Opening Songs
OP 1 - Blade Of Hope (sweet ARMS)
Ending Songs
ED 1 - Still Sis (Kaori Sadohara)
Genre: Action, Romance, Supernatural
Episodes: 12
Harems after harems after harems! Here's another one, and regrettably, I think this might be the best one of the winter season. I. Shit. You. Not. After the likes of "Absolute Duo", "Seiken Tsukai No World Break" and "Unlimited Fafnir", "Shinmai Maou No Testament" is an amazing breath of fresh air. Albeit, its a very pervertic breath of fresh air, but you know, who cares, its boobies, its fan service, we've all seen this before. First off, its already rare to see harems nowadays get this...bold. "Shinmai Maou No Testament" is one of those harems that thrive on its fanservice to carry itself. If I were to compare "Testament" to a harem that's already currently one of the most popular ones out there, its EASILY "High School DXD". Both go all out with their fanservice segments, both manage to pull off these segments very well, and both still manage to portray a somewhat serious plot alongside good action scenes. Overall, I feel like "DxD" does the story and action scenes better, but "Testament" is very close behind, which is a good thing.
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| And of course, the heroine just had to be a busty, red-head school girl... |
Looks like Sweet ARMS is at it again. The opening theme to the anime is "Blade Of Hope" by Sweet ARMS, the wonderful people behind many great anime themes, with my favorite one being "Trust In You", "Date A Live II"'s opening theme. "Blade Of Hope" sounds a lot more orchestra based, and its certainly a good song with powerful vocals and an overall catchy beat. The ending theme, "Still Sis" by Kaori Sadohara, is...quite alright. It has a very fantasy-ish anisong feel, but its not very fast, catchy, or memorable. It quickly falls out of favor, but it isn't terrible by any means.
Rating: 7.5/10
I have a feeling "BURST" is going to be great and end up scoring higher, but for this first season, "Shinmai Maou No Testament" ends up being mostly entertaining. Season 1 is more or less a build-up to something more exciting in season 2, and honestly, for just a build-up, it managed to build up quite an impressive world. We've got the seperation of the human world and the demon world, with the demon world having some sort of internal struggle. There were also the heroes which did combat against the demons, their relationship was interesting enough for me to keep an eye out for the lore, especially with the hierarchy of the demons. Characters are mostly quite likable, with the occasional annoying main heroine, and the action scenes mostly well done. I say mostly, because things got a little lazy towards the end, but I'll look past it because the anime does have some good pacing, something that many similar animes fail at these days. Fan service is top notch, it holds nothing back, and is at least "DxD" levels of porn, though you'll have to wait for the uncensored episodes to pop out (for the censored versions you just see tons of white). All in all, its a solid package that loses some steam towards the end, but manages to already build some solid ground work before the second season.
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| Yeah...this looks really appropriate, am I right? |
Tojou Basara lives with his father, Tojou Jin, alone for almost his entire life. Suddenly one day, Jin decides to adopt two daughters into the family, with the intend of marrying another woman. These girls are Naruse Mio and Maria, Mio is a busty high schooler while Maria is a snobbish elementary school girl. When they settled under one roof with Basara as the elder brother, Jin suddenly had to leave for work, leaving Basara alone with the 2 girls. Very quickly, the 2 girls try to drive Basara out of the house, and are revealed to be demons. However, Basara was going to have none of that, he unleashed his inner hero powers and fended them off. Quickly revealing his true identity, he easily drew the 2 demon girls out. After confirming with his father, the most power hero to have ever lived, that he adopted the 2 girls with all intentions of saving them, Basara goes after them, only to find them being attacked by rogue demons. Basara saves them and invites them back to the house, saying that as an elder brother, he would look out for them. Accepting his kind offer, Mio and Maria, the demons, would stay together with Basara, a hero, to avoid the forces of the current demon lord.
"Shinmai Maou No Testament" is easily one of the better harem offerings that the industry has to offer in quite a while. If you need your "High School DxD" fix, then "Testament" does the job quite well and fills up that need quite easily with its solid fan service and mostly interesting lore. There's quite a lot more to "Testament" than you'd think other than just boobies, and it does a good job overall. But lets be serious, we'll all just wait for the inevitable uncensored episodes to come out and...slowly research them, yes.
Peace.
