Following on from the recent release of Persona 4 the Animation and plans for a movie installment of Persona 3 – the latest of the Megami Tensei games to receive an anime adaptation is Devil Survivor 2 (Surprisingly skipping over Devil Survivor 1). As with most titles in the Megami Tensei series, it follows a group of (generally young) people who through plot device X obtain the ability to summon demons and use them to save a world on the brink of destruction. In this case the story surrounds the main protagonist (Hibiki) and a group of others whom sign up to a service known as ” Nicaea β ver” which serves as a self-proclaimed dead face delivery site and is rumoured to show someone videos of how their friends will die. After finishing a practice exam, Hibiki and his friend Daichi Shijima find each others death videos posted up with them to be crushed by a subway carriage…. only to witness the event moments later. Given the opportunity to die or have a second chance… they unlock the power to summon demons via their mobile phones. Only problem is…. demons are also beginning to cause chaos around Japan.
While the overarching plot of the first episode remains faithful to the original source, certain events have been altered for impact – for example the use of the Demon Summoning Program and the characters first summoning of demons is expanded across the whole episode rather than a simple battle in the subway. In addition, many aspects of Day 1 have been condensed which events occurring earlier than they should have chronologically, the omission of certain events and even character introductions. It hints that they will be focusing on certain characters (Potentially Hibiki, Io and Daichi) rather than the others.
While it does come as a surprise that the first major “boss” in this anime series resembles a giant, flying and demonic ice-cream cone… the visuals are of a rather high standard. Character/Demon designs are solid and it seems like they decided to throw out some of the bigger demon designs rather than just the smaller ones you begin the game with. While most of the fighting is done by the actual demons, the battles are engaging and given the more serious context of this series – I felt further expanded upon the “demon summoning” foundations set by Persona 4 the Animation.
While I must admit I wouldn’t have objected to them using the original video game opening for the Opening Sequence of at least the first episode… both opening and ending sequences were enjoyable to listen to but lacked the impact of the games. The remainder of the musical backing seemed to be mostly different from the original release but Kotaro Nakagawa put together a decent ensemble of tracks at least for this first episode.
Overall, while I am holding off my opinion until a few more episodes in, this looks to be a promising anime series. The big question I have however, is that as it seems like they are condensing the storyline… just how much they will cut out?
