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[RPG_Fanatic]

Didn't notice this before, so I guess I'll comment on my impressions.

The manga being released before hand sorta spoiled me on how this episode was going to be played out. The fight sequence was enjoyable, and I liked how the anime kept the menu and location text style from the game. The real test for how much I'm going to enjoy this is when more characters are introduced and we get to see how well they are brought over.

It certainly feels like a NG+ run, with Byakko and over 60000 macca right at the beginning. I hope the humor is kept intact in this game. They better not mess up

Spoiler

Operation Box

 

[Alkolto]

I don't necessarily hold the game or the writing to blame for this - I think they both make for decent villains, albeit of the unsympathetic Saturday morning cartoon variety. But neither of them make a very convincing case for their ideology. I preferred DS1's factions in that each one had its own merits and its own justifications.

I could not disagree any more. The three main factions in the first game didn't have the best justifications, with Amane's probably being the best, and not by much. And when you look at them, they're all pretty flat and 2 dimensional.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Awww yissss. It was far from perfect, but as an adaptation I thought it was a pretty great first episode. The characterization was spot on, the animation wasn't a flaming sack of shit, and the little red flags like Byakko and the obscene amount of Macca that Hibiki's packing give me hope that the creators have some ambition in them. All in all, it was a nice return to anime for me.

A couple things I didn't realize until watching this are how incredibly goofy the protag's hoodie is and how fucked up Daichi's eagerness to see his friends deaths is. However, unlike Hibiki, AO is looking positively fabulous, however. Dem eyebrows/lashes.

And I'd be remiss to omit the obligatory rankings:
Best Girl - Otome
Best Leader - Yamato
Best Moe - AO and Airi
Best Box - Io

 

[SpeedySwaf]

My only two complaints would be that I wanted them to have an additional scene or two to show how bad the city was hit, and that

Spoiler

Daichi's kamikaze run did absolutely nothing. In the game, his plan lead to the alien getting severely damaged and giving you a fighting chance. Plus it had a funny scene where Daichi knocks it off balance after it initially landed on the truck.

Other than that, they did a pretty good job. They spent time showing Daichi's and Kuze's relationship, and they did an excellent job with the fight at the end.

I'm curious if the demons they summon will share some theme with the characters, or if they'll be mostly random to show off as many demons as possible.

 

[PK Gaming]

Nope, no disconnect. I neither like their ideals nor do I find them interesting. Contrast with the Reason of Yosuga from Nocturne - an ideal that I find repellent yet interesting enough to pursue if only to see how it pans out. Nocturne handled the various paths better than any game in the series - there isn't a "right" or "wrong" path, just a variety of esoteric paths that still make sense given the nature of the world and the psyche of the human proposing that Reason.

The ideologies of DS2 (with the exception of Anguished One and perhaps Daichi) lacked any sort of well-developed ethos. Both

Spoiler

Ronaldo and Yamato

sort of spring their ideologies on you out of nowhere. You can tell what kind of people they are when you meet them, but when they finally propose their vision of an ideal world I was just left thinking "...Really? That's it?" You'd think you'd put a bit more thought into it given the chance of reshaping the world.

Spoiler

Yamato's mantra is MERIT MERIT MERIT while Ronaldo's is JUSTICE JUSTICE JUSTICE

, and neither of them offer any deeper justification or sound like they've thought over it for more than a few minutes.

I don't necessarily hold the game or the writing to blame for this - I think they both make for decent villains, albeit of the unsympathetic Saturday morning cartoon variety. But neither of them make a very convincing case for their ideology. I preferred DS1's factions in that each one had its own merits and its own justifications.

I couldn't agree more with this post, well said.

 

[Necrovex]

Enjoyed the first episode. Music, aside from the ending song, didn't really grab me but it's early days. The animation seems a step-up rom Persona 4.

Also, is it worth signing up for Crunchyroll? The price seems reasonable.

