Im starting this review off with a warning similar to what I gave for season one. The point of Diabolik Lovers as an otome series as a show and as a collection of drama CDs is to be taboo toxic and violent. These games straddle the line between SM fantasies and genuine abuse. Often very clumsily. The abuse that Yui our protagonist goes through the metaphorical rape nonconsensual bloodsucking and the themes of self harm dehumanization and corruption are supposed to be titillating. I dont think these should be held against the anime and this review isnt negative because of the subject matter. If thats not your thing then dont watch And if that is your thing then you should still play the games instead of watching this anime. Before I start getting negative I do want to praise the show on two things that its done better. The first is the art style I cant tell if its actually gotten better but I thought it felt noticeably more confident this season. Character designs felt more natural the environments were genuinely pretty at times and byinlarge I thought this season felt a bit higher budget than the first. The second is that they actually attempt to tell a coherent intriguing narrative this time It falls flat on its face but its the thought that counts. Even the slower more boring segments still felt like they were building to something. Diabolik Lovers II: More Blood falls into the same issues that season one does how do you make a compelling anime with a gigantic cast of 12 12 love interests with characters known for 10 hour long game routes and fit it all into a combined three hours of screen time? The answer is You cant. Diabolik Lovers II: More Blood is dealt an impossible hand and tries the best it can. But ultimately even more than season one season two feels like a conveyor belt of fangirl moments. Each episode is split roughly in half with each half being a single big scene from one of the visual novels. However this means that unless you already like the boys or know the specific scene thats being referenced theres little buildup or context for whats happening. One moment Yui is being held at knife point by one of the new boys begging her to hurt him. The next shes faint and being carried down a hallway while two boys argue. The next shes out in a rose garden being fed on by another boy. And because we never get much time with any of the characters we never see how they grow and change. One of the big things that sells the romance in the visual novels is how much the vampire youre dating changes over time. They become sweeter kinder more overtly into you. The abuse never really goes away in most routes but its a sort of enemiestolovers growth that adds some needed depth to each of the characters. Diabolik Lovers II: More Blood doesnt have enough time to do this and as such most of the abusive scenes just feel like abuse. Everyone hates Yui up until theyve all done their abusive scenes with her and now suddenly everyone cares about her a little bit because everyone needs to have some mildly sweet scenes. Speaking of the characters this anime made the baffling decision to try and merge the plots of two entire games Diabolik Lovers: More Blood and Diabolik Lovers: Dark Fate. Why?? Diabolik Lovers: More Blood unlike the first game had a strong narrative element already. The four new boys the Mukamis want to kidnap Yui as part of a biblical Adam Eve scheme. This leads to conflict combat and plenty of character interactions between the new cast and the old one. Diabolik Lovers: Dark Fate meanwhile deals with a completely different plot involving two more boys the Tsukinamis attempting to kidnap Yui for their own reasons. Why attempt to introduce both of these groups at the same time? I dont understand it. I could go on but ultimately Id be spoiling or repeating myself. On a visual level Diabolik Lovers II: More Blood is an improvement over season one. But in every other aspect its either the same or worse. The plot is halfassed the character moments only hit as extensions of the games the pacing is even more rushed hardly anything has time to be explained and the violence feels a fair bit more tame than the first season. If youre not already a fan of the Diabolik Lovers franchise absolutely skip this one. And even if you are a fan if you didnt enjoy the first season either ironically or unironically then youre not missing anything here. Youll get far more out of playing the game than you will watching Diabolik Lovers II: More Blood. Also the fact that it ends on a season three tease infuriates me. They really thought this had legs huh?