Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Welcome to the second week of the Fanservice arc where next up on the chopping block is Shinmai Maou no Testament Burst aka season 2. Despite the anime making a lot of mistakes and receiving a subpar score the last time I reviewed it this is a series that I really like. Created by Tetsuto Uesu the same guy who wrote Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero, Shinmai Maou no Testament is in my opinion one of the better fanservice animes out there. It has a good plot, good story, well-written characters, and good fanservice. So when it was announced that a second season would begin a few months after the first season I was excited to see what would happen next. Let’s return to our favorite hero and his demon lord of a sister and check out Burst.
Opening and Ending Theme
The opening is “Over The Testament” Metamorphose. It’s okay I guess. I didn’t find myself caring for it all that much and would usually pay more attention to the visuals than the actual song. I think I prefer the first opening over this one. The ending is “Temperature” by Dual Flare and I have to admit this opening was good. I enjoyed this song more than I thought I would. The song is like a cry out of the characters wanting to protect each other because they’re a family who really value the bonds they share with one another which I like because they show it constantly in the anime.
Episodes 1-5
The anime starts where the final episode from the first season left off. Jin is taking on the current demon lord named Leohart where we see he’s a strong fighter whose skills are on par with a demon lord (well if the son’s a badass it’s only normal for the father to be a badass). Their fight gets interrupted by other demons and Jin escapes but not before rescuing an unconscious demon boy who looks like a trap. We then return to our main characters with Mio waking up from a dirty dream involving her and Basara (I normally don’t say this but please for the love of God bang your step-brother). After that they go to school which is getting ready for the sports festival. We see that Basara is serving on the committee and has become friends with a trap character of his own named Tachibana who has a weak body and thus can’t participate in the sports (he’s also a demon. Kind of obvious). The two hear commotion from one of the students serving on the committee who wants more fireworks and when he doesn’t get what he wants he throws a punch at a girl but Basara stops him (and the teacher was right there in the room. Fire this guy). Just before Basara can layeth the smack down on his candy ass Chisato comes in and with the help of Tachibana’s powers gains control of the situation and leads the boys away (follow the hot nurse and get your lollipop). After they leave the teacher pulls Basara to the side and warns him to be wary of Chisato (easier said than done. Have you seen that body!?). While Basara is handling committee stuff Mio and Yuki walk home where they run into Yahiro who’s heading back to the demon world but tells the girls that they should get stronger for Basara’s sake in case his powers were to go out of control. They take his words to heart and go to talk to Maria (oh God here comes the fanservice). Back with Basara after he gets done with his committee stuff he tries to take the train home but gets trapped in a barrier and is about to get attacked by a bunch of possessed people (you~ have too many girls~ in your harem~. So~ jealous~). He gets saved by Kurumi who was sent to be a second observer from the Hero Clan and they return home where Mio and Yuki are waiting to service Basara (hey you guys aren’t getting a nosebleed. (Baron): Yep, we’ve done some special training for this day. We won’t lose this time). After their fanservice Kurumi gets into an argument about maturity with Maria so Maria does a succubus baptism on Kurumi to put her in a state of ecstasy in hopes of helping Kurumi understand their situation. This means Basara has to make her submit to him and Yuki helps where we skip over that scene. After that everyone goes to sleep with Basara thinking that Chisato might have been the one who attacked him in the train station.
In episode 2 it’s the sports festival and Basara and the others are keeping their eyes peeled for anything suspicious (Corbin: I already found one, the hot nurse isn’t wearing bloomers. What’s up with that?). Through about half the episode everything seems to be going good. Nothing bad has happened; Basara, Mio, Yuki win the four-legged race where Basara got used as strip pole for them to use (lucky him), and we get one of Maria’s sexy daydreams (all and all everything is normal). That is until one of the students get possessed and attacks the school with sandstorms. Kurumi takes out the student but gets captured from an unknown perpetrator (oh no it’s stranger danger). Basara takes on Tachibana who we find out is a vampire who just wants to live a quiet and peaceful life and now thinks Basara is here to kill him. Basara manages to beat him and runs into Chisato who we see has magical powers herself (I always knew there was something special about you. Besides the amazing body). Basara gets saved by a freelance exorcist posing as a teacher for the school who claims to be a friend of Jin sent to keep an eye on Basara and the others (yeah I call bullshit on that. Jin would have told Basara about this guy. Their relationship is way too solid for Jin to leave Basara in the dark like that). Basara sees through the lie and the teacher reveals himself to be the god Ornis (well we fought devils last season so why not the gods themselves?). He reveals he has Kurumi forcing Basara to stand down and we end the episode with Basara getting his arm cut off.