I love Crunchyroll, and it makes me sad that not every anime is on that service. Watching an anime in 1080P is simply amazing. Fate/Zero looked so bloody good.

Edit: CR does get a lot of good shows on its service, but I usually encounter at least one noteworthy show missing each season.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

I love Crunchyroll, and it makes me sad that not every anime is on that service. Watching an anime in 1080P is simply amazing. Fate/Zero looked so bloody good.

Edit: CR does get a lot of good shows on its service, but I usually encounter at least one noteworthy show missing each season.

Crunchyroll is pretty convenient since it works on tablet and also my phone and at least this season they have more than 90% of the shows Im watching.

 

[Thoraxes]

Awww yissss. It was far from perfect, but as an adaptation I thought it was a pretty great first episode. The characterization was spot on, the animation wasn't a flaming sack of shit, and the little red flags like Byakko and the obscene amount of Macca that Hibiki's packing give me hope that the creators have some ambition in them. All in all, it was a nice return to anime for me.

A couple things I didn't realize until watching this are how incredibly goofy the protag's hoodie is and how fucked up Daichi's eagerness to see his friends deaths is. However, unlike Hibiki, AO is looking positively fabulous, however. Dem eyebrows/lashes.

And I'd be remiss to omit the obligatory rankings:
Best Girl - Otome
Best Leader - Yamato
Best Moe - AO and Airi
Best Box - Io

I can agree with this.

I have trouble choosing my favs, but in no order I like:

Fumi, Airi, and Otome the most.

They each are just too good.

Also Sawashiro is slowly selling me on Makoto while I originally didn't care for her in game.

 

[duckroll]

I can agree with this.

I have trouble choosing my favs, but in no order I like:

Fumi, Airi, and Otome the most.

They each are just too good.

Also Sawashiro is slowly selling me on Makoto while I originally didn't care for her in game.

It's too bad Airi didn't get Hanazawa to even the odds.

 

[Soriku]

The ending song is awesome. I am obsessed with it currently.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

New episode tomorrow?

Fumi, Airi, and Otome the most.

They each are just too good.

Too true. It was rough singling out Otome.

The ending song is awesome. I am obsessed with it currently.

I must have gotten distracted after watching, because I didn't realize how rad the ED is.

 

[cj_iwakura]

Episode 2's live on crunchyroll.

Uneventful, but it sets the scene for some great stuff later on.

Spoiler

Dat Power.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Episode 2's live on crunchyroll.

Uneventful, but it sets the scene for some great stuff later on.

My thoughts as well.

Yamato's voice was really jarring for me, though. I had it in my head that he was a lot younger.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Episode 2 – Monday of Upheaval - I

I guess like any usual Monday morning after a refreshing weekend, the episode for the most part just sluggishly gets things going, fortunately, by the afternoon things are up to speed, and thus, the episode, to me, was like that too. Hibiki Daichi moments really were excellent and great and his VA, Daichi's really got into the role and made it so emotional

Spoiler

my teary eyes at how he was begging and pleading and so concerned for Hibiki there, if only his phone wasnt under repair

. Great Byakko stuff.

Spoiler

Why cant Anguished One be more involved and next episode, the character Ive been dying to see so much

 

[cj_iwakura]

Episode 2 – Monday of Upheaval - I

I guess like any usual Monday morning after a refreshing weekend, the episode for the most part just sluggishly gets things going, fortunately, by the afternoon things are up to speed, and thus, the episode, to me, was like that too. Hibiki Daichi moments really were excellent and great and his VA, Daichi's really got into the role and made it so emotional

Spoiler

my teary eyes at how he was begging and pleading and so concerned for Hibiki there, if only his phone wasnt under repair

. Great Byakko stuff.

Spoiler

Why cant Anguished One be more involved and next episode, the character Ive been dying to see so much

So the big question: Thunder Reign or Maziodyne?

