The harem has stopped pretending to be a story and started being a home. Season two takes the comfortable foundation Encore built, five girls who actually like each other now, and lets them breathe without manufactured conflict, which means Ichika finally gets to exist as something other than a punching bag caught between jealousies. The mecha is still window dressing, but that's the point; the real machines here are the character dynamics, and they run smoother than they ever have.

Ichika Orimura is still the only boy at IS Academy able to pilot an Infinite Stratos, and five classmates are already competing for his affection: Cecilia Alcott, Charlotte Dunois, Huang LingYin, Laura Bodewig and Houki Shinonono. Their rivalry gets more crowded in this second season. Student council president Tatenashi Sarashiki, playful and blunt, pushes Ichika into extra combat training. Her timid younger sister Kanzashi is someone he is asked to partner with for upcoming tag matches. Meanwhile a little sister he never knew about, Madoka Orimura, turns up working alongside a hostile group tied to IS units being stolen around the world. The season mixes mecha action and sci-fi with comedy, romance and ecchi humor.