Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj where it’s the return of Animation Bang. Earlier this year I took a look at The Cuphead Show based off the hit game from 2017. It was good, funny, and did its own thing were still staying true to the game’s setting. With the announcement that there would be four seasons fans and season 1 ending on a cliffhanger fans waited with anticipation for the second season and we got it this past August, six months after the first season aired. With the third season set to come out this Friday it only seems fair to take a look at the second season and build up excitement for what’s to come. Let’s return to Inkwell Isle and take at The Cuphead Show Season 2.
Episodes 1-4
The second season starts with the boys in prison (and while they have the bee guards I’m sad to say the queen bee isn’t the warden). They try and break out but keep getting caught and punished (scene here: https://youtu.be/n8SyLa9IC5E). Mugman decides to give up and live that prison life (no Mugman, don’t become someone’s bitch) while Cuphead refuses to give up and tries to bust out on his own. He digs a tunnel only to wind up in the electric chair room (get ready to go all electric boogaloo in this bitch). After that failed attempt Cuphead also tosses in the towel (scene here: https://youtu.be/mMRQepBGt2I), but Mugman won’t let him (he’s the quitter, not you). Mugman tries to get them out of there on the laundry boat only to trip the alarms and alert the guards. Just when it looks like the two will get caught again, Ms. Cyclops helps them escape (scene here: https://youtu.be/A71N4HLOkcI). The boys make it home where Elder Kettle grounds them for life (which in cartoon logic equates to next episode).
Episode 2 sees the return of Chalice who is on the run from the citizens (I hesitate to call them people) of Inkwell who have caught on to her tricks and are out for revenge (you gave her the free stuff. That’s on you). She hides at the boys’ house where they get into a few shenanigans (scene here: https://youtu.be/LhjZtWfsgHI) before the mob arrives. At first Chalice abandons the boys and the mob decides to beat them, but Chalice scares them away using her ghostly powers. After revealing her true form to the boys she decides to go into hiding for the time being but promises to come back (scene here: https://youtu.be/NjZQr42npXY).
In episode 3 the boys are playing at the docks where they board a ship and accidentally sail it out to sea. They find the ship’s captain Brineybeard (hi Bluto) is not happy about this but brings them on his adventure to reclaim the love of his crush. They make it to the shipwreck cove where we see his crush is none other than the scary, tough, and tumblr wet dream Cala Maria. She turns him into stone because she’s a gorgon it what she does, but Brineybeard still loves her (Chibi: She’s trying to kill him. (Nitsuj): You’re young Chibi, you’ll understand someday). She turns him into stone and washes the ship up on her island (scenes here: https://youtu.be/Jd4yc0MgEEA and https://youtu.be/Jd4yc0MgEEA). Wanting to honor Brineybeard’s wish, Mugman forces Cuphead to help him deliver the boxes of candy he had for her. Along the way they accidentally break his legs (scene here: https://youtu.be/p562QPhi9QM. Well, there’s some backstory for the game) and Mugman fights a giant crab monster (scene here: https://youtu.be/pc5cfmF34UI). They finally enter her cave where she sings (have to admit, I was not expecting her to have a Russian accent) about her dream of wanting to be the most fearsome monster of the sea (scene here: https://youtu.be/HrGubqm3XEI, and I have to admit that is funny. She doesn’t sing about how she wants to find love, wants more out of life, or even be known as a great singer. She just wants to destroy ships and be feared by everyone). Mugman approaches Cala Maria and gives her the fish sweets where she likes them but is still gonna eat Mugman and Cuphead (seems fair). Brineybeard breaks the stone spell (through the power of love) not once but twice. He confesses his feelings but Cala Maria rejects him in the nicest way possible (scene here: https://youtu.be/68gkS2UG5OM). She then tries to eat them (Briney moves well for a guy with two peg legs) but they manage to escape and Mugman becomes a real pirate (also, this was the first episode that went over 20 minutes. Nice work guys).
It’s Bowl Boy time in episode 4. After their latest argument, Cuphead and Mugman decide to stop being brothers and hanging out. Cuphead makes Bowl Boy his new brother who is even more irresponsible and reckless than Cuphead (man, looks can be deceiving). Mugman tries to find his own brother only to get stuck with someone who’s even more cautious than him (you know, this episode reminds me of that one Rugrats episode where Tommy and Chuckie stop hanging out and find new friends who are more extreme than they are). Bowl Boy reveals that he was pretending to be reckless and irresponsible because he wants to become Cuphead (so he’s crazy. What else is new?). In the end Cuphead and Mugman realize that they balance each other out. Cuphead’s irresponsibleness allows Mugman to have fun and Mugman’s cautiousness stops Cuphead from getting himself killed (yin and yang will always be important).
