Nooo! Get her out of there!

“6th Day – Friday of Farewells”

Oh man, we’re back for another exciting episode of Devil Survivor 2.  This week, the episode focuses on the events of Io’s sacrifice in order to stop the sixth Septentrione, Mizar.  We start off with Io despairing over the inevitability of her demise and then suddenly jump to a comedic scene with Alcor making breakfast for everyone.  Throughout this scene, it’s clear that Io is still fretting about the future and wishes to keep it a secret from her friends.  Of course, everyone finds out about Hotsuin’s plans to sacrifice Io as soon as the mission starts.  As Mizar has the ability to infinitely multiply, Hotsuin plans to use Io as a surrogate for Lugh, a god with enough power to activate a dragon that can rapidly eat Mizar.  Every party member begins panicking over the situation, while Hibiki decides to boldly dash out on Byakko in order to save his close friend.

This thing puts the Hungry Hungry Hippos to shame.

The Septentrione is ended in no time due to the crazy hungry dragon (apparently named Shakko), but the situation worsens when Lugh fully possesses Io’s body.  At this point, Lugh goes berserk and attacks everything, including Hibiki who had just arrived.  Hibiki is informed that Io’s mind has been completely overwhelmed by Lugh and is practically dead.  Not wanting to accept such a thing, he continues to call out for Io and is promptly tossed aside by Lugh.  Hotsuin luckily arrives on the scene and saves him, but Lugh becomes enraged due to being imprisoned and used by the Hotsuin family.  The situation reaches the danger zone with Lugh unleashing a final attack to kill Hotsuin, but Hibiki miraculously uses the magical powers of Ryumyaku (the magic previously thought to be exclusive to Hotsuin) to stop the attack.  It appears that Shakko has chosen to support Hibiki and grants him the power to stop Lugh.  In a cheesy, but somewhat touching scene, Io somehow returns and is convinced by Hibiki to live on.  The two embrace, but are cut short when Hibiki starts puking up blood and the two begin to fall.  Hotsuin saves them, but makes it very clear that he doesn’t give a shit about Hibiki being half-dead so long as he can continue being a tool.  Io then boldly declares that she will not follow Hotsuin and will stick with Hibiki before the episode ends.

Awwwww. T-T

Overall, I liked this episode quite a bit due to the character expressions and the good execution of the events involving Io and Hibiki.  In the game, the only way to save Io is to have a high enough “social link” with her and to talk to her before the sacrifice ritual.  The way the anime implemented it was much more streamlined and reasonable, as the others clearly had no idea what was going on and had to struggle to save Io.  I was surprised by the method in which was chosen for Hibiki to save Io, as it emphasizes how Hibiki and Hotsuin are similar in terms of power.  This episode has to be a delight for fans who support Hibiki x Io, as it definitely was for me.  It seems the anime is quickly coming to an end and I am excited for what kind of conclusion will occur.  My only problems with this adaptation so far are some minor pacing issues and the senseless removal of three important party members. Seriously, Keita’s death was reasonable as it set the dark tone of the anime, but killing the other three was pointless and seemed to be a means of having fewer characters to develop/deal with.  Regardless, I still consider this anime to be pretty cool and like the Hibiki x Io support.  Until next week, “Let’s survive.”

I did not see this coming.