So with a little extra time on my hands, I decided to watch an anime I’ve heard so many great things about.  Is It Wrong To Try And Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon is about a young man, Bell Cranel, who starts off in his adventure to slay monsters and provide for himself and his goddess Hestia, but starts off weak and very ignorant.  When faced with an overwhelming foe a warrior known as the sword princess saves him and Bell immediately falls in love and seeks greater power to catch up to her strength.

The story is not really that complex.  Boy falls in love, boy gets stronger to impress the girl and then boy does incredible things with his new power.  This is not one of those shows you watch for a detailed story, but rather a show you watch for the joy the characters themselves bring.  Each character has so much detail and charm to them that it makes their constant interactions so fun to watch.  Before I knew it I was already halfway done with the season. When the story does introduce new elements, they often come with quick and easy explanations and the show quickly pans back to some sort of action or humorous dialogue.  However, I will say one thing about the story, and that is it appeals to RPG fans.  You really see a lot of nods to all kinds of RPG lore like the idea of never going anywhere alone, something few anime characters listen to, always bring supplies and even has the concept of leveling up and character stats.  The world building of this show really feels like a tabletop RPG and like any RPG you see constant random challenges against the main character and each challenge is very unique and through a combination of various challenges, we get to see Bell grow in several different areas.

I mentioned characters earlier and now I want to focus on the main character Bell.  Like most anime protagonists he is trying to grow stronger to achieve a seemingly impossible goal.  Usually, most characters have this overbearing need to really state this goal over and over again as if the audience forgot it after five minutes. Bell is an exception to this as he actually mentions his goal quite rarely in comparison and when he mentions it, he does so in a way to fuel his ambition to achieve a specific challenge and it makes the repetition of his goal feel like it adds value to the scene. Bell also has an innocent charm to him that made me enjoy seeing him grow and get more powerful.  Bell has a character that really absorbs your attention and compels you to watch as he continues his journey.  He goes through so much growth that he becomes an almost completely different character by the end of the season. On a side note, while Bell tries to impress the woman of his dreams, every other woman in the show seems to have some sort of thing for him so the jealousy amongst the female supporting cast tends to lend to the humor found throughout this show.

So overall the RPG fan in me loved the story and I loved the characters.  This combination made for a show that I couldn’t stop watching until I got to the end.  A not so detailed world to create lovable and complex characters while making a captivating main character who’s goal becomes something you yourself will want to see realized.  To put it simply, the show has a certain charm to it that is captivating.