high school dxd

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

This is a shonen series, as I’ve said many times before, and one of the ways that it is most like a shonen series is that the cast is simply too damn large. And no, I don’t just mean trying to remember that minor villain from 7 books ago who pops up again, I mean that I actually had to use the wiki to remind myself about Rossweisse, who’s been around since Book 4 or 5 but who doesn’t stick in my head quite as much as everyone else in Issei’s orbit. This is definitely a series where you think “Thank God there’s a wiki page”. That said, I’m not all that sure that failing to remember exactly who someone is matters all that much at this stage. There are the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys want to do good things and protect people. the bad guys want to do bad things and kill people. Hell, the entire motive rant of the main antagonist here is “I want demons to be seen as bad guys”. Very shonen indeed.

As Issei and the women in his orbit enjoy a nice bath together, Rossweisse comes to them to ask for a favor: she needs Issei to pretend to be her boyfriend. She’s getting a lot more family pressure, especially from her grandmother, to get married and have children, and this will help to delay that a bit (and, of course, she’s got the hots for Issei as well). It becomes more relevant when the main cast all visit Sona’s new school, one that teaches all demons rather than just the rich or powerful ones. This is a controversial school right from the get-go, as you’d expect. Unfortunately, in addition to people disliking the concept of the school, there’s something else going on: mages are being kidnapped, and they’ve all got one thing in common: they’ve researched the Number of the Beast. As has Rossweisse.

This volume is relatively light on erotic aspects, at least from Issei himself. Asia’s dragon going full Gordon Ramsay on everyone showing the best way to cook and eat Asia’s panties was probably enough, frankly. Plus this book is very much about the fighting. Issei is still too intuitive and relying on “punch everything hard”, but he’s gotten better, and we see his analysis of things has grown leaps and bounds since the first few books. He also gets to work together with some former enemies, including Sairaorg, who is frankly Buff Issei, and also likes to punch things. As for Rossweisse, she’s realized she loves being a teacher, which is good, and I hope that we’ll see more of her with the main harem girls so that I don’t have to look her up again. That said, she struggles to stand out among the heroines even in her own focus book, so that’s not all too surprising.

Apparently next volume will see the demise of my running gag, as it apparently *is* an Irina focused book, where everyone goes to Heaven. Till then, boy, this has a lot of characters and fighting.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Generally speaking, when I write my reviews of this series, they tend to either talk about the sheer depths of boob-obsessed sleaze that Issei possesses, or I talk about how it really hammers the shonen beats in 4-4 time to the point where it’s an ur-example of the genre. That said, we’ve now reached the point where the two are deeply intertwined with each other and cannot be separated. The book opens with a follow up to the silliest story in the previous volume, as Xenovia, Irina and Asia strip naked and force Issei to play the eroge they bought for him. Asia’s familiar requests that it be allowed to eat her school swimsuit before it helps our heroes. And the entire plot revolves around the fact that Issei’s obsession with breasts has allowed the villains to realize they can invade other worlds, because his Breast Goddess clearly was not an angel, fallen angel, demon, or anything else from the DxD universe. Even the dragons are going along with Issei’s perversion now. The boobs are the genre.

This is essentially a continuation from Book 14, as there’s been a coup in vampire society, so now our heroes have to go and rescue Rias and Kiba, who are now essentially under house arrest. As it turns out, the coup is being engineered by the Khaos Brigade (no surprise), but also involves Gaspar’s childhood friend Valerie, who is the new puppet queen and has a grail inside her, meaning she can now hear the voices of the dead. Oh, and one of the strongest dragons is also here as hired muscle. The vampires end up being taken care of fairly quickly, mostly as they’re easily manipulable and don’t know what “deal with the devil” really means. Unfortunately, the devil is Vali’s grandfather, who had been missing for ages, and he’s now back… because he heard about what happened to Issei, and now he wants to run wild in other dimensions.

This is Gaspar’s book, and he gets the big (and somewhat terrifying) power up, but he doesn’t get as much focus as the girls (for some strange reason, coughcough). Gaspar’s birth and upbringing are garden variety abusive for this type of series, as is his rampage of revenge after Valerie suffers a horrible fate (don’t worry, she’s not dead – DxD is not the sort of series that is ready to kill off a girl who is basically Vampire Asia – but she’s comatose). Issei also gets a power up that was fun to see him play around with, but we’re used to that from him. No, the biggest moment of the book for me was the finale, when all the groups team up to go after their new, far greater enemy, and decide they need a team name. Koneko suggests “DxD”, and I could swear you hear triumphant music. It’s a title drop!

