Jan 15 2010 12:52 AM Considering the novels ended on November 19, 2009, it's no surprise to see the final episode a bit rushed. The animation was also a bit off, but the finale wasn't all that bad. It wasn't something grand or epic like what we saw a few episodes back, but definitely more along the lines of what I expected rather than hoped.
Rating the second series individually:
Asura Cryin' 2's plot completely takes the plot from season 1 to a whole new level, to the extent that it could be rather confusing if details are not paid attention to. There's a lot of terminology and requires completion of watching the first season to comprehend anything going on in the second season. The show starts out really slow with fillers here and there, and that was the primary turn off of the second season that drove many people away, especially those who were already sorely disappointed with the first season. Not knowing that the novels would end while the show was airing gave the show lesser sympathy for the fact that it would drag a little bit at times to prevent catching up with the novels too fast as it seems.
Art and animation was rather inconsistent. They were solid for the really good episodes, but very poor for decent/mediocre/bad episodes unfortunately. Although it's Seven Arcs, they can definitely do better than that, especially after their animation for White Album and Nanoha.
Music was a great aspect of this show and was sorely disappointed when they chose to play Spiral instead of Alternative in the final episode. Nevertheless, that is not really a factor that should degrade the series. Overall, the musical score was solid throughout the series. angela's mixture of songs were a huge plus for this series and its great to see her back in full swing like she was in 2004.
Character development was another great aspect of this show. We, the audience, were introduced to many new characters in the show, all of which got decent to solid development on who they were and why were they important regardless of how minor of a character they were. If there was one thing that bothered me, it would be Tomoharu's demon powers considering it essentially showed up once and never came back. That aside, there was really not much left to complain. It's a shame that Ania never stayed in her older demon form though
Enjoyment: Season 2 was an absolute blast for the most part. It started out sluggish after leaving off with a relative cliffhanger from season 1 and dwelled for about 2-3 episodes. After that, things kept happening one after another with good cliffhangers and plots hinted but unexplained. Around the middle of the series was where everything went from sluggish to epic. Things one would never expect to happen in this series occurred and made it worth watching. Although a bit late to have occurred if judging the series as a whole, episode 7 (20) of the series was something that was needed long ago...or at least something of that caliber. Things stayed steady for a while and then we came to a satisfactory conclusion, so it wasn't all bad.
Overall, Asura Cryin' is severely underrated. People never gave it enough time most likely due to the typical high school ecchi comedy factor along with mechs and ghosts, which are usually turn offs for most people in this age when it doesn't involve gundam. Obviously there is no season 3 given how the series ended and that the novels have ended as well. It definitely was one of the better gems of 2009 and I'm glad I saw it through to the end. Definitely a recommended series for people looking to try something new.
8/10 
