Forum - View topicREVIEW: Riddle Story of Devil
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Stark700
 Posts: 11762 Location: Earth |
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I thought the first episode was kinda underwhelming but it did pick the pace a bit. I've been following the manga as well but since it was incomplete, the show was mostly fresh to me.
I wasn't too fond of the ending although the series did have a few episodes I thought were memorable especially the episode with Chitaru and Hitsugi. |
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Eri94
 Posts: 220 |
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This anime was one of the biggest letdowns I have ever seen.
They promised two things. Yuri, and assassinations. They delivered neither. |
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One-Eye
 Posts: 2267 |
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Pretty much why I ended up dropping the series around half way thru. It felt like somebody thought they had an interesting idea and decided to stretch it out into a one cour show. I also wasn't getting enough world building out of it to justify their concept. Perhaps if they had had more yuri and less assassins it would have given me an incentive to stick around longer. |
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Hellwarden
Posts: 321 |
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Up till the ending, I was willing to call Riddle Story of Devil the guilty pleasure of the season. It didn't do anything particularly well, but it was enjoyable in the moment, and the main lead's problem with actually...spoiler[killing anyone is somewhat interesting at least.]
Then... [spoiler]The final episode arrivesspoiler[and EVERYONE is just okay. Even the people the show almost flatout told us were dead. Haru is okay because of some titanium rib bullshit. The cyborg who fell 100 feet with enough momentum to shatter through a building, she's okay. The two Romeo and Juliet assassins, who were stabbed with a poison blade, they're okay. It retroactively takes all the punch out of the show in hindsight. ] |
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dtm42
Posts: 14084 Location: currently stalking my waifu |
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Preach. The ending in particular was utter crap, what with the reveal that spoiler[all the girls are alive and happy.]
Uh, it most certainly does not. In fact, by the looks of it the wider plot is only just getting started, with plenty of mysteries still up in the air. |
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leatherhead333
 Posts: 1187 Location: Kansas |
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I can't say that I'm happy with the ending episode. That's because it was just horribly executed. The spoiler[first half of the episode gives us this depressingly tragic atmosphere and in the next few mintues they simply explain how everything works out in such a light hearted tone. And absouletly no one dies and everyone gets a happy ending............in a show about assassinations........yeah that makes total sense.]
To quote AVGN "IT’S [expletive] BULLSHIT!!!" Anyways.... I did like the show to a degree but one thing that i think hinders it is that they basically had to fit every assassins story into one episode. It's nice that they focused on each girl giving us reasons to sympathize with their motivations but I think it takes WAY to much time away from development of Haru and Azuma's relationship. Throughout these 12 episodes we don't get to many heartfelt moments between the two. It's rather disheartening. Other than that I thought it was......eh watchable i guess. The powers that some of these girls have are kind of retarded but I always thought of this as being one of those shows that favors action over logic so it didn't bother me to much (ok no it did bother me but i managed to laugh it off). Of course when it comes to yuri i tend to be a little less critical than i should xP. Still I just gotta say it. "RIP spring anime endings 2014" |
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HaruhiToy
 Posts: 4118 |
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I think this review does a pretty good job of teasing out all the nagging flaws of the anime but there is one missing:
There was always something completely off about Haru's attitude during the whole story and I don't think the ending explains it. She affects this cheery/chummy trying-to-feel-goodie aspect about all her "classmates" who are all plotting to murder her. Some of them make no bones about being dispassionate about it; they want to do it as sadistically as possible. (spoiler[which was at the root of at least one failure]) Yet halfway through Haru seems depressed not that her murder is imminent but those that have been removed because they failed are no longer there to enjoy the high school girly experience with her. She misses them. Aside from that, not one word about clueless sensei? Man that guy just can't win. |
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Hikaru Suzuhara
 Posts: 88 |
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You know things are bad when telling complete story is listed as a positive. Something like that should normally be the expectation of any series. It would go without saying, but most don't actually do that so when it does it's considered a rare occurrence.
One of my least favorite aspects of these adaptations is their insistence on not actually finishing them. Here's 35% of the source material for the anime. Want answers to all the questions raised in the anime? Want a satisfying conclusion that resolves all the conflicts? Go check out the manga/LN/VN what have you. It leaves me feeling unfulfilled and disappointed when the last episode is over. A bad aftertaste if you will. |
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darkchibi07
 Posts: 5518 |
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It'll be interesting to see how the fan-made stuff for this title will sustain this in the long run considering this has the ingredients yuri fans can go nuts over. But even so, why advertise it as a yuri title when it ended up being just implications?
