English Dub Review: High School DxD HERO “My Potential Unleashed”

I think every straight male wants to summon the “boobs just for him”.

Overview (Spoilers)

Connla, now empowered with a Balance Breaker of his own by the Hero Faction, ambushes Issei and Kunou in the subway. Though taken off guard by the sudden shadow-tentacles, Issei frees himself with some assistance from Kunou’s Foxfire. After a massive round of BOOST, the Grabbin’ Dragon unleashes a spray of dragon fire, which sears through Connla’s Night Reflection Death Cross. Though the enemy wants to keep on fighting, Issei is just too much for him.

Afterward, Issei and Kunou rejoin the team at Nijou Castle. Xenovia sports a new sword as well: the Ex-Durandal. This upgraded sword is the already scary Durandal infused with shards of Excalibur. Hopefully, it will be enough against the True Longinus! They hasten inside the keep, meeting up with the baddies. In true villainous fashion, Sousou reveals their horrendous plan. Using the immense chi of Kyoto channeled through Nijou Castle, they transform Yasaka into a ninetails so big… Well…

Somebody call the Hokage, we’ve got a tailed beast to contain. Hoping to end the battle quickly, Xenovia unleashes a full-power attack on Sousou. Ex-Durandal hits with the destructive power of a tactical missile and the castle is now a crater. Somehow, the Hero Faction still gets up, un-phased but for the rubble. They all break up into individual battles, showing off their special-snowflake Balance Breakers. All except for Sousou, who believes in keeping secrets. Not that it matters. He intercepts Issei’s first attack, landing what would have been a lethal blow. Only the Phoenix Tears from Azazel save him. Issei’s next attack is more successful, lopping off Sousou’s arm, but taking heavy damage himself. That’s when the Hero Faction returns with the unconscious forms of Issei’s friends. They’ve failed. He’s failed.

Elsha appears to him once again. He’s not living up to his potential. After all, his true potential is as the Grabbin’ Dragon, and until he unleashes that potential, he will fail. He raises the jeweled orb to the sky, summoning the ghostly forms of those people possessed by his potential over the last few days. The people it made grab boobs. These “zomboobies” march together and create a summoning circle. This will unleash his true powers, by calling down the boobs just for him… Rias Gremory.

Our Take

I’m a scosh disappointed by this episode. Not in the writing, heaven knows. No, the actual events of this episode keep flying along, and the enemy does reveal most of their intentions. They don’t simply give us a wall of dialogue, but we get the idea effectively. The comedy suffuses the episode, especially with Issei’s signature one-liners performed with aplomb by Josh Grelle. Other than the occasional dumb pun (I’m looking at you, “What the fox”), the characters are written personality and drama.

It isn’t the animation either, not fully. The animation is pretty smooth from beginning to end, and the scenes with Vritra left me wanting more. In fact, the action all around felt like an appetizer, and the real fight is about to begin. There were relatively few errors, such as Rias’ face gaining a bit of distortion, and most were easy to overlook. The most obvious problem spot was the jankiness of Yasaka’s transformation, but I feel that is but a symptom of the true problem with this episode.

Cinematography. The camera angles lack drama or energy and confine themselves to head-on shots as much as they can. Cuts obviously confine the shots into smaller chunks so that that the animation can be done cheaper and more easily. End result: it feels blocky, confined, and cheap. There are precious few examples where it breaks this mold. One is when the Hero Faction climbs up out of the rubble. Though it is more dramatic, it isn’t nearly as strong as it could have been. This could have been a shot where we feel the menace of Sousou, and learn to fear him. Instead, he’s just mildly more powerful.

The transformation of Yasaka should have been scary, or at least suggest that this is a bad thing. She flails her arms a breath, then glows and grows. Next, we see a giant fox. This could have been a bigger sequence, showing the transformation from beginning to end, but chose to be even less instead. So sad.