Ah...first review of the year, and that means many more opportunities; opportunities to be surprised at what entertainment out there exists. When it comes to surprises, Highschool DxD is another jewel up there with "anime that should have gone off the deep end on slutty T&A fanservice, but actually has a lot to give to the viewer as a story and likeable characters" like Cat Planet Cuties. Basically, if you're going to recommend a sexy anime that has fanservice AND a story that may be better than you were expecting (whether or not it's cliche or typical) you should give Highschool DxD a try and I'm going to tell you why.
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| No guy EVER wants to get caught by his parents on this situation. And yet, Rias (the red head) manages to help our protagonist Issei (the guy pictured here) from getting into big trouble. |
~ Seriously, why is High School never this awesome? ~
I'm so glad that whenever I decide to take a gamble on certain ecchi(Anime that have a strong emphasis on fanservice) that I seem to have a good record with coming across satisfying and new favorites. It happened with Cat Planet Cuties, it happened with Freezing, and now it happened for the third time in a row with Highschool DxD...and that's saying something considering the initial vibe on the first few episode would probably tell you otherwise.
For one thing, it starts out as a lot of anime in this genre would: a male protagonist is lonely, by himself, and known by other female students in his school to be perverted. Before I go any further MAY I ASK WHY? Is this a Japanese thing where women are so completely inept at figuring out/accepting that guys in their teens are horny an thinking of women, or is the mere subject of it not only taboo but a means to criticize? I don't get it. This is coming from the #1 country on the planet that's known for perversion AND population issues: why do they make series where girls are always bitching about how guys are turned on so much?
Okay, rant over. That being said, Issei starts out like many a typical anime heroine. He has a few friends and they talk over about how they're checking out new porn or hotties in school. It is immediately then known that I AM GLAD the anime never has much screentime with Issei's friends. Why? They're completely insufferable.
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| "Man I hope we aren't forgotten and replaced by much cooler characters!" |
I do not know if it's merely a scripting transition (IE: the dubbing) or how they were played up in the original Japanese but...the way his friends talk really bug the shit out of me; handling any talk about women with the subtlety of a white shark with a laser on top of its head. Calling girls objects LITERALLY such as "hot pair of tits", "poon", "piece of ass" and basically speaking in that lame 'I'm a white guy' version of ebonics when they are obviously not cool or capable of pulling it off well is just.....ugh. I know they are written to be the "lonely, nerdy friends who are addicted to porn" but their mannerism and how they talk about any females just irks me. To top it off they play to a T the trope of "we're all lonely and horny so we should stay this way forever but the minute one of us guys gets a girlfriend we have to be sad about it and then pissed off at said friend".
Again. I'm glad these losers are mostly forgotten in the grand context of the story because I can't stand them.
But enough of that! Life for Issei is normal, and each day he gets a glance at one girl who keeps grabbing his attention for her beautiful, long red hair: Rias Gremory. He doesn't know anything about her, other than that she's beautiful.
He's approached one day after getting a glance of her by some mysterious girl who hands him a card of which will 'grant him his any wish'. He doesn't know what to make of it, so he just goes about the rest of his day without thinking about it. Little does he know things go a bit wayward when he's approached by a girl out of nowhere (one he doesn't even know at that) who asks him outright to be his girlfriend. Considering he's lonely as it is, and can't resist a cute face, he says 'yes' and *bam* Issei's dating...of all which brings much detriment to his friends' moods.
But after some unknown time later when he goes on a date with this mysterious girl is he pushed into a scary spot: on a date she asks him a favor to literally DIE for her. AS SUCH the girl transforms, revealing herself to be a 'fallen angel' and kills Issei on account that he 'has something very dangerous lurking inside him'. But thankfully Issei doesn't die, and wakes up the next day thinking it was nothing more than a very lucid dream. His day continues to get weirder when his girlfriend has 'vanished', and so her mere existance as well: his Issei's friends don't remember her at all and her personal information is deleted from his phone.
Fast forward some time later, Issei is targeted again by another fallen angel because he's still alive, and is such revived again the morning after to find out exactly who it is that's been bringing him back from the brink of death...
