Prequel

OVA, 2018, 1 ep,4.73(190),6.17(190)

Sequel

TV Series, 2022, 28 eps,6.52(245),6.95(246)

OVA, 2009-2010, 3 eps,5.44(1069),6.80(1073)

TV Series, 2006, 26 eps,7.23(6658),8.02(6769)

bypudsley on2020-09-18 10:19

This was a difficult watch for me, having watched the original back in 2006 and a number of times since. It took me a while to get through this despite starting in 2016 when it first aired. I couldn't get past the fact that most of this series was literally just an ever expanding group of cute girls throwing tantrums, falling in love and generally abusing the main character.

I eventually finished, this show does flesh out the world of the original and adds details to the Iceman’s story but ultimately doesn’t go anywhere. Maybe the new series on the way will help justify this one’s existence.

byHelemar on2016-08-17 00:37

This was not a sequel. At best it had cameos from a few characters in the previous series.

This tells a very different story, one which could be called a similar setting, but in my mind, it betrays a lot of what the previous series was.

This was very light hearted, amusing, and had great moments early on. As the series progressed, it became darker and less enjoyable for me.

If you enjoyed the previous series, you may find this enjoyable, but I wouldn't put it at the top of a watch list.

bysammy321 on2016-06-29 22:53

This started off strong and mysterious, but as the series progressed the plot became sloppy. The 1st season was good, but this felt like a standalone series rather than a sequel. Another season could be made with the way it ended, but this is for fans of this anime.

bymerwix on2016-06-12 19:20

Sadly it doesn't live up to it's name. Still it's an interesting story although the ending leaves us at the beggining of it. Probably created solely as an advertisement of game. If you are fan of the series you will enjoy it, if not...

byFlapdesappels on2016-01-04 00:20

This is season 2 but follows a different story, you can watch it perfectly fine without having watched the first. I wouldn't recommend it though, because the first was much better.

The story takes place in the same world, some time (decennia?) after S1. While S1 provided us with a great story and good character development, S2 decided to focus more on comedy and fanservice (with still a decent light story). Lots of cute girls, way more moe than in S1, all kinds of old jokes (oh no I accidentely fell on your boob - stuff).

In its own right, as a fanservice comedy anime, it is great.

I'll edit this recommendation after the show has finished airing (this is up to ep 17)

byMistwalker07 on2016-01-02 22:20

Having seen up to episode 18 I would call this the comical version of the original anime, if nothing else you will laugh your heart out at a lot of the scenes in each episode.

bySilverOrlov on2019-05-25 13:16

At First, to call this series the sequel - mistake. Yes, it is after old TV, but this is a story about different country by almost at 90%. About country from old TV and those characters here they recall only almost at the end of the series and only 2-3 episodes.
...
Secondly, what kind of wild nonsense is happening here? I am not speaking about the banal and annoying harem(when they will be tired of creating this stupid harems? How many normal harems do you know after all?). I am speaking now about the main character - in the beginning is "served" as some kind of genius, but in the end, when he is needed to come up with a plan, he just giving some random nonsense ideas. And what the *** with his girlfriend? She is...
...
Generally, it can be interesting to watch as some typical fantasy anime, but previous TV was MUCH! better.

byirohma on2016-07-05 17:36

Review
God. What the hell is this? What the fu*k did they do with Utawarerumono? Seriously. Look at that, look at the promotional art. Not a single character with a weapon, all girls look the same, three lolis, four if you consider not even the main heroine looks like an adult, a happy-face protagonist, clothing that remind us of schools, Hinata Inn in the background. Really. What goes on in the minds of creator these days? Were they not happy enough to turn the dystopian mist-filled Last Exile into a moe adventure of Fam Fam Fam? Was it not enough to turn the shounen Eureka Seven into a mindless and senseless rip-off of Evangelion? No? They need more? Damn!

Let remind you, Utawarerumono was far from being a masterpiece, but it was a surprisingly good medieval fantasy show that kept fanservice to a mininum and preferred to tackle war and conquest instead of trying to be a dating sim with cat-girls. It had a good depth, the cast that initially felt generic grew out to be fun, and it was rigidly paced and structured in arcs so it never derailled into nonsensical ecchiness or stupidity. Those feats were even more impressive when you learn the show was based on an erotic dating sim. Now, however, we come to this...

Utawarerumono: Itsuwari no Kamen (Utawarerumono 2) is a needless sequel of the first, narrating events further in the timeline of the kingdom of Tuskuru and the mysterious land of Yamato, where the protagonist, Haku, wakes up with no memory of his past. He joins the traveling healer and merchant Kuon while trying to understand the world around him and learn more about his shrouded past.

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1. Utawarerumono: Going Wrong in Every Turn
   If you've seen Utawarerumono or read my review about it, you will understand that one of the strong points of that show was building itself based on a eroge adaptation yet ending up being a pretty serious medieval fare about war and rise to power. It had all the elements to go wrong, like cat-girls in the thousands, an annoying generic protagonist, and a visual novel script to follow. It succeed. But what if it went wrong? What if it fell into the trap of fanservice? What if it used the catgirls to promote ecchi scenes one after the other? What if the protagonist turned out to be a harem-lead with a girl-magnet attached to his ass? What if it never progressed its plot and ended up as a mediocre slice-of-life harem-building comedy? Well. Now you have the answer: Utawarerumono 2.
   
