Well, Devil Survivor 2 is over now. That was a very standard cookbook ending, and only a few things happened that were really worth commenting on.

The final battle between Hibiki and Yamato ended up being more or less an excuse to wax existential on points like friendship and the meaning of life they had already covered earlier in the show. The ten seconds at the beginning with the scrolling text frankly did a better job debating the concept in a meaningful way.

Something the show really did need more of

Having friends’ demons show up to save the day would have made more sense if there had been some explanation of the details of the app prior to this. As it stands, it felt like the old tired battle series cliche of random new powers saving the day. Not to mention the whole fusion thing. Even if this anime is targeted primarily at fans of the game, more explanation than what we got was still warranted.

Near as I can tell, the point of the ending was that Hibiki eventually changed Yamato’s point of view on things. Not particularly meaningful or exciting, nor particularly influential score-wise. Let’s just get to the breakdowns so the Summer 2013 Thursday hype train can get going.

Final Scores:

Character Designs: 1/1 (Expressive enough for what they were called upon to do.)

Soundtrack: 1/2 (Wasn’t awful, but got repetitive as the series went on.)

Writing: 2/3 (Some moments where characters felt somewhat organic, but mainly very story-advancement focused with a mediocre plot.)

Direction: 2/4 (Action was generally watchable, but moments with characters conversing mostly failed to be compelling and never really felt like it was naturally flowing.)

Overall: 6/10 (Had some good episodes, but not a show I’d recommend if asked.)