High School DxD Volume 1: Our boy becomes a Devil!

It is a great work of the ecchi genre. One of the best anime ever made, a monument to all that this genre can do well when love, effort, and time are put into it. Throughout everything I've seen, everything I've seen in these three years and beyond, I have never found a show that can completely top what is shown in this series. Are there stories with more ecchi? Yes? Are there series with better girls? Sometimes? Are there better-animated series? Yes. But almost everyone does one thing well and ignores the rest. High School DxD does them all, and it does them with enough effort and grace to do everything else, even if it may be 'better' in some ways, less so in comparison. Click here to know more information about this article.

But that's the anime series. What about its source material, the light novels? Can the series I've heaped so much praise on hold up when there's only ink and paper? Or is this a case of anime adding enough meat to the bone to make for mediocre work? Well, after the cut, let's start our journey into the world of light novels with the first in the series: Devils of the Old School Building.

I had many doubts about reading this series, many doubts. Not because I was scared to read it, but because I was worried that High School DxD, stripped of the music, animation, fan service, and voice acting, all of which made the anime so memorable, wouldn't be the same. That without all those elements, it would have to build on the strength of its own story, as much as I (and others) have praised the story, it's nothing really special.

Fortunately, I remembered that the story, not the boobs, is the secret to what makes DxD work so well.

"It came for the plot, it stayed for the plot" is the nickname of this series among the fandom, and the series proves it with this first volume. The story told from Issei Hyoudou's point of view, has a way of grabbing you and not letting go. A fish-out-of-water story when a young and horny high school boy, after getting the opportunity that all young men want with a girlfriend for the first time, finds himself reincarnated as a devil in the service of a certain Rias Gremory, the beautiful and busty senior. who is the queen bee of the school? We follow Issei as she adjusts to her new life, the playful affection of her voluptuously beautiful senpais, the friendship she strikes up with Asia Argento, and the battles that come with her new life.

Like I said before, what you see is nothing special, but how it's done, and what author Ichiei Ishibumi is able to create has a lot of staying power. You get the feeling of a larger world, with well-defined rules, regulations, and power dynamics right away. There are demons, angels, and fallen angels, and a chess-based rule system that separates the master from a servant. The myths are real, and the problems will be solved in the classic anime way, throwing your fist at them. It's classic anime through and through, but there's something about it that works. Maybe it's my knowledge of what's going on, my anticipation of where the plot is going, but I found myself engrossed in this world again. And I think the main reason is because of the main character of the series.