Surely next time it’s Irina’s time to shine!… no, sorry, it’s Rossweisse next time. Ah well. For fans of the series only, but this was pretty good.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

I am, frankly, irritated that we have another short story volume with Vol. 15 when we already got one with Vol. 13. I get that this is a Fujimi Shobo series, which means there’s always TONS of extra content written for Dragon Magazine, and that fans want to see it compiled (one story in this book is literally said by the author to be “we left it out, but fans complained, so here it is). But still, we’re ready to begin a new vampire-driven arc, and until the last 3 pages of this volume we don’t get that – which means we don’t get it. What we get is a lot more silliness that I didn’t really care for (the magazine stories) and two very good backstories that were written especially for the volume. I get that this is a series driven by fanservice, and that’s what the fans want, but I like what I like, and I like the action and character development more than the “oh no, they’re wearing a silly and sexy costume” stuff.

The wraparound story has Issei and Ravel, hanging at the pool, still trying to decide on a mage. Le Fay is the obvious choice, but sadly she’s still a terrorist. Meanwhile, we get a number of short stories. 1) Leviathan wants to audition for the live-action Magical Girl Milky movie, and cons the rest of the cast into coming in costume as well; 2) we learn how Rias and Akeno first met, when Rias rescued a 12-year-old Akeno from being murdered by her relatives for being part-fallen angel; 3) Irina tells us about the time she, Xenovia and Asia went to Akihabara to buy what turns out to be an eroge for Issei; 4) Akeno asks Issei to join her in going to the Grigori training institute, and Gaspar tags along, and they then learn what sort of training goes on there; 5) Fenrir tells us about their group’s efforts to untraumatize the White Dragon Emperor after it learned about Issei’s fetish; 6) We learn how Rias and Yuuto first met, which is much the same as Akeno’s story, but with more swords.

I enjoyed the two original stories, which work well with the characters and show off how awesome Rias can be, which is something I sometimes forget in this Issei-dominated series. I also, got help me, loved the Irina-narrated story. I’ve made a joke of the fact that a volume focusing on her is happening any day now, because she has gotten – by far – the least attention of the main cast. But this story shows off why the author may be avoiding it – Irina has always sort of been “no thoughts, head empty”, but here we actually see it from her own POV, and it’s kinda hilarious? Less hilarious are the Issei-narrated stories, which mostly depend on him thinking everyone is gorgeous and sexy (the first one), being stunned at the ludicrousness of the “training” the Grigori are doing (the second one) or being a loud, annoying tsukkomi (both of them).

Next time we should – finally – get the vampire arc. Till then, the good news is I think this is the last short story volume for some time.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

I’ve said before that this is a series where you come for the boobs and stay for the worldbuilding, but if I’m being honest this is a series where you come for the boobs, stay for the boobs, and there is also worldbuilding. This series is never going to shy away from what its readership wants. Sona Sitri plays a major role in this volume, and you’d expect a color page showing her, say, directing the combat against the mages as she does towards the end. Instead, we see a shot of her cooking in an apron and panties, whipping up cake batter in a way that leaves her covered in white goo. Needless to say, this scene does not exist anywhere in the book. I think the artist thought that this book had too much actual fighting and a lot less service, which is… wrong given that we see seven naked or near naked girls in Issei’s bed during this, but also correct. This is a more serious volume.

Issei is back from the dead, though most of the girls around him are still traumatized by his death, to the point where EVERYONE is sleeping in his bed at night. Meaning he has to sleep in a chair. Yeah, sorry, still no sex here. In the mean time, stuff continues to happen even though Issei is recovering and Draig is still inactive. He has to train to get better, as to the rest of Rias’ peerage. They’re all being buried in offers to work with mages, and they have to filter down to the actual good offers, which includes a former enemy, Le Fey Pendragon. And there’s a war between vampire clans, and one of them shows up and tries to bully and blackmail Gaspar into joining them or else his childhood friend will fall into darkness. Needless to say, that really does not go over well, and Rias and Kiba head off to negotiate with the vampire clans in Europe. Which means they’re not there when rogue mages kidnap Ravel, Koneko and Gaspar…

Generally speaking fantasy light novels tend to start off with mages in Book 1, then work their way through vampires, and finally end up with angels, demons, and wars in heaven. High School DxD is not afraid to do things ass-backward, of course. Nor is it afraid of asses, though Issei prefers boobs. Seriously, though, this is a clear transitional volume, setting up the table for the plot that will likely carry through the rest of the series (which ends at Book 25, though yes, there’s a “sequel” that just continues it). We get to see some characters show off their talents. sometimes comedically (poor Asia, though at least Issei promises to be with her forever), and sometimes seriously (Ravel, who makes it as clear to Issei that she is in love with him without saying the words, and he reacts… like Issei would, of course. “Please be my manager forever” will have to do for now). And there’s a really cool final battle, and some cool new bad guys, who are very bad, and also related to the cast – literally in one case.

