The first part of BULLET/BULLET ended on a climax that would have, in most stories, led to a lower-class uprising. After all, Gear gave the working-class people proof that not only was their daily hard work being exploited by the upper class (who lived in a beachside paradise) but their literal lifespans were being siphoned off as well. Unfortunately, he then learned the flip side of the resilience and adaptability that humankind possesses—the fact that we'll put up with pretty much anything once we accept it as “normal”. In the eyes of the masses, they have food, drink, and entertainment—not to mention a culture that treats work as a good thing and death as a cause for celebration. Why put all that at risk just because of a kid and some infomercial they don't understand?

The heartbreak Gear is facing at the start of this second part is the simple fact that he gave everything for the people, and they didn't care. They treated him as an annoyance more than anything else. Now he's left to rot in prison, and all he did means nothing—it had no effect whatsoever.

As we soon learn, this is mirrored in the story of Gear's hero, Road. He and his companions once did the same as Gear, went around trying to tell people the truth. However, many rejected it despite the evidence, and when one group acted out violently, Road lost the person he cared for most. He then gave up on the people and became one of the oppressors, doing unforgivable things all in the hopes of forcing change from the top.

The difference between Road and Gear is the fact that Gear can see that, while he didn't manage to change the world, his actions were far from meaningless. Even if you fail in making the world a better place, someone who sees you fail may be inspired to continue in your stead. After all, Gear is living proof of this. It was Road who inspired Gear to want to know more about the world in the first place. And while you may only be able to go so far towards your goal, the next person to pick up the torch may manage to surpass you—and maybe even blaze a path for you to follow along.

Of course, this battle between apathy and conviction isn't the only theme explored in the back half of this series. There's also an obvious commentary on the nature of entertainment in the modern age. The people in this post-apocalyptic world are obsessed with a classic cartoon called “Gatcha.”

The idea explored in this cartoon is that people in the real world often choose to distract themselves with entertainment so they don't have to think about the hard issues in life. They come to care more about the fictional worlds than the actual world they live in. All they want is more—be that sequels, spin-offs, or remakes. The villains at the top within BULLET/BULLET want nothing more than to simply stay alive and watch their cartoons—literally. All the injustices in society that they have created are ultimately for this purpose.

This leads us into the next bit of commentary—that of the issues with over-reliance on AI. As those in charge of BULLET/BULLET's world want nothing more than to watch TV all day, they have put an AI in charge to make sure this happens. Because of this, the society they've created is stagnant. There's no advancement, no direction for growth. Things will never get better because no one at the top has reason to try and make it better.

Moreover, the AI can't even do what it's tasked with on its own. It has no actual creativity. It can't make new cartoons—it needs humans and their real lives to make a new story that it can then copy and turn into a cartoon. And if that sounds like a thinly-veiled indictment of AI-produced “art” that simply steals from the work of the human artist in its database when it creates something, that's because it is.

Outside of the social commentary, the second part of BULLET/BULLET carries on all the fun of the first part. We have over-the-top, likable characters and a ton of comedy and action. There is also more than a bit of amazing “car-fu” action in both the climax of the anime and the lead-up to it. Not only do both rival the chase scene from the first episode, they flat-out surpass it. It's visually stunning and a ton of visceral fun.

While the car scenes are the highlight, that doesn't mean that the rest of the presentation is bad in any way. The art, music, and animation all retain the level of quality seen in the first part of the anime, and the show never looks or sounds bad in the slightest.

The back half of BULLET/BULLET is fantastic. It's filled with thematic exploration and social commentary, even as it delivers some of the best car driving action put to animation. Add to that a wild and fun cast of characters and a great combination of direction and design, and you have a series that's absolutely worth watching.