「若手悪魔、集合です！」 (Wakate Akuma, Shuugoudesu!)

“Young Devils Gather”

Training time comes and goes, flanked by flirty fun, and leading into the Koneko-chan focus we’ve all been waiting for.

Training Time—Aaaand It’s Over

Training arcs are tricky. Sometimes they can actually be very interesting, both in that they’re a good excuse to throw out exposition, show character growth, and pit characters against themselves in a way they can actually lose (as compared to most life-or-death struggles where we know they’re not going to lose too much, at least). They can also be flippin’ boring. DxD neatly skirted the issue by telling us what each character was going to work on—Issei on his endurance/durability, Rias her strategy, Akeno her Fallen Angel abilities, etc.—and then skipped straight to the results. They even managed to introduce Akeno’s antipathy for her father, Barachiel (Inada Tetsu), and hint at a mystery swordmaster helping Yuuto, which has me really curious. It still feels like they did the storytelling equivalent of “yadda yadda, moving on!”, which felt rushed.

Stop Being An Ichika, Issei!

Okay, that’s unfair—short of a complete character rewrite, Issei will never be as bad as Ichika. There were a few moments that made me lament his temporary denseness. To go from realizing how prudent Rias was to deny him fifty meido (damn!) to not knowing why Lord Gremory (Hayami Show) was telling him to call him otou-san (and why Rias’ mother was talking about the “proper order”) is just … okay, yeah, he’s more a perv than anything else, but guuuuhhh! Him not realizing that Ravel Phenex (Nishi Asuka) is totally ready to enter his harem, on the other hand, was not in the least bit cringe-worthy. I would describe it as equal parts jealousy inducing and tsun(dere)tastically adorable. C’mon Issei, get tea with her! I’m sure you could use another kawaii Bishop at some point. Dooooo it!

Looking Ahead – Koneko-chan’s Past

We’re moving along nicely into the Koneko-chan focused part of this arc. I accidentally spoiled myself on her nekomata origins, so I can’t act surprised there (though when I first read it I wasn’t surprised either), but the showdown with her older sister, Kuroka (Takahashi Minami) is the perfect chance for Koneko-chan to unlock her sealed potential and become even more powerful-nyan. Plus, maybe add the final female member of Rias’ family to Issei’s harem, ufufu~!

tl;dr: @StiltsOutLoud – Training comes & goes, flanked by flirty fun. Now it’s Koneko’s time in the spotlight #haremking s3e2

Random thoughts:

Issei, don’t think about Gasper when you have two cute girls in your bed. Though I suppose that shows Issei really is a good guy, even if Gasper is just fine.

Speaking of Gasper, I think he got the hardest training of all. Not that getting attacked by a dragon for twenty days isn’t pretty rough.

The Koneko haremette capture became priority number one as soon as her nekomimi came out. The kawaii catgirl must be captured-nyan!

Stilts note: Expect DxD posts to usually come out on Sunday. Thank you.

My first novel, Wage Slave Rebellion, is available now. (More info—now available in paperback!) Sign up for my email list for a FREE sequel short story. Over at stephenwgee.com, the last four posts: Cut away the boring bits, Sheet music, Wage Slave Rebellion is officially in print, and From LEGO to author.

Full-length images: 10, 29, 33.

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