‘How should I go about erasing your memories?!’
So by now you should have probably realized that I don’t like this show… It’s not that it’s bad (it is) and it’s not that it can becoming boring at times (it does), it’s just that if you’re going to bore me to death you should at least try to do it kindly; repeating plot lines, forcing character development and ending battles anti climatically… it’s not winning you any award Devil Survivor 2. I’m starting to think though, that this show may be able to redeem itself. It was the latter half of this episode that convinced me of that, but I still have doubts as to whether the shows quality can remain high for a such an elongated period of time… I don’t know. Maybe.
At this point I’m pretty much only watching this series for the opening and ending songs… the plot doesn’t draw me in and the battles are somewhat poor… The first half of this episode is all pretty much just pointless exposition, fact and figures that we received last 
episode and were simply expanded upon for 10 minutes. Great. Hibiki’s an independent man. Couldn’t you have just said that and moved on? We didn’t need half an episode of Alcor questioning his beliefs, Yamato repeating himself and Hibiki looking shocked. It’s unnecessary and takes away from the experience, but worst of all it doesn’t draw the viewer in. In fact, if I didn’t have to review the episode I probably wouldn’t have finished the episode and I would have dropped the show… yes, I have quite a strong opinion on this series… my bad? I’m not even really sure what Alcor is… is he a God? Is he a demon? Who knows, but one thing’s for sure… I’m actually finding the ‘Alcor dilemma’ quite interesting. It’s one of the few plot points that I’m genuinely interested in and I hope they don’t martyr it… it’s my last source of hope you know? And another thing… am I the only one who hates it when they bring in an add load of character just so that they can kill them off? It’s annoying and it bugs me. Are our main characters really the only ones capable of protecting themselves? Surely not… I mean, if Daichi’s lasted this long, anyone should be able to.
Anyone else notice that Jungo and Airi get one or two scenes and then disappear? What is their importance? Why were they even introduced as characters? It bothers me that they’ve been in the show for over three episodes and they’ve done literally NOTHING. They haven’t helped Hibiki, they don’t have interesting back stories… hell! They aren’t even that great a characters… I just hope they serve some purpose in this last half of the series and aren’t just killed off because they can be…
If this episode did anything right, it was the little bits of character development that were sprinkled here and there. Is Yamato good? Or is he evil? As of right now I think he’s changing from ‘evil’ to ‘good’… what ever the hell that means… I don’t think that Yamato was ever 
truly ‘bad’ in the first place… misguided and delusional maybe, but pure evil? No, I don’t think so. Daichi and Hibikis… ‘relationship’ received some attention this episode and… well, to be honest, I didn’t really feel anything whilst watching it. Whether that’s because I’ve been so mentally numbed by flu or simply because it wasn’t that well done, it just didn’t affect me in the way they wanted it to affect me. Io and the nurse? Yeah, I guess that was okay, but again, it didn’t do anything for me. She has a child (a child who’s face was blurred out and therefor that leads me to believe that the child will be important later on in the story but that’s just me speculating…) and Io likes Hibiki (not that they’ll do anything about it)… CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT at it’s prime right there… It’s needed and it’s not needed… I feel like the further we delve into the characters the more bland and uninteresting they become. What about Joe? He seems like an interesting guy, the kinda guy that anyone can get along with, BUT NO, they don’t want to delve deeper into his character… is he hollow as well? Just what’s up with these characters?!
The latter half of the episode was definitely the best and that was only because it was humorous. HUMOROUS! A survival show is relying on humor to keep me interested? I get that Shin Megami Tensei shows are like this, but it just came so out of the blue after the serious feel the show has had for the last couple of episodes. Whilst it was nice to see them relaxing and unwinding, I’d like to remind you all that the world will be ending in a few days (in their world!) and they’re sitting around having checkups? Logic. I’m cool with the humor, I just wish they would do it subtly and not rely on it so much to keep the viewer enthralled.
The end of the episode was the highlight (to be honest)… not because I wanted it to end, but because it had such an epic feeling… the feeling I had in episode 3 before the battle in episode 4 was bad and anticlimactic y’know? I just hope that this Septentrione isn’t dealt with as easily as the last few… Overall an average episode with good qualities… nothing to call home about, y’know?
Alcor is a Septentrione, and the show is following the game as we speak, but they tweak it slightly to fit in the animeverse style. Play the game, because Hibiki has much more funnier lines than the anime.
The game was way more comedic and light hearted than the anime, I can tell you that. Alcor questions his beliefs in the game too, but it tends to be optional for the most part. I can tell you that anywhere from 3-5 can characters can die during the game, but 8 characters in all can die, but three are automatically required to be saved when three others die. Daichi’s not one of them. Airi and Jungo did attack Ronaldo’s men last episode, and tried to help out against Phecda as well I believe.
Look up the name Alcor on the internet, you’ll find out what he is when you do. Also, next week’s Septentrion is Three Giant Ice Cream scoops covered in ice cream cones. They showed it briefly this episode.