Devil Survivor 2: The Animation - Episode 2

Never mind all of the demons and stuff, this week's episode of Devil Survivor 2 is called "Monday of upheaval" - I'm pretty sure we all know how that feels.

Anyhow, having survived the strange attacks that have caused chaos across Japan, our trio of friends (well, two friends and random classmate who happens to be a busty, cute girl) find themselves effectively under arrest by the Japan Meteorological Society (or JPs for short).  Rather than the kids themselves, it's their cell phones which are the real item of interest thanks to their procurement of the demon summoning app which saved their lives - a technology similar to that available to JPs, yet far more advanced than anything they can conjure up in their Orwellian basement lair underneath the Diet building.

Thanks to Hibiki's summoning of the powerful demon Byakko, he also becomes an item of interest to JP as they look to the power at his command to help defeat the demons known as Septentrion currently rampaging across the country - a battle that would involve the small issue of defeating six major level enemies in six days to prevent the entire world "disappearing".  Being a high school student and all that, Hibiki is rather luke-warm to the whole idea, although a demon encounter at an emergency evacuation shelter changes the outlook of both him and his friends in relatively short order.

With another reasonably swift episode under its belt, Devil Survivor 2: The Animation continues to feel pretty accomplished, putting in the effort when it comes to some on-screen action when required while pouring out just the right amount of exposition for us to be completely up to speed with what's going on, leaving us free to enjoy the rest of the series moving forward.  My only real worry here is the show's cast of characters - compare it (as you invariably will) to Persona 4: The Animation and there's a striking difference here between the instantly likable cast of that show and the rather bland individuals within this one so far.  Hopefully this is something that'll change as we move forward, as the series may begin to struggle if it can't call upon us to empathise or cheer on its characters as we enter the real meat of the show.