Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka

There are times you get a reminder that no matter how many swords, boobs and magic you throw at a show it can’t save it from the boring characters among it all. Welcome to the world of Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka, where strong personalities are obviously illegal and main characters are inexplicably attractive to women. A 13-episode fantasy story put to screen by J.C. Staff and based on a light novel, ‘DanMachi’ can at times be an enjoyable experience if you shut your brain off. Action is served up in droves but in an equal share comes a bland ... cast and a setting that doesn’t exactly shout out originality.

Story

We follow the journey of Bell Cranel. Bell is an ‘adventurer’, one who goes forth to the dungeon to seek fame and glory while putting their life on the line to do so. There he encounters the talented and renowned ‘Sword Princess’ Aiz Wallenstein. Suddenly he’s love struck. With the help of his goddess Hestia, Bell sets out to conquer not only beasts but also his fear of approaching the girl of his dreams.

I’ll put my positive first: This is that show that doesn’t dwell on things for too long. Bell makes progression at a ridiculous rate but at least events keep coming and every episode feels fresh in some way. Different enemies provide a new challenge. Some of these enemies remind Bell of when he was weaker and it brings some painful memories. He has to overcome these grim reminders and apply the new knowledge he’s learned to beat his enemies. Some also force him to change up his technique and get creative. For all its terrible harem schlock this is at least a nicely paced adventure.

Some of the later episodes had some more interesting fights with more than just some crystals on the line. The cast also expands a little at that point, definitely to the show’s benefit. At that point it really starts to feel like we are watching something interesting come together. There’s also this sense that Bell is really fighting for something he wants and not simply hacking at things for no reason. That’s where the praise ends in this department.

Here’s the problem: Bell doesn’t truly earn anything in his line of adventuring. Everything that helps him become stronger is either served to him on a silver platter or overcome through some ridiculous newfound level of power. Through certain attributes Bell is rendered pretty much unbeatable and given an unfair boost of all other adventures. With that you say goodbye to almost all the tension this show creates within the dungeon. If something does hold Bell back it takes no time for him to find a way around it. Some methods he uses to do so are out of left field and not properly explained. When an explanation for them does arrive – very much out of the blue – it comes at a ridiculous moment. While it does excuse a lot of Bell’s powerful capabilities, it’s a double-edged sword. The plot armour simply stacks higher on him.

An early scene posits Bell as the runty adventurer who can’t achieve anything and you get the sense that this could be a tough rise through the ranks. But before you know it he’s making a name for himself in the field quicker than you know it. Why? Because of the power of love, which as we all know is far stronger than any physical material. How touching. Why couldn’t his romance simply be a driving force instead of something that literally has the capability to bolster his stats?

Characters

While the story has redeemable moments, and is actually decently written, the characters reduce this show to a mess on many occasions. Let’s start with our main man. Bell is just another run-of-the-mill anime MC. He’s just… there. There’s no background to his character to at least give us an idea of why he wants to take up adventuring in the first place. He’s an example of the ‘play it safe’ approach to characters. By stripping him of any hard-hitting character faults he gains likeability but at the same time becomes a lot less interesting.

Then there’s the pint-sized goddess Hestia who has a bust size and a temperament trying to outdo each other in volume. As annoying as her character can be at least her affection for Bell, compared to the rest of the female cast, actually makes sense. Bell is her only familia member so it’s understandable that she’s going to be a little clingy. The writers play up this fact though to the point that it starts degrading her character. Hestia goes from someone looking for validation and purpose to being a paranoid stalker. A very, very annoying paranoid stalker. Top that off with an abundance of ridiculous fanservice involving her and it’s a great way for me to stop taking a character’s problems seriously. At times we get a peek into seeing a different side of her but it remains hidden in the shadows, presumably for that inevitable second season some time down the track.

It would also have been nice if the girl Bell desires so badly, Aiz, actually had some semblance of personality that makes her a worthy target of his affection. I guess she’s a blonde, green-eyed beauty in questionably-designed armour who can swing a sword well. Sure she’s got it on the looks front but the show never once makes me feel like she’s worthwhile being the end goal of our main character – even taking into account the fact she’s helped him out before in some tough situations. In defence of Aiz she at least isn’t going completely head over heels for our white-haired friend. But in the face of that, she still feels like a soulless background object.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want a character study out of show about fighting beasts in dungeons and levelling up. You’d not be of sound mind to want that. I just want something entertaining with a cast I really want to cheer on. More personality and overall likeability could have been breathed into the group. My problems are only made worse by the fact that every piece of comedy missed the mark. Considering it makes up a large portion of the show you can imagine my frustration when some comedic intervals just dragged on and on.

Summary

If you value strong, interesting characters then this isn’t for you. If you value the creation of original ideas and environments then this isn’t for you. If watching a cardboard cut-out, danger-immune, overpowered main character whose presence makes every female he encounters flood the vicinity in juices of excitement while living with a four-foot god with a breast size that has the second half of the alphabet in its sights then this is for you.

The more people keep dishing praise on shows like these, the less encouragement we give studios to adapt exciting and challenging material or create interesting original works. I guess what sells, sells. DanMachi isn’t remotely close to the worst shows I’ve watched but it brings absolutely nothing new to the anime table. There are less memorable moments in this series then there are words in its own title.

I’ll be nice enough to say that there were brief moments where I did sit enough and give it some attention. I can see why other people can enjoy it for longer periods than myself. There’s flashy fights and some nicely animated sequences that even got a cynical man like me to sit up and say ‘Yeah. That’s alright’. The story isn’t going to blow your socks off but it never drags. The action keeps coming and the show rarely sits down for a breather. However I feel like a lot of the purpose of the world is kept locked away from us, which got on my nerves. There’s characters pulling the strings from shadows but even as the show comes to a close we learn almost nothing new.

I can stop hacking away at the show for a moment when it comes to the art department. With a J.C. Staff anime you know you’re at least going to get some well-polished art and decent animation. Fights have plenty of impact and punch thanks to a combination sound and debris. You can really feel the weight behind every sword swing, fist flying and rock scattering. The fights are clearly the show’s strong point and the technical side of things have gone a long way to achieving that.

Some may find entertainment in the fight choreography - a very fair point - but when a particular outcome always feels certain then I can’t put myself in that boat. There is virtually no interesting complications character-wise. There’s catering for every character trope imaginable. There’s fan service ready to leap out at you from every corner. For everything that DanMachi does right it seems to do two other things wrong.

Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon? I still don’t know and I don’t know if I want to hang around longer to find out the answer.

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

The easiest way to sum up Is it Wrong to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon, or Danmachi for short, was eloquently put by Youtuber Demolition-D as “Sword Art Online: Fat-Fucking-Titties edition”. Who am I to argue with such a flawless summation? There is no question about what Danmachi is; it’s an otaku-pandering, self-insertion, video-game-inspired LN adaptation. The real question lies in whether you will love it for what it is, or hate it for what it is. In case you haven’t guessed it by now, I fall into the latter category. This shallow, ridiculous, and remarkably unoriginal work is a good example ... of everything wrong with anime today.

Synopsis: Bell Cranel is an adventurer; someone who explores dangerous dungeons and fights monsters for a living. He and his “goddess”, which is basically a glorified manager, Hestia, make up the smallest “familia” in all the land. This is the story of Bell winning every fight he’s ever been involved in one way or another, making every girl he comes into contact with fall in love with him despite his obvious lack of any charisma whatsoever, and gaining special abilities that nobody else can use for no discernable reason. In other words, it’s your standard LN adaptation.

Danmachi’s plot is what you get when you take SAO’s plot and crank it up a notch on the pandering scale. MORE fanservice. MORE blood. LARGER harems. MORE white-knighting from the protagonist. DOUCHIER side characters to make the protagonist look good by comparison. And, of course, LESS actual substance. It’s seriously like someone looked at the already stupid LN video game formula and said “Hmmm, how do we make this even harder to take seriously?” But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the first reason Danmachi’s plot is bad: plot armor and melodrama. Much like a battle shounen, it is painfully obvious in any video game LN adaptation that the MC is never actually in any danger. However, the show spares no expense in convincing you that he is using the cheapest tactics possible. Last second saves? Check. Asspulled power ups? Check. Deus ex machina? Check-aruney. The entirety of the plot consists of Bell and the other main characters being put it perilous situations that even the most naïve of viewers can recognize will be resolved smoothly at the last second. Over and over and over again. It’s bad writing, it’s repetitive, and it’s not entertaining.