So yeah, we’re back and ready to go!… what? More short stories next time? Oh, *half* a short story volume. I have no idea what that means. Anyway, next time I hear Irina gets something to do. Looking forward to that.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Humor is always subjective, and what is funny to one person won’t be funny to someone else. So, as you can imagine, this review is even more my personal opinion than most of them are. This isn’t helped by this volume being the second short story volume, meaning that it almost by necessity consists of funny stories, as any drama needs to be saved for the main series. I I will note that my enjoyment of these stories was in inverse to how much Issue was screaming like a tsukkomi in them. Issei can be a great character in the shonen hero mode, and he can also be fun when he’s being a pervert. But being a straight man shouting in disbelief just doesn’t suit him well, at least in the “humor” mode. The first two short stories have, as their main source of humor, Issei essentially saying “Are you kidding me?”, in variations, over and over again. It makes him more annoying than he usually is. Which is amazing, given Issei can be pretty annoying.

There’s no interconnecting plot, so the stories are: 1) Demon King Leviathan is making a movie with herself as a magical girl, and wants Issei, Asia, Gaspar and Xenovia to play the villains; 2) the title story, where Kiyome (the tennis club captain) asks Issei to pretend to be her boyfriend, which ends up meaning he has to fight a monster tamer battle; 3) Issei gets a combination of a demon cold and a dragon cold that puts him in hospital, and the cast nurse him back to health; 4) Ravel comes to Rias’ peerage and asks them to help her brother Riser, who has become a shut-in after his loss to Issei; 5) The angels, fallen angels and demons all have a three-way athletic competition, which is very heavily based on the standard Japanese high school sports festival; and 6) in the one original for the volume story, Rias’ nephew Millicas comes to visit the group so that he can experience human life… and maybe get in a good fight or two.

As I’ve observed in prior volumes, it’s become pretty clear that there is not going to be a “best girl” in this series, at least not in the sense that there will be a loser. Issei is going to have his harem. As such, it’s not too much of a surprise that he might be thinking more about that future, and about being a parent. This takes place in the final story, which is also the best one (though I was also amused at the nurse competition to make Issei well, which was hitting all the essential cliches but also gives us… drumroll please… sex-changed Kiba!). As I said, Issei doesn’t make a good tsukkomi, but there are things he is very good at, and being a mentor/big brother figure is one of them. This presumably will also translate into being a good dad, and certainly Akeno is ready and willing to start right away, though sex, as you’d expect, continues to not happen. But we’re closer.

So this is a short story collection that starts weak and gets stronger as it goes along, which is better than the alternative. Next volume I hear… Irina gets to do something? Nah, can’t be right.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

I’ve talked before about how difficult I find it to review this series without just constantly saying the same things over and over again. There’s only so many times you can say “this is just combining shonen battle manga with ecchi harem manga” before the audience starts to nod off. And it’s the same with this book. Boy, those sure are some cool fights. They sure do bust out new special moves they got after training hard. And yeah, Issei really likes tits, news flash, film at 11. With this one I thought I’d have a bit more to work with, given the last volume ended with Issei being killed off. As I read it, I also realized that I could talk about how all the women were sidelined so that the male characters could get all the important fights. I could talk about that as well! Then the author, in the afterword, says “hey, did everyone notice the women were sidelined and the men got all the fights?”. So back to the first of those points, I guess.

As you might guess, the bulk of this volume is narrated by Kiba, given that Issei is dead. Kiba is devastated by this, of course, but he’s also the only one who is not romantically in love with Issei (possibly… more on that running gag later), so he’s the only one who can actually tell us what’s been happening and what’s going to happen next without having it just be silence or sobbing. Because the Gremory Family is shattered. Rias and Akeno won’t leave their rooms, Koneko, Ravel and Asia can’t stop crying. Fortunately, the rest of the family is off getting extra training/powerups after getting the crap beaten out of them, so they’re not there to be devastated by the news. That said, even from the end of last volume we suspected Issei would be back. After all, the dragon has not found a new person to give its power yet. And the Evil Pieces are still linked to Issei. Can he possibly return from the dead? In a way that doesn’t involve breasts?

