High School DxD Hero Episode 0: Holiness Behind the Gym

The first five minutes killed the entire franchise for me. It has been more that three months since I last checked the series and never looked back since then. That stupid television dance gag made me tab out quicker than I did with any other series. I couldn't find the point why they had to alter the ending of born for something stupid. Was the 4th season any good? I have no clue. I'll leave the answer to those who find enjoyment in this series. The first three season was ok I just couldn't handle that opening scene and find any reason to watch theseries anymore. And I just want to let my frustration out on a series that I thought was getting better. The new animation was ok and I'll give them that. But I'd rather watch something else that's good rather than something that was just okay.

I will be subjective here, because comparing rework of the episode ( few changes) can be done subjectively only. Since this is only one episode I will be rating it differently and tell you why the original Juggernaut ( I know it was non canon) was better by my thoughs. There are quite a bit of changes so let's go. Juggernaut: I'll split it into three phases: begining phase, fight phase and "Aftershalba " phase. 1st phase: Issei getting into Juggeranut. I think BorN did this transition way more intense than this rework so here BorN wins. 2nd phase: Issei fight with Shalba. I think both are epic soI'll leave it at draw. 3rd phase: Here comes the funny part, BorN 3rd phase is mainly non canon, we see Issei fighting with Vali in his Juggernaut drive to weaken Issei berzerk, after using Divide Rias come and try to awaken Issei which eventually happens. Now the Canon one, Odin sends a radio with Oppai dragon song which our protagonist play to Issei which leads to his return to normal, good way to ruin a serious moment. I'll give it to BorN. Even though it's not canon I liked overally fight and serious ending better, this also can be used as a stop of DxD being a little bit of horror themed. Why it's getting 7/10 while BorN was 6/10? Because there are some added scenes like Cao Cao scene for example, which looked really sick Little after edit: Overall I think this was unnecessary episode, I would rather see rating game: Rias vs. Sona

The biggest issue I had with this remake is that most of the main cast got redrawn slightly goofy. As if this was a Saturday morning cartoon like Tiny Toons. This very noticeable in how the hair and eyes are drawn for all the characters. Hair that used to have dimension is now just someone doing a flood fill in MS Paint. Rias' and Akeno's hair no long flows they might as well be hard plastic wigs. Heck Rias' hair is no longer crimson, it's just fire engine red. Once silver hair is now dull light gray. The animation is much moresimplistic as well. When people turn their heads their hair swivels with them instead of flowing as it should.

High School DxD Hero: Taiikukan-ura no Holy is an alternative conclusion of the previous season, High School DxD BorN. With this one being more canon than the other, as well as a showdown of the animation work of the new studio that's taking over the production of season 4. - Story (7.0/10): I personally liked the way this ending took root more, it made a lot more sense and used some past plot points to justify the yet ridiculous conclusion. What I liked, even more, is the minimalistic fanservice here, the lack of fanservice really helped to get the viewers to focus on what's going on, whichdid make the confrontation and Issei's transformation more emotional. But the rest still was low on effort and quality. - Art (6.5/10): I think that this might be the downfall in regards to the animation, the colors are more vibrant and attractive, but the art style just doesn't work with Hich School DxD, we used to have sharp edges and hard colors, but everything looks soft and out of proportions, for instance, Asia looks like she suddenly grew a cup size or something. Sometimes faces look very ugly and unappealing, the really screwed the face features mapping this time. - Sound (6.0/10): I give this low score mainly because of the poor auditions, the voice acting felt so blunt and forced, like when Issei screams, he sounds like his voice actor was doing his last recording for the day after 20 hours of none stop work, very tired and lazy. And what doesn't stop only at Issei! - Character (6.0/10): Again, which the poor character design,n this art style just doesn't deliver the old nostalgic vibe of the previous series. I even struggled to recognize some of the characters due to the staggering change they went through. - Enjoyment (7.0/10): I know I've stated so many flaws, but I still enjoyed what I've seen for what it was, I like me some High School DxD every once and a while, and this one did deliver, even though barely. - Overall (6.5/10): I wouldn't highly recommend this, but it could serve as a good startup to get your a bit familiar with the nex animation and direction, and also, to make you reconsider your hype for the 4th season. Although, it's not that necessary, and is very skippable.