Devil Survivor 2 The Animation

Neon Genesis Evangeli- I mean, Devil Survivor 2 the Animation, is a great example of an adaptation from a video game to television gone wrong. Having beaten the video game myself, this anime adaptation was a severe disappointment from start to finish in many off-putting ways. The writing in this anime is childish as it constantly uses well-known clichés, character archetypes who never develop past their cardboard cut-out selves, spills melodrama all over the floor, and everything feels rushed and unconvincing. It is rather, to put it simply, a monstrosity. Now, the story of the video game wasn’t exactly original nor was it interesting, so ... I wasn’t expecting the anime to have a storyline to be on a whole different tier. However the anime definitely could had improved on the overarching story in various ways. Unfortunately, the anime never really improves anything throughout its entirety and leaves off a trail of poor writing everywhere.

The story starts out when a colossal, unnatural disaster hits Japan which pushes civilians and society into desperation, as any major disaster in real life would. Soon, invaders called Septentriones appear and humans must defeat every one of them using demons they can summon in order to survive. Wait a minute, doesn’t this premise sound a bit familiar? Devil Survivor 2 borrows a lot of the same concept from Neon Genesis Evangelion. However the video game managed to blend in its own traditional and original aspects of the Megami Tensei franchise, (Devil Survivor belongs to the Megami Tensei franchise), thereby allowing the game to hold onto its charm. The same can’t be said for the anime adaptation. Unlike the video game, the anime sheds off every inch of strategy in every battle, and replaces it with random attacks that seem to serve no purpose other than for eye-candy and to weakly move the plot forward. The result is mainly dull action and boring battle scenes.

One of the first problems that appear in the anime is that it never really genuinely shows how such a monumental impact is affecting the civilians and society. In Devil Survivor 2’s case, world-building is essential in order to allow the viewer to sink in the necessary details so that important aspects such as pacing and plot and character development feel natural. World-building in this anime’s case could had provided more details on the nature of the post-apocalyptic setting, what the order of society is currently like, how various civilians are holding up, the government’s reaction, etc. Unfortunately, the viewer gets none of this in a genuine manner but gets instead various plot devices that jump out of nowhere which feel jarring, unnatural, and in certain cases, make for unconvincing writing in both story and character-wise.

Enter Hibiki, the main protagonist. He encompasses everything that many other battle shounen protagonists there ever were. He is the hero who jumps straight into action without rational thought. He is the hero who has to save everyone simply because he has the power to summon stronger demons than anyone else. By the way, why Hibiki has been granted this special power while almost everyone else has been left with much weaker demons is never explained until the last remaining few episodes. Even then, the reasoning for this special power is as cliché as it can get. The unexplained unique powers he acquires acts as plenty of plot devices, as Hibiki manages to defeat foes left and right with the help of his powerful demons, and without any convincing struggles. To hurt the writing further, for the first few episodes, this power is the only reason that drives him to become the typical hero that he is and jumps into every battle he can get his hands on. When Hibiki lacks such motivation for his heroic behaviors, he comes off as a very unconvincing character and becomes hard for the viewer to sympathize or understand with. Other characters beside Hibiki also never properly develop, and this makes for much unfruitful viewing containing melodrama and rushed events. In fact, the majority of the characters are hardly even realized, it’s as if they were put into the anime simply to fill up more cast and time and amount to nothing more.

On top of this, well-known clichés pretty much plague many parts of the anime. One notable cliché and theme used throughout the anime is… the power of emotions. Yes, screaming out loud while also screaming cliché lines can save the day in this anime.

Devil Survivor 2 the Animation was very disappointing. There is not much of a single redeeming aspect about this anime. Cliches, bland characters, overdramatic scenes due to poor development, weak narratives and overall plot really plague this anime, ultimately coming off childish and dull. And to those who played the game and hoped for a faithful adaptation in terms of story, you will be disappointed. To make it worse for the video game fans as well as for the rest of the Megami Tensei franchise fans, a lot of the Megami Tensei aspects seen in this anime are terribly realized. The anime breaks the laws of the MegaTen universe, such as how Hibiki can somehow summon Byakko as his first demon in the first episode, a high-level demon in the video game. It was also disappointing how the Demon Fusion was actually introduced in the last episode, and it didn’t help that it was intertwined with horrifying writing. Also, did I mention that Jungo is the most awkward character I’ve ever seen in any anime?

