4 Star

The Continuing Adventures of a Fool.

Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? is based on the Japanese Light Novel Series written by Fujino Ōmori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda. It is adapted to anime by studio J.C Staff (A Certain Magical Index, A Certain Scientific Railgun).

In the land of Orario, Gods live among the population. For their entertainment, they bestow upon the humans “The Blessing”, which allows them to enter the “Dungeon” and slay monsters. The humans blessed by each God become part of their Familia and are levelled up by way of a tattoo on their backs, which updates as they defeat the monsters. They can also attain crystal shards which operate as currency.

Our adventurer Bell Cranel (Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Sword Art Online (TV Series), Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma (TV Series)) is now at level three and is exploring deep into the nineteenth level, when he hears crying, on his own he goes to investigate. What he finds is what looks like a young girl, and she is under attack from monsters and humans. This has never been seen before. But to his shock this girl is an intelligent and able to speak the human language. Bell sees something in this young girl (a vouivre) and protects her when some of the Ikelos Familia come looking for her.

Bell and the Hestia Familia has grown since Bell met the god Hestia (Inori Minase, Drifting Home, Lupin III (TV Series)). After getting a scolding from his Familia for going off on his own in such a dangerous place, the others see the mystery girl, Liliruca Arde (Maaya Uchida, New Initial D the Movie: Legend 2 – Racer, Is the Order a Rabbit?? ~ Dear My Sister ~), Welf Crozzo (Yoshimasa Hosoya, Attack on Titan: Junior High (TV Series), Naruto: Shippuden (TV Series)), Yamato Mikoto (Chinatsu Akasaki, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online (TV Series), Plastic Memories), and Sanjouno Haruhime (Haruka Chisuga, Yona of the Dawn, Shirobako: The Movie). After a bit of a discussion Bell persuades the others to take the girl back home, while they work out what to do with her.

Hestia thinks the female vouivre can stay, and between them, they arrive at the name “Wiene” (Rina Hidaka, A Certain Magical Index: The Movie, Tiger & Bunny: The Rising). Wiene, as every other girl does, takes an instant liking to Bell, which always causes jealousy in all the other girls.

Bell, Welf and Lilliruca return to the 19th Floor to investigate the talking intelligent monsters, and after a while the Hestia Familia discover a whole group of them, who attack until Bell and his friends are actually trying to protect Wiene. It turns out that these monsters are known as Xenos, and they want to live above ground and in peace with the humans. But after a Thousand years of humans and monsters slaughtering each other, this isn’t going to be an easy pill to swallow.

Can we not see eye to eye?

Season three is a break from the light-hearted adventuring we are used to, to bring a serious story of integration and understanding, which is done in a really good way, as there is always a naysayer on both sides. After twelve episodes, sneaking and double-crossing, there is light relief with an OVA “Is It Wrong to Try to Find a Hot Spring in Orario? -Bath God Forever-“.

DanMachi (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (S3)) Collector’s Edition is a great addition to this ongoing anime. Great fun and a powerful message of inclusion.

DanMachi (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (S3)) Collector’s Edition is available on Blu-ray