Believe it or not, the answer to that last question is mostly yes, though there is a certain amount of “clap for Tinkerbell” involving chanting the Breast Dragon catchphrase involved. But yes, Issei comes back from the dead, and may arguably be more powerful by the end of the book. And he gets a date with Rias at the end as a reward. As for the rest of the heroines, I hope that they take a lesson from this and try to get a bit less dependent on Issei, but I’m not all that optimistic – they are young women in love, and it is a shonen series. The heroine who comes off best in this book is, of course Kiba – and yes, he is described in the afterword as a heroine. I’m not usually fond of the whole “make lots of jokes about men being attracted to Issei but have him no homo his way out of it” as a plot device, but for some reason with Kiba it just works. It helps that he has no concrete romantic interest in anyone female.

We’re told this is the end of an arc, and the next arc will be introducing magic users and also getting deeper into Gaspar’s nature. That said… there’s another short story volume next. Gotta be patient, I suppose.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

This contains spoilers for the end of Book 11, but not till the third paragraph.

High School DxD remains one of the most shonen series ever written, because it’s absolutely filled to the brim with what makes a shonen series – on both sides. On the one side we have the shonen battle manga, with lots of powerful enemies, dealing with almost certain defeat, discovering that the person you just struggled to take out was merely the weakest of the ones you have to fight, etc. It’s the classic old-school “you defeat the bad guy by everyone in the cast shouting the hero’s name in unison as they hit him” shonen. But it’s also very much the other kind of shonen, in that the hero is excessively horny and can only think of sex, the girls are all in love with him and have big breasts, and the one who doesn’t have big breasts asks him to marry her once she grows up and gets them. That kind of shonen series. And when we combine them, what do we get? Well, we get the Breast Beam, of course, possibly the most High School DxD thing ever.

Issei, Kiba and Akeno have been through a lot recently, and have many accomplishments to their names – enough that they really should be high-ranked demons. But there are procedures to follow, so first they must take the exam to become MIDDLE-ranked demons, which, because demon society bases a lot of things on humanity, consists of a written and a practical test. The test itself proves to not be too much of an issue, even for a “poor grades” guy like Issei. The problem is that they’re being forced to take in a hideously powerful infinity dragon, Ophis, because Azazel is trying to achieve a greater peace with the other factions and hopes that she can help. Ophis, for her part, just wants to sit back and observe Rias’s group. Unfortunately for Azazel, if he wants peace, he’s in the wrong series.

Most English-speaking High School DxD fans, and yes, that includes the ones who actually *buy* the books, are familiar with the series to a ridiculous degree. They know that it’s 25 volumes long, and has a sequel that might equal that. And, of course, there’s the afterword from the author, where they discuss what’s going to happen in Book 12. That said, if High School DxD was not selling as well here, maybe if it was more like Index, it would be cruelly amusing for Yen On to simply cut the afterword and pretend that this was the final book in the series. “Yup, Issei dies. Bit of a downer ending, huh?” Of course, even someone who isn’t spoiled probably doesn’t buy that Issei’s death is anything but temporary. Still, it does make the final moments in this book nicely depressing, and also makes me wonder who’ll be narrating the next volume.

Solid book in the series. Fights. Breasts. And tragedy.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Generally speaking, harem series rarely have to ask the question “why is the guy not understanding that all these girls who are literally naked in his bed saying “take me now, big boy!” kinda like him?”. The reason for that is that in most of these stories the answer is the same. It’s a variation on “don’t be silly, no girl will ever like me.” Harem protagonist never comes without a heaping helping of self-loathing, it would seem. Fortunately for High School DxD, it can actually give Issei a real reason for all that self-loathing beyond “because the plot requires it”. His first girlfriend, the one who he finally thought would be the girl that did not see him as a creepy pervert loser (which, sorry Issei, he is) rejected him bluntly multiple times. Oh yes, and turned out to be evil, tried to kill him, and was murdered in front of him. So when you ask “why does he not understand why Rias is so mad in this volume”, the answer can be, frankly, “trauma”.

