Synopsis: Issei finds new troubles about to enter into his life and two even sleeping in his bed. While looking at an old photo album of Issei’s, Kiba sees a familiar sword being held by an old friend of Issei’s, which reopen’s old wounds. Meanwhile, Demons, Fallen Angels, and The Church’s agents all clash to get their hands on, or just destroy, powerful weapons called Holy Swords.
Impression:
Wow… What an episode… I’m truly surprised. I’ve never read the light novels and so, when watching High School DxD, I never know what’s going to happen. Are we going to get a fan service episode? Or are we going to get an action packed episode filled to the brim with drama and a half decent plot (for once). Episode 5 of High School DxD NEW was the episode we’ve all been waiting for, the episode that sets the series, and the arc, into motion. As with most epic battles in High School DxD, I highly suspect that Team Rias Gremory will lose and or someone (probably one of Rias’ brothers) will intervene and save the day. That’s just the way it is. But that’s purely conjecture, let’s talk about Episode 5.
I know that in almost every review I make jokes about ‘the plot‘ and how lackluster it usually is, but Episode 5 was actually more than pretty decent, plot wise, that is. The Holy Sword Project arc (as I have so aptly named it) has turned out to be one of the more ‘dramatic’ arcs so far in High School DxD, taking a ‘side character’ and turning him into a fully fleshed out main character. That said, you would never have expected Kiba to have this dark a back story by looking at him in the first series… although the most charming characters do tend to be the most f*cked up… Watching Kiba come to terms with the past and finally finding the reprieve that was his friends’ forgiveness was actually a pretty moving movement, the metaphorical tears were flowing, y’know? I think it’s good that we’re finally seeing a new side to Kiba and I’m looking forward to seeing how he’ll end up at the end of the arc… he’ll probably be the same smiling guy he was before… oh well. Oh! And I’m still waiting for Koneko and Akeno to get their back stories looked into! Mainly because there back stories are bound to be full of oppai…
Just saying, but Rias and her peerage have nothing on Kokabiel, in fact I’d go as far as to say that, at this moment in time, they probably can’t even scratch him. He’s fought God’s for f*cks sake! The sheer monstrosity of Kokabiel‘s power is something to behold and I have to wonder why he hasn’t killed everyone yet… because it would make for a bad ending to the series? I guess… I don’t know, I just find him floating about up in the sky occasionally offering up witty comments isn’t the best of antagonistic traits, y’know? Perhaps he’s a sadist? Maybe he’s a masochist? Who knows…? I just want to see a battle between Issei and this all mighty Ten Winged Fallen Angel, to be honest…
Holy Swords? Apparently they’re appearing left and right these days. It’s ridiculous! Just how many more of the things are these people going to pull out of their asses?! It’s like taking the deus ex machina to a whole new level: ‘I’ve been storing this holy sword in another dimension‘. Oh really? And how many ‘dimensions’ do you have lying around? I didn’t realize it was so easy to tear the fabric of the universe and pull out a f*cking sword! Huh? This is anime? I’m overreacting? Oh sh*t! You’re right… I apologize.
Before we continue however, I’d like to talk about the action scenes in this episode… they were pretty great, to be honest. Very High School DxD. When talking about action scenes in anime I don’t liking comparing them to other shows because every show has it’s own brand of action and thrills, y’know? (I realize that the next sentence might make me seem ‘hypocritical’ in the sense that I’m now comparing shows but… I’m not really, y’know?) For example, the Monogatari series tends to depict more abstract battle sequences, whereas Fate/Zero depicted more grandiose, full action battle scenes with great animation and a sense of true awesomeness, y’know? High School DxD, on the other hand, is a show that, no matter what else it tries to do, is primarily an ecchi and, therefore, almost every battle scene is going to be the writer trying as many different ways to rip girls clothes off, make their oppai jiggle and force them to have power orgasms, y’know? And, in that respect, the battle sequence in Episode 5 was awesome. That is all… y’know, that entire paragraph felt a bit misconstrued and tangent-y, y’know? But I think you get the point.
And, finally, Xenovia. Who knew? Turns out that she’s a natural born Holy Sword wielder. Well isn’t that sweet.
And, finally, again, Issei and Rias walking together at the end, hand in hand, ready to face down death itself! Will the die? No… Will they be fighting in the battle that feels like a battle to the death? Almost certainly and, like I said before, they’re are probably going to lose… unless this is the end of the arc and Issei goes into full dragon armour beast mode again like at the end of last season. That said, I’m not even sure if that’ll be enough this time…
To conclude, Episode 5 of High School DxD NEW is the best one so far, it had everything we loved about the last season and threw in a bit of effectual drama to add a bit of flavor to an already established format. And I like it. Hopefully in Episode 6 they can continue this awesomeness… a.k.a, more oppai please? The gallery is feeling a bit dry, y’know?
P.S, what was up with Akeno’s transformation sequence in this episode? I thought it was pretty damn awesome, y’know?
Episode 6 Preview:
