「冒険者(ベル・クラネル)」 (Bouken-sha (Beru Kuraneru))
“Bell Cranel Adventurer”

Good animation, pacing, and likable characters are juxtaposed by a plot that’s uninspired and, frankly, a little chauvinistic. I’m not sure how I feel about this one on the whole, though I don’t hate it so far … with some caveats.

The Good – Animation, Pacing, Characters, World

This is a J.C.Staff romcom, and not only do I have tremendous positive memories of them, they look damn fine. There’s nothing to complain about in either the animation or the character designs, though as this is the first episode, I’d expect them to be at their best. Likewise, the main and secondary characters so far introduced are almost universally likeable. Bell Cranel (Matsuoka Yoshitsugu) has a great youthful enthusiasm (backed up by a Matsuoka Yoshitsugu performance that evokes exactly that), and his determination at the end reflects on him well. His goddess Hestia (Minase Inori) is silly in the most endearing of ways; how could I not like her? Even ace adventurer Ais Wallenstein (Oonishi Saori), guild receptionist Eina Tulle (Tomatsu Haruka), and waitress Syr Flover (Ishigami Shizuka) are all likable to varying degrees, though Syr’s sudden interest in Bell was more than a little convenient.

I also like one of the central facets of the world, in that gods like Hestia have decided to come down to the lower world and live among mortals, and they power up adventurers in their familia to hunt monsters. It’s not explained why they do this, and that’s a pretty huge detail, since it likely touches on why adventurers are fighting these endlessly respawning monsters, something I’ll talk about soon. Nevertheless, I have a fondness for unique takes on magic and gods—that’s one of the central conceits of my own magick system and world. DanMachi is doing some difficult things well.

The Not So Good – Premise, World

Yes, I put “world” in both the good and the not so. Why? Because while I thought the god(dess) schtick was interesting, the way monsters cleanly disappeared on death and how Bell got item drops and payment out of them felt way too fake and gamey. (The stat thing didn’t bother me as much, though it has the same potential.) Log Horizon dodged this problem ingeniously, but DanMachi used the central tenets of a fantasy RPG without justifying them. I preferred how Tower of Druaga went about it, which felt like both an RPG and its own reality, instead of this, which feels cheap. Maybe when they explain it all it’ll work better, but for now, I’m unenthused.

The premise is another sticking point. It’s honestly a little chauvinistic. Bell’s grandfather advises him to meet a weak female adventurer in a dungeon and fall in love with her, but that’s exploitative and dismissive of the skill and prowess of half the human race. It’s to Bell’s credit that he doesn’t seem to mind being saved instead of doing the saving. Then there’s the whole harem romcom element, which is reliably chauvinistic, but that’s something anyone who watches these kinds of shows has to come to terms with, like buying an iPhone knowing they’re built by Chinese workers in horrible conditions who get paid next to nothing. Oh, and the female adventurers wear skimpy clothing, which belongs in the realm of satire at this point, but that’s another thing fans of the form have gotten used to, and which Tower of Druaga did better.

Looking Ahead – Early Verdict

My opinion remains essentially unchanged from the preview, in that this feels like it could be a decent-to-good example of the magical-fantasy-action-harem genre, though I don’t feel like it will transcend the form, and will likely remain hampered by the uninspired plotting so common among light novels. I’ll stick with it, though I don’t currently have any plans to cover it full-time. Hopefully it’ll keep playing to its strengths rather than the deficiencies of the genre, and give us a good time.

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Good animation, pacing, & characters, but the uninspired light novel plot & some setting quirks leave my impressions unchanged #danmachi 01

Random thoughts:

  • Props to Minase Iori. I wouldn’t have realized she was the one voicing Hestia if I hadn’t looked it up, and I’ve got a pretty good ear for seiyuu. She has more range that I realized.
  • Another gripe: the whole scene where Bete Loga (Okamoto Nobuhiko) was ragging on Bell out of nowhere, and even brought up the possibility of dating Bell to Ains. Convenient, lazy writing. That’s the kind of writing that has me saying unkind things about light novels in general, even though there’s no reason they should be of lower quality.
  • Lady Loki? Dafuq?
  • I also like all the glimpses of the ruined city that Bell and Hestia live in. That’s a good example of showing instead of telling. I want to know how it got like that.

My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now available in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel short story. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: Cut away the boring bits, Sheet music, Wage Slave Rebellion is officially in print, and From LEGO to author.

Full-length images: 02, 07, 11, 14, 19, 21, 32, 35.

 

OP Sequence

OP: 「Hey World」 by Iguchi Yuka

Preview

141 Comments

  1. It’s amazing that you are the first person to notice that this show has a chauvanist bent, and I appreciate that. A lot of other people are just totally fixed on how much of a wimp Bell seems to be here, without realizing the more complicated discussion being implied (intentionally or not) here.

    On other other hand, Danmachi puts the go into dungeon and save girl notion on a pinhead and spins it with Ais saving Bell. I already know much of the story through the LN, but I’ll say that it’s a kinda interesting ride for anyone who’s interested in that kind of gender roles subject.

    Newprimus
      1. From the manga (as LNs are sorta difficult to locate since it seems former blog with them was taken down) I don’t believe at least first 6 episodes have much gender inversion, beyond female characters beyond being prime movers in story and typically the strongest characters. Ais seems to be the strongest character after the gods, but even then the waitresses are actually pretty powerful and assertive. The downside is most male secondary characters come across unfavourably though or amusing like Ganesha.

        To counter genderbent gods, it does affirm above point of mine, but I don’t believe all the gods will be that way, for sure Hephaestus and Loki are gender bent, but Freyja, Hestia, Ganesha, Miccha (probably wrong spelling) and Demeter are the way they are meant to be (albeit mostly female anyway).

        Seraph
  2. Anime tends to be a tough sell to feminists. While I understand your criticism, I don’t really see how that applies here more than to the other numerous-as-the-stars LN titles which pretty much round up archetypical women into a nice little garden for the male lead to pluck. Well, I do see it. This guy’s raison d’etre is to “pick up girls in a dungeon.” But I hope that this show doesn’t get labelled “that one chauvinistic anime.”

    Jif
    1. “That one chauvinist anime”? Pffft, no way. There are too many of them. It’s mostly just my evolution as a blogger that makes me feel compelled to point it out now, whereas I was less likely to do so previously.