Episodes 5-8
Episode 5 starts with Cuphead eating Mugman’s Halloween candy (not cool man. That’s a violation of the brother code). In order to teach Cuphead self-control, Mugman kicks him out of the house. Cuphead then winds up in the magical land of Sugarland where he meets Baroness Von Bon Bon (and they picked a good voice actor for her as well as personality. She’s obviously creepy and crazy. As to be expected from someone on a sugar rush). She allows Cuphead to eat all the sweets in the land as long as he follows the two rules. No telling anyone about Sugarland and no eating the candy castle (scene here: https://youtu.be/EZif2QwtK94). At first, Cuphead is tempted to take a bite out of a castle, but he uses self-control and avoids temptation. Feeling proud of himself he returns home to tell Mugman the good news but he’s still upset and wants compensation. Cuphead breaks rule number one and brings Mugman to Sugarland (just off the coast from the Land of Chocolate) where they indulge in the sweets. Mugman eats a part of the castle meaning they both broke the rules (https://youtu.be/aa9BOryn2tI) and get turned into sweets where the Baron plans to eat them. They manage to escape and make it home only for Elder Kettle to try and eat them (scenes here: https://youtu.be/YFQ4ODvG7YM and https://youtu.be/OaCinkvK5pU).
We get a Mugman episode for episode 6. After faking a sickness, Mugman has the whole house to himself where he uses it to read his book which features him as a dashing pirate in love with Cala Maria (and yes, this was a thing in the Cuphead community. People were shipping these two together for some reason). As Mugman tries to enjoy his book he keeps constantly getting interrupted by the ice cream man and yells at him. Feeling bad, Mugman goes to apologize to him only for him to spoil the ending to his book and Mugman attacks him in retaliation.
It’s another Mugman episode. We see Mugman receive piano lessons from the pompous Ludwig for an upcoming piano contest. Unfortunately, he sucks. Cuphead on the other hand is a natural and Ludwig makes him his star pupil to play in the contest. Jealous over this, Mugman enters the recital hall and sets a trap for a piano to fall on Cupheand during the contest (man, Mugman is toxic). When Mugman returns home, he sees Cuphead still at the house. It turns out Ludwig never picked him up and entered the contest with Cuphead’s song to win claiming it as his own (https://youtu.be/n7zfnbdyAW8). The boys get a tiny hint of revenge as Mugman’s trap goes off and lands on Ludwig (hopefully they can’t trace it back to him).
Episode 8 sees the return of everyone’s favorite character, The Devil. Tormented by his past failures, The Devil summons his best demons to capture Cuphead. Unfortunately, in his rage he not only kills his finest demons but his second finest as well (scene here: https://youtu.be/2jDgkeJxd5E). This forces him to use his third finest demons (and they’re all disappointing) as well as King Dice. He unleashes his demons out into the world giving us the best moment in the series so far, the opening of the Gates of Hell. This scene gets a laugh out of me every time I see it. The music, the gates, and the animation are so serious yet what’s coming out is so silly that you can’t help but laugh at how absurd it is (scene here: https://youtu.be/Ayl3K8E2_q8). Cuphead and Mugman are at a hay maze where the demons go after them. One by one King Dice takes them down in order to get the reward himself which forces The Devil to unleash the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (I feel like this should have been the first move). Just looking at them freezes everyone in terror, however, Mugman’s horse mask scares their horses away which means they get the whole day off (scene here: https://youtu.be/Yj7IvbeRkcg). The Devil finally has enough and decides to do the job himself but Stickler stops him. It turns out there’s a 30-day period in which The Devil has to collect the soul. If he can’t do it in that time frame the debt is canceled and the soul remains with the host. 30 days have passed which means The Devil can no longer claim Cuphead’s soul (and all of a sudden the setup for the game is starting to make sense. No wonder they were fighting Cuphead so hard whenever he came around). The Devil attempts to kill Stickler only to find out he’s wearing the invisible sweater (that sweater must be a one size fit all). Dismayed, The Devil decides to head home only to get stuck in the elevator with Stickler (his worst nightmare. It’s like that movie Devil only reverse. Scene here: https://youtu.be/_T5LVOVvPzI).
Episodes 9-13
Episode 9 sees the return of Chalice. Short on cash, the trio decides to open up a ghost remover service using Chalice to haunt houses and the boys as Ghostbusters (not to sound like a broken record but, Gumball did it). Everything goes well at first, but they come across a quadruplets of actual ghosts who want to switch places with them. The ghosts trap Chalice, but the boys save her and trap the ghosts after a long chase (scene here: https://youtu.be/cvCUEwTUHRc).
