Shinmai Maou no Testament

(This has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

The Testament of Sister New Devil seems like a rather generic anime. And for the most part, it is: there is no shortage of magic, nakedness, and harems within it. But it at least attempts to play with the theme of protection. Which is funny when you think about it; in an anime whose strongest aspect is the very “ecchi” it thrives on, you’d think that “protection” would be the furthest idea from its mind. Regardless, this is what the show hones in on. Protecting the things you love, especially those people dearest to you, is ... something that we all do whether we know it or not. And while this one tries its best to flaunt this motif, the majority is mediocrity that suppresses any sense of worth it may have.


STORY

Testament pits Basara Toujou as the male lead. One day, he obtains two new “relatives,” Mio Naruse and Maria Naruse. As events pile up and paths cross, it’s revealed that Mio holds the greatest demonic power within her, Maria is her succubus servant, and Basara is an exiled man of the Hero Clan.

If Testament does anything correctly, it is in the “ecchi” service that it provides. While nearly all of it is censored, what is shown and what can be inferred is some of the greatest to grace the medium. The show refuses to hold back; it never shows full-blown genitalia but it gets rather close to crossing that line, making the anime nearly pornographic in its presentation. Not just kissing but make-out sessions; not just showing breasts but fervently fondling them; and not just holding hands but hip grinding, butt squeezing, and even orgasms. Testament revels in the sex that permeates the show, going so far as to make one of its key plot points follow down this path. This plot point of course being the “master-servant” pacts that cause a disobedient servant to undergo immense pleasure. And then, in order to strengthen said pact, going through with these perverted actions “deepens” the relationship, making both people come out for the better. Literal and figurative hot shower scenes, body-on-food eating, a succubus whose proportions grow; the diversity of the “ecchi” scenes and the originality of many of them easily demonstrate its overall execution in the genre it itself made a pact with.

As talked about in the introduction, Testament’s prominent – and only – theme is the idea of protection. Or more specifically, protecting the ones you love. Many of the characters have this sense of righteousness about them: Yuki wishes to protect Basara, Maria wishes to protect her mother, and Basara wishes to protect everyone. Surprisingly, the show here as well showcases quite the range in relation to its theme. Protecting someone sometimes means doing what has to be done as opposed to what is the right thing to do. Maria’s betrayal to save her mother is an easy example. It may also involve a sense of self-lost protection; Basara, through his actions, protects those around him but makes others incapable of returning the favor. The structure of the series follows essentially three separate arcs, each focusing on one of the main girls and their reason for protecting. The developments therein always lead to the same outcome – Basara adding one more woman to his ever-growing harem – and the actual exploration of the theme isn’t expansive – the morality mentioned previously isn’t discussed nor is there ever any “bad” conclusions – but Testament is at least consistent in its thematic presence from start to finish.

ANIMATION

Testament’s art is a testament to boringness. While the protection theme was inching towards the generic field, it’s here where the anime begins to fully find itself in. Many of the locations visited are typical, tried, and tired: a school classroom here, a dark forest there; the anime, despite having all of these characters from various backgrounds, never provides the audience with a look at anything even remotely interesting. And while the “ecchi” moments are top-tier, most of them are sadly censored. Not so much that it is impossible to discern what is occurring behind the miniature caricatures they use to hide it, but enough to make you frustrated that all of the goodness is being kept just out of reach.

The character designs fair a bit better in comparison to the art style that surrounds them. Sticking to its sexy roots, the women are often clad in such a way as to make their signature assets that much more appealing to look at. Mio’s black-and-white school outfit with long, red hair helps to magnify her breasts that much further. Yuki’s skirt is just short enough to reveal her butt when needed. And adult Maria’s garb is black-and-pink – a sultry combo – that doesn’t leave much room for the imagination. Basara’s design – cuts and scars across his entire body – provides him with the physical evidence needed to demonstrate just how much he is willing to protect those he loves.

When looking at the show’s actual animation, it’s a tougher call. The anime can bring its game during certain action sequences, and especially so during the “ecchi” material. But since these are usually seen about once or twice per episode, the majority of what the anime offers in terms of movement is average.

CHARACTERS

When it comes to Testament’s cast, many don’t see a huge amount of development. Basara is far and away the weakest character and isn’t an interesting person in the slightest. He’s the super strong, super nice, and super gung-ho guy who exists as nothing more than the leader of the harem. He’s the same from start to finish, seeing only minimal investigation in the form of a small flashback. Meaning, while he exemplifies the theme that the anime focuses on, his actual character suffers through monotony and severe lack of development. The majority of the cast is treated the same way; that is, as not really changing over the course of the season despite having their own “arcs.” Part of the problem is due to the segmentation of the season itself and due to their overall powers. The characters being a trained succubus, a renowned sword fighter, a daughter of the Devil, and a man who is capable of reversing any attack against him are unfortunately written into the corner of “no improvement” rather early on. However, all is not completely lost on the girls, for Basara does aide each of them in becoming a better person.

Maria is a mommy’s girl; she is conflicted given the position she was forced to take, and attempts to do everything on her own. But Basara proves that sometimes, it is necessary to rely on others, because it just isn’t possible for us to do everything by our lonesome. Yuki fights the demons due to her Hero Clan status, but she isn’t blind. She’s honorable, following her own heart when dealing with the situations she faces instead of mindlessly following the “rules” set around her. This thinking was directly inspired by Basara who, as her role model, does the same; fights for what is right as opposed for what is “correct.” And Mio starts off pretty dependent, leveraging other people’s good-will to get her through the day, but still refrains from connecting with anyone too seriously due to her own dark past and familial loss. So through Maria’s guidance, Yuki’s friendship, and Basara’s love, she realizes that she doesn’t have to be alone. In essence, she “opens up” to those around her, becoming closer to those who had been close to her the entire time.

While the show doesn’t put too much thought into nearly all of its characters, it still manages to inject a bit of direction when looking at each of their move-sets. In essence, their outward actions symbolize their inner person. Maria uses hand-to-hand combat because she’s very hands on in her dealings with people as a succubus. Instead of fists, Yuki uses a sword that mirrors her personality: sharp, direct, yet extremely elegant. Mio’s fiery magic is easy to see; it reflects not just the immense power she has within her, but also the passion she has for her closest friends. And Basara’s “Banishing Shift,” his ultimate move, defines who he is deep down. That is, his ability to completely give back any move thrown his way matches how much he gives back to others through his constant need to protect the ones around him. The rest of the cast can be looked at in a similar fashion, demonstrating that the anime can appeal not only to our hormones but to our brains, too.

SOUND

Testament’s weakest component is arguably the sound that makes up nearly all that it does. The opening theme isn’t so much grating on the ears as it is just painfully boring. And it knows this; it tries to make it more enticing by adding in faux-nakedness here and there, but the visuals aren’t enough to distract the audience from having to listen to the generic beat and overdone guitar playing. The ending theme is even worse, containing a lot of singing, choirs, and drums that all mash together in such a way that nothing seems to be working. In other words, it’s at this point that the anime’s inability to focus on what it does well – the “ecchi” and sexiness – begins to easily show.

Much of the original soundtrack contains pieces that are mired in heavy use of “powerful” instruments and group singing, in order to give everything a grandiose feel. It could even be said that the direction of the music is meant to sound “church-like,” given that the anime is entitled after portions of the Bible. At the same time, many of the tracks contain guitars, saxophones, and other, ambient instrumental effects that heighten “the mood” and therefore the sense of sexuality that permeates the anime during most scenarios. There are sad piano pieces for the melancholic times, flute arrangements for the laidback ones, and mysterious string tracks that fill those unknown moments. Unfortunately, like the OP and ED it finds itself between, nothing within the OST is memorable, let alone impactful, making much of what it sets out to do go unappreciated and therefore ends up unappealing.

