High School DxD Light Novel - DX.4 (Volume 23.5)

[Lucidrago]

Took me forever to read that. I'll comment on DX4 as a whole.

1. Cao Cao's past was very interesting. Although I wish Ishibumi had gone into a little bit more detail. Like how did Cao Cao encounter Sakra and meet the members of Hero Faction.

2. Team Imperial Purpure vs Team Spear of the Heavenly Emperor was a good match. I just wished that Ishibumi had at least described the other matches. All he did was reveal Perseus' Sacred Gear, showed how much Kuisha had improved, and showed off how strong Heracles had gotten. I know it was a very quick match but Ishibumi could have at least given some more of the matches a little bit of detail. Not like a full-on fight but just like describing who's fighting each other. He should have shown off their teams a bit more than he did.

3. Sairaorg vs Cao Cao: Great match. 10/10.

4. Saji's past: Very interesting and helped us understand his character. Ishibumi is really good at creating backstories for his chatacters.

5. Issei vs Saji. The game was perfect except for Issei vs Saji. In my view, Saji should not be matching Issei punch for punch. Although Issei did win the confrontation, Saji shouldn't be that powerful to take on Issei in his Crimson armor. Saji is not Sairaorg. I expected that to be a match of power vs technique but it seems like Ishibumi is obsessed with power match-ups. It just feels that he put little thought into the right itself and it came off as an Issei vs Sairaorg knock-off. And it seems like Ishibumi forgot about Saji's other two Sacred Gears.

6. Ravel's tactics. This was the main highlight of the match and Ishibumi handled it perfectly. He definitely out a lot of thought into this and Ravel truly shined in this match.

7. I liked how Ishibumi mentioned the Balance Adjust of the Artficial Sacred Gears of the Sitri girls. At least Ishibumi didn't forget about them. Obvious sign they are mastering their Artificial Sacred Gears although he couldn't reveal all of their Balance Adjusts.

9. Gundam. I liked the way Elmenhilde used the silver Gundam dolls against Loup Garou. And how he is sneaking his Gundam obsession into the series.

10. Xenovia vs Sona. A great match that revealed Sona's determination. Clearly showed how much Sona has improved with her use of her demonic power and showing off her precise control. I thought it was interesting hearing from both of them what being Student Council President meant to them. I just wished he showed how the absence of Serafall has affected Sona. But I guess Sona acting as Levia-tan in Serafall's place showed that.

11. He basically forgot about some of the Sitri girls like Momo Hanakai and Tomoe Meguri. It's like he forgot they existed once the game started.

12. I feel like he should have come up with Balance Breakers for Sairaorg's bishop(Misteeta Sabnock) and Sairaorg's knight(Liban Crocell).



And this has been bugging me for a while. Ishibumi is still a great writer. But it seems like he has gotten a bit lazy with his work. It seems like the quality of DxD gas dipped in some areas. For example, it seems that Ishibumi is having trouble thinking of Balance Breakers for Sacred Gear users or is changing the forms of certain Balance Breaker and just making it a power increase. I can understand that being the case for some Balance Breakers(and Balance Adjusts in the case of Artificial Sacred Gears) but for nearly all of them? It's like Balance Breakers have now all lost their unique factor. Nimura's Balance Adjust just ended up being a power increase. And Meguri's Balance Adjust was just a ripoff of Kiba's Balance Breaker for Blade Blacksmith. It seems that Ishibumi has a plethora of Sacred Gear ideas but is scratching his head when it comes to Balance Breakers.

My hypothesis is that Ishibumi had his attention focused on both writing DxD and Slash Dog and he's not good at writing two series at once. And the level of detail in DxD has significantly decreased going into the fifth arc.

Just my honest view of DX4. Sorry for the essay, though.

[bluestahli1]

Poor Saji, still pretty shit despite how much training he's doing
Sorry Saji, but even your tragic past isn't enough

[Parry999]

Originally Posted by bluestahli1

Poor Saji, still pretty shit despite how much training he's doing
Sorry Saji, but even your tragic past isn't enough

The limit to his scared gears is Dragon King class and there not longinus.