 

[duckroll]

Episode 2

Kinda boring this week. The anime is really moving super slowly, which will probably bite them in the ass towards the end. Looks like they're probably going to introduce about 2 new characters to the party every week, so all 13 won't be together until halfway through the series? It's going to be pretty zzzzzzzzz until Airi shows up.

 

[RedBoot]

Actually, I think it's kind of funny that this episode moved so slowly seeing as how ep 1 blazed through so much content. But I understand why they did this from a narrative standpoint, so whatevs.

Doesn't look like they're going to have the human characters fighting though. I guess having Hibiki toss around Bufus would look kind of weird. Makes things a little more Pokemon than I'd like.

Also don't like how Io is being handled so far. She's certainly a shy character who doesn't assert herself very well, but she never really acts so helpless in the game. But hopefully that'll change going forward.

Still no

Spoiler

Joe. Based on his placement in the intro/endings, I'm guessing we won't see him until Day 4 when Otome shows up.

 

[Videoneon]

I agree about Io. I can't help but feel so far that there was a line crossed between "worried and in shock" to "moe shrinking violet."

In this episode most all of her speech (especially in the first ten minutes) was fearful wailing or gasping. She's not a super exciting character anyway, but come on.

I'm not reading the manga (which apparently this follows?) but bummed out about Joe.

Pretty ho-hum episode (especially with the rescued kid), but I don't feel too negatively about it.

Gotta love Anguished One's white eyelashes.

 

[duckroll]

I don't like Io at all as a character, so it really doesn't bother me. I don't think the game really did her any favors either in the writing. A pretty terrible character personality in general. I think my biggest disappointment so far is that they didn't go for the gag route and have the main character say all the ridiculous things you could pick in the game. I think that would have added a lot of personality to the adaptation in a fun way.

 

[RedBoot]

Well, hopefully now that "WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR?!?" is out of the way, things can get more lighthearted. After all, you can't really play characters like Hinako or Airi as being serious all the time. Might not be any hope for Kuze though.

 

[Jotamide]

Ha hahahahahahhahaha.

The breasts in DS2 were super fucking ridiculous. Like giant inflated balloons.

The anime seems to keep this nasty aesthetic, really bugs me. I watched the first two episodes and wasn't terribly impressed. This is coming from someone who liked the P4 Anime (which GAF seems to hate).

 

[cj_iwakura]

The anime seems to keep this nasty aesthetic, really bugs me. I watched the first two episodes and wasn't terribly impressed. This is coming from someone who liked the P4 Anime (which GAF seems to hate).

There's one character in particular who looks especially ridiculous because they stuck to the source material. A vest is all you need to survive a demon invasion apparently.

 

[NeonZ]

Also don't like how Io is being handled so far. She's certainly a shy character who doesn't assert herself very well, but she never really acts so helpless in the game. But hopefully that'll change going forward.

I don't think that's exclusive to her though. They also made Daichi pretty useless in the second episode. The anime original idea of making the main character fairly overpowered compared to everyone else really hurt both in the second episode. They had a good balance going in the first one though, so I hope this was just an isolated incident.

 

[duckroll]

Episode 3

Now this is more like it. Probably the best episode yet, but that's not really a high bar, lol. I found quite a few things in this episode surprising, and I liked the way they handled the fight. I'm really, really surprised that it looks like they're actually not going to do the perfect ending in the anime. This leaves a lot of possibilities open now... pretty... intriguing?

 

[7Th]

I actually want to watch this now.

Spoiler

As long as they don't kill the waifus...

 

[duckroll]

I actually want to watch this now.

Spoiler

As long as they don't kill the waifus...

Yes, I agree...

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

So good. I like that Hibiki is actually perceptive and assertive. His PTSD panicking, freeze-ups, and declarations of protection this episode suggest that things didn't go so well in his previous playthrough(s).

Everyone going "the hell is he talking about??" when Hotsuin pulled out the "it can't be helped, we'll have to use THAT" cliche was unintentionally hilarious.

