Devil Survivor 2 The Animation Episode 3: Monday of Upheaval – II

‘My job is… demon hunting’

Summary: Daichi, Hibiki and Io are transferred from Tokyo to the JP’s Osaka Main Bureau. There, they encounter Hinako and Keita, two recently recruited Summoners. No sooner has the trio arrived than Osaka finds itself under a massive attack, one that combines hacker know how with mystical energies.

 Wow. Shit just got real.

 Before I continue any further… just how much of underground Japan does JP’s control? Like, seriously, they have an underground rail system and seemingly endless amounts of underground bases. How did no one realize these were being built? Why hasn’t anyone stumbled across this wide array from hideouts? How did they pay for this? What kind of government dedicates money to building an organization that fights demons? That is all.

 Episode 2 ended with the groups decision to officially join JP’s and help fight the Septentriones. Now I really thought we were getting somewhere with Nitta and Daichi, but apparently not. Neither Daichi or Nitta are important in this episode, in fact, I’d go as far as to say Hibiki wasn’t even that important. Who was the main focus of this episode? The last two episodes have kept clear cut focuses on specific groups of characters, developing them all equally to enjoyable extents. This episode involved no character development, had no focus and I would probably not have liked it if it wasn’t for the last seven-ish minutes. I mean seriously, Nitta got what? Like two lines in the entirety of the episode? I can understand that with cast growth comes a broader character focus, but when a character who only last episode was having an interesting development gets barely any screen time and might as well have disappeared until the last two minutes, what does that say about the cast of characters? Are they that easily disposable? Daichi received a bit more screen time (and lines) than Nitta, but even then he’s the same old Daichi from episode 1. He’s still weak and he’s still cowering. GROWN SOME BALLS MAN! Everyone’s out there fighting for their lives and what are you doing? Hiding behind a pillar. Sure, you poltergeist is also a pathetic wimp and ran away, but surely that is a reflection on you, Daichi? Both Daichi and Nitta are becoming side characters and that worries me…

 Now let’s discuss the new characters, Keita and Hinako. Hinako is cool… I guess. She’s the female version of the main three characters combined (gravity defying boobs from Nitta, humour from Daichi and hero complex from Hibiki)? I’m guessing that we’re going to see more of her later, but to be honest I would have preferred character development from the start, as in, right now when her character has been introduced instead of a couple episodes down the line. I dunno, maybe I’ll enjoy her character development episode later on, but until then her character just feels weak and oddly placed. I guess that’s the problem with cramming action like this right in at the beginning, I like the tension and I like the constant on edge feel, but this isn’t the Walking Dead. This is a 25 minute anime, with 13 episode and not a lot of time to waste. Character building is far more important then straight up action. The cast looks MASSIVE and what, they’ve introduced just under half of them so far? This isn’t the video game. You don’t have time to be spacing out character introductions and you can’t cram too much in at once. Persona 4: The Animation succeeded because it had 24 fun filled episodes, with action appropriately placed throughout and time enough to fully tell the story. When I heard that Devil Survivor 2 would be 13 episodes I immediately worried at the seeming ambiguity of the task. But I digress… back to the point. Hinako is alright. Keita. Keita is you typical hot headed, ruthless character who’s actually not as threateningly bad ass as he seems. I’ll be straight with you, I don’t like characters like this if they’re not done well. Keita isn’t perfect but he isn’t bad… Oh! And he’s dead already. Brilliant. Now, now, I’m not complaining, people have gotta die to make this story more dramatic! But we don’t even know him! We met him all of two minutes ago, he received no character development and now he’s dead. I’m heartbroken. His child like connotations and lone wolf ideology are two of the main reasons why A. he’s dead and B. I didn’t think he was that great. Characters need character development. Without it, they’re just disposable plot devices that try to evoke emotions and fail in doing so. I’m sorry Keita, but I won’t miss you that much…

 This episode was indirectly all about Professor Kanno and her dead fish eyes. Again, we don’t know much about her and we don’t know the implications that would arise if she were to be defeated. It would seem that the Septentriones have mind controlling abilities? Don’t try to elaborate on that TOO much Devil Survivor 2… Not much to say about her to be honest. She didn’t really do much apart from act as a plot device… Yup.

 Hibiki. Hibiki was sidelined in this episode in favor of the two new (now only one new) characters. His demon is as awesome as ever and his hero complex is so blatant that it hurts… Also, he should really change his clothes… He must be starting to smell a bit. Hibiki and the group seem to be adapting to this new world well, though. They understand they’re roles and they’re no longer the scared group of three they once were… Apart from Daichi… he’ll always be scared. Going back to an earlier point, I think Daichi’s usefulness has genuinely run out. Apart from maybe one character development episode, I’m not expecting too much from him anymore, but I digress.

 The main plot of the episode was the attack on JP’s and Keita’s ultimate demise. When Hinako received that Dead Face video I knew he was dead. I knew that they’d try to trick us into thinking that he would die and then kill him anyway. Those bastards. I’ll be honest though, I really loved the latter half of this episode. Drama, action, tension – these are the qualities that make this show great and they were all present in the last 10 minutes or so of the episode. When JP’s lose and the helplessness sets in I was like wow… next week is going to be a great episode and to be honest, it looks like it will be all. ALL DAT ACTION! Thrilling drama looks set to unfold on my screen next week and I eagerly await its appearance!

 P.S Is that… Starbucks?