Anime: Moonlight Mile 2nd Season: Touch Down

'Moonlight Mile - Touch Down' continues off where the first season left off, documenting Gorou and Woodbridge's space and lunar expeditions in the near future, 2017.

The first season focused on Gorou and Woodbridge's quest to reach space. After they conquered highest mountains in the world, topping off with Mount Everest, the two ambitious men set out to the final frontier, space. 'MMS2' is their actual accomplishments in space, and their race to the moon through two different routes: International Space Agency for Gorou, and U.S. military for Woodbridge.

The greatest loss this season was the rivalry between Gorou and Woodbridge. They do think about their former mountain climbing partners and even occasionally mumble "I'll be waiting for you on the moon" etc, but there was zero direct interaction between the two. In fact, Gorou was still unaware of his rival's presence in space to the very end. Also gone is interaction with Riyoko, whose role with Gorou was reduced to (very) long distance relationship through occasional impersonal transmissions. Gorou's romantic interest this season is the obnoxious TV idol who made a brief appearance last season, whose character did develop throughout the series, but ultimately corny without real substance.

What I liked about the first season was the inspiration built around men who dared to dream, and took actions to make their dreams come true. While this is still present in the second season, it felt much more forced in comparison. Perhaps this is a direct result of paying closer attention as I signed up to translate this series with a group, thus putting every scene under close scrutiny, but it seemed like there were far more technobabble and too many close calls that the show no longer seemed as realistic as it did in the first season. Overall, there were simply too many recurring themes, just in different situations. Sex has lost its meaning, and the show seemed almost racist with all the stereotypes: Devoted communist Chinese soldiers, American secrecy with operations behind the scenes, Islamic terrorists, cheap Russian rockets and coverups... cliché was certainly abundant. However, the political aspect was highly enjoyable as it shows how politics can both drive innovation (i.e. developing base on the moon for energy, military presence for foreseeable territorial disputes), and act as a hurdle (i.e. difficulty in getting the funding, concealment of information).

Animation quality is generally poor with fakey CG and scenes that were far too dark to be visible, but the character design worked really well for the semi-realistic setting of the show. Voice acting was pretty good with everyone sounding like they should, except Maggy's voice was annoying... I guess she was supposed to be obnoxious though. BGM and OP/ED were generic.

'MMS2' would likely fit in as the "complication" section to build up for a climax in 3-act play, which tends to be the least interesting section of the entire story. I'm sure the producers had a third season in mind, which never materialized. It's very disappointing that we may never get to see the conclusion in anime after all this. The misleading OP with scenes of Gorou and Woodbridge's reunion and showdown of what appears to be American and Chinese politicians only worsens the situation.

This anime has yet to be fansubbed so my review might not be 100% accurate because my Japanese isn't good enough to understand everything without subs. Anyways this anime continues right after the end of the first season. This season takes place mainly in space and shows the different struggles Goro and Lostmen have in there respective places. If you haven't seen the first season go back and watch it before watching this one.[br][br]Animation[br]Its the same kind as before, which was poor. The background and characters looked rough and "cartoony". The action scenes are slow and not exciting, and the CG just looks like crap. I think for the purpose of this anime it is fine since the bulk of it was based more on the plot but still its bad compared to other animes in its time.[br][br]Sound[br]The same opening and ending that weren't all that great from the first season. The OST and voices were alright, but all in all I felt that nothing really has changed from what you are used to. The only notable change is the addition of an annoying character Maggie who has the stereotypical "cute" anchor voice and yes I hated it very much so.[br][br]Story[br]Because I watched the entire series without subtitles I obviously didn't catch everything that was happening. It is still quite easy to follow regardless of the lack of understanding the words. For the most part it followed the episode by episode conflict that is resolved in the same episode or the following one. They have one main plot that progresses in the series though that is for Goro and Lostman to get to the moon. They have a very interesting set of events that eventually brings them there. I think that the series all together makes light of very many things. Even when serious things happen it doesn't seem so serious at all or things just work out too easily. I was never on the edge when watching this series even though many they could of made it more exciting given the events that it had. So in general the plot was fine they just lacked the ability to involve the viewer.[br][br]Characters[br]You get the same old characters + a couple new ones. Most notably 3 new ones but only 2 that are featured a lot in the series. The first as I mentioned before is Maggy a reporter that is covering the ISA and there missions in space. Then you have 2 other astronauts that are working with Goro. I hated all the new characters because they all had some kind of attitude or personality problem. Otherwise its the same cast we all know and love :S. Either way I'm glad that you get to see some new sides to Goro in this anime that you will find out about :).[br][br]Value and Enjoyment[br]They try to add some politics in by showing the conflict of countries to win the "space" battle. Although it is shown quite a bit either much of it was lost on me because of language or... it was just downplayed too much. Well I'm not going to ruin it for you but you'll find that at one point the conflict that is shown is almost a joke :P. Besides the political side nothing else was really worth mentioning. I think the only reason I would ever consider rewatching this is to watch it with subs, but that is very unlikely. I didn't enjoy it that much and only recommend it to those who REALLY enjoyed the first season. Therefore this would be suited for sci-fi and space fans. If you give it go good luck and hope they have subs by the time you watch it.[br]