      1. Stilts has Digievolved into “Stilts Mega”! 😀

        Personally, this first episode was a little bit too much for me. The level of writing just make me feel like this series only reason of existence is to raise the self-esteem of insecure guys who fantasize a tad bit too much about games and idealise girls in a very machoism way.

        Hestia’s personality is really cute tho.

  3. I’m not sure if you don’t look too far into the author’s mind at this moment of the story.

    From what I understood, Bete Loga simply likes Aiz and using some random noob she met as an excuse, he took the opportunity to place himself and “go out with you” phrase together in one sentence. I don’t see the lazy writing here. It could be convenient for the author, but we’re not sure yet if it will be ever played farther by him. Clearly it made much bigger impression on Bell than on Aiz and served for his own development, not the possibility of Aiz deciding sth like “on the other hand, maybe I should go out with this boy now”.

    There always stays the possibility something was lost in the adaptation here.

    brajt
    1. Indeed! The Catdude already knew that Bellw as there too.
      I honestly think people judge this anime way too early. It’s too early to say that some concepts aren’t well thought out if reasons and other world-related lore can be given at a later date. This was the first episode, ever heard of an anime which explains all the concepts and plotlines in the first 5 minutes?

      I really enjoyed this first episode. It really gave me a “epic-fantasy” mood. The music and Bell’s voice acting was especially well done (although they could’ve picked a better one for our loli godess).

      Yogghii
      1. I probably should have mentioned that more in the post, but I’m not closing the door on any of these things. It’s a first impressions, for sure, and they could easily rectify those problems. I don’t expect they’ll fix them all—some seem pretty baked into the story—but I could be wrong!

        I think it’s absolutely fair to judge a show on its first episode, as long as you’re willing to admit that you might be wrong. I am, and will be giving it more episodes to boot.

  4. Some comments on Dungeon:

    1)The anime was commissioned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the LN’s Japanese publishers, GA Bunko.

    2)Yen Press will be releasing official English translations of the LNs. Vol 1 is already out; Vol 2 comes this April. Reviews have been mixed; they generally praise the fantasy setting, but criticize the author’s overuse of RPG mechanics in his writing and worldbuilding. (“like reading a game manual”.)

    zztop
  5. Meh I wouldn’t call this more chauvinistic than any other harem derived series, the princess in the castle trope is common enough as it is because it appeals to the group most likely to purchase the material: males. Same reason all harem series reach the popularity they do, because they provide the fantasy role playing and imagination that romance stories give to females. Feminists hate it, but then again the bellicose ones have yet to reconcile the reality of market forces with their social constructivism.

    The main concern I have with this so far is the literal focus on RPG mechanics without any explanation and the seeming forcefulness of the harem elements. Being a romcom it’s already known what to expect, but IMO here it seems a little too in your face, I personally expected more buildup before jumping into the inter-group dynamics between the love interests and the inevitable drama; the pub scene emphasized this perfectly as the anthropomorphic wolf moved almost seamlessly from berating directly to “would you date him?” questioning.

    It’s got the 3 episode rule from me thanks in part to the setting, but I haven’t seen anything yet to push it above average. Having Bell as a weak adventurer can certainly serve as a break point, but as others have stated so far it’s doing nothing more but filling the harem staple of the pathetic male lead unable to even tell which side his bread is buttered on.

    Pancakes
  6. Character designs are by Suzuhito Yasuda. If you liked his work for Durarara!, Yozakura Quartet, the new Digimon game and the Tenchi Muyo miniseries, you may like this show.

    Personally, I think Yasuda should’ve put in more cultural/historical costume elements for the goddesses’ clothes to make them stand out more from the fantasy designs of other characters.
    A good example is Yone Kazuki’s designs for the god-boys of Kamigami no Asobi, which combine bth history and fanservice:
    https://36.media.tumblr.com/08a7f8fead38786aea2044976a7071ef/tumblr_ndh01yZvYZ1qkonr7o5_500.jpg
    https://40.media.tumblr.com/eb0a829d5af7214f0d2d9d1220d74892/tumblr_ndh01yZvYZ1qkonr7o4_500.jpg

    zztop
  7. I understand the criticism leveled at this series it certainly sandpaper rough right now, but so are most series starting out I hope you give it the 3 ep rule you always do and not drop it yet. it certainly gets explained why the world its the way it is. and all our characters get developed and fleshed out into real people instead of simple archetypes. most of all wasn’t it entertaining? is that not the reason we watch these shows? yes its good as a reviewer to be critical of the flaws on it. at its core though the show has to be able to deliver entertainment. for me this did it in spades from the obvious loli trying to appeal to her clueless familia member to the main character trying to do his best. i like that kind of person.

    vinnie
    1. It was entertaining, overall, so I will continue watching it (as I mentioned in my post). I see no reason I won’t finish out the season. I just have reservations about some of the storytelling choices, that’s all.

  8. I’m rather on the edge about this premiere. While i liked the medieval fantasy setting and the RPG-esque BGM, everything else just felt meh. The jealous Goddess was borderline annoying, The MC obliviousness toward her advances, while not unrealistic per se, already got me facepalming (seriously, isn’t there other way to subtly convey heroine’s feelings without shoving it right on our face?), and the expositions felt particularly clumsy. Still, i liked the MC enough. He’s no larger than life character that forcibly stole the scenes or some pervert. And i’m looking forward to his growth.

    I will be probably still giving the rest of the show a try though. Because, unlike more straightforward harem LNs that i can casually ignore, this show has somewhat more interesting materials in place, and more promising story to develop. Just hope the studio won’t screw it up.

    Amiluhur
  9. “Another gripe: the whole scene where Bete Loga (Okamoto Nobuhiko) was ragging on Bell out of nowhere, and even brought up the possibility of dating Bell to Ains. Convenient, lazy writing. That’s the kind of writing that has me saying unkind things about light novels in general, even though there’s no reason they should be of lower quality.”

    Came here to complain about this exact thing, but you already pointed it out. Thanks, Stilts! 😀

    Other than the forced dialogue in the bar scene, I thought this was a decent start. Bell and Hestia’s relationship is kind of cute.