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Second Fire Shadow
Posts: 140 |
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This. This. A THOUSAND TIMES THIS. Honestly the show really lacked any form of identity. At times it wanted to be a Comedy/Action then chose not to be, at times it wanted to an Action/Drama then chose not to be, at times it wanted to be Drama/Romance/Action then chose not to be and then at times it wanted to a Drama/Action/Romance/Comedy... then it chose not to be! Pick your freakin genre(s) already and stick to it! Oh, and the ending was one of the biggest cop out endings I've ever seen. If there ever is a season two, there's not way in hell I'm watching it after that conclusion. |
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Takamachi Ryoko
 Posts: 332 Location: 東京, 日本 |
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Ah, Akuma no Riddle, this was my spoiled guilty pleasure last season. I'm a yuri fan, and this show doesn't deliver much of that it's disappointing, there weren't much interaction. The only yuriest couple is Chitaru-Hitsuya pair and the only one time yuri was hinted was at the ED12. The main characters didn't impress me, Tokaku is just a badass girl type, and Haru's just a damsel in distress (makes sense since she's the target), she does have some moments but still a disappointing. The other girls deliver better than these two.
From the first episode, it's pretty much ebstablish assassin of the week trope. It's fine, some episodes are pretty good but the action is so dull, just a bunch of stabbing and stabbing. Only until spoiler[Miss Spider Cyborg Lesbian Ojou] fight it picks up a little. AnR isn't something I dislike, it's pretty enjoyable. The character designs are nice, and the music is awesome. But that ending is like a big middle finger pointing towards its fans. spoiler[Nobody died when dead people should just stay dead. Why? Because they were defeated not killed?] The only good thing is that spoiler[everyone alive], and still no spoiler[Shiena's ED], for Yamada Yuki's first role, they sure give her a nice role here. In the words of Ian Malcolm, that is one big pile of sh!t. I'm glad I pick up the manga, the pairing has more interactions there, and the yuri element while still faint, it's showed much fairer. I'm still going to watch the OVA, and spoiler[Shiena] better has an ED this time. |
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CBongo
 Posts: 43 Location: Minneapolis, MN |
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Hellwarden already said almost exactly what I would have about this show.
Nio kept me watching. What a fantastic alternation between mischievous and malicious. |
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kevinx59
 Posts: 959 Location: In sunny California |
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I just watched the last episode yesterday, and it was entertaining. Like others said, the end was kind of disappointing. spoiler[I liked that some of the girls had (kind of) happy ends, but the fact that even the three girls that supposedly died ended up somehow alive felt cheap.] I also felt little chemistry between Haru and Azuma, it felt more one sided (Haru clinging to Azuma doing badass things). I also had the opposite reaction to the artwork: I thought the animation (especially in the later episodes) was great, while the backgrounds were more generic. The spiky character designs were...interesting, and at least generally distinct. Still, I can't say I didn't enjoy the ride.
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Polycell
 Posts: 4623 |
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The execution of the manga's definitely better, especially with how some information's revealed earlier(eg, the bit about Angel Trumpet) and other's actually woven into the story rather than relegated to an eyecatch(eg, Isuke reveals her parentage herself). And even if the anime screwed it up, the artist(separate from the author) definitely seems to think there's enough chemistry in the manga to justify her ships:
(click for full) She's done other pairings as well, but I thought this was the most entertaining. |
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feuerwerke
 Posts: 149 |
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I really liked this show as I watched it because I kept thinking "okay surely it'll progress Haru and Tokaku's relationship soon, right? I mean it is listed as a yuri title, right?", and I was utterly let down on that. The first half full of incompetent assassins was pretty dire, too, though that aspect did get better later in the series. Then to be quite honest the ending ruined the entire thing for me. spoiler[Chitaru and Hisugi should have stayed dead. Them being alive and well cheapened everything about their story.] Aside from just that, too, it ultimately didn't deliver at all on what the premise was. A half baked, spoiler[everyone is alive and well and happy] ending in a show about assassins? Ugh. This makes Sakura Trick retroactively look like a masterpiece. I was so excited to get a yuri show that was something other than a romance in a school setting. Too bad it was this pile of trash.
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