Review of High School DxD

What happens when you blend a mix of religious and mythological iconography, a whole lot of tits and panty shots, shounen-like battle scenes, and a good story into one series? You’ll get High School DxD. DxD is notorious in the anime community for being the poster child of all ecchi and harem series, being the go-to series for ecchi and harem lovers, it is well-received and beloved by many people and fans alike. From exposed nipples to panty shots and near full-on nudity, added with a great cast of characters and good comedy to accompany the show, DxD succeeds excellently where most harem and ecchiseries often fail. This review will be based off the English dub of the show and analysis of the first two volumes of the light novel series.

High School DxD is primarily set at Kuoh Academy, a former all-girls school that recently turned co-ed. The series follows a teenager named Issei, who is equally as perverted as his two companions, Matsuda and Motohama; they applied for the school in the hopes of getting some action. Issei is asked out for a date by a girl named Yuuma Amano, who turns out to be a Fallen Angel who is after Issei’s head. Issei is stabbed with a spear of light and is about to die, only to be saved by a red-haired woman. He wakes up the next day to then encounter another Fallen Angel who also stabs him with another spear. As he is about to lose consciousness, he is saved and resurrected by one of the academy’s hottest girls and the president of the Occult Research Club, Rias Gremory, who reveals herself as the one who previously saved Issei, and that she is a devil and Issei’s new master, thus beginning Issei’s journey of becoming a devil.

Season one of High School DxD adapts the first two volumes of the light novel series, which covers the first arc of the story, titled “The Red Dragon Emperor’s Awakening”, which follows Issei and the awakening of his sacred gear. Having read the first two volumes of the novels, this is a good adaptation in terms of the content of the story. The producers were able to stay faithful to the source material, as quite a bit of the exposition and world-building is translated over to the anime, though some info was left out, so I would recommend checking out the novels if you want to gain a better understanding of the world and its lore.

As previously mentioned, this series has some great characters. We start off with the main protagonist and the male lead, Issei Hyoudou. Issei is a hardworking and strong-willed character who is open about his pervertedness and his desire of becoming “the harem king”. Issei is highly valued by Rias as he and Asia are the “linchpins” of the group, since both characters hold the potential to become very powerful and useful in the future. Since it’s the beginning of the series, only Rias and Asia have begun to show affection towards Issei as he became involved in their issues, such as being rescued from the grasps of the fallen angels or breaking off an arranged marriage, many ecchi moments star either character whenever Issei is involved; marking the makings of a harem. Other characters such as Akeno and Koneko have yet to fully embrace him, and Issei’s relationship with Kiba is still a bit on the rocky side mostly because of his jealousy. Issei’s development for the first season is quite thorough, from events such as the trauma caused by Raynare that’ll effect his confidence and trust within girls in the long run, to his acceptance of his role in the group and the beginning of his training, Issei makes some big changes from humble beginnings as the series continues to progress. Compared to many harem protagonists, Issei is head and shoulders above most of them since he doesn’t have a skull as thick as lead, and that he actually wants to be in a harem, which he strives for; which can be seen as refreshing if you’ve seen a handful of harem and ecchi series with the same boring and bland male characters who easily gets flustered and chickens out of situations all the time.

Our main heroin and the head of the Occult Research Club is Rias Gremory. A woman with enormous breasts and a great figure, her most noticeable feature being her long, crimson-red hair, and for a lot of people, probably the main reason they started watching this show. She is someone who is admired by everyone at the academy, for the girls, it would be because of her looks and glamorous body, plus her ability to command and for her resounding confidence, and for the boys, it’s mostly just because of her looks and glamorous body. Rias acts as the big, older sister in the group, alongside Akeno, where she deeply cares about everyone and treats them as if they’re a part of her family. As a mentor to Issei, she takes great care of him and his training, providing him with valuable information and advice that will later prove to change his character and thought process throughout the series. Out of all the female harem protagonists, she is one of the best. One thing that makes her more tolerable and stand out more is that she actually gives consent; that she finds no issue in Issei seeing her naked or sleeping next to him and letting him cop a feel if he asks for permission. You would mostly see the opposite happen in many ecchi shows, where the female character lashes out and punishes their love interest, so whenever we see Rias in the nude and being affectionate with Issei, you can almost, if not, be enviable of Issei and think how lucky he is.