    Mormegil
  10. But is it TRULY wrong to pick up girls(or boys) in a dungeon? Or should we be expanding our scope to pick up people in the most romantically-inappropriate places? Thoughts?

    zztop
    1. Not necessarily; in fact, I think aiming to meet girls in a dungeon (aiming to party with adventurer ladies youre fond of) is as valid as anything. Aiming to save adventurer ladies who get in over their head is depending too much on happenstance and thinking too little of women, though.

  11. Personally I enjoy whenever RPG mechanics are worked back into fantasy stories like this, though I’ll admit Danmachi doesn’t work too hard to rationalize them. One issue taken that I feel is more a complaint against the anime specifically than the series is the issue with the monsters disintegrating. While I don’t really think it’s a huge plot point (and frankly one that the anime probably won’t broach anyway), I’ll put the rest in spoilers.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    Purple Bomber
      1. Yep. Then he remarks with a certain irony something to the effect of “well, the advice was good, but it turned out I was the weak adventurer who fell in love with my female rescuer”

        DP
    1. This. The first volumn of light novel version was slow and a bit boring too. Then the story gets a lot better at 2nd and 3rd volumn. So, maybe gives the anmie 3-4 episodes and it should pick up the pace.

      Serapita
    1. In Norse Mythology (not Japanese gender-bender manga), Loki rolls both ways. Generally, he’s a dude, but sometimes he appears as a mare (he gave birth to Sleipnir, the 8-legged horse of Odin) or as an old woman. Generally, he’ll appear as whatever he needs to in order to ruin your day, or generally amuse himself.

      s_w
    2. I’m aware that the mythological Loki is a genderbender (among many other things), but making him a woman totally is worthy of comment, as much because I had a disbelief reaction as anything else.

  12. Only one episode, but this turned out better than I expected due in part to having zero expectations and coming off (for me) a disappointing last season with the four LN harem/fantasy/etc. adaptations + Isuca (of which I managed to unenthusiastically finish one). Far as I’m concerned, better start than any of them. Progress, albeit small, has been made.

    Have to agree about the visual quality. Pretty good, and something I noticed right away – made all the more apparent since I watched the show right after Yahari Ore no Seishun S2 Ep. 01 (which had disappointingly poor visual quality). Hestia was cute and kind of fun though I wonder if her shtick will get old over time. Show needs to be careful not to over do that IMO. Bell, was “meh” for me. Not much to him at this point. A pretty thin character though I suppose if one compares him to the typical/generic LN harem ML he’s serviceable. Then again, he does seem to have bit of Ichika obliviousness to him. Not good. Hope that improves.

    In for Ep. 02, but still under 3 episode rule.

    —————-

    @Stilts: “The way monsters cleanly disappeared on death and how Bell got item drops and payment out of them felt way too fake and gamey. … Log Horizon dodged this problem ingeniously…”

    Honestly, the first thing I thought when that happened was “It’s just like Log Horizon”. I suppose if one wants an in-universe explanation, so far it’s lacking, but, eh, not a big deal IMO. Part of the world’s setup as far as I’m concerned (like how so many stories use *poof* fireball magic without explaining how magic exists/works), and it doesn’t seem integral to the plot.

    —“Another gripe: the whole scene where Bete Loga was ragging on Bell out of nowhere, and even brought up the possibility of dating Bell to Ains. Convenient, lazy writing.”

    Agree. That was a “roll eyes” moment thanks to the “Would you date him!?” part. I can see how a drunk, prideful veteran adventurer might make fun of some random newbie, but the whole “would you date him!?” part came out of nowhere and felt very scripted.

    —“Then there’s the whole harem romcom element, which is reliably chauvinistic…”

    If this is an issue for you, not sure why you plan to cover (let alone like/watch) HS DxD. O.o

    1. “…but that’s something anyone who watches these kinds of shows has to come to terms with…”

      I’ve come to terms with it, even if I think it’s important to point it out on occasion. And to be clear: I don’t think DxD is especially chauvinistic, especially on the level of most harem ecchi comedies. If the ladies are okay with a harem end, that’s their busiess.

    2. I’ll add some information from the novel, since it may not have been sufficiently obvious in the anime: Bete has a hopeless crush on Aiz himself. And it is completely unusual for Aiz to be showing interest in a guy, which is what triggered Bete’s jealousy. And since he was already drunk (and he’s a jerk to begin with), his anger led to his tirade.

      So, maybe not stellar writing, but I have no problem giving the scene a pass as coincidence.

      Mentar
      1. Geh, hit the wrong button. Sorry. First, typo -> “….(script writing) issue then.” Also, personally, as presented, it’s a bit too much for simply passing off as “coincidence”. Lazy writing as Stilts says IMO. A couple of additional lines of dialog to set things up would have gone a long way. Not a huge issue in the overall scheme of things, but I do hope the anime avoids similar issues going forward.

        daikama
  13. It’s not a bad show, but I thought the whole Bete scene was pretty awful in terms of scriptwriting. It just came out of nowhere, and it left a bad taste in my mouth for the first ep.

    There are coincidences, and then there’s bad writing. This is a case of the latter.

    A coincidence would be running into her on the street with her crew, and *then* having Bete be an ass to his face. That would actually make more sense than this scene in the bar. It’s just weird.

    Maybe it’s because the scene where Syr gets Bell to come to the bar in the first place is also a little weird. If a random person gave me a boxed lunch, I wouldn’t eat it. If also she asked me to come to her restaurant, I’d suspect some kind of fraud is involved with the invitation and the lunch. I’d assume either the lunch was drugged or she’d yell “thief!” or demand some outrageous sum of money all of a sudden.

    I am a jaded, hardened, cynical old b***ard in that regard, I guess.

    I might even yell at her and tell her to get off my lawn.

    3-ep rule. Hestia is best girl so far.

    s_w
    1. I didn’t really think that the scene where Fyr gets Bell to come back to the bar was all that weird. But that’s probably because I saw it as a sales tactic to get more customers into the place. I don’t think he dropped that gem, Fyr uses it as a draw along with her lunch, then gets him to promise to come back and buy something. That’s why the owner plies Bell with so much food, food he didn’t even ask for. She gets her money back and then some from a customer who probably wouldn’t enter her store. Bell’s character, his naivete, just invites this kind of deception.

      Again this is just my view and I will be giving this anime the 3 Ep chance. I totally agree with you on that Bete scene by the way. It was way too forced and also left a bad taste in my mouth.