We’ve had the sports festival and the school trip, so clearly it’s time for the culture festival. Maid cafe? Haunted house? Why not do both? As the Occult Research Club prepares to pull out all the stops, they also have a fresh new Rating Game, against an up and coming team whose leader, Sairaorg, has no demonic powers, but has to get by with his charisma and his brute strength. He is, frankly, a perfect opponent for Issei, and the fight takes up the entire second half of the book. Unfortunately, there’s trouble in paradise: After being as subtle as a truck and failing to get her feelings across to Issei, Rias spends most of the book miserable and thinking that he doesn’t actually love her. He’s not helping things by not understanding why calling her “Prez” feels like distance. Can they make up in time to win the match?

I haven’t mentioned breasts at all yet in this review, so I want to sadly reassure fans of the series that they’re still ridiculously essential to the plot, with the funniest fight in the book revolving around a woman taking off her panties before her bra, something that absolutely infuriates Issei. As for he and Rias, frankly, the two are more similar than you’d expect, and of course are the main couple of this series. And yes, finally we can say “couple”, given that we get an incredibly overdramatic and public confession (it’s High School DxD, where everything happens in front of the biggest crowd imaginable) which, more importantly, is followed by a quieter but just as firm confession when it’s just the two of them. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that this is a “marry everyone” kind of series, but it has to start with Rias, and now it has.

That said, haven’t things gone a bit too well for our heroes lately? (Well, except Akeno, who got annihilated in about ten seconds. Sorry, Akeno.) Gosh, I hope nothing absolutely tragic happens in the next book…

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

This may be the least horny DxD volume to date. Which, trust me, means it’s still ridiculously horny, and filled with consensual groping and non-consensual destruction of clothing. But the title is actually High School DxD, and this volume wants to remind you of the first part, as Issei and his class are going to Kyoto. And they actually do make an effort to put in the “look, I did the research” work. There are, of course, supernatural bad things going on on their trip. And they naturally seem to center around Issei. But his teachers say to leave it to them, and to try to have a normal fun school trip. Which makes sense. Most of our protagonists are either demons, fallen angels, or angels, and “high school romcom” is theoretically not high on the list of things they have to do. Unless you’re High School DxD, of course, where Issei cannot walk two steps without having another gorgeous young woman fall in love with him. This volume’s candidate is very young indeed.

As noted, everyone’s off to Kyoto!… well, almost everyone. Rias and Akeno are, of course, one grade higher than Issei, so aren’t going, much to their annoyance. That said, everything is official and they even have special thingummies that will allow them to visit the very religious temples without, y’know, bursting into flames or the like. Things are going well… despite a growing rash of breast gropers among the populace. And the elementary-school aged fox girl who demands that Issei give back her mother, who has been kidnapped. That said, if you recall the events of the seventh volume and wonder “if this perhaps the work of the guys trying to reverse engineer balance breakers so humanity can fight angels and demons?”, you would be absolutely correct.

I will admit that the human side does have a point here, in that if you happen to know about angels and demons and dragons and the like, and they’re all fighting each other, you start to feel like a pointless statistic in comparison. That said, if you want humanity to triumph, I’m pretty sure “terrorist acts” is not the way to go. As for Issei, he’s getting better not only at fighting but also at leading, which is good because without Rias the group seems to lack anyone to give them strategy beyond “hit things very hard”. (Or heal things very hard, in Asia’s case.) I was also amused to see that Issei’s power is very similar to Izuku’s in My Hero Academia (which came out well after this book), complete with prior users who give him cryptic advice. And are also a fan of his signature breast moves. Which is a real sentence that I just typed out, and I still can’t really believe that.

So we’ve had the sports festival, and the class trip, so I think I know what’s coming next. Till then, enjoy a solid volume in this horny series.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

Generally speaking I’ve been able to skate by on these High School DxD reviews because I can usually somehow get past all of the boob talk and the “funny” comedy antics and even more boob talk to find something I can actually discuss like a reasonable reviewer, be it the fights, the character development (it does actually exist), or the overall plot of that particular book. So, you’ll have to pardon me if this review in particular seems to be a little lacking in content, as this is a short story volume. Meaning there is no overall plot, and no character development. Oh, and almost no fighting either. In its place, we have even MORE boob talk and “funny” comedy. As such, we are forced to fall back on the usual rule of light novel short story volumes: the longer the story, he better it actually is. That holds true here, as the last story in the book is the longest and one of the few that deserves attention.

