Few anime have mastered the art of absurdism quite as well as Kinnikuman. And for a wrestling anime, its love for the over-the-top makes total sense. In many ways, it'd be weirder if it weren't as weird as it is. Watching this show feels like you're watching a long compilation of ridiculous anime clips out of context—except you do have context. It's a cartoon-y classic that I'm glad to see is still around in the form of the Perfect Origin arc.

KPOA season 2 picks up right where the first left off: with our various fighters entering the pyramid ring, ready to start the next round of fights. And like the first, that's pretty much all this season is: a boss rush. And for Kinnikuman, that feels about right. I'm not faulting it for that. The fights were much better-paced than the first season. But I'm also going to have to deduct some points because, for the most part, as far as spectacle goes (which is pretty far in Kinnikuman), these fights didn't have the same level of pizzazz as the ones in the first season.

Whereas season one constantly left me mouth agape, I didn't get that as much from this second season. This isn't to say it never happened—because it did, at times—but it's like I mentioned earlier: a big part of Kinnikuman's appeal is spectacle and the sheer ridiculousness of it all. In this season, while there was some fun to be had, there was a prevailing feeling that this show had already played its hand and showed us its biggest tricks in the first season. Were there still some cool moments? Of course! But they paled in comparison to the ones in the first season, which, by contrast, felt like it was constantly throwing darts at a board full of random ideas and integrating the results, regardless of how much or little they made sense.

What this season lacked in spectacle, it tried to make up for by adding a few compelling story beats. And some of these worked better than others. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that the so-called “ending” of this anime barely feels like an ending at all. I had to triple-check that I wasn't missing anything when I finally reached the end; it felt so unlike an ending. Loose story threads aplenty, fully dangling in the wind before our eyes, satisfying resolution nowhere to be seen.

The visuals were a slight downgrade from the first season as well. To be clear, across both seasons, even the best visual moments haven't exactly been cinematic quality. But still, I think there's something to be said about how much of a feat it is that the visuals were consistently looking pretty good in a series from a franchise that, dare I say, has some of the most diverse character designs in all of anime. Unless you can think of another series that features (among other things) a cassette player and a spring that can walk, wrestle, and is completely sentient. That being said, for the most part, the visuals in this second season were similarly consistent in just looking alright despite the wide array of designs. But there were more than a few moments where it's not hard to notice a sharp and sudden, albeit brief, decline in the visual quality.

If anything can be said to be an upgrade from the last season, it's the soundtrack. Last season, we got an opening by Masaki Endō always brings the heat, and this anime's opening is a solid contender for being among my favorites of the year. Is it my favorite Endō opening? No, but it speaks to his talent that even what I'd call a mid-tier Endō opening is still a great, catchy, and tone-setting song. The ending theme, meanwhile, is a hilarious ode to Kinnikuman's love of gyudon. Honestly, I miss when anime characters having a trademark food was a relatively common thing.

While not as fun as the first season, this was still a solid enough follow-up. What it lacks in spectacle, it tries to make up for in having a bit more story. But unfortunately, as it stands here, the story feels wildly incomplete. Still, if all you want is wrestling but anime, you've found it. Kinnikuman is where subtlety goes to die, and I love that about it.