In the opening moments of episode 3 Basara regenerates his arm (well so much for that suspense) and then enters this uncontrollable mode which has got even Ornis scared (what kind of training did your father put you through?). Just before Basara can unleash his wrath he gets stopped by Chisato who we find out is a high ranking god who seems to be friends with Basara’s mom from the past (Corbin: Woah Jin did it with a goddess? Damn~ no wonder Basara be pimpin’). She came down from the heavens to watch after Basara and can only release her true powers when she wants to protect him. Since Ornis was trying to kill Basara in order to get Chisato to return to Heaven which resulted in Basara pointing his sword at her she’s rightfully pissed at Ornis for what he’s done and kills him (you’re teacher’s an overpowered beauty Basara). She then turns her attention to Basara where she enters his mind and allows him still in his rampage mood to have sex with her (Nitsuj and the Jack Bros.: Lucky bastard). After that she alters his memories a little so he forgets about the stuff that just happened (at least let him remember the mental sex. You owe him that much) but he does remember the stuff about Tachibana being a vampire but tells him he has no intention of hurting him at all. After the festival while Basara is relaxing in the bath he receives a visit from the girls (alright let’s see which one of the Jack Bros. gets a nosebleed first. Place your bets now). But before the sex play can begin (Jack Bros.: FUCK) it gets interrupted by Rukia the older sister of Maria who has come to take everyone away to the demon realm to decide if Maria will be taken off of house arrest (sure just give Basara 5-10 minutes to take care of some personal business). As they set a date and prepare for their trip we see that there’s a bit of separation in the demon realm between the council led by Remsus who is Mio’s uncle and Rukia’s master and current demon lord Leohart (well he did kill Remsus’s brother so it’s understandable why there’s a bit of tension between them). The date of their departure occurs sometime in December and they head out into the unknown.
In episode 4 the group arrives in the underworld at Remsus mansion where they’re greeted by Rukia (huh? Never imagined the underworld would so blue, peaceful, quiet, and medieval. (Corbin): What were you expecting? (Nitsuj): I always imagined the underworld as a dark and chaotic place where demons run wild. A place where there are no rules and anarchy reigns throughout the region. (Baron): Nope. It’s pretty peaceful. But your idea of the underworld perfectly describes the Principality of Jack on Halloween Night). They get taken to their room which looks like something setup for kids at a summer camp (bunkbeds, one window, dusty, and small) where they get bought snacks and tea from Zest who is working as a maid for Maria’s mom Shella. Maria secretly goes to Rukia’s room to receive her punishment for betraying the others last season but Basara stops her saying that he and the others forgive her but Rukia still says she needs to be punished so Basara says he’ll do it (make her not do anything perverted for one whole month). His punishment is spanking her while she’s in a state of ecstasy. Kurumi also gets punished for spying on them (bad little girls get punished). After that Basara returns to the room where they meet Claus the strategist of Wilbert. He takes them out of the room to a more accommodating room where along the way they run into a few of the citizens who cheer for Mio (well his plan is easy to figure out).While Maria and Kurumi are recovery from their punishment the group gets shown around town by another maid named Noel who is childhood friends with Lars. When they stop for a break Zest sneaks away because she feels she doesn’t belong with them and will only cause them trouble (nonsense join Basara’s harem. There’s room for everyone). When some guards hit on her she gets saved by Basara once again and they return to the mansion around the same time Remsus returns but he doesn’t come to greet Mio (well he’s a rude host). Claus tells Basara that Remsus seeks to extract the demon lord powers out of Mio, while this will make Mio a normal girl the way he plans to do it is quite dangerous and could have a negative effect on her. Basara takes an interest in this and at the end of the episode goes to speak to Remsus himself.
