Saw Azumi 2, so I thought I'd write up a little about it.
Basically without Kitamura, Azumi 2 is a very hollywood step-by-step comic book movie.
-story is alright. Mainly just wraps up the story from Azumi 1
-Aya Ueta still can't act, but she's still kinda cute
-Chiaki Kuriyama is pretty nice looking but she can't really act either
-Actually no one in the film can act, but then again no one could in Azumi 1 either.
-No cool supervillian, but 3 henchman with super comic book powers that defy reality
-the fights are pretty weak and there aren't really any cool fights
-no posing
-the cinematography and framing of the shots sucks, especially since Azumi 1 was very nice looking.
-music was weak
-no comedy
-felt pretty short, basically all fighting and very little of anything else
-lots of blue-screen that looked crappy.
-no big scale battles like Azumi 1, all the fights are in the wide open and there's only one scene in a small house.
-I think there were less ninjas
-no Hideo Kojima
So yea, I mean it wasn't terrible but without Kitamura it wasn't anything special. While Kitamura has issues with pacing and often over does things, he's always trying to make his films look good either by cool posing, various effects/filters for fighting, and excellent framing of the shots. Azumi 1 is especially amazing considering it was shot in 1 week. It would've been nice if they could've gotten him back.