Junkyouju Takatsuki Akira no Suisatsu Season 2 (2021)

"And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door..."

The repertoire of folk tales and mysteries has once again arrived... it is a direct continuation of the first season, just that it's simply split into two parts.

But, the story, as compared to the first, was much more powerful and compact and delved directly into Akira-sensei's past, something which we did not see in the first part. Moreover, it's a chain of events or web instead of a simple mystery in episodic format.
It did not pull any punches and relied a lot more on the background of the characters, particularly Takatsuki Akira-sensei. It is this season which proves why he is the eponymous character of the show. We see a different side of his in this one and focusses on his emotions and vulnerabilities.

Plus, there is a prominent 'antagonist' - Hajime. Kudos to the actor for portraying a completely eccentric, sad and psychotic personality. He really gave the lead mystery cracking team a run for their money.

The story is still see through Fukamachi Naoya-san's eyes, but he is no longer as subdued as before. While he still has the requisites that come along with his "rare gift", he is much more in control of his emotions. Reiko-chan and Ken-chan tag along as usual and hasn't lost their essence from the first season. I appreciated both of them a lot in this one.

As usual, the strength of friendship is as strong as ever. And the emotional connection between Naoya-san and Akira-sensei is even more pronounced. It was heartwarming to see their raport develop from trepidation to trust.

The supernatural vibes is particularly undeniable as usual, particularly with sensei.
It took me almost two years to complete this as there were no easy accessible subtitles available, but when I did continue where I left off, and I was happy to find out that I hadn't forgotten about the first season either. [Many thanks to sametakunai and Kate.]
The ending was personally satisfying for me. I for one, strongly believe that some mysteries remain as they should be. And Akira-sensei deserves to keep his secrets.

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This was a pretty enjoyable watch along with season 1. I really enjoyed watching the cases being solved and learning about different Japanese mythologies. Akira's relationship with Fukamatchi, Ruiko, and Ken-chan was really beautiful to watch. Fukamatchi's character development is really good because he went from a quiet and withdrawn person to someone who is confident and bold. We get to see the many sides of Akira other than his confidence and silliness. It shows his vulnerabilites from his childhood and his empathy for other people. I think the antagonist did a good job making us curious about who he his and what's his end goal.

CONS
1. The ending is too abrupt/fast for my liking. I wish they had expanded the climax to make it more interesting because the ending disappointed me a bit.
2. So many unanswered questions! (I don't know if this is getting another season) The show doesn't tell us anything about why Akira's eyes turn blue, where he got the scars on the back, what happened to him when he went missing, if he really met with the supernatural (Tengu), and why he's scared of birds. This was really frustrating for me because I've been curious about it since watching season 1.

Overall, I would definitely recommend watching this because it's really interesting. It's refreshing to focus on mysteries and not get tangled with romance.

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