OP: “Take Your Way” by livetune – The “opening” theme song, eh? I think the song is fitting for opening theme songs, but not quite for shows like these. The first episode showed less joy thus I would find techno with some normal anime song standard not cut out for this show. The only thing I could find to my liking is the introduction of all characters in a single opening with some futuristic and eye-candy feeling.
Episode 2
All too peculiar. A secret organization in a secret building with a secret underground, like the funds of a government could do that. It matters not when the poor possibility is made into a reality in this Devil Survivor 2 world.
The story was given to the audiences in direct points. This type of delivery is one of the very things I dislike because I easily associate it with bad anime. Say, the first course of action was to meet their parents, then the poor little girl was unable to find her. Next, we find the normal delivery of the message that they’re all too different people – that they’re misunderstood as powerful and scary people, some will appreciate them. Finally, they end up back to where they were taken into custody. (Note that the sudden transition was absurd. A disappointment, they could’ve chosen a more indirect development of them in a car with teen drama rather than take up almost a third of the episode directing the points they’re losing innocent people including their family.)
The epilogue was unsettling as well. The sudden appearance of what may be the godlike of this show is a friend of Hotsuin Yamato. Then there’s a random character we don’t know with some other random character blabbering about JP’s taking action.
Beyond these, the impressions I had about the protagonist and his team weren’t wrong – they were too bland. There wasn’t anything strong about them. In fact, I learned nothing well about them except the girl who’s sensitive about her family (which is normal, so back to the blandness).
Episode 3
With the given secret funds of the government, let’s not forget putting trains where money would rain down without any particular problem against beings the public should have no knowledge about.
I’ll give my points straight, stories like these require attention about the world around them. Say, does the government (we know in the real world) have nothing else to do but continue their duty and leave the JP’s to theirs like an independent organization? Or like, what else is happening in the world. But their writers never put too much attention to it, either because they don’t need to as long as they entertain people with action or it never “crosses” their mind because it just can’t happen in this anime.
Back to the underground tunnel, we find the protagonist reflecting about his powers and the responsibility he has to protect them. After arriving in Osaka, they find two other new summoners – a girl for fan service and a brat for just the variety of characters – and honestly, the brat’s got to have the strongest personality. You could describe him in one word, the others were just developed in poorer manner (because the brat’s the usual character who never does anything better so he leaves the group).
Proceeding to the Osaka JP’s base, they find themselves in the midst of a hacker attack, who was later found to be the (brainwashed) girl they were looking for. Hibiki somehow makes a smart idea about finding the hacker. Later, they find out about the brat’s predicted death.
They proceed to stop the attacker with all other dead reinforcements. The likely of this happening was very poor so it’s pretty much setup that they were “meant” to find her. Or they were powerful enough to get to the Ward and actually leave me in the disbelief of the poor choice of action the show is taking.
In the end, they match up with a very strong Demon nullifying all possible attacks. They soon wounded him, but still leave the lost doctor in the ruins while leaving a virus in the JP System. To top this unfortunate event, the brat died.
The very least I could say overall is its poor story quality. The animation was, while not good, fine enough, but how they’re telling the story is simply a disappointment. I may have expected too much.
Well, enough about the story, the characters weren’t well developed either. The brat had to have the least bland feeling, and I pretty much like him more than the others yet they killed him without even much screening.
Rating: Disappointment
ED: “Be” by Song Riders – So this is meant to be sad, right? Then there’s a bright future ahead whilst fighting in despair? Good music.
Adrift Culture 