The series draws to a close in a big way while still keeping to the core characters heart and soul – and perverted natures.
What They Say:
Issei wakes up to find that the battle is over, and he has lost. Rias and the others are at a party in honor of her engagement to Riser, but with some help from Grayfia and Asia, Issei decides to crash it, rescue Rias, and bring her home with him!
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the series drawing to a close, it comes at a difficult time for Issei because of the way the Rating Game played out and how he lost in that. The results of course are not to his liking as Rias is now sworn to Riser and her life is going to take a very different course. The revelation about this as he recovers hits him pretty hard, especially in how Rias surrendered to Rise after what was happening in Issei’s battle since Riser was going to go the distance and kill him. It was a pretty brutal match towards the end of the previous episode, both in seeing Issei’s sense of devotion to Rias and how she dealt with what was happening to him. But now he just has to deal with the fallout as revealed to him by Grayfia.
Naturally, there’s plenty of problems with what’s going on among Rias’ group and Asia has made it clear to Issei that she wants him to do what’s right, and to help in any way she can as she doesn’t want to be protected when others need help. The group in general is uncertain about what Rias is doing but they have little choice but to go along with much of it. So when Issei does use his inner strength, it’s not a surprise that everyone rallies around him since it’s all for Rias. While she’s being compliant with Riser because of what was at stake, they wanted to abide by her wishes since there was no catalyst to get them moving. His arrival at the engagement party certainly sets them off, but what really gets things changing direction is the arrival of Rias’ brothers, Zechs, as he’s a bit displeased by what Riser did to his Game-inexperienced sibling.
And that means a new match of sorts that will pit Riser against Issei again, an Issei that’s still grappling with his true power and potential but has plenty to go with. Not surprisingly, this gives us a good match between the two men that has a solid flair for intensity because of their power sets. While Issei is coming into his own a little too quickly for my tastes, it does fit the way the series has progressed and we’ve had instances of him being more than he seems at times so it’s not entirely out of place. What the new match does is to really show him in a positive light but not one that has him doing it with ease or bravado. True to his character core, he works at it and works hard at it rather than it just being anger outpouring and an easy series of hits against Riser. You know the basics of how it will go, predictability abound, but the execution is spot on.
In Summary:
Highschool DxD was a series that I was keen on from the promos because it looked like goofy fanservice that would be over the top in a fun kind of way considering how those videos went. What I got instead was a big, fanservice oriented show that had really fun characters, a good setting and an interesting storyline that unfolded with relationships that didn’t go quite as you’d expect overall. It really surprised me in those first few episodes just how fun the show was as it worked with conventional ideas and tweaked it a little bit here and there to make sure it wasn’t just constantly repetitive. While it delved heavily into fanservice, especially with that strangely alluring pole dancing ending, it gave the characters real heart and made it a show I eagerly looked forward to week after week. This is one of those series that I can’t wait to watch again and enjoy while hoping we get more some day.
Grade: B+
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.
i loved the series!