English Dub Review: High School DxD HERO “Showdown! Gremory Family vs. Hero Faction in Kyoto”

It’s fun to grab? ‘Cause perv’ing is power?

Overview (Spoilers Below)

The Hero faction is on the attack! Sousou wields his true longinus, and calls out a friend with the ability to summon custom creatures. Specifically, he chooses to make anti-demon golems with light beam attacks. While Azazel tackles Sousou himself, the team works together to take down the golems. Issei immediately takes the lead. He has Yuuto create a bunch of light-absorbing swords so that everyone can block the shots from the golems. Right about then, a bunch of girls from the Hero faction come after Issei. He beats them handily with a spell combo: Pailingual to Dress Break. Since he knows what the girls are going to do, he can avoid their attacks and shred their clothes right off, sending them packing.

The duel between Sousou and Azazel is mostly on par, with no clear winner. As it goes on, Sousou reveals the intent of the Hero faction: to see the potential of humanity. Demons, angels, monsters, and youkai all fall eventually to human heroes. He just wants to piss everybody off and try to take them all on. A new challenger appears, interrupting the fight. Le Fay Pendragon jumps in with her Gogmagog, trashing the bridge. This draws the attention of a drunken Rossweisse. In her stupor, she dumps a bucket full of energy blasts on the field. With the demiplane shredded, Sousou has no choice but to retreat. He promises, however, that he will be bringing Princess Yasaka out soon. If they can find him, they can rescue the princess.

The protagonists regroup to figure things out. The power gathered by the feng shui/onmyoudou of Kyoto has been channeled to Nijou castle, so it is most likely to be Hero faction’s point of entry. The gang breaks into two groups: One to defend the Kyoto area, and the other to bash Sousou’s face in. To help them out, Azazel hands out a vial of phoenix tears to each team. One other bonus, Azazel caught one of the wandering molesters and managed to draw a red orb out. It’s Issei’s missing potential! It’s been jumping from person to person, charging its power by making their victims grab as many funbags as they can. The team heads out to Nijou Castle. Along the way, Issei and Kunou get ambushed by Connla. Can he unlock his potential in time?

Our Take

Well, this episode partially makes up for the slow writing and dying animation of the previous one. At least this time, we have decent animation throughout. We also get to see a bunch more of the Hero faction’s people. They have a wide variety here, from a summoner to a three-armed swordsman. Not really feeling that swordsman, though. He feels a bit derivative, despite holding three swords from Norse myth. I do enjoy it when shows bring back old enemies, especially when they’ve upgraded to be on the hero’s level. Connla getting his balance breaker is a solid way to do this.

I enjoyed the battle between Sousou and Azazel. The two spear users moved around the battlefield well, even if they weren’t the focal point of the scenes. It wasn’t maximum effort in the animation department all the time, but it was good enough to be interesting, especially in scenes where we got closer to the fight. That True Longinus has a boatload of abilities, but it hasn’t lived up to its name yet.

This thing is named for the Lance of Longinus, aka the Spear of Destiny. This was a real-world object: a Roman spear held by one of the centurions who were present for the Crucifixion. It was used to pierce the side of Jesus of Nazareth, since they suspected he was already dead. Blood and water poured out, marking that Jesus died of a heart attack. Religious people attributed magical qualities to the spear since it was supposed to have divine blood on it. It was said that whoever possessed it could not be defeated in battle, so obviously there are a bunch of fakes or relics that claim to be a part of it.

So, now that you know the origin of the item, you wonder why it doesn’t shred Azazel without hesitation. I do. Sure, there are a lot of Longinus items in this show. But this is the True Longinus. It should be totally OP. Right now, it just seems like a cool and over-designed spear.

The voice acting took a dip in this episode, though not from Josh Grelle. He’s still killing it with his tone and comedic timing. Several other characters felt a bit robotic and detached from the material at points. It feels like they simply have no connection to what is going on in the scene, or to the work of the other voice actors. It’s rather rare for VAs to record their lines together, which is a shame. Great acting happens when thespians take in the energy of others and pull it into their work. I feel like this show could use that on occasion, even if they were to do it through Skype or something.