When you think of a nuanced show, the source of the “Hestia Ribbon” does not nautrally spring to mind. However, this season of DanMachi, for all the previous misfires and service jokes, is setting up a complicated, interesting plot. Whether or not they can pull it off is a whole other thing entirely, but so far – season 3 has been great.
This pair of episodes could also be called “Tale of Two Escort Quests.” DanMachi has spent immense time building up minor characters and is using them to full effect early in the season. I love the clash between Ryuu (who is my favorite dark-horse ship for Bell) and Aisha – its little moments like that make me think, “hey maybe Season 2 did something good after all…”
The bigger theme of this season will be sentient monsters. I love the setup with the deities trying to protect them, and the ingrained fear and resentment from the adventurers. There’s also the slaving family, which adds a whole extra wrinkle. Unsurprisingly, Hermes is in the middle of it all, “helping.”
I do see a huge problem, however – Wiene is (at least somewhat) dragon. Ais hates, hates, HATES dragons (as shown in the season 2 finale – basically one of only 3 good episodes from that season). This is going to be a major problem for the Ais-Bell ship – actually for the entire Hestia family in general. Hestia familia has gotten a nice house and all but their fighting force is still pretty meager – I’m seeing a real “Civil War” type conflict emerging between the familias over this one.
One other point of note is the animation. DanMachi has never had great animation (even back to Season 1 – Season 2 was mixed. There was an episode where one fight was well done and the other terrible). However, I haven’t minded it here in Season 3. I think they’ve tended to cover it up with clever shots and editing, plus the 3D effects on monster disintegration. There was also a cool shot in episode 3 with lighting – that was a nice touch. I was also interested to see Egg Firm being included in the credits – they’ve most recently worked on No Gun’s Life, which had superb 3D rendered settings. I’m assuming they’re the reason DanMachi’s visuals are looking nicer this season.
A few minor gripes. Why did Bell have Argonaut activate? He wasn’t in any real danger and it didn’t even hurt lizardman-chi – what was the point of that? Also, I feel really bad for Eina (Guild receptionist and Bell’s adviser). She gets almost no screen time and when she does, she gets iced out by Bell for the new hot dragon thang – come on now! Show the half-elves some love!
So what’s the forecast on the season? So far, so good – I’m a little afraid of adding the “Monster Musume” cast in terms of character creep, but there’s plenty of interesting avenues this season can go. Of course, it can also go off the rails, but I don’t see any huge red flags so far. What do you think? Will DanMachi 3 be good enough to erase the debacle of Season 2 or will it fall into furry tropes and make me quit the series? Let me know!