In this book: 1) Issei and Rias try to help a woman who summoned a demon to help her love life… but she’s American, and her idea of Japan is more samurai-oriented. 2) Issei and Asia are told they need to get familiars, but Issei’s choices are all super powerful rather than super sexy. 3) Issei explains to the club the story of how he became obsessed with breasts, which involves a creepy old man corrupting a child. 4) The club has to play a tennis match against a rival in order to complete a club activity report. 5) Asia and Rias are turned into little kids by a spell gone wrong. 6) Azazel accidentally clones Issei three hundred times, and the clones are even more breast-obsessed than he is. 7) Sirzechs and Grayfia show up at Issei’s, and remind Rias that she has to perform a ciming of age ritual with a loved one… i.e. Issei.

There are precisely three stories in this book that cannot be summed up by the words “Oh my God, fuck off.” The first story is actually pretty funny, especially Susan’s misplaced sense of what Japan is actually like. The story of Asia and Rias as kids is at least mildly cute, and features Azazel abusing Issei in a much more acceptable manner than the other story he’s involved in. And the final story is the most involved. We meet the other Demon Kings for the first time, and we get another example of the “they are wearing an obvious disguise but no one notices this except the protagonist” joke, which always seems to work for me for some reason. Other than that, please see above. High School DxD may be unabashedly horny, but I have my limits, and they were pushed hard here.

Despite the presence of one or two non-sucking stories, this is a volume that can easily be skipped, IMO. Next time we should get a school trip… and hopefully a plotline.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

If you’ve read the previous volumes, you know what the plot of High School DxD is: breasts. Everything else is secondary. That said, it is a shonen battle manga, which means that the breasts are not even there to titillate the reader or make them horny. They’re there as a weapon in Issei’s arsenal. Indeed, every new book brings with it a new breast power-up, and so we may as well talk about Issei loving breasts the way that we talk about Izuku using All Might’s Smash moves in My Hero Academia. It’s also very telling that, in universe, Issei’s shtick is popular with little kids rather than women. The kids don’t really get the sex part, they just see him busting out cool moves. It also shows off Issei as someone who really should mature a bit more before he starts getting his harem… something he seems to know anyway, rejecting Akeno’s offer to sleep with him because she “looks sad”. If you’re going to do a harem, do it properly.

Our heroes have been busy lately, as a bunch of heroes/terrorists keep showing up to try to fight them. The motivation of the other side is rather baffling till they figure out that they’re trying to force Balance Breakers by repeated combat. Which is, well, a tad unethical. That will have to wait for future books, though, because Odin is in town, supposedly here to meet with the Japanese gods but more accurately to go on a pub crawl and look at large-breasted women. (Notably, his hot Valkyrie bodyguard, Rossweisse, is not good enough – indeed, he abandons her at the end of the book.) Not everyone wants Odin to talk with other gods, though, and Loki shows up prepared to stop things by force if necessary. And he’s brought Fenrir with him. As a result, well, the subtitle of the book is accurate.

We finally get Akeno’s backstory here, and is it a bit disappointing at how normal it is. Well, as normal as a backstory can get when your relatives murder your own mother in front of you, but it really boils down to “I hate daddy because he’s never home” to a much larger degree. That said, things get resolved a bit too quickly here, and it feels like the author, having shown us how Akeno acme to hate her father, now feels it’s not necessary anymore. As for the rest of the book, well, lotsa fights. Indeed, we even get enemies teaming up, as in order to stop Loki, Vali and company are brought in, with him agreeing to put off his fight with Issei in order to fight someone equally badass. I did like his scoffing at Issei’s idea of peace, and pointing out that would be a nightmare to people who live for battle. Not everyone wants a Happy Harem After.

This was not quite as good as previous books, feeling a bit like it was filling in time. It did introduce Rossweisse, but she doesn’t do much here aside from whine and moan, so I assume we’ll develop her in later books. Average DxD, which is to say below average in terms of normal light novels.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

I think the author just enjoys suckering people in. For most of the sixth volume of High School DxD, the series is at its default level of horny, which is to say: high, but not beyond all human reason. Sure, there are cosplay battles to see who can turn Issei on the most. Sure, there’s the endless amounts of breast comparison shopping he seems to do as easily as breathing. And yes, I probably should have guessed what was going to happen when we got to the television interview and it didn’t show Issei at all. Still, no amount of preparation could have prepared me for: the theme song. As with the previous volume’s “I can talk to enemy breasts and get them to divulge secrets”, it goes above and beyond in making you wonder what the hell the author is thinking. I have to assume that the author thinks that all this is necessary as otherwise it’s a generic shonen battle manga. Which is a shame as the battles are absolutely fine.