Episode 5 starts off with Basara telling Remsus what Claus told him and Remsus just saying yeah he’s gonna do it and he doesn’t care what Basara or anyone else thinks about it (https://youtu.be/dFKylgGk73I). Basara prepares to fight (now I’m starting to get angry. . .and so I pull out my SWORD) but Rukia comes in from behind to stop him and Shella teleports him away to the baths where Zest is waiting for him (this is a nice surprise). After Zest washes Basara’s back with her breast (Baron: *Gets a nosebleed* Goddamn *faints*. (Nitsuj): How about you Corbin? (Corbin): I’m still here, keep going) Shella tells Basara to form a Master-servant pact with Zest and agrees to do it where the pact goes well but Zest has a little doubt in her heart which forces Basara to make-out with her in the baths (Corbin:*Gets a nosebleed* Damn *faints*. (Nitsuj): Not gonna lie that was kind of hot). The next day comes and the city gets attacked (ahh~ it’s the Titans) by Gald a war-hero and loyal follower of Leohart. He’s come for Mio and he’s prepared to destroy the whole city and everyone in it just to get her. Mio is force to stay behind while the others go to face Gald and his Evangelion mech (I’m not kidding those spirits look like the mechs from Evangelion). Basara takes on Gald where at first he receives a beating but things start to look up when he manages to slice Gald’s arm off (man he’s getting into a habit of doing that. Should I be worried about this?) but this moment of triumph gets short lived thanks to Nebro another servant of Leohart who does a sneak attack on Basara which blasts him all the way to the mansion (hey I can see the Principality of Jack from here) where Mio sees what happened to him and decides to go on the attack (you don’t mess with a demon’s stepbrother). After Nebro kills Gald he gets attacked by Mio who uses her rage to destroy his spirit shocking him pretty bad. Backed into a corner he has no choice but to activate the bomb hidden in the spirit but the bomb gets destroyed by Remsus. Out of desperation he tries to kill Mio but gets stabbed by Basara from behind (sneak again bitch) and as they try to get information out of him his master-servant pact activates and he explodes because he was about to betray his master.
Episodes 6-10 and OVA
At the start of episode 6 Mio tells Claus that she has no intention of becoming the next demon lord and plans to live her life as a normal girl living with Basara and the others (and getting molested by her stepbrother who she secretly likes). As they’re walking out they run into Jin and that demon boy he saved in the first episode (hey dad, wait to you hear what we’ve been up to). We then go to Leohart’s castle where we see that Gald survived (you’re a stubborn one) and meet Leohart’s big sister Liala and we get hints that she and Leohart might have an incest relationship going on (UHHHH~). Leohart sends out a message to Remsus saying that there’s going to be a 7-on-7 match to decide who finally rules the underworld with the winning side obviously having the most wins (well I know the 6 people who will be representing the Remsus’ side but who’s the 7th). While Remsus is hesitant to put his trust in the children (main characters. You don’t have a choice) he decides to let Jin and Shella train them to see where it goes. As they’re discussing this we see everyone enjoying the baths where Basara isn’t fazed by seeing the girls naked anymore or doing erotic things with them (he has finally adapted and accepted his position as a harem king). The next day the girls get trained by Shella while Jin does intense training with Basara in the forest where they fight seriously and Jin almost brings Basara near death (somebody call child services). Basara wakes up where Jin tells him he has 3 limitations and if he’s to stand a chance in the coming fights he’ll have to break at least one of them. The limitations are his conscious (it’s filled with too many dirty thoughts), subconscious (even dirtier thoughts), and finally his aversion to his sword because it caused him to get banned from his village and make everyone call him a monster (oh screw those dumbasses Basara). Basara decides that he’s going to break his aversion in order to protect Mio and the others (protect the harem at all cost) and they leave the next day to go to the meeting place of the match.
