In one of the strongest years ever for ecchi fans, Shinmai Maou no Testament stands out as the year’s biggest surprise hit.
Download Links
Torrent: Nyaa
Series Information
Production Company: Production IMS
Vintage: Winter 2015
Nipple sightings from other Production IMS produced anime:
n/a
Other notable / recently relevant mainstream anime from Production IMS:
Sora no Otoshimono Final: Eternal My Master (movie) , Ore, Twintail ni Narimasu. , Date A Live 2
Notable Seiyuu:
Sarah Emi Bridcutt as Yuki Nonaka
Sarah Emi Bridcutt is also known for her roles as:
Yuu Asakawa as Chisato Hasegawa
Yuu Asakawa is also known for her roles as:
Iori Nomizu as Kurumi Nonaka
Iori Nomizu is also known for her roles as:
Also featuring Keiji Fujiwara as Jin Toujou
Thoughts on the anime
I had no idea what to expect going in. The light novels were famous for their explicit content, but Production IMS had always dodged nudity in the past. Given the source material, you would expect Testament to satisfy ecchi fans. But IMS’s past history gave reason for skepticism.
As a diehard ecchi fan, there are few feelings better than getting nude scenes when the expectations going in were teasing and blue-balls. Just a few nude scenes would have made this show exciting and fun, but we ended up getting way more than that.
The art suffers in most of the ecchi scenes, but otherwise the erotic content made for the most pleasant surprise in the genre going back years. If anything, the adult content felt a bit too intense . At times this show could feel like almost like a hentai, no doubt. The saying goes that it’s best to err on the side of caution, but the reverse is true in ecchi anime. I’ll always take the series that went just a bit too far than the series that didn’t take it far enough.
What surprised me even more than the explicit nature of the series was how competently told the story was. We cared about the background of the characters, what they are going through, and where they are going. There were several plot twists worked in throughout the season. Even if the ultimate destination felt predictable, the path to get there had me guessing, and often guessing wrong.
And unlike most ecchi series that have to interrupt the story every few minutes for pantsu and oppai breaks, Testament neatly compartmentalized the erotic and story aspects of the show so that most of the series was dedicated to real plot and not sexy plot. And to make up for this, they made the sexy scenes as intense as possible.
It’s a clever format, especially with the extended scenes on BD. People who watched the TV version felt like they were basically watching a compelling anime. While the BD version felt closer to porn.
My only real criticism is that the art only seemed to look good on rare occasions and never when it counted most. In fact, during the sexiest scenes the art could get extremely bad at times.
Still, few anime have ever worked up viewers as much during a censored TV run and delivered as well on BD as Testament has. That it came with a plus story and even a few decent action sequences is icing on the cake.
As far as the video, I don’t really have any thoughts to add there. It was over an hour long as could be expected.
Favorite Character
You know you’re watching a winner when it’s really tough to pick a favorite character.
Basara is a model MC. I hate it when the wimpy nerdy guy somehow gets a dozen hot chicks to want his cock somehow. It’s best to have an alpha male lead who could actually command such desire from actual women, and that’s the kind of mojo Basara exhudes.
At the same time, he’s not an all-powerful hero who always wins no matter what. By the end of the series, he seems less formidable in a fight than half the chicks that want him. And he has an honest dark side, something you almost never see from harem MC’s. Yet even with a dark side, he’s never cocky, nor a douche.
A complex and semi-believable anti-hero, it doesn’t feel like a huge stretch that he’d get more ass than a toilet seat.
But with a show like this, you have to pick one of the girls, and that’s a tough call too.
Kurumi is probably the cutest.
Mio plays hard to get at first, but ends up getting it the most by the end.
Zest is arguably the sexiest character and can handle herself well in the battle scenes.
Maria’s succubus power is really just a case of her being the easiest lay in the land. She brings a lot of fun to the show.
Yuki just wants to be Basara’s sex toy, and has a great ass. She’s good in a fight too.
But ultimately, it just has to be Chisato. Sure, her explosive affair with Basara happens suddenly and doesn’t make a ton of sense, but it was hot as hell all the same.
