Welll, I'm doing both, actually....I'm treating the 2nd season as something that "happened before the ranking wars" ( ̄∇ ̄"). I'll recomend you give it a try and if you like it, why not? (づ ̄ ³ ̄)づ (I mean, it's a bit more Kuga and some Jin showtime ╮( ̄▽ ̄)╭ )
does the anime follow the manga closely?