Anime: Magi: The Kingdom of Magic 5v6q3f

Note: This review only covers the second season of Magi. Thus this review may be missing some comments that I found better to leave for the first season. To fully understand my analysis I recommend reading both reviews.

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Review
Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic (Magi S1) was basically a show with a refreshing start and a boring, long middle to late part. It tried to bring back some of the crazy stuff from the late 90's, reminding us of nonsensical shows like Maze and Bakuretsu Hunters, but in the end it only served to do some good as a default shounen with super powers.

Magi: The Kingdom of Magic (Magi S2) takes off where the first season stopped, promising us, as the name implies, not stuff about the labyrinths that were core of the first part, but about kingdoms, wars, and large-scale events. The setting was already established and consolidated: a medieval fantasy land with clashing nations, super-powerful heroes, lots of magic and many intriguing secrets. However, can Magi S2 deliver something better than the average season one? The answer is yes, but with a few inconveniences.

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1. Kingdoms? More about school...
   As far as the first half of this season goes, it could be called Magi: The School of Magic, because that's basically what happens. Alladin goes to the Kingdom of Magnostadt, which is basically a magic school, enrolls there and meet some new guys while Alibaba and Morgiana go separate ways to solve their own problems.
   
   The issue here is that Magi S2 basically toss Alibaba and Morgiana aside, showing about two episodes of each and focusing entirely on Aladin's events in the magic school. He tries to understand the motivations behind the leaders of the magic kingdom, learn more about his true origins and train to become a more powerful mage.
   
   Yet it is done nicely
   Although you will want to see war, magical combat, epic fights, and so on, the first half manages to be intriguing on its own. It gives us a more fragile and serious Aladin, teaches us more about the setting and slowly presents us to the new cast so we can start to like them and see them as more than just colorful templates for superpowers. It gets even better when the true action kicks in, making us cheer for some of these new characters and waiting for the return of the old ones, like what was done in Gundam Seed Destiny (considering the proportions).
   
   The Drama
   Maybe the best thing this second season does is embracing something more than just plain superpower shounen. It is in fact quite a dramatic introspection to a kingdom that suffers with magic, characters with personality clashes and an Aladin that starts to see the world for more than just a gran adventure with Alibaba and Morgiana. There are lots of dramatic scenes, sad events, tears, and other stuff not normally common to this kind of show, which is a nice turn for those who were tired of the last part of season one. Sadly, moving Alibaba and Morgiana to the sidelines also means you don't get much comedy as before.
   
   And it ends with a decent, although rushed, shounen finale
   After long episodes in the magic school, the show finale returns to its shounen roots and delivers the large-scale combats we where expecting. Sadly, what happens in this part is a speedy rush into solving thousands of problems at once in about 6 to 8 episodes. Dozens of characters pop into scene, mighty villains instantly appear and stuff that you would expect only to be solve in a third season are suddenly brought to screen and solved with unremarkable generalism. While this finale is not exactly disappointing, it could have used more episodes from the school part to feel less rushed, which is basically the complete opposite of what happened with the first season finale.
   

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Comments
Magi S2 is a better part of the promising show that aired in 2013. While it still doesn't deliver what it could, it does manage to do a great job at being more mature and serious while retaining its shounen heart and small bits of its comedy roots. The fleshing out of the new character is greatly done for the genre and the school part is surprisingly interesting (especially considering it IS a damn school), so anyone who felt the first season dragged for too long will be very happy to watch this new season. The show, however, never hits beyond the average line, especially because its flashy cast, stereotyped villains and heroes, and many other elements yells of basic shounen everywhere.

Those who were expecting a improvement over the first half can rest assured, but anyone who thought this could be an awesome groundbreaking shounen may prefer to avoid it.