Shinmai Maou no Testament fanservice review episode 01

Shinmai Maou no Testament - 01 (8)

In many ways the first episode confirmed our fears about Production IMS handling this anime.  But at the same time, there are reasons to be excited about this show’s potential going forward.

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The screens are fairly self explanatory.  No nudity, no frontal censorship, and the only blank boobs we get come from the OP, which is very unlikely to change.  Even recently gymnophobic flagship anime companies like SHAFT , Kyoani and JC Staff have shown more skin than this with their ultra mainstream offerings.

And yet I kind of love this show and where it could be heading, if we’re lucky.

For me, I think the ultimate prize as an ecchi fan would be to see a very mainstream type of anime shock viewers with nudity and eroticism. Imagine if for example, A show like Bakemonogatari  or A Certain Magical Index  actually showed nipples out of the blue halfway through those series.  It would be pretty mind blowing.

That’s why I personally enjoyed Seikoku no Dragonar  as much as I did, because- at least for a short while- it tricked viewers into thinking it was a mainstream anime.  Anyone that did their homework on the series knew that nudity was pretty likely, but it was still a great moment when we found out.

Watching the first episode of Testament  , I was really impressed by how well the the show functioned on an anime level.

There’s a substantial, table-setting plot twist early on, and to my surprise I thought it was handled very well in the anime, better than the manga even.  The pacing seems just right, and by the end of the first episode they honestly got me to give a shit about the story.  Hagure Yuusha  never accomplished that at any point in the series, but Testament  does it in the first episode.

This won’t be confused for a Kyoani or GAINAX work- this show is clearly made on a strict budget- but considering the budget constraints- the anime looks great.  Good character designs, fluid animation, and at times even good art.  The action sequences aren’t exactly Fate/Zero , but they do not corners either.

Honestly, I would watch this anime even if I wasn’t an ecchi fan.  It is very solidly done.

Now, here’s the part of this whole situation that intrigues me.  Having this anime be non-nude would be a one of the biggest ecchi subject material betrayals of the last few years.  So watching this first episode and seeing it look pretty tame would certainly cause alarm for fans of the original and for fans of its infamously-pervy novelist Tetsuto Uesu.

Isn’t it interesting then that a few weeks before the first episode airs, Production IMS announced that the BD version of this series will contain three minutes worth of “unaired salacious scenes which are not appropriate for TV viewers.”  It is a fairly direct message to ecchi fans I think, telling us to withhold judgement and relax.

Now Production IMS’s track record with nudity is one of the worst in the business and it’s fine to be skeptical.  However, let’s say for arguments sake that these bonus ‘salacious’ scenes are non-nude and a total disappointment.  If that were the case, how could they possibly argue that the material is ‘not appropriate for TV viewers?’  After all, non-nude service occurs in close to 100% of TV anime.  There are few things that are MORE appropriate for TV viewers than tasteful sexiness.  It just wouldn’t make sense, and it would essentially paint the company’s statement as dishonest.

Here is what I think is going to happen.  The entire Testament  anime will air without nudity or censorship.  It will remain unchanged on BD without redraws.  It will be a non-nude anime with average levels of fanservice, similar to Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance .  And in doing so, it will be a quality mainstream type of anime, giving us the feel of an anime like Kaze no Stigma  or Inu Yasha .

Then on BD, one of two things are going to happen.  Either those added ‘salacious’ scenes are going to deliver or they are not.  One of those outcomes will gleefully please fans of the original who had given up hope.  What better way to get a reaction out of a fanbase than to set them up for a surprise?  What better way to generate good will than to give fans something they might have doubted they’d receive?  It’s genius.

The other outcome just means pissing off a lot of fans and would result in ecchi fans pretty much never taking Production IMS seriously ever again.

Either outcome is possible, and to think that something like this could happen after watching a GOOD anime is actually pretty exciting I think.  It would be a way for Production IMS to pop their ‘never done nudity before’ cherry with style, and it would also serve as a bit of a compromise for a company that has clearly shown itself to be more comforable with non-nude anime in the past.

Maybe we’ll all just have our hopes crushed, but the risk of disappointment is part of what makes it exciting.  There’s a chance for something here that we’ve never really quite seen before. It might suck, or it might be awesome.

I want to be an optimist.  It’s like being stuck on a roller coaster.  People who stick their arms up tend to have more fun.