I understand that this review is being published on April 1st, but you have to understand that I've procrastinated on writing this review for several days now, and I shan't wait any longer. All of the contents written down here are true and I will repeat it for the rest of my life.
I was originally going to write my first review on this website on Jojo's Bizarre Adventures, as it is my favorite anime of all time, but I just had to write it on Highschool DxD, because of how much I abhor this series because of its fourth season, and so here we are.
I, honest to god, am too illiterate to properly place enough emphasis on how much I hate the Highschool DxD series after Highschool DxD Hero. I believe its only right to write down my views and opinions on the previous three seasons before I talk about the sh*t show that was the 4th season.
I actually LOVE the lore and worldbuilding of the series, its so unique and it takes such an intriguing twist on lots of topics and biblical history. The fights are well choreographed and the animation is never wonky or weird, and some of the side characters are really memorable and fun, like Vali and Ddraig. And here's where it starts to go downhill. Its true that I like some of the side cast, but it is very few in number. At first I didn't really have much of an opinion on Issei. He was just a 'meh' character for me. So was Riaz and a lot of others as well. Overall, the first three seasons were not a bad experience. There were other things which I didn't like, but those were very minor. They were just pet peeves. There were things which I wished were better but well, I was fine with it as it was. Season 1 was a 60/100, Season 2 was a 69/100 and Season 3 was also 69/100.
And here comes Season 4, and boy did it make me suffer. I still cant believe that I somehow managed to watch all 13 god forsaken episodes of this season. The animation improved a lot and the fights were just as good, but the few side characters which I liked either did not show up, or played a very minuscule role, or had a lot of screen time but did absolutely nothing enriching or exciting. The lore and worldbuilding had very minute to no expansion or emphasis whatsoever, and there were a lot of scenes which were very uncomfortable to watch because of what was occurring in that particular scene.
And Issei is the MVP for most of my hatred and suffering. Each episode had Issei get worse and worse and worse. I would have been fine if he was a side character but no, he is the main protagonist. Episode 1 Issei was bad, when we reached episode 6, Issei was horrible, and by the final episode, I started to hate Issei as much as I hate Rachel from Tower of God and Myne/Malty from The Rising of the Shield Hero. I have no stance on p*rverts in fiction. I place no bias on such characters. There were a lot of p*rverts in anime which I liked since they were funny and it was relaxing to see them on screen, but not Issei, he made every scene in season 4 uncomfortable to watch. I didn't really have much of a problem in the previous seasons but season 4 took it too far. The whole 'oppai dragon' song and the little kid crying because he missed the live show was unbearable. With each passing second I wanted to just drop dead. And then there was the fact that during the tournament between the Riaz Gremory Team and Sairaorg Bael's Peerage, Issei's friends started to get a bit hurt during the fights and Issei was almost about to lose his mind and get enraged. That scene really grinded my gears. I mean come on, of course people are gonna get hurt, its an official tournament between two factions, and at the very least, none of his friends were suffering through any fatal injuries.
Individually, I would be rating Highschool DxD Hero a 5/100, but because of the prestige of the previous three seasons, I was willing to raise it to a 13/100. One thing is for sure however, and that is I will not be watching any future seasons of this series. I might watch a few fights, but even that is unlikely.
123 out of 203 users liked this review