The video game is very fun and addicting. This adaptation can leave one with the impression of the exact opposite.

I had my share of problems with Persona 4's anime adaptation. Actually, I had a truckload of problems with it. Scratch that, I was finding stuff to complain about every single episode. And yet, I look back on it and think "oh wow they actually didn't do that badly, considering they condensed a 70-hour RPG into 25 episodes". Indeed, Devil Survivor 2: The Animation served to put Persona 4 into perspective for me. In spite of all its issues, it really didn't do that much wrong. The story was well developed, the characters all got their moments to shine, and there was still time left ... over for fluffy social linkage.

Yeah, uh, DeSu 2 doesn't do any of that. What we have here is the boring parts of Mirai Nikki with the basic premise of Neon Genesis Evangelion tacked on, infused with Megami Tensei lore. P4 wasn't exactly a paragon of originality, but the tricks it played to stay above the typical worked well. Here, however, everything is strictly by-the-numbers. Chosen one, blah blah blah, pointless friends, sexy rival, blah blah blah, end of the world, boss battles, mysterious otherworldly ally, this has literally all been done before. Even worse, this show is as predictable as it is boring. I could see all the plot "twists" coming, -especially- the ending. Oh, wow, the ending. Don't even try to pretend you were shocked. It was so, so obvious.

One of my biggest problems with this is the cast. If your name isn't Hibiki Kuze, you're shit out of luck. This show doesn't care about you, and you won't get to do anything, ever. The only other characters to get any screentime are Hibiki's two friends, his sexy rival, and the mysterious otherwordly ally. Everyone else is mere decoration, which is extremely sad, because the minor characters happen to also be the most interesting ones. I was charmed by Jungo and Airi from the first moment they appeared, but "Jungo = chef, likes cats; Airi = kind of a bitch" is the only thing we ever get to know about them here. This is a huge problem, because when the show starts killing characters off and treats it as a huge deal, I was unable to care. They weren't killing -people-, they were killing concepts. None of these characters were developed enough for their deaths to have any sort of impact. Speaking of development, though, not even Hibiki gets that. Indeed, his only privilege is the vast amounts of screentime. He starts the show as a generic, personality-free protagonist, and ends it the exact same way. The protagonist, Yu Narukami, was one of the things the P4 anime did extremely well, so seeing them utterly fail here was kind of sad. Perhaps 13 episodes just wasn't enough for such a large cast of characters. Wait, perhaps? There's no "perhaps" here.

I suppose the show being short kinda starts making up for it being incredibly boring. Hey, let's be positive some more! Electropop magician kz of one-person music "group" livetune composed the opening, and he has, of course, delivered a total jam once again. It may not be a complete banger like his other op of the season, OreImo's Reunion, but more kz is good kz. I cherish kz's compositions. On a similar note, the ending song (Be by Song Riders) isn't bad, either. Both songs eventually found their way into my playlist, where they both got their heavy rotation. Oh and the animation is kinda nice I guess.

Let's have a bottom line, a line at the bottom. Devil Survivor 2 is boring. Really boring. Uninteresting and bland, even, and I can't think of this as anything other than a failure. I suppose it's a bit better than Mirai Nikki, one of my least favourite anime of all time, on account of this just being dull, as opposed to face-breakingly bad.

Although, technically, isn't making a bad impact better than making no impact at all? Mirai Nikki -did- have some absolutely fantastic stupidity...

Er, yeah. To close this review, I can't recommend this to anyone. To fans of the game, this is a shitty adaptation. Don't bother. To fans of the genre, Evangelion is there for a reason. To fans of SMT, just rewatch Persona 4. To everyone else, this is one boring piece of work. I suppose the best way to describe it would be "mediocre", but it's -so- mediocre that it crosses into being god-awful. After all, aren't the worst shows the ones you can't even enjoy for their badness?

Your anime's death clip has been uploaded. This outcome cannot be avoided. Have a nice day!

Well,this anime has it all. Lame story(basically nonexistent, its just one boss figth after another),boring characters, with no motivation, no interest and no development and mediocre music thah really wears off after one time. Even the animation, its strongest aspect, its nothing special and you can not even enjoy it because is lost from all the stupidity of the above.

