English Dub Season Review: Great Pretender Season Two

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After Japan’s greatest swindler, Makoto Edamura, meets Laurent Thierry, a super genius crook who commits crimes worldwide, the two of them wind up working together on criminal capers across the US, Singapore, and France. However, tempers run high and backstabbing is a basic everyday occurrence.

Despite pulling off a long string of successful jobs, Makoto ends up saying sayonara to Laurent and his crooked gang of ne’er-do-wells. He finds himself sent to Vietnam and Shanghai, right in the midst of a devious group that traffics children to rich and powerful people who aren’t afraid of the consequences. As Makoto investigates, he finds himself rejoining the web of deceit that ties him with Laurent — and learns that history isn’t something that always stays hidden in the past.

Our Take:

When Netflix released the first dozen or so episodes of Great Pretender back in August, the company called it season one. Now there’s a new batch of episodes on the streaming service, but despite being billed as a second season, this is actually the final half the first season if you’re going by the intended airing of the creators. That means that this is really more of the same: great animation courtesy of Wit Studio, competent direction by Hiro Kaburagi, and somewhat shaky writing from Ryōta Kosawa.

Having said that, these new episodes — thirteen in total — do manage to set themselves apart from ‘season one’ in some distinctly unique ways. Whereas the first release of the show had a few overarching capers that stretched between episodes, it felt more like a crime-of-the-week show in that classic Lupin the Third type of genre. For Netflix’s season two, however, the series upends that for the most part and digs deep with a caper that covers up much of the entire batch.

This allows for some really interesting things that might have felt out of place in the first season. Spending so much time on a single mystery allows the show to go deeper and investigate everything on a more philosophical level than previous outings. It doesn’t necessarily mean that things are less exciting, either, since the show packs a good number of smaller reveals leading up to the bigger conclusions. If you aren’t a fan of the trafficking storyline, though, this season could be rough to get through.

Another benefit to the series sticking with one main storyline for most of the season is that it allows for more exploration when it comes to the characters. Since Makoto has been personally affected by trafficking, this lends a special focus on his time in the far east that sees him growing as a person while introducing the audience to more of his backstory. This in turn makes him more relatable of a character, even when his actions aren’t always the wisest. Part of his struggle this season is balancing the pros and cons that Laurent and his team provides. Laurent may not be the main character, but he gets some significant screen time in this season filled with some personal revelations as well.

Of course, the production quality is just as good as the first season. With bright, punchy animation and well designed characters and backgrounds, Great Pretender is a joy to watch for animation fans who appreciate a good looking series. The dub didn’t impress me any more than the first season did, which is to say that it’s serviceable, but not one of my favorites when it comes to casting and acting.

After two seasons (or one long season depending on how you like to label things), Great Pretender has cemented its place in the action/crime/thriller genres as a show that’s sure to be recommended a lot in the years to come. While it didn’t stand out to me as much in the first batch of episodes, I think shaking things up with the overarching story and introducing more of a personal angle on things worked well in season two, and the characters come more into focus. That helps everything land with the weight it should. Colorful characters, thrilling capers, and a healthy dose of suspenseful surprises make the second season of Great Pretender just as good as the first season — if not a little better.