User blog comment:B214/High School DxD Born Final Episode Review/@comment-4829046-20150623171400

I was following the advice and still giving the season a chance till it reached the finale but in the end, I'm still not convinced.

Now let me get over some of my personal things because people have already bashed their keyboards in order to voice general matters.

Did I enjoy this season? Depends. Let me categorize.

Was it exciting? Yeah. Obviously. DxD isn't that level of shit adaptation where excitement is null.

Was it emotional? Again, yes. The emotion was lasting. I'm sure ani-only fans got connected to the characters.

Was the emotion conveyed in the best way? Nope. People can argue this, but the combination of factors like art, background, VA, sfx did not deliver as it should have. It felt awkward and forced at times instead of being that free rush of feelings. Then again, this happens to most harem anime so TNK has a minimal excuse. Don't get me wrong, it was still plenty strong, just that the strength waned and your focus shifted.

Was the animation good? Mostly. It wasn't really different from previous seasons, but it is kinda obvious that the content in this season was greater so they had to budget it and that makes some of the animation wonky and somewhat dull.

Was the art great? Now this is an issue. The problem with this one is similar to the previous one, too much content. The art wasn't refined. Character models were yawnworthy at times and really pissed me off. The previous seasons, especially the first, was great in it's art. Art was a little lower in quality in New(because it was higher plot scale than S1) but still higher than BorN. Again, forgivable, I understand it is difficult and New was appreciated better in the bluerays.

Did I like the voice acting? It really pains me to say so but, many instances were painful. I don't normally say this, because I prefer sub over dub(and DxD dub is meh) but I just found it difficult to immerse myself as much as I wanted to. I kinda link this to other issues, not really the quality of the VA. I believe the directing was iffy and didn't capture the best effect.

Was the music catchy? Music wasn't bad, but I felt it was better in previous seasons. But taste in music differs so can't really say that is an issue. Still, the previous seasons had music and soundtracks that really hit me. This time, they weren't as great.

.....

All in all though, the original problem is what plagues the season- The fact that it is 3 volumes stuffed into a mere 12 episodes. I feel they would have done MUCH better if they made just a few more episodes. Maybe pull an Oreimo or Kokoro Connect or something and give one arc separately from the TV run. I feel this would have sorted out quite a few issues and they wouldn't have had to resort to the filler to somehow tie-up the mess.

But bear in mind that in the end, to me, personally, the anime was/is/will-be inferior to the LN. This is my personal take, and no, for those that are tired of seeing such comments, I don't hate on all LN adaptations. I actually like quite a few that others consider as trash. I genuinely believe that an anime(or any such) can surpass it's written counterparts. But DxD anime is not one of such. I did not feel respect for the series in just the anime form. It was the LN and manga that got me to respect the characters, world, plot-devices etc. An anime is usually a great mode for seeing the images in your head appear for your eyes to see, but in this case, it didn't deliver as much as I wanted it to. There was so much good stuff to be had in the volumes that were adapted, but what we got wasn't up to par.

I'm sure that the need for more and possibility of some events, keeps one interested and facilitates another season, but it could've been handled much better.

At this juncture, I'm really not looking forward to a season 4. As much as I want the good stuff to be animated, the fact that the current season was what it was, and what it could've been with say... a bit more time to develop, is iffy.

As a typical ecchi harem battle anime, it is quite good. Honestly better than some similar series that came before and after. But the essence of DxD is a lot more than that and there lies the error. I don't want to watch DxD just to fulfill the desire to watch fantasy ecchi-harem, I want to watch DxD for DxD. I guess it is just a selfish desire to make people appreciate DxD for what it is instead of considering it like they consider every other harem anime with mythological content.