However, that its not this anime's biggest problem.The thing that really bugged me it is the fact the show never escapes from its gaming origin. It keeps remind you that its a game: the hero receives quests from the director, performs them and then returns for ... more. The graphics, the pauses(which by the way are just plain stupid), even the opening, they all feel like i am playing a computer game. Even the title for god's shake!I do not have a problem with animes that come from games, i even love some of them, but it becomes a problem when the staff just want to animate a game and simply do not care about anything else. The Devil Survivor 2 The animation is an anime for those that wanted to see the game animated and NOONE ELSE.Maybe not even them.

overall i give it a 3,a poor choice to watch.

Oh man, going into this anime I honesty had high hopes. I really should have known better.

Story
The start of the anime was pretty good. It starts with two normal high school living their normal lives, while going to someplace somewhere to do something they see a beautiful girl by herself. While talking about her, they get a video showing their own deaths and the show begins. It starts somewhat strong and interesting but as the story continues it starts making less sense and becomes extremely boring to watch.

Characters
All the characters are bland and weak except for Hibiki (he's boring, just not weak) the protagonist. ... All other characters play unimportant roles (except for the guys with white hair), HECK the other two that were with Hibiki were only there to try and be characters who the audience could sympathize with and to be a "reason" for the protagonist to fight. Hibiki is honestly no better than any other character, the only reason why he's more likeable than the others is he's strong and the others aren't. He's the VERY DEFINITION of a generic main character, but hey it is a game adaptation.

Art & Sound
The only thing that saves this anime is it's good art and animation. The characters look nice and the battles are nicely animated but very boring to watch after the first few fights. The music didn't really stand out much except for the ending.

Enjoyment
I really forced myself to watch this anime often going into a trance like state causing me to miss most of what happened in the current episode.

Overall
I really forced myself to watch this anime often going into a trance like state causing me to miss most of what happened in the episode. This is a really big reason why I try my best to not get hyped for anything (I still don't know why I was even hyped for this anime).

Seriously, what is the meaning of life?

Honestly, when it comes to game adaptation, I always have the lowest expectations because I know most game adaptations might not fulfill the requirements the game had to offer which results in poor ratings. I have completely forgot about 4/5 of this anime. But as I think about this anime, I am leading into a more "I don't like this anime". I will explain them as I move along.

STORY (2):

The 3 protagonists Hibiki, Daichi & Nitta were thrown into a virtual world whereby in order to protect Japan, they have to defeat the Septentrions. Yamato Hosuin, the leader of ... JP, recruited 3 of them to join their force in destroying the Septentrions and many things start to happen.

The story was full of plot holes and cliches and the battles were not epic at all. I couldn't get invested in the story and the characters which is very sad because when I watch anime, I am always interested in the story and characters and how they deal with life. I will explain in full detail on the animation, characters and my final thoughts of this anime.

ART & ANIMATION (1):

The animation is so dull which means the animation was so bright on some parts while the animation was so dull on some parts like watching a near-black screen.

The anime also made use of "Baka & Test" when they summon beats and especially when Airi summons "Caith Sith" a reference from Final Fantasy 7. However, in FF7, Cait Sith was designed with a cat on top of a huge monster. Well, I don't even know how to describe that. These references are negated by the dull animation.

If you want to pull the audience in, you have to make the animation look fantastic, not dull.

SOUND (3):

The opening and the ending was forgettable. I just forgot about the opening and ending theme. Even the music in the anime was not memorable, I just didn't care about the music.

CHARACTER (1):

Oh boy! Don't get me started on the characters. The characters are all unlikable and annoying with the exception of Yamato and Alcor. The 3 main characters are like Twilight characters.

To me, Yamato and Alcor are only the most developed characters in this anime but then they got pushed aside and that was the last we ever seen of them.

Hibiki Kuze was one of the worst protagonist I have came across in an anime. His character was like Yukiteru Amano from Mirai Nikki. He just couldn't think straight and he always value his life more than anyone else. He always sulk a lot. The only think that his character develops is that he forms a good relationship with Daichi & Nitta.

Daichi Shima was always overreacting.

Nitta Io, a crybaby, who always cries when things go wrong. She never grows as a strong character. In fact, she relies on Hibiki too much. Just another Orihime, damsel in distress.

The most annoying girl is Airi. To me, she always never care about the situation and the world. She always complain a lot.

I just can't believe that the 3 protagonist are just babies and they value their life more than protecting others. They really have no goal in life. In fact, I don't feel that their situation was dire. There is no weight to the situation.

CONCLUSION (2):

The characters all just go through the motions with this anime and I didn't get invested in their cause and dilemmas. The characters just stayed the same throughout the anime.