We begin episode 7 with Basara and his harem arriving at Leohart’s palace and being taken to their sleeping quarters where in order to get themselves ready and stronger for the fight tomorrow they engage in sexual acts (*the Jack Bros. regain consciousness* (Baron): *Breathe heavily* Okay, we’re back, and we’re gonna last longer this time. (Nitsuj): Guys I really think you should- (Corbin): Do it!). Basara orders all the girls to strip down to their underwear and they engage in softcore sexual acts with food. It’s here that we see that Basara has become a badass harem king as he’s no longer fazed or hesitant in his sexual acts. He just does it with a smile on his face enjoying every minute of it (he has finally become my hero). We get a few filler moments throughout the rest of the episode such as Basara going to secretly meet with Lars (who is fighting for the other team. Traitor) and asking him to buy perfume for him which seems to piss Lars off a bit. Mio kisses Basara and does more softcore sexual acts with him in the shower (no! no! no! I don’t know how to feel about this! They’re not related by blood but they’re still siblings! My brain can’t sort any of this out!). The day of the tournament finally comes (you know what this reminds me of? The Dark Tournament from Yu Yu Hakusho. (Corbin): Oh yeah I was thinking the same thing) where the rules are simple you either kill your opponent or make them unable to fight (by God this is Yu Yu Hakusho). In the first match, it’s Mio vs some guy (or girl not entirely sure) named Luka and his heroic spirit (which looks like Asuka’s mech from Evangelion. I don’t know about heroic but it’s definitely bitchy). Mio pretty much destroys the spirit with her powers forcing Luka to surrender and winning the first round for her team (so far so good). The next match is Maria vs Lars.
The fights continue in episode 8 with Maria losing pretty badly to Lars (not one of her finest moments). After that it’s Kurumi vs Admirath the retainer of a councilmen in the Underworld (Baron: You look ridiculous). Admirath tricks Kurumi into believing they’ve captured Basara so she doesn’t fight the way she normally fights and loses quite easily. When Admirath is about to kill her Zest steps in to save her which results in an automatic disqualification for her match so now the score is 3 to 1 Team Antagonist. Speaking of Basara we see him for whatever reason go into Belphgor’s sex chamber and kill him (what was the point of this?) but gets wounded by Belphgor trying to defend himself. Moving on to the fifth match it’s Yuki vs Volga where she literally slices him up in 2 seconds (S-S-Sensational~). The 6th match was supposed to be Balfear the right-hand man of Leohart going up against Rukia but he went to spy on the council who are up to something and is far away so the sixth match is a default victory for Team Basara’s Harem (man this whole episode is like the Dark Tournament from Yu Yu Hakusho in one of those 10 second video formats). As we move on to the final match which is Leohart vs Basara, Basara still hasn’t returned back yet so it seems like their only option is to have Ramsus fight in his place. To seal the deal that it has to be Ramsus the council has summoned the ultimate stage for this grand battle Xamdu the battlefield blessed by the demon gods themselves where only those of demon lord blood are allowed to set foot in.
In episode 9 Basara somehow makes it to the match and enters Xamdu (so Basara’s got some demon blood in him). At first Basara seems to have the edge against Leohart the despite the fact that his fighting style is different from how he usually fights but Leohart adjusts to Basara and goes on the offensive. Basara takes a beating and then falls off the stadium into a pool of lave (winning by a ring out? That’s no fun). But before falling into the lava, Basara swallows a pill he received from Shella who told him that by taking the pill he’ll unlock his true powers however he’ll go an uncontrollable rampage (death or uncontrollable rampage? Uncontrollable rampage). Basara return to the fight and completely dominates Leohart but the rampage is starting to affect him and blood starts shooting out from all over his body (and he should be dead). Everyone sees this and Mio rushes to the battlefield to save her brother (and lover) from certain death. She enters the battlefield and gets trapped in Basara’s mind (which I am certain is filled with a lot of perverted thoughts). After encountering Zolgia and defeating him, Mio finds Basara where he’s about attack her but stops himself and gropes her before returning to normal (the man has his priorities in order). So with Mio interfering you think this would result in a disqualification Basara right, no (that would be the reasonable and stupid thing). Instead they say screw the rules and Basara helps Leohart up where both sides seem to call it a draw. This upsets the council who were kind of hoping that Basara would kill Leohart that way they could turn Mio into their puppet, dispose of Ramsus and rule the Underworld (typical politicians) or they would get really lucky and the two would kill each other (but that’s like the Jack Brothers going a week without doing anything perverted. (Baron): Impossible. (Corbin): And totally unacceptable). The council unleashes Chaos the King of Heroic Spirits (that name contradicts its title) who unleashes the spirits of dead heroes who not only attack Basara, Mio, and Leohart but also innocent demons as well as the council does nothing to protect them saying that this is all a test for when they go to war with Heaven.
