"Let's Survive"
Gonna revisit an anime from my blatherings yesterday, because the catharsis of today's episode was damn sweet and because I think I gave it short shrift. I try to do better, but I do still get self-conscious about what I like or don't like and go looking for permission what to think or say (I wasn't supposed to ditch Attack on Titan, was I...?), and I think I let myself fall into that with a show where I read "respectable opinion" as being that it's nothing special, but fuck that, I'm just gonna say it.
I really like the Devil Survivor 2 anime.
All the way back to the first episode, the narrative hook was nicely barbed, and the show delivered a good disaster story with texture, pathos, a nicely-balanced sense of danger, and enough cathartic supernatural triumph of hope for me to get goosebumps. The disaster story part faded into the background after the first few episodes (we're actually in Evangelion-like mission-control territory after the setup is all done) but gave way to interesting conflicts among the characters about how to cope --- do you bet on the power of hope or do you make pragmatic sacrifices? Who the hell are these people you've been thrown into battle alongside anyway --- who do you trust? If we get through this, what do you want to find on the other side?
These are thorny, interesting questions, which manage to lend their strength even when you'd think the characters standing for them (who currently seem to be the primary protagonist and antagonist) would flatten the issues. Admittedly, Hibiki is a pretty one-dimensional hero, although he has enough heroism and agency that someone watching would want to read themselves onto the blank space (the heroine of Amnesia he ain't). And admittedly, Yamato is a pretty one-dimensional villain; you know it's bad when you're hanging out with a Horseman of the Apocalypse and he's looking at you like "Damn, what a bastard; I need to find some better friends." Still, the fact that Hibiki and Yamato have to work on the same side at least for now makes even the simplistically-rendered conflict enjoyably thorny (it helps that Yamato is the only person at JPs who goes out of his way to be a bastard --- but seriously, dude, autocratic badass does not equal leadership; ignore your people's humanity callously enough for long enough and you'll pay the price, and ohh do we want to see him pay it).
And this show knows what it's about. Unlike Karneval and Gargantia, which I sometimes feel are rummaging around for crap to throw at me, DS2A has its conflicts set and just keeps pushing them further with escalating tension --- the monsters get bigger, the apocalypse gets so close you can literally see it looming on the horizon, and the humans' differences close in on the boiling point. Today's episode finally got us there on that last point; it's hard to deny that any sacrifice, however callous, is worth it to save the world, but you really want to see the power of hope win out, and suffice it to say that the catharsis was damn sweet. (I also liked the suggestion that it was an internal conflict on the part of the sacrifice, even if they didn't focus on the character development there as much as they could have).
I've never seen the game in action (I probably should buy it, but I'll get through the anime first), but I think the show also avoids a lot of the pitfalls of a video game adaptation quite nicely. It's not like you can't tell, what with the devil-summoning phone app and a character playing with the "devil auction" and the whole thing being structured around a series of boss fights, but said boss fights are just that: structure. The last couple of battles in particular haven't been played in a "video game boss fight" type way, they're approached with a plan, happen pretty quickly, and give play to the characters' conflict. (At first blush it seems ironic that the more dangerous monsters are going down faster, but on further thought it's an impressively un-game-ish nod to realism; the more dangerous ones are the best time to bring out the big guns and you can't afford to give them a chance.)
So yeah. Maybe it would be better with a controller in my hand, but gosh dangit, I say it's good already.
‡ original post at Dreamwidth ‡
I really like the Devil Survivor 2 anime.
All the way back to the first episode, the narrative hook was nicely barbed, and the show delivered a good disaster story with texture, pathos, a nicely-balanced sense of danger, and enough cathartic supernatural triumph of hope for me to get goosebumps. The disaster story part faded into the background after the first few episodes (we're actually in Evangelion-like mission-control territory after the setup is all done) but gave way to interesting conflicts among the characters about how to cope --- do you bet on the power of hope or do you make pragmatic sacrifices? Who the hell are these people you've been thrown into battle alongside anyway --- who do you trust? If we get through this, what do you want to find on the other side?
These are thorny, interesting questions, which manage to lend their strength even when you'd think the characters standing for them (who currently seem to be the primary protagonist and antagonist) would flatten the issues. Admittedly, Hibiki is a pretty one-dimensional hero, although he has enough heroism and agency that someone watching would want to read themselves onto the blank space (the heroine of Amnesia he ain't). And admittedly, Yamato is a pretty one-dimensional villain; you know it's bad when you're hanging out with a Horseman of the Apocalypse and he's looking at you like "Damn, what a bastard; I need to find some better friends." Still, the fact that Hibiki and Yamato have to work on the same side at least for now makes even the simplistically-rendered conflict enjoyably thorny (it helps that Yamato is the only person at JPs who goes out of his way to be a bastard --- but seriously, dude, autocratic badass does not equal leadership; ignore your people's humanity callously enough for long enough and you'll pay the price, and ohh do we want to see him pay it).
And this show knows what it's about. Unlike Karneval and Gargantia, which I sometimes feel are rummaging around for crap to throw at me, DS2A has its conflicts set and just keeps pushing them further with escalating tension --- the monsters get bigger, the apocalypse gets so close you can literally see it looming on the horizon, and the humans' differences close in on the boiling point. Today's episode finally got us there on that last point; it's hard to deny that any sacrifice, however callous, is worth it to save the world, but you really want to see the power of hope win out, and suffice it to say that the catharsis was damn sweet. (I also liked the suggestion that it was an internal conflict on the part of the sacrifice, even if they didn't focus on the character development there as much as they could have).
I've never seen the game in action (I probably should buy it, but I'll get through the anime first), but I think the show also avoids a lot of the pitfalls of a video game adaptation quite nicely. It's not like you can't tell, what with the devil-summoning phone app and a character playing with the "devil auction" and the whole thing being structured around a series of boss fights, but said boss fights are just that: structure. The last couple of battles in particular haven't been played in a "video game boss fight" type way, they're approached with a plan, happen pretty quickly, and give play to the characters' conflict. (At first blush it seems ironic that the more dangerous monsters are going down faster, but on further thought it's an impressively un-game-ish nod to realism; the more dangerous ones are the best time to bring out the big guns and you can't afford to give them a chance.)
So yeah. Maybe it would be better with a controller in my hand, but gosh dangit, I say it's good already.
‡ original post at Dreamwidth ‡