Story: The story here is pretty basic. Picking off from the where the first season ended, Burst continues along the sexual and badass adventures of our main protagonist, Basara, where he sucks bitches and fights monsters. Kinda like what he did in the first season, but this time, in the demon realm, and with a plot that's even more incomprehensible.
Really though, that is it for our story. Aside from the change in setting, Basara and co. are essentially doing the exact same thing that they were doing in the first season, just with more stuff added to it that tries to build up the world, but only really adds in to cause more confusion. There are several major reasons why this second season fails, several very, very big ones.
First of all, we have the main duality of reasons: pacing and information. As a fantasy show, Sister Testament requires quite a bit of info dumping so that we as the audience can understand what kind of world these characters are getting into and therefore, understand their situation or conflict at hand. Problem is, we don't have that. Instead, we get a story that struggles to tell us what the hell is going on, while also trying to move along a story that just makes no sense. They add in a lot of setup for some "dangerous things" to come, and then drop it altogether, (Like that bigass coffin thing.) as well as supposedly important aspects of our main protagonist that feels like a maguffin for the series simply because it's not treated well. Combine those with the tiny, tiny runtime of 10 episodes, and you have yourself a recipe for disaster. And don't even get me started on the politics, because these factions don't have defined lines whatsoever.
And so, with that, you may be asking yourself, what about the thing that people care about? The ecchi? Well, likewise to its season one counterpart, there's no shortage of that. In fact, they go to the extent of having full-on orgies with the girls because Production IMS thought that putting more than what was "needed" was a good idea. They're honestly quite tasteless and just serve to give whoever enjoys this show a stiffy complete with sensual moans, boobs flopping all over the place, and lots and lots of fluid. (Wait for blu-ray release for the full experience.)
In short, I'll be honest here, the show is basically softcore porn with only the skeleton of a story added into it. While the show puts a bit more focus onto the 'story' aspect of the show, nothing about what was going on felt organic or even made any sense as the 10 episode runtime rushed everything to the point of losing several possibly important details behind, and thus losing what little credibility that this series had.
Overview:
+ Porn (I mean technically, you get a pornographic experience out of this, so that's a plus, I guess.)
- Horrible pacing
- Missing plot points
- Incomprehensible plot
- Forced well...everything
Characters: The characters as well for this series are really quite a treat. Not only do we have our resident harem king and his resident bitches go back into the spotlight, but we have a whole slew of unimportant plot devices added into the mix as well.
So, let's start with the main cast. (Because I am not analyzing these asshats one by one again.) Like before, we have the main characters of the series; Basara, Mio, Maria, Yuki, and a new edition that we met back in season 1, Kurumi. Like before, they all are pretty much the same kind of people as you'd expect them to be coming into season 2. Basara is our resident badass who wants to protect his 'family' (aka, his girls.), Mio is the main female who oddly enough is more willing to go into her sex slave role (when did that happen, exactly?), and Maria and Yuki are pretty much the same, etc, etc.
So, what's to gripe about these guys? Well, they're just not interesting. All of them fall into a category of trope in one way or another and nothing about them feels natural. Their motivations all feel fake and forced upon, and for the most part, nothing has really changed. Well, that's aside from the inseki acceptance, but that was gonna happen anyway.
As for the side characters, many, if not all are extremely underdeveloped. A lot of the show takes place in the demon realm and adds in this whole new layer of people and characters that should've made the series seem so much better, even adding in some of the old ones from season 1 like Maria's mom, Basara's dad, or even my personal favorite, Lars. But even with this new setting and this new chance at redemption, the show doesn't even try to get you to fully understand who these new people are, because all of them are just plot devices that either get offed early, or get offed later. Either way, they get offed without really any reason. Seriously, we have some 'villain' who just sit in the shadows and get killed without much happening to them.
One of my biggest complaints comes with the character Leohardt, the 'new demon lord' for the demon world. Leo as a character was made to be the central 'villain' to this season and the reason for the main characters to even come into the demon realm. But throughout the series, through the show's lack of any sort of explanation, his reasoning for doing anything just doesn't exist or is just forced upon him like the development for everyone else. He, like everyone else gets shafted to the extent that it makes no reason why he even does anything anymore.
Overview:
- Bland characters
- New characters are just as bad
- Confusing traits and/or forced, uneven development
Art: Art for Sister Testament is relatively the same as it was in season 1 in terms of quality and appearance. Like before, I will sing as much praise as I can for it because the show is pretty standard for anime these days, just going the extra mile for the way that the magic and the character designs are for some of the characters. Cause honestly though, some of these designs are pretty nice.
And for ecchi, well, you know what to expect if you've seen this series before. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, picture this. One guy, surrounded by five girls, two of which are extremely busty, three who are average in bust, all playing with each other (using various other outside things as well), with boobs flopping all over the place, and fluid EVERYWHERE. (I swear only half of it is sweat.) And that's just about your average ecchi scene in Sister testament. And bear in mind, this is how these characters get stronger. :P
Overview:
+ Decent artwork
+/- Ecchi, hardcore ecchi (This all depends on your view of ecchi.)
Sound: As for the sound, the tracks that they use this time aren't really all that noteworthy. Contrary to the OP in the first season made by Sweet Arms, these bundle of tracks really aren't that great or memorable.
Personal Enjoyment: Alright, now time for my opinion. What do I think of this show? Well, if it wasn't clear enough before, this show is shit. I've noticed a trend in the past few years that any time a series gets a season 2 with only 10 episodes, the quality is going to drop. This happened with DAL II, Hitsugi no Chaika, Prillya, and now, Sister Testament. The reason for this is because of its tiny runtime only being able to squeeze so much, eventually losing out on a large amount of detail because they don't have an extra 40-60 minutes to help develop the story more like a normal anime runtime does. And so, now onto my real thoughts.
Did I like this show?
Oh HELL no. HELL no. This show is an abomination and an insult to any shred of dignity this series had left simply because it just lacked any kind of substance. Anything that they made was hollow in terms of explanation and tried to make up for it with boobs, boobs, and more boobs which of course, didn't help this show's case at all.
What didn't I like about this show?
Everything, basically. None of the new supposedly important characters got any attention, the 10 episode runtime doomed this series from the start, and the soundtrack is really average at best. If anything, this show's only saving grace would be its artwork, but it's not stellar either, so it doesn't really save all that much.
Would I recommend this show?
Yea-no. In fact, I would go as far to say that the entire Shinmai Testament series is a complete waste of time. It's a series devoted to pandering to a certain audience and provides a less than mediocre story to fill up the 'empty space' between all of the ecchi moments. Cause if nothing else, that's the only reason to watch this show in the first place. So, if you're in the need for some fapping material, go ahead; it's all it's good for. If you want some quality entertainment or just general entertainment period, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
