Review of High School DxD

**Disclaimer** I think that it should be fairly obvious that this review is going to have spoilers of Highschool DxD seasons 1 - 4 (as of the 2020 edit). There MAY be some spoilers in which I relate some things to HxH or other anime so beware of spoilers for that. I think it is best that you watch these anime before reading this review, after all, I did rate them a 10/10 on MAL. Ok, let’s start by talking about the masterpiece that High School DxD is. First off if you are part of the public that literally just looks at the cover art or firstepisode and is like “REE THIS IS HENTAI IM NOT WEIRD!” First off, fuck you, u prob watch anime because it’s a trend or you’re just a spineless fool who lacks the capacity to think individually. High school DxD is a show that one must watch for both kinds of plot.

Imagine that you are at a restaurant, a high-quality one, and you order something as basic as pasta with tomato sauce. Yet despite its very common and basic look, taking a bite you feel a rush of flavor, the different ingredients of basil and rich texture, and viscosity of the sauce all working together to leave your mouth craving for more. This is what DXD is, an anime that may not be eye appealing to a commoner’s eye, but only for the exquisite.

Now not to go too much into my origin story, but DXD is the anime that I watched that got me into anime. And yes, I was a 10th-grade horny mofo who wanted to see something other than the “regular” and found DXD on some like “top 10 hottest anime” or some shit like that, BUT if DXD was really that bad, I would have just watched it for the parts and left. But DXD stuck with me, it allowed me to look at anime with a different “lens” and actually give it a shot.

I’m now going to discuss the first’ ish episodes to set a theme/tone for how DXD is set up so that you (the reader) hopefully watch DXD. The episode starts off by describing the MC Issei who is a perverted teenager talks about how he doesn’t have a girlfriend. Low and behold some random ass girl asks him out, takes him on a date and BAM, the dude gets fucking skewered by said girl who turns out to be a “fallen angel”. In comes main girl, Rias, whos a devil and resurrects MC-kun, into a devil. And thus we follow the story of Issei’s life as a devil. Pretty self-explanatory, and sets up a good anime. Think about it, this is how Tokyo Ghoul essentially started and people literally jerk off to that in their cosplay Ghoul masks, just add a couple of tits here and there and you got the same starting.

The writing for DXD is so good, and so memorable so much so that I still remember the names of almost all characters and could tell you what episode number a scene is from. You may be surprised but DXD actually has plot beyond its “plot”. The storyline follows Issei’s devil journey and you can see that essentially every tag that is on MAL applies to DXD to some extent. It has “mecha-like” moments and “horror” moments, yet in contrast, has love and adventure and action. I personally believe that dxd has something for everyone.

Character breakdown is so easy for dxd as characters who are introduced are so memorable as they are given actual backstories that relate to the main story. There are no filler episodes because everything is relevant. The main harem of:

Issei: main character, posses red dragon emperor inside him. Perverted but caring

Rias: main girl, is both main lover to Issei, and acts as a role model, as well has a background that connects to the struggles that Issei has to overcome (as such in season 1)

Akeno: best girl, has a back story (that I wont get into because she is best girl and I am not spoiling that) but her back story relates to what happens in season 3, where the relationship she has develops the ending of season 3

Koneko: cat girl, also another girl who has an impact on season 3 with her relationships,

Kiba: another male in dxd, DXD is so good in the way that they are able to incorporate male characters into the story of a harem king (DW he’s not gay) but his story is literally the driving force behind essentially all of season two

Asia: she is introduced at the start is the “kinda” main girl, she is the catalyst of season 1

Now obv there are many other characters, all of which are memorable and i can describe, but what the point that i get at is that these characters u see throught the Anime, Manga, or LN that they have a significant background who have an impact on the story. As viewers, you are put the lens of each character. Sure most anime’s just focus on the view of the main character, in this case Issei, but dxd looks at the perspective of the girls and the other dudes presented in the story. In fact, we as viewers are seen the motives behind the villains that are presented, and we see how there are relations. As everything is a closely-knit web, intertwined with everything else.

