Asia and Issei start to get to know each other better, but it’s Asia who’s going to really pay the price.
What They Say:
Issei is determined to get stronger. He spends some more time with Asia, but once again, their circumstances keep them apart. Issei finds out that although pawns may not be very strong, they have a power that allows them to act like other chess pieces.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The introduction of Asia in the previous episode and a light exploration of the church and the exorcists that exists helped to flesh out the world that Issei has now found himself living in. It wasn’t a pretty time to be sure, especially for Asia who was essentially sexually assaulted by her fellow priest exorcist who had come to take out Issei, the new demon that was easy to deal with if not for his master and those that work with her. What the episode did was to make Asia a bit more palatable to everyone else, not by much, as there are those stray exorcists like her who don’t fall into the conventional role of one who is just bloodthirsty and will do or say whatever it takes to eliminate a demon. And with her having liked Issei from the start, it made things a bit more complicated for her but also eased her into things when it came to the others.
With Asia having run away from the church at this point, she and Issei actually have something close to a date where they talk and get to know each other, but it doesn’t take long for that to go downhill fast when one of the fallen angels we saw from earlier in the series arrives to give Issei some real trouble, enough so that he gets wounded pretty badly and Asia is kidnapped to be dealt with at a later time, and to draw out Issei and the others so she can deal with them all. It’s not a bad plan when you get down to it, but it’s not something Rias will let happen without her involvement in it by making sure the plan goes in a direction she wants.
And part of her planning is the continued manipulation of her pawn, Issei. She definitely knows how to work him right in order to get what she wants out of him, teasing him with enough information to be dangerous and to do what she wants him to do. This doesn’t lead to a whole lot of action, unfortunately, since it’s one of the better aspects of the show that can drive it well. But with Issei using his Sacred Gear and aided by a couple of members of the group, they get to go against the enemy in good fashion. It’s similar to the previous episode in a lot of ways and it offers up some interesting weapons and methods of attack while letting Issei start to move up the chain a bit with what he’s capable of.
In Summary:
While Highschool DxD is expanding things a bit, it also feels like it’s in a bit of a holding pattern about what it wants to do. We got Asia introduced in the previous episode and things somewhat settled out here, but it feels like more a continuation of events from that episode rather than forward progress. We do get some neat little nuggets, both from the powers involved to how Rias manipulates her pawn, but the greater focus is solidifying things between Asia and Issei, even if she is off screen for about half the episode. The more Asia is in it, the more I like it but she’s also the one that’s really suffering the most (and getting censored). I do like the storyline it’s working through right now, but it’s one that will definitely flow better when you can watch it all at the same time.
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.
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