Few anime can mix plot and ‘plot’ the way Testament can.
Spoilers ahead (if you really care, just watch the episode). We get multiple plot twists:
Twist #1: Lars/Yahiro isn’t dead! Turns out his powers involve a ‘puppeteer’ skill which apparently means he has the ability to create and manipulate walking, talking, flesh and blood body doubles of anyone he chooses. These doubles are 100% convincing, as if they were the real thing. I’m sure this power will in no way come up later on the ecchi side of the anime. Nah.
Twist #2: Zolgear gives Maria an ultimatum involving the life of her mother. Maria refuses. With a snap of his fingers, Zolgear brutally kills off Maria’s mother by essentially microwaving her. All that remains after is a pool of blood. This sets off Mio, triggering her trance state. Which in anime, means a serious ass kicking is on its way. Mio mutilates Zolgear’s right arm when he attempts to cop a feel yet again, forcing him to flee.
Twist #3: But wait, Maria’s mom is alive too. Same reason Lars/Yahiro is alive.
Twist #4: Lars/Yahiro and Basara had struck a deal and were working together all along.
Twist #5: Lars/Yahiro shared the same foster parents as Mio, the ones Zolgear murdered. His only condition for helping was to kill Zolgear himself. Which he is about to do, except:
Twist #6: The mansion Zolgear escapes from is actually an illusion, an illusion that was within the belly of a world devouring demon Zolgear summoned from a different dimension. After the illusion fades, our heroes are literally in the belly of the beast. Lars/Yahiro has no choice but to spare Zolgear until he can figure out a way to banish or destory the monster, or face total annihilation.
…
Wow, that’s a lot of interesting stuff in just one episode. All this, in a nude ecchi anime. Take notes, anime industry.
I’ve been impressed with the directing all the way through. Cliched lines don’t feel cliched, the story never feels contrived or like it’s cheating, and everything just clicks. If this anime did away with the nudity, it would still have a rock solid story to fall back on. I’ve seen a lot of ‘acclaimed’ type-A anime that did not do this good a job of evenhanded storytelling.
And this is why, as much as anything else, Shinmai Maou no Testament is on its way to being a financial success. I liked Seikoku no Dragonar because it impersonated a real anime very well. Testament took it a step further, and became an actual quality Type-A anime that just also happened to be lecherous as fuck.
One more episode to go before this series goes on a break. After that there will be a bonus episode OVA in June and then a second season in October, followed by another bonus episode in January 2016.
A sidenote. Apparently there is an e mobile app called TrackID TV. Among their features are showing ‘teaser’ images that you can unlock to see the uncensored versions. Mes was kind enough to share the uncensored picture, so I included it in image rundown above. Edit: Ryu shared a 1080p version of the pictures, which I added above.
