Kevin C. Wong

Anime - Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? s1 (2015) [+]

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is a fantasy anime. In this world the gods have come to the world to form adventuring guilds that go into this giant tower to kill monsters and collect treasure and experience. Bell (Bryson Baugus) is our young hero, the sole guild member of Hestia (Luci Christian). He falls for level 5 adventurer Ais (Shelley Calene-Black) which activates his special power: with enough motivation he gets a massive XP bonus.

Bell is actually a nice guy, kind and honest and tries to be an ideal hero. He saves Lilly (Hilary Haag), a hireling support character, and even when she betrays him he forgives her and wins her heart. Hestia from the beginning is also enamored with Bell and later Ais becomes attracted though only in a moderate way by the end of the season.

In terms of the world this anime focuses on the guilds and what happens at the base: interacting with other adventurers, finding jobs, buying and selling equipment. Going into the dungeons is mostly done briefly and there is little coherence except in the last three or so episodes which are more of an adventuring arc.

The appeal is a young man's power fantasy RPG with a bit of harem genre. Kind of reminds me a bit of Sword Art Online though still quite different. I guess the only problem is that season one is not a complete story but really feels like the first part of a big story. I wouldn't have watched it for season one alone and Netflix doesn't have the other seasons yet.