Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. So, did I hear DanMachi is getting another season? DanMachi for the most part was an okay anime. Nothing great but it had a good set up, a good main lead who grew stronger over the course of the anime, and surprisingly good fight scenes. So, when the second season came out last year I was excited to continue Bell’s adventure and with a third season set to come out in July I think now is the perfect time to review the second season and give my thoughts on it. Now since I reviewed the first season with Isis and Yin-Yang it only seems fair to invite them back for the second one. What do say lady and wolf? You guys up for this?
(Yin-Yang): Pass.
(Isis): Working on a project with Seras.
(Nitsuj): Alright. I guess it’s just me this time. This is DanMachi season 2.
Opening and Ending Theme
Our opening for the second season is “Hello to Dream” by Yuka Iguchi. I have to admit this like opening a lot more than the first one. The music is very fantasy-like, Yuka sounds great, and it really gets me pumped. The song also matches up well with the animation in the opening with some great animation. My only complaint is that the opening is a huge spoiler for the anime’s first arc. Like seriously, this opening spoils so much.
The ending for the second season is “Sasayakana Shukusai” by sora tob sakana. This was one of my favorite endings from last year. The song is cute, catchy, and just fun listen to. It always puts a smile on my face whenever I listen to it. Everyone has made the joke of Bell dancing to this song while wearing a suit, top hat, and cane and I can honestly see that happening.
Episodes 1-4
The season starts with Bell’s party along with Mikoto exploring the middle floors together. After that, they go to the local pub to celebrate Welf becoming a level 2 adventurer. As they drink, members of the Apollo familia (one of the biggest familia’s in the city) provoke Bell into a fight by insulting Hestia saying she is nothing but tits (hey those tits are beautiful). Ignoring it no more, Welf and Bell fight where Bell gets saved by Bete from the Loki familia who tells him not to get so cocky (scene here: https://youtu.be/65yR0pOGPGQ, did you see what he did last season, it’s kind of hard not to get a little cocky). While Hestia appreciates the gesture, she doesn’t want Bell going around and getting into fights (your face is your bread and butter kid, don’t ruin your bread and butter). The next day Bell receives an invitation from Apollo inviting him and Hestia to a banquet of the Gods that he’s hosting. They go to the party despite their worries where Bell gets to meet Freya (scene here: https://youtu.be/wVGYMTS7v8c. Stay away from her Bell, she’ll eat you up like a lioness) and Hermes proves to be best wingman as he sets up Bell to dance with Ais (scene here: https://youtu.be/W3oYMD9-x1k, they do look cute together). This happy time of course gets ruined by Apollo who demands compensation for what Bell did to a member of his familia (unfortunately Bell’s side did throw the first punch. Word of advice guys, if you get into a fight don’t throw the first punch) and challenges the Hestia familia to a war game and if his familia wins, he gets Bell (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZohYnG072S8, what is everyone’s obsession with this boy? He’s only 14 or 15. (Isis): That gives us about 3 years to train him).
Episode 2 is a rather exciting episode. Picking up where episode 1 left off, Hestia out right refuses to participate in the war game and takes her leave with Bell (thank you, we won’t come again). The next day, the Apollo familia attacks Bell and Hestia. They destroy the church they live in and begin chasing them throughout the city. I will say that Bell does look cool here as he’s not only fighting off members of Apollo’s familia, but he’s also keeping Hestia safe in the process (he’s definitely earning his man points). During the fight, we actually see members of the Soma familia (Lili’s familia) aiding the Apollo familia. Bell and Hestia eventually run into Hyakinthos the top guy of the Apollo familia who hates Bell for having Apollo’s attention (trust me, that’s the last guy you want attention from). Naturally, Bell is no match for him and gets beaten up very badly. Luckily, he gets saved by his friends and once Hestia’s moment with Bell under the bridge gets ruined (scene here: https://youtu.be/93ZuCqy-7lw), she finally accepts Apollo’s war game (scene here: https://youtu.be/6w927ItClEU). The rules of the match will be decided in the presence of the gods at a later date. In the mean time, Bell and his crew have other things worry about. Such as Lili being forced to go back to the Soma familia (the girl just keeps finding new ways to abandon the team). Welf and Hestia say they’ll save Lili while Bell just focuses on getting stronger as he knows Hyakinthos will we waiting for him in the war game. Bell quickly rushes over to the Loki familia to get Aiz to train him but they deny him entrance and he leaves only to go around the corner and meet up with Aiz and Tiona who want to help but are doing it behind Loki’s back (Bell’s charm level really is high).
