[Pure Review: Anime Only]
Prelude:
The prior seasons have been a "big hit" to say the least; drawing viewers from both the fantasy, and ecchi realms. "Dragon of Dragon" has always been a franchise in my eyes with more storytelling and character development talent than the marketing lets off. Do I even have to quote FUNimation's introduction to "New"? ("more outrageous Oppai Battle Entertainment"). The series has always retained a curious mixture of action, intensity, suspense, realism, and of course: Oppai... It's a combination that in theory should drown out any seriousness, and while it's by no means a show to be taken deadly seriously; there are indeed some thrilling and suspenseful, passionately fought battles. Like a signature style for the show, DxD is one of the very few "Lewd productions" that actually gets you to care somewhat about the characters and outcomes.
Everyone came for the oppai (but some will try to convince you otherwise), and while many continue for the same reason, another would be that Issei is such a decent POV into this highly supernatural world. He's almost always in an enviable situation, but being naive, courageous, believable, and just downright hilarious at times - he's a very likable protagonist regardless.
BorN:
As the chronological continuation of High School DxD: New, High School DxD's third installment: BorN serves purely as additional anime content. It elaborates on the story from where we left off, introducing us to some new faces, developing existing faces, and creating an overriding sense of both progress and advancement. Following a similar formula as is shown in the previous seasons: Issei is once again battling alongside our beloved members of the Gremory household. He continues to deal with his devil career as the legendary red dragon, and we get front row seats!
DxD fans will be pleased to know that BorN continues to integrate the signature style/charm (explained above): incorporating passion and intensity into a very mature natured (*wink wink*) product. It should be safe to say then, regardless of my upcoming judgement, that DxD fans will at the very least be able to connect with the continuation of our story.
The conclusion of "New" was relatively open-ended, and BorN delves straight back into the grand-scaled religious warfare. It wastes little time, and pretty much uses a shock tactic: a burst of contextual information regarding the complexities of what's to come - in order to immerse the viewer in this particular section of the story. From a dragon's destiny, to a comrade's fate: BorN factors in a lot of important content into these 12 episodes. New individuals make their presence and roles in the war known, and we get more documentation of how the Gremory household's members are growing as a result of experience.
There are some perilous situations in which death looms over an ally, to invoke suspense and prove that character attachment values are in fact "a thing" in DxD. There are epiphany-like milestones and other key events in BorN's plot that really do make and impact and shift your perception to a degree of the entire series. We get development for previously underdeveloped members such as Koneko, and even talk more about our protagonist's destiny.
Clearly, you can't argue that there isn't enough SUBSTANCE to this third installment.
As the first DxD season to achieve a transformation of 3 whole volumes into anime form, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that this is also BorN's greatest downfall. Now if non-stop action is your forte, then congratulations: you can disregard this review and get to watching right away. The rest of us can pick up on the fact that we have some blatent pacing issues to note here...
With such an amount of substantial story content being squeezed into a mere 240 (or so) minutes, things aren't covered quite as comprehensively as in the first two seasons. Operating on a smaller scale gave a greater sense of understanding and personality to "DxD" and "New", whereas "BorN" quite literally operates through time and space. It's generally a very broad and more documentative rather than POV feeling interpretation of events. This documentation of the religious war lacks, but does not completely disregard:
Explanation - While a little slower to begin with, BorN quickly escalates through a series of events that shape the overriding plot. Whereas manga readers will not have problems with this, the sudden introduction of many characters - into the limelight for the first time, will somewhat live to confuse anime viewers. Besides "That's X, and they do Y", there's little answering the simple question of "What's going on?". For obvious reasons, this may reduce the viewers' ability to feel connected or passion toward the current happenings.
Suspense - In spite of the highly perilous plot that DxD was covering this time around, another demerit of the "rushing" many have noted, is that there's a very limited amount of suspense that can be offered. In the prior seasons, there would a definite build up to an unexpected calamity - which left visible scars. The fast pace of BorN however doesn't allow for enough prolonging of these "low-points", to make them believable.
The presented obstacles were overcome too easily. Simply-put, it's like brushing off losing a limb... At no point did I really "feel" the suspense of the fact that i'm never going to walk again...
Picking it back up though, and brushing it off... The show, not my leg...
It did exist to significantly further my contextual understanding of the DxD-verse, and I was even able to enjoy the enhancement of characters both new and old. The chemistry is still great, the dialogue is still very enjoyable, the battles (particularly the earlier ones) were still very heated, and it is of course upholding its cheeky ecchi aspect alongside a lot of classic innuendo humor. Typical DxD 101 you might say.
The audiovisuals? If you insist...
I'd say that BorN retains a similarly high art standard: well-defined characters on atmospheric backgrounds. The character shading has room for improvement, as does one of the weaker elements - depth... But casual DxD fans are likely to just say "Yeah, it's still pretty..."
The score is a little "flip-over-and-reuse" from prior seasons, but I can't argue with the fact that it's both sentimental-feeling where appropriate, and intense where appropriate. With the addition of 2 AWESOME new sequences (OP & ED), i'd say that the audio aspect has become a strong suit.
Accepting and willing DxD fans have nothing to lose by giving BorN a try. The story vividness is a little overly jeopardized for an anime - as a result of the pacing, but it brings forth a lot of relevant milestones and development to the table. While a little less impactual than the prior seasons, it's still an exhilarating and enjoyable thrill ride worth taking, brandishing that renowned DxD charm.
~ Why don't you just poke both simultaneously?! - Rias ~