...and ooh~ la la, it's been Rias the whole time! Waking up (and freaking out because there's a naked girl in his bedroom no less) Issei finds out she's a devil, and as such has brought him back from dying because she wants him to become her 'pawn'...which basically translates to being her servant. As such, he's also a devil as well...and the beings that tried to kill him before are also enemies of devils. Later that same day Rias explains that with him being a devil now he will have to work under her in gaining contracts with humans by completing jobs/tasks that people that summon him for. Through this, Issei also comes to find out that several people he knows going to his school are ALSO devils. The meat of the story is whether or not Issei can handle the new life he is given by being a devil; eternally aligned with Hell itself, and learning his new abilities that he's been given (the power that he was sought out for in the first place by the fallen angels). But throughout this Issei also ends up coming to not only become a bigger man focused on more important aspects of his life as it goes on, but developing actual feelings for a certain red head.
...and thus we have our plot.
~ Those tits have to be that big to hold all that power. ~
Going past the plot, Highschool DxD is deceptive. It's presented as a harem ecchi series but has ONE major pairing that's outright hinted at throughout the 12 episode season...and despite that finds a lot of time to give a decent story with characters that evolve. When Issei starts, for example, he's constantly thinking about getting laid or wanting to play with boobs. He's thrown into this world of being a devil and now has to act more responsibly. The viewers get a chance to see him go from some loser who does nothing but think with his cock to a guy that grows a few skills of his own after training as Rias' pawn who MAY, from time to time, act pervy just to mess with his lady friends.
Although that can be due to how laid back Rias Gremory herself is. From the get go she not only knows she's beautiful, but has 0 issue with Issei's constantly wavering gaze on her body or his antics. Whether it's literally offering to readjust her posture so he can get a better view of her body, or giving him a boob grope reward if he complete a job for her, Rias is practically the most laid back and relaxed sexy girl I've seen in a series to date and that makes her attractive on a whole other scale. But because she's not just a simple one-note girl, you also learn she has a big conflict that's swirled around her head for years so she's not always sunshine and rainbows...but that she is able to be so caring (when needed) and sexy (when she wants) is one step away from perfection. Now if only she liked video games...ahem.
The side characters that Issei meets through Rias' group of fellow devils are also notable and all get their time to shine...as much as any 12 episode run would allow that is. Koneko is ALWAYS seen munching on something and is a tiny body that has the power of a tank (also providing the 'loli' atmosphere)...and while she takes a lot of time to throw a monkey wrench into every time Issei decides to act like a creep she also really cares for him. Yuto, a guy who Issei originally thought was a smug prince-like jerk, is a fellow devil who is actually a big supporter of him. Other than being a much more mature and supportive friend than Issei's losers from the start of Episode 1 and part of Episode 2, Yuto is a swordsman with the ability to create as many magical swords as he wants.
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That all being said, looking at this cast of characters can easily show one why Highschool DxD would be..at the very least INTERESTING to watch. For all the focus it has on action (because trust me, there's quite a bit of it: well animated too!) there's an equal amount of titular screentime of boobs...and EVEN THEN the focus on that goes down more as the series goes on and well...I find that acceptable. Most of the time when people hear or see anime with a focus on fanservice it's easy to dismiss those series because well, there's nothing more to it than some dumb reason for the ladies to get topless...and...I'll be frank it IS rather hard to take some anime seriously when ecchi is a selling formula. However you have to remember: in Japan their way to humor is big boobs. When tits are involved it's usually for comedy instead of titillation.
But if one were to give Highschool DxD a try I think you'd come out satisfied. It has a good dub cast (with the sexy Jamie Marchi doing the voice of Rias), a protagonist who DOES grow throughout the show, nice animation that, while standard it gets the job done, and a good arc of story for the 12 episodes that are out for the first season. As of this writing, Highschool DxD is available to watch on Funimation's website and Hulu Plus: please choose to support the anime industry by watching the episodes there or giving a few episodes a purchase/stream wherever anime is sold digitally (video game systems, mobile devices etc).
Meanwhile, I personally want more of this series. It gave me what I wanted, and more and..well..who can deny such a beautiful, sexy red head?
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