The first season of Chi’s Sweet Home showed us exactly how awesome cats can be, so I was looking forward to its second season. Unfortunately, it fell victim to the number one pitfall of all comedies out there: it lost its inspiration! Such a shame!

The first season had a set of absolutely hilarious and classic episodes, while the other episodes always managed to put a smile on your face through the antics of Chi and later Blackie. The second season does have its share of funny episodes, but those are nowhere near as memorable as they were in Season One, and the lesser episodes really become more and more tedious to sit through as the series goes on.

In my opinion, the creators shot themselves a bit in the foot when they created the premise for this series. The first season had a red thread running though it: the fact that Chi lived in an apartment in which pets weren’t allowed returned often, provided some nice tension and made sure the series evolved as it went along. In Chi’s New Address, Chi’s owners move to a place in which pets are allowed. As a result, the rest of its episodes can simply be divided into two categories: episodes in which Chi runs around and meets someone, or episodes in which Chi breaks something. Sometimes the creators try to bring in a bit of extra dimension by putting both in one episode, but there is a general lack of direction throughout the entire series, and as it goes on the episodes get more and more repetitive. Especially the episodes in which Chi randomly causes trouble have been done to death by the end of the series.

But that’s not the only thing that deteriorated. For some reason, the animators also lost their inspiration. In a lot of episodes, Chi only has two emotions: neutral and happy. There’s nothing in between! While the characters were so charming in the first season, they were turned into a bunch of bloody stereotypes during the second season. Chi is way too often just happy for no reason whatsoever. Happiness should be spontaneous, not granted or forced.

At the end of the series, the creators do close off with a serious arc again, and to the show’s credit: it is enjoyable. They had a nice idea for it, and it was executed decently, although it really tended to be melodramatic during the heavy bits. Especially that final episode is horribly forced and cheesy. This series is supposed to be seinen, not kodomo!

Overall, it’s one thing for a comedy to stop being funny, but Chi’s New Address screws up in a lot of other areas as well. Thankfully, this summer seasons premiered a show called Kuruneko, and it’s everything a good cat-show should be. So yeah, if you like cats, go watch Chi’s Sweet Home’s first season and Kuruneko, but stay away from this one.

The first season of Ookami to Koushinryou, or Spice and Wolf, came from absolutely nowhere. It had the worst possible staff you can imagine (outside of the team that’s been animating Ikkitousen and Queen’s Blade, perhaps) and yet it came and delivered an incredibly solid series about merchants during the medieval times. Its second season takes this formula, and only improves on it.

It may seem like a given, but sequels don’t always surpass their original. This however is far from the case in Spice and Wolf. The second season is overall a lot darker than its predecessor, and it really made use of the fact that the characters have already got a season’s worth of development in them. It consists out of two big arcs, each in which Lawrence is trying to strike a very, very risky deal. They’re all very intelligent and well-fleshed out, full of surprises and with a very good conclusion.

You can really see that this is a series that’s based on a light novel series, rather than a manga. Just like the first season, the dialogue is deep and meaningful, and you really have to pay attention to keep following it. Horo and Lawrence love teasing each other with smart and witty remarks, and together they develop into quite a memorable couple. There are some great romantic scenes during the quiet parts in this series, that really gets the best out of both of them.

For the second season, the animation has been taken over by Brains Base, and if you pay attention then you can really see that the graphics have also gotten an upgrade, especially the background art looks gorgeous because of it. Overall, the second season is a bit less whimsical than the first one, but it makes up for it by a couple of well built-up and written arcs.