In episode 11, they mentioned Jack Frost but it was supposed to be pronounced as Black Frost in the game. Though I haven't played the game yet.

The anime just neglects the appearance of Polaris and the 3 protagonists' parents. If their parents were there in this anime, why didn't I get to see them. It leaves me with a sour feeling of the ending.

And speaking of the end, this is one of the worst endings I came across. By the end, I came to realise that the characters that go though the battles, relationships, their causes, struggles and mysteries, it was all for NOTHING!

By the end of the series, the characters just go on with life as if nothing had happened. Which means to say that this whole adventure didn't matter at all. It was just an illusion after all so we might as well just forget about it.

I was so angry about this ending that everything that they work for is for nothing. The more I think about this anime, the lower the score gets.

So overall I give this anime a 2 out of 10. I sat through 13 episodes and I realised none of that really mattered.

The Shin Megami Tensei franchise is probably my favorite franchise of all time, and I honestly can't recommend it highly enough. There's something in the franchise for everyone, whether it's the post-apocalyptic setting of the main SMT games, the technological themes present in all of the games, the mythological aspects/themes, the contrast between order and chaos, the alternate history of the Devil Summoner games, the psychology of the Persona games, incredibly complex storyline of Digital Devil Saga or the subject of the review in question, fascinating perspectives on disaster striking in the Devil Survivor games.

The franchise, with the potential exception of the main SMT games, ... excel in making their characters feel and act extremely human and realistically. The games avert many common anime-related and fictional (as well as historical and religious) archetypes, which is done very differently from game to game.

Before you read the rest of my review, I propose you start playing a MegaTen game (if you haven't already) and hopefully you'll understand exactly why this adaptation irritates me to no end. You can start from Persona 3, Digital Devil Saga or the first Devil Survivor ideally speaking, and don't be hesitant in asking for help or assistance from the fanbase (the games are very well-known for being extremely difficult).

Now, I was extremely excited for the Devil Survivor 2 adaptation. The game deals with how a society reacts when it's on the verge of losing everything, deals with various complex political themes and aspects of government with a great deal of balance and moral ambiguity, and has one of my favorite cast of characters out of a video game. Even if I felt 26 (later reduced to 13) episodes weren't enough, I felt I can at least enjoy it as a fan of the game, just like I did with the Persona 4 adaptation (which was nowhere near perfect, but still fairly enjoyable as an adaptation and as a standalone anime).

These expectations weren't much, but they were not met. In fact, the only thing that met my expectations in this mess was the soundtrack, which is really good and fitting of the mood of the show, and the artwork (designs being the same as the game) as well as the animation quality, which looked very pleasant to look at throughout the show.

This is where my praise for the show ends. The story resembles that in the game on a basic and superficial level, that being the premise. While many aspects in the story resembled Neon Genesis Evangelion in the game, the game focuses more on the setting and how people react to the disaster striking. The themes were handled masterfully and carefully, from the various factions and their flawed ideals, their reasons for fighting and a lot of small scenes between the characters where they voice their doubts and question their reason for fighting in a world that has been razed to the ground.

This is gone in the adaptation, as the futuristic aspect that was so important in the game is shoved aside and treated as a tool for drama rather than slowly but surely dropping hints about the nature of the plot. The fights against the Septentriones are not as satisfying as the fights in the game and lack the strategic depth that one would expect from a game adaptation that revolved around predicting your opponent's future strategies.

I don't expect the fights to be the same as the game, but a lot of thought goes into beating those bosses and I at least should expect some strategy involved. Instead, the adaptation resorts to a lot of yelling and screaming to beat the bosses, which is extremely bad and makes the characters look like a bunch of idiots rather than them coming up with plans.

The story doesn't resemble that in the game in terms of explanations either. Almost nothing about the demons or the events are explained, very little foreshadowing is present and almost no perspective or focus on the setting is present. I can think of only 7 minutes present in the entire show that attempted to present the setting properly, but even those are only within the first and second episodes, which are paced completely differently from the rest of the show.

Speaking of pacing, have I mentioned how bad the pacing is? The first few episodes are slow paced and attempt to build up carefully. This isn't a bad thing, mind you, but you can get the impression from them that this show was going to be 26 or more episodes, because the events of the game happen in 8 days, while episodes 2 to 4 (4 is where I'd argue the series completely lost it and started rushing to hell and back) focuses completely on the second day. The pacing feels inconsistent and nothing feels natural or planned out, almost as if the script was constantly being rewritten and the writers weren't entirely sure what to do.

The writing in this show is pathetic. The game knew when to be happy, when to be tragic, when to be dramatic and balanced switching between the tones extremely well. This is all but gone in the adaptation, and there is absolutely no subtlety or balance in tone.

The futuristic aspect doesn't work here the same as the game either, since the characters only, and I mean ONLY receive notifications in the game if someone close to them dies in the immediate future rather than receiving a notification every time someone is put in anything slightly resembling danger in the adaptation. It's similar to a small extent to how future diaries work in Mirai Nikki, except that it's more consistent and logical. In the adaptation, the power is inconsistent and weak, and the characters hardly react when someone is in danger or about to die, which means that the notifications about their future are more common and not taken as seriously by both the characters and the viewer.

This brings us to the characters, who are mere shadows of their former selves at best and absolutely different people from who they were in the game at worst. The characters were very well-fleshed out and far from their basic archetypes in the game, and there were a LOT of small interactions that humanized them and made them more likeable and made us see them in a different light.

This is completely gone, and the characters have been reduced to mere archetypes of who they were before. Hibiki was reduced from a snarky, flirty, random and sarcastic yet loveable and brave main character into a typical shonen hero, Daichi was reduced from a hesitant and rather cowardly but constantly gets braver character into the typical best buddy who says dumb jokes and is nothing more than a running gag, Io was reduced from a fairly shy young lady, hesitant about sharing her thoughts with others but straightforward and increasingly opens up to those around her to just the shy character archetype, and I can go on and on but I'm pretty sure you've gotten the idea by now.

The characters never speak to one another and never act in any way resembling the way they acted in the game, and hating the characters here doesn't mean you'll hate them in the game considering that they share almost nothing in common with the exception of their appearance. They do resemble their characters in the game slightly in the beginning but honestly don't expect any normal or sane character interactions while watching this, because you will not find anything resembling that here.

The Devil Survivor 2 "adaptation" is a complete and utter abomination that does not resemble the game in any way, shape or form. Everything has been reduced in both scale and implementation and is simplified for an audience that can just watch something better. The show doesn't resemble the game in any way, shape or form, and I honestly recommend you just start playing the Devil Survivor 2 video game instead of wasting time on this trash.

As far as I'm concerned, this adaptation doesn't exist and it's a shame, because this show could have been very popular and well-received if a better studio and production team was responsible. I wouldn't mind a remake in the future, but the chances of that are slim considering that the first "adaptation" didn't sell well in Japan and messed up as far as ratings are concerned big time.

Oh well, back to playing my copy of Devil Survivor 2: Record Breaker, I guess...

Devil Survivor 2 is an anime tv series faithful adaptation of the Shin Megami Tensei DS spin off of the same name. After Dachi and Hibeki finish their mock exams, Dachi decides to show Hibeki a mysterious phone app called Nicaea. Nicaea is similar to Laplace from Devil Survivor. If you and a friend is registered on the Nicacea, then either of you can see the other’s death live. Nicacea prediction rate is 100 percent accurate.

While Dachi and Hibeki were on the way home, the subway train crashes into them resulting in a new app being added to the cellphones. The cellphones ... they use allow them to summon powerful demons from the original game. The demons can only be summoned in times of danger. This however, brings the attention a clandestine government group known as the “JPS” who are assigned to supernatural cases and also to keep an eye on the geothermal activities of Japan.



Shortly after the subway accident, mysterious otherworld beings known as Sephritones start to appear and cause more chaos and disaster in Japan. Within a week, the Sephritones will destroy the world. It is up to Hibeki and friends to destroy the invading Sephritones and save the world.



The story is accessible to those who hadn’t played the first game as the events happening during the game sets up its own story. The story is more linear than the game due its multiple branching points. It also contains the series themes of the occult and the coming apocalypse and our roles in these traumatic events.



Anybody can die in every given moment of the show. When somebody dies, it does the same thing that Danganronpa, the anime has done and remove a character during the ending of the show. The devastation and apocalyptic events in the series can be compared to countless disasters throughout history. However, it is nothing compared to Dead Leaves where disasters randomly happens for no reason.



