We won’t lie readers, many of us busy bees here at Honey’s Anime didn’t even know a second season for The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made was released in January of 2023…and we felt kind of bad about that. While season 1 of The Fruit of Evolution wasn’t God’s gift to anime, it was still a funny and fun 12 episodes that nailed that isekai itch we had when it originally aired. Did we need a second season and how did said second season fare? That, we will tell you in our review of The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made season 2!

When we last left our once OP hero Seiichi Hiiragi, he was invited to Barbador Magic Academy along with his “wife” Saria, his “girlfriend” Artoria, and his various other female companions. Tasked with becoming the new instructor for a class of ill-fated students, Seiichi gets a lot more than he bargained for when a new threat heads for the academy and begins to infiltrate. The main premise behind season 2 of The Fruit of Evolution is pretty simple and rarely were we shocked by any of the revelations that occurred but this is a series that has always stood strong being simple, comedic, and just a bit action-packed when the need arises. Those who wanted more from season 1 will be happy that season 2 does about the same but that is an issue we need to discuss a bit later in this review.

Don’t feel bad if you felt season 1 of The Fruit of Evolution was basically Seiichi learning this or Seiichi beating this bad guy, it was kind of focused on his evolution as a character. The second season of Fruit of Evolution does still have plenty of Seiichi OP moments but we noticed a lot more attention was given to various other characters than just our once pudgy hero. The new students he helps have several episodes where their skills are utilized and there’s even an episode that focuses on the Adventurer’s Guild which had some of the most bizarre isekai characters we’ve seen in the genre. Seiichi will definitely shine brighter as the main man—some of those final moments are pretty epic—but we liked that some of the newer/lesser-known characters were more utilized in this outing than the last.

There were some attempts at tear-jerking moments in season 1 but we won’t deny season 2 tries a lot more to make the audience feel emotionally attached to this series and while it works sometimes, other times not so much. For example, one moment—slight spoilers here—we really went awe at was when Seiichi revealed his previous body to those who didn’t know what he originally looked like and their reactions to said revelation. It was nice to see these various ladies still adore Seiichi less for his newer cooler looks but for his actions in saving them and just being there for them.

However, the class Seiichi teaches feels like the weaker part of the second season as it fails to ever make us care for these students. Yes, they all have a reason for being disliked at the school—due to their lack of magical powers—but their odd attitudes and even more generic backstories just didn’t land with us well. That being said, they aren’t bad characters and we did like their small character developments but Fruit of Evolution needs to stick with what it does best, comedy.

You’ve no doubt picked up on it during our review but Fruit of Evolution Season 2 is basically a carbon copy of Season 1 and that makes a lot of the humor and moments feel rather…copied. They once more try to appeal to older anime fans with some semi-obscure old anime references—though we dare you to guess them correctly—and also try to do some ecchi moments but all of these scenes feel taken from season 1. Did we still laugh, yes but we know for a fact repeating humor and concepts from one season to the next doesn’t land well with viewers and that could explain the reviews/comments seen regarding season 2 of The Fruit of Evolution…