High School DxD (Season One)

Issei was a hopeless loser so when a girl asked him out it was quite a surprise. When she killed him on their date, however, was even more surprising. Waking up the next day as a devil was a shock too, but that’s just the start!
High School DxD (Season One)
What did you watch?
I’ve seen this series at least three times now and I figured it was time to actually put down my thoughts. Oddly enough, this is a very different review from how I might have done it when I watched it the first time. I’ve seen a lot more shows since then and that has definitely impacted my thoughts on the show. I will tell you that the first time around, I absolutely loved it. So, without further ado let’s see what I thought this time…

What happened?
Issei had transferred to a new high school with his friends. Until recently, it had been a girls-only school so they were expecting to be mobbed by girls that had barely seen boys before. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as they planned. They were viewed as a group of pervy outsiders that caused nothing but trouble, which was mostly true. Then, while walking home, a girl from another school approached Issei and asked him on a date. Could this be true? How did she even know who he was? Regardless, he said yes and even showed her off to his friends the next day.
On the weekend, they went on their first date and did all the usual high school things. However, it ended abruptly when she turned into a fallen angel and killed him. She seemed to really enjoy it too. As he lay dying in a pool of his own blood, his thoughts turned to the beautiful redhead that ran the occult research club at school. No one had captured his imagination quite like Rias Gremory. Then, in a flash of red light, she came to him. The next morning, he woke as if nothing had happened. When he asked his friends about his girlfriend, they thought he was joking. Was it all a dream? If so, why was Rias Gremory waiting for him at the school gate?

What did you think?
From my description above, this series sounds like a wonderful supernatural mystery and that’s the angle I’m going for because that’s when I think it shines. There are scenes where the lighting and the music create spectacularly haunting moments. There’s one scene where a fallen angel comes to kill Issei again. She’s walking towards him with the moon glowing behind her and it gives me chills. When this series focuses on these elements, it’s fantastic. Of course, you can’t mention High School DxD without noticing the boobs! There are lots of boobs and that’s great. It doesn’t necessarily detract from the mood either if done right. Sexy and scary are so closely related that it works. I think the thing that didn’t work as well for me this time was Issei.

What was your favourite moment?
I enjoyed the final fight in the last episode between Issei and Riser. I don’t think I’ve ever hated anyone so quickly in an anime series as Riser. As soon as you meet him, you can tell he is a massive dick. So, seeing Issei overcome the odds and win back Rias was amazing. However, the first episode is still my favourite. I loved how it sucked you into the world with subtle tones and eerie music. There were so many hooks demanding that you pay attention and want to find out more. Then, it ended with Issei waking up in bed after being killed for the second time with a naked Rias Gremory. She is beautiful in both body and mind.

What was your least favourite moment?
Not so much moments, but things that the first episode spent quite a bit of time developing just for them to go nowhere. We saw Issei going on summons and trying to make contracts with humans. After the first season, that’s pretty much never mentioned again. We see no purpose in it in the first season and some of the summonses are bonkers. I’m talking primarily about the one with the samurai girl and armoured guy, but all of them were nuts. Then, there was the stuff with the familiars. It was a funny moment with Issei trying to protect a slime that dissolves clothing so that he could make it his familiar, but again these are basically forgotten after this season. I get that a story can change over time, but do just ignore them completely feels like a disservice to the story.

Who was your favourite character?
Rias is undoubtedly the highlight of the series. She has so many amazing moments when she comes across as insanely confident no matter how she’s dressed. In fact, the scenes where she’s not wearing anything seem to make her more powerful. It’s not hard to see why her family are so protective of her. She oozes confidence. I also loved Raynare, the fallen angel that killed Issei the first time. She was a far more interesting antagonist than Riser and should have been the focus of the entire series in my mind.

Who was your least favourite character?
Riser is the obvious choice here, however, for how much my view has changed of him, I’m actually going to say Issei. What I originally took as his honest approach to things now seems more like serious bouts of idiocy. He has somehow surrounded himself with the most incredible group of girls who seem to like him (Koneko excluded to an extent) and yet he still feels the need to make ridiculous proclamations about getting his own harem or spying on girls in locker rooms. Yes, dress break was a clever idea, but he just makes it seem that much creepier.

Would you like some more?
I have seen all four seasons multiple times and while I am fascinated by the world in which it takes place, this season is the pinnacle for me. The second season manages to continue the same mood as this one, but it wasn’t as good. The third continued that trend and then the fourth season seemed to become a parody of itself. Should they make a fifth season, I will watch it but I will be hoping for a darker turn of events. It’s not a bad series. At times, it’s fantastic and at others it’s dumb. I guess it depends entirely on what you are watching it for. For me, I like the dark and mysterious side of things with a healthy sprinkling of Rias!

What have you learnt?
As people, we are constantly changing. In the space of seven years, our body will replace every cell in our bodies so it goes without saying that we will not always see things the same way we once did. In those seven years, we will experience a multitude of new things. So, if we watched something that we loved from before, there’s always the chance that we won’t feel the same way about it now. Another example of something similar was the movie Cocktail with Tom Cruise. I loved it growing up, but upon watching it more recently, I was stunned by how bad it was. Basically, times change and people change with them.
If you think about things that way, you could start to wonder what the point is. Maybe, you write a story that is well-liked and then ten or fifteen years later the views in it are so out of touch with reality that it gets discarded. You could get quite depressed thinking like that. Of course, there’s always the viewpoint that if people are changing there will be people that change in a way that makes the story more to their liking. You might find new fans from a new demographic. The point is everything is fluid and you should do what makes you happy. Someone will love your work. You just need to make sure the story is there when they need it.

Other posts in the series
- Season One
- Episode 1 – I Got a Girlfriend!
- Episode 2 – I’m Done Being Human!
- Episode 3 – I Made a Friend!
- Episode 4 – I’m Saving My Friend!
- Episode 5 – I Will Defeat My Ex-girlfriend!
- Episode 6 – I Work as a Devil!
- Episode 7 – I Get a Familiar!
- Episode 8 – I Pick a Fight!
- Episode 9 – I’ve Begun My Training!
- Episode 10 – The Showdown Begins!
- Episode 11 – The Acclaimed Battle Continues!
- Episode 12 – I’m Here to Keep My Promise!
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I’ve had some difficult rejections but being murdered on the first date is probably worse.
Yeah, that’s got to suck!