The atmosphere is extremely tense and unnerving even more so than the manga adaptation of Devil Survivor 1 due to the shonenized elements in it. The body count is extremely high and corpses and destroyed buildings are decaying more with each passing day. The sequel focuses on the inner workings of the government of Japan and especially how they are clearly involved in shady activities in the occult. Just like in the first game and in the manga, they knew exactly what was going to happen and they let the terrible events unfold.



There is no filler or padding and the story is fast paced although this makes the story feel rushed at times. The dialogue often appears to go in circles repeating obvious plot points. In fact, the comic relief dialogue was distracting from the main story. The way the series approach who lives or dies is the best thing of the Devil Survivor series along with its sense of suspense and deeper layers behind the events.



Yamato Hotsuin the current leader of the JPS is very delusional and has a massive savior complex. His goal is to create a meritocracy where the strong rules the weak and he is very manipulative and always persuades others to do his bidding. He is very preachy about his beliefs and if you don’t agree with even just one of the beliefs, he has he will consider you to be trash that deserves to be killed. Part of his belief in meritocracy is that everyone who has talent will be welcomed and because of this his, Darwanian viewpoint on life makes him believe that anybody who is a pawn should be discarded once they served their purpose. Yamato always sees himself as right and is close minded to different ideas. His ego is his biggest downfall and to him, the deaths of civilians is a small price pay for his ambitions. Nothing gets in his path for the JPS to rule the entire world and keep it in the state of a corrupt meritocracy.



The dark and edgy animation style is incredible and the use of shadow and light effects for the visuals was perfect for the show. The digital special effects were brilliant as well. The artwork and character designs were faithful to the original game. The demons were impressive as well. The world design was nicely drawn and highly detailed while the musical score added another element of enjoyment to the anime.



Everything else with the story goes downhill from here. The show throws multiple plot points all in once without connecting it in a cohesive manner. The relationships felt forced in and not properly developed just as the character backgrounds in the show. The action in the anime is hit or miss and while the animation itself was superb, it is easy to predict the winner of any combat. This predictability was boring and the fights were too short. The show cut out the final boss fight of the game. Instead, its Polaris asking Hibeki what is his wish. Even in Devil Survivor 1 manga, there was a climatic showdown between Metatron and Kazuya. The show is fairly short and has about 13 episodes. Plotholes and story inconsistencies were quite easy to find.



The characters were really underdeveloped and completely one sided and uninteresting. The anime also does not show fully on what life is like after the catastrophic events except for one scene where Dachi, Io and Hibeki were in one of the shelters trying to contact their relatives. The Sephritones are a bit of a mystery as the series don’t offer much information about them. The splash panels in Devil Survivor 1 managed to take its time explaining who and what kind of demons are but here they barely explained any.



Personality wise, the characters aren’t multi-layered but more simplified. Hibeki in particular since he has the power to summon powerful demons, this automatically makes him the savior of the world. Everyone else has demons that are weaker than Hibeki’s. He is the fortunate hero. He is incredibly preachy with his beliefs just like Yamato. Hibeki’s actions indirectly causes more deaths due to his recklessness.



Airi another character, was poorly developed. She was just as annoying, reckless and stupid as Yuzu from Devil Survivor 1 and she creates unnecessary fights that could have been avoided. In addition, her voice was really high pitched and very grating to hear literally every time she speaks. Character backgrounds for both Airi and her companion Jungo, were not fully established either. Jungo was lackadaisical and appeared unconcerned about what was going on around him.



The voice acting was uninspiring and the dialogue was poor especially when compared to the original’s well written dialogue and story. The humor of the show is really badly placed. Lighthearted comedy during tense moments such as the scene in episode 3 where Dachi’s demons ran away from the more powerful demons seemed out of place. Dachi and other characters did not contribute much to driving the story and plot.



I mentioned this in reviews like in Black Butler 2 and in Parasite Eve The Third Birthday, I have zero problems with fanservice if it makes sense in the story but in this case, it doesn’t as there is a bit of it in the show.



It is fairly short and can be completed in a week or so. This contributes to the underdeveloped characters and story. There was unestablished plot points and parts of the story were not fully elaborated on. The plot was also disjointed and seemed to lose focus as it keeps jumping from one character to the next.







Some characters get more screen time than others and this is what made the characters so unappealing and poorly written. Jungo had so much wasted potential as he was the only level headed and calm character in the entire show.



