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High School DxD BorN
Episode 27

by Theron Martin,

The High School DxD franchise is one of the most reliable ones out there in terms of how it executes its content. Even when it shifts into a serious and dramatic mode – as it does for most of this episode – it still finds time and space for fan service. And that includes during the serious and dramatic scenes. Issei wouldn't be Issei, though, if he did not pull a stunt like getting a rare compliment from Koneko and following it up by insisting that the “dramatic catalyst” he needs to trigger his Balance Breaker is getting to poke in Rias's nipples. Naturally it works.

That's not the only (presumed) nudity in the episode, either, as an obligatory bath scene does happen after all of the calamitous events are settles. Otherwise, though, the episode almost entirely focuses on its two main story threads. One the one hand, Issei and Rias eventually catch up with Koneko as she meets with her sister. Koneko initially contemplates going with her to save the others trouble before Rias convinces her otherwise, and Tannin shows up to deal with Bikou while Issei vows to protect Koneko and Rias from Kuroka. He cannot adequately do that, however, until he triggers his Balance Breaker as described above. On the other hand, the rest of the crowd receives Odin for the signing of the treaty, although Loki tries to crash the signing and pulls Fenrir out when Odin refuses to relent. That threat is temporarily dealt with by another devil teleporting them to a distance locale, Meanwile Akeno continues to be conflicted over her father.

For all that the very active musical score works hard to play up the drama of the scenario, the writing struggles to be up to the task. It is not exactly clumsy, but more a case of being unable to generate the level of gravitas that the events being shown would be expected to have, especially on the Odin side. It does a little better with the characterizations, though, and incrementally furthers the developments with Koneko and Akeno. This episode also introduces the other character featured prominently in the closer: Rossweisse, the business suit-wearing woman with the long gray hair, who is apparently a Valkyrie that, in Odin's own words, has had trouble securing a man, something which she must be so mortified about that it must be a major concern for her. Setting aside how tired and sexist that is (even by fan service show standards), that is presumably her ticket to fitting into the harem scenario, as it appears that she will be a regular at Rias's school starting next episode.

While the episode's execution is less than stellar (and let's not even get started on how lousy Fenrir looks) it definitely keeps the story moving merrily along, and without doing it at the expense of its core nature.

Rating: B-

High School DxD BorN is currently streaming on Funimation.


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