And in order to round it all out, the voice acting for the show is average at best. There are no special shout-outs to be had.

ENJOYMENT

This one is all about the “ecchi” content. Being a fan of such material myself, it was definitely a pleasant surprise when the show decided to go as far as they were going with nearly all of its offerings. It was nice to witness not just the daringness of the show but also the uniqueness of the content, contrasting hard with the rest of the generic aspects of the anime. I’m a big fan of Mio, adult Maria, and especially Yuki, so watching them on-screen being lewd every now and again was never a sight for sore eyes.

But while such promiscuity is very well-done, I never found myself to like anything else. The action sequences are a lot of explosions here and there, the emotional events never moved me, and while it tries to be comedic at times, it isn’t that funny, with maybe an elicited laugh at very specific moments. A large portion of the anime are long stretches where these kinds of developments occur, and when they were going on, I really just wanted it to back to doing what it did best – employing Yuki and the other girls in the “ecchi” antics.

While The Testament of Sister New Devil finds itself muddied by mediocrity, not everything within is entirely lost. The sexual content is executed nicely, its theme remains relevant both with the narrative and the development of the characters, and the designs of the girls are enticing to see. But it’s all dragged down by a less-than-stellar main male lead, an uninspired art style, and lackluster music that, when all combined, concocts a show that is simply run-of-the-mill.

SUMMARY

Story: Good, fantastic “ecchi” elements, and consistent yet unexplored theme

Animation: Fine, boring art style, very nice character designs, average actual animation

Characters: Fine, Basara is bad, Maria, Yuki, and Mio experience some development, and everyone has purposeful abilities

Sound: Bad, lame OP and ED, below average soundtrack, average VA work

Enjoyment: Fine, the “ecchi” is great to watch but nothing else is

Final Score: 5/10

For the past couple years, the idea of Ecchi has changed dramatically, and what anime is allowed to showcase over the course of their runtime. As the years went on, the idea of what is ecchi and what is hentai has been blurred to the point of almost crossing over into one another. And here, I believe that we have an example of that right here. Here it is, a review of Shinmai Maou no Testament, or The Testament of Sister New Devil, a show that I believe, like many others, could've done better as hentai.

Story (6.11/10): The story of ... Sister Testament as I call it, follows the life of a boy named Toujou Basara, a boy who has a father who is remarried, gaining two little stepsisters in the process. However, not is all that it seems, as it is later revealed that the two "sisters" that he now has is the budding demon lord, and a succubus. In addition, Basara is hiding his own secret, hiding the fact that he is from the hero village, a place where they regulate the demons of the world. With the two sides now coming together, what challenges will they face with demons seeking the demon lord's power?

At first glance, sister testament seemed to be a little bit more than what the synopsis led one to believe. The first episode wows you and honestly, surprised me with a complete 180 on the show's comedic feel by putting in an action scene that made me for a moment, rethink the entire series altogether. It was that value of shock factor that really made me think for a moment that this was going to be a good show, and that I was in for one hell of a ride. Quickly though, that idea became less and less prominent as the holes began filling up with regret rather than joy.

While not only a series about action and the conflicts between protecting the new demon lord, Mio, Sister testament proudly shows itself (quite shamelessly might I add) to be an ecchi show in the worst possible way. In the show, there is a technique or plot device known as the "succubus curse", where one person becomes the "master" over the other, allowing the two to become bonded and grow stronger together. This one little detail manages to completely screw over the show plain and simple. Because this plot device exists as the basis for the show, the actual plot for the series I feel becomes jaded more than anything. Basically, the show makes it so that character strength is equal to the intensity and frequency of any kind of sexual act (as pointed out by the show's own characters) which can lead to, well...you get the idea.

The biggest flaw that I felt about this series was just purely about how frequent and how starkingly intense this show's ecchi moments actually were. They were done in such a way that they had to do a Tokyo Ghoul-style censorship involving censor bars that basically blocked so much of the screen that you can't see anything, and above all, made any sense of the actual storyline completely disappear. In this show, it seemed like the perverted moments took priority over anything, and for a show that actually seemed to have a decent plotline and story elements, it just really felt disappointing cause all of that stuff that makes a good anime is put in the trunk. (Not in the backseat, the trunk.) In terms of actual story, the progression was moderately well done. Because of just how often you'll see fanservice, ranging from a casual stripping of the clothes to full-on foreplay, the story won't come as often as one might think, and just isn't fleshed out as well as it should've been.

Overall, sister testament just failed to be any sort of proper story. Because of its way of "getting more powerful", the show showcased sexual foreplay more than anything, making that the first thing anyone thinks of whenever they talk about this show. In fact, I strongly believe that this series could've done better, and should've been a hentai more than anything. In the end, the story suffered a lot from the show's "other half" and would've done better had it not had the amount of fanservice that it did have.

Overview:
+ Decent story idea
- Story suffered greatly
- Fanservice overpowers the show GREATLY

Characters (5.55/10): The characters in sister testament similar to the story, don't really feel as fleshed out as they possibly could've. Rather, each one of them except a couple few don't get what they should've gotten.

First, we have Toujou Basara, our harem/main protagonist of the series. As a member of the hero clan, Basara has the ability to summon down a weapon that he himself can wield, and uses it to fight the demons if need be. Basara is more or less your standard harem protagonist. While he does get a sort of backstory to explain his overpowered ability (cause every harem protagonist these days is either useless, or OP), Basara follows your cookie cutter troupe of the "nice/good guy." Even though the girls he now lives with deceived him, he, throughout the series, makes a VERY conscious effort to protect them as their older brother. (Even though that idea becomes completely redundant and useless by episode 2.) He gets nervous in ecchi moments, he tries to protect his loved ones, you get the shtick. Moving on.

Naruse Mio is the main female protagonist in this series, aka the tsundere (cause main girl ALWAYS is one)/damsel in distress/one with the big breasts. As the upcoming demon lord who had her throne taken after having to run away when her father was usurped, Mio serves more of the Zelda/princess Peach character of this series because she very often can't fend for herself, relying more on Basara for that job. Since Mio follows the tsundere troupe to a certain degree, there really isn't much to say about her since it's such a stale troupe.

Apart from these two, we have the succubus character, Maria, who is both one of the better characters in the series for having some slight character development, and the ultimate reason why this series went down the drain so fast. (That's cause the curse was suggested and inflicted by her, ergo, it's her fault.) In addition, we also have Yuki, the character who serves as the childhood friend of the MC with a stone cold face, as well as Takamine, the one character who I thought was really the only shining glory in this cast of tired, old troupes regardless of how little he shows up.

In the end though, the cast of characters for Sister testament were more like a troupefest more than anything. Characters aside from the ones I have already mentioned barely get any substantial screentime, so there's not much to mention there. Because of this, aside from Takamine, the characters in this show really aren't anything special aside from being called what they are, troupes.

Overview:
+ One decent side character
- Tired anime troupes for characters

Art and Sound (6.50/10 and 7.00/10): The art for this series isn't really much to write home about. There really isn't any standout animation for this series aside from maybe the magic casting circles, and the series overall doesn't really have much of an impact art-wise.

