Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (DanMachi is the Japanese language short title) is a light romantic/adventure series centered on a world were the gods of humanity have given up most of their magic in order to live more adventurous lives among humans. This has led to them gathering “Familias” or families of humans they act as a patron and leader for. The anime follows goddess Hestia and her single Familia member, Bell Cranel, a 14 year old who dreams of being an adventurer in the dungeon their city Orario sits on. While I am a sucker for paranormals and pagan deity led stories, I started this one because I was intrigued by the idea of an entire economic and cultural system based on dungeoneering. While I was prepared to be disappointed (as this is a “light” novel) I wasn’t. There are some really amazing and engaging ideas presented to viewers.
Hestia is clearly in love with Bell, and while there is a bit of crude fan service like skimpy outfits and bouncy boobs, it doesn’t go further than the levels my daughter was encountering in school in fifth grade. In the second season there is an entire pleasure district and lots of heavy implication that put it more into the high school audience level, including a character who crudishly describes herself as worthless for being a prostitute, however there’s no real onscreen content, just discussions that lay out the tip of an unexplored depth. Instead the story itself focuses heavily on friendship and loyalty, and on people’s value for themselves, and not the roles assigned to them.
With a bit of playful spice the meat of DanMachi is wholesome, about treating people right, trying to better yourself, and trying to be graceful in failure and success a like. There are fighting/adventure scenes that are fantastic (and I watched this alongside Castlevania, so that’s what I was comparing it to at the time.) Also the side characters are just as special and important as main Character Bell.
I highly recommend this for inclusion in anime collections. It’s fun, sweet, and has a lot of interesting things to offer.