Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2 Review: Maintaining The Same Structure And The Same Productive Values
Starring: Gideon Adlon, Calum Worthy, Erica Lindbeck
Creators: Greg Johnson, Craig Kyle
Streaming Platform: Netflix (click to watch)
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
A little over a year ago, the first season of Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2, based on the franchise of the same name born with the Hollywood film of 2013, had surprised us positively. Despite the due limitations related to the budget and the use of a CGI certainly not flawless, and despite lacking the authorship of Del Toro’s film, the series represented a clear step forward compared to the film sequel Pacific Rim: The Revolt of 2018 and expanded the mythology of the world created by the Mexican director and screenwriter Travis Beacham, proposing itself as a very attractive product for both old and new fans.
Available on Netflix starting today, Tuesday 19 April 2022, the second season of the Polygon Pictures anime has the task of closing the circle of events introduced in the first seven episodes. Will she be successful? Find out by reading our review, but before continuing we warn you that there will be some spoilers related to the events narrated previously.
Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2: The Story
This new block of episodes picks up exactly where the first season ended a year ago, without any recap of past events and keeping the same opening theme, but above all the same creative staff. At the helm of production we therefore find showrunners and screenwriters Greg Johnson and Craig Kyle, the couple Hiroyuki Hayashi and Jae-hong Kim as general director and composer Brandon Campbell on the soundtrack. Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2 was born as a collaboration between the streaming giant and the American company Legendary Pictures, however the Japanese studio Polygon Pictures (Knights of Sidonia, Blame!), Chosen by the creators for its experience, is in charge of its realization. with the use of CGI and at the same time to maintain an aesthetic that is closer to that of the world of anime.
The number of episodes of the second season is equal to seven – the same as the first – which makes the duration of the entire series in line with that of a typical seasonal cour. At the end of the predecessor we were left with Hayley and Taylor Travis, the two protagonists traveling to Australia in search of their parents, victorious against Copperhead, the menacing Category IV Kaiju who destroyed their settlement, and incredulous of Faced with what they discovered: Boy, the dumb child with silver hair they found in a laboratory, is actually a human-Kaiju hybrid capable of transforming into a gigantic monster.
Both thus come to the realization that the Forerunners, or the creators of the Kaiju, are capable of producing human-like Kaiju. The second season of Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2 starts from this point. Hayley and Taylor, joined by the combative Mei, are always headed for the Sydney outpost, the only place where they can be truly safe, but once again on their journey they will not only have to face the threat of the Kaiju. The two brothers will also find themselves dealing with the Sisterhood, a mysterious cult formed by women only who venerates monsters and who wants to take possession of Boy, whom they consider the Messiah of the Kaiju.
Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2 And Analysis
The second season of Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2 puts an end to the story of the journey of the brothers Travis and the Jaeger they piloted, Atlas Destroyer, and it is in this statement that we could summarize the strengths and weaknesses of this last effort of the studio Polygon Pictures. Dwelling on the first aspect, the characters again represent the strength of the title, thanks to a convincing characterization in its simplicity and supported once again by the emphasis on themes such as family and ties, which become in effect the backbone of the show. Themes that involve all the main characters, starting with the two protagonists and the relationship with their parents, to which is now added Boy, a figure towards whom Hayley develops a delicate and moving maternal instinct.
However, we cannot forget about Mei, the mercenary who reconfirms herself as the most charismatic and successful character of the series and that precisely in the Taylor-Hayley couple she will find an unexpected refuge that will break through her heart as a cold and combative woman. The seven episodes of this second part propose a narrative structure very similar if not identical to that of the predecessor, with a good balance between the more adrenaline-fueled parts, dominated by the fights between Atlas Destroyer and the numerous Kaiju, and the more intimate and introspective sections, especially in the central part. The presence of some twists that make the story more sparkling is appreciable, even if one of these seemed too clumsy and predictable in its execution.
In general, the writing is certainly not the strong point of Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2, particularly in dialogues that are often cloying and full of self-serving jokes (not to mention embarrassing, as in the case of the AI Loa), and fails to make that of the Kaiju Sisterhood a credible and convincing threat. On the contrary, we are faced with a very weak villain and devoid of any kind of charisma.
As we said at the beginning of the paragraph, the second season (without making spoilers) is limited to concluding the journey of the two protagonists and the rest of the main group, leaving numerous points open destined in all probability to be deepened in future iterations of the franchise, at the moment. not yet announced but very likely in light of the aforementioned partnership between Netflix and Legendary Pictures. A choice that, while taking into account the overall playing time that is certainly not high available, still leaves a bad taste in the mouth after the good premises of the first part, and which in practice prevents the series from reaching its full potential.
Being a direct continuation of the events of the first season, even from a technical point of view the second part of Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2 does not change the status quo, maintaining the same virtues and the same vices that have characterized it so far. Therefore, what was highlighted in the review of the previous episodes remains valid.
Polygon Pictures proves for the umpteenth time to be at ease in the creation of action scenes, all engaging and adrenaline-pumping although not always supported by a direction to the height. Where, on the other hand, we continue to have problems, it is in the expressiveness and movements of the characters, but above all in the management of the much-criticized frame skipping to get closer to the fluidity of traditional animation. A technique that represents a real stylistic code and that allows the achievement of excellent results – think of the works of the Orange Studio (Houseki no Kuni, Beastars) – but that the Japanese company unfortunately still fails to implement in the best way.
The same goes for the soundtrack, good but far from memorable, while moving to the dubbing we can now give an opinion on the Japanese voices, absent from the Italian catalog on the release of the first part a year ago. This is a dubbing of excellent workmanship, which sees well-known names in the sector such as Yusuke Kobayashi (Subaru in the Re: Zero series) in the role of the protagonist Taylor Travis, and which we highly recommend if you do not have problems with subtitled viewing.
However, exactly as for the first seven episodes, even the dubbing in Italian, edited by Daniela Inserra and Marco Liguori, does not look bad in any way. The performances of Alex Polidori and Lavinia Paladino in the role of the Travis brothers they are convincing, as is that of Irene Trotta (Mei). On the other hand, it is difficult to express an opinion on that of the other characters due to their reduced presence on the screen.
Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2: The Last Words
Pacific Rim: The Black Season 2, while maintaining the same structure and the same productive values of the first part, fails to fully consolidate the good premises established at the end of the initial seven episodes. The journey of Taylor, Hayley and the gigantic mech Atlas Destroyer thus comes to an end without particular jolts and truly memorable moments, confirming the Japanese-American co-production as a decent action series for lovers of robots and Kaiju – without disdaining a bit ‘of psychological introspection – but which could have better exploited its potential in the hands of a more daring staff.
