If there's one significant way in which Orient differentiates itself from its fellow shounen action titles in the second half, it's in the fact that Musashi isn't all-powerful, or even well on his way to being so. After his link to the Obsidian Goddess was revealed in the first cour, it would be easy to think that everything'll be coming up over-powered roses for him, but we're quickly disabused of that notion.

Not only is Musashi quickly separated from his friends Kojiro and Tsugumi upon joining up with the Uesugis, but he also learns that life in the larger, more established bushi bands is nothing like what he's experienced thus far. Musashi's been used to going it alone or just with Kojiro, who knows him well, so suddenly finding himself alone in a sea of highly disciplined fighters who have been training with kitetsu blades for their entire lives is a rude awakening. Suddenly, all of Musashi's clawing his way into bushidom looks a lot like a kid playing at being a soldier, and the story doesn't let us forget that for most of its episodes.

Whether you interpret this as a terrible idea that renders the protagonist basically useless for the entire series or as a chance to allow Musashi to learn and grow before granting him power is entirely up to you. It's true that for most of the season's run, Musashi is either failing or out of the action entirely. At least a little of this is the blind prejudice exhibited by the other bushi—unlike Kojiro and Tsumugi, Musashi wasn't raised in a bushi family from his earliest years, and he's spent most of his working life as a miner, not a soldier. He's also just discovered the whole Obsidian Goddess issue, which sets him even further back in terms of harnessing his power. But it's equally true that watching him flounder or be relegated to the background isn't always fun, especially when it's done in service of developing new characters we don't care about as much.

The new characters at least help develop Orient's central theme of "Daddy Issues." We've known that several members of Musashi's band have difficult or simply sad relationships with their father figures, and that continues to be a major theme of this second cour. It comes into greater focus in the final third of the show, when we get the background on the semi-antagonistic Shimazu brothers, a group of six siblings who all fight together, and Michiru, whose relationship with her father turns out to be particularly fraught.

Michiru's case is the more interesting (and arguably important) of the two, because while she's always yearned for her father to love her, or even just acknowledge her as a person, the larger point is that, like Musashi, she's always felt abandoned by her blood family and as if she has no place to belong. While Michiru's story really only gets a great deal of focus in the final two episodes, they hit hard, and her role in the finale of the season is very bittersweet. It's a potent reminder to Musashi that not everyone can be saved in the way you want to save them, but that the holes in our hearts can be filled a little at a time by knowing that we tried.

The idea of trying your hardest, even when there's no chance of a fully happy ending, is another major theme of this set of episodes. Musashi goes through periods where he's down and can't seem to do anything right, resulting in some near misses as far as his future is concerned, but all of that does appear to be in service of the final few episodes. His gradual growth is perhaps seen better in hindsight, so the series might work better watched all at once rather than on a week-by-week basis. Watching other characters learn the lessons Musashi needs to fully internalize can be grating, but it does seem to have worked out by the end. It's also impressive how he never forgets his promise to Kojiro and their shared goal, given that the two aren't together for most of this storyline.

There's substantially less space for interesting Kishin iconography in this half of the show, and the visuals as a whole simply don't look as good, although they do have their moments. Some of the character designs are also fairly lackluster, although it is clear that an attempt is being made to relate bushi bands (and families) by more than just their hair color or facial piercings. It also does feel like too much effort is expended redeeming reprehensible characters, although it does more or less pay off at the very end. While the story is still interesting, it's just not quite as engaging as the first half, and I do think that's at least in part due to the fact that we miss out on Kojiro and Musashi's friendship dynamic for most of it—there's definitely a sense that this must have worked better in the source manga than it does here.

On the whole, Orient's second cour isn't quite as good as its first. It's still enjoyable in a lot of ways, and the attention paid to character development remains a major strength. The final episode hits hard, even if it's clearly not the end of the story. At least the manga is being published in English as I write this, so even if we don't get another season of the anime, we can pick up the books to find out if anything can take the sting out of the end.