Review of High School DxD Hero

First impression Well to start with, this time I won’t warn you to close the door (see my other 3 review of DxD). And that says a lot. This is a series of reviews of the High School DxD franchise. In this review I add my previous comparisons. Because season 5 isn’t out yet I make this review a conclusive one. As a vivid DxD fan I’m disappointed in season 4 “Hero”. The new animation style was so weird and I couldn’t get used to it. The girls felt more bland and dead. Somehow they knew to remove the main focus (boobies and sexiness) and went all outfor a plot which actually didn’t matter in the first place. If you like High School DxD, you know exactly why you like it. It seems season 4 killed most of the likeable aspects.

Likes and dislikes
What I liked about High School DxD Hero, well not much actually. This show has betrayed itself and backstabbed its fans. But here are some positive aspects. The anime closely follow the main story line of the manga. I didn’t read the manga but I know that the way of telling a story is important to let a manga live. DxD Hero focused so much on plot building that they actually turned it in a generic shonen anime, so if you’re into that, go ahead.
The jokes however are not all bad. On top of that they introduced a more interesting side character Sairaorg. The new moves booblingual and the old move dress brake are still amusing and are actually being used tactically. That was a nice surprise.
Sometimes I got some goosebumps and the show knows how to hype me up, but only for a bit.
What I disliked in the previous seasons is that Asia just ruined every moment with Issei and a girl and acted as a big cock block. Luckily that kinda stopped in this season. Koneko became cuter and I’m rooting for her to become a full blown cat girl. They added Senko to the harem (you can also see her boobies).

What I disliked. Well to be frank, the whole show. Okay this sounds a bit harsh, I had minimum enjoyment so that actually a plus. What made DxD so great in the previous seasons? It’s surprisingly mature art style, the girls who loved and doted him and of course boobies. So producers AT-X decided to throw all of that out.
They overhauled the animation style which turned out to be bad. Rias looks droopy and uninteresting now. Whenever there’s much action or a fight, the screen gets a dark shade over it. This looked like the quality was dropping and the movements weren’t fluid. That was disappointing when AT-X animated Interspecies Reviewers where the action was good.
As I said before, plot development got prioritized and that lead to character neglection. They forgot that the plot develops around the characters and not the other way around. The reactions felt scripted and not genuine. And heavy plot development doesn’t fit in the style of High School DxD.
Lastly I think that all the characters became to cheesy. They’re lines became generic and predictable. Studio Passione may be corrupted by modern anime.
Lastly I have some “what the fuck” moments while watching season 4. Is the whole oppai dragon show a joke? Meant to be funny? Well no. You Issei was much more funnier while being a lucky pervert. NOT A FUCKING KIDS SHOW.

Story wise
If you’re looking for more plot and shonen battles DxD Hero is more your pick. This show is not bad if it would be a standalone anime, but this season lives in the shadow of the previous seasons (especially 1). The development went fast so there wasn’t unnecessary dragging or fillers. It went so fast that they just skipped over some character development like that form Koneko or Kiba their new powers. The actions of the main characters follow up logically so they didn’t screw up this part. The only downside is that so many thing are going on at the same moment that the whole plot feels messy. It is like real life where you have multiple things going on and it feels messy.
This isn’t exactly a romance anime but to see a character as dense as Issei just shocked me as a veteran weeb. To not know what Rias wants and just think “oh she care about us all” sounded so stupid. That was a disappointing fact to see after 4 seasons.

Animation/art
I’m going to say this again. The animation was shit. There were to many Dragon ball standoffs and less awesomeness going on. In the previous season you could feel the awesomeness in every move or transformation from Issei, well that’s gone. There’s also a weird filter which makes movement blurry and the whole screen more dim. The immersive feeling is gone with this new animation style.

Sounds and VA
VA wasn’t super bad and the music stayed the same but it was way less subtle. It just kicked in or disappeared. This also happen in previous season but it was way more natural. I’m still glad that they didn’t use awkward sounds effects like some shows

Special side notes or comparisons
Season 5 is confirmed and I’m looking forward to it. I hope the new development between Issei and Rias finally takes off and that the other girls gets their fare share without Asia being bothersome.

Last word
In the end it felt like I watched the show as obligation to finish the series rather than for enjoyment. I sat there with half a smile. It was funny yet not amusing. The action was somehow neglected. Familiars are entirely forgotten. They better make up for it in season 5 and show some boobies.

Thank you for reading this all, this is my first allout review.