High School DxD - High School DxD Hero

Before this season aired avid viewers already knew that it was going to be produced by a different animation studio than the one that had produced the previous three. The style of the artwork changed (for the worse) and had already been noticed before the first episode had aired by almost everyone who had seen the posters for this fourth season. I remember the sheer dread I felt when I feared that those beautiful and uncensored (yes High School DxD always offers an uncensored version) oppai would never be the same again... In other words, this season was expected to be a disaster, and in the end, yes it was, even though I would not say it was not as much of a disaster as everyone had feared. The details in the artwork are worse and they are very visible in some situations, for example on the faces of the characters, which is a real shame even though I do not think it is such an issue to recognize the old familiar faces. As for the main concern, the oppai are still the oppai, they are given a lot of attention just as they were in previous seasons and they are still nice and round and pink and ... well, even Passione animation studio understand the main reason why half of its audience are fans of this show. At the same time, despite all that, the new version of High School DxD has once again convinced me that it still remains the king of the ecchi anime genre. It has at least two scenes (involving the wardrobe in the first half and the changing room in the second half) that are really erotic and interesting even in animated form, which I can only say sporadically with ecchi anime series (probably mostly because I usually know exactly what is going to happen and when the scene is going to get cut off...). Plus, I still find most of the characters likable, and that includes the main male protagonist! This is another great miracle because I probably dislike around ninety-nine percent of the main male protagonists from ecchi anime series, and I absolutely despise a significantly large number of them (especially the one that has nosebleeds and collapses). However, how could I not like Issei Hyoudou? He is a creep who is not ashamed of being a pervert and is despised by the majority of the females at his normal school. But he is in fact the greatest hero in the demon world, the "Oppai Dragon" who is everyone’s idol, including small children... On the one hand, it is so stupid it is quite amusing, although, on the other hand, there are a lot of scenes where you can root for Issei as he is really impressive. He is just fearless, and the only ones who stop him from getting some real "action" are the screenwriting dudes, or rather the mangaka behind the original it is based on. The narrative of the fourth season could be divided into two sections, the first part being the school trip which introduces a couple of new characters, and was basically just a typical storyline which is nothing new for this anime series, and then the second part where there was a battle between the clans again. The show also featured a strong attempt to deepen the intensity of the relationship between the two main protagonists, which of course a lot of people who really love the harem vibe resented. It is as if they are not aware that a harem can exist even if the main guy has one favorite, as long as the others respect her and the Harem Master does not show too many special favors too often... Plus, Issei needs Rias, and the fact that he has intense feelings for her, I mean, is he in love with her? I say this because of course, he loves all of his girls in his own way, he just loves each one in a different way. This is normal, every time we fall in love it is never the same as the last, each time we love someone it is a little different than the last (which often leads to comparisons and therefore problems...). So it was just necessary for the main protagonists to work out their relationship, as everyone around them knew about it anyway, some other girls did not even care, and it motivated others to try harder. So this part was not a bad thing, quite the opposite... However, enough of this, I am philosophizing over an anime series about a dude in red dragon armor chasing after boobies and mostly not grabbing hold of them anyway... Well, at least it is clear that I am still a fan of High School DxD, and even though there are more shortcomings I could list, I still cannot help but say that even this time it was an experience worth 7/10. (05/07/2018) (less) (more)