At the start of episode 3 we see Lili return to the Soma familia as a way to get them to stop attacking Bell. Once she’s back with them, she begs Soma himself to let her leave, but Zanis the commander of the familia says the only way for her to leave is to pay 10 million valis (can we pay that back on a monthly basis?). She soon gets locked up where she’ll be forced to work for Zanis. Meanwhile, the rules for the war game are decided via lottery pick. The war game will be a siege battle in which Hestia’s familia will try to conquer Apollo’s fortress. Right away, this battle swings in Apollo’s favor (Bell may be awesome but he’s not at that level yet) and even the other gods say this match is unfair. Apollo agrees to let Hestia have one helper to fight by Bell’s side, but it has to be someone outside of the city (scene here: https://youtu.be/U6-tUhhSaso). After this, we see Hestia, Welf, Mikoto and her group attack the Soma familia to get Lili back. She breaks out of her cell and goes to Soma once again begging him to let her leave, but he has no interest in the shallow words of a child. He gives her a cup of his divine wine saying that if she wants to leave even after drinking it he’ll let her go (an odd idea when I first saw it, but given Soma’s personality this seems right. Soma is a wine maniac. His driving goal in life is to create the perfect wine. Nothing else matters to him. On top of that, he’s used to people showing their true nature when they consume wine. He knows that the only thing his familia wants to do is consume his wine and that it’s not worth his time to intervene with their actions because this is who they are and there’s no changing them). Lili drinks the wine and at first it looks like she’ll fall back into addiction (yeah the anime skips over it, but in the light novels, Lili really did have a serious addiction to the wine and being in a familia that abused and manipulate others didn’t help her addiction), however, she remembers Bell and breaks out of her trance to beg Soma to stop the fight and let her leave which surprises him (the human nature isn’t as predictable as you thought). Soma hears her request, stops the fight, and allows her to leave where she joins Hestia’s familia. Later on, we see Mikoto and Welf leave their respective familias to join the Hestai familia as well (something they should have done a long time ago but from a storytelling perspective this does make it more dramatic. Scene here: https://youtu.be/GwDKJoSGZto).
The war game begins in episode 4 and give them credit, it’s actually kept to one episode rather than dragging it out like in some animes. So the rules of the war game are pretty simple. The Apollo familia being commanded by Hyakinthos will set up base in a fortress and Hestia’s familia has 3 days to defeat them. If Hyakinthos is defeated than it’s Hestia’s victory, but if Bell is defeated than it’s Apollo’s victory (and Bell’s butt virginity may be on the line here). Lili uses her magic to disguise herself as a member of the Apollo familia to get inside the fortress the night before the war game. On the morning of the war game, Ryu attacks the outside head on with magic swords to create an opening for Mikoto to sneak in to use her gravity magic to keep some of Apollo’s men down (aww, I was hoping for a flashy attack). Meanwhile, Lili opens the gates and let’s in Bell and Welf (well, let’s see how much damage our little bunny will cause to get that carrot). Hyakinthos fortifies himself in a room, but Bell sneaks into the room beneath him and uses his firebolt to blow the room up. This leads to Bell having a pretty standard fight with Hyakinthos (which really wasn’t all that great in the novel either, but the way the novel describes it, it felt like an awesome battle that was on par with DBZ) who is shocked at how strong Bell has gotten in so little time (the anime skips over it, but in the novel, Hestia upgraded Bell’s stats before the game where we find out he has SS in everything except agility. This is something unheard of and even Hermes didn’t believe it when Hestia told him). Fearing defeat, Hyakinthos uses Krillin’s destructo-disc to attack Bell and have it explode in his face. Bell manages to get back up, but he’s badly injured and defenseless. Hyakinthos takes out a short sword and charges at Bell where Bell dodges the attack and takes Hyakinthos out with a left hook (rabbit hook). Hestia’s familiar is declared the winner and Apollo loses everything. His familia will be forced to disband, he loses all of his properties, and he’s banned from the city forever (scene here: https://youtu.be/Uz0qXXqmsGc, don’t mess with the bestia. I’ll show myself out). At the end of episode, the Hestia familia moves into the new home, Apollo’s mansion (this would be exciting if the opening didn’t spoil it for us).
