Huge amounts of censorship yet again, including a failed censorship moment for Maria.
Things open up with some light fanservice during a well animated battle scene:
This is followed up by a training scene in which we get to enjoy Maria’s succubus outfit.
Time to clean off that dirt and sweat. Shower time for Mio:
And of course, we get the obligatory sensual “power up” section of the episode. This time, it’s Maria’s turn.
Mio intervenes. She insists that the she needs the “help” more and should be given consideration instead of Maria. Of course, nobody really thinks this is truly about powering up anymore. Mio is a competitive spirit in the game of love. Maria, being a succubus, is just an honest slut.
Harem ecchi can be so much fun.
Basara opens Mio’s shirt, prompting the “oh no!” chibi censorship. Followed by some heavy luminance censorship in the next shot.
It’s entirely possible this is bogus censorship, as Mio’s shirt is seen buttoned up only seconds later. Thankfully Basara does not mess around on his second attempt.
It’s only for a moment, but Basara gets his face right in there.
Maria coaches from the sidelines.
For the first time in the series, Mio begins to reciprocate lewd acts by sucking on Basara’s finger. And if the innuendo wasn’t obvious enough, there’s even a bit of drool hanging down her mouth after she’s done.
Remember, her tits are OUT during this finger sucking scene.
I’m not saying it will happen, but imagine that last shot above if they zoom out on BD just a little bit more… with that look on her face… and I…
This episode debuted a new ED sequence. It uses a small handful of still images, though these images all look fantastic.
Overall, this was yet another strong episode from a very good ecchi series.
The first half of the episode is bonafide Type-A. We get a well animated battle with the demon observer and a bit of a plot twist as the heroes clan officially turn on Basara, Mio and Maria. I tip my cap to Production IMS for recognizing the importance of raising the art levels at tactically important times. Unlike most ecchi anime, Testament could skew much more towards battles and still be a pretty good anime.
The second half is bonafide Type-B. Almost everything you see above comes from the final ten minutes.
It’s interesting that Mio is already shedding her tsundere personality for a submissive one. I like it. I also liked seeing Maria finally getting involved in this harem officially.
The new ED is full of blank boobs, and has a chance for BD nudity. Blank boobs are very common in OP and ED sequences and they usually stay that way on BD, but I’d give this one a decent chance of adding nipples so as to remain consistent with the rest of the anime.
The ED uses static images and because of this they are able to go all out on art quality. The imagery of Chisato and Zest at the end is especially easy on the eyes. The art talent is there, just not the funding. The ED allows us to imagine how great this show would look with higher production values.
Last little detail. Apparently there is a Japanese fansite called Amazon Stalker (it’s referenced fairly often at the BD tracking site someanithing.com). This site uses tangible data to predict BD sales for series and this system has proven to be reasonably accurate in the past.
I bring this up because their current projection system forecasts Shinmai Maou no Testament to hit 5,000 BD+DVD sales for the series first volume. That would make Testament more successful than ANY true ecchi series released in 2014, by a fairly wide margin. For comparison, those sales numbers (if it can keep them up) would be roughly on par with the original season of FREEZING or the original season of Samurai Girls . (Credit to UBW187 for providing this insightful nugget).
Consider that those sales were earned by a show that had a relatively low art budget. Low-budget anime rarely sell that well.
This is terrific news for a lot of reasons. The first is that Testament is a show that actually deserves success, something the entire ecchi side of the anime industry really needed. The second is that it proves that low-budget ecchi anime can indeed be viable when done well. The third is that having such success in their debut nude-ecchi effort will likely encourage Production IMS to pursue nude-ecchi anime again in the future. And lastly, this level of financial success will likely give impetus for a 2nd season, maybe even a 2nd season with higher production values.
(Off topic: Kancolle is on pace for monster sales numbers.)
Next week will probably be a battle oriented episode, and it’s possible there could be little or no service. I guess we’ll see.
That said, I am incredibly encouraged by the potential of this series. If the TV episodes are this lewd, just imagine what the BD specials will be like.
