Gotta poke ‘em all.
What They Say:
Koneko’s sister Kuroka has appeared to take her sister away from Rias Gremory. Issei and Rias chase after her to stop that from happening. At the same time, a figure who objects to these alliances between mythologies appears at the great gathering.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
High School DxD BorN has gotten off to a decent enough start overall, and while the main storyline may not have really kicked in just yet, it’s been fun to simply get reacquainted with this cast again. It also works out well since it hasn’t been too long since FUNimation released the second season on home video, so there’s a bit more continuity awareness about it with the way the cast adjusted the last time around. Shifting the series to Rias’ home obviously gives us plenty of familiar things to work with from the world of anime storytelling with family, mothers and others from the realm, and while it is familiar, it does work well within the context here. Especially in seeing certain reactions play out. It also works out for the whole summer training thing since they can train in different ways here than at school or other earthly locations.
While the party is going on back at the household, other events are unfolding of interest as well. Koneko’s sister Kuroka has shown herself and there’s certainly some Cheshire Cat aspects to her in the introduction. Having Rias and Issei show up to make sure she’s not harmed is helpful, but that just raises Kuroka’s interest in them all since she was going to have to face them sooner or later in bringing Koneko back home. There’s a good bit of history between Koneko and Kuroka to be sure, which is touched upon lightly here, but the real focus that works well is showing how Rias is going to protect and defend her from Kuroka in a big way. It’s bold and strong with no waffling, which of course just gets Issei to man up even more to support both of them. Which he definitely has to do since Kuroka has a few tricks that work well on them but not on Issei due to his dragon side.
Not that it means that Issei will have an easy time dealing with Kuroka since his experience level isn’t high and Kuroka is crafty. But what we get out of it is some solid encouragement from Koneko, and Rias, that helps Issei to understand more of how to use his abilities and the kind of reliance on others he needs to really take it all to the next level. What makes it really fun is that we do get to see his dragon side out there fighting as he comes to this realization and has to kind of get it across as to what he’s doing and why. Which is comically surreal since it’s all about poking Rias’ breasts to get him pumped up for the next level of existence. But it’s all worth it, outside of blurred/light lines, as Issei on this other level going up against Kuroka is definitely nicely done. It’s unfortunate though that things get cut short due to events playing out at the party, which is kept very light here overall, with Loki and his secret plans that are slowly coming into focus.
In Summary:
Events are slowly but surely coming into focus, though I’m glad that we’re getting more time with our core cast of characters here more than anything else. With the way the cast has grown through the first two seasons, spending an episode that focuses mostly on Rias, Issei and Koneko while interacting with her sister Kuroka has the right kind of feeling to it. It’s kept small and personal, but it has the larger backdrop against which to work as we get a taste of what Loki may really be up to. It’s solidly fun, though it doesn’t go in a really big way, but it helps to nudge things along for Issei’s development and gives us some silly fanservice that will pay off more in the home video release down the line.
Grade: B
Streamed By: FUNimation
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
Why does this say it was streamed by Crunchyroll, when it’s not showing up in their lineup?