The start of this novel is sparked by two things: Irina returns and transfers into the school, now a full-blown angel but seemingly exactly the same as she’s always been. The other is the upcoming sports festival, where Issei and Asia have to run the three-legged race together. This is difficult, as they’re overly conscious of each other’s bodies, and also because the demon who Asia healed at the start of the series is back, and he wants Asia for himself. The answer is a Rating Game, which is a bit of a surprise so soon after the last one. Unfortunately, that’s far from the only surprise, and our heroes end up fighting against a horde of demon mooks in order to save Asia from a hideous fate at the hands of a demon who turns out to be even worse than we thought – and we already hated him.

I will admit, much as this is Asia’s book, she is mostly a straight up damsel in distress here, though I did like her slapping Diodora for insulting Issei. Unfortunately, she’s still in ‘meek healer’ mode, so her role in this book is to get kidnapped and threatened with rape. This made me grumpy. Other than that, it’s a perfectly good book in regards to the standards of High School DxD, which bear no resemblance to other light novel standards. Issei gets to be cool a few times, and has started to think on his feet much better. The solution for getting Akeno to one-shot kill all the bad guys was hilarious. The theme song, jaw-dropping though it was, was also pretty funny, I will grant you. I have to hand it to High School DxD, it does not do anything in half measures. It is here to talk about tits and it will talk about them until it is blue in the face.

This is apparently the end of the second “arc” of the series, and does include several tantalizing setups for later events. Overall, it was decent. For a value of decent that is a High School DxD book.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

(with apologies to Professor Peter Schickele)

Each time I read a new volume of High School DxD I am filled with this feeling of anticipation, a feeling of exultation, a feeling that… this new volume can’t possibly be as horny as the last one. But so far… Yeah, I know, shut up, Sean, you’re yelling at a series for 13-year-old teenage boys for talking about tits too much, and I get it. I try to recalibrate my standards for these books. Heck, the hot springs scene was even mildly amusing once those standards are recalibrated. But God Almighty, the way that Issei levels up or gets more powerful in this series makes your jaw drop. Leaving aside that the key to unlocking his new super move is to poke Rias’ nipples, there is everything about the climax of the book, where a dying Issei suddenly attains the zen-like ability to hear women’s breasts talking as separate personalities. I… what was the author on when he came up with this? I can’t even say “Oh, Japan” here. WHAT?!?!

Koneko’s on the cover, and actually gets some backstory here, though she gets less to do than I’d like. Our main cast travel to the underworld to train at Rias’ vast estate, meet her parents, and end up fighting a new Rating Game against Sona and Saji, the student council faction. Sona wants to make demon society less class-based, and is being ridiculed for the very idea, so naturally her team wants to win badly here. That said, our heroes are the protagonists. Can they be powerful enough to get past Sona’s cleverness? Maybe, but it’ll take Issei having to fight a dragon everyday, as well as Koneko having to confront her past… literally, in the form of her sister. And of course there’s Saji, who is to Sona what Issei is to Rias. He has a dream of being a teacher… and is very pissed that Issei has groped more boobs than he has.

If you leave out the tits, this is a very normal shonen battle manga. Issei is told that unlocking his Balance Breaker is the sort of thing that’s usually done in a crisis position with strong emotions behind it. We then get what is obviously meant to be just that, with Koneko’s sister attacking her and Koneko feeling tremendous self-hatred. If Issei were in Strike the Blood, this would be where he would talk about “:this is my fight!” and level up. But Issei is in High School DxD, so it’s not enough to be feeling righteous fury, he also has to be getting super horny. Hence the nipple poking. The fight between Issei and Saji is the best part of the book, pure shonen manliness and shouting about each other’s dreams… then Issei gains the ability to hear women’s breasts talking, and any drama and excitement drains out of the body.

As for why I’m still reading this, I’m not really sure. I want to actually see what happens next? Unfortunately, what happens next will likely involve more ridiculousness. But as long as it also has cool fights and some romance that isn’t pure sex, I’ll probably get the next one.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

To a certain degree, all “harem” series (at least those with multiple girls all in love with the same guy) all suffer from the same major flaw, which is that the guy has to be fairly normal and dull. It might seem surprising that I’m saying this about Issei, someone who literally cannot go three pages without talking about tits some more. but it’s true. All the girls love Issei. They get jealous when he’s with another girl. They fight over him. They offer up their virginity to him. And why? Well, he’s nice to them? I mean, with Asia I get it, he literally is her savior. You could say the same for Rias, though it’s a higher bar to clear. But Akeno? Xenovia? Why does this lecherous dipshit who won’t even grope anyone without passing out offer such temptation? Well, frankly, it’s probably what he’s got inside him. The sacred gear, and the dragon that comes with it, make Issei an important player in the battle between the angels, fallen angels, and demons. That is… if there is a war.

