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
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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.
Alternative Titles
Synonyms: DanMachi, Is It Wrong That I Want to Meet You in a Dungeon
Japanese: ダンジョンに出会いを求めるのは間違っているだろうか
More titlesInformation
Type:
TV
Episodes:
13
Status:
Finished Airing
Aired:
Apr 4, 2015 to Jun 27, 2015
Premiered:
Spring 2015
Broadcast:
Saturdays at 01:05 (JST)
Licensors:
Sentai Filmworks
Studios:
J.C.Staff
Source:
Light novel
Duration:
24 min. per ep.
Rating:
PG-13 - Teens 13 or older
Statistics
Ranked:
#17282
2
based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.
Popularity:
#74
Members:
1,532,644
Favorites:
12,013
Available AtResourcesStreaming Platforms | Reviews
Filtered Results: 33 / 240
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Your Feelings Categories Jun 26, 2015
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
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Jun 26, 2015
**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 ... Jul 27, 2015
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 ... Jul 13, 2015
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 ... Jun 28, 2015
"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, ... Mar 12, 2021
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 ... Aug 28, 2015
(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 ... Aug 4, 2022
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 ... Jun 29, 2017 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 ... Oct 17, 2016
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 ... Oct 30, 2017
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
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Jan 30, 2020
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 ... Jun 14, 2019
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 ... Jul 26, 2017
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 ... Feb 19, 2018
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
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May 31, 2017
*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 ... May 7, 2018
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 ... Jun 5, 2023
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
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Feb 21, 2020
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
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Apr 25, 2023
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
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