Episodes 5-8
We get a relaxing pace in episode 5. The Hestia familia settles into their new mansion where Hestia paid for some renovations to made such as giving Welf his own workshop and having eastern style baths at the request of Mikoto. We find out that Bell has become a level 3 adventurer and the next day they get a bunch of people wanting to join the familia (scene here: https://youtu.be/waO9RXYck34). However, things turn bad when it gets announced that Hestia has a 200 million valis debt for Bell’s knife that she still has to pay off and since Hestia is an debt that means the familia is in debt (scene here: https://youtu.be/BPFw-8FxJbY, good job Hestia, you turned your familia into Good Times). After this we get a scene of Bell and Welf talking to each other in the baths where Bell says how thankful he is for everyone (scene here: https://youtu.be/BPFw-8FxJbY). As the episode draws to an end, Mikoto receives a visit from Chigusa where she receives some bad news.
In episode 6 Bell and the others begin to notice Mikoto acting weird and sneaking out late at night. One night, they decide to follow her where we see her meet up with Chigusa and go to the red-light district (this place has a red-light district? Why wasn’t I informed about this sooner? Scene here: https://youtu.be/P31qLPLTdJU). After Welf and Lili save Mikoto and Chigusa from some male hosts (you know, if Bell was a host, he would rank in so much money) they explain that they’re looking for their childhood friend who disappeared on them a few years ago. Chigusa heard that she was working as a prostitute and came along with Mikoto to find her. Meanwhile, Bell gets lost in the crowd (are you two mad? You just threw that rabbit to the wolves. He’s cute, innocent, strong, and a gentleman. These girls are gonna eat him alive) and winds up in the arms of women from the Ishtar familia, the rulers of the red-light district looking for a good time (scene here: https://youtu.be/_NNtfJbsIjk). He gets bought back to their mansion where they argue over who gets him (wow, death by snu-snu. He’s going out like every man hopes to go out) and Bell uses this chance to run away in order to save his chastity. He winds up hiding the room of a foxgirl named Haruhime. After mistaking him for a client, she agrees to help him escape. As they wait for the heat to die down, they talk for a bit where just like Bell she’s a fan of hero stories but doesn’t believe she’s worthy to be saved since she lost her chastity (scene here: https://youtu.be/ZqWXqNX8wbQ, this arc is giving me Samurai Champloo flashbacks). Once morning comes, Haruhime sneaks Bell out of the district and we cut to Hermes who had a fun night with Ishtar herself (https://youtu.be/RyYc7PLmxOI) in order to find a possible weakness about Freya. It turns out Ishtar and Freya don’t like each other (two goddesses of beauty, only one can stand at the top) and Ishtar would like nothing more than to stick it to Freya. After Hermes is forced to tell Ishtar about Freya’s obsession with Bell, she seeks her sights on making Bell hers.
In episode 7, Hestia punishes Bell for going to red-light district by making him sweep around the neighborhood (you could have just have him give you a massage for a month). Everyone pitches in to help him where he tells Mikoto about Haruhime who is obviously her childhood friend. Despite knowing this, everyone tells Bell not to get involved with her anymore as it’ll be the familia in a tight spot (which they’re right. They just got done winning a war game so all eyes on them, they’re in debt so that puts a lot of stress of Hestia, and Bell has comrades now. He can’t just go off and be a lone hero anymore saving whoever he wants. He has to think about his friends and put their needs and well-being before his own). Even Eina tells Bell to stay away from Ishtar as they had a run in with them a few years back about false level information but couldn’t turn up any leads. This resulted in the Guild having to pay a fine and Ishtar getting free reign over the red-light district (which means she truly is the queen of the night). However, Bell and Mikoto can’t resist wanting to help Haruhime and decide to collect a large sum of money to buy her freedom. Welf and Lili decide to help them out and while killing monsters in the dungeon, Bell gets ambushed by the Ishtar Familia as Ishtar wants Bell (and his death by snu-snu will be exhausting and pleasurable).