It’s at this point in the review that I realize there were so many things wrong with the show that I don’t even know what to talk about next. This may be a bizarre order of doing things, but now let’s talk about Bell Cranel; the protagonist. Dear. God. What an annoying, insufferable, shallow, clichéd, gary-stu, self-insert, AWFUL character. When you talk about characters who might as well be literally Gandhi, you can go ahead and put this saint at the top of the list. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING would ever cause this guy to do something wrong or immoral. People can betray him, steal from him, assault him, whatever; he just takes the abuse like a proverbial Jesus Christ and instantly forgives all wrongdoings. After all, they wouldn’t want to give off the impression that he is human or anything! Real people don’t have flaws or negative emotions, right? It’s SO much more interesting to have an idealized concept of all that is good in the world without an ounce of moral ambiguity so that otakus can fap to fantasies of the hundreds of sex objects that flock to his holy cock! Oh, and you better believe that he has special abilities that nobody else in the entire world has! It’s not enough that he’s the most righteous organism on planet Earth, but he also has a super special power that enables all of his skills to be as high as they possibly can AND enables him to level up faster than anyone else who has ever lived! Now, I want you to guess the explanation they give for why this makes sense; this is their GENIUS explanation for why Bell has this one-of-a-kind ability that makes him the most special person in all the land: BECAUSE HE’S IN LOVE. …OHHHHH! WELL THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE! FUCK. I mean... just… fuck. I won’t even question it. In conclusion, Bell sucks. Moving on.

Unfortunately, the trend of shallow, awful characters continues with the rest of the cast. Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room; Hestia. Fucking. Hestia. *Sigh… Just… why? I must be the ten-billionth person to ask this, but what the hell is the obsession with her? She is no different than any other 1 dimensional, big-boobed, harem-fodder nobody in a slutty outfit that allows us to instantly identify her as a sex-object, as if we wouldn’t have figured it out anyway. The absolute best description you can give about Hestia is that she functions as comic relief, and I don’t even think she’s very funny. That brings us to Lili, the other 1-dimmensional sex object who occupies the loli, furry, and tortured fetishes all at the same time. Impressive writers. Very impressive. Fetish writers around the world will have to come up with an answer to that. Maybe if she was also a robot-childhood-friend? Anyway, I’m not even going to mention the rest of the harem since they are completely one-dimensional and indistinguishable. Let’s also go over the nameless side-characters; I feel the need to bring attention to the fact that Bell is the ONLY adventurer in the entire world who is not a tremendous asshole. The “villain” adventurers have no depth at all, of course, but they are still made out as such blatantly awful people in order to FURTHER drive home the fact that Bell is Jesus. Not only is this lazy characterization, it’s also blatantly black-and-white morality, which makes the show require even less thought. This is one of the worst character casts since, well, Sword Art Online.

Let’s also take a moment to discuss how incredibly creative the monsters in this show are. Danmachi brings us such breathtaking and original monster designs such as, a bunny. A wolf. A minotaur. Oh, and who could forget the floor boss, “literally a titan from Attack on Titan”? Truly masterful creativity from these animators. It’s clear that a lot of work went into this show.

This is the paragraph where I planned on talking about how misogynistic this show is and how distracting the constant fan service is, but do I really need to give you that whole spiel? I already briefly talked about this stuff, and I feel like it’s so obvious why these aspects of a show are flaws that I shouldn’t need to explain it. Women with the obedience and dedication of slaves and no complexity whatsoever? It’s every otaku’s dream! And that’s precisely why this show is going to make a ton of money.

I could keep going. Really, I could. I could talk all day about what an awful betrayal of the basic fundamentals of writing this show is, but I think you get the idea. The reality is, a lot of people are going to like this show. A large percentage of anime fans are not at all bothered by anything I just mentioned, because for them, a self-insertion work is all they need. That’s fine and dandy for them, but from my point of view, this show and all shows like it are cancer. Danmachi is the antithesis of the clever and intelligent shows that made me become a fan of the medium in first place; it’s a brain-dead, effortless advertisement for the LN that ends incomplete. If you liked SAO or any other similar LN video game adaptation, you’ll love Danmachi. Everyone else? STAY. AWAY. Far, FAR away.

Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?
a.k.a. DanMachi
a.k.a. Dungeon Harem
a.k.a. Loli Big Boobs
a.k.a. The Misadventures of Breastia
a.k.a. My Breastia Can't Be This Cute
a.k.a. Not SAO
is the latest anime to follow the video game trend that's become increasingly popular within the anime medium. These video game type series, usually MMORPG based, have gotten so commonplace in the last handful of years that they're starting to form their own sub-genre altogether, in a similar fashion to the "moe/cute girls doing cute things" craze in the mid-2000s. With an easy premise to understand, little to nothing to ... comprehend story-wise, and a "turn your brain off" level of entertainment value, DanMachi was tailor-made for mainstream success. But whatever integrity it may have had was lost somewhere in the creases of blue boob ribbons. If Maslow's Pyramid were ever accommodated to show the level of quality a title holds, DanMachi would presumably fall somewhere in the lower segments. This isn't to say that the show doesn't retain some sort of value, but in the bigger scheme of things, it's as significant as the crusty end slice of a loaf of bread.

Brief synopsis: Set in a world that functions and operates like an MMORPG, we follow Bell Cranel, residential pussy protagonist and one in many self-proclaimed "adventurers" that strive to become the best of the best. These adventurers are aided by Gods/Goddesses who descended from the heavens to live among them. With one God/Goddess being the leader, many adventurers join them to form a guild (or for modern day standards, they're essentially a gang). After a chance encounter with another adventurer named Aiz "no personality" Wallenstein, or better known the world over as the "Sword Princess," our protagonist is motivated to become a better adventurer, if only for a chance to woo her over in the future. With the aid of his Goddess Loli Big Boo— Hestia, he sets off on his journey to do just that.

Despite what the paint-by-numbers premise would have you believe, DanMachi doesn't seem to understand the construct of its own narrative. Beyond just meeting regulatory standards, the actual story and content itself never quite mesh. It tries to tell a coming-of-age tale, but our protagonist is never shown going through any of the proper stages of character progression usually associated with this kind of narrative. Instead of seeing him make mistakes to later learn from them, all of his conflicts are overcome by the writers splooging out dues ex machinas at every given turn. His advancements aren't earned through hard work and determination but are simply handed to him on a silver platter, making him yet another "chosen one" figurehead who's nuts haven't dropped, yet finds himself winning every battle like he's the spawn of Guts and Chuck Norris.

Why rally for a protagonist if the outcome is always the same? Why portray him as a struggling newbie when he's merely going to gain powerful abilities and weaponry without any foreshadowing towards it? The show quite literally writes in a new power-up every other episode (no I'm not kidding, see spoiler section below), so by the time we're at the halfway point, he's practically outpaced most of the seasoned adventurers set in the same world. This could have been done in a more believable fashion had they given any of sort of proper explanation behind these events, but DanMachi makes no attempts to do so. It shrugs off all accountability and goes back to dangling boob strings like a set of shiny car keys to keep the audiences distracted from the underhanded ploy taking place.

What the show does have going for it, however, is the setting itself.

The world of DanMachi doesn't waste time debuting its features, with a medieval/high fantasy inspired architecture, it creates an interesting subculture, being anachronistic in its implementation, yet obtuse concept-wise since gaming mechanics are treated as much of a central pillar as its Middle Ages inspiration. Since the game aspects are as much of a part of real life to the inhabitants of DanMachi's universe, it's quite easy to buy into the world from the get-go. There's a weird amalgamation of game physics and natural world properties that the show fully embraces; it's grounded in our universe but slightly left-of-center given that game stats and leveling up is treated with the same sense of normalcy that gravity is. This includes adventurers that have to kill monsters to generate income and possibly to keep regular civilians safe. When they defeat these monsters, gems are left behind from their carcass (similar to most MMORPGs). And while the world mechanics and how things function were never explained to any reasonable amount of detail, the implied base knowledge that most viewers would have going in as to how these games work made it feel suitable despite its tendency to underwrite the parameters of its fantasy elements.