With the unique idea of death being handle in the show you really don’t care much if certain characters die because of how one sided and flat they are. The show has an extreme amount of cliches seen in many other shonen works such as with friendship, every single obstacle can be overcome and the hero will always win. The JP’s is really just another shady government group who wants to bring their supremacy to the entire world. There is so much shonen aspects in the story that if not for Shin Megami Tensai name it, would have been another run of the mill anime you see in Shonen Jump.



Hibeki can easily win any fight he has because of how powerful his demons are. Not even in the easiest Shin Megami Tensai game like the Safety mode of Persona 5 can you easily defeat enemies with just a few hits. Scenes can be even more melodramatic then they already are because of the cliches.



As someone who really is starting to get more into the Shin Megami Tensai series now this is certainly not the worst video game anime adaptation I watched but not the best either.





You are better off buying the Shin Megami Tensai Devil Survivor games on the 3DS instead of watching this show.

As someone who played the original game, I watched Devil Survivor 2 for what should of been a great story about fighting fate, death, and the end of the world. Instead what I got was a generic, carbon copy of Neon Genesis Evangelin that removes Mech's and changes them to Persona's. I'll admit the game was that way to a extent but it removes the key part of the game: depth and comedy.

The biggest flaw with this show is how it ruins a good game by not treating the characters right. The characters are reduced to simple character traits instead of the more complex depths. ... Daichi is a comical coward who has weak demons, instead of the unsure, but determined friend who acts as the audience surrogate. Yamato is turned into a villain instead of a complex Anti Hero/Anti Villain depending on how you view while also making his obsession with the protagonist, Hibiki, be played up to homosexual subtext combined with Yandere control. By far the biggest offender is Joe, Otomoe, Ronaldo, and Fumi, who all are used for three episodes each and die with no build up. Fumi also dies in the worst way, doing one thing to help fight before being one hit KO'ed.

The lack of comedy also is a big slap since the game is filled with comedic moments to break the tension and suspense. When a character cracks a joke in game, it's to reassure and lighten the mood but also to raise morale. In the anime, it's fanservice jokes and nothing much.

The story has no foreshadowing to it's obvious ending. Obvious being that they had to do the expected ending because they messed everything else up. The problem is that it isn't set up right and the anime treats it as the right and natural path. As if saying "This was the intended route guys!". It also doesn't explain our Angels-I mean Septentrions, since it makes Yamato the Final Boss instead of the main, real threat thats established in game half-way through. It's a big F-YOU to the fans of the game, especially since it doesn't add up once put under the analysis lenses. Basically it abridges the game but instead of using a shortcut, it blows the whole bridge and shrugs it's shoulders.

Then there's the inconsistent story points. For example, main character Hibiki has super strong, level 40 in game demons at the start with no context why yet other characters get around the same level of demons in relation to the section of the game. There's no justification in story and the fact that the strategic team fighting is reduced to "Hibiki can save us were team fodder" is stupid.

All in all the only good things are great animation, soundtrack, and voice cast on the subbed verison. If you watch the dub, don't. It's a horrible dub. Everything else is just horrible, offensive, and sad to see because Devil Survive 2 is a great game. It's avaliable on the 3DS with a great voice cast and storycontent.

Damn Atlus, you really like to adapt your games with random order, don’t you? Anyways, this is yet another one of those videogames where teenagers summon monsters to defend the world. It has the same director of the Persona 4 (P4) adaptation, which is also a spin-off franchise of this one. I really liked P4 despite its cheesiness and expected Devil Survivor (DS2) to be around the same level but turned out it is a waste of time.

So, the premise is sort of typical for the franchise. Some demons invade the word and some teenagers fight them with their own demons. The problem is that ... despite the apocalyptic set up, nothing seems to make sense or feels important enough for you to care. You are just thrown into this mess and no real hooks exist for you to give a damn. I mean the main three characters look so dull and typical. As retarded as that other show with cell-phones and future predictions was, Future Diary had a very wimpy boy and a very psychotic girl; extreme enough for you to notice them. Plus you had a freaking god giving them a clear picture of what they have to do right away. This doesn’t happen in DS2 since it has bland main characters and the premise is not anything special or even clear.

Another problem is the action part. It is so simple and boring to the point you again don’t give a damn. They just summon random monsters to fight each other and after a couple of energy attacks it is all over. P4 had similar battles but even there the choreography was more colorful, the bosses were relevant to the main characters, and the characters themselves were funny enough for you to care. Over here you feel nothing, even if the demons kill people by the hundreds in each battle. Who are these people for you to care? Who are these mass-produced identical demons with no relation to the main characters? So what if hell takes over Earth?

