English Dub Season Review: The Idhun Chronicles Part 2

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After joining the Resistance in the first season and fighting hard battles that resulted in the loss of a valued comrade, the Jack, Alsan, and Victoria split apart. With fresh war wounds in their hearts and minds, they couldn’t continue the fight as they once did. But where there is evil, good must rise up to meet it. Jack tracks down Alsan and they agree to revive the Resistance.

Meanwhile, Victoria and Kirtash are still involved in a relationship doomed for disaster. The evildoer has feelings for her, but can’t overcome his nefarious nature, battling Jack with the hope of killing him once and for all. It doesn’t quite quite as planned, and the Resistance must overcome more odds than ever before. But their powers and their relationships are stronger than before, and with help from characters like Victoria’s grandmother, the truth of the struggle is revealed as Jack and Victoria discover who they are truly meant to be.

Our Take:

When The Idhun Chronicles premiered on Netflix last year, it was a unique show on the surface. As Netflix’s first Spanish-produced show billed as an anime series, the show is based on a fantasy trilogy that’s popular in Spain. I was interested in seeing the result of the production, which was over two years in the making. The first season was comprised of five half hour episodes chronicling the rise of the Resistance against Ashran. Though it wasn’t obviously awful or anything, it did unfortunately suffer from too many genre cliches and bland characters and animation.

While those first five episodes did not make a strong case for another season, the series is based on three books, and it looks like Netflix may be going ahead and finishing them off, which is probably for the best — almost nobody likes to leave a story half-finished, regardless of how subpar it is. The new batch of episodes delivers on this front, moving the storyline forward in what feels like much faster ways than the first season did.

There are some new twists this season to keep things interesting: Kirtash has a new monstrous ally named Gerde who presents an ever bigger threat to the Resistance then last season. And the growing attachment between Kirtash and Victoria is explored much more. It’s kind of a weird quasi love triangle between Jack, Kirtash, and Victoria, and the deeper secrets revealed attempt to explain just why Victoria can’t bring herself to kill her enemy, and why she eventually makes the decision she does.

In its second season, The Idhun Chronicles continues its trend of having decent voice work and direction without ever accomplishing really flashy visuals. The show looks fine, but it never rises to heights that make me catch my breath or want to take a screenshot. But the battle sequences are bigger and better than before — this is a show that never lets up on the action.

Sometimes the middle arc of a series can suffer from too much build up without enough conclusion, but the show delivers on enough answered questions and future intrigue that fans of the series should be well satisfied. For the rest of us, I’m still not sure there’s enough in these new episodes to recommend starting from the beginning, but this second season has definitely progressed my opinion as new chances were taken and character’s relationships deepened. If this pattern persists, maybe I’ll be able to wholeheartedly recommended people pay a visit to Idhun by the time the possible third season wraps up.