Episode 8 opens up with Bell fighting against Aisha, a member of the Ishtar family in the dungeon. Despite both Bell and Aisha being the same level, Aisha is powerful thanks to some strange power up. Mikoto comes to help out but not even she’s strong enough to take down Aisha and the two get captured and bought back to the Ishtar mansion (scene here: https://youtu.be/9LNwJJ8yo80). The captain of the familia, Phryne (a toad woman) kidnaps Bell and brings him to her torture dungeon (oh~, I bet a lot of kinky things happen in here). Her aim is to break him and make him loyal to only her (she’s gonna crush his pelvis in one go). Luckily, Haruhime sneaks Bell out while Phryne is away, and also gives Mikoto the keys to escape. As Haruhime is leading Bell to safety, Mikoto and the rest of the Hestia familia find out what Ishtar plans to do with Haruhime. Ishtar plans to perform a ritual to create a Killing stone, a stone that carries the soul of a renard (aka what Haruhime is) and gives the user access to their powerful magic, youjutsu. The stone can be broken up into fragments with each fragment holding the youjutsu and once the stone is shattered the soul of the renard is destroyed which means death. The ritual can only be held on the night of the full moon (and surprise, surprise, that’s tonight). Mikoto reunites with Bell and Haruhime where Aisha comes to recapture Haruhime saying she won’t give her to Bell because of how indecisive and cowardly he’s being. The rest of the Ishtar familia show up and Bell has no choice to retreat with Aisha’s words hitting Bell harder than her sword.
Episodes 9-12
At the start of episode 9 Bell decides to man up and say screw the repercussions (if we took out Apollo we can take out a bunch of horny amazons) and decides to rescue Haruhime. While Mikoto sneaks in to rescue Haruhime, Bell attacks the Ishtar home directly to distract them (run little bunny run). Bell unfortunately gets captured by Ishtar and she tries to seduce him with her body (jokes on you lady, he’s too pure for that) but it has no effect on him. It turns out Bell has another skill which makes him immune to status aliments, including those that are used by gods (and you thought his other powers were OP. This kid is staring at the naked body of one of the most beautiful goddesses in history and he isn’t getting hard. That’s got to play with your emotions). Bell escapes her clutches as we see Mikoto failed to rescue Haruhime as the ritual begins. Before Haruhime gets stabbed, Bell saves her just in time to stop the ritual (scene here: https://youtu.be/vV3WTVedA8s, they are so gonna rape him when they catch him).
It’s the end of Ishtar and her familia in episode 10 as Freya and her familia finally make their move. They light the red district on fire (no~, I was gonna go there on my next day off) and then make their way to Ishtar’s house. Back at the house Bell gives a speech about being a hero and helping Haruhime no matter what and this convinces her to side with him and asks for his help (finally. Stop playing the pity card). She gives Bell a level boost and he fights against Phryne where thanks to the level boost he’s more than a match for her and manages to knock her down a floor where she gets pummeled by one of Freya’s men (this was satisfying on so many levels). Bell than moves on to his next opponent, Aisha and he decides to fight her without the level boost (no tricks no gimmicks, just a boy flexing). While the fight between Aisha and Bell is going on, Freya confronts Ishtar where she’s pretty pissed that Ishtar tried to steal Bell (for Freya, Bell is like a fine wine in the making. If you open the bottle too soon you destroy the taste. Ishtar was going to destroy Bell’s taste and that’s something you don’t do). Their confrontation is pretty anti-climatic as Freya is able to charm all of Ishtar’s followers (makes sense, she’s more elegant. No offence Ishtar but you try too hard) and when Ishtar tries to attack Freya, Freya side steps her and bitch slaps her which sends her falling off the building (probably not the best idea to fight on an open staircase). This results in Ishtar being sent back up to Heaven where she’ll never be able to return to the lower realm (ever). Back with Bell and Aisha, Bell manages to beat her and sets Haruhime free (scene here: https://youtu.be/q-R-LDU-EwM. Well that was a happy ending. Well it would be for me if Freya DIDN’T DESTROY THE RED-LIGHT DISTRICT).
