High School DxD BorN

Episode 31

Before getting into the main review, a clarification about the episode numbering for the franchise: According to a Funimation rep whom I questioned about it at Anime Central, their in-house streaming system automatically sequentially numbers episodes in series with the same root title, so they are not able to number episodes by season for streaming purposes (and, presumably, still keep them associated). I was assured, though, that like with New, the original by-season episode numbering will be retained for the eventual disk releases. And presumably this explanation will also hold for other Funimation titles in similar situations.

That being said, episode 31 is a very ordinary effort by franchise standards, one which does nothing special until its late plot twist – and even then the actual twist is a bit of a disappointment in both execution and a “that's the best that they could come up with?” sense. Oh, the episode isn't without its appeal; one mid-episode scene concerning Rias consoling Issei is actually a remarkably tender moment, and it easily meets its regular quota for fan service, albeit with outright nudity mostly replaced by peeks through sheer clothing and/or nipple outlines showing through clothing. It also has plenty of girls fawning over Issei to one degree or another, with Kuroka, who wants to have the child of Dragon, also now making advances (in both the nudity and “hitting on Issei” senses). That makes Rossweise and Irina the only current hold-outs among recurring characters, and Irina seems be gradually edging in that direction, too.

The storytelling, however, is less impressive. Astaroth tries to put some spice in the upcoming Rating Game with House Gremory by first offering to trade Bishops for Asia and then trying to make her the prize, which gets flatly rejected by Rias. His true colors show later – and in lame fashion – when Rias's forces getting teleported to what they think is going to be the battle scene for the Rating Game but instead turns out to be a trap set by Chaos Brigade forces which allows Astaroth to kidnap Asia. Whether his intentions are merely obsession with Asia or something else is unclear, but what is clear is that assorted factional leaders were fully expecting something like this (and a warning from Vali and Kuroka contributes, too) and were prepared, with Odin even appearing himself to clear the minions out so that the rest of the gang can go after Asia. Padding out the time before the conflict is Issei's interactions with various girls, and padding out the scene where “dirty old man” Odin appears is a lot of tedious battlefield exposition. The franchise has always had a problem with this, but that makes it no less irritating.

Also problematic are the continuing occasional quality control issues in the artistry, although the problems are nowhere near as frequent or egregious as they were last episode. And by harem standards, the plotting here is still relatively meaty, as the enemy forces are proving not to be monolithic in motivation. Those who have been missing Freed this season (if there actually is anyone out there like that) will be pleased to know that the Next Episode preview shows him reappearing next episode, too. Overall, though, the franchise continues to be stuck in one of its weakest runs of episodes.

Rating: C

High School DxD BorN is currently streaming on Funimation.