Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Anime Review

This post is by guest writer Sarah Minazzo.

Questions Unanswered

Is it wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? Yes, but in a mostly good way. This anime series (known as DanMachi for short), based on the ongoing light novel series, is reminiscent of Sword Art Online and of the dungeon crawl video game genre. This made me rather keen at first as I enjoy that particular style of gaming-themed anime. Unfortunately, DanMachi leaves many questions unanswered and a lot of exciting potential stories sitting in the shadows. The series currently serves more as an introduction to a larger story as opposed to telling a full and complete tale. You know that there’s so much more all building up to something even bigger than the main story arc; however, it never reaches critical mass.

Episodes 1-4 Review

DanMachi begins by setting up its world and introducing us to a young Level 1 adventurer with white hair named Bell Cranel. In the country of Orario, the ancient gods from various cultures have decided to live in the Lower World with the humans, forming a version of guilds called “Familias”. Humans, elves, and animal people aspiring to be adventurers in the Dungeon choose a Familia and make a contract with a God or Goddess that is the Familia’s head. Bell made a contract with a small goddess called Hestia and became part of the Hestia Familia. He is her only member and though they have a strong bond, Hestia would like to take that bond to a more intimate level.

The ecchi humor is strong and heavily used with Hestia.

Hestia is a strange character to say the least. She’s childish in appearance and attitude, yet has an enormous bouncing cleavage and a super short dress, which results in many fanservice shots. The ecchi humor is strong in this series and heavily used with Hestia. As such, it’s difficult to take this goddess seriously. Luckily though, there are moments throughout the series where she shows true strength and godly powers. In a lot of ways, she’s a contradiction to the Hestia of Greek mythology, who is a virgin goddess of architecture and of the home. There’s no trace of either homeliness or a love of architecture within this Hestia.

As for the Dungeon that all adventurers traverse, it exudes classic video game influences — but at times too closely. It’s never really explained as to why the characters use RPG terms like “drop items”, “experience points” for “attributes” and “skill levels”, and “statuses” and “adventuring levels.” It’s supposed to be an offline world in a medieval fantasy setting, so why use these terms? If this was a virtual game world like SAO or .hack then there would be logic in using this terminology. However, there is never a justification for this even by the series’ end, so it feels odd and out of place for the setting​.

Bell, in over his head at the Dungeon, is saved by the Sword Princess Aiz Wallenstein from a Minotaur. He is immediately infatuated with her and becomes determined to catch up to her status and skill levels in order to win her over. This determination results in a boost to his stats (the gods can read and print out an adventurer’s stats by reading a tattoo on their back), making Hestia jealous. Hestia doesn’t reveal to Bell his newly powered up status, upset that it resulted from his feelings about Aiz rather than from feelings for her.

We also see a couple of the other relevant gods as well through a party in the Higher World. Freya is considered the most beautiful goddess, but it’s clear early on from her attitude that she is likely the most sinister goddess too. We also meet Aiz’s Familia head Loki, who is a goddess instead of the male god from Norse mythology. This gender change is actually important because Loki, being flat-chested, is jealous of Hestia’s cleavage! Then there’s Hephaestus, who is the only female in the series not blatantly sexualized. She’s a tough cookie and has a rocky friendship with Hestia, but is kind enough to help her by forging a new weapon for Bell.

DanMachi hits the ground running in these first four episodes, showing us lots of details about its world and varied cast.​ Despite some unanswered questions and the ecchi humor that might not be to everyone’s taste, it has potential and a lot of minor characters, though brushed over, seemingly have interesting stories of their own to tell.

Episodes 5-7 Review

These episodes focus on more character development and show a different side to Familias using a subplot with Liliruca. Lili is not what she seems — she intends to steal from the naïve Bell in order to obtain more vali (Orario’s currency) to pay a big debt to her Familia, the Soma Familia. This gives us insight that not all Familias are made of good, heroic adventurers — some are likened to be bandit gangs or thieves. There’s potential for further development of this concept, but it’s only contained within this Lili subplot for three episodes before disappearing from the story.

​We start to see real growth in Bell from this point on, however he still remains a somewhat thinly drawn character in terms of personality. Bell develops his skills and attributes further and faster than the usual adventurer, aided by a magic book called a Grimoire which grants him magical abilities. But besides his abilities, he’s still the obliviously nice guy that can’t really make a decision on which girl he fancies. In the previous episodes, you get the impression that it’s Aiz he’s after. However, with Hestia calling their outings “dates” and and a few other minor female characters like Lili looking at him with affection — he’s got a full on harem. Even when he’s being made fun of by other adventurers for being saved by Aiz in the Dungeon, girls still want him!

