Infinite Stratos 2

IS〈インフィニット・ストラトス〉2 (IS: Infinite Stratos 2)

5.0(1)

Otaku Den

6.5(240,013)

MAL Score

Ranked #8395

Popularity #658

Action
Comedy
Ecchi
Romance
Sci-Fi
Harem
School

Episodes: 12
Duration: 24 min per ep
Aired: Oct 4, 2013 to Dec 20, 2013
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

*Infinite Stratos 2* continues the story of the Infinite Stratos academy, where cutting-edge powered suits drive both combat training and campus life. With the same mix of action, sci-fi mechanics, and school setting, the season returns to the familiar blend of rivalry, comedy, and romantic tension.

As new situations arise and relationships shift, the cast navigates competing feelings and escalating clashes, keeping the focus on high-energy battles alongside harem-style misunderstandings and ecchi humor.

Otaku Consensus

Yasuhito Kikuchi’s direction gives the brief powered-suit fights welcome energy, and 8bit maintains the first season’s polished blend of mechanical CGI and character animation. Those strengths are repeatedly undercut by circular romantic comedy, heroines written around increasingly abrasive jealousy, and pacing that favors fan service over meaningful progression. The prevailing verdict is a weak adaptation buoyed by competent presentation, though viewers who treat it as unapologetic harem spectacle may still find it entertaining.

Why You Should Watch

Watch Infinite Stratos 2 if you want harem comedy delivered at full volume: sharply differentiated dere archetypes, escalating jealousy, revealing fan service, and occasional mechanical combat without the denser politics of a serious real-robot series. It scratches the lighter, more chaotic side of High School DxD, but trades occult mythology for aviation-flavored powered suits and an international heroine lineup. The appeal lies less in romantic progress than in watching Yukana, Kana Hanazawa, Marina Inoue, and the rest of the cast turn every rivalry into a comic performance. Studio 8bit’s CGI-assisted machines add visual punctuation when the academy antics become repetitive, while Masumi Itou’s score preserves the musical identity established by the first season. This is best approached as a 12-episode fan-service encore, not as a decisive payoff to the franchise’s relationships or science-fiction ideas.

Key Characters

I
Ichika Orimura(VA: Kouki Uchiyama)
Ichika is the famously oblivious center of the ensemble, with Kouki Uchiyama playing his straight-faced confusion against increasingly unsubtle romantic advances.
C
Cecilia Alcott(VA: Yukana)
Cecilia’s aristocratic pride and theatrical competitiveness make her one of the cast’s loudest comic personalities, amplified by Yukana’s polished delivery.
C
Charlotte Dunois(VA: Kana Hanazawa)
Charlotte tempers the group’s aggression with warmth and social awareness, qualities that Kana Hanazawa turns into a particularly approachable harem performance.
L
Laura Bodewig(VA: Marina Inoue)
Laura pairs a cool military demeanor with blunt possessiveness, letting Marina Inoue pivot between kuudere restraint and deadpan comedy.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
Studio 8bit combines conventional character animation with CGI-assisted powered suits; AniList’s tagging strongly identifies the result with robots, real-robot mechanics, transformation sequences, and aviation imagery.
2
The 12-episode structure gives far more space to harem escalation and fan service than to sustained combat, with critics consistently noting that the fights are enjoyable but unusually short.
3
Masumi Itou’s score retains the first season’s musical character rather than reinventing the franchise, providing continuity even when the sequel’s adaptation and pacing drew criticism.
4
Its reception reveals a pronounced popularity-quality split: the series sits at MAL popularity rank 658 despite a 6.45 score and rank 8359, while AniList records a 61/100 score and 602 favorites.
5
The ensemble is built around sharply recognizable tsundere and kuudere behavior, an approach that gives the voice cast clear comic roles but also fuels the repeated criticism that the heroines become abrasive and formulaic.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Original creator Izuru Yumizuru is credited alongside director Yasuhito Kikuchi and character designer Kumi Horii, with 8bit returning as the animation studio.
Fun fact 2: Episode direction was distributed among specialists: Noriaki Akitaya directed episode 2, while Yasuto Nishikata directed episode 9.
Fun fact 3: Tomoko Fukunaga served as assistant chief animation director on episode 7 and returned as assistant animation director for the season finale, episode 12.
Fun fact 4: Episode 6 was storyboarded by Kenichi Ishikura, while Junichi Kitamura contributed key animation to episode 4.
Fun fact 5: Critical reactions were unusually polarized in intensity: one favorable user review scored it 7/10, while the supplied negative reviews ranged from 1/10 to 3/10 and repeatedly targeted repetition, fan-service dependence, and adaptation quality.