What the art does have an impact on is simply how much of the series you can watch. Because this show is so ecchi centered, the show wants to tell you that, a lot, like at least ten minutes per episode. As I have mentioned before, the fanservice in this show is REALLY fanservicy to the point of it actually being sexual foreplay and should be considered hentai more than anything. Yes, my dear readers. This isn't ecchi, this...is hentai. And because of this, the show as of right now blocks any form of watching it because you get censors, flashes of light, and darkened areas that essentially cover up the whole screen, not allowing you to witness of what is going on behind the chibi versions of the characters. Because of this, watching this show can be quite frustrating because half of the time, you won't even get a clear picture as to what is going on.

Sound for me was a sort of solace for this series, as we have Sweet Arms make the opening for this series, which is a track that I feel like was rather good. While the show that it was tied to isn't really all that good, the opening itself is actually a rather good and actually somewhat memorable. Of course, upon mentioning this, the rest of the soundtrack is mediocre at best and really doesn't stand up too much.

Overview:
+ Good Opening
+/- Standard animation
- Ecchi. (Normally, I don't complain all that much about fanservice, but this is just simply too much.)
- OST didn't stand up on its own

Personal enjoyment (5.00/10): While I admit that I was wowed in the first 23 minutes of the series, the next 5.5 hours didn't really prove to be anything that I would bother rewatching or care for. As the weeks went on, I was more disappointed in this show than anything because without all of the foreplay, this show actually could've done really well. It had groundwork that it could've used, and a curse that was more of a curse on the show more than anything.

What did I like about this show?

If anything, it would have to be 1. Takamine (cause honestly, he's the only character in this show I give a damn about). And 2. The action sequences. While the animation was standard at best, the action sequences managed to for a moment, forget that you're watching a show that about a guy molesting his stepsisters (wait a second...that sounds familiar.), but rather one that also centers around the idea of action and heroes vs. demons, to some degree.

What didn't I like about this show?

The bland characters and the execution were really some big issues. The story was never fleshed out enough for it to be different than any other hero vs. demon story, and the idea of the damsel in distress was really more of a bore than anything cause it just added another member to the useless female group, a group that we seriously don't need to add more characters into. Above all though, I have to say, like what I've been saying this entire review, the fanservice by far is the worst thing to come out of this series. Not only is it prominent, so prominent that it's both ruined the story and my viewing experience, but because of the way it's presented, you probably won't be able to see it until a blu-ray release.

Would I recommend this show?

Honestly, I feel like this show is a waste of time. Throughout its runtime, there wasn't anything that stood out. The story wasn't made to be interesting enough, the characters were bland to all hell, and there wasn't anything fantastic aesthetic-wise. Because of how strong the fanservice was, there really wasn't much to make note of, thus creating this series' downfall. (I still don't know why they're making a second season. It boggles me.) If you want some hentai-esque material, go ahead and watch this. Make sure to get the DVD uncensored version because if you're watching for ecchi, I can guarantee that you that as of this review, you won't be able to anything but censor bars.

Overview: 5.00/10

(reposted because I apparently forgot to update my episode count to show as complete. Derp)

TL:DR: Testament of Sister New Devil is ecchi at its most ecchi & not in the least bit ashamed of it. It's the kind of show that validates every criticism & concern non-ecchi fans have of the genre & non-anime fans have about Japanese cartoons in general. But aside from that, it's pretty fun, albeit in a masochistic, I can't believe what I'm watching but I can't look away kind of way. Not to be watched with other people in the room...or within hearing distance.

Boobs. If there is one thing teenage ... boys & lonely authors love, it's boobs. Boobs can be big; they can be small; sometimes they're not there at all. But one thing is for sure, where there are women, there are boobs. & where there are boobs, there are good times to be had.

Our story begins with one Basara Toujou. For reasons that don't matter, he is accompanying his father to a restaurant to meet his two new stepsisters, yet only one of them seems to be waiting at the table. Needing to pee, he excuses himself & makes his way to the toilet, where he shockingly encounters a busty red head mid business. As you would expect of someone whose just been walked in on while on the toilet, she makes to scream, & being a male of strong character & morals, he does the reasonable thing of pinning her against the wall to stop her doing so, for fear that they might cause a scene in a public place.

It only gets better from here.

To cut a long story short, said red head is by hilarious coincidence his other new stepsister. Only they're not really his stepsisters, as that was just a story contrived by his father for no reason. In fact, red headed Mio is the daughter of the recently deceased Demon Lord & is on the run from those within the Demon realm who want to capture or kill her for her power. Maria, her loli goth companion, is actually Mio's succubus bodyguard. A rather pointless attempt by them to get rid of Basara reveals him to actually be a Hero, the enemies of Demons (but in that yin yang kind of way where they're more concerned with keeping each others powers in balance than defeating each other) with magic powers of his own. This awkward business out of the way, it's time for the show to get what it's really about, a guy & several girls who all insist on calling him onii-chan while the line between ecchi & hentai gets pushed to its limits.

Yes, Testament is one of those shows that, to put it in a sentence, basically takes the setting, characters & general plot of High school DxD & sets about seeing how far they can push it before the censers tell them to go straight to DVD. The story is your basic angels (heroes) vs demons affair with the main characters caught in the middle while they just try to live normal teenage lives. The characters are barely worth mentioning for anything but their aesthetic qualities. In addition to the main trio, we also have Yuki, Basara's aloof childhood friend who apparently hasn't been talking to him until now but boy is she going to be a third wheel in his & Mio's "romance." Takigawa fills the role of the one other male character who isn't a one episode antagonist or parent. Would it surprise you to know he likes talking about girls? Actually that's selling his character a bit short as he does play a more significant role in the story that most token guy friends do in anime. Oh & I guess there is Basara's aforementioned father, but he makes his excuses to leave his son alone with Mio & Maria in the first episode so we need not mention him again.

But lets face it, we're not here for the characters or indeed the story. We're watching for that other kind of “plot” that hides behind clouds of steam & light beams, & boy does Testament have that in spades. One of the more contrived ideas introduced early on is the master – servant contract Maria convinces Basara & Mio to sign in the second episode. Nominally, the idea is that it will let them know where each other are & help them both get more powerful, but there's a sexy twist. You see, because Maria's a succubus, & because the contract goes a bit wrong & makes Basara the master (they never actually properly agree to the contract, but lets not sweat the small stuff), Mio now finds herself cursed to go like your mum did at fraternity parties whenever she thinks mean thoughts about him. The only prescription for this fever, it turns out, is for Basara to molest her repeatedly. He doesn't want to, of course, but his manly man duties as both a male & her brother (seriously he makes that point about them being family a lot) mean he has no choice but to grope & grapple with her cleavage until the curse is lifted. The first time this happens, we fade to black (with many a “no onii-chan” screamed) only to see Maria cleaning up a puddle on the floor while commenting about how many times Mio came. 10/10 IGN best plot ever.

The show feels like it's constantly trying to one up itself as its ecchi scenes come ever closer to crossing into hentai as the series progresses. Yuki, naturally given this is anime we're talking about, upon learning about the contract between Basara & Mio decides she wants in on that too. So once again poor old Basara has to go through the oh so unhappy job of finding her erogenous zone as well. In case you were expecting it to also be her breasts, more fool you. She's relatively flat chested you see, but she got da booty & that's where the booty be stowed, so to speak. You can imagine how little of that scene was viewable. Weirdly (or not), Yuki signing a contract with Basara is not so much a source of jealously to Mio as it is the start of Mio & Yuki becoming friends, or at least frenemies, I guess due to their both being in bondage together. Porn logic, I guess. & if you were worried the final episode might try to take the high road, fear not. I won't go into details, suffice to say we get hentai's favourite motif: sexual assault that turns into consensual fun times because she totally wants it, really.

