Asia’s getting settled in now and it’s not exactly what Issei thought it’d be like.
What They Say:
New living arrangements are made for Asia, who has been living in the club’s room. Meanwhile, Issei begins a new training regimen with Rias to improve his physical fitness. Asia begins attending school, where she is placed in Issei’s class.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With things having been settled out a bit between the gang with Issei being instrumental in saving Asia and her now coming over to their side to some extent, things are in that phase where it could just go for the silly fun. With Rias having made things clear with Issei about his position and where she stands with things, the two have a bit more of a tenable relationship. Not that she’s going to let up on him as she’s now seen him fully in action and it wasn’t pretty to say the least as he’s not exactly the most physically fit specimen. Of course, that’s not the only workout he’s going to get as Asia ends up finding her way into his house to live with Rias offering up an amusing line of support for it that even shocks Issei. Of course, with him wanting to build a harem, it’s a problem.
Asia also gets to be a bit more involved in school now and that adds a new level of fun as well since she’s part of the package that is Issei. The girls are all curious and friendly with her while the guys are just hot for her and frustrated by Issei’s presence with her. But while we have these kinds of big character moments, especially with his parents all excited about the prospect of potential future grandchildren, Asia and Issei are actually getting closer together bit by bit. It’s the small things where they spend time together and just get more and more comfortable around each other. While there are many shows where the main relationship feels forced and unnatural for a lot of reasons, things just clicked between Issei and Asia right from the start for me and I’ve been rooting ever since.
The show doesn’t want to spend time on big action pieces this time around and that’s not a problem considering the way things scaled up so well in the previous episode. This time it’s about the characters and the second half has a really cute sequence in which Rias and Issei have to help a spirit get back together with her true love in a pretty outlandish way. And it’s one that has Rias’ full support behind it since it seems like it’s just going to be a whole mess of fun and she could use the distraction. And the fun time messing with Issei even more as that’s quickly turning into a favorite pastime with her, understandably so.
In Summary:
Highschool DxD doesn’t exactly get deep here or anything, but after the serious couple of episodes that it had, a bit of silliness and fun with some light sexuality overall is definitely welcome. Rias takes plenty of time to just mess with Issei while also training him a bit with what she needs him to be but it also seems like she’s being pretty considerate of Asia and looking to help him further his relationship with her, though not giving him over to her just yet. Asia for her part is a lot of fun here and she’s going along for the ride in a simple but cute way since it gets her closer to Issei and that’s all she wants. The show continues to charm me and even though it’s pretty empty here in a lot of ways, it still does a lot and leaves me liking the characters and enjoying their personalities, something a lot of shows of this nature have a hard time doing lately.
Grade: B
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