Does the prospect of killing monsters and taking gems out their hides for a line of profession make sense? Well no, of course not. But was it fun? Yea, it sure was. For an anime that borrows its world functions from video games, DanMachi accomplishes what it had set out to do. It didn't place any further foresight as to how the macroeconomics of its world operates but that's fine since no one was expecting it to do so in the first place.

What I was expecting, however, was better pacing, to be more specific, pacing that wasn't the equivalency of the show trying to belch out the alphabet in one breath. After the introductory episodes (1-3) in which the show maintained a steady pace, it then began to rush through plot points and character introductions at breakneck speeds. Where we were initially given a few episodes to establish the person's backstory, personality, and motivation, the show later attempts the same kind of effort in just one episode. It's as if the show had plans for 2-Cours and was later informed by the studio heads that they canceled plans for the 2nd season, and in a state of panic, the creators condensed everything in its screenplay into whatever schedueled episodes they had left. It's jarring, to say the least, doubly so when plot points are whizzing by without any proper setup or payoff. Shit sorta just... happens.

But what did have staying power was a pair of underage sweater puppies. The kind of visual eye-candy that's predestined to overshadow the rest of the characters involved.

The characters of DanMachi is of your garden variety, with many having indistinguishable personality traits from other shows. Our protagonist, Bell Cranel, is your typical dense bishounen beta-male who always strive to do the right thing. The kind of boy scout character that you just want to strangle repeatedly for his unrealistic amount of idealism. And like most protagonists of this ilk, he too has the uncanny ability to attract every female character in the series for no real reason whatsoever. But he isn't the one that the show would be remembered for, that honor lies with Hestia.
In the same way that Yuno Gasai is more popular than the show she's a part of, so too is DanMachi's mascot, Hestia. Infamous for her boob ribbon, Breastia has become the subject matter of many fan arts, sending manchildren the world over clambering for their body pillows. With a bubbly personality and an extreme infatuation for our pussy protagonist, she's ideal power fantasy material for anyone that chooses to self-insert themselves into the show. The only "depth" found here is in the endless cleavage birthed from her unnaturally huge milk jugs. A character who's only purpose is to serve as someone's 2D desktop waifu. But even this cheap trophy-wife model offers more to like than the show's designated love interest.
Aiz Wallenstein, the girl of Bell's affection, does not compute emotion. With the personality of a brick wall and the combat ability of a one-man-army, she's mostly just an idolized Mary Sue placed in the story to be Bell's object of admiration. Outside of that, her nonpresence has made her nothing but a goal for Bell to reach.

The rest of the cast is mostly forgettable tag-along members that fall into one of three camps:

a.) another female for Bell's harem
b.) another female for Bell's harem
c.) Welf Crozzo, the one trick pony

Similar to how underbaked the character writing was, the production as a whole also underperformed.

The presentation of DanMachi is a mixed bag of passable to awful. There are moments where the show boasts decently-choreographed action scenes that get you pumped up, only to be followed up by jarring CGI monsters and choppy animation. This lack of consistency can be contributed to J.C.Staff's workload, as they were also adapting Shokugeki no Soma during the same period they worked on DanMachi, which could have resulted in an improper allocation of manpower. The art, for the most part, was appealing, with suitable color choices that made the landscapes and characters pop. The peppy tone in which the characters moved and carefree disposition in how its world was colored to life helped compensate where other departments failed.

As far as the soundtrack was concerned, there isn't much to say. The opening theme is your standard j-pop track, far from distinctive when placed in a crowd, and could easily be replaced without making so much of a difference. And like most medieval fantasy shows before it, this too has a very standard soundtrack, using all the bells and whistles you'd expect from something trying to portray that period. That basic Celtic music in pub/Inn settings and those usual orchestral choir sections during fight scenes. It's all very standard. And that's basically DanMachi in a nutshell, a show trying to portray things it can't fully grasp and coming off middling because of it.


****SPOILER SECTION******

Because of the erratic pacing and contrived plotting, every other episode of Danmachi has the main character receiving a power-up of some sort. 1st we find out that he has "unlimited potential," in other words, he's a borderline overpowered beta-male. And then, only two episodes later, he's handed another powerful weapon that he never earns. By the 5th episode, he gets a book that conveniently teaches him fire magic. And if that wasn't enough, he gets an ability to KO any opponent as a last ditch final attack only a few episodes after. And this trend of gaining a new advantage never stops either, happening all the way up to the very finale of the show, robbing the purpose behind even creating a coming-of-age story. The show actively fights against the idea of earned rewards. And to put the icing on the shit cake, we find out he's a Demigod as well, as if being plot armored and overpowered wasn't enough of a buffer.

And then there were introductions to people that amount to nothing at all.

For example, characters like Welf Crozzo was given a backstory, motivation and character introduction within one episode just to serve the role of a plot device. A character whose entire purpose in the narrative is to be Bell's blacksmith, yet is marketed as a defining side character despite the rushed-job given to indoctrinate him into the group. This isn't just an isolated incident either, as every character introduced after the third episode mark is simply pushed off an assembly line with no time given to even let the "archetype" that is their paint to dry.

So at the end of the day, you're not watching this because it has something to offer, you're watching it because there's nothing else to do.

****END OF SPOILERS****


Going into DanMachi, all I expected to get out of it was easy-to-consume entertainment, and that's precisely what I got. Because of its simplistic story and surface-level depiction, I never felt frustrated watching it since the show never gave me a reason to care, to begin with.

With DanMachi, what you see is what you get. It's a show that isn't trying to be more than what it is and is honest about that. And while that's a commendable attribute, it just isn't enough to be anything more than just that. It's easygoing content that offers nothing else when it's all said and done. DanMachi is the intermission title you watch before watching your next "must watch" series. An anime that will forever be remembered for a pair of loli boobs than it will for anything else.

Danmachi is an anime made to be simple. First of all, you won't see anything complex here. I see it as one of the budget anime, where there's nothing special about it, but it sells. It feels like sao season 3, just with more fan service. The purpose that I've found of Danmachi, is to serve as a passtime, and relaxation after you've exhausted the list of must watch anime, or if you want something "casual".

Right at the start, there is a narration, that quickly shows you a bit of how the world works. Later on, in the first episode you will of course find ... out more. What you will be finding out is, that that world is basically an RPG. It doesn't say anything about this being a game, but it simply works like that. People that aren't gamers probably won't understand most of the stats, leveling and item thingies. There are adventurers, that follow certain goddesess, which lost their divine power, just to have fun with mortals. The purpose is to conquer the Dungeon that is in the center of the world, and beat all the bosses. Doesn't sound like anything special, does it? Feels like you're watching someone else play an MMORPG, since everything is very easy-going.

*Minor spoilers in this paragraph
The adventurer that we are following is Bell Cranel. He is a guy that is naive, wants to be a hero, good mannered. But he's STUPID. The first scene we meet him, is when he was being chased down, just to see him soon saved from the strongest adventurer there is, that is supposedly a female. After being saved, he falls in love with her, and his motive is, I MUST GET STRONGER JUST TO REACH HER. Later on I will talk more about her. Soon after we meet his goddess, that is Hestia. I can describe her very quickly. Loli, with boobs, and throughout the entire series, you will only see her going after Bell. This serves to stop Bell from ending up with anyone. Hilarity ensues, except i didn't find it that funny, because it's the most stupid love triangle. Instead of bell going for the one that is extremely caring for him, he chases the strongest female, that turns out to be an airhead which we will see later on. And because it is all like that, the dialog is extremely stupid, leading to nothing. If they're not talking about adventure, they're talking about how the sky is beautiful or something like that. Another stupid character he meets, his supporter, living in the guild with the most ridiculous motive (more wine!). She has a very inconsistent personality. At first she wants to scam Bell, for his items. She accidentally falls down, the weapon gets out, and miraculously, that happens in front of a good character related to Bell. Cheap trick just to get the supporter some forced character development. Bell soon gets it back, without him noticing anything, 'cause it's Bell! Soon after witnessing her betray him again before his very own eyes, and she tells him that she already betrayed him once before, Bell forgives her, risks his live to save her, and the harem increases. On the question why? He answers that he didn't know (but he does! The writer told him, that he will gain a new motive; protect thine friends!) Most of the characters are plot devices that lead to a boring story.

