The first episode of Saga of Tanya the Evil‘s Second Season set a solid foundation for the rest, with its action, sound design, and funny misunderstandings.
The second episode “A Strange Friendship” follows this up well with more setup for the future, and some especially humorous moments by the end.
Before discussing the events of the episode, I want to talk about the new opening and outro.
The OP is titled Why? RED Induction and is performed by Myth & Royd, the group who did the OP for Season One.
This may just be recency bias, but I think their new OP easily tops the old, starting loud, before going quiet and sinister, and then going full bombastic with the chorus.
The visuals of the OP also give us plenty to look forward to, especially with the teased two vs one of Tanya facing off against Mary Sue again, along with the mage Mikel.
As for the ED Weiter! Weiter! it is performed once again by Aoi Yuki, who continues to show off her vocal talents.
I also prefer this ED because it actually has visuals, rather than a showcase of light novel covers and illustrations.
Back to the episode, it starts off by once again showing us issues the Empire is having with the war effort.
We see this through talks between Tanya and Visha, and Zettour and Rudersdorf.
The combat units are only receiving weapons rather than basic necessities, and the Empire has to halt its progress due to winter.
Worse still are the partisans in occupied territory, along with the fact that, unknown to the Empire, the Russy Federation is now allowing mages back into its ranks.
We see this with the arrival of Political Commissar Liliya and mage Colonel Mikel at Mary Sue’s unit.
Liliya immediately sets about making friends with Mary, which is absolutely a ploy to manipulate her.
We know Liliya was chosen for being, “loyal to the party and idealistic.”
I expect we will see her push Mary to more extreme ends this season.
As for Mikel, he has been described as “charismatic,” and he will certainly lead by example, as seen by his fight with Tanya in the OP and trailer.
However, I do have to wonder how loyal he really is to the Federation, considering the mages were all put in internment camps.
Perhaps he has a similar mindset to the common soldiers, who believe fighting for the Federation will make them listen and improve the country.
Tanya is horrified to hear this viewpoint from a captive, realizing that she is not fighting communists but nationalists.
This makes the enemy a bigger threat, considering they view themselves as fighting for their country rather than an ideology, which she later explains to Zettour.
Zettour, being described as a “conman” by Tanya, is able to find a work around for this problem with Tanya’s advice.
In a speech to various nationalists from occupied territories, he drives a wedge between them and the communists by turning the territories over to civilian rule.
Given the haunting images of Zettour on a skeletal horse, I doubt this is entirely truthful, but his speech gets the job done, halting most partisan attacks and allowing Tanya’s combat unit to get the supplies they need.
In a humorous final scene before the credits, Visha delights in her new socks, and Tanya lights up in cartoonish exaggeration at the offer of coffee.
Tany’s joy ends when she notices a Being X nutcracker in the house, demanding Visha get rid of it.
The final, funny moment after the ED shows Visha offering Tanya a highchair so she can interrogate prisoners without being looked down on, much to her disdain.
After such a logistical episode, it was good to get a few chuckles at the end.
We will have to see how long the laughter lasts though, as the war continues to evolve over the season.
“A Strange Friendship” is a good follow-up episode to Season Two’s pilot, and I am excited to see what is next in store for Tanya the Evil.