Hilda Season 2 Review

 

 

 

   

Rating: 4.5/5

Synopsis: After an over two-year-long hiatus, Hilda returns for a long-awaited second season of more adventures in Trollberg and elsewhere with our titular hero and her friends.

 

My Thoughts:  Thankfully, season two was worth the wait, holding up a larger candle to the first season in every department including animation, backgrounds, music, characterizations, and stories, all of which contained whimsy and endearing qualities.

    Not unlike previously, this season follows a somewhat episodic approach with each installment being mostly a self-contained adventure. However, the overarching character arcs, particularly for Hilda, Frida, and even the librarian Kaisa imbued a connected narrative to all the episodes. Some noteworthy highlights were watching Frida progress as a witch in training and Kaisa overcoming her low self-esteem in her magic skills. While Hilda retains her inquisitive, adventurous spirit that makes her so lovable in the first place, she runs into interpersonal conflict with her mother Johanna who is reasonably concerned with the number of perilous escapades her daughter gets into without telling her. This tension leads Hilda to being grounded twice, both instances of which she defied, opening the path to two uniquely larger than life predicaments that contributed to the show’s worldbuilding and character dynamics. The former example is in the episode “The Fifty Year Long Night” (my favorite episode of the season) where Hilda snoops into her neighbor Mr. Ostenfeld’s apartment after he mysteriously appears and disappears. There she finds stacks of copies of the same old magazine issue which transports her 50 years into the past when she flips a page. It just to turns out that Ostenfeld regularly travels to that time to relive a rather bittersweet moment in his life which makes for an extremely touching plot that tugged my heartstrings by the end. The latter instance takes place in the season finale “The Stone Forest” (adapted from the fifth graphic novel Hilda and the Stone Forest) involves Hilda and Johanna getting lost inside a mountain with a thriving troll society. The plot not only succeeded in exploring their mother-daughter relationship but also in expanding upon the diverse troll population, giving them a nuanced sense of humanity.

   The animation, as per usual, is impeccably executed with bursts of liveliness to the watercolor visual and backgrounds. My favorite scenes in that respect were the ethereal sequences in “The Deerfox” (another heartwarming episode concerning Twig and his family) and the mountain scenes in the season finale, both of which showcased an aptitude in lighting and shading techniques. Furthermore, the original soundtrack performed by Ryan Carlson appropriately complemented and heightened the enthralling beauty permeating the show’s calm, soothing atmosphere.

    Though I have a few minor quibbles here and there, the only one significant enough for me to address is perhaps the ending to “The Deerfox”. In the episode, Twig feels underappreciated and runs away to the forest area he came from. The missing pet premise was anything new but it Twig and Hilda relationship was genuine enough to move me when Twig supposedly left her permanantly to reunite with his family. However, the story opted for the safe direction concluding with Twig returning to Hilda. I supposed Hilda and Johanna could be considered family since Twig has been with them longer, but part of me thinks it would have been more impactful if Twig did leave the show.

 

Final Thoughts: Hilda season 2 was a worthwhile successor to the first which will satisfy fans and keep them high in anticipation for further installments.