Since this is LA's first review on MAL on the High School DxD series, LA might as well give LA's opinions on the series before tackling this installment of High School DxD. The first season was a good stepping stone to the series, applying all the world building as well as Hyodou's weaknesses to set us off, though the fanservice vs. tension did get in the way but nonetheless the first season was getting used to balancing it. "New" was dove in deep to it's supporting characters, from Yuuto to Akeno as well as expanding the world building of the underworld and heaven in the process. BoRN was expanding even further on the the fact that legends and myths are REAL in High School DxD's world thus they become allies and villains set out to do their plans just with some rocky character development here and there especially from Hyoudou himself and now in Hero well...
Ohh and LA is Team Akeno by the way anyways carrying on...
Because of the retcon Hero immediately did, LA DID welcome it as LA was indifferent to BoRN's ending as it DID come out of nowhere but was melodramatic as all hell in the process, Hero's beginning fixed that to say the least.
So from that Hero leads into the "Kyoto arc" as well as the "Rating Game with Sairaorg Bael". The Kyoto arc leads into the previous villain in a previous season of Cao Cao voiced by Kosuke Toriumi, the leader of the Khaos Brigade as well as new characters Kunou voiced by Sora Tokui a kitsune youkai trying to find her mother which the Occult Club (Second Years anyways) finds while on their field trip to Kyoto. To say the least the Kyoto arc feels similar to BoRN's structuring of plot, where a large threat arrives and where Hyodou and the gang needs to stop them from enacting their plans in the process, LA was fine with the Kyoto arc and was it was presented as well as the character development and improvement to the Second Years' power dynamic (plus the addition of screentime to Roseeweisse to sub in for Akeno..well LA anyways), plus the villain of this arc IS such a huge threat that links in as to why they are in Kyoto as well as their plans that involved Kunou's mother and linking all this together was great, that and a mystery of a mass groping incident which has links to Hyodou's growing power. ALL in all, Kyoto arc was decent and reflecting the previous season's callbacks and structuring.
If Kyoto arc was reflecting BoRN's great points, then the Rating Game with Sairaorg was a better version of the first season's Rating Game. See this arc was focusing on three things, Hyodou and Rias' relationship and development to Sairaorg as a character. Hyodou and Ria's relationship by all means was ALOT of people's problems which was encased by Hyodou's denseness to Rias' advances especially in BoRN but Hyoudou is such a harem seeker and wants to help anyone as possible (harem or not) that this kind of mindset gives a gaping hole on Rias which Rias's outburst was warranted, she was more or less feeling left out because she was "President" in Hyoudou's eyes. To that, LA knows what most of you will say that "Hyoudou is and ALWAYS dense, he doesn't change", actually Hero and by extension from the start of the second season, though he has the perverseness to him, Hyoudou did grow through all his fights he encountered and learned from that to being the best fighter and protector to the Rias family in the process...he DID grow and move on but with the lingering guilt and fear he still has on the first season which Hyoudou by the end of this season...he moves on and finally he finally takes the hint and thus Hyodou FINALLY does and say to Rias after four seasons! The main focus however does go to Sairaorg and he's quite different from the many "blanket evil characters" Hyodou has meet and his backstory and his goals are VERY similar to Hyoudou himself. Sairaorg by all means has alot of similarities to Hyodou, being a powerful character but is currently unrecognized by the underworld and Sairaorg wanting to gain his notoriety and his family pride back and will do anything for his family (mainly to do with his comatosed mother and wanting to revive her), his not a black or white villain but more like he's the friendly rival to Hyodou and someone Hydou wants to strive to be and maybe even beat which is what the climax for Hero leads up to for this arc.
Ddraig this season does gets development in the form of Hyodou's powers growing exponentially by the means of Hyoudou speaking to the predecessors of the Red Dragon Emperor and this only improves in the world building front but more on Hyodou's increasing power and sometimes his beliefs conflicting with his predecessors and seriously considering all the powerful rivals and villains Hero gives us, you KNOW Hyodou grows crazy strong this season to keep up with them. Yes because of this, Hyodou is the only one to stop many of the threats in Hero by the end of all this, but Hero did at least manage to make use of it's cast and make screentime for them in terms of battles at least as powercrept Hyodou is. Hyoudou also gets titled as the Boob Dragon and even has his own children kid shows in the underworld due to his notoriety in the underworld and considering High School DxD's nature of fanservice in even some of the most tense moments, yes even this becomes a plot point, tonal dissonance sure, but it's within the nature of High School DxD to do this...at least for us to breathe in a ways when the batshit crazy battles that does happen.
On speaking of the Boob Dragon, well Hero doesn't screw around with it's fanservice, though if your watching it censored...then....your missing out on some of the fanservicey moments what with Hydou's continuously expanding harem trying their luck with Hyodou in the process. Watch Hero uncensored if possible as Hero is unbashed about it's fanservice but it's to the fourth season...seriously FOURTH, it's to be expected.
With that, well the animation studio had another change, from TNK to Passione and well ALOT of people didn't like the new polished and sleeker character designs but LA was fine with it because at the very least the animation was consistent even it's more batshit crazy battles. Passione did a very good job all things considered, from the newer character designs, great battle animation and decent backgrounding reflecting the previous seasons.
Voice acting, well LA's bias to Shizuka Ito as Akeno but her screentime was VERY small to say the least. but with the original voice cats back again as well as some new ones like Sora Tokui as Kunou and Asuka Nishi as Ravel Phoenix, but LA would most probably give MVP to Yoko Hikasa as Rias this season not by sheer screentime but Rias went through ALOT of stuff this season even during the Kyoto arc and that Yoko Hikasa just really did a great job once again reprising her role as Rias and giving us great range. Overall with the huge cast of characters new and old, the voice cast of High School DxD was expectedly great.
Hero seemed to have learned from it's previous season's mistakes while at the same time greatly improving on it's strengths in the process, from Hyodou and Rias' relationship, giving us high stakes and new settings while keeping the nature of High School DxD in the process and finally giving us something of a satisfying ending in which it can definitely lead to something more in another season if possible but if not, still allowing Hero to be a great installment to the series. In terms of seasons, LA did find Hero to be better than New, but it's on par or maybe even surpassing BoRN because Hero just hit all the sweet spots in terms of characters and plot in which BoRN couldn't hold out by the end but still did good on it's characters.
ALOT of people watch High School DxD for the "plot", but High School DxD Hero clearly shows it can be much more than that.
