Informa: Yami wo Ikiru Kemonotachi (2024)

The mayhem continues.

Season 2 picks up after a 2 year gap from the good times in season 1.

In this interval Mishima has done journalistically little of note as he is keenly avoiding having anything to do with Kihara. But a new case catches his eye - of criminals-on-hire, who murder an investor, steal a chip from him and then flee to Thailand. His supportive boss sends him to Thailand to cover the case where he crosses paths with Kihara. But is that by accident or did Kihara set him up? Why are the Thai gangsters and police behind them? Why are there Japanese thugs in Thailand? Who hired the murderers?

As in season 1, the writing and plot is wobbly. The plot, silly already, only moves forward because of bad decisions made by the characters and through contrived situations.
Example - The antagonist , who is shown to be very clever and strong, just leads the good-guys to the chip and is easily knocked out.

The pacing is odd. Episodes - at 30 mins length- have frenetic action scenes, prison breakouts, international escapes, characters getting seriously injured and recovering in the space of a week or two.
Then there is an entire episode that luxuriates over the backstory of the antagonist, something which could have been wrapped up in half the time.

What works is the thrilling action scenes, a fresh location and a good-looking cast. The story is easy enough to follow along. You can actually fast forward in a few places or switch off mentally , to find that you dont really miss much of importance and can easily understand whatever is playing out onscreen.
There is no sleaze, no intimate scenes, no nudity, no romance. So you can watch with family, if they can stand the mayhem.

Nearly all the cast from season 1 returns but they have very little screen time. The new cast and their shenanigans dominate. Standouts are Ikeuchi Hiroyuki who steals every scene that he is in, even in face-offs against the lead and Ninomiya Kazunari, who looks too young to be a senior cop and is equal parts earnest and untrustworthy.

The one change is that Mishima is now a whiny, super-annoying but still useless character. Where he was a naive-but-eager journalist in season 1, here he is just irritating. It is never clear as to what purpose he serves in this case where Kihara, Hirose and probably Tobio could have resolved it themselves.
Kihara also behaves maliciously. He implicates Mishima into a Thai prison filled with hardcore criminals without giving him a clue as to how the prison stint will help in sorting out loose ends.

You also have to accept leaps of logic. The leads are wanted criminals in Thailand. They escape from Thailand by helicopter. Back in Japan, life is back to normal in a day. Clearly Japanese police don't care to cooperate with their Thai counterparts in locking up lawbreakers.
Then there are point-blank shootouts involving machine guns and automatic rifles, where every single person dies - except the leads of course. There are plenty of such wtf or what-were-they-thinking moments.

But you will still enjoy it if you liked the characters from before. It builds out the universe and there are hints at another season with further adventures of Tobio, Hirose, Nikaido, Saeki and Kim. I'd watch it in a heartbeat if they continue with the formula of eye-candy actors. And maybe get rid of Mishima.

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