It's hard for me to really explain what watching Testament is like. The best I can come up with is that it's a bit like reading The Tale of Scrotie McBoogerballs from South Park. The ecchi scenes are so...well ecchi & so creepy that it's impossible to watch without audibly groaning in discomfort. Yet watch I do, cursing myself for it but doing it all the same. It isn't erotic in any sense, although I think it's supposed to be & I might think it was if I was 14 & hadn't discovered internet porn yet. The censorship is pretty heavy, as you'd expect, & pretty in your face about it, especially after the first few episodes when they introduce chibi versions of the characters to cover up the goods. Some people may find that annoying but personally I actually prefer that kind of censorship. It's funny to me when the makers pretty much cock-block the audience with a “buy the Blu-Rays, perverts” chibi stamp. It's not like you don't know what breasts drawn by someone whose never seen a real pair look like, anyway.

Of course you don't just want to know what the show has, but how it looks. Well the art itself is pretty good, if nothing beyond standard. I have seen others comment on characters going off model at times but tbh I've not really noticed it yet. What I have noticed is that the overall animation quality is pretty poor. Jerky movements, apparent jumps between key frames with no in betweens, reused footage & other little things occur with enough frequency to make me question the editorial skills or resources of whoever was in charge of proofing everything. It stands out in particular when compared to the opening animation, which is surprisingly well made, with smooth character movements & a rare sight of characters slowly rotating without looking jerky or weird as their perspective changes. It is perhaps unfair to compare an opening credits sequence with the show as a whole, but the difference in quality between them is noticeable.

So there you have it. Thus far (& I don't expect anything to change) Testament is an ecchi for the sake of ecchi high school fantasy with no real redeeming qualities beyond cheap titillation & attempts to push the boundaries between what is & isn't allowed on TV. That it's the most popular new show of the winter season according to Crunchy Roll doesn't fill me with confidence of the anime fandom, but then again shows like this have been bizarrely popular since at least the 90s, so it's not like its anything new. It doesn't try anything new but it also doesn't ask its audience to think with anything but their genitals, which makes it pretty easy viewing if you can switch your brain off enough to get past the really creepy when you think about it context to a lot of the ecchi stuff going on. There's much better ecchi shows out there, but you could do worse than watch this one.

Shinmai Maou no Testament is definitely an interesting series. Evidently, a range of inconsistent reviews render it to the category of "you either hate it or love it".

The overall story is simplistic at best. The character development offers nothing unique; a hot red-head is presented as the primary love interest, a long lost childhood friend is introduced almost immediately after, former enemies develop feelings for the main character, and so on. Most of these clichés are now well-established fragments of the harem genre.

The battle scenes are not exactly terrible, nonetheless they offer nothing special. The overall animation and sound quality are also quite ordinary ... and not memorable.

Well then, it begs the question; why is an average, mediocre series rather interesting? Bluntly speaking, the sexuality in this series is beyond over the top – make no mistake, if you happen to be watching the uncensored version, the ecchi and fan service scenes turn into borderline hentai. I found myself questioning whether I was watching an ecchi/comedy or hentai on numerous occasions. Further, the show takes itself very seriously into catering the “step-sister” fetish. By the 3rd episode, I realised it was a guarantee that a serious scene will be followed by “onii-chan I need you touch me” scene.

And this reviewer feels the poor juxtaposition of such two scenes is the downfall of Shinmai Maou no Testament. The willingness to push into hentai boundaries leaves little in the comedy to be desired. The attempt to connect the sexuality into the story is rushed and poorly executed. Granted, the story is neither thought-provoking nor original, however at least the comedy could have been much better appreciated overall if the show didn’t emphasize the “I must pleasure my sisters” element so seriously.

Nevertheless, much of the series is entertaining enough for harem/fantasy fans. If you can tolerate borderline hentai, I would encourage you to check out at least the first 3 episodes and see the interesting juxtapositioning for yourself.

For what it’s worth, here’s a summary:

DO WATCH IF:

- Enjoy watching a likeable MC slowly acquire a harem
- Enjoy demon – fantasy settings that are not gloomy but rather comedic
- Interested to see an ecchi series pushing the borders into hentai

Gods I don't know why I watched this anime as long as I did... I probably would've dropped it so SO much earlier if it weren't for the amount of censoring that was in it... The problem is that with anime like No Game No Life (which is still fairly ecchi without going over the top... might be a bit of a stretch to say) and this being the same rating on here (R+ Mild Nudity), I was going in expecting not to have the shock that I actually got...

Then I realised how f***ed up this anime actually was around episode six or seven... I'm ... one of those people who impulse skip certain moments to forget that they ever happened, so it took me a while to realise how many moments I was impulse skipping before I went 'okay, this is over the top."

The story starts out with a premise that tries to be unique, but, when I look back on it, it really was quite f***ed up to begin with. Extremely awkward moment where the two main characters meet (And like Leonard from the Big Bang Theory when meeting Sheldon for the first time, this should have been my first warning to how the anime would go.)

I will admit that the story was interesting. A runaway demon lord, a hero exiled from his village, some people on both sides who don't want them to live in peace... Sounds familiar, but the execution was done poorly. There is a different anime that has a similar plot that is much more interesting. The main detraction from the story has to do with the fact that one of the main characters is a succubus who puts the two characters in this awkward bond that doesn't let any moment in the anime stay normal for more than three minutes...

The character designs and art, not much I can say about it. Generic, but not terrible. Music a bit less than good. Once again, the awkward scenes really detract from the rest.

Characters are interesting in my opinion, except for those awkward moments that really detract a lot of value from the characters... and little miss succubus who just grates on my nerves... Hero who was exiled from his hometown after unleashing an epic power who is trying to be normal. Demon lord who is trying to be normal. Succubus who is trying to f*** up both their lives. A childhood friend who wants to help them but has a code of honour to uphold... In any other situation, I would like 3/4 of these characters... the third one being the one I'd hate under any circumstances.

My Enjoyment with the anime was a it awkward. As I mentioned before, I unconsciously skip past any scene to any scene that is either an awesome fight scene or some scene with some slight comedy... Then after the episode I would remember there were those scenes and I would suddenly hate myself for enjoying the other parts of the anime... It was weird...

In all honesty, I think there is a good concept in this anime, but the huge amount of ecchi really brings down the quality of this anime. As I've said, there were moments that would've shined had it not been for the unnecessary amount of ecchi throughout this show. Sure, there are those weird people out there who would enjoy this sort of stuff, but the rest of you, I would say that this anime is not worth watching.

Another review from yours truly watched this yesterday but didnt really feel like reviewing it but just broke my promise and gonna do it anyway.

Liked the anime but wasn't great due to terrible hit or miss comedy scenes and the worst censors I've seen in anime

Story- The story in a nutshell is basically the main character named basara moves into a new home with 2 girls who are his adopted sisters and his father tells him to protect them at all costs so the story revolves around basara trying to protect his family but one of his sisters are demons one the daughter of a ... demon lord and the other a succubus a succubus is basically a demon that makes you do lewd things so sexual and perverted stuff in a sense..... To add on without spoiling it too much they make a pact and it kinda is if she acts in a weird way or what not lust takes over her body and he has to calm her down..... thats the main fanservice in all of this a decent story not really good but good enough the really bad censoring ruins alot of the story and makes what was something serious a stupid funny matter even though its not gonna make you laugh.

