Testament of Sister New Devil Review

by Maximillian Ringgenberg | March 30, 2015 10:00 am

Winter anime season is closing down, and it was pretty jam packed. This season had a lot of new comers, like Testament of Sister New Devil. This series was derived from a series of light novels and manga by Tetsuto Uesu. The series focuses on it’s protagonist Basara Tojo as his father is going to get remarried and now he is going to have two adorable new sisters, Mio and Maria.  Sounds simple right? Things quickly escalate when we learn that Maria is in fact a succubus and Mio is the heir to the great demon lord who just passed away. We also learn that Basara is from “The Village of Heroes” and is supposedly a bad ass…….This all happens in the course of one episode. So where can the series go from when it just kind of drops it all on the floor?

 

There’s now way my sister is the new demon lord!

After a crazy first episode, it’s hard to imagine the series would have a terrible amount of substance considering the premise is not entirely original which is true in some parts. The story is kinda bare bones, enough to stand but not not all that flexible. So where’s the meat? The meat comes from the action scenes…..of the combat and the perverted kind. This series thrives on it’s fan service moments, and it doesn’t hold back either.  The very first scene in the show opens up with Basara accidentally walking in on a woman in the bathroom and things take a turn for the really awkward. Things get more steamy (literally and figuratively) as the story progresses and the characters become better acquainted. I found that I liked the characters, they all get a nice bit of development but I feel like they’re holding a lot back. Each character definitely brings something to the group. Basara is the typical large sword wielder, Mio is a sorcerer, Maria is a succubus with super strength etc. Everyone gets a moment to shine which is nice considering they seem to be really outmatched at times. The level of intimacy the characters also do heat up fairly quickly.  Fair warning to those who cannot stand fan service: It get’s to hentai levels. I’m usually fine with fan service but there were sometimes I prayed that no one else would enter the room. On the polar opposite side of things, there’s the battles that take place. I don’t really have a lot to add here truth be told. The action scenes are well thought out and kept my interest, but I was never really “wowed”. At Least everything looks nice.

 

I want to look stylish with my little sisters!

The art is where things are probably at their peak. The animation was handled by Production Ims, and their work here is pretty good. A lot of shows don’t use diverse color pallets any more so the visuals get a bonus point added for that. The animation itself transitions smoothly and is fairly easy on the eyes. I did notice once or twice a very minor drop in the quality, but they were so minor I only caught them because I was looking for them. The battle scenes and the ecchi moments both get an equal dose of love when it came to the animation. If you’re seeking either in this series you should be fairly happy with it. There are some moments that go so far they have to full on CENSOR what’s onscreen because it’s practically porn.

The barely audible clash of wills

Despite having nice animation, the sound work in the show is disappointing. I feel the sound work done for various parts isn’t handled all that well. There were times when I felt the sound effects were kind of quite given the context of the noise. It seems like simple audio mixing would be able to avoid this. I did not, however, have a hard time hearing the voice actors. I was very thankful for this because the voice cast is pretty darn good considering the script they have to work with, it made me groan more than a few times. The composing is also middle ground. Composing was done by Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Cross, Xenogears). The score has some nice quiet moments and the more intense scenes were alright, but nothing that would warrant a download, maybe a listen on youtube. which is kinda sad considering how high quality some of his previous works were. And Lastly…The opening and ending songs.  The opening was “Blade of Hope” by sweet ARMs. Blade of Hope has a nice rock groove to it and is pretty appropriate considering the tone of the show. I will also say that “Still Sis” by Kaori Sadohara is nice but not especially ground breaking.

Source URL: https://www.confreaksandgeeks.com/testament-sister-new-devil-review/

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