Shinmai Maou no Testament Departures

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

tl;dr: A solid prologue to a new arc that does everything you would expect from it in the context of Shinmai Maou, though ultimately it is just a prologue.

This isn't really a proper story but rather a prologue to the next arc in that it ends with them beginning to journey to towards the village. It focuses on establishing why returning to the village is an issue not just in terms of potential danger, but also in terms of bringing up old traumas for Basara, Yuki, and Kurumi. This is conveyed to the other members of the group, and in doing so it gets everyone ... on the same footing before departing, which naturally involves some decent relationship development not just between Basara and the rest of the group but also amongst the other group members themselves. This is able to occur because Basara is busy away from the group with a side story centered around Chisato, though one that isn't made entirely clear where it came from or what the purpose was but it seems to set up things that'll come up again at some point. Though to some degree it is getting kind of irritating at this point how that seems to be all that Chisato ever gets, in that she's had a decent amount of scenes but no clear substantial development and only hints and mysterious teases that seem largely pointless. There's also a fight against Lars, and though the stakes don't feel that high it's awesome enough. I don't think I've mentioned it before in any of my reviews, but Lars is pretty damn cool. The art and animation were just as good as the second season and of course the critical scenes were still there and strong. The ED was the OP of season 2 which was good enough I suppose though it would have been cool to get something new.