Art- As far as everything visually its really decent and by that i mean good nothing out of the oridnary good fight visuals just nothing bad about that but... because this is an ecchi and it has the dxd type of feel you expect those awkward weird kinda perverted moments which you do get you really wanna see em but then the ridiculous damn censorship ruins it i mean like really ruins it just a giant chibi version of a character blocking the screen a blinding white light or a giant caution tape with pictures of the characters faces on it i mean its so damn ridiculous why make it like a Soft H-anime and then ruin it by the ridiculous censors at least make the censors smaller or just do what kiss x sis did..... like really it ruins alot of the scenes in the show

Sound- Nothing bad like at all decent opening meh ending song good background songs during the fight scenes it was good no complaints.

Character- The main character is good as far as im concerned but no character development but what can you do its a harem all the dude main characters are usually the same..... Mio the daughter of the demon lord is cute.... to say the least her character kinda changes in certain scenes when shes angry or when the effect of the contract between her and basara occur shes likeable and maria the succubus is also likable does super lewd things but thats what she does thats the type of demon she is nothing about the main characters turn you off but as you get deeper in the show you will find more you like and more you hate and others your unsure about.

Enjoyment- i guess as a fan of anime like dxd this caters to my liking i dont hate this anime i mean its got its goods and bads.... Decent story, good art, nice battle music, likable characters but the bads or should i say bad* being the censorship kills the pure enjoyment that you are hoping to get from the show id love to give this show a review of 8/10 - 9/10 based on my enjoyment but the dang censorship is way to much and absolutely ruins the ecchi experience of the show its just disappointing to see the ANIMATION company really were trying to troll the viewers with how bad the censorship were and how much they blocked too much just too much.....

Overall- A decent show killed by The animation Company's censorship thats all that really killed the show if the censorship wasnt in the show it would be quite good if it didn't have the hit or miss comedy it would be a good show but the hit or miss comedy and terrible censorship hinders it from being a good show so i think a 6/10 is fair..... especially for an ecchi lover the animation company failed with the terrible censorship so i cant blame the makers of the anime only the people who decided to make the censorship so bad.....

Final judgement- would have made for a good harem action anime with decent characters but terrible comedy that is hit or miss and just bad censorship it made the show just fair so a 6/10 is fair as for me. 2nd season later this year lets hope the censors arent as terrible

For now I'll rate this anime as just fine... It's ok, story and plot are very good, character design and visual aspects are good too. Why 6/10 then? While enjoying story and visuals there were a lots of censorship covering almost whole screen. Censorship in ecchi souhld be banned. Especialy in this one. Even kiss was censored... Please, it's ecchi for purpose. In this way my enjoyment fell from 8-9 to 2... If that was just a trick forcing to buy DVD/BD version producers failed all the way. I can change my opinion when DVD/BD ver will be released.
EDIT:
After 2 uncensored eps I can say ... that there are things that makes me enjoy this anime. Now "PLOT" is better if you know what I mean, So uncensored version scores 8/10 because there finally is ecchi in ecchi part of this anime, still I hope that 2nd season will be better than this and all signs are trying to show us that late autumn will bring quite good continuation of Shinmai Maou no Testament

Oh boy... Where do I start?
This is the type of anime you watch to turn off your brain because if you don't, you will have a terrible time.
If you're expecting a good plot, character development, music or animation, I'd look for another anime, as this anime performs poorly in all those categories. However, unless you enjoy poorly written anime and want to see shitty hentai, in that case, you'll get a kick out of Shinmai Maou no Testament.

Story Synopsis: Shinmai Maou no Testament is about a teenage boy and his adopted "sisters."
The story itself is inconsistent as it jumps from themes of ... family, being horny, questionable incest, more speeches about family, generic hero clans (good guys) vs generic demon clans (bad guys), high school slice of life, back to being horny, more incest, and unnecessary drama to drive the generic plot forward.
Speaking of the drama, it feels as forced as the cringe-inducing sexual scenes which arguably define this anime.

Here's a non-spoiler example of what to expect.
Character A (Boy) is with Character B (Girl) at school. They're having a conversation, and suddenly the Girl becomes jealous, which causes her to become very horny because she sees him looking at another girl and gets mad. So she angrily leaves the room.
The Boy then follows the Girl to resolve the drama, which leads to a sexually driven scene/situation where the Boy needs to harass the Girl to calm her down sexually... BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. Another girl enters the scene. Let's call her "Girl #2," She then says, "I WANT TO BE TOUCHED TOO, ONI-CHAN." Naturally, this causes conflict between Girl #1 and Girl #2, and now they suddenly have to deal with demons or heroes who want to capture Girl #1 because she has a unique hidden power within her.

The plot follows a pattern like an example above.
It feels like it was written for angsty teenage virgin boys who desire the sexual attention of several women at once without effort just because they exist.
This anime is the definition of a male power fantasy, where women throw themselves at you simply because you're a "nice" guy and try to respect them, and by "throwing," I mean the girls are literally fighting and drooling over this Boy who has the personality of a cardboard box, not because of skill or anything cool like that but simply because he's a "nice" and good-looking guy who talks a lot about his family values and how he wants to protect them, while also trying to harass them sexually.
If Sigmund Freud were born in Japan, his theory would revolve around siblings trying to have sex with each other because of mommy and daddy issues. This anime would be his justification for this theory.
Like it's absurdly incestuous; you might as well call the anime Alabama the anime.

Shit-talking aside, this anime does get some brownie points. It's an okay slice of life once you get passed all the dumb jokes and unnecessary drama. But, sadly, that good aspect gets overshadowed by all its negatives.

Two more points:
#1: This anime attempts to compete against High School DxD and copies the character designs and personalities of Issei, Rias, Xenovia and what I'm going to dub "discount Akeno aka Maria."
It also attempts to reverse certain aspects of High School DxDs story (such as pawns and control "Master and Servant" concepts.)
Unsurprisingly, it fails badly, mainly because the copy of Rias is ironically a submissive tsundere who's overly emotional for no reason, and the copy of Issei is OP af and never really has to work to obtain his power as he's magically born with it because of.... "backstory" reasons.
The only defining trait of his character is that he's a good guy who does things like saving people and not killing.
His power is linked to his emotions, and the more emotional he gets, the more powerful he gets; this generic stereotype also applies to "Discount Rias." No matter their situation, emotion and the power of friendship will always save them.

Lastly, I would only recommend this anime to people who are okay with bad stories or those who want to laugh at how bad this anime is. Trolling a friend with this anime might also be funny, as you'd get to see how triggered they get by how appalling incestual soft-core porn is. Just don't expect much from Shinmai Maou Testament, and you'll have a good time.
Also, don't think too much, or you'll find yourself writing a lengthy review like I am ;)

Happy anime hunting!

This is a fine example of what's wrong with the vast majority of light novels. It's nowhere near as bad as other titles but the shoe horned cliches make it obvious this series lacks any substance. Basara Toujou meets his two new step sisters who turn out to be demons. Basara himself comes from a tribe of heroes but went Rouge after a freak accident and now heroes and demons alike have a vendetta against the family. With that premise, you'd expect something great but this show rather have otaku pandering than well written story .

The amount of easily ... avoidable cliches in here is just ridiculous. Mio is the basic red headed agressive tsundere who is prone to perverted misunderstandings. Maria is a loli character who is constantly sexualized. The fact that she's a succubus doesn't give the author an excuse for placing his perverted fetishes on a underage girl. Yuki is a better childhood friend. There's also the incestuous moments between Basara and his sisters. It's clear the demographic for Shinmai Maou no Testament is the depraved deadbeat otaku variety.

