You might recall that in my review of the first volume, I gave Legend of Himiko a fairly positive appraisal. Sure, it was a little clichéd and the dialogue wasn't all that, but overall I found it to be a nice, brainless little diversion for fantasy fans. Having reminded you of that, I have something to share with you: if I had not been watching this show for reviewing purposes, I would not have finished this disk. That's not to say it is a bad show; it's just that I found this second installment to be gratuitously mediocre.

The main problem with the series is the entire lack of character development. In the first volume, the characters were all archetypes, but that was okay as they were still setting down the premise for the show. Now that the plot is moving at full force, they've moved on from archetypes to almost stereotypes, as each character is acting and speaking just like similar characters we've all seen before. This is especially apparent in Imari, who can't seem to get past the fact that she is a tough-girl warrior with strong loyalties. And that's it; we learned basically nothing else about her. Now, I admit there are some character-based "revelations," but I found them to be neither surprising nor out of the given archetype. However, they do earn bonus points for shelving the needless cute creature sidekick.

Plot-wise, the series is still very linear, but things are improving. The first half of the disk was pretty much what we've seen before, but almost grating in predictability and bad plot choices. The one plot tangent I greatly enjoyed (Himiko staying with one of the Great Four) was brought to an abrupt end towards the beginning of the disk, moving things into a more generic good-guys-together-against-bad-guys setup that isn't exactly captivating. Admittedly, the series did pick up the pace during the end of the disk, when things finally started to get moving and slightly interesting, but on the whole I felt cheated and left with a lot of could-have-beens.

Aside from the main plot, there is also a subplot that was briefly shown in the first volume: two of the queen candidates, Nerd Girl and Chun Li Girl, are searching for the "ultimate weapon." It receives more screen time in this volume and therefore its main flaw becomes awfully apparent: it's really not that important. It was obviously tacked on for fans of the two queen candidates from the video game, but really it doesn't work that well even if treated as an omake inserted in the middle of the show. Sure, it has its cute points, but I seriously could have done without.

The voice acting in this volume seems to have stepped up a notch, as the seiyuu have gotten more accustomed to their roles. Otomiya Tsubasa seems to especially have improved her inflections as the title character, although at times I still felt she was changing emotions much too quickly (this might have been more of a problem with the writing). However, Seki Tomokazu, in what has to be his one-millionth performance in an anime, has been seriously been missing the mark with the character of Kutani. Seki has a small range for such a popular seiyuu, with either playing it calm and silent or loud and spastic. Here he goes for the latter option, and it comes off a little too cartoony.

The presentation of the disk is solid, though not spectacular in the least, with mostly just more of the same from last volume. The packaging itself is nice and colorful, but also highlights two of the more unnecessary characters from the series. The video quality is up to par, as well as the music and sound effects. However, I did find one messy problem with the audio (though this may be the fault of my own DVD player): whenever someone is speaking while offscreen, the volume goes very soft, presumably to give the effect that we are where the camera is. However, it's terribly annoying and very ineffective given that the speaking character is usually very close to the camera, just not in front of it.

When all is said and done, one fact remains: Legend of Himiko is an average show. While it started decently and had a few good ideas, it is now completely mired in poor characterization and been-there-done-that plot conventions. It isn't bad, though, and I'll even concede that I had a bit of fun towards the end. It should also be noted that I enjoyed it more when I watched it lying on a pile of pillows with a bowl of popcorn than I did when I was sitting up and completely focused, so the frame of mind of the viewer may alter the satisfaction. Predictable fluff, I give Legend of Himiko a very hesitant recommendation.

Video Quality: A
Audio Quality: A
Presentation: B
Content: B-
Overall: B