Nothing says fun like stowing away to Nagoya.

What They Say:
At JP’s Tokyo Branch, Prof. Kanno works to rebuild their Terminal technology from scratch as the threat of renewed Septentrion attack looms. Elsewhere, Io and Daichi arrive in Nagoya in search of Hibiki, and soon find themselves drawn into the band of insurgents that has recently waged war against JP’s.

The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With some decent emotional content in the last couple of episodes and the fact that they’re making it clear that characters can and will be killed, Devil survivor 2 has certainly upped the ante. Change is something that should regularly be afoot here and it’s kept to a fairly serious tone. But it also knows how to have a little fun and lighten the moment, such as the start of the episode here as a new operation is getting underway and we see that Nita and Daichi have stowed away on the train in order to tag along and do what they can to help Hibiki. It’s given a light tone even though it’s a darker atmosphere piece and that kind of blending can be hard to pull off sometimes. But they do it right here and it makes you grin and eases you into the more serious material that’s about to hit.

With Hibiki having gone off the grid in Nagoya and nobody quite sure where he is, there’s some minor background pieces for the JPs brought into play, but it feels like it’s a moment where it’s useful but will make more sense later on. A good portion of the episode follows the journey that Daichi and Nitta are on in order to find Hibiki and they run across some interesting things along the way, especially when the people that they find that they believe are insurgents are pretty much normal folks that are trying to help others. It’s amusing as it progresses though as there’s a moment where they have to use their powers and it’s something that Daichi again remembers that he’s not all that great at, but works well enough along with Nitta. This throws everything into a tailspin for them since it reveals themselves to the others as being Summoners, and that’s not particularly the best thing to have happen.

With Hibiki having been drawn into something different now, we get some additional scenes that showcase the way he’s seemingly gone into that direction more so, but it has him not coming across as himself. The outfit he’s wearing doesn’t help either of course. Hibiki’s time with this group and his growing understanding of what’s going on is interesting, but it’s something that feels like it’s being expanded on and executed in an awkward way, not coming across clear enough in a way. Of course, it does and doesn’t help that in the midst of it all, we get a flashback scene to twelve years prior to try and flesh things out a bit more and that can go only so far in a way. With our three main characters being in their mid teens, they have no function in it. But we get a look at some of the earlier defining moments of events that definitely makes things feel just a touch grander and longer in terms of scale of plans.

In Summary:
While Devil Survivor 2 started off strong for me overall with what it was doing, it’s weakened bit by bit as it’s progressed. It’s doing a number of things in different places but hasn’t felt like it has a strong central narrative to work with at the moment. It’s good to see an ensemble cast at work here, but with the way it moves around and hasn’t given too many of them enough definition or sense of character presence, it lacks the needed voice to really drive it through in a really engaging way, at least on a week by week basis. This episode moves a few things around and hits more at what’s to come, providing some minor action here and there and a bit of a flashback to try and expand the scope of it. But it also largely keeps the three main characters to secondary roles at best, which doesn’t work to its advantage.

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.