Friday 31 May 2013

Devil Survivor 2: The Animation - Episode 9

Now that Alcor has showed his hand and revealed his relation to the Septentrion, it is perhaps fortuitous that he's decided to stick around to watch the progress of our group of human survivors, and in particular Hibiki.

If nothing else, it seems as if Alcor is rather taken with Hibiki, to the point of championing him to "do the right thing" in the struggles to come; a stark contrast to his disappointment in Yamato and the decisions that he's made up to this point.  Making the right choice is clearly the theme of the week here, and the pressure to do just that is only going to get greater henceforth.


As if to illustrate this, another Septentrion attack means that we return to battle stations once again, with Airi and Hinako chosen as the best suited to stand at the forefront of this particular face-off against a stratospheric, airborne Septentrion.  In comparison to previous skirmishes, taking out the enemy in question seems shockingly simple, and lo and behold it also proves to be deceptively simple - yes, defeating the Septentrion is simple, but preventing it from crashing down on Sapporo and the massive death toll which doubtless results from this is another matter entirely.  Is this further evidence of Yamato's selfishness, or was the decision made for the greater good?  As he lays down the facts of how things will progress a few short days from now, Yamato certainly isn't shy of laying his philosophy on the table.

After all of those Persona 4 comparisons early in the series, this week's Devil Survivor 2 felt more like Neon Genesis Evangelion Super-Lite, with an Angel-esque enemy dropping from the sky, the fallout of said enemy's drop from a great height, and all sorts of talk about the future of humanity and the diverging paths and choices that mankind must decide between to survive and prosper.  Of course, this series isn't Evangelion - it doesn't even come close - but I am continuing to enjoy what the show is trying to do, and to at least some extent it's succeeding even if it's having to squeeze a lot of content in tightly.

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