Spoiler

I let Keita die, too. He will not be missed. Sorry, DTL.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Episode 3 – Monday of Upheaval - II

The character I was so hyped to see finally having extensive screentime was so worth it. Keita truly is one of the best characters and easily my favorite of the other ones. I still like Hibiki/Daichi alot though and Hotsuin is cool too oh and as always The Anguished One too, but Keita's personality and design is really wonderful and splendid. Best scene was when Hibiki thanked him, quite memorable. (Dachi's moments were great).

The music here is really good especially the Opening theme and then the pieces used in the episode, such as the huge battle was actually really well done, making it truly feel intense.

Spoiler

And even at the climax quite a despair there with everything going down.

Unfortunately I do have to question the anime writing and their competency in trying to tell an actually good story here as they made crucial and critical mistakes that have ultimately tarnished and marred the quality of story, making it slightly difficult to enjoy.

Spoiler

I wasnt just expecting this in the story called "Devil "Survivor"". I think the episode would have been far better if they had, still gone through the fake defeat and collapse of the firewall, but to at least have still had everyone living and such, then it wouldnt be a total loss. But a total loss and death, absolutely not. Thats just really bad and ungood writing. Of the characters available why did it have to be Keita. Why not Nitta, is not like she even did anything and no one even knows here name, look at the performance in the episode, she did nothing at all of significance and just got in the way. Keita ought to have survived instead of being a martyr, but at least he did something memorable and will forever live in my books, happily, with Hibiki. If Daichi dies...I just dont even want to imagine it.

 

[Alkolto]

Unfortunately I do have to question the anime writing and their competency in trying to tell an actually good story here as they made crucial and critical mistakes that have ultimately tarnished and marred the quality of story, making it slightly difficult to enjoy.

Spoiler

I wasnt just expecting this in the story called "Devil "Survivor"". I think the episode would have been far better if they had, still gone through the fake defeat and collapse of the firewall, but to at least have still had everyone living and such, then it wouldnt be a total loss. But a total loss and death, absolutely not. Thats just really bad and ungood writing. Of the characters available why did it have to be Keita. Why not Nitta, is not like she even did anything and no one even knows here name, look at the performance in the episode, she did nothing at all of significance and just got in the way. Keita ought to have survived instead of being a martyr, but at least he did something memorable and will forever live in my books, happily, with Hibiki. If Daichi dies...I just dont even want to imagine it.

I'm sorry, but what? How is

Spoiler

killing off a character

'bad writing'? Just because you didn't want it to happen doesn't mean it is bad writing. In fact, how it was implemented was actually really good writing.

Spoiler

When it comes to the death of a character, it has the most impact when the incident that causes their death feels completely avoidable, and the one little thing that goes wrong ends up leading to their demise. Keita's death not only seemed avoidable, since they had prevented death clips from happening in the past, but it also seemed like he had already been saved.

 

[Videoneon]

Episode 3: Monday of Upheaval II

I did not "knew this what would happen."

This episode was crazy. Everyone was blushing. Yamato used the "thing" and planned "stuff." MC is now Byakko!, that's all that matters. Io is....Io, I'm half amused and half annoyed by her. Daichi gets progressively cooler with each episode; I'm trying to think of a character in recent media who somewhat embraces their misfortune or fear and yet powers through it as much as a person his age can, with gusto. Hinako...I really don't care.

The depiction of Yamato here seems to be clearly villainous, or at least portrayed negatively, and to revisit an old point (referencing the anime's OP) it looks like he'll be set against AO in this series. AO's actions in this episode will be just the start of their fight, however abstract. This necessitates diminishing Ronaldo, which disappoints me, though not too much. I can understand how awkward it will be to give too much focus to Ronaldo and the People's Struggle given that the anime is trying to focus on something else entirely (

Spoiler

the demons, testing humanity via Septentrion, "previous" knowledge/the fact that past playthroughs are hinted at

) but it still sucks.

And then: the big thing.

