MF Ghost Season 2 Review - Much Better Than Season 1

Article at a glance:
Season 2 tightens its pacing, dedicating the first 7-8 episodes to an intense race, minimizing the cringy slice-of-life elements from Season 1.
Returning Initial D characters are integrated more meaningfully, while Kanata, Ren, and rival drivers see notable development.
While character designs feel outdated, the improved car animations and engaging soundtracks elevate the racing experience.

I had been looking forward to writing this review because, to be honest, MF Ghost Season 2 has been a lot better than Season 1. It is more intense and more focused on the races, which is what we’re here for, and the nostalgia baits are used much better here than the previous season. This season was a perfect sequel. Scale back the bad stuff, and focus on the good parts. This season was pretty much exactly what I wanted from MF Ghost. Yes, it still does have issues. But. overall, this season is a clear step in the right direction after the messy Season 1.

So welcome back to another review and today we are talking about MF Ghost Season 2! Of course, the review will be mostly spoiler-free as there isn’t much to spoil here anyway. So yeah, let’s get started!

Plot

The pacing in Season 2 feels a lot tighter than in Season 1. Even though Season 1 had more races if I recall correctly. And this is because the first 7-8 episodes of Season 2 completely focus on a singular race. And the race is intense. Of course, we are all rooting for Kanata since he is the underdog but the other rivalries on display in that massive race were just as engaging. For example, the dogfight between Sawatari and Beckenbauer was crazy. I really didn’t like the SoL stuff in Season 1 because it was kind of cringe and Season 2 scrubbed all that off almost completely.

So the few SoL segments we do get serve as nice character moments for Kanata or Ren. As for the nostalgia baits, it was so nice to see Keisuke again. I think Ryuusuke may make an appearance soon too. Also, episode 10 threw a curveball into the mix with the surprise appearances of Itsuki, Iketani, and Kenji. Fauning over cars and races as always. Other than that, there isn’t much to say about the plot. Because let’s be honest, no one here for the plot. We are here for the races.

Characters

Both Kanata and Ren got a surprising bit of character work in this season. Ren’s feelings for Kanata have matured which is nice to see and we also get to see different facets of Kanata’s personality in this season. Certain side characters like Beckenbauer and Sawatari are quite interesting and get a bit of character development of their own. The returning characters from Initial D are much better used here than Season 1, at least, in my opinion. Curious to see how the rival dynamic between Sena and Kanata pans out.

Animations and Soundtracks

Man, this is a tale of two halves. First off, the character designs feel really dated. I didn’t mind them in Initial D because Initial D is really old. But in this day and age, the old-school character design of MFG doesn’t feel good to look at, especially compared to how modern the art style for everything else is. The cars look a lot better than Season 1. I don’t know if they got a better budget or something but the races look amazing in this season.

The opening theme and the occasional race music we get are also surprisingly nice. The only thing I hate here is the unnecessary fan service but even that has been somewhat scaled down. I don’t mind fan service usually but in this anime, it is actually distracting. That I don’t like.