Devil Survivor 2 The Animation Episode 2: Monday of Upheaval – I

‘Why did all this happen?!’

 Summary: Hibiki, Daichi and Io are arrested by the JPs and brought to a secret underground base located at the National Diet Building. Here, Commander Makoto Sako, explains to Hibiki that the JPs protects Japan from “paranormal anomalies” before she introduces the JP’s Chief, Yamato Hotsuin who says that Hibiki’s demon Avatar: Byakko is unique, being one of the four symbols of the Chinese constellations. Furthermore, he explains that the Dubhe was only one of 7 creatures called the Septentriones, each of which will appear in the next six days and should the JPs fail to defeat them then the world will disappear. As the JP’s scientists begin to analyze the demon summoning app, Hibiki ponders on Yamato’s words. The following day, Makoto releases them by taking them to an emergency shelter in Chūō. Here, it is discovered that a rumor of demons running amok is spreading. As Hikibi looks around at all of the refugees in a church, a winged-demon attacks and Hibiki summons Byakko to protect them. As Hibiki fights an endless swarm of the demons, Makoto shows up with her demon, Protect and helps Hibiki defeat the winged-demons by destroying the rogue cellphone which had been summoning them. In the aftermath Hibiki walks away when he realizes the refuges are afraid of him, but gains resolve, along with Daichi and Io to help the JPs after a child thanks him for protecting them. Back at the Diet Building, Yamato outlines Hibiki, Daichi and Io’s first mission: to locate and recue missing JP’s scientist Dr. Fumi Kanno. In the epilogue, Yamato has a short dialogue with the mysterious man about Hibiki, while elsewhere, somewhere in Nagoya a man remarks that their “plan” shall be set in motion.

What did I want last episode? More character development. What did we get this episode? More character development… It’s like they read my mind. Even though it may in fact seem as if I am in fact complaining, I think you’ll find, that that is not in fact so. I really enjoyed episode 2. To quickly sum it up the episode gave us further insight into the current cast (of characters), it introduced more summoners into the mix, it properly introduced the ‘survival feeling’ required and it crafted an ideology that the show will surely be based upon – the idea of fighting for others when you have the power to do so (instead of being ‘passive’).

  So the episode begins where the last one left off, Hibiki and co. have been apprehended by JP’s… For f**** sake! When ‘JP’s’ is spoken in Japanese it makes me want to be sick! Jeeps. BLAH. I’m actually being serious y’know? I’m having to hold back the contents of my stomach as I write and all I’m doing is thinking about the pronunciation. It’s genuinely the WORST sounding word I have EVER heard. They said it THREE times in succession during the pre-middle part of the episode and I had to TEAR the earphones out of my ears to protect myself… Rant over. So Hibiki and the gang are in [insert terrible secret organization name here]’s custody, they have no idea why they’re there (other then the fact that they can summon demons from an app on their phones) and life is pretty bad. When we were first introduced to Makoto (Sako), I originally thought she’d be a massive bitch. Now us here at Angry Anime Bitches love bitches! I mean, it’s what we do. But I guess my point is, Makoto isn’t the bitch I thought she was. Sure she has a frigid personality that makes you wonder if she actually has a social life BUT, she still seems like an awesome person… and that’s great. Now ‘JP’s’ is an organization that… does something. Do they fight demons? How did they know the demon attack was coming? Who happened across finding out that demons actually exist? This is a Shin Megami Tensei anime and so the fact that demons exist shouldn’t really surprise me. In this world, asking why demons exist, is like asking why we exist, there is no real/definitive answer. Basically (to get back on topic), JP’s needs Hibiki’s help to kill the remaining demons, otherwise the world will end in a few days.

