Sep 18, 2025
And now, it's time for the verdict. I'll be blunt, I did not enjoy this one as much as Grace 1. In fact, I find myself in the ranged from mixed to negative on this. First, let me get some of the positives. The fight scenes are well choreographed especially the Arabaki fight. The prose is also good as were the parts that delved into Grace's backstory, but the fact that this is a Grace sequel is the biggest gripe for me.
As you're well aware, I have nothing but praises for Grace 1, but with Grace 2, I felt this was something completely different from the series I had fallen in love with.
Though you were deliberate in going with a drastically different vibe, I feel it just didn't mesh well with the characters we had grown accustomed to in Grace 1. I could see this working as an alt-timeline thing, but as a direct sequel, it feels too out of place. The times this truly felt like a Grace sequel were Ryuji's time in the dreamworld early on, and the backstory chapters.
Speaking of the old crew, they honestly didn't feel like their old selves, which I do blame fully on the genre shift. Grace does still have her old quirks, but she also feels like a different Grace from the original as in less dream fairy, more like Navi, which is ironic since Navi is a fairy. With my main reason for checking this out being that it was a Grace sequel, I'm left disappointed at how stark in contrast it truly is.
As for the new characters, I feel I had a harder time connecting with them compared to the Grace 1 cast. It might be mainly because Ryuji's so battle-oriented, most of his big moments are in fights, which while well-written and choreographed, are not the types of things I'm really looking for in a Grace sequel.
This leads me to the question I've been wondering ever since the start; why did you submit this to JNC over Grace 1? In my opinion, Grace 1 is your greatest masterpiece, though Tentacled is a close second, which is why it makes me curious why you opted to go with this over it. As others have pointed out, reading Grace 2 without reading Grace 1 does make things harder to understand. And even if the judges did read Grace 1, the chances were there that they might share the same opinion as me. Thus I'm simply curious to know what was on your mind when you decided to submit this to JNC, as I remember you mentioned you were going to have it be your big JNC flic.
And with that, the review is over. Even though I didn't like the story, I'm still glad I read it through to the end. To be honest, I feel more people really should read this all the way through, just so there can be more discussion on how it truly sizes up to the original. Maybe some will like the new direction and Grace 2 becomes the Muv Luv Alternative of the Grace series, or maybe they won't like the changes and still regard the original as number 1. I'm also curious how readers that never read Grace 1 will feel about this story. Thus, I will be recommending this on Discord in hopes that it gets some more eyes reading it. Though this might not have been my favorite work from you, I'm still looking forward to your future works, especially that sukeban story you said you're working on. Just saying, if it has a bald sukeban in it, instant 10/10 for me. All joking aside, I'm glad I was finally able to finish this and leave my thoughts on it as well. Here's hoping more people check it out and that maybe some of the folks that were reading this but didn't finish, pick it back up.
