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...
