There were two and a half things that made season one so enjoyable. First was the quadrangle relationship between Saki, Jin, Nokaze and Ryoma with Nokaze and Ryoma being the fun characters to Jin and Saki's clean cut characters. Second was the MacGuyver + Iryu concept of this doctor struggling to practice modern medicine in Edo due to lack of equipment and medical supplies. Instead of Iryu's breaking through the boundaries of what a miracle surgery is, its refreshing to see someone struggle with simpler things. The half is Saki's mom who at the last episode reminded me that she is one stubborn jdorama mom who I just find entertaining.
In season 2, Nokaze and Ryoma were effectively removed from the quadrangle thereby leaving boring Jin and Saki to carry the relationship part of the story without them having much personality. Jin and Ryoma's relationship then changes into this brotherly relationship with Jin apparently having such a huge influence in Ryoma which is something I don't really buy.
I get the fact that Jin has shown Ryoma what no one would have thought possible but I'm not really feeling that bond, especially with Ryoma gone most of the time doing his thing. Its not like they were in some war and risked their lives together type of thing. They've been through a lot of stuff but there's just something missing. The best thing to connect them is Nokaze and she didn't need to be written out of the story.
That said I still applaud the writing for managing to tie everything up at the end. Nokaze got the end of her sort of character arc which really has been virtually non-existent in season 2. We get to see the answer to the question, can Jin save Ryoma from his famous death. We finally get confirmation of who the mummy guy is. The fetus in the head and voice talking I don't really get but most importantly they've got a nice time traveling explanation and left a cliffhanger for the last episode. In other words, despite -pacing issues, they've managed to tie everything up into little bows with some nice twists.
Jin season 2 is not as bad as Iryu 3 but nowhere is it an improvement or even on par with the first season and I would say it is not because of lack of trying. IMO, Jin 1 and 2 would have worked better as an 18/20 episode series so that the momentum from season 1 can carry the second half better and they could have trimmed the fat and show what people watch season 2 for, to see the resolution of the story.
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