Coming off of the success of the previous season would be a very difficult task to accomplish. After all its in the second season where most harem anime go to die hard without any vengeance eventually fading into obscurity so managing to actually deliver a second season of this show that was just as good would be a great sign and probably enough for many people. Though High School DxD did not deliver the same enjoyment and quality the first season brought. Why is that? you might ask and its simple really. High School DxD New went above and beyond any of my expectations and turned into something truly great. This review is going to serve as my reasoning for why I would say High School DxD New is amazing. The art and style of the show remains mostly the same as the last season. Its very reminiscent of any shonen battle show or mecha show of the era and thats not necessarily bad. The fights are well animated the characters have interesting designs and the ecchi is done very well which is probably the main draw for a lot of people. The amount of ecchi and fanservice for this season is turned up to the highest its ever been both in terms of quality and quantity. There are more bath scenes suggestive actions and humor panty shots scenes of visible nudity and general lewd happenings typical of the High School DxD series so far. Again I can at least appreciate how the series is true to itself and how it decides to go about things. Theres no point in just acknowledging the meta so why not just go completely overthetop with it and break the ecchi meta as a whole right? The original voice cast from season one reprise their roles for this season thankfully. Yuki Kaji as Issei Youko Hikasa as Rias Shizuka Itou as Akeno Ayana Taketatsu as Koneko Azumi Asakura as Asia and Kenji Nojima as Yuuto return but were also introduced to a few more characters for the season. The new cast come in with Risa Taneda as Xenovia Maaya Uchida as Irina and Ayane Sakura as Gasper. There are actually two opening songs and two ending songs this time around with each song pair being used for the first and second six episodes respectively. Both opening songs are great to listen to. The first one is Sympathy and its done by the same group that did the amazing opening song that was Trip innocent of D. The next opening song is my favorite of the two and its Gekijouron by a different group called ZAQ. To me the two ending songs Houteishiki wa Kotaenai and Lovely Devil arent very noteworthy in terms of music but theyre very well animated and sung by the female cast of the show. Thats to be expected for a High School DxD ending song especially after STUDY x STUDY from the last season. This is where the real enjoyment of the season comes in. After the events of the previous season were reintroduced to our main cast and that begins our new story arc Excalibur of the Moonlit Schoolyard. This section of the story is pure hype especially if youre a fan of Yuuto. If not you probably will be one after this arc since it all centers around his backstory and his growth. This arc introduces us to Xenovia and Irina as well as the concept of Holy Swords. We get more insight into Yuutos story and his path of revenge against Valper Galilei. Genshirou Saji Sonas pawn from the student council becomes a protagonist for the arc helping Issei and the gang on their mission to destroy the Holy Swords. The overall quality of this arc is above anything the previous season hadboth the Diabolos of the Old School Building arc and The Phoenix of the School Battle arc. This arc is also home to some frightening revelations especially to the characters of Asia and Xenovia as well as an interesting plot twist towards the end of the final fight. This arc is full of tense moments ecchi moments exciting battles character development and a good resolution. The second arc of the season Vampire of the Suspended Classroom is just as much good. First of all Xenovia becomes more relevant to the story which means more opportunities for some fun harem shenanigans. While season one may have been a harem by definition I feel that this season is really where that aspect comes into fruition. We also get introduced to Gasper Vali Serafall and Zeoticus as well as get more scenes with Azazel and Sirzechs. Gasper is the titular Vampire of the Suspended Classroom and hes Rias other bishop who has the uncontrollable power to stop time. Oh hes also a femboy which is very epic. The first portion of the arc is dedicated to getting to know more about Gasper and Issei training him allowing for some bonding time between Issei and another club member that isnt overtly lecherous albeit with lecherous intent. Akeno also has a really good scenes in this arc which turned her from a good character due to my oneesan bias into a genuinely good character. The big battle with the magicians was cool to see but the best fight was definitely Vali and Issei. That fight was wacky and fun Issei bringing most of the best moments. The characters of High School DxD remain interesting as usual. Issei our protagonist is expounded on further. Were shown more of his pervy exploits as well as his genuinely good moments. His camaraderie with Yuuto his resolve for Gasper his acceptance of Akeno and so on and so forth. Time and time again Issei is put to the test with problems that affect more than just himself. Time and time again Issei has the strength to keep on trying until he finds a way to win. After all he cant back down until he achieves his dream of becoming the Harem King. Hes a degenerate but a goodhearted one at that. Weve already gotten glimpses into the real characters of Rias and Asia in the last season so this one decides to go deeper into some other ones. Yuuto gets his own story arc Gasper is introduced and developed and Akeno has her own important moment. Some characters like Xenovia are interesting in their own right as their backstories can be viewed as a parallel to already existing ones. Not to mention her fun scenes with Issei those were pretty good. Though not every character is that great. Irina for example is a character I would have enjoyed seeing more of. She isnt involved for the majority of it due to story reasons but I would want to see her and Issei get involved in some funny harem scenarios especially since she has preestablished history with him. Koneko too is a bit of a letdown. She remains basically the same as the previous seasona loli kuudere cat girl whos really strong calls Issei a pervert and gets her clothes destroyed a lot. I would have liked to learn more about her since Issei himself wondered if she had a backstory like him and Asia. Though this may just be foreshadowing something for a future season. High School DxD New is leagues above the original season in terms of quality while still retaining all the charm it had. Its fun emotional humorous and just a good time. I loved to see more development for the already established cast as well as the antics of the newly introduced ones. The plot progression is well done and easy to follow making it easy to consume each twentysix or so minute episode in either a single bingewatch or a spaced out schedule. This show isnt peak harem anime but its definitely close in my opinion. I thoroughly enjoyed this season and am very interested to see where the show will go from here.