Forum - View topicREVIEW: The Testament of Sister New Devil BD/DVD
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Megiddo
 Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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DxD is pretty much a full on tease where nothing overt ever happens. It's basically a permanent cockblock. Whereas Testament is pretty much a full on release. I found them pretty even in terms of story/characters/fights/etc but Testament just blows away DxD on every single level in terms of eroticism.
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Punch Drunk Marc
Posts: 1742 |
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I would slightly disagree on that. Testament feels like it's trying too hard at time to be provocative and just comes off as sloppy and kind of laughable at times. You can say the same about DxD, it's by no means high art, but it does know how to pull things back at the right time. Sometimes the tease is much better than the release because it allows your mind to wander and create its own erotic expectations. If I wanted full blown eroticism there are plenty of other light novel/manga series that do it much better than Testament. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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But are they animated? Because that's why I watch anime. And I haven't found anything even close to the eroticism in Testament. I mean, if you like the idea of being cockblocked and teased with no payoff, then I can understand favoring DxD's methods, but for me it doesn't really do much.
Also, "trying too hard" is one of the absolute worst critiques that there can be. It is meaningless with no context. The series is overt in its erotic output and isn't there to perpetually blueball the viewer like its contemporaries. It doesn't "try too hard", it just is what it is. It knows that it's animating LN erotic trash and it puts that to animation. There's no amount of "trying" being done, whether too hard or too soft. Expending effort to accomplish something is a good thing, and I will never understand why the internet tries to spin it as a negative. For me, I will never understand DxD's popularity over Testament. I mean, if you say you're watching DxD for anything other than its erotic content then you're just watching a mediocre power fantasy that is done better in hundreds of other series. If you are watching it for the erotic content then why not watch the show with the more sensual erotic content instead? Unless people like being blueballed and tricked into thinking "oh I bet if I watch a little bit more, surely something will happen beyond Issei fondling Rias' tits for a few seconds! Last edited by Megiddo on Wed Jan 10, 2018 1:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18182 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I thinking "tries too hard" absolutely fits as PDM used it. I use that term myself when the effort being put into something becomes obstructive rather than constructive, and that is the case here, from my view.
Also, I'd classify Testament as an even bigger tease than DxD. If you're going to go this far with the concept, then why not actual sex? |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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But that's not a valid criticism. The valid criticism would be "I think that Testament went too far with its erotic content and overall obstructed the viewer from... <insert>"
If you do something well. And I say, no I didn't like it because you tried too hard. Does that make any sense? No. It has nothing of merit in terms of critique. Now I would love to read what it is you thought was obstructed by Testament's overt erotic content. Testament definitely ain't a tease. Softcore is still very satisfying and it hits a variety of fetishes extremely well. |
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Takkun4343
 Posts: 1498 Location: Englewood, Ohio |
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The fact that Bang Zoom would go through with dubbing a show like this and not forcing every last one of its actors to go under aliases is enough to give it a thumbs-up from me, exceptional or no.
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Greed1914
 Posts: 4422 |
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It's difficult not to compare this and DxD given the obvious similarities. Overall, I prefer DxD in terms of story and characters, though at this point I've seen three seasons of DxD, as opposed to one of Testament. I found the fanservice aspect a bit frustrating since it felt like going farther with it, such as nipple sucking, than DxD was an attempt to one-up the the competition.
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Punch Drunk Marc
Posts: 1742 |
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If you watch Testament for more than ten minutes then you exactly the context of "trying too hard"
Testament is really no better. For example let's look at it in terms of main characters, aside from almost none of the girls of Testament being memorable aside from the Loli, the MCs don't stack up well at all. Issei (as meh as he can be at times) at least has the leg up of being an unabashed pervert with a goal to be "Harem King" which can lead to a lot of comedy both intentional and not. spoiler[One of the funniest moments in the show was when he got fired up fighting Vali because he threatened to make the Rias' boobs smaller.] It's crass, but it gives him character. Basara by extension has no definable traits that you couldn't find in any number of harem leads and looks like his design was made through a harem lead generator. He's just not compelling enough to want to follow, IMO.
