The Summer 2026 Anime Preview Guide

Hell Mode Season 2

Allen, Cecile, Krena, and Dogora are now students of the Academy. Many mysteries still loom for them, but for the time being, they're focused on ranking up as much as possible with the ultimate goal of defeating the Demon Lord.

Hell Mode Season 2 is based on the light novel series by author Hamuo and illustrator Mo. The anime series is streaming on HIDIVE on Fridays.

You know, for a show called Hell Mode, I was expecting something a little bit more...I don't know...intense? Nail biting? Something that had any tension? The first episode of Hell Mode's second season does not have any of that. There's no criticism I can squeeze out that other people haven't probably already said, because there's NOTHING NEW that this episode has to offer that so many dime-a-dozen E-ranked adventurer isekai anime haven't already done.

Let's go through the episode now, shall we? Have you ever seen a fantasy anime where the adventurer goes up to a guy behind a desk so he can get sorted out to go dungeon crawling? Of course you have! And that his ultimate goal is to defeat generic Demon Lord Villain Guy No. 719-K2B? Did I mention that he's an E-ranked adventurer already? I did? Never mind. Oh, he can't get into the academy? Don't worry, because through the magical power of deus ex bullshit, the script can just write that our man Allen is a certain “E-ranked adventurer that was spoke of in the prophecy or whatever.” Now he's in! Why even make him E-ranked if nothing provides a challenge to him? Not that I care too much about difficulty in video games (as evidenced by all the times I dominated playthroughs of Pokémon Emerald with Mudkip alone because their move pool is OP af), but I'm telling you folks, if I bought a game called "Hell Mode" and its hardest difficulty proved no problem at all for me, I'd want my money back.

So yes, it's another game of checking boxes with this one. At least the dungeon they trek through looks....uh....unique? I mean, at least it's not too cookie-cutter. I kinda like the cyberneticky faux-Tron-y look of it. That's it, though. The dungeon itself is glossed over so some baddies can be whacked for Allen and his party to gain EXP, and that the episode can have something that's only fun adjacent. You know the drill from here: quick fights with static animation, with the one big boss easily vanquished by Allen's summoned monsters in all of their CG (un)glory. It's kind of crazy how one character exits the dungeon saying that she's beat after all that dungeon crawling. Really? You barely have a scratch on ya. Plus Allen's monsters did all of the dirty work in that boss fight. The real response should be “even by C-rank dungeon standards, that first part was a real cinch!”

This episode feels less like a continuation of the plot rather than a restart of it. All of the major plot beats I mentioned could easily be the first episode of literally any isekai/fantasy anime. Most at least attempt to be exciting. Hell Mode's second season does not. I wasn't excited for another season of Hell Mode going in—and now I'm still not.

(Also, can you believe I made it through this review without talking about the Jeff Rosenstock album of the same name once? I'm as shocked as you are.)

I have good news, and I have bad news:

The good news is that the worst of Hell Mode is behind us. In theory, I can understand why the series would want to reincarnate Allen as a baby upon getting isekai'd. But in practice, it makes the first season an absolutely unbearable slog, in which barely anything at all happens for several episodes. As a first impression, it's horrendous. But at long, merciful last, our protagonist is old enough to eat solid food—and also, kill monsters and go to the Academy I suppose.

The bad news is that while the worst of Hell Mode is behind us, that doesn't mean what we got now is automatically good. Yes, it's better by comparison—at least as far as this first episode will allow us to judge. But Allen is still as obnoxious as ever, the numberslop is still very much present, and the poorly animated elephant in the room: The CGI, indeed, looks as hideous as ever. Easily some of the worst I've ever seen in anime. Like, ever ever.

It's cool that the gears of the story are finally turning now (and I won't even comment on how ridiculous it is that it took so long), but how much good does that do us when the story—when the writing overall, really—is just so painfully bland? Even in this very episode, all we really saw was our protagonists form a party, get on the same page with each other about what's going on, and go to a dungeon. Even when this anime is trying to keep it to a minimum (and to its credit, it's doing a MUCH better job of it than the light novels) Allen's obsession with stats and numbers slows things down to a grinding halt. I can't remember the last time I wanted to audibly scream, “WHO CARES?” to my computer screen so badly.

“Boring” is the word I associate with Hell Mode the most, and while it's impossible to deny that season 2 has already taken some pretty substantial steps in a positive direction, there's a dense fogginess to this series that it just can't seem to shake even now. Maybe it's the numbers, maybe it's the fact that the world feels like a copy/paste of any other RPG-themed isekai world, maybe it's how there's no interesting characters in the cast, but it's probably a bit of all of the above.

Also, as of the time of my writing this, at about 11 and a half minutes in, there was a line of dialogue by the Hero that went untranslated. I don't get the impression this was a terribly important line, but still. If you're reading this, HIDIVE, maybe get on that, pretty please and thank you.