The excuse of a story is obviously an after though here. A few demons attack the basara family, they have a perverted moment, basara swears to protect them and repeat. Things do get interesting once the past of the hero tribe comes into play but it doesn't last long. The author clearly has no creativity and fails to properly expand on his own story. He's much more interested in pleasing the lowest common denominator.

One thing this show actually manages to do correctly is the music and character design. The soundtrack is composed by Yasuharu Takahashi who is responsible for a plethora of outstanding songs over the years The original character design Is done by ookuma nekosuke who despite his extreme amount of ecchi work, his art is still great. Its a shame their talents went to waste here.The last positive statement I have for this crap is that basara toujou has above average characterization for a light novel protagonist.

If you're a seasoned anime watcher, and you read the synopsis, maybe did the 3-episode rule, YOU KNOW HOW THIS IS GOING TO BE.
Unless you actually like non-unique trash ecchi shows, then don't even bother with this! I'm not saying all ecchi anime is bad, I'm just saying a lot of it is all the same garbage re-skinned with different neon-hair colored anime girls and plain protags.

So, to sum this up,
Overpowered MC gets ditched by dad, left with two stepsisters that do not know what going too far is with siblings. They try to juke him, he jukes them, randomly says to protect them, ... and now he's protecting them.

Extras may include: (especially if you watch the uncensored version)

-MC pulling salvation out of his ass
-Pretty much incest
-Lots of switching between saving the imoutos and imouto bath time
-Rituals that if done wrong give you neck tatoos that make you horny
-nipple sucking
-Dense MC
-thirsty childhood friend
-MC is perfect and apparently has no human personality flaws
-MORE nipple sucking! (one part even with maple syrup :D)

You see right there, what a package!

Honestly, this is the most borderline hentai anime I have ever watched, MC trying to create a stronger "bond" with his step-sister and also "slave" technically.

You know this anime trash, when the only reason you watch it, is because your bro would give you a crispy $5.

But anyway, enough ranting, (well maybe a little bit more)
Opening, ok, not memorable though.
I actually liked the art style, but some of the animation was lazy (especially in some fight scenes)
I actually did find the MC attractive, till I saw his steadily growing and competitive harem along with his Mary Sue personality. Though I did want to know more about him and childhood friend's backstory.

Didn't get much of course tho :P

I won't lie, the last couple of episodes had me actually interested and "into it" but still, the anime leaves you unsatisfied, as we find out Naruse Mio AKA No-Life-No-Bra Maple tits and Naruse Maria AKA ProcreateWithYouInACorner loli are still being sought after.

And OTP Nonaka Yuki AKA KuudereChildhoodfriendWithThatBootyTho and MC never sailed, OBVIOUSLY.

Overall, not really anything special. You really, really, don't need to watch this.

Pros:

-The idea behind this anime is great.
-There is room for character development as there is a second season.

Cons:
-Half a step away from a hentai.
-The current characters are half-baked/unrealistic for their age.

I would love this anime to bits if the MC didn't have to sexualize his 'little sisters' I know they are not blood-related, but if you're going with the sentiment of his feelings either make this a little more comical (A bashful MC? Less 'I know how to relieve you without trying' more I'm a young teenagger who gets to touch boobs nosebleeds) to ease off the sexual or just full on dub this one ... a hentai as you're going to be muting your sound a lot to get through this without hearing underage girls moaning.
I would have dropped this early on if the plot wasn't so engaging. It could be just as engaging without all the big brother borderline brother scenes.

It's been about a year since I watched this show, but I remember it very clearly. It was the most... intriguing echii series I have ever seen in my entire life.

I've grown up watching a lot of harem echii shows and I'm pretty accustomed to the amount of fanservice that they provide, but Shinmai Maou no Testament is a different beast all together. I remember the scene where they use maple syrup and... I was actually disturbed by it. It's the first echii show where I felt like I was watching some actually messed up stuff, and that made me very uncomfortable. That's only ... about half of the fanservice though, so it wasn't absolutely bad.

Plot wise it's about a dude who's a hero protecting his adopted sister (who also happens to be the demon lord, who knew?) from other heroes, demons, and whatever else happens to be coming out today. Basically, It's like Highschool DxD, but the fanservice is much more... extreme, if I'm going to be honest.

The protagonist is pretty generic and bland, to the point where I don't remember his name, so I'm just gonna call him Kirito because well... what's the difference. His main role is to break the show's villains over his knee due to plot convenience, and touch his sister in various... ways. He gets all the ladies (because this is a harem show), and he's got them traditionally good protagonist morals.

His sister, the demon lord, is a tsundere red-head who usually gets kidnapped. She's the protagonist's servant due to stuff involving a succubus, and is the main fanservice character for the entire show. She's also generic, so let's just call her Asuna.

Look, if you haven't figured it out already, this show is painfully generic. The only thing that sticks out is the over the top fanservice... but, why did I give it a 5 and not something lower? Well, for one thing, it looks nice. The aesthetics aren't too special, but they were relatively nice. But also, I just plain enjoyed the action. I know it's not the main calling card of the show, but when the action pops up, it is pretty fun to see.

So there you have it folks, Shinmai Maou no Testament. It's a generic show, with a little bit of action to spice things up, but a lot of disturbing fanservice to bring it way down.

Welcome to Robert's Too Late Reviews! Today we're going to be doing, as always, the dubbed version of this anime, and of note is the fact this review covers season 1, the extra episode (OVA, what have you) and the second season, subtitled 'Burst'. The quick of it is if you need more boobs in your anime life, or are like me and dig the supernatural angle, then go watch (or rewatch, whatever the case may be) Highschool DxD, as this is nothing but a cookie cutter rip of that series. Nevertheless, there might be a new entry on the RTLR wall of sexy 2d ... gals, read on to find out more!

Story: 4
As I said, this is probably literally as close as one can legally get to outright copying another, somewhat better, series. They lift insane amounts of material directly from DxD's playbook and just slightly alter it and serve it back to us. I'm going to run down some of the similarities for ya here, beyond of course the fact that they are both ecchi harems. Both feature a male lead that has a weapon that disappears when not in use, and starts as only covering part of their arm. Later both has the male lead developing his weapon and arm protection into a full blown body transformation. Both times we have the full body transformation being very dangerous to the guy, with them nearly losing control and injuring members of the harem, specifically the primary female. Both are saved from making this terrible mistake by the power of love (or tits, one of the two I guess) and both come back from the edge at the nick of time, of course not before beating the ever loving shit out of the bad guy.

The primary female is a redhead, and related to the Devil/Lucifer/Demon King, basically demon royalty in some manner or the other. Both redheads have insane levels of power inside themselves that is only tapped when the male is in extreme danger. Both are built like porn stars and seem to have an irrational love of the male lead for reasons that aren't ever really explained all that well. The primary female is desired by otherworldly forces, particularly to exploit her power and standing.

There are present in both series characters that are in diametric opposition to the demon forces who turn and end up joining the hero's cause. In fact both shows come to a point where they both have two of these girls in each. To clarify because this is perhaps less obvious, the church exorcists in DxD, and the hero village girls in Testament. All four girls from both series are swordsmen, and know powerful techniques. They are also all in lust for the male lead. In a slightly different but yet same characterization, both the primary female from the opposing force (the first hero girl and the former nun in DxD) feel like they are in competition with the demon princess for the affections of the male lead. They both will follow the princess' lead and try to get the male to do to them what he is (or appears to be) doing to the princess.

Random similarities being that there's another male in the series, yet they are not in competition with the male lead for the interest of any of the girls, and is always around to lend the male lead a hand when the cards seem to be down. Of course they both are kind of mysterious in their backgrounds. There is a character that joins the harem because her original allegiance to another person/group is broken, Asia in DxD with the church, and Zest in Testament from the other demon dude. Both feature a character that has issues with their older sister (Koneko and Maria).