Bell cranel has a Premium account, and he's the only one. He's the chosen one, and while the world seems very balanced, Bell with his unstable personality, manages to do great things, and beat monsters, that realistically speaking, if the world is based on stats, his weapons should just break. What's the point in stats and leveling, if it doesn't even show how powerful someone is. But he gets an ability, that makes it impossible to lose. Literally impossible, even though it is not instant. He's just beating everything through out his screams, that sound really good. He isn't a chicken Gary Stu like i describe him, he first falls, and than comes back, it isn't like he's god mode walking through everything. He also sees invisible people because he feels their eyes on him, perfect logic. Premium account, or hacker? You decide!

The fights are very good, not anti-climatic, they also have very nice music, and sounds, and are also animated extremely well. There's even a lot of blood going, and you can feel really well how the monsters get sliced up. The music is really epic, but the opening is just, no. It feels like it is for some slice of life show. It should sound more adrenaline pumping and exciting not like this. The music is at it's peak in the fights as i mentioned. And this is one of the few anime where i really enjoy the fights. Even though they're just shit Bell has to go through. However, the art and character designs are not well done for 2015, but they aren't terrible.

I didn't talk about all the characters, since most of them exist just to be there. Nothing to talk about them, since they don't do much for the plot. Even though it is all cliched, by my point of view, i usually don't like this stuff, and would rate this even lower. The only special thing about Danmachi is that it is not boring to watch; it's so easy-going with many flaws. It's like so simple, that it is fun in the same time, it gives off some kind of a nice feeling. If it is nice why is it only 4? Because the characters, are mostly annoying, and the story is just shit Bell goes through, without him receiving any character development.

I've just stated in this Review mostly how I feel about it. It is of course possible for people to enjoy this. Since it is, like I mentioned, very simple. If it isn't objectively good, it doesn't mean it won't be fun. With being simple, and the way the pacing is easy-going, together with intense battles, there is no sin if you enjoy it. It doesn't try much to be what it isn't, and I didn't give 4 since it failed, rather because i didn't like it. Since i usually burn this kind of anime down and I didn't really hate it as much as I could, most people would still find much more enjoyment in Danmachi than me.

"Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon" is a goddamn abomination. JC Staff capitalizing on the video game anime craze was already a flag, but to go this far... is pathetic. This is every anime you have ever seen. This is everything wrong with anime. This anime is the exact reason why anime is ostracized at face value. This is what anime viewers should be trying to stop.

There is a story. It is hyper-simplistic. So stupid that anyone could understand it. Yet the plot points make little to no sense. The main character Bell Cranel starts his adventures with his well-endowed companion, ... the goddess Hestia. Why this girl is supposed to be Hestia I have no clue. She does nothing Hestia-esque. Her character design has nothing to do with Hestia. She's blatantly an oversexualized little girl with a bra made out of string. A quick aside - bras made out of string do not exist. They do not exist because they do not work.

So Bell Cranel and his representative goddess have to go into a dungeon to, like, do adventures or something (unexplained). But Bell Cranel is very weak so every episode an unforeshadowed deus ex machina pops out of nowhere and saves him. There is no character progression and no power scaling boundaries set. Then things get really crazy, because the bad guy gives Bell Cranel a very strong power for no reason at all.

The bad guy gives the main character super powers for an unexplained reason. All of the main characters powers are given to him for an unexplained reason. The villain, the evil character, the bad guy gives the protagonist, the good guy, the hero, his super powers. The rest of the anime is spent on everyone being impressed that the main character has super powers. Please note that it is completely unexplained why the bad guy gives the good guy his super powers. And why he can just have super powers.

And of course there is a harem. Of course the camera angles settle on poorly animated breasts whenever a girl is on the screen. Of course the fight scenes are embarrassing and the main character has to use his unexplained super power to kill the bad guy. I have no clue if this is supposed to be an underdog story or not because Bell Cranel is so overpowered yet everyone in the world wants to help him. Everything is contradictory.

The writing is abysmal. It is the worst writing I have seen in anime in a while. Every single character is an archetypal character with an archetypal backstory. There are three episodes spent on the lolita character they introduce in the middle of the season that are obvious and cringe worthy in terms of direction. You knew exactly what was going to happen. Every single scene was predictable, yet the script was just rehashed lines. The script is the nail in the coffin with gems like "I'll save you because you're a woman." They took garbage, put garbage on top of it, threw in a couple of minotaurs and little girls and sold it for 76 bucks per blu-ray after the current Yen to US Conversion rate. If you buy this anime, it's associated manga or light novels, figurines, buttons, pins, moist towelettes, and so on... you will hurt my feelings. I'll consider it a personal attack.

DanMachi is so terrible and so idiotic. Nothing is ever explained and the most random drama ensues at the most opportune times. The final episode is just one huge monster battle for, once again, a completely unexplained reason. Every episode something crazy happens and it simply does not get explained. Like Hestia's Divine Powers, or why Hermes is a jerk, or what Hephaestus and Crozzeo's relationship is... and... and... everything. But don't worry because I'm sure everything will be explained in season two! Even sarcastically that hurts to type.

Only watch this anime ironically. If you watch this anime ironically I'll still be upset with you. Take my advice like a doting mother or teacher who said you can redo a paper. I really care about you, anonymous, I really do. I want you to love anime. I want people to respect your great taste. I want you to succeed in life. Watching this anime won't help you get any of those things.

Please select one of the other of thousands of anime that exist. May I recommend Urawa no Usagi-Chan? That's probably better because there's only one level of irony. One level of irony is better than the many you're going to have to explain with this one. This is so bad it's bad bad and then a couple layers past that. It's so bad it's bad that it's still bad and that means that even if you think it's bad and know it's bad it can get worse because you knowingly fear it's badness as you watch it and understand completely that you are subjecting yourself to something that is just bad without any way to escape the badness because under no circumstances can you figure out how someone would think it's good so you resign yourself to just watching something that is bad. In simple terms, anonymous, this is very bad please don't watch it. Even if you do watch this anime to watch something bad and feel bad watching something bad I'll probably still be disappointed in you though, anonymous. Just don't do it please!!

And lastly, can someone please tell me why if they are descending the dungeon why the dungeon stretches into the sky? Does that even make any sense? And why can gods and goddesses just sneak into the dungeon like it's no big deal? And why is this world's entire economy based around some sort of video game spawn thing? Why is the elf so powerful? And do we really not care she murdered a bunch of people in cold blood? Is there no jail in this world? And just goddamn why? Why does this anime exist?!

All these questions and more - completely unanswered in season two of "Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon!"

Is it Wrong to Have a Title for a Light Novel that is Not Two Lines Long and Describes the Premise of the Show with as Many Words as Possible?

Danmachi says no. It also has no problem being a shameless representation of what light novels are all about; not limited to the ridiculously long titles other books would use as the synopsis in the back cover. So yeah, what do otakus want today? Videogames? Ok. Lolis and tits? Fine. Some generic fantasy land with a generic main character, who is otherwise special? Sure. Just take a big marker and draw a fat vertical line in ... the checklist of clichés without bothering to verify anything, for Danmachi doesn’t try to exclude anything, or include anything more.