There are a few other characters in the group that are also worth mentioning. There is Asia, once a member of the church, she has now become a part of Rias’ group thanks to Issei’s efforts. She is adorable and affectionate towards Issei, often getting jealous and trying to compete with Rias for Issei’s attention when something lewd occurs. There is Akeno, the other older sister of the group and the right hand to Rias. She enjoys getting off to the pain and screeching of her opponents, meaning she’s a sadist. She also has a great body that is similar to Rias’, and we’ll have to wait further on in the series for her character to gain more development. There is Koneko, the club’s mascot and Issei’s underclassman. Whilst she looks small and frail, she has monstrous brute strength that can easily take down most opponents, she is also very cold towards Issei since she finds his perverted nature disgusting and intolerable. And finally, there is Kiba, the knight of the group and the other male member of the club that we know of. Even as he has a very big fan base full of female students who adore him, he doesn’t bother any of them since he’s gentlemanly and pristine and his only desire is to serve Rias as her knight. As the seasons goes on and as more characters are introduced, the bonds between Issei and the rest of the club will only deepen through hardships, training, and lust.

For a surprise, this series, an ecchi and harem series just so you know, has a storyline, and a good one as well. This season acts as an introduction to the franchise as it tries to reveal more information of the world of DxD and to build a bigger picture for the viewers. In this world, we are introduced to three groups: the devils, the angels, and the fallen angels. The three groups once raged a massive war that left all of them in ruins and barely surviving, now they are in the process of rebuilding. The series takes inspiration for its lore from the Bible, Ars Goetia, and many other religious, mythological and non-fiction books as different groups and individuals that are mentioned there are used to represent different characters and families and their powers in this series. For an ecchi series as noticeable as DxD for it’s raunchiness and ecchi scenes, it has an expansive world that is deep and rich in lore. As more exposition and more about the people we see continue throughout each season, we see how much thought and planning was put into development thanks to the author of the novels. Though it’s just a beginning for the series, this season does well in developing the world and the many groups of characters in all three of the factions, especially the beginning of the master-servant relationship between Rias and Issei. Check out the novels as they provide a more detailed explanation.

One of the drawbacks for this season is the animation. For a 2012 show, the animation and the fluidity of character movements can only be described as “bog standard”, with maybe one or two decent moments somewhere in the mix. Despite there being quite a bit of fighting, though it technically isn’t classified as a “shounen” series, the animation made it a little bit underwhelming, action-wise. Though some of the scenes were emotional thanks to the music and the voice actors, you could see there wasn’t much of a budget for this show to begin with. Even with the low-grade animation, the artwork is still quite nice, though it doesn’t completely match the artwork of the novels and their illustrations, the studio did alright on the character designs. The main focus of attention would be the characters’ bodies and the nudity, as that’s where most of the budget went to (probably). The background art, as well as the art for the buildings and the lighting/shading of each location was well produced, and it fits the series quite nicely, so I don’t have much complaints for the art. I would also add that the eye-catchers in the halfway point of each episode were an added bonus if you’d like to see the girls in different erotic poses and clothing (and/or lack thereof).

Another eye-catcher would be the opening and ending. The animation for both OP and ED feature the girls doing very seductive dancing and body movements, added with the feature of them being nude or in very sexy lingerie. I would say the opening song matches the emotions of what happened during the 12 episodes, whereas the ending is more of an upbeat and fun song to listen to. There is nothing special about the OSTs as well, though they do fit each situation and are used properly. I have no complaints with how the music is used in this series.

For this series, I watched the English dub instead of the subbed version. Out of all the dubs I’ve seen so far, this has to be one of the best performances, definitely in my top 10 dubbed anime. The performances from the voice actors were well done, though I would stress that if you want a more serious dialogue and better performance that sticks closer to the source material, then watch it in Japanese, otherwise, if you want to have some fun and enjoy all the humor that the dub is able to pull off, then I would highly recommend watching it in English. This series is top-tier ecchi. If you want to treat yourself to some good eye candy and good comedy, then this series is for you. If you like good characters or want a new best girl, and if you want to explore something new such as an ecchi harem series with an actual story, then you should definitely watch High School DxD.