High School DxD BorN

Episode 32

Although High School DxD has had its share of surprises over the course of the franchise's run, it has also always so tightly followed its own internal logic that at least the nature of the surprise, if not what the surprise actually is, has nearly always been predictable. Hence Freed popping up again – this time as a demon in service to Diadora – is no huge twist. Nor is finding out that Diadora deliberately allowed himself to fall injured near Asia as part of a ploy to separate her from the Church so that he could claim her himself. (That's his shtick, you see: seduce devout women of the Church and bring them back to the Underworld with him.) Both of those are totally in line with what the series has established and done before. Even the silly way Issei's new power works (talking boobs which reveal the bearer's intent!) is totally in line with expectations because this is, of course, Issei. Not so with the twist at the very end of this episode, however. It is a full-blown, out-of-left-field stunner, one which completely leaves me wondering how in the heck the series is going to explain it.

Up until that point, though, things go pretty smoothly for Rias and crew. To rescue Asia, Diadora forces them to first battle battle his Evil Chess Pieces and even has a gimmick or two up his sleeve to counter Issei's stand-by moves. They are not an impediment for too long, however, for Issei is more creative than his idiotic behavior sometimes suggests and Koneko understands exactly how to use him to push the buttons of Akeno and Rias. He then puts Freed in the Gremory team's path, but Yuto quickly shows him that even the power Freed has gained as a demon leaves him no match for Yuto at this time. Finally they confront Diadora, who woefully underestimates the power of a truly riled-up Issei. Even the “if I can't have her, no one will” trap that Diadora has bound Asia to is only a very temporary impediment, which finally elicits a “but you're also the best” comment from Koneko. Then, while praying for divine protection for Issei and the wish to always be able to stay with him, Asia vanishes in a flash of light.

So what happened here? What does this mean? Asia didn't seem to be injured or even had that much of her juice sucked from her by the trap, so this shouldn't have been a “fading away” scenario. Did the Chaos Brigade (who is featured prominently in the Next Episode preview) have something to do with it? Or did this actually happen because of the nature of Asia's prayer? And if so, how will she manifest from this point out? No other episode of the franchise has raised so many questions with a cliffhanger ending – not even close. It puts a jaw-dropper ending on what was, until that point, a very satisfying episode. Asia has always been my favorite of the girls, so I would consider it a big knock against the series if she is out for any significant length of time. I do not think the series is gutsy enough to do that – after all, from its generous display of quality nudity in this episode (especially for those who prefer more reasonably-sized chests), it knows exactly where its strengths are, and depleting the harem even slightly runs counter to them – but it definitely leaves me nervously looking forward to where the series will run with this. And maybe that isn't a Bad Thing after all.

Rating: B

High School DxD BorN is currently streaming on Funimation.