Episode 10 is a good throwback to the Tom & Jerry cartoons. While preparing a surprise cake for Elder Kettle, the boys come across Werner Werman (the easiest boss in the game) who wants to claim the house as his own. Not wanting to alert Elder Kettle, the boys try to catch Werner themselves only to fail in hilarious slapstick (scene here: https://youtu.be/ANZwHvLA74M). Elder Kettle finally steps up where we get a good back and forth until Werner captures the boys forcing Elder Kettle to surrender. However, he tricks Werner with a stick of dynamite blowing up the cottage and forcing Werner (who loses his accent) to leave (scene here: https://youtu.be/Mn6MpRNh–c).
In episode 11 Elder Kettle wants to take a family portrait, but the boys keep fighting each other. After Elder Kettle promises to take them to the amusement park and movies once the photo is completed, they agree to stop fighting. They go to take their photo at a billboard where the boys start fighting again and accidently reveal a picture of Elder Kettle’s dark secret, Diaper Baby. When he was a baby Elder Kettle’s mom entered him in a contest which he won and became the spokes baby for a diaper company (well that’s embarrassing). Naturally, Elder Kettle was embarrassed by the event and it always followed him as he got older, so he torched all the billboards erasing all evidence of Diaper Baby (scene here: https://youtu.be/pxPlsD0HyAU, looks like you missed one). The boys try to blackmail Elder Kettle with the picture, but the negatives get destroyed. Despite destroying the evidence, Elder Kettle attacks the boys with a fire poker because they know too much. Elder Kettle chases them into the city where they get arrested (and I just realized that Cuphead and Mugman are escaped convicts. What have the cops been doing all this time?).
In Episode 12 we see the boys get lost in the woods. After Cuphead destroys their compass, Mugman goes his separate way from Cuphead. Cuphead being the non-worrywart that he is believes he’ll be fine (the grasshopper would like to have a word with you), but quickly discovers that not being prepared is detrimental to your life (and this is why I don’t go camping). As winter sets in and Cuphead begins to starve and freeze to death he comes across a cabin that belongs to Mugman (how did he chop the wood with no axe? Where did he get the materials to make a stove? These are the questions I want answered). Cuphead begs Mugman to let him in but he refuses. However, Mugman’s conscience won’t let abandon his brother and he goes to save Cuphead who locks him out of the cabin and eats his pie. Angered by this, Mugman sets out to launch the cabin into the sky with Cuphead inside only for Cuphead to appear behind him. The cabin gets destroyed and the boys have nowhere else to go. They soon get discovered by Elder Kettle where we see they weren’t that far away from home to begin with (and got taken over by their active imaginations).
In the final episode of the season, The Devil finds out his reputation has plummeted after his recent failures (it’s hard to take him seriously when he can’t even get one soul from a cup). Angered by this, The Devil goes on a rampage tormenting people and leaving behind his pitchfork. Cuphead and Mugman find the pitchfork and use it to have fun and cause mayhem. When The Devil finds them he lets it slip that he no longer can collect Cuphead’s soul and Cuphead refuses to give the pitchfork back. Since Cuphead has taken something that belongs to The Devil, The Devil takes Mugman ending the season on a cliffhanger (scene here: https://youtu.be/0fyNctZJ7BM).
Final Thoughts
This season of Cuphead was good, but not as good as the first season. There’s some good laughs here and there but this season really didn’t seem to have that many memorable moments or episodes in my opinion. With the first season there did seem to be a structure with original stories involving the characters and setting. Here, there seems to be little structure and stories from previous shows that weren’t told as well here due to its short runtime and just weren’t as funny. The episodes that focused on the characters from the game were good, but episodes that did their own thing felt weak and forgetful. Cuphead also seems to come across as more of an asshole than an irresponsible but likable person in a few episodes. The animation is still good. I do like how they brought the Rubber Hose animation to the modern era and the various characters we see throughout the season are fun. Music is also good and pays homage to the Rubber Hose era. My favorite moment in this entire season is the Gates of Hell scene. The music, the animation, it’s the perfect shot that keeps me laughing.
Final Score
The final score for The Cuphead Show S2 is a 6/10. It’s an okay follow up that could have been better. I will admit the cliffhanger was a lot better than the first season and I’m excited to see what happens next. How will Cuphead save Mugman? We’ll have to wait to find out. Until then, thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.