The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Season 2 [SUB] (2018) Review

 The Disastrous Life of Saiki K Season 2 [SUB] (2018) 8/10

Hey guys. Today I’ll be going over the second season of Saiki K. This season ran from January 17 - June 27, 2018, with the season clocking in at 24 episodes long. I’ll also be going over “season 3” which is just a 2-part series finale as well which aired on December 28, 2018. So this season spruced up on some of my issues with season 1. There’s an actual plot for certain episodes despite this being a comedy based show, but the ending was unsatisfactory. Let’s begin.

So this season takes place one week after the events of season 1 aka the Christmas party. There’s not a whole lot that happens in this season besides the addition of three more characters. There’s Mikoto Aiura, another psychic and honestly my favorite character in the show. She’s a fortune teller that can predict the future with the utmost accuracy. She can also read people’s auras and get to know them just by doing this. Next is Rifuta Imu, a new freshman to PK Academy. She’s the “cutest” girl in school, at least she thinks this until she meets Teruhashi. After seeing her elegance, Rifuta makes it her goal to crush Teruhashi in some petty beauty battle. I’ll be honest, I couldn’t give two shits about her. I feel like she was only added to give Teruhashi another dynamic in the show. The last character that is introduced this season is Akechi Touma. Akechi is another transfer student and he has a history with Saiki. Apparently Saiki and Akechi were classmates back in second grade and he has some excellent detective skills but he LOVES to hear himself talk. He deduced that Saiki has psychic powers, but could never prove it. He transferred to PK Academy to confront Kusuo about this.

There’s a couple of characters from season 1 that I never went over, so let’s discuss them as well. In season 1, we got introduced to Mera Chisato, Aren Kuboyasu, Yuuta Iridatsu, Metori Saiko, and Kusuo’s brother Kusuke. So Mera is the broke glutton that attends PK Academy. She works many jobs but always seems to be poor. She’s a great comic relief and there are some touching moments with her. Kuboyasu is another one of my favorite characters. He’s a former gang member trying to live the straight and narrow, but keeps getting thrown back into his old life. You actually feel bad for him as he’s trying to live a peaceful life. Although sometimes he gets pissed and wants to let his anger explode. He’s honestly a great character and I wish he got more screen time. Yuuta is the child that lives right next to Saiki’s house. Sometimes Saiki will babysit him for money, but Saiki accidentally showed his powers to him and now Yuuta thinks he’s his favorite superhero, Cyborg Cider-Man No. 2. Yuuta idolizes Saiki and he keeps calling him Cyborg Cider-Man No. 2. Yuuta was a decent character and I enjoyed his inclusion into the show. Next is Saiko. He’s the rich billionaire that only transferred to PK Academy so that he can ask Teruhashi out. Obviously she rejects him because she has eyes for Saiki, but he has a decent character arc. He’s still a rich snob, but he eventually understands that money doesn’t buy friendship, which was nice to see. The last character I want to go over is Kusuo’s brother Kusuke. Kusuke has an inferiority complex towards his younger brother. Kusuke is a certified genius as he’s the one that built Kusuo’s power restrainer and a fake cat for his mother, who is allergic to cats. Kusuke has also never won a single game against Kusuo, so he’s become somewhat obsessed with breaking that record. Kusuke was a surprising addition to the show. He’s an asshole, but you can’t help but feel for him, with him living with an all powerful psychic that constantly triumphs over his successes.

So there’s some plot points I want to go over. First in Mikoto’s introduction episodes. Mikoto transferred to PK Academy to find her “mister right” aka her soulmate. Her soulmate is Saiki, but because his aura is so huge, she couldn’t find that out. Eventually Saiki told her he’s a psychic after saving Yumehara’s life. I like their dynamic together and I can see them getting together sometime in the future. Next is Akechi’s arc. Like I said earlier, Akechi has excellent detective skills and deduced that Saiki has psychic powers. Eventually Akechi confronts Saiki about this at his house. After getting dangerously close, Saiki petrifies him in stone and tries to change the past so that his secret doesn’t get unveiled (Saiki can travel back in time if he removes his inhibitor). Saiki eventually fails and he is forced to spill the beans on his powers. Akechi vows to keep the secret since Saiki healed him back in elementary school. The final plot point I want to go over was in the series finale. Saiki has to stop a volcano eruption from destroying Japan. In the past, he couldn’t stop it because he wasn’t strong enough, so he put the world in a time loop, which allowed him to mature his powers. He put the world in this time loop 4 times and he’s like “enough of this. I’m putting an end to this so that everyone else can look forward to their futures.” After all of this, Saiki gets rid of his powers through a device his brother made and wants to reveal his powers to his friends. I won’t spoil the ending as one thing happens which leaves the show on a cliffhanger, but I’ll say this: This ending kind of sucked. I feel like Saiki should’ve waited to get rid of his powers until after he told them. Idk, I just feel like the writers could’ve done something different to end the show this way. Yes I know about Saiki K: Reawakened, but this was supposed to be the original ending for the series. Either way, this ending didn’t sit right with me.

So each episode is separated into shorts, just like season 1, with each short having a title card. I liked these new title cards. Helped bring some of the characters to life a little more. Art style and animation are roughly the same as before. I do feel like season 2 looks better than the first.

The new opening songs are actually great. Opening 3 “Silent Prisoner” has no right being that funky. And I love the animation for it. It shows Kaido dreaming about his hyperactive imagination and how he’s unleashing his “ultimate power”. Opening 4 “Oteage Psychics” is also a banger and seeing the cast dance to it is humorous every time. Also shout out to the final Ending song “Duet Shitekudasai”. This has no right bopping that hard. The ending is a sing off between Teruhashi and Mikoto to try to earn Saiki’s love. It’s hilarious and very well done.

And since there was no English dub available to me, I was forced to watch the original Japanese dub. I’m pretty sure I missed some of the background jokes, but regardless I enjoyed myself here. Best performances go to Hiroshi Kamiya (Kusuo Saiki), Daisuke Ono (Nendou), Ai Kayano (Teruhashi), and Eri Kitamura (Aiura).

My only gripes with the season are the ending and I wish a couple of characters got more screen time (such as Kuboyasu and Mikoto) and I feel like Rifuta wasn’t necessary for the show. They could’ve used her time for Mikoto and Kuboyasu. Other than this, the season is great. The jokes are better and the characters feel a bit more fleshed out. If you enjoyed season 1, then I highly recommend checking out this season too. Until my next review, stay frosty.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time.

This is Zorgak, signing off.