Anime: Shinmai Maou no Testament Burst 522b56

Testament ended with a pretty interesting scene with Basara's dad kicking butt in demon world, and this sequel starts right off where the last season ended. Basically, after a brief incident at school, the gang is asked by the moderate demon faction to head to demon world; at this point virtually all my High School DxD flags are going off. Mio is forced to face her past, and travel to demon world, the exact place that she had been on the run from her whole life. Will her friends be enough to safely get her back?

The sequel to Testament is more of everything that doesn't matter. You get more harem , more time in demon world, more "complete" transformations for Basara, more throwaway antagonists, and more ecchi. Though it's still filled with action and ecchi, it's grown in a way that's just overkill. If you liked the original then this should be a pretty easy follow on. Just know that this season introduces more questions than answers.

Animation:
Given that the last season wasn't that long ago, the animation quality here is pretty much on par with that. I was going to give a tad of creativity points for demon world but then swiftly rescinded those points at the sight of abhorrent giants. I do think the budget must have been a bit on the tight side as there were more simple zoomed and panned frames than I normally see in a show. All the characters are pretty much as you them from last season, overall above average in character design but not so much for facial animation.

Like the last season, expect a large amount of action in the show- probably on par with the amount in the last season. In general, expect the fights to seem more grand as everyone essentially levels up. That said, the collateral damage to the environments is average at best. There is a fair amount of bleeding and a slight amount of gore though they gloss over or otherwise torn away when someone actually is terminated. The producers obviously thought the show was still lacking diversity in the fetish department; thus, the harem is now expanded to appeal to those with dark skin or armpit fetishes. Purists should still be adequately cared for with plenty of traditional groping, fondling, and censoring (I assume Blu-ray would just be a ton of nudity). For some reason, everyone in the demon world seems to prepare for fights by vigorously engaging with sexual partners. In any case, this show has over the top ecchi that, like the prequel, amounts to soft core porn.

Sound:
The show opens with a rock-based OP that is purposely made for the show; it has a fair melody but nothing particularly memorable. The ED is likewise pretty fast-paced and likewise nothing special. The show recycles the BGM from the previous season though uses certain tracks a lot more; I kind of liked that as it gave the show more of a consistent theme.

Most of the main VA cast returns for Burst though some now have expanded roles. Ayaka Asai continues to do well as Mio though Yuu Asakawa does an excellent job in her expanded role as the school nurse. Likewise, I'm still trying to figure out how Kikuko Inoue can voice such a playful character at her age. The antagonists don't fare as well as they are too numerous and generic both in voice and character.

Story:
Burst expands Testament in almost exactly the same way as the sequels to DxD expanded that franchise. There are now additional races in addition to demons and heroes to track and now they've expanded into the actual demon world. As with most sequels in the action-based ecchi genre, they've expanding the number of harem and levels of both protagonists and antagonists. Though the execution is still pretty good with well-integrated plot progression and character development, certain parts of the story were just too cliche for my taste this time around.

Despite the expansion of the setting, many of the plot elements are recycled patterns from the prequel. For instance, Basara still gets nearly killed repeatedly and Mio again goes into berserk mode repeatedly. Likewise, plot elements are again hidden only to be explained after the fact.

The short season can be divided into two discrete arcs. The first short ark expands upon our aggressive nurse's true identity and also hints that Basara's ridiculous injury recovery ability isn't just a fluke. The second longer main arc takes everyone to demon world to engage in a ... wait for it ... tournament. Yep, ouch, that's the best that they can come up with, straight out of the books of DxD. What really kills this arc for me is the repeated fake climaxes and throw-away nature of the antagonists. Even Zolgia from last season feels like a well-developed character compared to the plethora of antagonists here. When you do eventually get to the "true" climax, it's like having gone on a roller coaster twenty times; by the n+1th trip you just stop caring. It doesn't particularly help that it feels anticlimactic and open ended. It further irritates me that many questions are again left unanswered- they just leave you with a final ecchi scene to get you to forget their incomplete story writing. At this rate, we won't learn of Basara's true roots until season 5, which might be never.

Character:
There is definitely a lot of character development in this sequel, though with all the wrong people. If you're looking for Mio, Maria, and Yuki to grow, forget it. The attention, harem-wise, shifts to attention-hungry Kurumi and extra-busty Zest. Furthermore, they expand upon Basara's father's seemingly unlimited power as well as some in the demon world. On top of all this, our nurse is developed along with a pointless vampire trap. Unless they're going for a sequel again, there's a lot of development that hasn't actually paid off in plot yet.

As mentioned above, all the antagonists other than the demon lord are pretty much junk characters; given the amount of development time for them, you pretty much know that they're just fodder. If not for the demon lord's elder sister, the entire antagonist camp would have been an absolute disaster.

Value:
While still entertaining in both action and ecchi, Burst (ironically given the title) loses some of the momentum of the original story, being tied up in explaining a ballooning setting. This addition puts the show much more closely in direct competition and parity with DxD, which happens to be a much more mature franchise. Though the characters in Burst are still among the better drawn, the interactions feel less compelling and the story less engaging. We can only hope that the next season, if there is one, brings back the core focus of the franchise.