First Impressions / High School DxD

「可能性が解き放たれます!」 (Kanousei ga Tokihanata Remasu!)
“My Potential Released!”

I don’t know if it’s because I ate too much candy earlier and was feeling a bit Rossweisse to the stomach, or if the SRS BZNS parts of DxD just weren’t landing, but most of this episode wasn’t doing it for me. The most interesting parts were the upgrades to protagonists, like Xenovia’s badly named blade or Saji’s dragon pal, even if the latter just reinforced that I (as an anime-only viewer) don’t know as much about what’s going on there as I should. Still, the actual battles were a bunch of introductions to ridiculous Balance Breakers followed by a swift defeat for everyone who doesn’t have a dragon in their corner. It felt like the storytellers were trying to get to the stuff they were actually trying to show, which to be fair, was true. the super serious build up just didn’t land for me. Might have been the belly full of sugar, to be honest.

Issei’s power up scenes were great, though. High School DxD is best when it’s being serious about being silly, and this fit firmly in that sweet spot. (I shouldn’t think about sweets, ugh.) The oppai zombies, followed by the summoning of Rias—hah! Which, by the way: Issei and co really should have been keeping in touch with Rias and the others. They’re going to be piiiissed when they find out what was going on, and that they weren’t in the loop (even if they couldn’t do anything). But at least she’s here now, and the key to Issei’s power is almost within reach. Keys, to be exact.

(It’s her boobs.)

As for the villains, about the most I can say is that I found it interesting that they were letting Asia heal them so blatantly. If they were truly serious they’d take out the healer, or at least threaten her into inaction, but they weren’t. The kiddie gloves were very much on. Which, for what’s supposed to be a serious and life-threatening situation, makes it seem like they’re underestimating the Gremory family, their own words notwithstanding. Or they don’t want to kill them—which they likely don’t care either way—but it still makes the villains so boring. But they’ll be dealt with soon, by Issei in a hilarious fashion. That’s the ticket! Can’t wait to see how events conclude now that the Oppai Dragon is back in the driver’s seat.

Random thoughts:

  • For those who don’t know what a Balance Breaker subspecies is (I feel like this should have been mentioned before so I’m just going to spoil it), I looked it up, and apparently it’s a sub form of the balance breaker you naturally have that conforms more to the user’s desires. So I guess this fool wanted more arms, so the subspecies of his balance breaker became more arms.
  • Fighting while hungover? Gods, I can’t even imagine. When I’m that hungover I will barely move. Poor Rossweise.

My SECOND novel, Freelance Heroics, is available now! (Now in print!) (Also available: Firesign #1 Wage Slave Rebellion.) Sign up for my email list for updates. At stephenwgee.com, the latest post: Forbidden Island, coast to coast.

End Card

14 Comments

  1. While it’s true that they don’t care much for Issei’s group, they know what happened to Shalba and Diodora, like they said in the episode. That’s why they didn’t touch Asia. They’re wary of that Juggernaut Drive, which isn’t their goal for this mission. Their best weapon, Cao Cao’s spear, is a True Longinus after all, and if you remember, what killed Shalba was an attack called Longinus Smasher.

    Dexdee
    Reply

    1. Fair enough on Asia. I guess that’s one of the times it could have used a “Don’t touch her! We don’t want to risk the Juggernaut Drive” from one of the villains or something. Though they still could have threatened her with something other than bodily harm to herself (“Stop healing or we’ll hurt them faster than you can heal them.”) if they really cared. Though maybe they just planned to do that hurting anyway haha

      Stilts
      Reply

  2. You aren’t alone, Stilts. Everything after Shadow-Guy was a joke with how much Issei and pals got screwed with. The situation was hopeless just to be hopeless, to the point where I couldn’t take it seriously and wondered what Azazel was high on when he thought they had a chance. Of course the boring, self-satisfied baddies stopping the action every three seconds so someone could explain something didn’t help, either. Team Gremory is usually outgunned in some way, but at least the pacing was fast and fierce to keep your attention, but this didn’t even have that with all the stopping to let the bad guys do their next step that was going on.

    There are good set-up fights and bad ones. This was a bad one. Well, we’re over the hump now, and the next arc is a LOT better.

    Aex
    Reply

  3. https://randomc.net/image/High%20School%20DxD/High%20School%20DxD%20HERO%20-%2005%20-%2005.jpg

    Author’s original plan was for legendary oni Shuten-douji to lead Kyoto’s youkai instead of Yasaka, but was warned by someone it would bring bad luck if he did so.