​Focusing on Hestia, I’m sure of her romantic motives but it’s hard to tell what Bell’s deal with her is. I’m not sure if he is plain oblivious to them or playing dumb. Hestia’s advances are obvious and in your face (and literally in his face with her cleavage), but he tends to simply play along with her without acknowledging any of it — after all, she is his goddess and for whom he fights for. Bell just doesn’t have enough heart to tell Hestia that he’s not into her.

You’re meant to believe in Bell, being our protagonist, as pure and good. Yet, time and time again, he takes advantage of these starry eyed girls without reciprocating their feelings or being honest with them (even if it’s in a nonsexual, strategic way for the sake of adventuring — with a side helping of flirtation). Though without going into a major spoiler, there actually is a reason for these traits in Bell’s personality and it’s quite a good payoff too.

I felt frustrated with the rather oblivious Bell.

These episodes are not as strong as the previous set, as they segueway from ​the main story arc of Bell becoming a better adventurer in the Dungeon, throwing the pacing off course. Th​ere is much less action here, filled instead by a lot of exposition about things that will not even matter later. I also felt frustrated with Bell, being rather oblivious to the crushes on him and to Hestia’s feelings — he chooses to focus on his adventurer status more than anything else that’s going on around him. Is that really all there is to this guy?

Episodes 8-10 Review

The pacing here thankfully picks up again and we see more of the Dungeon’s levels. We begin to see that the Dungeon doesn’t just have cavernous environments, but also ​misty gray forests with even more vile creatures and huge monsters. The misty forests aren’t something I expected to be in the Dungeon, so it was a welcome surprise. Bell, after winning a climactic battle, achieves new heights in stats and levels, granting him access to the intermediate levels of the Dungeon. He also meets the final member of his party, Welf Crozzo, a blacksmith. I enjoyed this character the most! Welf is a strong and all around good guy who’s not as naïve as the young Bell. He also has a ​connection to Bell in an earlier episode, which is an excellent payoff when he appears.

Together with his new friends in tow, Bell creates an even larger adventuring party to explore the newly unlocked Dungeon levels. As this is edging towards the series’ end, ​there are sure signs of an epic battle brewing. There are heaps of adventurers in a place that everyone says is “safe”, and this place looks too beautiful and too quiet — especially after seeing the previous levels featured so far. Though I’m excited at said prospect, there’s still much to be explained and we’re continually introduced to new characters that don’t contribute anything to the story. They’re there to fill the space. There’s no point in introducing them if they don’t have a function, but if there’s another season of DanMachi, perhaps the excuse for their existence lies there.

Episodes 11-13 Review

The lead up was great but DanMachi stumbles here. Sure, the epic battle that takes place is nothing short of fantastic and nostalgic of boss battles in RPGs like Kingdom Hearts or Final Fantasy. But I found it ultimately tiresome. Parties squabble among themselves and then the boss somehow makes its way to the “safe zone” level — I feel like I’ve seen it all before. The ecchi humor is still present even up to this point, ​but it does help to relieve some of the restlessness as it’s used more to poke fun at Bell’s indecisiveness and shyness rather than to overly sexualize female characters.

The final battle ends up feeling hollow.

Animation-wise, the battle is spectacular and the special effects are rich, with dazzling attacks and magic provided by our heroes. However, it all ends up feeling hollow. We don’t even get to see the full aftermath and are still left with some burning questions — why does the Dungeon exist? To what purpose do these adventurers need to have these stats and skills? Who really runs the Dungeon? The creatures respawn but this isn’t a video game, so how is that possible?

DanMachi has some great ideas and I would watch the next season out of mere curiosity to see where things would go next. The concept of ancient gods and goddesses working alongside their champions makes for an intriguing premise, as the gods of old often loved to mingle and play with the beings that lived under their heavens. The ending promises more as did the beginning, but within these 13 episodes the story bounces around to the point where it becomes all too familiar. There’s also an overabundance of fanservice, made even more annoying by Bell’s complete lack of awareness. Calling this Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is a misnomer title for what really goes on: Bell isn’t the one picking up girls — they’re all trying to pick him up!

What Do You Think?

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