In the year 2021, unconventional action-comedy Baby Assassins was a remarkable success despite its limited budget thanks to creative characters, gripping martial arts elements and unpredictable plot elements. The idea to plan and film a sequel entitled Baby Assassins 2 Babies seemed logical and promising at the time. However, this second movie in the series only qualifies as just above average. Where did this film go wrong?

First of all, the plot is really paper-thin. Two male assassins want to earn more money and thus plan on murdering the two female assassins who are living and working together to take their places. This is it. The story doesn't have enough depth to carry this film through one hundred one minutes.

Up next, the side stories in this film simply repeat ideas from the first film on a less convincing level. Our unconventional heroines Fukagawa Mahiro and Sugimoto Chisato are training for their future missions. They are discussing food culture. The lead characters are taking on side jobs as mascots that are very annoying. The movie rehashes past ideas instead of adding anything exciting to the plot. The film's middle section thus has significant lengths.

Several scenes in this movie are executed oddly to say the least. The final fight that is supposed to be the film's highlight has a weird break that attempts to be creative but will leave viewers scratching their heads in confusion. The same could be said about the post-credit scene that shows the lead characters having a discussion about dumplings that is completely unimportant and abruptly ends right in the middle. That isn't how intriguing post-credit shots should be done at all.

However, this film still has some redeeming values despite its significant flaws. The two male gangsters are surprisingly sympathetic and seem to have a solid friendship. One of them is more serious, organized and cold as he also portrays excellent martial arts skills. His partner is funny, nervous and quirky and even too shy to speak to the waitress of his favourite restaurant that he would like to ask out on a date. In many ways, the new male characters are comparable to the two lead characters. The movie deserves respect for not attempting to create romantic side stories involving these four teenagers and instead confronting them in a matter of life and death.

The two lead characters continue to be intriguing. Sugimoto Chisato is emotional, outgoing and quirky while Fukagawa Mahiro is calm, socially awkward and rational. The challenges these two characters are going through are also fascinating. Sugimoto Chisato struggles with a gambling addiction. Fukagawa Mahiro fails her driving classes time and again. Both of them have significant financial struggles.

It's also interesting how this second movie continues to portray life in downtown Tokyo. It involves street gambling, enthusiastic lotteries and low-budget restaurants while also featuring hideouts for criminals and crime scene cleaners. The sum is certainly greater than its parts in this series.

At the end of the day, there are just enough intriguing elements that justify watching Baby Assassins 2 Babies if you are familiar with the first entry in the series. This movie convinces with two intriguing new male characters, the charisma of the unconventional lead characters and quirky details of life in downtown Tokyo. The film however suffers from a paper-thin plot, repetitive side stories and several odd scenes slowing down its fluidity. Despite such flaws, this series remains a guilty pleasure for me and I would watch a third film in a heartbeat. As I have been pointing out, this series is quite unique and you either like it for this reason or you don't. In my case, this series is exactly my kind of movie series and I will thus remain faithful to it.

Baby Assassins 2 Doesn't Disappoint. Baby Assassins 2 is the latest release from Well Go USA Entertainment to come out of the Japanese market, and it is both fast and fun. This well paced and well Directed action comedy sequel to 2022's Top 5 film, Baby Assassins, can not help but engage you from the opening scene.

Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa continue to delight as the young assassins who are faced with trying to balance "normal" lives with their careers as professional assassins. Their chemistry on screen with each other, and the rest of the cast, continues to make for some memorable and enjoyable moments as they recognize they may be unfit for anything other than professional "hits".

In this iteration they find themselves suspended from the only job they know how to do, and are trying to supplement their lost income with an ordinary job. Simultaneously, a group of young male assassins are trying to eliminate them permanently, and fill their precious spots as hired assassins.

The film does a terrific job of walking the tight rope between being funny and outrageous without being unwatchable and silly. It also does a fantastic job of integrating martial arts action and gun play into the film. Saori Izawa clearly has some Taekwondo training in her pedigree, and her fight scenes are interesting and well choreographed.

The new, and returning, characters make for a fun time. I can easily see future movies with these characters in subsequent, high level installments. I really hope the filmmakers agree.

The film's Direction, tight editing, and unique cinematography really work in this one. The final fight choreography is as good as you will see in a martial arts and action film.

When it released in 2022, Baby Assassins was the most enjoyable independent movie since The Paper Tigers. Baby Assassins 2 reminds us why we fell in love with the first one. While it is not as good as its predecessor, it is still a really fun and exciting adventure to be a part of.

I highly recommend this film.

The film is subtitled.

Saori Izawa is a talented stuntwoman and she can pull of the stunts really well. I like the goofy and cute chemistry between the two protagonists.

The movie slows down during the middle parts of it and it kind of got boring. It seems like these characters don't really have a goal that like drives the plot forward. They just kind of wander around doing random stuff until something happens.

There was like an attempt to have an emotional scene because you thought one character was going to die but there is a twist to it that takes away the emotional impact that it could've had.

The two villains were somewhat relatable and I enjoyed their interactions with each other but they just shows up at random times and I forgot about them for most of the movies. They also never really seemed to pose a threat to the protagonists until at the end.

The end fight was good but the other action scenes were kind of forgettable.