    “The original plan was to use the (legendary) Shuten-doji as the leader, but then someone said that “Oni is not good” so it was changed. They said that writing about Oni in the book would have terrifying consequences…”

    Japanese legend states Shuten-douji was among the 3 Most Evil Japanese Youkai, the others being fox spirit Tamamo-no-Mae and the ghost of Emperor Sutoku, which likely provided the basis for the superstitious advice received.
    http://folklorethursday.com/legends/three-evil-yokai-japan/

    That said, IMO recent aniworks don’t seem as concerned with such consequences, such as Fate/Grand Order depicting Shuten-douji as a beautiful,scantily clad girl.
    https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fategrandorder/images/f/f6/Shuten1.png/revision/latest?cb=20170203180520

    zztop
    Reply

    1. Ya know, when I saw Yasaka back in episode 3, I was instantly reminded of Fate/Grand Order‘s VERY BUSTY Minamoto no Yorimitsu (a.k.a.: Raikou). And I don’t even play F/GO thanks to my aversion to mobile games!

      They do place a lot of good “bait”, though… (*cough*MashKyrielite*cough*Scáthach*cough*AltriaPendragon-Lancer*cough*Shuten-douji*cough*Astolfo*cough*)

      Incognito
      Reply

      2. I know, but if anyone can compete with Hideri Kanzaki for being the best trap in recent memory (as well as classic traps like Hideyoshi Kinoshita from BakaTest or Jun Watarase from Happiness), it’s Astolfo. Again, I haven’t watched Fate/Apocrypha, but Astolfo’s reputation as a trap (who makes even the most hot-blooded heterosexual male anime fans question their sexuality) precedes him.

        So yeah, he’s good “bait” alongside the aforementioned female servants (as well as Raikou–who also has similar old-timey Japanese eyebrows to Yasaka–and perhaps Kiara Sesshouin).

        Incognito
        Reply

  4. Now the villains are getting more and more ridiculous as the story goes on. I can understand they want to raise the stake but sometimes it feels so forced. But at least Cao Cao is good since he will be important later.

    One Pinch Man
    Reply

  5. Well, it is actually logic that kept them from threatening Asia.
    They knew how Issei got into juggernaut drive when he thought Asia was killed in a different dimension. Now, while they might not care much about the gremory family much they don’t want a juggernaut running rampant as well. Such a thing could throw a wrench in their plan after all and no need to risk such a thing if it is not needed right?

    As for the multi-armed balance breaker, the reason ( from the novels at least ) was that he wanted to get strong enough to wield all of his 6 blades and since sacred gears respond to the wishes and desires of their wielders he got those arms. Worked out a bit differently then he probably expected but he got strong enough to wield all 6 of them…

    As for the subspecies thing, it has probably been explained already by one of us in the comments in previous episodes.

    Damrod
    Reply

  6. https://randomc.net/image/High%20School%20DxD/High%20School%20DxD%20HERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2007.jpg
    “EX-CALIBU–“ Wait, wrong series– (*hears Xenovia’s info dump*)

    Let me get this straight? They fused Durandal and Excalibur together? No wonder Xenovia’s sword can do the same ability as Altria’s own Excalibur.

    https://randomc.net/image/High%20School%20DxD/High%20School%20DxD%20HERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2019.jpg
    Damnit, I haven’t watched Fate/Apocrypha yet and I’m instantly reminded of that show’s version of Jeanne D’Arc. Also, are you sure that isn’t a Blue-Eyes White Dragon?

    https://randomc.net/image/High%20School%20DxD/High%20School%20DxD%20HERO%20-%2005%20-%20Large%2021.jpg
    That’s also my reaction when I realized Kunou shares the same voice as Nico Yazawa from Love Live! and Hideri Kanzaki from Blend-S. XD

    Well, what else is there to say? For a moment, I thought that Issei was going to use that “potential” to summon the Breast Fairy. But considering that Elsha tells Issei to summon “the boobs that are meant for him” and Issei manages to summon Rias…it suddenly makes perfect sense. (And the Hero Faction is so screwed now.)

    P.S.: Props to Rie Tanaka for managing to say Elsha’s lines to Issei with a straight face.

    Incognito
    Reply

    1. @belatkuro: Wait until Arifureta comes out next year; the chuuni’s even stronger there. DxD is ecchi action with a little chuuni; Arifureta is the author’s love for all things chuuni (he admitted it himself).

      zztop
      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *