As the world comes closer to ending, it’s time for a little dinner.
What They Say:
Alcor, aka the Anguished One, has by now not only revealed his true nature, but made good on his pledge to give humanity the tools to fight for survival. As he adjusts to his new life among the others, Alioth, the fifth Septentrion, manifests in the area of Hokkaido.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With so many revelations going on in the series so far, bit by bit, it’s been interesting that it’s conveying so much detail overall within what is just a few days time since everything went to hell for Hibiki and his friends. Life has not gone well and as we saw previously, it’s on the cusp of being extinguished entirely with the view of the Void becoming clearer. When you see something like that, it definitely changes your view on things and suddenly having someone like Alcor show up in your room while you’re sleeping is less of a problem than you might think. Alcor’s nature is one that feels like it’s still hiding something significant, but he’s brought in some key bits and offers an intriguing role that doesn’t meddle but allows his presence to actively change events. Just in what he’s brought to the forefront for Hibiki has helped open up some possibilities.
There’s some really interesting bits of seemingly casual dialogue between the two of them that expands a bit when Daichi and Io show up as well, especially the light nature of things at times where Io points out that Alcor is actually floating. His response is spot on in its casual and light nature, but it helps to reinforce for Io and the others that he really isn’t human and there is something different about him. The character dynamics involving Alcor definitely lends itself to some interesting aspects since he has this otherworldly aspect and the nature of being an observer is a difficult one, even if he is perfectly attuned to it, as even the smallest of things he might reveal could alter the direction significantly.
Devil Survivor 2 may spend some good time on dialogue, but it also knows the enemy attacks are what’s critical for really drawing in people. And we get some good, if brief, material for that here that ratchets up the intensity level. What makes the whole thing more intense is the way that you know the end is near, but also the entire sequence that happens in Sapporo where one of the enemy, Alioth, ends up showing up and is ready to just crush the entire region flat out. It’s an intriguing aspect that comes to light, but the show manages to shift its attention in a different direction, one that ups the scale of events in a huge way, but sets it all around a casual dinner conversation about coming to meet with Polaris, the thing that apparently governs existence in a very big way. With the whole goal of the enemy to rewrite the world, it certainly makes sense, but the show has spiraled in so many ways as it’s progressed that the scale is off the charts and, while not hard to comprehend, feels so quickly forced that it doesn’t flow well.
In Summary:
Devil Survivor 2 started off strong for me but it’s shifted to such a huge canvas to tell its tale that it feels strangely too much, too overwhelming in some ways. There are some fascinating ideas mired within the show and it has a view of existence that is intriguing to see, and I love that they do focus on dialogue by and of itself rather than in the midst of a big action sequence, but the weekly pacing and structure of it has left me uncertain about what’s going on at points in time, at least as a cohesive story. While Hibiki’s role is big and outsized for an obvious reason, with it all moving so quickly within the larger timeframe of the series itself, his shift in personality is a little hard to believe and grasp, though you do hope people would step up in the way they need to like this. But it’s one of the main flaws in the show that colors everything.
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.