So, of course, Hibiki is reluctant at first and doesn’t really know what he should do. He’s at least decided that he’s not putting Nitta or Daiki in danger but there, of course, are consequences for his selfless acts of herodem (that’s what I’ve named his hero complex). But before I get to that I’d like to talk about Nitta. In the first episode she did… nothing. Okay, she helped with the fighting, but most of the time she just squealed and looked like she was about to cry. I’d also like to point out that her boobs are ridiculously massive and somehow defy gravity. Just saying. In this episode she received (I’d say) a lot more attention. From the last episode we were able to gather that she hadn’t been able to contact her family and that she needed to get to her home town to find them. Well in this episode she get’s there and… it’s been completely wasted. Dust and smoke are the only things that can be seen on the horizon and Nitta collapses in shock and horror. This is what I’ve been waiting for (no not Nitta to collapse, although that was also inevitable). The survival feeling. Post apocalyptic visuals and the drama to go with it – yes, this is surely going to be fun. But back to the point. This episode is all about Nitta taking that first step and becoming ‘brave’. Sure, at one point she’s sat crying in a corner, but as the episode goes on and Hibiki indirectly shows her what it means to have the power to help, she grows as a character and decides that this isn’t the time for crying and that she needs to use her powers for good.

Speaking of character development: Daichi. Actually no, he didn’t get much this episode, I just wanted a cool and witty way to introduce this paragraph. I’m sorry. Now all I ‘remember’ about Daichi last episode is that he A. ran away a lot and B. he knows how to operate a sizable lorry. This episode is about Daichi’s melancholy (The Melancholy of Daichi Suzumiya – I know, I’m a funny guy) and his coming to terms with the world that way it is now. Daichi, at first, seemingly couldn’t understand that Hibiki wanted needed to do something to help people. I gained the impression that Daichi is the kinda guy who runs away from situations where he could be in danger. I mean let’s analyze the first episode. Firstly, even when Nitta was being attack by the ‘wolf men’, he stayed up on the platform whilst Hibiki (in his herodem state) ran down to help her. He runs away again at the first sight of danger (the ice cream cone attack) BUT the important thing to point out about the latter ‘flee’, he comes back and tries to help… almost dying doing so. He, like Hibiki, can be selfless and it’s really awesome to see people during these survival type anime being that way. Always adds to the drama and that’s what this show will (most likely) thrive on. Even though last episode I admitted that I didn’t like Daichi to much, if he continues going the way he was in this episode, I’m sure we’ll be fine.

Seeing as this episode was purely a character building one, I should probably talk about the one character who’s building is rather important. Hibiki. Now for this paragraph we’re only going to talk about the fight with the demon birds because it highlights everything that has changed about Hibiki in a single day. Hibiki was always the hero type, we saw that in the first episode. In this second episode, he’s no different. He gives that little girl a bottle of water because that’s what selfless  people do. I like Hibiki. He’s the kinda down to earth guy you want being a protagonist y’know? And when the demons birds initiated their attack, I was interested to see him pause. He didn’t run and he didn’t cower, he just, stopped. In that moment Hibiki changed, he became someone who was willing to risk their life to save others and that’s the kind of character development that must take place in a survival anime. I don’t want to go into too much detail, but, the fight was awesome in two senses. One, it looked awesome and the music in the background really help amp up the feel of it. Two, the dialogue (inner and verbal alike) was awesome. We watch him change through words and it was awesome. It is really cheesy though… but I forgive it.

Lastly, I’m interested to see what/how Yamato is going to contribute to the slowly forming group. I mean, he seems like a cool guy, but what will he actually contribute? I can tell that every character will probably have an episode where their character will be further developed and so I eagerly await his… but until then, how many more character are there going to be? If the ending (which I love, music wise, that is) is any indication there are going to be 10+ characters introduced later… I’m going to have a hard time remembering their names…

P.S the eye make up boy was back again in this episode and he was talking with Yamato (I think)… what does this mean? Is the boy a figment of someone’s imagination? What does this bode for the next episode? Find out in time in ‘Monday’s Turmoil, Part 2’!