So why the hell am I even reviewing this thing if it’s so bland and mediocre? If it’s the way I describe it, then nobody will care about it and it would go unnoticed. OH I WISH THAT WAS THE CASE but it isn’t. Danmachi happens to be by far the most popular title of the season it came out. Not even the Fate / Stay Night hype was anywhere near the amount of attention this one got out of nowhere. And it won’t fade away from memory any time soon either, thanks to the obsessive nature of anime fans. For you see, all it takes for them to get excited, is to find a single thing that visually stands out. If they do, there is no end to what they will do with it. In Danmachi’s case, that would be a ribbon. Yes, you heard me, a ribbon. Just place it under your boobs and VOILA LET’S HAVE A QUATRILLION COSPLAYS ABOUT IT.

And thus came the plague of the endless Hestia cosplayers, who couldn’t stop dressing like her, or drawing her simplistic design, consisting of just a single colored white dress with a blue ribbon under her boobs. How the devil does that make her remotely interesting? Because she is a loli with huge breasts, skintight clothes that easily make her boobs and panties show, she has epic level powers to undo all damages, is obedient to the main character, lives with him in the same room, massages his body, hugs him as they sleep together, while being poor and frail, and needs someone to protect her! SHE IS MY WAIFU! COME HERE BRESTIA!

But come on, there has to be more to the character than that, right? I mean, she is a goddess for crying out loud, and there is a whole world of magic, deities, and dungeons out there. Isn’t she part of a much bigger scheme or something? … Yes, you are right, she is. She is a different incarnation of Asuna, the protagonist is another Kirito, the world is another Sword Art Online, and of course both stories are based on light novels. So as you see, Danmachi is a spin-off of one of the most famous anime of all times, that otakus consider a masterpiece. Thus all its fame is excused and well-earned.

… Wait, no it’s not. Danmachi is no spin-off of SAO. They also have very superficial similarities. Oh, that’s right, the protagonist is voiced by the same actor who did Kirito. The otakus are right; Danmachi is SAO! Also, just like all successful light novels such as SAO, it is full of interesting ideas, presented in the most basic way and never elaborated, so the fans can imagine any crap they like about them. The more specific the world becomes, the more solid it feels, which is exactly what we do not want from our power fantasies. We want them to be vague, so they will always bend to how we like them to be at any given moment.

This is also why our protagonist is so bland. We need to imagine him being as we are; the more personality he has, the harder it is to self-insert and believe we are him, as he goes around collecting harem girls. Because that is what we wish our lives were like; being loved by all the girls, even if we have no personality. But we also need to be able to win them somehow, and that is why we need a power no other man can possess. In the case of Bell, the hero of Danmachi, it’s a skill that makes him level up a trillion times faster than anyone else, and the ability to fuel his special attacks with the power of waifu love, so he can win against any opponent, regardless of how powerful he is. Sounds broken and unfair for everyone else, and also boring because you know the protagonist will always triumph by using asspulls? Yes, but who gives a crap if it makes you win all the time and get all the wet pussycats without having a personality?

I could spend a few paragraphs describing other characters, events, and areas, but I see no point in doing that, since they do not deserve it. Nobody else matters beyond the special blandness that is Bell, all other girls cover different fetishes but are otherwise no more interesting than Brestia, and all events follow the exact same pattern of being resolved with asspulls, regardless of their set-up or level of threat. The amount of thought put into the script, is one tenth of what I’ve spent in writing this review.

I could spend some digital ink in talking about the production values, but I also see no point in doing that if the actual show is so painfully uninteresting. No amount of pretty colors and nice sounds can make up for a crappy script or a stereotypical roster of meh characters. It’s ok looking and sounding if that is what you only care about in your power fantasies. But that is all it is.

Now go back to spending 30 seconds drawing Brestia and her boob ribbon. Do it while it’s still somewhat relevant. By the time the second season came out, most of the hype was gone, because the otakus jumped ship to some other generic power fantasy. Danmachi got lucky by coming out during a season that had nothing else to derp about, but once other derp things existed during the sequel, Brestia and her ribbon were already used toilet paper. She’s now a mostly dusty dakimakura, abandoned on a moisty basement after getting smeared with a gallon of otaku semen. It’s left there, as an exhibit of a time when anime fans had nothing better to do besides crossdressing as a loli with a blue ribbon under their fake boobs.

(This has been adapted from my blog/reddit thread. Spoilers ahead!)

I think it is pretty typical for people to have a role model. It might be someone who is always around us, like a family member or a close friend. Or it might be a celebrity or athlete who, while not having direct impact on another’s life, manages to affect countless others by simply being. For me, it is my father. He provides for his family, he works extremely hard, and he always, always wants only the best for his kids. Something simple he does that I hope to replicate is, during Christmas (we call him ... Mr. Christmas because he gets so into it), he wraps the base of the trees around his house with green lights and the branches wrapped in red and white ones, so that they become trees of lights rather than simply trees with lights. He is someone I will never fail to look up to, and will always aspire to be. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is actually a rhetorical question, with it instead focusing on this kind of inspiration, providing its audience with a less than stellar anime.

STORY

Dungeon (the shortening of choice from here-on-out) stars Bell Cranel who has just recently been recruited into the goddess Hestia’s “Familia.” One day, he is saved by Aiz Wallenstein, a legendary woman both in beauty and swordsmanship, which inspires Bell to become someone of her caliber.

The show finds some success in its theme on inspiration through the use of role models. Here, in Dungeon, people look up to (or down on) others as a means to assess their own prowess because the benchmarks for what is strong and weak are defined by the people partaking in the tower runs, arena battles, and tavern visits. So the anime depicts these kinds of scenarios to demonstrate how someone becomes better due to the way another acts or carries themself. Bell looks up to Aiz, so the latter goes about training the former; after witnessing Bell’s impressive abilities, members of a guild push themselves harder; and Hestia, seeing her precious family member work so fervently, causes her to do the same, laboring herself to support him. At the same time, the anime also looks at the darker side of inspiration, namely obsession and revenge. Half the reason why the events of the anime take place are due to outside influences caused by a being who, for better or worse, is infatuated with the young lad. In other words, she is so taken by him, so inspired by whom he is and what he can do, it causes her to unleash a rampaging goliath and an extraordinary Minotaur that disrupts the everyday flow. There are also segments where Bell becomes the target of undue hate, turning into a kind of anti-role model. In these moments, people become inspired to conspire against him because of his trustworthiness and status where they trap him with monsters and kidnap Hestia, respectively. Inspiration is normally good, but can often times be used for bad intentions, with the anime covering both handily enough.

Dungeon begins to suffer when one looks beyond the theme that is woven throughout. Most notably is the anime’s complete lack of world-building. There are many aspects to the world that are presented: a leveling system, magical spells, a huge tower for questing, a banking system, armors, weapons, varying classes, special abilities, diverse races, a political game of godly proportions, etc. Yet nothing within this list is properly explained despite the anime relying on such facets time and again. Not taking steps to flesh out the setting – especially one steeped in fantasy and fiction – makes it unnecessarily difficult for the audience to be engrossed by the show that needs to make its world distinct and, to an extent, understandable.

There is also a glaring issue with the anime’s attempt at a harem. Now, a harem is, like any “story-telling” element, not automatically a negative so long as the execution of it is noticeable. In Dungeon, the harem aspect serves little purpose outside of detracting from the narrative and its goals. One major problem associated with the harem is how it reduces the authenticity of the “romance” being established between Aiz and Bell. It is clear through the anime’s events that these two are the staple couple, so when more and more women are added to the mix, the most important relationship is weakened. The harem also does not influence what happens at large; besides being used for the same jealousy joke, this aspect of the anime does not affect the fighting that occurs or the direction of the plot. A possible reasoning for having the harem in the first place is because it would seem to follow its own theme of role models. That is, the women look to Bell as someone worth striving for. Unfortunately this has more to do with affection rather than inspiration, since the girls are not necessarily looking to be like him but rather be with him.

Overall, the theme of inspiration is explored nicely enough but the lack of proper world-building and the misused harem bring the entire package down.