This is just a VERY small start on the similarities, there's lots more to be found throughout both seasons. I mean, I'm surprised they didn't have to drop this show from ever being made due to intellectual infringement. Let's cover the primary difference between the two series: in DxD the male lead wants to have sex with his harem members but totally wimps out before anything happens, whereas in Testament, the male lead basically bangs every member, and sometimes all of them at once. While only breast groping and ass (through their panties) is explicitly is shown, it is *heavily* implied that there's full penetration sex happening and even some hints of oral sex going down as well. The characters are all put into several different sexual positions and are making all the correct movements for doing the nasty yet either the camera never pans down, or when it does, they toss on a token pair of undies on everyone. Make no mistake, this show is MUCH dirtier in my opinion than DxD. And of course, conveniently, having sex with his harem not only powers up the hero, it also increases the power of the girls as well. Therefore 'training' is nothing more than an excuse to get some more sexy time onscreen.

The basic lay is that the primary female has some demon power in her that everyone wants, and the male has to fight off those that wish to harm her. They even take a trip into the demon realm and face down enemies there. The male lead also has multiple references to a difficult past, something about an accident that happened when he was a good bit younger that either hurt or killed some of his fellow members of the hero clan. This is repeatedly referenced yet there's no satisfactory explanation as to exactly what happened, what the direct results were (beyond his obvious exile) and why it happened to him. It's implied, and easily assumed, that this is a power he has inherited from his father, who is referred to repeatedly as being the 'war god' and being shown to posses a power level that would warrant such a title.

There's also a few remarks about the power the male lead carries being related to Brunhildr, which made me interested in hearing more about this power and the mythology surrounding it, similar again to DxD's Red Dragon Emperor power, which of course we get lots of info on, but for Testament, we never really explore the lore around Brunhildr. There's some kind of throw away stuff about it being the power the Valkyries used to gather souls, but it's basically mentioned in one or two lines in one episode, and basically that's all we get. I was left wanting to know more about the lore and mythology of the show. Instead we get like a third to sometimes nearly half of the show focusing on nothing more than sex. While titillation has it's place, and can be enjoyable, we really don't need every last episode just about featuring extended sequences of naughtiness. Yes, we get it, you bang the girls to get everyone stronger. Tell me about more about the gods/devils/powers related to the occultic and/or supernatural elements of the anime. No dice, really, on that point.

The story just basically falls a few inches from hentai and seems to think that's all anyone wants to see. There is better hentai out there that isn't so contrived and convoluted, and there are better ecchi series that balance the fanservice with interesting details and world building. Instead we get one of two basic version in each episode: either they have sex to power up, beat bad guy or lose to baddie, sex to power up, beat baddie. Really that's about all we get overall. Disappointing.

Art: 8
The show looks really good, as one might expect, and one might even say that's another aspect aped from DxD, but I'd like to think quality is something that everyone works towards. The characters are well drawn, though the breasts are, as usual, a little on the ridiculous side most of the time, especially during the ecchi sequences. Overall we have lots of detail and smooth animation, and some of the fights are pretty nice. Of course we get the usual sword problem that I just hate, the idiotic shooting of energy from melee weapons. If you're going to shoot each other, manifest guns, not swords. Getting to be a pet peeve of mine. This show does better than most in that for the most part, swords are used as swords, but when the power levels go through the roof, we get powers deployed through energy beams and waves. Otherwise I have no complaints, it looks like what you expect masturbation material for young men to look like. Beware the censored version, however, as I've seen it reported that they are a bit heavy handed in covering the objectionable material. And with the amount of tit onscreen a lot of the times, I can see why they had to cover most of the screen during those shots.

Sound: 7
The themes are not bad, but not really very catchy, less so for Burst compared to the first season. They serve their purpose and have an appropriate 'rock' sound to them. The music in show is properly dramatic in battle sequences and such, and is I guess properly 'chika umm bow wow' during the ecchi scenes as well.

The voice acting is pretty well done, for the most part. The princess sounds pretty good, and the nurse, oh goodness, the nurse sounds amazing in the dub. The succubus' voice is a bit annoying a fair amount of the time. She's a big part of the knock on the score, and the fact that both the first hero girl and the 'rescued' demon girl both sound about as interested in what was going on as a rather bored rock. Also the obvious problem, the over the top moaning and carrying on, which while expected in the sex scenes, still seemed way over the top for me. I can't imagine how it must be like to record those sounds. I would be embarrassed to even be part of the audio crew during those sessions, let alone the VA in there hamming it up. So yeah, there's a fair bit of the time that it sounds like a straight porno. I'd recommend headphones.

Character: 6
I found the characters mildly interesting, but every time I wanted to know more about them, the show would stop for an obligatory 10 minutes of bouncing boobs. They could have expounded a bit more on the characters themselves and still fit in enough nakedness to get the point across. Why does the hero girls fall for the male lead? They were supposedly resentful, and rightly so, of the guy and the dangerous/deadly incident that happened years beforehand. If he accidentally released his powers and killed a bunch of people (which I believe is what they say between the sessions of moaning) why would they forgive him so easily? Why is there a reference here and there to the succubus being a virgin (seriously) when she's well, firstly, a sex demon, and secondly obsessed with porn and getting the various characters into banging? In one episode she literally masturbates (and orgasms) with a towel in front of the male lead. Virgin, yeah right.

I also wanted to know more about how the princess got her demon powers. They offer that she's inherited them from the previous Demon Lord who was her father, but how did that work? How was the upstart lord vying for power over the demon realm able to do so without a comparable power? Why did she get the power if she wasn't prepared to take over rule of the demon realm? How did daddy die? There's a million neat details about the operation of the demon lore and such that they could have given us that they just leave out.

There's a good foundation for the characters (for the most part) laid, but they never follow through, opting instead to jump to the 'training sessions' instead.

Enjoyment: 5
I'm a sucker for anything that has demons/angels/gods/devils or mythology in it (send recommends if you know of any good ones, please!) and I wanted to like this series so much, but they just went overboard with the sex. Now I don't mind naughtiness in the least, I might be middle aged, but boobs is one of those topics that I think is absolutely ageless (heh) yet they had me groaning when the porn music started, and I knew it was about to go into yet another extended ecchi sequence. I think I actually enjoyed DxD's system much better, where the male lead is a bit bumbling and is too awkward to actually accomplish getting it on, this version where the guy easily and frequently bangs the girls just smacks of some kind of softcore hentai. It's like watching Cinemax at 2 a.m., sure there's boobs, but the rest of the fun isn't actually shown. Forget that noise, if I wanted actual porn, I'd go watch it. Make the point about the connection between sex and their power levels and move onto cool fights or something. I don't need endless softcore crap as long as the internet exists, ya know?

As I said, I don't mind the sexual element at all, but if you're going to offer a story along with it, make sure the story is actually *good*. Either that or go the route of those '70's pornos where they speak two lines "Here's your pizza" "do me good big boy" and off to the races. They tease much more with copying the interesting elements of other shows than they do with the fanservice. Basically it fails at being actual porn, and then fails at being a story as well. We're left wanting all around.

Best Girl: The nurse Chisato, in the dub at least is one damn sexy sounding woman. Yeah, they give her corny lines, but damn if she don't sound good delivering them.