   Utawarerumono: The Hot Springs
   Seriously. Five starting episodes. Six bath scenes. The final ratio may be an average of at least one hot springs scene with a semi-nude girl per episode, a new record for sure. Kuon and her spirited behavior who loves hot springs puts her into one at every opportunity. Then we have the loli princess who is all cutie-cutie but has perverted thoughts of an yaoi fangirl who ends up in a hot springs. There is also a girl with moe-esque voice-acting, annoying as hell, impossibly unsupportable... who ends up in a hot springs. Then a super smart 10 (8? 6?)-year old loli who ends up in a hot springs. Then yet another loli princess with genki behavior.... who ends up in a hot springs. Well... then we get a few cameos of the older girls from Utawarerumono... but they end up in a fuc*n hot springs. God. Damn.
   
   Utawarerumono: Screw its Prequel
   Not even cameos from the previous season are safe. Karula, the girl who provided the single naughty scene back with Hakuoro, now instantly appears naked and provocative for sex with the protagonist. Touka, the righteous girl from the first season who lacked wisdom to see the truth of things and was stuck with a code of conduct became the blushing cutie that is all about comedy and naughty thoughts now. No one is safe. The guys, like Benawi and Oboro in the first season, are hardly the focus here, leaving the interesting male roles they had to two guys...
   
   Utawarerumono: Bring on the Annoying guys
   Remember Teorio from season 1? That happy guy who helped Hakuoro in the beginning and died after warning about the attack on the village? Well, he got promoted. Ukon takes his place, the old-carefree-man who has a top position and works in favor the protagonist Haku. Haku, specifically, is Hakuoro turned-into-harem lead, with a behavior typical to highschooler protagonists who care nothing about life, trying to be comical from time to time but never ever doing a half-decent job. He is boring as hell, his seiyuu turns him even more annoying with his never-urgent behavior, and his comical sidekick is a clown-like homossexual mage that could easily work as an old-school clown for any circus in the modern world. Nice try. Maybe it would be better if they removed the male element of this moe show if this is what it can provide.
   
   Utawarerumono: The Mask of Moe
   Eruru provided the cuteness of the first season along with Aruru, the child who acted like a child. Now we have a K-On troupe on the road. Kuon can be interesting even if she only wants to drag everyone to hot springs, but the others... god. Atui is the worst of the lot, the dumb cute with a forced speech, lots of "oni-san" and easily one of the most annoying voice-acting of the last few years (along with Mio from Walkure Romanze). Her seiyuu did a decent job for Albedo in Overlord and Marielle in Log Horizon, so we know is not her fault, but the fault of a terrible direction. Nekone is the most traditional template of loli-genius, she adds nothing new to her template and is just there for the sick fanservice. Rurutie tries to be the most comical of the harem girls, another loli, another princess (yes, all of them are princesses, as in Disney princesses). She, however is an yaoi lover hidden in the skin of a absurdly cute doll-princess. People use the world "fujoshi" for this template, I use the words "sh*tty character".
   
   Join these loli harem with ecchi versions of the old girls like Karula, Touka, Aruru, Urotori, and Kamyu and you have a cast capable of destroying multiple shows at the same time. They however, are all together in this soup of terror. Ah, and let's not forget the addition of twins, one tanned and other milky white, both half-naked spellcasters with bodies of a 12-year-old. Yes. That's why we love Japan.
   
   Utawarerumono: No War
   Oh. There's that as well. I mean, they try at least. After spending half the series swarming Haku with the moe-troupe, the show moves on the plot, which involves half a dozen of flashy generals who defintely make Benawi and Genjimaru cry in the backstage because they are a bunch of sad excuses for shounen powers and ridiculous character designs.
   
   Utawarerumono: A Beautiful Bunch of Girls
   White Fox remains as a studio to have its worth tested. This time they succeed in crafting charming girls and providing some beautiful scenes and close-ups, but animation is still not their strong point. Combats are basic, the guys have basically zero expression power and the girls can only look cute (no girl ever look mad or evil in this tale), and movement as whole is limited to quality only when CG elements are involved. The beginning of the show looks much better than the rest as it slowly loses sharpness and attention to detail throughout episodes.
   

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Comments
Why? Why did they bother to recall a successful show and make a sequel as shi*y as this? The promotional art gave me an insight about the storm of feces that was coming my way, but I had hope it would surprise me as the first Utawarerumono did. My hopes to see a bit more of the Dynasty Warriors-inspired show with powerful generals and war went numb after a few episodes, when three girls already swarmed the protagonist, promising this to be more of an ecchi show than Love Hina or Girls Bravo.

I wouldn't have a problem if this were simply a love-comedy harem. I was ready for that in the first season, but for my surprise it was something entirely different and it gave me hope this sequel would follow the same trail. There's no hope however. Like what happened to Last Exile and Euruka Seven, this sequel picks a serious show and turns into a 24-episode long ecchi filler of it, with the only good job being in making the girls look cute and disgustingly childish for the bizarre fetishes of the audience. 10-year-old cat-girls naked? It seems this sells the best these days, a sick thing if you ask me.

Anyway, if you come expecting more Utawarerumono, get away. This is an ecchi moe show about cat girls using characters from Utawarerumono as cameos and bait to the audience. Warfare? Conquest? Rise to power? Nah. Why have these things? Why have a massive white tiger with steel-strong fur when you can have a huge gay pigeon who falls in love with the protagonist? People want half-baked comedy and naked girls, so this is what you have. Enjoy it.