu in his dreams. And the twist that she is Zola...URGH. Seriously, why did we have to bring Zola again? Was she Akira’s waifu back then or something? And it’s even more ridiculous when we see Shu talking to Zola’s “soul,” who told him she knew about the Investiture Beings SOMEHOW since nobody else did, and they weren’t even mentioned before, implying they were the reason why she did what she did. Fuck off, this is an example of the writers trying to retcon and force the idea that the Investiture Beings were a thing from the first season. And in the end, this talk to Zola was just a waste of time since nothing Shu talked to her about was relevant to defeating Rudolph or anything.

  END OF THE SPOILERS

  KEMONO SCALE JUDGEMENT

  Now that we put that out of the way...it's KAMIKAZETIME!!

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS3GKBXhV84

  In season 1, we only had the shadows themselves as the only kemono from that anime, not counting the few monsters and mutants we saw in a couple of episodes.  But this time, the whole season is all about the Investiture Beings!

  Those guys have those...elven-human-like forms in which they stay most of the time, but they’re all dragons, and the longer you watch the anime, the more you will see them in their dragon forms! And since this applies to all of them, including Noi, that means we have six new kemono characters as part of the main cast this time!

  Those are screenshots of them, mixed with the shadows we see in this season.  Do take note that while Blue Dragon and Saber Tiger get new “forms” thanks to the fusion mechanic of this season, we only got one new furry shadow, and it’s Zephyrus, if you don’t count the shadows of the “fakes”:

  - Blue Dragon 2 reference:  https://imgbox.com/g/lexTzIGlYf

  - Fagino reference: https://imgbox.com/g/WYDmwKAR5M

  - Fakes reference: https://imgbox.com/g/RHBv953ncn

  Only here because of the technically new forms for the shadows!

  - Group reference: https://imgbox.com/mRoxXzz9

  - Hildegard reference: https://imgbox.com/g/BnSQnqPaDt

  - Hippopotamus 2 reference: https://imgbox.com/g/a6rXDX60ZB

  - Mikhail reference: https://imgbox.com/g/hAH0LDOH6t

  - Noi reference: https://imgbox.com/g/lXXAn0dxj5

  - Others reference: https://imgbox.com/g/gCQNcvbWgO

  Those are the “normal” Investiture Beings since they are the most common dragons we see when they are attacking people everywhere.

  - Rottarace reference: https://imgbox.com/g/Y1JYLJ8Ec5

  - Rudolph reference: https://imgbox.com/g/Sb9cQjLU3J

  -Saber Tiger 2 reference: https://imgbox.com/g/NJPvkdXQdG

  -Special Dragons reference: https://imgbox.com/g/tkT14ZGLPX

  Those are the “special” Investiture Beings that are different and stronger than the dragons from others, though the anime doesn’t explain who exactly they are. But since we only see a few of them during anime, they have to be special or rare or something.

  - Zephyrus reference: https://imgbox.com/g/F6WMnvwmyY

  It's a big shame that Zephyrus is really just there. Maybe he would have shown a lot more if he were in season one too, but...

  If the focus was in the shadows in season one, then this time it’s on the dragons! All of them have good and unique designs and aren’t just a color swap of Blue Dragon himself, though you will only see most of them later as they are slowly introduced, and only later do they show their dragon forms.

  This also means that you'd better not hope to see the shadows as much as before, since you will barely see Chimera this time, and the same for Minotaur. The only shadows you will see in most of this season are Blue Dragon, Saber Tiger, and Hippopotamus. Whether that’s a good or bad thing will depend on how much you prefer the Investiture Beings compared to the shadows.

  I think it’s a matter of taste if you think this season is better or worse than the first one, and that includes your taste in kemono if you think this is worth a watch. At least for fans of dragons, this is easy to recommend, especially if you enjoyed the first season. If you aren’t into dragons at all, then it really depends on whether you just want to see more of the cast again, though you might not like what you see.   It’s quite sad to see, for example, that Bouquet didn’t change in those two years and still lives trying to make Shu love her...which is fucked up.

  Now, can you watch this without watching the first season? I wouldn’t recommend it, but I can say that you can, since the plot is all about the Investiture Beings, and they only show up here, lol. So this season has its own plot, and at most, you will only lose some details, like how the characters’ relationships with each other are, if you do that. If you just want to check the dragons and don’t want to deal with the 51 episodes of the first season, then yeah, it’s easy to do that, haha.

  For those reasons, I think it's fair to give this anime...

  *points dramatically at the cartoon*

  A THREE OUT OF FIVE OF LOF IN THE KAMIKAZE SCALE!!!

  The dragons alone almost make this a four, especially since we still have most of the shadows from before and even a new one! But, unfortunately, we have the same problem as last time, in which the shadows don’t show up entirely! This time, they fix that for Blue Dragon and kiiiiiind of for Saber Tiger, thanks to the fusion stuff, but only for those two, and I would argue it only works for Blue Dragon, but then again, we already saw his entire body in season one. Still, it’s nice seeing the shadows again and especially with the Investiture Beings! Not every day is a group of kemono, the main villains of your anime!

  That’s why we almost got a four in the scale this time. But, not only will we not see as many shadows as before, but it takes a good while to see the Investiture Beings as full dragons most of the time. And the other dragons, like the “special” ones, only show up in a few episodes. Besides, plot-wise, character-wise, and the tone and pacing, and all I think season one was better, though not like this season was terrible. I think a three on our scale is a fair rating~

  The best furry character this time is...it really will depend on your taste for dragons! I would go with Rudolph~

  The "kemono in the refrigerator" this time is...Zephyrus! Poor bird was soooooo wasted in this season, which is crazy given his power!

  Aaaand that’s it for this one! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this review. Please leave your comments and opinions about it, and also about Blue Dragon: Trials of the Seven Shadows, if you happen to have watched it or maybe wanna check it out, thanks to this review xD. I want to leave those journals as a place where people can discuss the respective things being reviewed here!