First Look – Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

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Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka)

Director: Yoshiki Yamakawa

Producer: J.C.Staff

Genre: Action/Adventure/Comedy/Fantasy/Romance

Simlucast: Crunchyroll

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Or DanMachi, the shortened from of the Japanese title, is the second of the two anime adaptations from J.C.Staff this season. DanMachi’s source material is a currently on-going light novel of the same name, written by Fujino Ōmori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda. Beginning publication in early 2013 DanMachi has already being released in English via Yen Press.

The premise of DanMachi appears like an MMO inspired series, like shows such as Sword Art Online and Log Horizon and has even been criticized for being so. The series is actually based around goddesses that have descended from heaven, forbidden from using their power; they aim to grow a large familia of which their members earn money, glory and fame through their achievements in adventuring in dungeons.

DanMachi - 03As noted in our first look of Food Wars! Shokugeki no Soma J.C.Staff can be quite hit and miss with their adaptations. While I’m not familiar with the source material of DanMachi, there has been some concerns over the pace at which J.C.Staff appear to be burning through said source material. Yoshiki Yamakawa helms the series as director, having a huge degree of experience in anime, but only a handful as director with Little Busters being the most well-known of Yamakawa’s works.

DanMachi has been the subject of some unusual press since its premiere, mainly due to the choice of wardrobe that the main goddess Hestia has since become legend for. It’s a simple ribbon tried to the arms and comes around under the breasts, assumed to be there for support. Seeing this as a new support technique or fashion craze of some sort the internet has been ablaze, with Hestia trending on twitter non-stop for almost a week. Even local newspapers here in the UK have been covering the story, of course to make it appear that Japanese people and anime is some weird fetish.

DanMachi - 02DanMachi has had a strong start, aside from Hestia’s ample assets, true it’s not the most original concept out there it has certainly entertained. The artwork and character design are of a very high quality with an equal cast of voice actors to match. The series has taken its time to introduce new characters as not to overwhelm us, and let the plot unfold around us. To many anime series us the first episode to cram in as much action as possible whereas DanMachi has taken a slower approach and felt refreshing and exciting for it. Whether or not the source material is being raced through I couldn’t comment on, but so far it’s entertained and I’ll most likely invest money and time into the light novel series after this season has ended.

Editor-in-chief