      Drock
    2. lol you know this is funny because I’m on sales and it is standard procedure to give incentives to customers to make them feel compelled to come back and expend their munnies. its particulary effective on naive young fellas looking at the hot sales girl doing the promoting. in our books he is an easy mark. the fact he is probably her type made it even better for her.

      vinnie
  14. Sigh, can we just wait instead of labelling something that hasn’t happened and hasn’t been explain properly yet as bad writing…
    Reserving judgment and early judgment are two different things

    Abdery
    1. No one’s really complaining about the world building or RPG elements at the moment (it’s the first episode after all), concerns have been raised, but IMO many of us are more than willing to give the show some time to expand upon them.

      The writing (i.e. the character scripts) however can be criticized at this stage because it’s one of two sources through which we are to be immersed in the story and characters (the other being the art). The pub scene is a prime example of poor characterization and a dilettante attempt to force the progression of our male MC’s interaction with Ais. Romantic developments lose a lot of believability when heavily scripted, even more so when pushed so early in the show where there has been little to no character development of either the male or female. Even for a harem romcom such progression can and should be handled better. Now things can certainly improve as mentioned, but such ham fisting as it is already does not lead to pleasant thoughts concerning later development.

      Pancakes
      1. While it was convenient, I thought it no more so than any other fiction around. Why would Gandalf use Hobbits? Why was Bilbo able to get the One ring? Gollum keep it for years? Why was the world sitting on its collective butts doing nothing about it?

        There are a lot of things in all fiction that happen because plot needs them to happen, or make it convenient otherwise plot would not occur. Pretty much anything involving drama & conflict ever makes things convenient to bicker instead of be reasonable.

        If I lifted suspension of disbelief, I’d believe the statements Ais had plenty of suitors, and is extremely picky about it and doesn’t want to date until she’s ready (or already in a relationship).

        It is a fantasy world with its own rules, so some people maybe lonely.

        Drasca
  15. Danmachi has a certain charm to it, that’s for sure. Maybe it’s the setting of the world that concentrates on adventurers or the very fact that it’s a world set apart on it’s own with it’s denizens all indigenous people that adds some flavor of classic fantasy to it, or maybe I’m just rambling, I don’t know :p

    In any case I enjoyed the first episode, but like most others felt the Bete scene left a really bad taste in my mouth for contrivance. One may put getting drunk as an excuse for the terrible scene and his ridiculously cliche behavior and lines, but it still grates on my nerves nonetheless. Very lazy writing for that part IMO, and I hope less of that appears as time wore on. It also makes Bell appear pretty weak mentally, for a drunken, stupid fool to cause him to run out and get his own brand of ‘drunkenness’ by beating up monsters out of frustration (though a frustration of good sorts due to its benefits).

    I have my gripes with Bell’s skill too as it feels a little OP and convenient way for him to level up quickly. There’s just too little shown at this point to be shown of Bell’s character so I’m reserving judgment on him. It’s good though, that he has that youthful energy because I’m hoping that likely translates into potential of growth as a character that will be realised as the show progresses.

    I disagree with using Gramps’ advice as a form of chauvinism Stilts, but pretty much concur on the other two points made. That could simply be part of what he experienced and how he met Granny as an adventurer, and thought to shared that experience with his grandson.

    It’s a great thing that the characters so far – with the exception of Bete – are quite likable. I don’t normally like loud, energetic lolis, but Hestia is growing on me a little. The one question I have is who was the one that Bell felt as he went to the dungeon. Is that perhaps a bit of foreshadowing of darker things to come in what seems like a standard, happy-go-lucky world?

    In any case, I enjoyed the first episode and will be sticking around for the next one.

    Owaranai
    1. can you “This Show is Doomed, Crap, Shit, Boring” and such. Kindly please keep your fingers in Check? Do not Ruin that for us. We have different likings, and want to find out themselves

      WorldwideDepp
  16. Hmm… chauvinistic? Really? I feel tempted to argue the _opposite_.

    I do accept your point that harem type shows have an implicit chauvinistic core. Multiple girls pining after the guy, who in this show is actually dedicated to really collecting a harem. So, this part checks out.

    But is this really how this show depicts things? I would say “no, not really”. If anything, this show reverses the roles.

    1) The guy didn’t rescue the girl, the girl rescued the guy

    2) Almost all of the truly powerful characters in this show (Aiz, several other characters from the Loki family that were briefly shown, the owner of the inn and some of the maids there) are all women. On the god side, it’s the same.

    3) Bete immediately got his @ss kicked after getting lippy

    4) Bell is treating all girls he is dealing with with politeness and respect. ALWAYS. His “goal” notwithstanding, he is pretty much a gentleman towards them.

    So, as you will see, chauvinists will have a real hard time here…

    Mentar
    1. Aye, and I did mention that it was to Bell’s credit that he seemed perfectly willing to flip his grandfather’s advice on its head, and pine after the girl who saved him. But a show can still be a shade chauvinist if its central message is “pick up a weak girl”, not only for what it implies about women, but how exploitative it sounds.

      But it could be a Sakurasou case, where the premise sounds horrible but the show turns out to be something else (and something better) entirely. And with some of the elements you pointed out as they are, I wouldn’t be surprised if that became the case! But until then, a duck is a duck, so I calls it as I sees it.

    2. Goose.

      He doesn’t seem to be after a harem, but in total admiration of just one girl– and probably in a non-sexual way.

      There was only one remotely chauvinistic statement, and by the grandfather in a flashback memory. If acknowledging the existence of such ideas makes the whole show chauvinistic, the japanese idea that the west is too overprotective of its women in fiction is completely true.

      Drasca
      1. Not a great argument, because Japan has one of the most chauvinistic societies on the planet, and probably the #1 most chauvinistic among first world countries.

        To be clear, I was just saying that one element was chauvinistic, and it rubbed me wrong. I worry that if that’s endemic of the story, it could be bad … but if Bell’s notable lack of chauvinism is more the flavor of the series, that’ll be great. Like with Sakurasou, it could be that first impressions based on the premise are a bit off. I’d be happy if that were so.