Spoiler

I did not expect Keita to die. I'll hand it to the writers, they're showing a little more guts than I expected. The presence of the high Macca total was thought-provoking, but the execution of Keita's death (not so much the slow-motion pushing away of Byakko! but how it was initially a fake-out) was great. I don't like him all that much, but they give him a fairly noble death, especially compared to the game. They handled the character well for one episode.

I'm wondering how they'll pull off humor now that blood has been drawn. I can see it coming from Daichi, sincere but desperate, and Joe, who's removed from Keita's death. 3 episodes for one day is kinda pushing it too, considering whatever they have planned for the ending.

I actually want to watch this now.

Spoiler

As long as they don't kill the waifus...

That's the shitty thing.

Spoiler

Keita won't be the only one, and I don't think they'll only kill off guys. They'll probably follow the death clips from the game. Which exempts Airi....but doesn't exempt Otome =(

And seeing as how they probably want to spread out the deaths out across factions, I'm pretty sure they're going to kill her off. I don't expect a bloodbath, probably like 2-3 characters will die throughout the series, but still.

PLS don't kill Otome

 

[RedBoot]

Yeah, this was easily the strongest episode so far. Considering how "safe" last week's episode was, this was all the way on the other end of the spectrum.

Daichi is interesting here. He gets to be

Spoiler

comic relief (with his weak demons), cowardly (hiding when Io is in danger), and kind of cool (computer repair), all in one episode. He kind of runs the gamut in the game as well, so I guess this is accurate.

Io is still being portrayed as a bit useless, I'm hoping they're setting her up for redemption during

Spoiler

Operation Box.

Otherwise I'm a bit worried she's going to just whimper for the rest of the series.

But yeah, the big event of the episode.

Spoiler

Considering how much of the advertising and OP/ED of this show has been character-focused, killing off one of them in a single episode is nuts. They've got a nice bleak Megaten feel going now. Also, holy crap is the ED so much stronger now that there's a noticeable blank spot in the lineup. If they go slasher on us, there could be a lot of gaps in there.

 

[MikeDip]

Are they going to release dvds of this like they did for p4a?

 

[Soriku]

OH MY FUCKKKKKKKKKKKK

Spoiler

OH SHIT SON I wasn't expecting Keita's death AT ALL. At the end when the lightning came I thought he was going to still end up surviving, but nope, they killed him. Oh shit guys.Oh shit. And the characters thought he was saved. Oh shit.

I was actually half expecting Fumi to die too, but she's the smart one so they need her for story purposes.

No one is safe now. Now, Keita is arguably one of the most useless characters in the story, but goddamn man.

Just...well done episode. I can't wait to see how this ends up. The next Septentrion, Merak, looks insane.

10/10

 

[fertygo]

HOLY SHIT THEY

Spoiler

KILL KEITA

ARGDHOKHNJ,.L,N HJJBN

I don't have any plan to watch this, but WILL now.

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

I also meant to comment on how well done Botis(?) and the upcoming Septentrione were. They're both much creepier and more imposing than they were in the game.

Unfortunately I do have to question the anime writing and their competency in trying to tell an actually good story here as they made crucial and critical mistakes that have ultimately tarnished and marred the quality of story, making it slightly difficult to enjoy.

Spoiler

I wasnt just expecting this in the story called "Devil "Survivor"". I think the episode would have been far better if they had, still gone through the fake defeat and collapse of the firewall, but to at least have still had everyone living and such, then it wouldnt be a total loss. But a total loss and death, absolutely not. Thats just really bad and ungood writing. Of the characters available why did it have to be Keita. Why not Nitta, is not like she even did anything and no one even knows here name, look at the performance in the episode, she did nothing at all of significance and just got in the
way. Keita ought to have survived instead of being a martyr, but at least he did something memorable and will forever live in my books, happily, with Hibiki. If Daichi dies...I just dont even want to imagine it.

I am only moderately ashamed to say I was looking forward to this post. My expectations were well exceeded.

