Yesterday I watched the twelfth, and final, episode of the animated adaptation of the Shin Megami Tensei spin-off video game "Devil Survivor 2" (which, at the time of this posting, I've still haven't beaten yet)...
WARNING: FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN THE ENTIRE SERIES YET SPOILER ALERT!
Click the link below if you still wish to continue.
...and after Hibiki Kuze wins the fight against Yamato Hotsuin and Polaris remakes the world, several times I was worried that the anime would go for (what I refer to as) Daichi's Reset Ending. Where Polaris rewinds time back to just before the Septentriones attack, in other words an example of the opposite of Story and Game play Segregation otherwise know as "Story and Game play Integration" applied to the concept of a New Game Plus.
So when scenes very similar (if not identical) to the beginning of the series showed up, I was worried. When Daichi first brings up the topic of Nicaea, I was indeed worried about if that meant the Septentriones would attack, but I noticed that the icon and title looked different; but that didn't dispel my fears just yet. Daichi then takes a picture of Hibiki for his copy of Nicaea...and it looks cartoonish and silly, fear still not quelled yet. Hibiki and Daichi meet Io, then Daichi gets a 'Dead Face Clip' from Nicaea...and it's just a silly animation of Hibiki getting hit by a truck, even then I'm still a bit worried. Then the subway train is arriving (and I'm thinking "Still backing away, just in case")...and nothing bad happens, it's only then that I'm assured that this isn't Daichi's Reset Ending. The rest of the episode confirms that the anime went with Daichi's True Ending, which is like the Reset Ending; except the Septentriones do NOT attack and everyone lives...happily ever after.
In general, Devil Survivor 2: The Animation, like the last adaptation of a MegaTen game "Persona 4: The Animation" is, in my opinion of course, is very well made. Most interesting is the standard ending theme, at first it seems normal 'till the first character death (Keita, by getting caught by an explosion; BTW, if you're curious) that we, the (commenting) audience (at least) notices that any character that dies that episode is no longer seen in the ending theme. So, by Episode 11, when everyone except Yamato and Hibiki are dead in some fashion. As mentioned before, Keita by explosion. But most of the characters in this series died due to an explosion (even if Alcor's was self-inflicted), the exceptions are Fumi (disintegrated by the seventh septentrione's laser) and Makoto (impaled by Alcor's metal 'tentacles' acting as a meat shield to protect Yamato). So to see that much empty space during the ending theme of episode 11 was sad and depressing. In contrast, the ending of the final episode (where everyone's alive again) was happy and uplifting.
TL;DR: Through the ups and downs of this anime, in the end, I liked it.
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