Your time would be better served finding the shows that they ripped off (primarily DxD) and watching them instead. If you need 'gratification' material, there's better versions of that out there as well. I was irritated that it was just interesting enough that I wouldn't drop it. I kept thinking 'well next episode they'll skip the lewd time and do more character development' and was let down over and over. Mediocre at best. Nonetheless the nurse makes the RTLR of nastiness, just cuz I loved her voice actress. I don't think it's worth the bother.

Well, how can I say that? It's just a very ordinary anime with ordinary characters. Basara's motivation is just... unbelievable. And not in the good way. I mean, I wold give 3.5 stars out of five for this anime because it tried. And failed. It seems like an alternate version of Highschool DxD, and would be great if it wasn't a low budged project AND everybody's motivation weren't so mediocre.

The first episode is OK, which means I thought it would be a great idea to buy every volume of the original manga. Well, I didn't regret that, because I had met this story in ... a way better point of view. The anime sucks. Hope the second season is better.

This might simultaneously be one of the worst and best attempts at harem ever.

At one point, instead of the usual featureless self-insert, our chick magnet is actually believable as a chick magnet; one can very much see why everything on two legs around him wants to get into the pants of this handsome, smart, suave, strong, reliable, battle-hardened action hero that would literally travel through hell and back for one of his chicks.

On the other hand the harem is ramped up here, and made even less believable than usual — this dude is seriously having sex with all of them in the same room [reluctantly ... of course, as any true harem protagonist]; there is a ridiculous plot device that basically requires him to touch their erogenous zones periodically to alleviate some curse, and all of them are just standing and watching as he reluctantly does them one by one, waiting there turn — the sex scenes basically show all nudity but genitals; indeed the opening sequence is full of nudity with Barby-doll-anatomy.

Apart from that, the plot is actually not bad at all and unlike most harem series it has some interesting male characters, some of which border on flirting with the protagonist but not quite; the action sequences are fairly good and the protagonist looks pretty cool wielding a sword with his parent somehow looking even cooler.

The romance between Basara and Mio is also not that bad; Mio is your typical tundere at first who is quickly won over by Basara's awesome-at-everything, especially being your adopted onii-tyan — to make it even more delicious Mio only refers to him with "onii-tyan" during the sex scenes.

Which brings us back to this clusterfuck harem full of sex scenes; it just distracts so much from what is actually worthwhile about the series; it could have been a good plot-driven romance–action, were it not for the harem and the sex scenes constantly distracting from that; I don't even think the sex scenes are that good; they're super standard sex scenes that don't really have that Masahiro Itosugi je-ne-sais-quoi to them which actually makes them not detract from the plot, probably because he makes characters talk and say interesting things during sex, and the sex is also just far better.

And the harem really detracts from the main Basara–Mio romance; Mio is the one whom everyone is rooting for; the others are just side-interests at best; none of them really have the compelling backstory that Mio has; exemplified the most in one scene where your shipping balls get bluer than the face of an oxygen-deprived smurf when Basara and Mio share a moment and then the rest of the harem just walzes in to ruin the moment and fuck with you.

Maria as "part of the harem" can stay; he's just a troll succubus that would fuck anyone anyway and he's mostly just funny and adding to the fire and watching, but the rest is so obnoxious.

If the rest of the harem were just characters rather than getting in the way of the main romance, if the sex scenes were better or just not there, this could have been fairly good.

Shinmai Maou no Testament is a series directed perfectly for the Highschool DxD crowd. with reasonably likeable characters and meh music.

Story - 4
I enjoyed it, but it is close to a carbon copy of Highschool DxD. Aside from the idea that the main male character already has his power. I enjoyed the final scenes and it leaves on a mildly satisfying ending.

Art - 5
It's ok. the fight scene's are kind of lazy, but the harem scene's pick up the problems.

Sound - 6
The OP and ED are good, not amazing. it's yet again a carbon copy of
... Highschool DxD.

Character - 6
I enjoyed the characters, the male protagonist was kind of plain. the interactions between the male protagonist and villains are enjoyable. the main female characters are good, with a tsundere, kuudere and succubus harem the character interactions are quite fun.

Overall - 5
It's exactly what you expect, I wouldn't recommend it entirely, but if you enjoy Highschool DxD it's definitely worth a watch.

The anime is fine but I don't feel like it's very hentai. The characters are quite cliché, I feel like I am missing that moment where the protagonist says no one all to my waifus and break everything. It seems that in the second part we are going to see that, so far the protagonist is half fucking but hey is echi until then he needs to have relationships with some of the series but he has good scenes. Admittedly, if you are looking for something with a good plot, this is not for you. But if you are looking for something echi with good ... boobs everywhere it is for you. Although I recommend more highscool DxD before this. I was very disappointed, the protagonist expected more from him.


En español:
El anime esta bien pero no se siento que es muy hentai. Los personajes son bastantes cliché, siento que le falto ese momento donde el protagonista dice nadie toda a mis waifus y romper todo. Parece que en la segunda parte vamos a ver eso, hasta ahora medio puto el protagonista pero bueno es echi hasta ahí le falta tener relaciones con alguna de la serie pero tiene buenas escenas. Hay que admitirlo si buscas algo con una buena trama esto no es para vos. Pero si buscas algo echi con buenas tetas por todos lados es para vos. Aunque recomiendo mas highscool DxD Antes que esto. Me decepciono mucho el protagonista esperaba mas de el.

So... yeah... this is basically the poor man's Highschool DxD. Whereas that series had fan service and excess nudity, it also had a wicked story plot, excellent characters and mixed in raw emotion and logical fan service into their story. This on the other hand, is frustrating.

The good:
Art looks amazing, this is on par with some of the best looking modern anime.
If you're a fan of essentially softcore porn, this is the closest thing you're going to find.
The plot can be OK at times, the main characters are likeable enough and the voice acting is done well.
The fight scenes are cool and diverse.

The bad:
If ... you're not a fan of softcore porn, you will find the ecchi scenes weird and uncomfortable; if I wanted porn I would watch porn, this was just silly and weird.
The way the ecchi is rammed into the story made me frustrated; it is trite and annoying and the fact that MC is so quick to just accept that he needs to "service" his harem makes him unlikable.
The way characters gain power and can always be strong enough at the right times didn't make sense; it was too convenient.

Story 7, Art 9, Sound 7, Character 5, Enjoyment 7, Overall 6/10

Classic ecchi, poor history, poor characters por everything... except for the echiness ofc. This show looks like a lot of High School DxD but, unfortunately, it hasn't has his charm, actually even the main character looks a lot like Isei.

The main character is boring as fuck, never could've seen that coming (deactivating sarcasm mode), the main female character is also quite dull, classic tsundere (why I'm torturing myself with this kind of shows! why?). The fights... yes... well... nothing to say about it except they are dull (even if they try but when you focus the fights on fan service that's what you get)

So just ... as the rest of damn ecchi without any sense, there are some that are great in general but not his one, if you are looking for fan service welcome to the show (it's borderline with hentai... well.. probably you should watch one action hentai... probably yes), if you are searching for anything else just run away fast, don't be masochists as myself.

Pros:
The animation quality is pretty good. It doesn't feel like a low budget project. Feel smooth, pretty and crisp.

The heroines are fucking hot, lewd and thirsty. The erotic scene is nicely animated and it's pretty horny but it felt pretty unsatisfying due to no sex scene.

Cons:
The plot is very generic to me. Nothing special that make it stand out, it's a forgettable plot.

The MC core personality is not that interesting, it's the generic type that never give up kind of shit and always stand back up over and over again with the same line that "I will protect" kind of shit.

The battle scene is ... absolute meh, nothing special, same with the powers going on in this series.