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Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
Episode 12

by Rebecca Silverman,

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? has managed to surprise many viewers with its quality and storytelling, taking a silly title and building it into something pretty great. This episode basically follows that same pattern, starting out as a goofy bit of fanservice and good-natured (mostly) competition for Bell's oblivious affections before taking a more serious turn, happily misleading us as things grow increasingly serious. It begins with the promised trip to the eighteenth floor's town, which is actually interesting in and of itself: rather than a charming fantasy village populated by sweet and clean denizens, this place is much more of a shantytown. The inhabitants gouge adventurers with high prices, smugly secure in the knowledge that they're the only game between their floor and the entrance. It's like a visually unappealing tourist trap. Hestia's happily unaware of it, however, as she gleefully buys herself perfume in a bid for Bell; keep an eye on Aiz in the background when she touts the importance of smelling nice. This leads us to the obligatory bath/peeping scene, which oddly enough serves as the transition point from light to more serious. After falling from a tree into the pond where most of the women are bathing, Bell finds himself by another, more secluded body of water where Ryu is washing off. The first thing you realize is that, despite her having said she once belonged to a familia, she has no mark on her back. Ryu's story is one of the crueler in Dungeon's world, even more so than Liliruca's, and it is a stark reminder that Bell's life is pretty blessed compared to other people's.

That's actually the theme of this episode once the fun is over: life is not always as easy as Bell's appears to be. We know that he's had plenty of difficulties and close calls, but to the outside eye, Bell appears to lead a charmed life – he's already a Level Two, almost immediately after leveling up he made it to the eighteenth floor (remember, not everyone knows how he got there), and he's surrounded by gorgeous women. Add to that the fact that he's well-known as “Little Rookie” and had a very public and successful fight against not one but two major monsters, and there's a lot to be jealous of. By the last quarter of the episode, Bell's in quite a lot of trouble fighting a thug specially equipped by Hermes (who of course says it's for Bell's own good).

Of course, there really is something special about Bell. He's got the Argonaut skill, so although it's great to see the calvary ride to his rescue, he really doesn't need it, and we get some more spectacular fighting as he goes against his invisible opponent with graceful and vicious acrobatics. From Ryu's story, we know that this kind of situation can go too far, but Bell seems to be more or less under control at this point, although that could be because he can at that point see that the others have come to help...or out of a feeling that he wants to help protect them as well. That's been Bell's driving motive if you think about it: a will to protect other people. He draws strength from them almost like (I assume) a god draws strength from his familia, and the more people he cares about, the greater his will to fight. That looks like it's going to be important very soon, what with the unholy combination of Skeletor and a Titan descending upon them...

Visually the fight scene really is the highlight, with the fanservice being fairly nondescript and the new horror scarier for its size than appearance. We do, however, get a clearer view of The String in action: if you look in the screencap, you can see that it is functioning as a sort of outside-the-clothes bra. (Maybe?) For my money, however, you can keep The String – I'm much more interested in Ryu's amazing hood.

This episode goes from harmless to intense relatively gradually. The reality of the town can be seen as a hint that there's more going on than meets the eye, and the grave from Ryu's past also segues nicely into the more dramatic portion of the episode. It doesn't work quite as well as it wants to with the bath scene feeling fairly superfluous as far as the plot goes, but it looks like we're gearing up for a pretty exciting finale next week.

Rating: B+

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rebecca Silverman is ANN's senior manga critic.


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