Another thing which annoyed me are the cell phones. In this setting they are gateways to hell and all demons invade with portals created by them, or in other cases computers with access to the net. The heroes just press buttons on them and POP appears a monster to fight for them. They can do that as many times as they can and then they expect you to think it is hard or taxing. I mean, ok, in the game you have magic point consumption but the show doesn’t show that and all you get is a bunch of cardboards saving the world by playing videogame applications on their cell phones. GAH WHAT’S UP WITH ALL THE VIDEOGAME SHOWS? When I was a kid you needed to know martial arts or be affected by gamma rays to become strong enough to defend the world. Nowadays it is always about skinny dorks button-mashing consoles. WHERE IS THE FARTING CHALLENGE IN THAT?

The facepalms continue with the obligatory secret organization which is fighting the demons. They have all this super technology and they still are unable to do squat next to three bland gamers. It doesn’t even seem that hard enough to stop them anyways; if the internet is a gateway to hell, then why don’t they simply cut the internet? Or if necessary, the electricity too. Yes, it would throw the world back a few centuries but it is still better to mankind be chopped to little pieces by demons, right? And you know what? It would make a bloody good conflict if that option was available but the corporations or addicted gamers were vertically against cutting the internet or the electricity. WE DON’T GET THAT!

Yet another BS is the artwork itself. Not only the budget is rather low but the character designs are generic and the only thing that stands out is the fan service. Yes, you have demons from hell killing screaming people being less eye-catchy than some random cleavage shots. The main heroine has a huge rack, the videogame has a cosplay mascot girl and the secret organization is run by a half naked slut. JUST BECAUSE! Well if that is the case, then the anime should instead be called Drooling Saliver 2DEEP4U!!!

And even if you somehow endure all the sleep-inducing plot, and the completely uninteresting revelations, you reach to a final showdown where the whole world is basically destroyed and made anew… exactly as it was before. Yup, they took the retarded time reset route where everything is back to normal and the apocalypse is like it never happened. Boy, that sure made the world to realize technology is not to be toyed with. Oh wait, it didn’t since NOBODY REMEMBERS IT!

Meh, what a waste of funds. Atlus, go adapt Persona 2 and make sure to include Hitler.

I have gone through the 3ds game with my friend and we both decided to watch the anime adaptation dubbed to see why people didnt like the anime. Well after watching it we both see why.

Ill start with the few good things I actually liked about the anime adaptation. The animation itself was actually quite good, it moved well and the art looked like how the games looked for the characters. The opening song is a banger and def worth a listen on its own. Finally there was one scene in the anime I thought was actually a good inclusion because it showed a little ... bit into the childhood of Hibiki.

Now onto the bad stuff: First off I know the anime came before record breaker, but it was surprising to hear both have completely different voice actors and actresses as atlas is known to usually have the English voice actors and actresses be the same from game to anime, like the persona 4 and 5 adaptations, though I feel it was a good choice because most of the voices in the anime version dont sound as fitting as the games voices. Secondly it was baffling to hear them mispronounce alot of the names and outright say the wrong demon name in episode 7 as Daichi summons a Black Frost, yet calls it Jack Frost.

Finally The story Itself felt very empty since they basically took away all the free time events that the game has. This basically means that all character development of most of the cast is thrown out the window in favour of just the struggles between the cast and the septentrions, as well as their own free time events that only develop 5 of the characters (That being Hibiki, Io, Daichi, Alcor and Yamato). Now the issue with that is that they expect you to care about the others when they die, which works well for the game but does not work in the anime.
This could all be not so bad if Hibiki was not the most whiniest teen in the show, going from "Im gonna save these people" to "Oh no they are dead, let me go be sad for a bit" and then back again over and over. Also its quite funny to see Hibiki summon a demon with an electricity ability and then mainly just stick with it throughout the anime, only summoning 2 other demons and with one of them being the big bad demon that ends it.
Another thing that bugged me is that apart from Daichi, the rest of the cast only summoned one demon at a time when the game allows you to summon 2 demons at a time, and Daichi's demons were mostly weak apart from when he summons Black frost (they rely on that joke alot, kinda got boring after awhile)

If you have played the game and are also curious, dont bother watching the anime adaptation, and if your new to the whole devil survivor thing, please play the ds or 3ds version of the game, or even play the first devil survivor game, you will have a much better time doing that