      2. “that the West is to strict overprotection his Woman is true”

        Well, you must understand. They distinguish of Child and Mature Woman. Try to understand, they overprotecting their Children, because for most of the Western audience these Girls look like Loli’s or under 18 Years old. That is the Abyss

        WorldwideDepp
      3. Western culture is hestitant / afraid to put women (of all ages) in any bad light or real peril at all. See Hookers in GTAV? — outrage from folk like Anita Sarkisan (I’ve misspelled her attention hogging name). There’s a demand for them to be ms perfect Mary Sues rather than characters with any flaws whatsoever — or only ‘socially acceptable’ flaws and perils.

        Part of the reaction is shown in how the viewers here reacted to cross ange and the rape in valvrave Episode 10. It was totally OK for most viewers for Haruto to be Mind-raped, but Saki being violated cried outrage and cringing everywhere.

        Drasca
      4. In Star Trek TNG, there where also an Mind Rape event, with Counselor Troy. If i remember right, and Men that can enter Memories of a person and rewrite them as him please. So he could exchange the memory of intimate with Lover face with his own and project his own fantasy in her mind. So in a way he done Mind rape.. So, this is not a “holy war” as you think

        as i said, most of the comments i read was about the appearance of the Females, that look to young or underage for them. Thats all, you do not need to bring the “gamersgate” into this discussion

        WorldwideDepp
      5. @anon

        Did you actually read the report, or is this a weak troll? The WEF Global Gender Gap Index is more or less an objective quantification of disparities between economic inputs versus outcomes between men and women in different countries. How you interpret the social forces that lead to these disparities is up to you—it just so happens that Japan has high racial homogeneity, but ‘racism’ is your reading—but the index does show that, as a ratio, Japanese women’s influence on their own political-economic landscape is relatively low. Men are still the dominant participants.

      6. No, I didn’t read it earlier, I took Stilts’s word for it when he said the report supported his racism.But since you brought it up I did read it now and I fail to see your point.If anything the WEF Global Gender Gap Index is racist towards a number of other countries and peoples, not just the Japanese people.Isn’t the inherent racism of ranking countries and by extension the people of those countries based on some arbitrary standards of whoever that wrote the report, self-evident?In case you didn’t know racism means discrimination based on race, which is obviously what the Index does.

        FYI feel free to dismiss what I wrote as trolling if you want, it doesn’t change the fact what I wrote was true.

        anon
      7. Oh boy, here we go.

        @anon

        No doubt Stilts can speak for himself about your circular logic regarding his evidence, but since I got myself into this drivel I might as well wade through it for a while longer. I’m only going to address your misinterpretation of the WEF index here.

        One thing we must make clear: an economy is not a race.

        Most economies, especially in our globalised age, involves the participation of a multitude of races. The WEF index does not care at all about that. It simply notes, with quantitative measurements, that men have higher participation and higher outcomes in certain economies than others. Plenty of sociopolitical factors could have created that gender disparity, and any inference of ‘race’ is completely on your part. Nobody is arguing that ethnic Japanese have a genetic disposition to gender segregation or anything along those lines. Nobody is arguing that the Scandinavians are ‘racially superior’ because certain countries scored higher on the index. The only conclusion is that for whatever reason Japanese society has been constructed in such a way that women do relatively worse in it.

        Furthermore, the argument that we cannot talk about cultural differences because you think that must be an issue of race, and that it’s discrimination, and that it’s racism, and that means it’s taboo, is completely asinine and not worth debating.

      8. I think you’re the one misunderstanding something here, not me.See even if you say an economy isn’t a race, economies aren’t some magical systems that exist by themselves, economies are built and maintained by people, people who among other things happens to have a race of their own.Unless you think people, along with their races, can be taken out of the economy and economies would still exist, saying ‘an economy is not a race’ is a very weak position.Even economies where people of multiple races participate are not some sort of race-less economy.

        Same thing with sociopolitical factors, neither social systems nor political systems exist by themselves, they’re creations of people, people who have races of their own, and those different people/races have different values and beliefs which in turn affect their social and political systems.If you took a minute to think about it, it should become self-evident.Even whoever that came up with the WEF index would have been subject to the values,beliefs and standards of his race which would have affected the design of his index.Even you yourself would have been affected.

        I never said it was taboo, that’s something you inferred by yourself.I merely pointed out the fact it was racist.Is it that difficult to understand making an observation about Japanese people while implying there’s something wrong with it, has an element of racism against Japanese people to it?

        anon
      9. Considering the context of this discussion you realize I could just as easily claim Stilts only sees chauvinism because he wishes to?Or your denial of racism is due to your own wishes?

        anon
      10. How is it irrelevant when that’s what got this whole conversation started in the first place?Granted I only used it as an example to point out the absurdity of your reply to me.And I can judge if something is racist or not too, after all the explaining of my reasoning I did after making my claims of racism, simply stating ‘WEF’s index is racially agnostic’ and expecting me accept it isn’t going to change my mind.If I wrote ‘anime are sex agnostic, interpret them as you will, chauvinism is just your interpretation of it’ would you accept?

        anon
      11. I see we aren’t getting anyway. Ah, well.

        @anon
        Believe it or not, I’m not actually Stilts. I only wanted you to actually read the WEF report, because it seemed like you hadn’t. Do not conflate discussions about the report with discussions about the anime. In any case, the WEF Global Gender Gap Index really is just a compilation of economic statistics. If you think those numbers are generated as a function of race, then the only argument you can have is that you dispute the methodology, which is completely your own affair by that point.

        …You have read the report, right?

      12. Yes I did.And it’s a bit more complicated than methodology though.The misunderstanding is mostly due your rather simple and shallow understanding of racial and cultural differences – to be blunt.

        anon
      13. Oy vei. What a can of worms.

        You can think of me what you will. I was speaking to their culture, not their actual attitudes toward either gender—it’s absolutely possible for a culture to think men and women are equal, and yet unknowingly do things that hobbles one or the other. I can think of many examples of exactly that happening in my own country.

        But like I said, you can think of me what you will. I did not intend for it to come off as racist, but if it did, I apologize. Now let’s get back to watching cartoons.

      14. Actually yes, if you had my ‘enlightened viewpoint’, as you put it, that index would be totally racist.And it’s not difficult to attain my ‘enlightenment’ just take a minute to seriously think about racial differences,values,beliefs,standards,morality,etc.If you did you’d realize racial differences aren’t just genetic there are vast differences in values,beliefs,etc. often they also have different religions and different concepts on what constitutes right and wrong.