ANIMATION

As if to continue with the anime’s difficulty in crafting a believable world, Dungeon missteps once more when it comes to its art. Again, the problem is foregoing “explanation,” or in this case variety. The dungeon-tower that is investigated daily starts to blend together after a certain point with the same, boring rock formations and color palates. The main city is no different; outside of the bank and the tavern, very little of the area is explored besides what is seen in an intercity scuffle. The most prominent location is Bell and Hestia’s home, but even there it is a bed and a table only.

Dungeon does manage to do well with its fight choreography, showcasing easy-to-follow battles and a plethora of combinations between many of the different characters. The character designs are likewise well-composed, with Bell looking like the innocent boy he is portrayed as being and Ryu’s elven robes signifying her beauty both of body and swordsmanship.

Actual animation also manages to remain above average throughout the season. Facial expressions are quite detailed, as are the movements of the characters both inside and outside of the battlefield. Bell’s fight with the Minotaur was particularly impressive in this regard.

CHARACTERS

One of Dungeon’s biggest problems is not setting up an appropriate antagonist. The person poised to take this role was Freya, the woman scarily obsessed with Bell, but not only is she never looked at in-depth after her introduction but she is so far away from the happenings – she uses pawns and tricks to do her bidding – that the anime makes it inherently impossible to develop or at the very minimum characterize who she is. By not having an antagonist, it confuses the audience about what Bell is fighting for and, more relevant, who he is fighting against. In this scenario, it becomes “Bell versus the world” which introduces even more faults. As has been established, the world of Dungeon is not provided, meaning making it the main adversary is silly since, like Freya, nothing about it is known. Along the same lines, this kind of thinking does not fit with the show’s theme on inspiration. The setting might be seen as something that inspires people to fight for or protect it but Bell is never depicted as doing this. Instead, he is more concerned about the other inspirations in his life, with the world being more or less an afterthought.

Arguably the strongest character of the anime is Liliruca. A young, cat-like girl of small proportions, she had grown up to despise the humans that wronged her. Similar to her fake ears, she would come to establish a façade that hid her vile behavior behind the kindness and sweetness she regularly dished out. She would steal, she would lie, and she would deceive anyone around her to get her way, even Bell, the first human to show her the empathy she needed. This should not be taken lightly; he was not exempt from her antics because, as it was shown, it was a deeply-rooted issue that manifested in her past and continued into the present, which made her conclude that the future would likely hold the same outcome. It is not until she completely betrays Bell, is left to die by her other harassers, and is eventually saved (both physically and mentally) by the boy who she wronged for so long, that she breaks down hard. She bawls, weeping over the terrible actions she took and crying from finally finding someone who truly cared for her. Seeing her move from despondency to elation, from child to adult, due to the inspiration she received from Bell was wonderful to witness, making her the best character of the show.

The rest of the cast is, unfortunately, placed on a lower tier. Welf is given an episode of his own, but like a lot of the cast members, there is little given about him as well as no development to speak of. Aiz falls under the same troubles; besides her exceptional battle prowess and emotionless nature, the anime spends no time on her actual person, which is odd considering how much of an inspiration she is to Bell. Speaking of the main lead, Bell sits slightly higher character-wise, but not by much. Initially, he is perceived as a coward, as someone who cannot help himself. It is this ridicule from others that sparks him to become better. Not as a person but as fighter because the rest of the anime has his stats leveling up as opposed to his actual self. He has hardships in the form of fights but he remains the same, happy-go-lucky Bell from start to finish.

There does exist some symbolism that reflects the characters – Bell has “firebolt” to match his fiery passion; Welf’s “will-o-wisp” ability, that stops enemy spells, coincides with his refusal to work on his own craft; and Liliruca can morph into a bunny like how she use to “morph” her outward self – but it is not enough to make up for the lack of execution that nearly every character faces.

SOUND

Dungeon’s opening theme starts off alright but quickly devolves into a less-than-stellar track. The vocalist does not seem to have the power to back the song, with the actual music being produced going every which way in terms of beat and tone. The background singers do not help either; they are more annoying than supportive, detracting the listener from actually being able to hear the piece. The ending theme, on the other hand, is nice due to the slow build-up, resounding trumpets, and catchiness that it incorporates. It is a fun piece that captures the (usually) up-beat nature of the anime.

The rest of the soundtrack is par for the course. Nothing is immediately noteworthy, with most of the pieces fitting the atmosphere in place. That is, many of the tracks use flutes, guitars, and pipes to give it that adventurous and slice-of-life feel. There are also standard piano pieces for the sad times and triumphant, adrenaline-filled pieces for those fighting moments. It is an okay OST overall that performs at an appropriate level.

Voice acting for Dungeon is somewhere above average. A special shout-out is deserved for Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Bell for his on-point screaming.

ENJOYMENT

Although I criticized the anime for having a harem where none was needed, I still liked that aspect. As a romance aficionado, watching as all of the women blushed or fought over Bell was usually enough to make me happy. However, I would have liked to have seen more progress between him and Aiz since it felt like their relationship was tossed on the wayside despite the general importance of it.

I was actually a fan of Hestia as well, boob-string and all. She was pretty much there for comic-relief, what with her silly faces, overreactions, and protectiveness of her “child.” She, like the majority of the cast, did not add much beyond her superficial characteristics, but she was still fun to experience over the season.

Beyond the harem and Hestia segments, there was not much else I found myself particularly liking. The battles were fine, except the final one; it seemed too all over the place with unexplained details, such as the weapons being used and the offhand comment about Bell being Zeus’s descendent. As for the other characters, I cannot say I was particularly fond of them, either. Many of them are attractive or funny but do not have the same impact that Hestia managed to bring about, so characters like Ryu or Aiz are cool but do not have enough surrounding them to make them worth remembering.

While the show’s theme on inspiration is nice as are parts of the art it presents, there is not enough story- and character-wise to make the anime worthwhile. And while the harem aspect is fun it ultimately prevents the show from accomplishing what it set out to do. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? That is still a question up for debate. But at this point it is clear that, if anything, the anime needs to pick up the slack for any continuations.

SUMMARY

Story: Bad, theme of inspiration through role models is there, but the high focus on the harem and the low focus on the actual world hurt it

Animation: Good, boring art style, nice fight choreography, nice character designs, above average actual animation

Characters: Bad, Liliruca is good but the rest, from Bell to Welf to Aiz, cannot pull their own weight

Sound: Fine, bad OP, good ED, okay soundtrack, above average VA work

Enjoyment: Fine, Hestia and the harem antics were fun, but not much else was

Final Score: 4/10

If there was a negative score, I would have happily given this anime a "-100" score. I mean who made this apalling anime.
At first I tried to watch it, then I gave up and tried to rewatch it again. But I couldn`t. It was so hard for me to finish this anime. This anime is the cringiest, has no plot and is out of touch with basic human emotions.

Every two episodes you will come across a scene that makes wish this anime doesn`t exist. Let me give you an example. A supporter girl betrays mc by cheating, stealing, attacking and luring him into a trap ... that she set. MC being gullable still looks for that girl to ensure her safety. MC is striken down by monster then that girl steals valuables from mc. Mc just watches the girl stealing the stuff and running away. Later that same girl is attacked by other monsters, mc saves her and says it doesn`t matter you betrayed me, I saved you because you are a girl. Next day, he recruits her in his party.

The above is just one of many scenes that you would expect when you watch this stupid anime. This anime makes Boku no Pico look like masterpiece.

Not even artwork in the case of Dungeon ni Deai can be a savior fact, as I've already seen animes of 2008 or even less with better artwork. Everything in this anime is simply terrible. The characters' development are mediocre, and you can't even enjoy the series quite well as everything inside it sucks. Perhaps the only good thing is this anime was Bell fighting the minotaur... Nothing else.


By watching Sword Oratoria, I tend to think even more than I already thought before, that Ais Wallestein shoulda been the main protagonist. Seriously, I don't read ... the manga or stuffs like these to see if Bell Crannel's story can actually be far interesting, but if it's, it was poorly adapted. I think the company would have earned more if they started the anime with Wallestein's story, as it is way more explained, and far more developed than this sorryful excuse of anime. I had dropped it long time ago, and I regret myself cotinuing it. I'm sorry if I'm being too harsh, but perhaps even Yosuga no Sora has more story than this, and I'm not even kidding.


