Out of curiosity, who else liked the first season of the anime more than the second one?

I feel like people talk smack about S1 a lot—I mean I wasn't too impressed by it at first either but a rewatch in the lead-up to S2 was enough to change my mind. Idk I think certain scenes might come across as melodramatic bc they rely on implication more than anything, which is a lot easier to appreciate the second time around when you know the characters/franchise better. For me at least it went from "She's bursting into tears, ok I guess" to "It may be sudden but her fear of letting others down hasn't been shown, that's all" and "This is Star Beat we're looking at, her reaction makes sense." The best part though imo is and has always been Kasumi's arc. Heck that hurt so good and felt so genuine.

I think S1's greatest strength is its character development, which holds despite its flaws. At the risk of being accused of favouritism lmao, I generally prefer the game's writing (while acknowledging a visual novel is way easier to write than an anime), but it's such a shame that out of all the PoPiPa girls only Arisa is regularly given the spotlight and depth S1 shows, though granted S1 Arisa has more of a supporting role so you could say she deserves it. Rimi though? Rimi's Gift of Song and Earnest Song for Me are great but more please. (Also JP players, I haven't gone through all the mixed event stories involving PoPiPa girls so slap me if there's one that suddenly decided to be super deep)

This is a S1 appreciation post but I'm not hating on S2 or anything! I just liked S1 better and I'm curious about what you guys thought