        For an instance in this particular case Stilts claimed Japanese were chauvinists while clearly implying it was wrong, WEF’s index supported his claims, have you considered the possibility that Japanese people may see chauvinism as a good thing instead of a bad thing as implied by Stilts and whoever created the index?Isn’t implying that culture,values and morality of Japanese people are wrong, amount to racism?Why didn’t the author of that index rank countries with lesser gender disparity lower and one with greater disparity higher?Possibly because his values, which more often than not are derived from one’s race are different from the Japanese people’s(hypothetically)?Why didn’t Stilts imply chauvinism as a bad thing instead of praising it?Same reason?Indirect racism if you like, where instead of just saying ‘I hate Japanese people’ you pick a characteristic/trait/value/belief/norm of a different race and attack it instead, typically with a self-righteous attitude which stems from the morality of the race of the one doing the attacking or accusing in this case.

        @Stilts

        I don’t think there’s any need to apologize, for one I’m not Japanese and second I’m not offended or anything.It was more of a passing observation than anything although it doesn’t seem like I’ve gotten my point across.

        anon
  17. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

    Yes, yes it is when you already have a beautiful skimpy clothed goddess living with you that’s clearly interested in you, is nice and funny, does a lot of skinship, sleeps with you, cares for you, brings you food …

    eheh the denseness of the MC has always been one of the most bothering things of Japanese LN, manga, anime. The rest of the flaws you described, I can come to term with them if the characters at least are done right.

    That said, I’m still watching this 🙂

    Voyager
    1. To be fair, at least being dense makes sense for this character who is basically a child. Not even a teenager or young adult.

      It IS annoying though. I really like to see when the leads are actually capable of dealing with a relationship. Cross Ange did that. Confirming relationship and starting a new life together = win.

      Drasca
  18. When i first watch this series i thought this series is another online game anime like SAO and Log Horizon. Because y’know no monster will disappeared when get killed. Until this point i think it is a game based anime.

    The premise is just cliche, and common. I didn’t know what to expect from this series. But, 3 episode rule man. We didn’t know what we missed just like how i almost miss The Great JOJO. Give it a chance, and i will be back. 😛

    Shinwinds
  19. Chauvinistic? Almost all 90% of LN are that or worst.

    Thankfuly, here we got a guy that recognizes his own faults. Bell isn’t the “chosen one with legendary initial stats” (EG: Kirito), but he knows that he must level up. And the fact that he isn’t aiming for anything that has a skirt and boobs (EG: that arse in Sora no Otoshimono) makes him a nice MC, something amiss in this kind of stories. And Hestia is lovable, reason enough to give this the 3-eps Rule.

    SeedStriker
    1. chosen one with legendary initial stats” (EG: Kirito), but he knows that he must level up.

      Isn’t he? Kirito leveled in the first season after the timeskip through continuous daily and nightly grinding, but Bell gets extreme stat growth from episode one.

      I don’t mind that, but let’s not kid ourselves that Bell doesn’t fall into the ‘chosen one’ main protagonist pit. He’s just unaware that he has.

      Drasca
      1. The timeskip IS the problem. I wouldn’t mind if SAO grind the journey slowly and actually show details of the process, unlike timeskip and BUM suddenly he’s that OP loner guy in black. (Although the process as we have right now indeed would bore the viewers to death since he was just grinding alone in loop, but that is simply how storytelling options was chooswn)

        Dungeon at least did that aspect right. We have young naive guy with a specific motive (albeit silly) starting from zero, and a skill which is not really OP, logical (he WANT to get stronger asap so he got it) and also a simple yet useful method to quicken the storytelling. It’s much better than resorting to things such as timeskip and lol suddenly dual blades.

        Dungeon isn’t really without its own problems (repetitive tropes, the whole forced script of bar scene -note that I don’t agree with how maid inviting bell to eat dinner is convenient, it’s actually a clever marketing trick), but bell is decent and the core world is interesting enough to warrant at least several episodes trial.

        zeroyuki92
      2. You should check out the author Kawahara Reki light novels SAO: Progressive, which does deal with the slow build up filling in the time in the time skip. He hasn’t written everything, but the build up at the earlier levels is excellent reading.

        I understand the problems of the time skip and why it was done, that is an unfortunate consequence of timing of many elements of production schedule & sales (and lack there-of).

        I’ll admit I’ve seen the manga, and I like what I see. That’s about as spoilerish as I’ll get: That I like the series.

        Drasca
  20. its odd. or may i don’t see this correctly
    The Females in this male centric RomCom seem to have far stronger personalities that they are in anime shows directed towards girls

    trunkmonkey
    1. Maybe. Maybe not. One element rubbed me the wrong way where others don’t.

      I don’t think it being common means it shouldn’t be mentioned. In fact, it probably needs to be mentioned in that case. It’s wise to not forget things like that.

  21. Well, in why did this Maid found our MC so easy? Well, imagine this Waitress like these Maid-cafe flyer’s girls on the Streets of Akibarra, to lure customers into their Restaurants to empty their Wallets.. Like we where about to see…

    WorldwideDepp
  22. Geez. Lay off the preaching, especially since about stuff you clearly aren’t an expert in like buying an iPhone knowing they’re built by Chinese workers in horrible conditions who get paid next to nothing

    The same workers who earn more than their non-apple factory counterparts, and whose parent company admits to seeing fault, addressing the issue, and works toward making their supply chain better off. . . as opposed to all the other companies in denial or turn a blind eye to the people making their gear.

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/11/30/apple-and-foxconn-are-the-best-thing-thats-ever-happened-to-chinese-labour/

    Wages increased multiple times since Apple decided to step in. Don’t preach your nonsense, and check yourself before making automatic ‘off the cuff’ remarks. Your beliefs can be wrong and need re-examined.

    Drasca
    1. @ Drasca

      Don’t mistake a quip for something it’s not. I’ve worked in the electronics industry, and I’ve done business with Foxconn/Hon Hai many times, so I know exactly how that company operates (though to Apple’s credit, they would never have anything to do with the shady company I worked for … until Steve Jobs passed away, and suddenly they were willing to entertain our entreaties. Not a great sign, to be honest.)

      I was just using a common example (iPhones) for a more endemic problem (buying products made by people in other countries who don’t get paid shit). Apple might have made things better for some workers, and that’s great—but make no mistake, their workers still don’t earn much. An improvement it may be, but it’s still an example of the problem. iPhones are still made on the backs of underpaid Chinese workers, even if flatscreen TV manufacturers (or whatever) exploit them more.

