What They Say:
Ronaldo and Yamato reach an uneasy truce and decide to work together. Faced with imminent attack from the Septentrion Megrez, they divide protection of Nagoya, Osaka and Tokyo between themselves and Hibiki.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the series having introduced a few different elements so far, it has felt like to some degree that we haven’t had quite the focus on Hibiki that we need, never mind Daichi and io. But as we saw before with the arrival of Yamato, things can change significantly with the introduction of a new character and the way it can ricochet off of others. This is in particular with what Hibiki wants to do in terms of the right thing, and that means working with him and getting Ronaldo to do the same. With the idea that the world will be ending in a few days because of what the Septentrion is up to, it certainly makes sense. But there are those lingering grudges and the like that will always cause some amount of trouble with what needs to be done.
Of course, a lot has happened in the four days that the series has taken place so far and it’s amusing to see just how highly ranked Hibiki has become. While there’s no actual ranking per se, that he’s in this position to help settle things and establish what needs to be done certainly is a testament to his power and influence, though he may not realize it. Bringing together this group into a truce and accepting it fits with the kind of thinking he has as he grasps more of what’s going on in the world, and it is rather cute in a way that they end up divvying up the areas in order to provide the defense that’s needed. It’s not easily come to in some ways, and there’s distrust to be had there, especially when they have to deal with the arrival of another person who goes by the name of Alcor, the Anguised One.
Alcor brings a few nuggets to the table with his casual manner, including the fact that he was the one who gave Hibiki and the others their Summoning app, since they’d be defenseless otherwise. Adding in the whole Nicaea site creation as well, it’s all been towards his goal to create what Hibiki has become, which makes Alcor even less trustworthy as his game is certainly his own. This has a lot of good moments to it, and it provides for the more serious side of the episode since a lot of the second half wants to go for more lighthearted stuff as they all need to get a checkup after everything that’s happened. This does allow for some bonding to happen, and a reminder of how good of friends that Hibiki and Daichi are, which is welcome to see. We also get to see Io figure into things a bit more as well and that definitely helps.
In Summary:
Devil Survivor 2 has an odd flow to it in this episode, though it definitely needed to do what it did here. The first half is largely serious stuff that begins to setup how things will be divided up in defense of what’s coming for all of them. There’s some good revelations made here and it’s not a surprise to see Hibiki at the center of it all, though at least there’s a bit of a reason why given here. The second half goes for the lighter character material that’s definitely welcome here even if it feels like an odd shift after how the first half goes. The lightness and the reminder of what kind of friends that Daichi and Hibiki are is definitely good and fun to watch, especially as Io gets dragged into it a bit in a cutely awkward way.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
