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First off I want to say that I have never read any of the novel so this is an anime only review.
High School DxD is one of those anime that I really want to love. When done correctly it can be funny, exciting and very very echii. I have all previous seasons and always end up rather disappointed. This new season though started out great but then suddenly went off the rails.

STORY: I've personally found the story in every season to be all over the place. This season started out different though. I really enjoyed the first half as it had moments of big ... crazy fights, shocking twists and some character development for several of the cast. I can't go into details but I can honestly say the first half of this season is really a joy to watch. If you come for just the echii moments, they are there but they weren't exaggerated. I think even the Issei has become used to walking around with every girl around him naked. He is still perverted though bless his heart. Some of the funnier moments come when he tries to fulfill his oppai fantasies, and all for a good reason. The second half, especially the final arc was a different story though. The story arcs lost any impact whatsoever. They managed to survive certain moments due to plain out miracles, or plot armor would be a better description. I really appreciate when an anime goes beyond belief and is brave enough to do something shocking. Very few do however, and those that do immediately eliminate it. Looking at you ALdnoah Zero. Anyways, my point is I would have enjoyed the final arcs more if they could keep any sense of danger, however everyone is miraculously fine.
As I said I've never read any of the novelsbut I do keep an eye on comments. I did notice that while readers did have complaints with the first half, they were essentially fine with it because it was still entertaining. When I noticed myself getting bored and annoyed at the second half I went back and found every reader to be angry and upset at how the story was jumping around. That made everything make sense as to why the end felt like a big mess.

Art: The art is good, not much to say really. The character designs are well done, The fighting scenes are exciting and the echi...well they know what they are doing. Nothing too overly impressive. I'm sure if you look at every scene frame by frame you could find problems but who does that?

Characters:
Lets start with the King herself....king piece...president Rias. I love Rias, I wish she could be better presented. I feel there is so much more to her than what we see. She's the type of person you'd be willing to devote your entire life serving at her side. That plus I like redheads....anyways....
The one that stole the spotlight this season by far I feel was Koneko. We got to see more of her past, how she came to meet Rias. Plus she is just plain adorable at moments, while a badass at other moments.
Asia I'm going to admit I don't really like. She is the little sister of the group and that is fine, I simply find her too dull. It's no coincidence her role was bigger at the second half of the season. Plus she is sooo lucky.
The rest didn't really have much to do this season. Akeno had a small personal arc that went nowhere.
Rossweiss, though not enough screen time, was fun to watch and I am interested in seeing her in the future.

Despite the fumble at the end, there were some enjoyable and memorable moments this season. You'll end the season thinking, "that was it?" There were good fights, funny moments, cute moments and the song oppai dragon automatically adds another point alone. So it was good, a step above decent. Would I suggest it to friends? Only if they are looking for something echii. If they care more about story though, I'd suggest something else

This is the classic bate and switch. When I first saw the OP I was intrigued. Not that every great OP belongs to a great series, but it made me want to watch more. I watched the first few episodes with excitement, finding myself excited every monday for a new episode. Then it all just started fading away. Episode after episode became boring and uninspired. By the end, it became a chore I wasn't looking forward to anymore. I returned hoping it would redeem itself but I was just happy it was over by the final episode.

Story:
I don't really know what to say ... about the story, because I can't really remember what it was. You have your typical unique MC and his harem tag along to random fights. The purpose of the school and training is to find the "absolute duo". What exactly that is and why they seek it out are never fully answered. There is a main antagonist but he is forgettable. I guess I'll leave this section short because the quick summary is, students at a school training deal with random stuff.

Art:
I'll say again, the OP is awesome. Its music and animation are intense. The fights in it are fun to watch. When you get to the main piece though......it's decent. I can't really say anything bad about the animation. I like the character designs and the locations. The few fights throughout were well done. Often times, anime resorts to still images or flashes on screen to represent battles. Here they showed the fights pretty well.

Characters:
Always important in a anime is having interesting characters. I found these characters somewhat interesting. If they had put in more time and effort into developing each character they could had been really interesting. Then again you can say that about any character.

Tooru, the main character in this story is your typical character that has a unique power or ability in his school setting him apart. That isn't a bad thing, it's not the first or last time you will see that in anime. Due to a traumatic event in his past, he now wants to do all he can to protect the people around him.

Julie, I don't know the proper term to describe her character. Silent, serious but very moe. I myself am getting tired of these types of rigid, quiet characters so I didn't find her too favorable.

Lilith on the other hand is a character I did enjoy. She has a unique weapon as well which sets her apart and she es feisty which I like as well.
Miyabi and Tomoe round up the rest of the main cast. I actually like them as well. Lack of character development just makes them unimportant though. Miyabi's character is better handled but like the entire anime, there could had been much more

The enjoyment on this anime started out strong. It then gradually decreased and finally went for a dive in the final episodes.

Did I set my expectations too high? Perhaps I did, though I'd say it wasn't just me who did. I expected great team battles where each team worked in perfect sync with each other. I expected the visions of the past to have a larger impact on the story. By seasons end this was the bigger disappointment. It reminded me of and made me appreciate Akame ga Kill more. Its final half was mediocre as well, but at least it still has its impactful moments with good fights. This however just ended with a whimper. Unanswered questions, lack of a story and characters that go nowhere. I'm probably being too generous but I'll say its decent.

I want to love this anime so much. It has a lot of potential but I feel it could had been handled better. Despite that I really enjoyed it.

STORY: People have compared this with Attack on Titan and its not hard to see why. Civilization has closed itself off from an outside threat which threatens to consume every person. That's the overall plot, each individual arc was interesting. My one problem is that it feels like it could had been so much more. I never read the LN so I don't know exactly how much story there was available to adapt from. Just by ... extending it to a 24 episode season could had helped so much. To gradually see the relationships and bonds grow would had made all the struggles and difficult choices each character had to make have more of an impact. It is still very enjoyable, I simply found myself thinking "I would had liked to have seen how they first met" often

ART: Art style plays a major role for me. For the most part I really liked it in this series. The characters look great, fights are carried out well enough. I also like the imaginative enemies they come up with. Its nothing spectacular, but very few are. I'm normally not a fan of cg animation, but it was rarely used and well done when it was.

CHARACTERS: This is where to me, the anime excelled at. The main protagonist is interesting, entertaining. His loli partner is cute and funny plus also quite the fighter. Every character plays a role. Towards they end they seemed to throw a couple characters into the mix. Not much of a backstory for them. That isnt really a bad thing since you'll mostly be caring about the main characters anyway.

OVERALL: I enjoyed it a lot, though the end did feel a bit rushed. The small twist a certain character had in the end felt really forced and out of nowhere. Don't go in expecting a deep and detailed story. Just watch it for what it is, a interesting, funny when it can be, heartbreaking when it has to story. If you haven't read the LN definitely watch it. If you have read the ln.....maybe just stick with the story you have in your mind