      If I had said “like buying a Huawei set top box built by Celestica workers who get paid next to nothing”, I don’t think people would have gotten it, even if that example is more accurate.

  23. It wasn’t really discussed in this blog, but I really really love the music of this show. The music really aids and sells the mood without being overwhelming or forced. It is light-hearted and airy, fitting the tone of the show.

    Drasca
  24. Maybe it’s because I have less experience in watching these kinds of anime, but I found the leveling up/monsters disappearing/magic stones being dropped clever, as it is a clear indicator to the RPG-esque gaming kind of world they’re in. I’m definitely curious as to why these people continually head into the dungeons and why the world is structured this way, with the goddesses coming down, but I actually appreciated those details.

    Xix
  25. >Convenient, lazy writing. That’s the kind of writing that has me saying unkind things about light novels in general, even though there’s no reason they should be of lower quality.

    Thats more the issue of the anime tho, not the LN. The scene made much, much more sense and flowed a lot better in the LN. They pretty much cut out the back story and events leading up to that scene, so it felt stupid and out of place. Not sure why you bashing on the LN when it wasnt the LN’s fault per say

    Paco
    1. Granted, most of my experience with LN’s come from anime adaptation, so they problem could be that light novels don’t adapt into anime as well as manga do. But I can think of a ton of example of shifty magical-fantasy-action-harem light novel stories that just don’t seem to be written that well, with last season providing a plethora of examples.

      1. True that. But it was also upsetting that many people judged LN medium as trash only because most of recent LN adaptions are only adapting low-quality LNs. I’ve read several less-known LNs and some of them are much better than many western novels. Too bad since it’s unappealing to otakus they frequently got low to average sales.

        MrLoser
    2. Yeah, it is definitely disheartening to see light novels get a bad reputation because of some of them had poor adaptations or iffy source material. There are quite a few light novels that are really interesting and can hold a candle to novels and other literary forms. I think it’s just an unfortunate trend of anime to pander to the interests of people who like moe/harem romantic battle wish-fulfillment type stories, and it’s just a safe route for studios to do these kind of shows since they’re guaranteed to have some audience.

      chromenova
    1. That doesn’t necessarily make it feminist. For example, I never would have called Nanatsu no Taizai chauvinist, even though Elizabeth was, for much of the story, weak. (Diane being so powerful so early on helps, certainly.) It’s because she had agency, and both the story and the characters treated her with respect.

      Here, the main characters introduced so far all treat women with respect. Most of them are women, granted, but Bell certainly didn’t have a problem with strong women. It’s the story I worry about, embodied by the weird premise that extols the virtues of picking up a weak adventurer woman.

      As I said in other comments, it could be a Sakurasou problem, where the premise (and early indications) sound worse than they actually are. We’ll see.

      1. I worry about the story too, but
        . It’s the story I worry about, embodied by the weird premise that extols the virtues of picking up a weak adventurer woman.</I

        is the least of my worries, when the first part of the story reverses that premise and extols the virtues of having a flexible mind. Oh grandpa, I like dungeoning after all.

        Mountains out of mole-hills, and counter-arguement is stronger.

        Drasca
      2. You’re making a mountain out of a mole hill. The pick up girls in the dungeon thing is quite obviously a joke. And the joke is in favor of moving away from chauvinistic ideals. He did the exact opposite, and is chasing a stronger woman so he can be next to her. That’s as far removed from chauvinistic as possible.

        Regardless, this commentary isn’t appropriate. Leave your personal/social agenda out of it. Let an anime blog be an anime blog. Don’t infect it with this shit.

        asdf
      3. It’s the story I worry about, embodied by the weird premise that extols the virtues of picking up a weak adventurer woman.

        I think you’re reading far too much into that line of expository dialog from his past and not enough into the character’s current actions. Or, as one of my favourite TV writers just recently phrased it: “A quick reminder that backstory is not ‘character development’. Characters DOING SHIT is character development.”

        Within the context of the show, all that line really tells us is that his grandfather was probably a bit of a chauvinist; it doesn’t really tell us much about this character or the overall plot of the show and the character’s actions generally indicate that he’s not made of the same mould. It’s not like he’s running around Desert Punk style leering and making a pass at every girl he sees.

        There are far more interesting threads laid about to service the plot like:
        Why is the Greek goddess of home, hearth and warmth – formerly used to getting a small tribute at every sacrifice -down to a singular useless follower she’s obsessed with, working odd jobs, and holing up in the basement of a decaying church?
        What is the purpose of the dungeon?
        What is it about relations between the rival pantheons that would make it so hard for two sides champions to have a relationship of their own.
        What’s the deal with the eyes?

        Dave
      4. @ Dave

        “A quick reminder that backstory is not ‘character development’. Characters DOING SHIT is character development.”

        That’s a good point, and a good quote. I’m going to add that to my notes as a good reminder.

        @ asdf

        You might be right about the joke, but I won’t be leaving any of my feelings or opinions by the door just because this is an anime blog. To do so would be disingenuous. I’ll direct you to two posts by author John Scalzi, Why Yes, I Should Write About Politics and A Book Sale at the Cost of Your Conscience, which encapsulate the idea nicely.

        I don’t go heavily into politics or anything serious of the sort (except for dissecting storytelling elements, which are my JAM) because I’m frankly not interested in stuff like that. I’ve got more important things to do than argue politics. But if I see something that rubs me the wrong way, to not talk about it for fear of offending someone would be an act of cowardice. That’s not something I’m interested in being.

        You’re free to not read, of course, or if you think I might be going into something like that, gloss over the entire paragraph and go, “Guh, this guy.” Whatever, doesn’t bother me. But I’ma call ’em like I see ’em, even if it annoys people, and even if it turns out that I was wrong. I have no problem writing a post at the end of the season to say exactly that.

      5. You acknowledge that you don’t go into something because it doesn’t interest you, but have no problem forcing other things onto other people.

        This isn’t a matter of being a coward or a hero. You’re creating false dichotomies. It’s about recognizing what is relevant and what isn’t. And recognizing that you’re writing for an audience. Have some humility. You aren’t the arbiter of what is appropriate.