Power levels and training and working hard are something that one may criticize in an action anime like this. I think that DXD covers the idea of power scaling very well. It is not like shows where friendship wins all, and the fights are not predictable, in fact, we see that Issei loses many of the matches that he fights. I am going to draw a connection to HXH where Gon throws away his life essentially for power. This scene is something that many fans literally nut over and are like “oh gon has to do this as reflective of his anger”, but this is literally what happens in DxD. Probably not to the same extent of throwing one’s life away, but sacrifices are still made. Literally, issei gives up his hand in the first season for power at the CHANCE of winning, again has to break the bracelet in the second season to achieve full power, and literally cuts his life in half over the rage transformation that he does in the 3rd season. You cannot be criticizing that there was not any power level broken because if one thing is obvious, it is the fact that DXD takes inspiration from other anime, so to say that it is bad a particular scene is to essentially say that that scene in the anime is bad. You can argue that “IT’S NOT WRITTEN THE SAME” or “IT FUCKED IT UP” but it is essentially the same. DXD is a work that was particular in what parts from different anime that it was selected. Not to say that it was a copy, but that it was an influence. For all, Issei literally dies in one episode, like flat out dead and we see the reactions of other characters because that is the keystone that he plays.

I’m not gonna lie, dxd is very based on the fan service but even that has its role to play in describing the characters further. The very fact that Issei’s power-ups are literally derived from Rias is an accurate representation that this anime isn’t one to be taken so seriously, and that the joking mildly sexual remarks are part of the character. Most of the anime is serious and is focused on the plot of “fight between gods” and shit, so an occasional titty is not something that can be marked for.

Also in regard to the sexual nature of the show, you have to take into consideration the target of this show. It is very clearly marketed to boys in high school, or at least to kids who are going through puberty. You can’t roast a 9-year-old for watching Minecraft videos because that is literally who its target audience is. But this does not mean that as an 18 y/o or fuck 100 y/o cannot enjoy the show. Fuck even if your gay, you can enjoy the show for its content. There is content and to overlook that by the fan service, you are actually retarded.

Sticking with my MAL rating system tho,

The animation is fucking beautiful, fight scenes are as well animated as they are during the ecchi scenes. I am not going to lie, there are parts where fight scenes in Naruto the quality just significantly drops, like the scene itself is good, but the animation is compromisable. DxD has really good animation, up until season 4.

Sound is very good. HS DXD OST is very fitting to the scene, I can name many of the OST, some personal favorites are Tsumari wa Oppai des, and Shouri. The OP’s and ED’s are also very catchy and memorable. This also includes season 4 (surprisingly).

Personal ranking OP’s go: S2 1, S2 2, S1, S3, S4

OVA: The OVA episodes are very clearly borderline hentai, I am not going to lie about that, after all the whole point is fan service and to give a reward to those who bought the DVD Version. The OVA’s look into training of Issei at points and some of the full 24 min episodes cover “side assignments”

Hmmm, I’ve already said what the plot and characters are like so ig that’s covered.

Flaws: To show that I am a fair judger, I will indeed point out flaws that DXD has, like every anime

Now you may be wondering why I am saying such things about season 4. Watching DXD in what 2017-8? Season 4 was not out yet, and when I saw that the animation studio had changed, I was not going to lie I was very disappointed. The animation (from the trailer) I could tell went from being an actual anime studio to like Pink Pineapple. Not saying that their shit is bad, it slaps, but dxd animation went from Anime studio level to Hentai studio level with a small budget. The reason for this change was due to a multitude of factors such as the cost, especially with ecchi anime, it’s not common to see more than a 2nd season, so a 3rd season was really pushing it. But the main issue that I have heard is that the company responsible for making s3, rushed the ending and included a power up from a later point in the LN, which did not match the setting for what the power level was meant for that arc. This is why the start of season 4 has an episode 0 which essentially overwrites the last part of season 3.

Season 4 in general lacks the same “flavors” and coherence that season 1-3 provides. The plot is average at best, and at one point, I dare say that it is comparable to Darling in the Franxx ep 17. (yes that anime is so dog shit literally getting raped in the brain by 02 saying Darling for the 1000th time).

Also DXD has “power ups” every 6 episodes, like an evolution of sorts, but the major evolutions happen at the end of the season. I think that part needs to chill.

Summary:

Overall, I enjoyed DXD, and it will always be my number one anime. It literally introduced anime to me and made me watch the other anime’s. There is literally a girl for everyone’s type. You really can’t shit on an anime like DxD because it’s an ecchi harem that has managed to get 4 seasons and possibly a 5th as of 2020. It has literally defied culture and has shown proof that it is worthy of still being prevalent despite being an almost 9-year-old series. Though I did not like DXD Season 4, I still plan on watching season 5.

Watch High school DxD.