Episode 11 is laidback episode. Haruhime joins the Hestia familia as a live-in maid where we find out from Aisha she’s still a virgin. Apparently, the first time she saw a naked man she fainted and was never used for prostitution again. Ishtar and the others just lied to her to keep her from escaping (and to get a good laugh out of it no doubt. Scene here: https://youtu.be/NlVMLaIQUrQ). Now with this information a lot of people have said that this reveal ruined the whole arc and yeah, I have to agree with them. This whole arc could have been a turning point for Bell’s character. Throughout his whole life, Bell wanted to be like the heroes he read about in his books. By saving Haruhime he went against the very idea and philosophy of those heroes he read about and admired. This could have been his moment to realize that instead of being like the heroes he dreamt of being as a child, he would become his own kind of hero who would lend a helping hand to anyone no matter what they’re position is. By making Haruhime not lose her virginity, the arc loses the purpose it was trying to go for and just makes everything that Bell went through pointless. Anyway, the main story of the episode comes when Hestia asks Bell if he could ever fall in love with a deity to which he says no because one he respects them too much and also because deep down he’s afraid to accept a deity’s love. He is human, he will die some day while the deity will continue to live (for a deity, their love is like popcorn. It takes 2 minutes to make and it takes less time to eat it than to make it). Hestia gets upset by Bell’s answers and runs away sad with the others saying Bell was cruel to her (scene here: https://youtu.be/GqNKvrO-yYs?t=53). Bell goes to look for Hestia where he runs into Miach and Hephaistos, and asks them what their stance is on love between humans and deities? Their answer, they approve of it and encourage him not to be afraid and accept a deity’s love no matter what it is. Meanwhile, Hestia gets kidnapped by the god Ares who is. . .an idiot (scene here: https://youtu.be/kcf9DICi3t8). In a bizarre twist Ares has partnered with another kingdom and is trying to invade the city. You would think this would lead to an epic war but no, it’s a one-sided war because the adventurers are so overpowered that one of them is enough to wipe out multiple squadrons in one hit (it’s like Gate only more one-sided). Thanks to the Loki and Hermes familia, Bell is able to find Hestia and tries to save her only for the both of them to fall off a cliff into a raging river below (scene here: https://youtu.be/JdKLUKoEuTI).
In the final episode Bell, Aiz, and Hestia are in a mountain village. After Bell and Hestia fell into the river, they got rescued by Aiz and wound up in a mountain village. They stay for a few things where Bell nurses Hestia (scene here: https://youtu.be/MaHx4hWoxks). We see that the village is peaceful thanks to these black scales that came from a monster known as the Black Dragon, a powerful monster that escaped from the dungeon years ago and is said will end the world. Bell talks to the mayor of the village named Karm who used to be a part of a familia where he fell in love with his goddess and actually married her. Unfortunately, they got attacked by a pact of monsters and the goddess gave her life to protect Karm. Karm tells Bell not to live with any regrets or allow his fears to keep getting in the way. At night, the town holds a harvest festival where Bell dances with Hestia (scene here: https://youtu.be/iTXPvXYiLGA) and after the festivities are done we see Karm pass away with Hestia sending him off. Later on, Hestia and Bell talk where Hestia promises to stay with Bell forever and even when he’s reincarnated she’ll find him and invite him to join her familia just like she did when she first met him (scene here: https://youtu.be/8SfZv6JCvuA). After that, the episode wraps up with the three returning to the city, a strange creature appearing in the dungeon, and the promise of a third season.
Final Thoughts
This was enjoyable. Storywise, this season was better than the first season as it was nice to see the Hestia familia grow and move up in the city. Seeing Bell grow stronger is always good to see and seeing his and Hestia’s relationship grow always puts a smile on my face as I like this pair more than I do Bell and Aiz. There are a few downsides with this season such as leaving out key moments from the novel that I would have liked to see in the anime and the fights not being as great as those in the first season. The first season fights felt epic and felt like a huge step forward in terms of growth for Bell as an adventurer. While each fight felt small from a highly skilled adventurer’s standpoint, to Bell this fight was like his final boss and they made each battle feel epic and grand. In this season, we don’t get that and it’s disappointing. The animation is the same as last season although it does appear a little better in some scenes and the music was definitely on point this season. Was this season better than the first season? Honestly, I liked the first season a little more than this season. It had a good story, better fight scenes, and good character growth.
Final Score
The final score for DanMachi S2 is a 5.5/10. A point lower than the first season but still an enjoyable anime to watch and a good follow up to the first season as we got a better chance to see the residents of Orario as well as other familias. With the way season 2 ended I’m interested in seeing what happens next in the 3rd season and can’t wait to watch it. Rest assured though we’re not done with DanMachi yet. Till next time folks. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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