The Testament of Sister New Devil Season 1 Blu-Ray (Review)

By: AlanVBasara Toujou was enjoying a quiet life; but all of that changes when his dad informs him he’s going to have two new sisters, Mio and Maria. Unbeknownst to him Mio is the daughter of the previous demon lord and Maria is her succubus servant. Basara isn’t a helpless boy, though. He’s a member of the hero clan and can hold his own against any demon. Together they’ll fend off powers that seek to kill Mio, all while hijinks and sexual escapades strengthen their bonds.The Testament of Sister New Devil diminishes its appeal with seriously lewd content. Just about every character that appears on screen has a moment where they get down and dirty with another character. Although it stops from going full on into hentai territory by constraining the sexual scenes to fondling and sucking of bare breasts, avoiding something more explicit.However, it goes a step further in limiting its audience by leaning heavily on the little sister and older brother fetish. It’s only slightly toned down by the fact that the characters are step siblings, but the intent is there. It pushes this part of the narrative hard by having the characters increase their fighting strength with each time that they come into sexual contact, all thanks to the magic capabilities of the succubus Maria.The focus on this particular fetish heavily hampers the story. There are at least a few cringe worthy moments in the dialogue in each episode where characters will harp about the importance of their relationship, when it definitely isn’t needed. All it does is help add to the creepiness factor.Basara, the main character, doesn’t help matters much. He’s as bland as bland gets and isn’t worth rooting for when he’s fighting off badies. He’s also incredibly wishy washy. One moment he’s complaining about how wrong this whole situation with his new sisters is, yet he’ll start engaging in sexual activities with them at the drop of a hat. All while just shrugging and making it seem as if he’s only going with the flow because he has no other option.The worst part is that the world they inhabit leaves the opening for some good action, yet they completely bungle this. It somehow manages to make action scenes look slow and boring. The final few episodes that should be full of frenetic moments are actually a slog to get through, like walking through a field of molasses. They top it all off with an unsatisfying conclusion.VideoThis release doesn’t disappoint on technical merits. It’s exactly what we’ve come to expect from Funimation. It’s 1080p with a variable bitrate that mostly hovers in the mid 20Mbps range. No noticeable defects were spotted. This is as good a home release a show that looks this mediocre could get.AudioBoth the English and Japanese audio tracks come in Dolby TrueHD 2.0, which is really all that a show like this needs. As for performances, the English cast has a lot of misses and isn’t as solid as its Japanese counterpart. Unless you really want to avoid the subtitles, a better experience will be had with the Japanese language track.ExtrasFunimation includes the usual clean opening and closing segments on this release. It also throws in the OVA: The Hard, Sweet Daily Life of Basara Toujou and a set of clips titled Maria’s Secret Video to round things out.The OVA is a slice-of-life affair that has the characters engaging in more lewd behavior, while throwing a new female character into the fray. Maria’s Secret Video is for those who want all of the “plot” completely removed and get straight to watching the sexual scenes littered throughout the series.The Testament of Sister New Devil caters to a very specific viewer, and most likely delivers on what those folks want to watch. However, if you’re interested in something other than the prurient aspects of this anime you should look elsewhere.