If you want to watch something interesting related to this, go watch Dungeon ni Deai: Sword Oratoria. It is supposed to be a side story, showing what was happening to Ais whilst she wasn't near Bell Crannel. But it's far, far more interesting, and the story is way more developed and explained. I never thought I'd been writing about an anime saying it's original content is surpassed by a side story, but in the case of Dungeon ni Deai, it is. Enjoy yourself with it, and not this sorry excuse of anime we have here.

PS: However, even so, Sword Oratoria has some flaws as well. Firstly some unnecessaries yuri scenes, and secondly, it develops well only from episode 04 onwards. But even so, give it a shot! I bet you won't regret.

When I began watching this show, it was because the name made me and my father chuckle, and with both of us having a gaming background and enjoying fantasy based themes, we decided to go with it. And we both enjoyed it quite a bit, we really did. It was aesthetically pleasing to the eye and we got a good laugh of out of it for the first few episodes.

Then when it hit about episode 3, we started noticing animation errors or noticing that the same soundtrack was playing in the background again. Events became predictable (not that they weren't already, but we were able ... to ignore it because of the fun we were having) and the charm of it quickly began to wear off.

As we approached the finale, we started watching it more as a chore, we wanted to at least see it through to the end. And overall, the finale was just not satisfying enough for us to not feel watching this anime was a waste of time. Sure, we'll remember what the character's designs were and what their personalities (or in Hestia's case, assets) were. Even if some of the RPG elements in a functioning fantasy world seemed enticing at first, we'll probably never rewatch it, or recommend to anyone.

The only reason I picked up this series because of the name, I was still new to anime at the time so I didn't really know what was considered "good." I didn't know much about anime or knew any friends that were into it at the time so I just kinda picked up random series that I thought sounded interesting and in doing so I ended up stopping on a series called Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? I don't really have to explain why I thought this sounded cool as i'm pretty sure anyone reading this review found ... the title to be pretty "interesting" to say the least.

I really didn't enjoy this anime that much but I also didn't hate it. It wasn't god awful but it certainly wasn't that great. It kind of reminded me of SAO but if SAO's main male wasn't edgy for the sake of being an edgy annoying basta... Sorry I really don't like him but anyway back to this show. The main character's not totally unlikable as he never really made me totally want to hit him but at the same time he wasn't interesting at all.. He was just stale, he wasn't all that funny he wasn't relatable of likable at all but at the same time he wasn't arrogant or anything, he was just... nothing. As for the rest of the characters, I can only consider one the slightest bit memorable and that's the Goddess, Hestia. The only reason I consider her memorable is because of her... personality, she seemed more like a main character than Bell, she actually seemed to somewhat have a personality and we got to see her relationship with the other goddess' and god's, she was actually pretty likable and we got more of a backstory to her than with the actual main character Bell. she set up all the the jokes for the most part and made this show go from a complete train wreck to a decent anime. She certainly wasn't the best character in terms of development but allot of people do find her to be the most likable character in the show.

Despite what this title says this series doesn't have much to do with "Picking up girls in a dungeon" sure he gets allot of girls and stuff but the premise of the show isn't picking up girls in a dungeon, it's such a click-baity title that i'm surprised it's not the title to a YouTube video. The art work was pretty basic in terms of todays standards and the fight scenes were mediocre a best. The only real way i'd ever recommend you watch this anime is if you want to just learn about Hestia or just stare at her... Personality, but even than you can do that on lots of other "sites" and get a better story than this one. It's not bad but it's also not that great, not to mention there's only one season so if you do decide to give the series a shot i'd just recommend reading the Manga, I have never read the manga so I can't really say if it's all that good but I have heard it's about as good as the anime.

Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka falls short. Everything about the first season is average (with the exception of the character designs). The anime fails to fully explore its intriguing premise, instead indulging in unnecessary fanservice. The characters are all over the place; some of them are genuinely interesting and likable, while others are extremely dull and annoying. The action is well animated, but the background characters and monsters appear somewhat off. In terms of pacing, the anime's consistency wavers, starting off well but gradually unraveling towards the end, feeling rushed. The redeeming factor lies in the outstanding character designs, which ... are visually appealing. Overall, Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka has some good ideas but is bogged down by mediocrity.

Even going into this anime with fairly low expectations I've gotta say I was not that impressed.

What you get is a classic self-insert MC with all of the main Gary Stu traits: Every lady falls in love with him instantly, he's endowed with extremely powerful traits that turn him into an OP killing machine, he's the son of Zeus, etc.

All of the supporting female cast are predictable, 1-dimensional floozies that want to get in his pants or at least pretend they don't want to but secretly do.

The story progression is incredibly linear, predictable and flavorless.

Even the name of the anime is poorly executed: The ... MC is a complete coward when it comes to women. Hitting on women in a dungeon is the last thing you'd expect from this neurotic child.

I could go on and on but I don't think this anime deserves an in-depth analysis since it's so shallow and half-hearted in its execution. I was going to give it a 5/10 but I realized that's far too generous for this unoriginal, bland otaku-pablum.

The reason i give this 1 score for overall is because I have expectation way too high for this anime, and it is VERY UNFORTUNATE that they execute it this way.
This anime start and give me 10 score right off the bat after the first 2 episode, and have my expectation way too high just to get it crushed along the way by the stupid MC.
the first 2 episode give a good impression that this MC might develop both in power and character. but later on, only power that grows, the character sink deeper into the shithole of idiotic hareem MC. im fine with ... harem, loli, and stuff, even when they add more disgusting cat burglar loli. WHAT MATTERS THE MOST is how the MC are gonna react and put these girls into their positions that make them special in their own way. But with this idiotic MC ? nope, im totally disappointed. Since this is a harem fanservice anime, i think the anime need to meet the viewer expectation about the harem concept in general.

THE ANIME WASTING 3 EPISODE JUST TO TELL THE STORY ABOUT SOME DISGUSTING CAT BURGLAR, AND WHATS WORSE IS, ITS ALL BEEN FORGIVEN BY THE MC AFTER THE CAT BETRAY AND ALMOST KILL THE MC. THAT IS DISGUSTING, DROPPED.

I'm not exactly going to join the chorus of haters whose reviews are flagged more useful than this one, but I can't hold the line against them either.

This is what should be an inspiring story of heroism and personal growth that's marred by stupid cliches, creepiness, laziness, and a virgin-killer sweater.

The TL;DR is that this story fails at the most fundamental level: TELL ME A STORY!

Bell is not as bland and featureless as most harem heroes--of course, neither are most harem heroes. They're just all meek and mild and can't say no to anyone, which gives the impression of being bland and featureless, while in ... reality they're doormats who hurt everyone by being blandly nice to them. Bell adds to this a ridiculous painful shyness around the woman he actually likes (you can tell who that is because it's the only woman with whom he has basically no relationship to speak of). I don't mind that lots of women are interested in him; in a world of jerks, he's actually a nice guy, and he's doing some pretty impressive things. It's not unrealistic that this would get him some attention. Of course the women would want to talk with him; of course the men would see him as competition (though let's be honest, a lot of the women would see him as competition too). The issue is that he has no idea of how to talk to people. So he doesn't talk to people. So the charm ought to wear off pretty quickly, like when you see that cool guy across the room, go up and talk with them, and it turns out they're boring.

The other flaw with this characterization is a certain scene involving napping in which our Nice Guy acknowledges a previously totally unrecognized creepy side, and somehow has an internal struggle about whether to act on it. Please. NOTHING in the rest of this man's characterization would suggest he would even consider acting on it. And at the very least he's intelligent enough to know that it would be social suicide if he did.

That said, the harem is awfully frustrating. There's maybe three, four characters that have more pronounced crushes than passing interest. And that's what they are--crushes. They just want his attention (or possibly his money and free labor...). But the squabbling, led by everyone's favorite Clingy Jealous Goddess, just gets tedious, and becomes an excuse for a lot of pandering to the viewer that feels cheap and insulting. And enough with the fan-service. We have a freaking Internet, if I want to watch cartoon boobies I can go find actual porn.

