Neo Angelique Abyss: Second Age

Continuing where the first season left off, the sudden increase of Thanatos with the disappearance of the Aube Hunters has left Arcadia in ruin. Six months had already passed since the Hidamari mansion burned to ashes, and the Aube Hunters, once known as heroes, are now blamed for the appearance of Thanatos.

The Aube Hunters have been silently waiting for the awakening of Angelique, who has been asleep the entire time and wakes up with a miracle when the sun shines again. Desperation reigns high as the Religious Organization fights to battle the Thanatos. Nevertheless, hope still exists for the reappearance of the Queen's Egg one day, who will become the savior of Arcadia.

Neo Angelique Abyss: Second Age starts after a couple of months when Bernard is looking for Angelique, indicating that they lost her while escaping and fighting the Thanatos. The second season had my interest since the very start because I was already familiar with most of the characters, and the plot appeared to be excellent and mysterious. I was excited to see Rayne back in the first episode.

Although I was hoping it would take them some time to find Angelique, they found her quickly. Now the only thing keeping me interested was knowing what happened to Nyx-san. Characters started fighting and blaming each other when Angelique couldn't wake up for the past six months. Cliche. Little things like these are the only thing that indicates that the series involves romantic feelings; otherwise, there is no romance.

It was clear that something terrible had happened to Nyx-san, but to know that he was cursed to live for the past 200 years due to Erebos, an entity that is the personification of evil, while he lost his family was saddening. Another interesting point was the revelation that Angelique has to become the Queen to make everything right, but she will lose all her friends, a pretty big sacrifice since she values her friends the most. Both seasons did a great job portraying the importance of friends for Angelique, so this point was pretty emotional for me. Though, in my opinion, season two kills it with the character and emotional development.

My views over almost all the characters have changed as things proceed in the second season. Erenfried's passion for saving his superior, Yorgo, made me like him a little bit, and it was good to see him develop throughout the series. Throughout the series, I also felt terrible for Roche since he seemed to fall in love for the first time. Watching him talking with Bernard about how money and different girls every day don't sound very appealing anymore and spending his life with one girl he likes shows that he had genuinely fallen for Angelique and might not get over her for a long time.

Speaking of Bernard, the flashback of Bernard and Angelique was cute when he reminded her that he was the guy who took care of him when she lost her parents. Even though she calls him her brother, I feel like those two should have gotten together in the end, but I want her to end up with Rayne too!

Although Angelique is our protagonist, I was overly annoyed by the behavior of everyone toward Angelique. Everyone is always so concerned about her, which shouldn't be wrong, but they just totally overdid it! She was always treated as if she was a baby. She couldn't even shed a few tears without having 2 to 3 guys running around her, trying to pamper her. Although it was supposed to make her look strong, it slightly made me dislike her and did not give a strong image of her.

King Mathias is beautiful with his long greenish hair and beautiful smile. The relationship between him and Rene was fascinating, and it was heartbreaking to see him adoring Rene and getting killed by the Erebos to protect Rene.

It was sad to see his background story where he has to learn everything to be a leader when he had no such powers to be one and was only made a leader because the real leader wasn't born then. It was sad how they decided to get rid of him after the new leader was born. His story took a turn when he was selflessly leaving the city so that the real leader, Rene, could rule but at the last moment, he changed his mind.

I like the opening song of season 2 more than the previous one, although the ending song of the 1st season was better. The character art of season 2 was better than the last season, and the characters were drawn with shiny eyes! I like the hut where they were staying with unconscious Angelique. It gave ancient feelings and brought back memories. Now that Nyx-san was the villain in his not-so-composed form, he suddenly appeared to be a lot more attractive to me. He is also drawn very well and is seen in a good outfit that shows off his long slender body. It is still a little bit annoying to see everyone pampering Angelique.

Season 1 was goofier and carefree, and almost every episode would end up a happy event, but it was entirely different in season 2.

My first favorite scene was when Angelique woke up, and later that night, she heard a melody that Nyx-san used to play on his piano. She followed him and found him outside. He looked charming under the moonlight. His face and beautiful hair, along with puppy eyes and his body! Everything was just too good! The expressions of sadness and helplessness were embellished on his face, and the overall scene was beautiful. How he apologized for hurting Angelique showed that he was a kind person in his heart but was just helpless, so he asked her to kill him.

Another one of my favorite scenes was in episode 5 when Bernard revealed that he was Angelique's elder brother and took care of her when her parents died. The flashbacks were too cute and made me feel a little refreshed, while the ongoing situation was pretty grave and stressful. Little Angie was so attractive, and so was the young Bernard! The little flashback of them playing together, gardening, and going shopping shows that they used to be close, but he left the young child alone to become a newspaper reporter was a little weird. I wonder how Angelique never mentioned her elder brother before. The action scenes at the end of episode 12 were pretty good.

Episode 13 was exciting and contained the part where every character was trying to be deceived by the imposter of Angelique. Even I fell for it! But they did a pretty good job realizing that the real Angelique can't do this. Their flashbacks of memories were emotional, and those days felt good. The final fighting scene was so exciting, and Angelique looked so good fighting with the swords. Nyx fighting with his own Erebos was terrifying, but I am glad it all went well; however, I am still confused about where Nyx went and why he looked worried before disappearing.

The scenes were pretty good in the last episodes, and the anime ended well. Now that I had watched two seasons of this show, I was pretty much attached to the characters and felt a bit sad that it was over. It might've felt better to me if Angelique could stay with them. Yes, as much as I dislike Angelique at times, she was the glue that held this eye candy together, which is why I recommend this anime.