Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 2 Episode 5 Review: The Hearthfire Mansion

Your Otaku Friend in Japan

After victory at the War Game, Hestia Familia is finally living in a snazzy mansion and everyone is excited. This slow, well-paced episode focused on characters’ interactions and helped with the anime’s flow. Let’s take a closer look at its events!

Plot

In this episode nothing major occurred, except for the fact that the world found out about Hestia’s debt. We mostly saw character bonding and emotional confessions about the value of friendship and love, alongside with many naked bath scenes. Besides that, though, we witnessed a glorious moment of the Hestia Familia, where countless adventurers from all over the world were willing to compete to join her. I was looking forward to seeing Cassandra become a part of the main team, but it seems like I’ll have to wait…

Toward the end and while in a joyful dining, a member of the Takemikazuchi showed up to interrupt and spice things up. The girl was a messenger of bad news that shocked Mikoto. The ending left us in a cliffhanger, with something that appears to be a rape scene and the fox-eared girl… I sense that the new arc is on its way and is gonna be legendary!

Episode Highlights

Naked Mikoto: Even though I’m not a fanservice admirer, I didn’t know that I needed so badly in my life Mikoto’s bath scenes or Mikoto doing a clumsy search for her clothes. Or even Mikoto in general.

Sneak Peeking Ducks: BEST CENSORING EVER! Japan’s imagination towards censoring never fails to impress me. In addition, it’s the first time I feel jealous towards a cute little duckling.

Ending Scene: At last, Haruhime is here. I was impatient for her coming and I’m ecstatic that the wait seems to be over.

Themes & Trivia

Daphne: In DanMachi, Daphne is the cute bestie of Cassandra who seems to also be unfitting for the evil Apollo Familia. In Greek mythology Daphne is a naiad, a variety of female nymph associated with fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks, and other bodies of freshwater. There are several versions of the myth in which she appears, but in the general narrative appears in Greco-Roman mythology, because of a curse by the god Cupid, son of Venus, on the god Apollo, she became the unwilling object of the infatuation of Apollo, who chased her against her wishes. Just before being raped by him, Daphne pleaded to her river god father for help, who transformed her into a laurel tree, thus foiling Apollo.

It looks like Apollo was a big bully back in his Olympus days…

Comments

This was a transitional episode towards the next arc. It was relaxing, funny and… revealing. It didn’t amaze me like the previous ones, yet it was essential since it offered a smooth transition. Though, I would have preferred if instead of this episode, we got another one dedicated to the War Game. The battle was so brief that it felt almost impactful. Anyway, what’s done is done, I hope for the rest of the arcs to be handled with more detail.

‘I’ve been stabbing with 200 million!’

What did you think of this well-paced episode? Did you enjoy the character development? Do you think that Cassandra will join Hestia Familia, eventually? Can’t wait to read your comments here in MANGA.TOKYO!