No, Akeno is not the titular vampire (and I apologize for having to use the word titular when discussing High School DxD). I thought this might be her “focus” book, but while we do get some hefty revelations about her past, it’s clear her time is still to come. No, the new character here is Gasper Vladi, who is the vampire of the title, and who ticks off several more “light novel cliche” boxes. He’s a boy who everyone mistakes for a girl; he’s got cripplingly low self-esteem and a fear of interacting with others, and he’s ludicrously overpowered, as he can cause people to freeze in time… though, like Issei, his power has more weaknesses than strengths right now. That said, while trying to coax Gasper out of his shell, Rias’ group also have to deal with a peace conference, which risks blowing up before it begins.

Despite the previous paragraph, there’s not a lot that happens in this book compared to the previous three – it’s a lot of setup for the next few books, as we introduce a couple of major players who look like they’ll give Issei trouble (though one of them turns out to be more of a mecha otaku than anything else). Indeed, I was more surprised at things that didn’t happen. The book starts off by telling us about parent-teacher conferences, which will not only feature Issei’s parents going but also Rias’. Any other light novel series would make this a book of its own, but here it takes fewer pages than the pool battle between Rias and Akeno to see whose breasts get to be groped by Issei. The series manages to work for its target audience because it not only assumes its readership are horny teenage boys who don’t have the guts to cop a feel, but that all the women in this series are essentially ALSO that. It’s… weird.

Still, the one fight we got was pretty cool, and if there’s any series you can’t get mad at for staying on brand, it’s this one – there are breasts in High School DxD? Who knew? Recommended for those who read the fan translated PDFs years ago.

By Ichiei Ishibumi and Miyama-Zero. Released in Japan by Fujimi Fantasia Bunko. Released in North America by Yen On. Translated by Haydn Trowell.

I had resolved, with this third volume of High School DxD, that I was going to stop talking about the constant teenage sex fantasy talk, nudity, and general fanservice and simply focus on plot and character. Theoretically, anyone reading a review of the third volume of this series already enjoys it, and does not need me going on about how it’s all a bit much. Therefore, I would simply glide past the fanservice and discuss other things. It’s very, very hard to do that, though. This is not a book like Accel World, where if you ignore the art and the ages of the characters it’s almost a normal harem battle novel. The sex is baked DEEPLY into the very fabric of the series. I could talk about character motivation, except we now see a THIRD demon whose plan is to gather a harem (and the second one had succeeded), and Issei explicitly says that he’s fighting in the final battle because he’s going to get to suck Rias’ nipples as a reward. It is what it is.

So, the plot, as there is one. Kiba finally gets a volume to explain his backstory, and it’s pretty wretched. It’s also pretty clear that he ids consumed by vengeance against holy swords. Thus it is an unfortunate thing that several holy swords have shown up in town, either being wielded by fallen priests, fallen angels, agents of the Church… or Issei’s childhood friend Irina, who he didn’t even realize was a girl. Needless to say, all these swords here is not a coincidence, and there’s a fallen angel at work here. Can our heroes manage to actually work together – minions of the angels and actual demons – to fight against a common enemy? Can Kiba manage to keep it together enough to get the revenge he’s sought for so long… and is revenge really the right answer? And can this series keep teasing sex while delivering precisely nothing? Signs point to yes.

I didn’t mention the other new character in this book, who seems to join the regular cast at the end. Xenovia starts off as an angel with a heaping of faith and a tendency to go off half-cocked, and ends it as a somewhat bitter demon… with the exact same tendency. She looks fun. Irina is far more pointless, and I think would have been better served being introduced in a different book. This book does, however, do something very well, which is for the climactic battle, which Kiba has far more invested in than Issei (nipples aside), it shifts to Kiba’s POV. You’d think this would be obvious, given it’s Kiba’s arc and resolution, but it can frequently be very hard to wrench the narrative away from the usual POV character, so I’m calling this a victory. Two more things: Koneko is still the minorest of the main characters, but I liked her more here. And a scene showing off how poor Irina and Xenovia really are shows the author is very good at humor when it’s not revolving around tits.

This series is pretty much review proof, but I will note: fans will enjoy it. Also, Asia looks very cute on the cover.