In between breaks, work, and writing several different thoughts on anime I've long since finished, I decided to look one up in particular which also happens to be a game adaptation -- In somewhat traditional fashion, they don't ever seem to properly capture the same awe-inspiring sensation that their game counterparts do, and it was more or less a slippery slope when I decided to watch this one considering it is directed by Seiji Kishi, the same bloke who ruined Persona 4 with horrible writing and questionable pacing. To be blunt, the story and pacing didn't take as much of a backseat, as it got hurled into the back of a completely different car. Any complexity or depth Persona 4 might have had.. gone.
Although at least it didn't make the actual game spontaneously fade from memory and existence as we know it, so there's that I suppose. Luckily though, Devil Survivor is an anomaly to me, I have no prior experience with the games but I was looking into reticifying that and supposedly there are certain events in the anime which never made it into the game; As a result, it would be easier to label it as a tie-in to the game, more or less, which works for me.
Devil Survivor 2 is another one of the many spin-offs of Atlus' Megami Tensei franchise, and this anime here is an adaptation of the sequel to the first one on the DS -- Incidentally, it doesn't seem like it carries any significant baggage where newcomers might feel completely lost in terms of story content, or what the heck is going on. It kicks off like any other Megami Tensei game I can recall from recent memory.. which usually goes as follows. A cast of high school protagonists find themselves in a pickle that revolves around cosmic monstrosities from beyond the veil of time and space here to eat all the pies and drink all the Fanta, and it's up to them to stop them because they drew the shortest straw, involving having access to a specific app on their SMART-PHONES, which allows them to summon their trademarked demons to do battle against other demons and ultimately SURVIVE, hence the title, ya know.
Looking back, it doesn't take more than 7 minutes of the first episode before a train crashes and kills everyone on the boarding platform where the protagonist was currently checking his phone, warning him of said disaster.. Oh, and the casualties includes him, which just goes to show that public transportation is overrated and riding the bike is where it is at.. right until a truck runs you over when taking a right turn in the next corner because the driver was too busy picking his nose and thinking about how very interesting his life is like instead of watching the ****** road -- That doesn't happen, by the way... What does happen, however, is that said protagonist chose to play life on casual mode and thus he's granted the option to restart from his last checkpoint.. The app bluntly asks him if he wants to live or die.. right after he died, so I suppose this is the part where one would contemplate on how exactly he could make that choice in the first place, but what do I know? I didn't play the game anyway.
The app's ability to foresee upcoming tragedies is more or less the important plot point that drives the plot here, in a similar fashion to that of the Midnight Channel in Persona 4 or the Dark Hour in Persona 3 -- It grants them that particular edge to fight back, along with summoning the whole array of the Lovecraftian spectrum from their IPhones.
Another common similarity to the rest of the Megami Tensei franchise is the plot basically being in the background, or having the build-up be saved for later.. this might, however, be a bit different in the game -- Devil Saga was more or less like this too, the cast gains their powers almost immediately in the beginning, you are somewhat introduced to its world's workings, a few of the characters, but not too much to grant a clear image to frame them -- Things will build from there, basically. This anime shakes things off fast with the action so much that it can't seem to calm down, as I established above it didn't take less than those 7 minutes before somebody bit the dust -- Although, even if it does move very fast I still can't seem to grasp on what is going on from the first few episodes and why any of this is happening. I like to think there's gonna be a few plot-twists, shady characters who aren't all what they seem, and probably some guys discussing humanist philosophy while gobbing about morality and demons.
What I do really like about Devil Survivor 2 is the artstyle, it's done by the same gentleman who did Durarara! which is excellent as I find Durarara's style to be very authentic and down-to-the-earth, capturing that modern cyberpunk-esque Tokyo with a gleam sense of style and pretty colours, plus the characters don't have eye-balls the size of footballs. It's sorely lacking in the soundtrack department of anything memorable -- Unlike Devil Saga, Persona or the main Shin Megami Tensei titles, it doesn't feature Shoji Meguro or his cohort composers, thus I was cheated from any catchy youthful guitar accords, jamming alongside jazzy-trip-hop-blues-inspired tunes. A shame.
I chose to watch the anime with the dub, given I thought it would feature the same cast from the game, but then I remembered that voice acting was something that was added in with the re-release and there's apparently a lot of it in said re-release, which hasn't even been released in the west yet.. So what the hu-ha, eh? In terms of quality it ranges from between midget height and 50 feet below sea-level, so I suppose it's okay, although the protagonist's voice actor doesn't sit quite well with me as his lines are very awkwardly delivered that it doesn't feel like acting to me, but rather like a poorly middle-school reenactment of Lord of the Rings.
All in all, Devil Survivor 2 The Animation is so far an okay little experience that sits quite well with someone who likes Atlus's games and watching a fun little time-waster.
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