High School DxD Hero Fanservice Review Episode 04

DxD takes the week off from fanservice for the most part.

There’s a few action scenes but this episode is mostly just setting the table for a big showdown next week.

In this episode we are formally introduced to the main antagonist of this season, Cao Cao.  He has a Chinese sounding name as well as an ancient Chinese style of appearance.  There’s also a reference made to the Three Kingdoms.  The spear he uses is called the True Longinus and can be extended ridiculous distances similar to Gin’s Shinsou in Bleach.

Unlike previous series antagonists, Cao Cao is human and it’s pretty clear that he isn’t a terrible guy, at least not yet.  He fights based on ideals, not for power.  And he fights with honor, even protecting the townsfolk before fights by shifting the battles into alternate dimensions.  It also seems that his underlings serve him out of respect and admiration.

Cao Cao believes that humans must fight evil on their own and cannot rely on Angels and Demons to do the fighting for them.  To make another Bleach reference, his conflict with super natural beings is somewhat similar to how the Quincy clashed with the Shinigami.  Which is to say, there’s a decent chance this bad guy will turn into a good guy later in the story.

Anyway, Cao Cao engages “the Oppai Dragon” in battle early on this episode.  But of course, he makes the same beginner mistake that all DxD antagonists do…

 

You’d think by now the bad guys would realize that you can’t beat Issei with women.  Issei draws upon the same booby mind reading technique that he used in season three, reads the moves and dress breaks.

 

And that 17 second scene pretty much does it for the service in this episode.  At least the eyecatch that comes later is pretty nice.

 

Yet another new character.  This time it’s a girl named Le Fay Pendragon.  She’s a witch sent from Vali’s team to assist in the battle.  She’s smitten with Issei and isn’t shy about letting him know this.  There’s a good chance she’ll be joining the harem in some way down the road in a part time role similar to Ravel.  Whether in the anime or a future special, perhaps.

 

Eyecandy eyecatch.

 

The classmates review the pictures of their Kyoto trip.  Aika complains about her pictures not being sexy enough.  For being one of the sluttier characters in the series she seems to get almost no screen time, which is a shame.

 

We get another cutaway to Rias and company, but this time it isn’t a fun one.

 

The molester epidemic is finally explained, and as expected it is a result of Issei’s treasure that he lost on the train.  The story cryptically hints at this treasure giving Issei immense power, but likely at the cost of his sexual inhibitions.  This should lead to some fun ecchi scenes later.

 

While it’s a bummer that we end a streak of Koneko getting service time, at least we get some moe time from Kunou.

End of episode.

 

Webms

 

 

Webm Album

 

 

Overall Thoughts

 

This was the least entertaining episode so far, and probably the least important too.  You could cut this episode out completely and miss very little.  That is unless you actually enjoy the action scenes in DxD.

The important stuff was:  the “bad guys” introduce themselves, a pretty new harem candidate introduces herself, and the story hints at Issei soon obtaining another perverted power upgrade.

Not every episode can be amazing like the previous two were.  Hopefully our heroes rescue Yasaka as soon as possible so the series can get back to the fun ecchi parts again.