Devil Survivor 2 #01 — Ice Cream… Of DEATH!

April 4th, 2013

 

Really? Ice cream?

Impressions:

Aw yeah, babe. CG cars! Okay, I am stretching here, although the CG people later make me feel better about adding it to the imaginary list I’m not keeping. This also steered clear of the internal monologuing briefly that has characterized much of today, instead opting for two friends to summarize each other’s current character traits and future plans. Which is a thought I find oddly hilarious as I think about siting down with my friends at a WcMonalds and deciding that would be the best time to review what we know about each other. The sheer amount of exposition in general was easily the weakest part of the episode too. Especially from around ten minutes in until the ice cream attacked. Exposition is meant to provide enough information to move the story along, not bring everything grinding to a complete halt. They could have cut nearly that entire seven minute span. Sure we would have missed the valuable knowledge that two trains colliding, killing hundreds and unleashing a swarm of monsters into the undercity is a disaster, but I think there were enough contextual clues to pick up on that. Like, say, for example, the two trains colliding, killing hundreds and unleashing a swarm of monsters into the undercity.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s nothing like most of the other… things… from today. There’s exploding ice cream with a machine gun for one. Not horribly animated for two, although they’re going to have to step it up a little higher than CG ice cream. Semi-eventful for three, although again, that middle chunk brought everything to a very unfortunate grinding halt for no good reason. The very Pokemon-ish battles of striking poses while their monsters run around could have been… I don’t know, hidden or something. It’s too corny to be showcased like that at any rate. God willing, unlike Persona’s adaptation, someone will eventually think to pick up a stick and hit something. Or even more astounding, maybe one of the military folks will give the kid who can already summon god beasts from Chinese lore to cause mass destruction a pistol for self-protection so he doesn’t flounder helplessly the first time a pigeon flaps at him.

Anyway, it certainly makes the cut for the first week above most of the rest. Production’s competent, maybe even a little on the upper end, although the actual action sequences themself were not overly impressive. Characters are plainish, but not annoying. Mostly competent with a side of CG ice cream.

Next Episode:

Flying skulls.

Posted in Devil Survivor 2 | 9 Comments »

9 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Gorilla13 says:

    Definitely contender for this season’s best anime.

    Atlus is pretty much the Squeanix of this generation.

    • The Phantom says:

      That’s definitely an insult to Atlus. Atlus is doing what Square could NEVER achieve.

  • MrTyrant says:

    And JOE? where is JOE? he was suppose to help the main characters in the fight against Dubeh after Daichi use the truck. In fact that fight was at the edge of the city when Joe tell them how to escape. I don’t think it was just a minor detail for one episode.

    • The Phantom says:

      I hated Joe, but in the game you can get him killed… how fucking cool is that?

  • The Phantom says:

    Solid plot, good animation, nice characters, competent team (director included). This is a no-brainer, even people that don’t like anime would like this.

    I would prefer it darker indeed, much darker, but I accept what I can get, now I’m hoping for one of the ‘evil’ routes :D

  • TheVoid says:

    There is no explanation for why humans can fight demons in the DeSu 2 game. One was given in the first game as their Comp(DS or 3DS) makes them able to take less damage/harm demons and use magic. Also they’re just likely to punch the enemy if they don’t know magic.

    P4 on the other hand has no excuse since humans fight with weapons. In fact that’s what they do in the fighting game sequel to P4 as well.

  • arknoir says:

    Square enix died and now exist in a parrelel universe making FF movies that look like games(think they’re on FFXIII-2). Atlus are damn good,but has some way still catch up to Square’s legacy. On this anime I have two things to say.1) don’t play this game pirated or you won’t be beating Dubhe with Byakko like the MC did. 2)If MC cracks on to Makoto, I’ll buy this anime instead of leeching.

  • Anonymous says:

    you’re really late on cracking icecream jokes about dubhe, man. those were all made back when the game came out in japan, if not before.

  • Mesousa2877 says:

    It was distracting. It felt too much like Angel Beats and Persona 4 had a baby, taking so much of their traits.