Spoiler

Keita won't be the only one, and I don't think they'll only kill off guys. They'll probably follow the death clips from the game. Which exempts Airi....but doesn't exempt Otome =(

But...but...

Spoiler

Otome ;_; And then Koharu will lose his parents twice! They can't do that!

 

[Kenai]

HOLY SHIT THEY

Spoiler

KILL KEITA

ARGDHOKHNJ,.L,N HJJBN

I don't have any plan to watch this, but WILL now.

Yea, I didn't see that coming either. It didn't even feel cheap. I was impressed. I'm definitely keeping this show on my radar.

 

[Dresden]

This is the first episode that I enjoyed. Will keep watching, I guess. They better not hurt my two prospective waifus, Airi and Otome.

 

[duckroll]

It's fun to see how this episode totally turned everyone around. I guess "expect the unexpected" is still something we value in shows after all.

I'm sure they won't hurt Airi. She's actually important to the plot, plus, if they hurt her I'm going to destroy the anime studio behind this! >_<

Makoto might be in danger though, so Sawashiro fans beware.

 

[Soma]

Makoto might be in danger though, so Sawashiro fans beware.

Damnit. I'm gonna have to keep up with this show after all...

 

[Soriku]

I don't remember Airi's

Spoiler

death face

. And I thought Otome's was kinda lame tbh.

But Makoto...if they actually follow the game and

Spoiler

show her getting shot by Ronaldo

...I'm not sure if some people will survive.

How they handle Io could be interesting too, though

Spoiler

I really doubt she'll die. If by some unholy miracle that she does...her death is probably the worst one :x

.

 

[Dedication Through Light]

Are they going to release dvds of this like they did for p4a?

Eventually, sentai filmworks licensed it for American english home media release.

 

[Weiss]

Just a (incredibly spoilery) thought...

Spoiler

Is it possible that this series is taking place in a previous cycle? If you take Daichi's route without recruiting everybody, it's implied that the story repeats itself. Now that Keita's dead, there's no way they'll take the Triumphant path, so maybe the anime is setting up for a time loop?

 

[Chrono Helix]

I thought ep 3 sucked. I was getting pretty bored by the whole "Oh no we're getting hacked!" bit in the first half, cos I don't think they sufficiently explained the consequences if they failed to repel the hackers, so I couldn't feel the tension. I didn't like how them were able to identify the hacker's location just by saying "He must be somewhere close!".

At the end of ep 2 we're told they're going to search for Fumi, so when they arrive at Osaka they meet Hinako and Keita. And then they show

Spoiler

Keita's death clip, but the audience would have only seen him in that one scene in the train station, which I feel is not enough time to develop an attachment to him so that the death clip would give you that sense of 'OH SHIT'. I'm surprised they killed him off, cos I was expecting they'd immediately go for the best ending, although I must admit I won't miss him.

And then when they discovered Fumi

Spoiler

being behind the hacking, and Makoto was immediately able to figure out that she was being brainwashed,

I think that sort of revelation is just too convenient.

 

[Samurai_Heart]

Gotta say didn't expect them to do that at the end of episode 3, hope it's not a fakeout...

 

[Deified Data]

HOLY SHIT THEY

Spoiler

KILL KEITA

ARGDHOKHNJ,.L,N HJJBN

I don't have any plan to watch this, but WILL now.

Spoiler

Keita

dying is pretty much canon for me. I never saved the little shit in the game, either.

 

[duckroll]

Spoiler

Keita

dying is pretty much canon for me. I never saved the little shit in the game, either.

Me too!

 

[SpeedySwaf]

I have the sinking feeling that they'll

Spoiler

kill Jungo off, and use his death to inspire Daichi to be braver/stronger. I like Jungo

 

[MikeDip]

Me too!

Same here.

 

[MikeDip]

Eventually, sentai filmworks licensed it for American english home media release.

Awesome, thank you!

 

[KO Traveling Hobo]

Based on the responses in this thread, I'm wondering if

Spoiler

Keita's real killer

was a popularity poll.