Look I am all about the love triangles/polyhedra. I will ship a furniture documentary if I think that ottoman really loves the sofa and you can show me why they belong together. But there's gotta be some actual romance there. Nobody involved in this seems to have a motivation other than competitiveness and attention-seeking, and I don't really care which lunch table Bell sits at. Relationships founded on "I really need attention and you're enough of a pushover that you'll endlessly provide it" are as unsatisfying to watch as they are to be in.

What else... the vast majority of the conflicts have entirely too low stakes. I mean we use all the shonen battle anime tricks to try to raise the stakes--monsters power up, become invincible, smash things, rocks fall, swords break, speed-lines happen, special attack names get shouted, etc. But none of that matters, because no one watching this has the slightest bit of doubt that Bell will prevail through his Magic of Prevailing or whatever the excuse is this episode. None of it is earned through hard work (other than a stubborn dedication to the ideal of Best-ness). We get a couple training scenes but there's never the impression that he's actually working hard for this. And more importantly, none of his victories are ever paid for with sacrifice. He doesn't have to give up anything to become greater than what he is. Where's the drama in that?

The worldbuilding--it's fine. I mean it's stupid, and a little cringey to hear people explicitly talking about someone's level, but I'll roll with it if there's a good story. There just isn't.

At the end of the day, this is 13 episodes of what really could have been a training montage on the way to the actual arc of the story. What is it Bell wants to do? Impress a chick? Build a familia? Save the world? Get elected dog-catcher? NOBODY KNOWS. So we're stuck watching him grind out levels. And the show becomes "Is it wrong to screw around in a dungeon trying to get enough exp and geld to be better able to screw around in a dungeon some more?"

I would be happy to watch this if there were a weighty choice between a couple plausible romance interests with earnestly developed relationships. I'd be happy to watch this if Bell's victories came at a cost. I'd be happy to watch this if we were moving toward something. But Slice of Life of your favorite JRPG is better done with Let's Play videos.

...all that said... real S2 when?

I watched only the three episodes so you can argue if its relevant for me to judge the overall anime but holy moly these episodes are so boring, full of fan service and CLICHE. Its like every single scenes has to show big angles with pieces of ass & tits skin which i could tolerate because i expect that from any anime that has few girl character but then you add a full spoon of i just met this girl in the first 10seconds of the first episode who saved my life and i fall in love with her then oh no i accidentally heard ... that im a tiny weak little turd and go cry to my goddess who acctually is in love with our shit smeared ass MC and then you realise he is op af and he gets involved in a incredibly EPIC fight (which is in fact a duel between a giant sayian gorrila basically who can't even touch our MC spagget after ~20punches while he isn't even moving) and thanks to the power of TRUST or is it the power of FRIENDSHIP ? he beats the boss with a single cut (he actually keeps the knife in the belly of the ape so if it didn't die on that strike he would have to fight without it) and then when that is over her cute loli KAMI SAMA CHAN falls UNCONCIOUS and he is totally scares and shout the hell out of his throat typical kirito seijuu in action and 30s of episode after a gorgeous maid falls in lvoe with him because she saw how MAJESTUOUS his fight was (though he ran around the big ass gorilla like playing some cat & mouse kid game or whatever)
hope you got my point im pretty sure i lost myself in this preview which is more of a resume of the 3episodes but who cares at this point

*no spoilers*

2/10
Honestly, I don't know how people enjoy this anime. Personally, I think this anime is pretty boring. The story is plain, lack of actions and a bit too slow for me. The characters are just so-so, just like any fantasy anime where the main character is underestimated guy, but super kind, super hard-working, loyal, naive, attracts many girls and at the end he's the one who'll be the hero. And the support character (Hestia) is a very CLINGY goddess, who is actually a nice girl, but meh...she's too annoying. I kept watching this anime, kinda hoped that there will be an event that ... would surprised me and made me think "ahh, so this is what's it all about" because it seemed there are many people who liked it. But, it disappointed me because even until the end of this season, the story was just like...well, if you're a gamer, this is just like the normal days that you spent in dungeons; meet another gamers, joined a party and grinding all day long.

This could have been a well-executed series of high fantasy game system tropes. It could have had interesting characters. It could have worked. It threw all those chances away. I like isekai as a genre, and I like its tropes, but there's just too much shit here.

Ignoring fanservice, which isn't a plus or minus inherently, the core flaw of this series is pacing. Everyone has seen the same tropes before, in series following very similar story arcs to this. But each episode drags out these tropes to an agonizing degree. At some point, everyone knows exactly ... what's going to happen, but before they do the show should already have gotten the entire event over with. It doesn't. It drags and drags and drags.

Inter-character interaction could have been deep, even in the limited plot. The best known character (who everyone just calls loli bigboobs because who can be assed to remember her name?) actually has some depth. Not a ton, but more than any other character in the series, and many other characters in many other series. One would imagine this means she gets more time in the spotlight, doing things and moving plot along. But nope. Gotta drag out that one getting-ready-to-hit-something frame!

Story: Starting off the story is kinda meh. As the main character Bell is this adventurer who ventures off into caves and Goes deeper and deeper into the cave whenever he becomes stronger within his stats, but The story isn't at all that interesting. How can I say this while also keeping it short and sweet.... This anime is literally Sword Art Online, but With Huge Tits and Goddesses! To be fair I would rather watch SAO since imo SAO is at least somewhat a good anime, but IIWTTTPUGIAD is seriously boring. Instead of wanting to find treasure and Becoming a better adventurer, Bell wants ... to find and Rescue females within the cave from monsters. My assumption is that Bell wants to find a girlfriend within the caves and It has to be some kind of " Damsel in Distress " type of female. Which makes the plot seem generic and Just downright boring.

Art: The art style is really nice, but That isn't going to save this anime at all. It's like dressing up a pig in a dress and Putting make up on it.... It may look nice, but It's still a pig. Basically the anime can look nice as hell, but At the end of the day it's still a crap anime.

Sound: The sound isn't memorable at all, sadly The OVA had better tracks and Music within it. And That's me being 110% honest.

Character Development: Character Development might as well as be non existent since there isn't much development at all.

Enjoyment: I enjoyed it for a bit, but I would fall asleep from how dry the anime was. It's literally style over substance and Anime constructed around that notation usually ends up being whack, but Some how this anime is going to have a season two and It already has a movie and OVA, both being better than the actual anime. Which makes sense. Think about how good A Silent Voice was and Imagine it getting a series just cause the people asked for it? It would go wrong due to the fact that it only had the potential to make an amazing movie and Not a whole series.

Overall: This anime is decent and Isn't at all for everyone. If you want to downgrade from Sword Art Online and Maker it more about huge boobs and Less adventure then here you have it! Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon is literally that, a Dollar Value Sword Art Online. Legit just a carbon copy, but With more boobs and Less potential for a good story. If you like garbage with no potential for a good story at all and Are only watching an anime for the female figure? Then this anime is for you! Everyone else I highly HIGHLY suggest never watching this anime, it'll bore you to death and You will fall asleep.

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This is the first anime that I watch(childhood memories) in my own opinion it's good as long as you follow the flow of the story what I meant is that you shouldn't always judge and don't always let your own ideal overstep this anime like you wanted the mc to be more cruel,smart,and etc, nope don't do that since we're not the author but an anime lovers/Novel readers we shouldn't judge the anime carelessly what we need is common sense and use that to understand the anime,so yeah all these things that I mentioned is basically the childish me ^⁠_⁠^ but thanks to this ... anime though it's not a masterpiece but it's good enough to change the old me and now some of the anime that I hate in the past are my favorite anime's now😂.

So Danmachi is good?
Read the genre and identify the meaning of it. You're done? So if you base the genre and how they animate it is totally fine though it's not perfect since we know they cut some scene from light novel, this anime is just one of the best simple anime which is related to Greeks mythology so basically it gives us some knowledge from the past, you still hate this anime? It's ok since we have a different taste when it comes to anime so if you still didn't like it,it means this anime is not meant for you.