Shinmai Maou no Testament Departures

I'm writing this as somebody who has read the novels and understands the entirety of the series plot.

Visually Departures is the best the series has ever looked. There were some cool nods to LN fans with some of the characters casual clothes from SWEET! getting animated. The service scenes were never going to be on the same level as the novel, because that would have certainly pushed it into R18 territory, but the anime original scenes were a let down, because they lacked the variety and intensity of the novels.

I think Departures did a better job of setting up the Nonaka's getting summoned back ... to the Village, but the rest of the anime original content was kinda filler nonsense. They would have been better off just doing a straight adaptation of chapters 2 and 3 from volume 8.

There's some really good world building that happens in chapter 3 of volume 8 that makes most of the events in the series make much more sense, and it's a shame they didn't adapt those scenes.

The onsen trip with Chisato was adapted badly and they were real ambiguous about an important event that happens during that trip which has lasting consequences on the rest of the novels.

Basara's anime original fight against Lars was well done. This was probably the best animated fight of the series and it gives me hope that they'll be able to do justice to the fights from volume 9 onward if a S3 is green lighted.

My favorite part of the OVA came during the credits. As an LN reader, I got to see a character animated that I never thought would have ever been animated. So that was a treat for me. Overall Departures is a decent watch that sets the stage for the best arc in the series. I recommend picking up the novels though if you want the most authentic version of the story.

Blue Balls of the century!!

It's a cute story to finish off the series. The animation is top quality, and some of the censoring done in this OVA was funny and well made for this being an anime.

My main annoyance with the entire show though, both the two seasons and the OVA (haven't seen the extra fanservice OVA, so can't comment on them), is that the main protagonist never actually get laid. He's surrounded by 5 hot ladies that services frequently, yet he never gets anything in return.

The fact that it is an anime and not a full blown hentai, means they can't show everything, I ... get that. But given how far they go to show skin, bunnies, tusch, even nipples (something I haven't seen outside of hentai, still fairly new to anime though), yet not even off screen sex. I just don't get that.

If I needed some hentai for the expressed purpose you use hentai for, I'd just go to a website providing that. This is a story, a thin one, but one nonetheless. It goes all the way, the only is doesn't show is sex, not even hinting anything off screen. So why bother making a show like this in the first place then??

I thought "maybe, at the 'wedding night'", but one of the short clips with Maria suggest them having sex. Not sure about that though as the censoring was covering up so it was hard to tell. But considering the that he never actually had sex with the other four girls, I don't think he actually ended up having anything with Maria either.

So I just have to ask myself again, what is the point of a show like this??

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. Some hot naked anime girls in some steamy scenes and some cool action and a pretty sweet action. But when there is so much emphasis on the lewd, yet there is never indicating anything actually happening, then why spend so much time and energy on a show like this??

Maybe I just don't get it, that is possible. I hate to bring Kirito up again cause I'm not a fan for SAO, but even he got lucky. It was all off screen and always suggested through actions and conversation, but no one watching that show had any doubt that he and Asuna had sex at their cabin after they gt married ingame.

Yet this guy marries 5 hot chicks and gets thirsty just by saying no or not doing as they're told (something every guy had fantasies about at one point at least), yet, nothing... No wonder he's so pissed off all the time....

This was my rant for this show. I gave season 1 a 7, season 2 a 6 and the OVA a 6, giving the show an overall rating of 6,33 (this does not count the season 1 and 2 fanservice OVA's as I haven't seen them).

I would have liked to have given then show a higher score, cause I think it deserved it. But the fact that they make an anime so heavy in the lewd yet blueball the main protagonist as much as they do, makes me feel like the show misses the mark.

Either make it the way it is and he bangs the girls like crazy, or keep it way lower on the lewd if they're just gonna blueball. It just feels like such a misstep to a point were in the end, the lewd scenes started to just annoy me. "Here we go again, more blue balling...."

So if you love blue balls galore, this is the series for you!!!

This did not live up to the hype that was built through months of promotional material promising an animation so lewd that genital organs would spontaneously explode out of sheer excitement and joy. I was so looking forward to Chisato/Basara having an intimacy scene that would top the raw passion of the bath scene in the first OVA. Instead we got a lukewarm, rushed onsen scene that had zero build up and failed to capture any the raw sexual emotion of the light novel. There's a scene where Basara and Mio are making out in a cave under a waterfall which is...cool? It's nothing we ... haven't seen before dozens of times already. This OVA was supposed to introduce something new to the animated franchise and increase the lewdness to a level not seen in the BD and past specials. To cross that thin line between super ecchi and hentai that Shinmai had tiptoed for so long. Instead it felt like a rehash of established material that was done far better elsewhere in the series already. Just as damning is the inconsistent character designs and subpar animation that you'd expect from some cheaply strung together hentai rather than one of the most successful LN erotic adaptations of the past several years. This shouldn't happen for a well planned special that doesn't have the production constraints of seasonal TV series.

There appears to be a segment of the Shinmai Maou community that cares about the battle narrative. In that case, maybe you'll enjoy the well choreographed action sequences. I do not so I did not. This franchise is only relevant for it's fanservice, and the fanservice of this OVA was a massive letdown. I hope this isn't the last we see from Shinmai Testament and it redeems itself in later adaptation installments.