        Sorry, but you’re taking those links completely out of context. Those authors are coming from positions where they are writing their own story from scratch to their own audience. They are their own boss. Also, the article is entirely idealistic. It’s sophistry. It doesn’t hold up to the real world.

        It’s, as you are doing, creating a false dichotomy. It speaks of vows of silence. That’s bullshit. You treat people how you want to be treated. Do you want people preaching their religious, political, and gender views to you without regard? No, you don’t. Does that mean you take a ‘vow of silence’? No. It also doesn’t mean you’re sacrificing your integrity or being disingenuous. You’re having respect for other people.

        Getting back to the topic at hand. The worst thing about this is you’ve literally created this discussion out of nothing. It was a joke and just a joke. And a positive joke. You purported it to be something completely different. I can safely say I wouldn’t be writing this if there had been legitimate discussion within the anime about chauvinism and gender roles. It reeks of you looking for a reason to get up a soapbox and preach.

        Lastly, tone down the pretentiousness please.

        asdf
      6. This is getting a bit out of hand, on both sides. My opinion is that people should be allowed to talk about whatever they want, and it is my right to decide whether to listen to them or not—so while, if someone goes into what they believe up to a certain point, I usually find it interesting (or at least instructive), if they go on too long, I will certainly stop listening as well. It could be that our tolerance level is different, which is fine.

        I’ll take your suggestion under consideration. Please remember that suggestions are more likely to result in changed behavior or reexamination, whereas telling someone what to do is as much unwelcome as anything I’ve done. That just makes people get feisty, ya know?

        I doubt that’s something you’d like done to you. And before you say that I just did that, I only suggested you keep something in mind. Had you done the same—much like Dave above—I’da thought about it more.

        Either way, I hold no ill will! And it could have been a mountain out of a molehill thing, and it just struck me that way badly that particular moment, and in a few episodes it’ll be clear that I was wrong. We’ll have to see.

  26. I would say much of the problems with this series is due to the source material. mind you, I enjoyed the novel writing (presented significantly better than what we see in this first episode), but I found the world building to be lazy (heavily borrowing random stuff from games and myth without creating much cohesiveness), the protagonist seems boring for the most part (made me wonder if this was written for a VN), while the more interesting characters are used as supporting characters with a much smaller role in the story (hopefully this will change for the better in the anime). Having said that, if one’s expectations are not too high, this can be somewhat entertaining.

    x
  27. Bell’s seiyuu was quite different from what I imagined his voice to be like when reading the novels, but once the show started I got quite used to it and he actually sounded cuter than I expected.

    ZJZJ
  28. I think the general anime trend is that anything that involves RPG elements mixed with fantasy will get lots of hype/interest. (log horizon, sword art, this). I read a bit of the manga before, tbh it didn’t interest me enough for me to read the light novel of it. I may just give it some time to see if it gets interesting and less bland.

    chromenova
  29. Ep02:

    Show Spoiler ▼

    WorldwideDepp
  30. Ep 04:

    Yes yes, this Anime storytelling is doing all righty. me likes it. if you want easy Story Fantasy “slice-of-life”, aka Level up, creating bonds and such.. You should watch it. they even use someone to spice the Storytelling a bit up.

    This show is worth watching, comrades of RPG alike Animes

    WorldwideDepp
  31. Ep 05:

    Yes yes, even in Episode 5 you still keep me curious in how the story unfold next Episode. I must applaud you. You are a good Anime. DanMachi (for short) i like you

    WorldwideDepp
  32. ep 06:

    This Episode is full throttle on our Heart. This really touched me. Not the “Dark Stuff”, no the Men that do not want to let this small flame of Hope to extinguish, even if he put his Life on the Line. DanMachi i salute you.. I nearly shed a tear of Deep Emotion, you found the secret Path right to my Heart without the “Firewall”…

    Please continue to do so, you have my deepest Trust

    WorldwideDepp
  33. I was expecting a cliche harem anime and yes MC is building up a little harem of his own but I found myself enjoying this show. Anyway Random C should have blogged this series.

    zzzz
  34. Ep 07:

    Well, looks like they chossen to progress on the Story. But with the first Seconds and the Last Seconds, they gave for me the Red Line away.

    Show Spoiler ▼

    WorldwideDepp
  35. Ep 08:

    Okay, looks like this Time the Chief Cook put to many Salt in the Soup. The Entire Episode got ruined for me, with the “Guts” rising of the Boy. Afraid to the Bone, not capable of move your Body, where your supporter save your life. Not let a “Girl” let him save twice again, even if he admits he will get killed sooner or later. He is only there to buy time for the Supporter to flee…

    No, this suddenly Manly “Guts” rising is very salty. This is not the right time, to grown Manly Eggs for this Boy. This is the first time, where i get awkward watching

    So his Power is not for protecting someone, is it to show off in front of his crush? Bad choosing for me. true Power comes from protecting, not to show off how cool, strong, almighty i am

    Well, you wanted Bell-sama be the Hero, and you turn him into an Macho. Passing out on his foot standing.

    And, the mysterious “evil” Goodess, having an climax of lust, just wathcing him..

    Me, this Episode suddenly turn the Path in a silly and awkward direction for me. Bell-kun is no Team-player, he is not there to Protect. No he is there for selfish Reason, to show off

    Please someone kick his Butt for me…

    p.s. this is all my emotion. Your is surly different

    and since this Site is not follow the Anime, i do not need to hide it in spoiler, i think

    It gets an 8/10 from me, for showing off be an Macho…

    WorldwideDepp
  36. Ep 11:

    a Great Episode, the Heroic deed Bell-kun is doing in saving his Friends. But the Tide chance its flow when they arrive at Floor 18. The Tension drop and we are allowed to have a rest with our Bell-kun and Party.

    @Cherrie. My better in deep try to explain this Show from me, to you

    Perhaps his efforts to become stronger, his reliability, his Willpower. Thats the secret ingredients. That made the Ramen delicious for me, and looks like for some many others also. Not someone that taken Cheated Shortcuts, like SAO. A Boy starting from scratch

    WorldwideDepp
  37. Ep 12:

    This time they trow up the Black Mud of Humans dark side on Bell-kun. And i was right about Hermes-san
    I must say, i have nothing against Dark Sides, but this bucket full of Hate, was is really necessary for the Story Progression?

    WorldwideDepp

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