In the final episode Basara, Mio, Ramsus, and Leohart team to take down Chaos. Ramsus uses anti-gravity magic to keep it down while Mio and Leohart attack it. Basara takes those pills again (we might wanna take those pills away from him so he won’t become an addict) unleashing his full power again and sends Chaos into another realm without going on another rampage. Back with the others Admirath tries to kill Maria and Kurumi but Yuki and Lucia are there to protect their sisters. He unleashes a poison which paralyzes the two and makes his way to Kasumi where he gets his hand chopped off by Maria who was safe from the gas because she was wearing a mask. Kasumi wakes back up and together they fight Admirath and kill him. Lars and Zest fight the heroic spirits to save other demons and Liala kills the council in an instant (holy shit I think we should have made her the demon lord). She senses Jin and orders him to come out where we find out he was planning to assassinate the council as well (too slow old man). They have a standoff where they’re about to fight because she threatened to kill Basara because he’s dangerous but it gets stopped when Basara appears and she takes her leave. After this things settle down. With the council gone and Belphgor dead, the troubles plaguing Basara and the others won’t be around anymore as Leohart as no intention of harming them and swears to rule the Underworld correctly. Basara and the others soon return back to their world where Basara and Mio have a make-out section and the others want in on this action (you won’t be sleeping tonight Basara).
Just like last season we get an OVA which is filled by good fanservice and side stories. The first half shows Basara in gym class (or P.E as I was taught to call it) where Mio and Yuki get caught up and trying to get his attention and they all get knocked out. Basara wakes in the nurse’s office where Chisato decides to play with him a bit. The second half is where the fun really starts. Maria says Mio’s birthday is coming up and she needs Basara’s help in finding her a present. Rather than brainstorm she creates a virtual stimulator of a summer festival where Basara, Mio, and Yuki enjoy a few festivities before going off behind a shrine and engage is some naughty play. Before the naughty play can go all NC-17 on us the virtual stimulator overheats and they return to reality where Mio reveals that her birthday is a long time away and Maria just did this because she’s Maria.
Final Thoughts
Boy, talk about a letdown in terms of quality and story. While the characters are good as it’s nice to see Mio come to terms with her feelings for Basara, Basara once again not being a wimpy MC and actually be a badass who’s not afraid to indulge in the sexual pleasures of his harem, and the rest of the girls getting screentime to show their worth in the story the rest of the anime falls apart. The story is rushed and things are so poorly explained this season that you miss half the story and the motives of the characters. Like, I’m still a little bit confused as to why they were fighting Leohart who seemed to be on their side and have nothing against them. If anything it seems like Ramsus was the enemy they should have been fighting against as he outright admits that he wants to use Mio for his own benefits. Why did the council want to go to war with Heaven so badly, what’s Chisato’s connection with Heaven and what’s her relationship with Basara? What happen to that demon boy Jin was with? Why don’t we see him again? Where did Tachibana come from and what’s his backstory? There’s a lot of stuff presented but they never take the time to slow down and explain it properly so we have an idea of who these characters are, what they want, why they’re doing this, and how they fit into the story.
The animation is slightly better but the music really does nothing for me at all this season. Fight scenes take a huge step backwards and aren’t long enough as you would have hoped for especially since this season gave us a tournament. Again, rushed through. They got better with the placement of the fanservice however I think the fanservice from the first season was way better than the fanservice in this season. The Jack Brothers only got one nosebleed. That should tell you how downgraded the fanservice got.
Is it better than the first season
No. I think the first season was better than this season. Despite making a lot of clumsy mistakes, I was able to follow the story and understand the characters, their situations, motives, and everything else as opposed to being the dark half the time with this season. Also, as I said before the fanservice was way better in the first season than in this season.
Final Score
Burst sadly earns a score of 3/10. A big step backwards in terms of quality for a series that in my opinion is good and can be a major player like Highschool DxD. Again, this is a series that I really like and want to see it succeed but unless you get people on there who care for the series and take their time to tell the story the way it was intended to be told, we’re just going to keep having these problems plague the series and I don’t want that. There’s already been talks of a 3rd season in production and from what I’ve heard it’s slated to air this fall or next year. Will it be good? I hope so and when it comes out I’ll be there to review it. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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