During my time in the anime community, one popular series has come up from time to time: High School DxD. Whatever it is, it seems to be one of the most beloved light novel series on the market. Despite my amazing track record of not liking popular things, I decided to read the first volume anyway (since Yen Press FINALLY got the licensing for it). Let’s see what I’ve gotten myself into.
In High School DxD, a boy named Issei Hyoudou dreams of having a harem. After he’s attacked by a fallen angel (you know, normal stuff), he is revived as a demon by the school idol, Rias Gremory (who is also a demon). Issei becomes her servant, and joins the occult research club to fight fallen angels, regular angels, and rogue demons alike. Most importantly, a lot of his co-workers are beautiful girls.
If there are any negatives right off the bat, it’s that DxD isn’t too interesting in terms of ideas. This isn’t the first time that a high school student gets recruited into a secret club to fight Biblical monsters, and it’s not the first time this has been done in ecchi either. They do try to spice it up by attributing their abilities to chess, but it’s not the first time that’s been done either.
Like a lot of ecchi, what DxD needs is sheer entertainment value, and so far… it’s kind of in the middle. The best part has been the writing. Issei narrates the story in a fast-reading, over-the-top manner that comes off like Konosuba before it was cool (DxD came out before Konosuba in Japan). There’s a lot of personality in it, and that’s something I can be grateful for.
Another oddity is that DxD isn’t that ecchi yet. The only really scandalous thing that happens is in the beginning, where he wakes up in bed with Rias cuddling him. But other than that, there are next to no panty nor accidental breast gropings. It feels more like a battle shounen than an ecchi series.
The characters end up being kind of weak. While Issei is a good narrator, he isn’t particularly interesting. He’s your usual ecchi protagonist who saves all the waifus and is painted as “righteous and stuff” even though he’s merely a perv. The women are pretty standard: Rias is sexy, Koneko is a loli, and Akeno is chill. There’s also another dude in the club, named Yuuto, but he’s kind of just there. They also introduce a nun named Asia, and she ends up playing this volume’s role of “waifu who needs saving” and isn’t that interesting.
~~~~~
Verdict: 7.5/10
High School DxD is not terrible, but it’s nowhere near the god-tier status that its fans imply it is. As of this volume, I can’t recommend the series yet. I feel like there are a large number of better ecchi and battle shounen out there. Well, there’s twenty-four volumes of this thing left, so there’s plenty of time for DxD to improve!
Weeb Revues 