Because there's actually hentai for that. Also the myriad of doujins that do this stuff way better. Also I would once again argue DxD has much more sensual content then Testament almost purely because of how its erotic scenes are directed and framed. I'm not gonna dwell on this. If you prefer Testament that is perfectly fine. More power to you, it was not my intention to shame you for it. All I'm saying is that in a genre full of this level of fanservice, Testament doesn't really stand out as one of the best. I mean there is a reason DxD is getting a fourth season. |
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Marakutanay
 Posts: 44 |
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The company can force actors to use aliases? Really? If you don't want to use your real name for whatever reason then it's perfectly fine but so it is using it if you just feel like it IMO. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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See now, this comment confuses me. So is it that you like DxD's blueball approach and were frustrated that Testament actually had foreplay and didn't have the girls in the harem all jealous of each-other and having one girl step in and put a stop as soon as the main character was doing something even remotely sensual with another girl? How were you frustrated, exactly? Do you dislike overt sexual content? That's the kind of mindset that I'm trying to understand. @Punch I ain't defending anything of than Testament's eroticism. I called it LN trash and that's what it is as with DxD. |
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Jonny Mendes
 Posts: 997 Location: Europe |
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It all depends if more volumes are going to be animated. I'm not going to spoil you but the LN can be rated as R18 by now. About the DxD vs Testament. DxD for a younger shonen audience so it have all the troupes the shonen stories have, including not going all the way. Testament is for a older audience so they can go full erotic including "that". DxD is a power fantasy for teens, Testament is a power fantasy for older teens/young adults, and because of that have a plot less focused in comedy and more in the action and the story . Issei behaves most of the times as a children, crying all the time and his relationship with the girls is like he can win all the girls, but don't have a clue to what to do with them exept going for the oppai. Basara is more mature and knows and acts the way a regular teenage boy would act around a girl/girls of his harem. Last edited by Jonny Mendes on Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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TasteyCookie
 Posts: 421 |
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I'm definitely with Megiddo here. Testament for me presents a more compelling narrative and a much improved eroticism over DxD. All that DxD has going for it is better fight animations, which still pale in comparison to other shows if you're comparing it to other action series.
The main reason to watch Testament is if you want an ecchi/erotic fantasy show that also follows a narrative and isn't just comedy. In this aspect I think it's better than DxD especially when considering season 2 of Sister New Devil compared to the extremely lackluster S3 of DxD. Also Basara is way more relatable than Issei... The average teenage guy doesn't think "OMG boobs gotta go squeeze them all regardless of anything else!" Whereas as wanting to do the erotic but not doing so until the situation is appropriate (and then still getting slightly embarrassed, like Basara) is way more like every teenage boy I've known. They aren't just walking horndogs that want to do the deed with every girl they meet without considering if they like them or not, aka Issei. |
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Greed1914
Posts: 4422 |
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The frustration comes from it coming off to me as the easy way to try to "outdo" the obvious competition by making a similar story, but being more extreme with one particular aspect of it. I probably wouldn't have that opinion regarding the fanservice if the story wasn't so glaringly similar to DxD. |
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Megiddo
Posts: 8360 Location: IL |
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So you do prefer DxD's execution of perpetually teasing the audience but never doing anything in the end.
Not sure why you think the stories are so similar since they both follow the same cookie-cutter shounen power fantasy guidebook. I hope you don't think that anything in DxD is innovative in any way and think that Testament is somehow stealing from DxD's unique story, because that notion is laughable. Looking at details, very little of DxD's world is in Testament's. Basara isn't killed and revived to become a demon. He isn't given random tasks or attempting to fulfill requests. Basara already has the training and skills needed to defend his "family" so there aren't any training sequences. As far as I can recall there is no third sect in the Demon/Hero conflict as there are fallen angels in the DxD-verse. Rias is already powerful and doesn't really need to worry about being hunted down by her enemies. There's no "chess"/"promotion" system in Testament. So what, it's got a guy hanging around with a demon chick and ends up fighting a bunch of villains because of his desire to protect the demon chick? Is that the extent that Testament's and DxD's stories intermingle? Last edited by Megiddo on Wed Jan 10, 2018 3:54 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18182 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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DxD follows a narrative; in fact, I'm convinced that it set the current standard for doing so and pushed changes in the harem genre as a result. I don't see that TSND's narrative is any more involved in this season. And comparing s2 of TSND to s3 of DxD isn't a fair comparison, as you're comparing best (on a plot front) to worst.
Actually, I knew a lot of guys in middle and high school who were exactly that. |
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