‘Go, Hibiki! You’re the hope of us all!’
Synopsis: The battle against the Septentriones is complete, and the final battle line has been drawn. The Void continues to expand, devouring all of existence, and Alcor and Yamato finally resolve their long-brewing conflict. In the end, only Hibiki will remain, determined to stop Yamato in his attempt to remake the world — but will the strength of his convictions be enough?
Impression:
In true Devil Survivor 2 style the first half of the episode was okay and the second half was great… I’m beginning to think they’re doing it on purpose, y’know? Whilst the first half felt lackluster and was composed almost entirely of conversation (and the odd tentacle attack on Yamato), the second half was wrought with drama, emotion and death. Death. At this point everyone really is dead aren’t they? Two people left in the entire world… Wow…
So I’m going to split this post into two main paragraphs, one talking about the first half and another talking about the second half… First half here we go? It wasn’t that the first half was bad… it just, as usual, wasn’t great. I’ll be honest, when this show turned to shit around episode 6, I realized that this was the moment I’d be waiting for, the end. In my mind at the time there was no way they could fuck up the end because, you know, it’s an adaption from a Shin Megami Tensei game, those endings are always good/numerous. As it stands, I think the show might be going for an anime only ending? But that’s just my thought process, I mean, I’ve never actually played the game so maybe you can tell me in the comments if they’re going for an anime only ending? It doesn’t matter either way really… unless you actually played the game. Back to the first half of the episode. Exposition. How many more times do we need to see Alcor smile? How many more times do we need to hear that Yamato is a ‘good’ ‘person’ (he’s not)? How many more times does Hibiki has to cry/scream before we realize that he’s way to emotional/has an abundance of hormones that are throwing the situation out of proportion (but I’ll get to that later). Honestly, there’s not much to say about the first half that hasn’t been said already. It’s first and foremost a battle sequence between Yamato and Alcor that you know Yamato will win. What other option was there?
Now let’s discuss the all important second half. Good things about it: There was drama, there was death, the survival feel was awesome, the backdrops were great, Daichi’s last moments were amazing, Makoto’s sacrifice was… yeah and the stage has been set for an epic final battle (which will most likely result in Hibiki winning and resetting the Earth to how it was at the beginning of the show, with Nitta, Daichi and everyone else alive… just saying) and, to be quite frank, I’m not at all excited. ‘But you just called it epic?’, I hear you cry out. Epic has several meanings. Is it going to be epic in scale? No, not unless Polaris joins in but that’s unlikely. Is it going to be epic in the sense that it’s going to be awesome? Also unlikely if the other battles from the show are anything to go by. Will it be epic in the sense that it’s the concluding battle and there’s probably going to be some dramatic dialogue? Yup. That’ll be it in an nutshell. But I digress, Alcor’s last moments were great, Nitta and Daichi’s last moments were great and Hibiki cries to much. Hibiki cried when Yamato died? Serisouly? Did he forget everything Yamato was/is going to do? Talk about trying to make a big deal out of nothing. Hibiki should have been celebrating but instead his bad characterization lead him to being the most cliche and most uninteresting part of DS2… DAICHI! Why couldn’t you have been the main character in his stead?
That aside, I’m glad this show in coming to an end. I haven’t enjoyed blogging about it and I certainly haven’t enjoyed watching Hibiki ‘grow’. I’m most sad about Daichi and Alcor’s death’s, but otherwise I’m just going to go about my daily life unfazed… can’t be helped I guess?
They appear to be going for one of Daichi’s endings. Just so you know they’ve changed so much it hardly resembles the game. Makoto being in love with Yamato, Yamato being a complete cliched villain, Jungo and Airi being around each other all the time, etc. are all anime original.
The game was more lighthearted and comedic, also demons TALKED!
Also nowhere near as many people died and there was a legitimate plot reason for that, which they’ll most likely change in the anime to using some loophole or not have it at all.
It could be said that they’re going for one of Daichi’s endings, but the fact that they probably won’t even battle against Polaris and show him the true super power of humanity will make the ending pretty useless, and will not guarantee the true salvation of humanity (you’ll see what I mean).
In the game, Makoto used to be a talented synchronized swimmer with a bright future ahead of her (joining the Olympics), but was one day involved in a car crash, and could not pursue her dreams any further. Becoming part of JPs gave her a new purpose in life, which was the reason that she was so loyal to Yamato. She also wasn’t love with him, and may oppose him depending on whether or not you choose to level up her fate ranks/follow another route/etc.
Yamato was a much more sympathetic character in the game. Even though he had the whole social-Darwinism stuff going on back then, he wasn’t nearly as much of a bastard as he is here. I still didn’t like him, but I at least found his thoughts reasonable and had respect for him. He also wasn’t that overpowered.
Alcor was more mysterious in the game, but much more helpful than he is now. He was a pretty straight-foward guy, and gave out important information regarding what to do in order to defeat several Septentrione. It was also revealed that he gave humanity fire, knowledge and all that jazz, and the demons you get for befriending him are >20 levels higher than the demons you get from the other characters (one demon being Lucifer, Lv. 99). Probably why I liked him best.
Actually, all the characters were pretty different. Hmph..?
If Daichi was the protagonist, then the anime would have been called “Neon Genesis Evangelion”. Really, Daichi is quite the same as Shinji.
They’re probably going for an Anime only ending where Hibiki timeloops back to the beginning of the game. This has been the theory of a lot of people who played the game since the first episode. With Hibiki having a powerful demon to start with and Hibiki says a bunch of strange things that were kind of like he almost knew things that he shouldn’t have/