The story or setting hasn’t changed much if at all. They are still in the same college and are still making fermented foods. Guess you kind of have to or the microbes wouldn’t have much of a part in the show. Anyway, Oikawa is still left in the dark about Sawaki’s gift to see and speak with microbes. This keeps the two in a side love story that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. Well, we will just wait and see if it becomes anything later one. Other than that, it just seems its school life like normal here.

One of the first things that changed was the character designs. As of right now, I’m not digging them. These feel like they lost some of the budget they had from the first series. A lot lower quality then what I was hoping for. The first series seemed very detailed and polished. Whereas this just seems that they got just enough money to put on the show. They do seem to give detail where it’s due but it just makes it a little off in my eyes to keep going back and forth between detailed and bear minimum. The top thing that is going to drive me insane is Kei’s eyes. They are soul piercing! The wide eyed look is just so creepy all the time! Everyone else in the series seems fine but Kei’s just get to me. Also my poor Hasegawa, her hotness from the first season has been demoted too. This makes me a very sad boy because Hasegawa was one of my top most attractive anime characters of all time.

In the first part of the episode we start out in a very cartoon-y style of antics. Now I know that the first season had some of this here and there, but with everything else I was seeing it worried me that they were not going to be taking this seriously. Good thing that during the rest of the episode we do not see much more of it. The episode does start to educate about half way through. Going into the specifics on how rice grains are polished (worn down) to a certain percent to make different types of sake. But the information that is coming at you is coming at alarming speeds. It was hard for me to keep up if at all with what they were saying or driving at. This is where if you have some knowledge already on these things, it would do you good here to keep with the pace of the show. Hell, I do have knowledge and was still confused...

Opening song and animation went well together. I liked the animation but the song was just nice. Not sure how else to put it. It’s not like I will be going out and finding the single to jam to nor will I be watching the opening on every episode. I just think it’s, nice. Now that ending theme was something straight out of Animaniacs. That was the first thing that came to mind when they started singing the rundown of the microbes. Either that, or I have just watched too many cartoons in my life and they are starting to blend together. Oh well, poor me.

By the end, I was satisfied with everything I had seen. It still a fun show with educational bits in it that will hopefully peak your interest more on how Japan makes and treats its food. I know I will certainly test my knowledge on each episode to see if I remember is right or not. If you are a fan of the first season, then I wouldn’t worry too much on the second. If you are new to the series, they do introductions in the beginning so it doesn’t seem that hard to just jump on in. There is also the return of the Microbe Theater at the end as well to cram a little more learning in.