Guilty Pleasure: DanMachi

Is it Wrong to Try and Pickup Girls in a Dungeon?

That would be the official title of DanMachi, an anime/manga that has made its way on our Facebook Feed because of the cosplay controversy surrounding one of its main characters, Hestia; you’ll see why in one of the photos we’ll be sure to post here.

A Sucker for MMO’s and Dungeon Crawlers

What most of you don’t know, is that the team from our sister site Unbox and the rest of the Unblogged network mainly met because of Ragnarok Online way back when. Most of us still game and we still enjoy our gaming together on occasion. It’s no wonder that the theme of DanMachi resonates with us.

The hero of our tale, Bell Cranel

The story revolves around protagonist, Bell Cranel, a new adventurer seeking to gain strength after being rescued from the wrath of a Minotaur by the beautiful, Aiz Wallenstein AKA The Sword Princess. In this world, adventurers are pledged into houses or “familias” that are cared for by gods and goddesses, who seek fame and adoration through their so-called children. Bell is the sole child of the Hestia’s Familia, who at the start of the series seems to be having trouble making ends meet, but we all know that changes soon. Am I right?

The Sword Princess, Aiz Wallenstein

The MMORPG and Dungeon Crawler is made evident through a level up system, party system, and, of course, the shiny new equipment you can gain by adventuring. Note though that this is not like Sword Art Online or Log Horizon where people know that they are trapped in a game world.

Of Harems and Fan Service

Now we come to the crux of why it has become such a guilty pleasure for us. There is definitely fan service. As mentioned above, you can imagine the controversy when someone decided to cosplay as Hestia; plus, it did spark some trend (we’re not sure if it’s a hoax or not) of females tying a ribbon just as Hestia does to enhance “the twins”, if you catch our drift.

Goddess Hestia and Bell Cranel — It’s not what you think!

Though there is indeed some fan service and the apparent harem slowly surrounding our hero in the 9 episodes that are available, the title alone should be a dead giveaway, it does not reach the levels of Kill la Kill and it does not overwhelm the show’s overall plot. They do a good job of focusing the story on Bell and these elements are kept within those bounds, making them a fun side note or are shown to add hilarity to certain situation.

Final Thoughts

DanMachi is definitely a guilty pleasure for us. The theme is definitely a draw and, comparatively, there is very little fan service to make you the creepy guy at the coffee shop watching “that” anime. We are eager to see where the creators of this series will take our protagonist and the adventures he’s going to have, literally and figuratively speaking.

Let us know if the comments below what your anime guilty pleasures are.