Anime: Tetsuwan Birdy Decode:02 5f1b2u

It started well. Birdy the Mighty Decode S2’s opening song is glorious, a triumph that manages to sound at once technological and human. Sadly, it’s about the only part of the series that succeeds so.

Opening excepted, the series looks much as before; perhaps slightly below the modern average, though not distractingly so. It’s a kind of soft look, with a pastel palette, but sharp lines; and it must be said that the fights look good, with lots of flowing movement. Sound is much as before, though this series seems to give more time to the weaker voice actors; while not outright bad, a number of the bad guys’ voices seem distinctly gimmicky.

The change here is that we spend less time on the human schoolkids and more on aliens - largely the antagonists and Birdy’s newly introduced childhood friend. Logically this should be no bad thing; the former were bland and forgettable to a man, and a series should make actual use of its conceit.

Sadly, this just leads to derailing one of the series’ better characters, Birdy herself. Her whole schtick was to be a kick-ass space cop, in contrast to the insecure kid sharing her body. This second series attempts to give her a tragic backstory (laced with some very weak pseudo-GitS robots-and-souls talk),which clashes utterly with her original (and current, to be honest) behaviour. It’s hard to be sympathetic to the pain of having no choice over your career, when that career is so awesome as Birdy’s (and she quite evidently enjoys her position).

In fact, unsympathetic characters are Birdy’s general problem, largely due to the most hamfisted space racism storyline I’ve ever seen. The show’s middle episodes destroy any sympathy the viewer might feel for any of the alien characters: the galactic civilization is evidently full of jerks, which Birdy’s race, the Altarians, respond to with terrorism. Birdy herself works for the jerk empire’s space police, where she might at least get some respect for trying to uphold the law as best as she can - except she then refuses to arrest a serial killer for personal reasons. The only character whose tragic backstory actually s up with their current personality is the most cowardly of the antagonists, but it's hard to summon any sympathy when he's not only evil but also whiny and pathetic.

So we don’t care about any of the alien characters, and since so little time is spent on the humans, we don’t care about them either. While technically Birdy is trying to arrest aliens who were trying to destroy Earth, it’s an Earth we barely care about - and if she doesn’t arrest them, a vigilante is going to kill them anyway. Never before can I a show where I cared so little what happened.

There’s some enjoyment to be eked out from the fight scenes, and the plot could conceivably be interesting to a viewer who was completely ignorant of science fiction. But that glorious opening aside, this is a terrible, terrible series, and one I deeply regret watching.

Birdy 2 is a good follow-up to the original series. The story follows directly after the events of the first series where Birdy finds herself confronted by a new group of villains, and the appearance of a distant old friend.

The second season focuses a lot more on Birdy and throws Tsutomu into the background (for the most part). The progressive story is accompanied by lots of action and a few dramatic moments, though on a smaller scale than the whole Ryunka/Natsumi thing in the original. Despite lacking a bit of the character development that made the first season so great, the series is still a very good watch, and definitely worth it if one enjoyed the first season.

Animation:
The animation quality is slightly bumped up from the original, though the overall look and characters remain the same. Expect lots of battles and a bit of gore, but nothing compared to some other shows (Elfen Lied *cough*). The overall look is very consistent with the first season. Only complaint I have is that Shion should get more air time...

Sound:
The new OP by Nirgilis is quite something. It's made it into my 10 most-played songs in my jpop collection. The ED is fair but overshadowed by the greatness of Kiseki. The BGM is consistent with the original series. VAs are just as good as in the original.

Music: 5/5, VA: 4/5

Story:
Birdy 2 answers much about Birdy's shrouded past, which was one of the unexplained aspects of the first series.

The show starts as a bit of a mystery as Birdy tries to find new villains who have escaped the federation onto Earth. It grows into much more as complications thicken the plot. There were quite a few surprising twists in the overall plot which made the show a good watch. Though the climax isn't as grand as the first series (could be a good thing), it was still very exciting. The conclusion is also very good and leaves room for possibly a 3rd season?

Character:
If you got tired of Tsutomu being a twerp in the first series, you're in luck. He does become a bit more mature but, for the most part, you just don't see him as much. Birdy, and her past, takes the center stage in this series, be it her present form or her (still amazingly strong) toddler form.

While there is some development with Birdy, it doesn't build to anything. Though the characters are still greatly enjoyable, it would have been nicer to see more development, and more of Shion.

Value:
This show is primarily an action-thriller and it delivers a decent dosage of it. It was an entertaining watch overall, and the few faults did not detract significantly from the flow of the show. Though slightly weaker than the original, this series is still worth the watch.