High School DxD Hero Episode 5 – Anime QandA Review

What’s the show? High School DxD Hero, Episode 5.

I don’t think I’m ready for another instalment of ‘Cactus Matt drools over anime tiddies’. Well you’re in luck, with the exception of the ad-break title card there’s zero nudity in this episode!

Oh, perverts of the world lament! Also, what did I say about using the phrase “anime tiddies”, just don’t, please.

Sorry. So lots of action in this episode, of the fighting variety, I mean. Yes, quite a bit. Also a fair bit of plot too, of the story variety.

‘Kay, well go on then. Right, so Issei handily beats the shadow dude who had him otherwise immobilised at the end of the last episode. That fight felt super unnecessary, especially since it seemed like it was just resolving a plot point that wasn’t even a plot point in the anime and only existed in the books. Unless of course he’s going to come back at a later time, which if that’s the case I suppose we’ll see how necessary it was when the time comes. Issei and cute fox girl go meet up with the others to defeat Cao Cao and try and rescue fox girl’s busty mother, and pretty much the rest of the episode is the fight.

So does Issei easily beat this guy, I mean you said in the last episode that he is just a human who wants to be more powerful than anyone else. What fight could a human put up against a team of devil’s and an angel? He wipes the floor with them. More specifically his cronies divvy up the party and each one of the Gremory household is soundly defeated. Then Issei, after nearly dying in his confrontation and having to use one of the Pheonix tears to save his mortal wounds, finally gets a blow on Cao Cao, severing his arm—only for him to have his own Phoenix tears to use. Issei’s armor starts to crack, he’s presented with the fallen—presumably unconscious—bodies of his teammates and all seems lost, when…

When what?! Oppai!

Huh? Issei reaches down into his memory palace and talks to the attractive woman who was a previous user of Issei’s sacred gear, she reminds him of his “potential” and as he harnesses his full power he summons the one thing that can defeat this dastardly and overpowered villain… oppai.

He summons boobs? I thought you said there was no nudity. Well actually he summons the love of his life, Rias. Who appears via a portal above him clad in nothing but her lingerie and somewhat perplexed as to how she got there, and then the episode ends.

That’s the look of a girl who just realised her boyfriend has *way* too much power.

Uh-huh… so, err, this was a good episode then? I thought so! I mean I love that the show is taking its time with these action set-pieces and not rushing through them. These big moments like Issei ‘unlocking’ his potential aren’t just quickly brought up and acquired, this has been multiple episodes in the set-up and the actual ~acquiring~ is suitably grandiose if admittedly ridiculous, but that’s nothing new. Issei’s powers being about breasts have always been treated as silly to people on the outside but deadly serious to Issei and it’s that balance which make his character and this show so endearing—even after all this time.