[Blazor 98]

@Lucidrago even though it was a punch out fight between Saji and Issei, you have to remember that Saji can be just as stubborn as Issei. Recall how Saji was taking BxB Issei's punches in volume 5 and still didn't go down.

[Crimson_Emperor]

Lucidrago complaint in all volume but still reading HDXD -_-

[Parry999]

Not like it was established Saji BxB was special kind of like Sairaorgs armor or they change based on the wielder.

[Lucidrago]

I just put that on Ishibumi. Saji shouldn't be taking Issei head-on like he's a power-type like Sairaorg. And yet you're telling me he's punching through Issei's armor. Even if Saji can take hundreds of punches from Issei, he shouldn't be able to match him in power. I'm pretty sure he has a good balance of offense and defense due to having an armor-type Balance Breaker but still the way that fight happened was too much like Issei vs Sairaorg instead of a fight between the dragon pawns of Rias Gremory(Issei) and Sona Sitri(Saji). Yes I know Issei's a king now but he's still Rias' pawn and I was just trying to compare him to Saji.

Saji has proved he can do 'kind of' well against a Maou-class opponent in Volume 21 when he fought against Bedeze Abbadon. And while I expected him to lose against Issei, I thought Ishibumi would put Saji's abilities as a technique-type into account. Not just have them punch each other in the face hundreds of times and have Saji inflicting damage on Issei through his Crimson armor. That makes it seem like he's saying that Saji is Maou-class when it comes to offensive power. Again he's not Sairaorg.

Frankly, I'm just disappointed because I expected more from Ishibumi.

@Crimson Emperor I can like or even love something and still have complaints about it. I'm still a DxD fan. I feel that It's an obligation for fans to critique the series when they see what they perceive are obvious flaws.

But Nimura is officially the most powerful female in the series. She deflected Issei's Dress Break by herself. Or she's just motivated to letting Saji be the only man they gets to strip her naked.

[Parry999]

Originally Posted by Lucidrago

I just put that on Ishibumi. Saji shouldn't be taking Issei head-on like he's a power-type like Sairaorg. And yet you're telling me he's punching through Issei's armor. Even if Saji can take hundreds of punches from Issei, he shouldn't be able to match him in power. I'm pretty sure he has a good balance of offense and defense due to having an armor-type Balance Breaker but still the way that fight happened was too much like Issei vs Sairaorg instead of a fight between the dragon pawns of Rias Gremory(Issei) and Sona Sitri(Saji). Yes I know Issei's a king now but he's still Rias' pawn and I was just trying to compare him to Saji.

Saji has proved he can do 'kind of' well against a Maou-class opponent in Volume 21 when he fought against Bedeze Abbadon. And while I expected him to lose against Issei, I thought Ishibumi would put Saji's abilities as a technique-type into account. Not just have them punch each other in the face hundreds of times and have Saji inflicting damage on Issei through his Crimson armor. That makes it seem like he's saying that Saji is Maou-class when it comes to offensive power. Again he's not Sairaorg.

Frankly, I'm just disappointed because I expected more from Ishibumi.

@Crimson Emperor I can like or even love something and still have complaints about it. I'm still a DxD fan. I feel that It's an obligation for fans to critique the series when they see what they perceive are obvious flaws.

But Nimura is officially the most powerful female in the series. She deflected Issei's Dress Break by herself. Or she's just motivated to letting Saji be the only man they gets to strip her naked.

He was worth 4 pawn pieces back when he had one low tier scared gear lol. Sajis BxB is superior to Vritra promotion which was already in the ultimate-class range back in volume 9. Him not using his abilities more is dumb. But Saji and Vritra together should be superior to Vritra when he was alive by this point as his not sealed.

[Emperor of D.]

Both Issei and Saji were both idiots. Yes, Saji didn't use his abilities but than again Issei didn't use Ascalon which would've given him another advantage due to it being a dragon slayer.

[Dark soul]

Also Issei blasted the battlefield with infinite blaster so he used a lot stamina and Saji is supported by his sister so I don't think Saji is on par with pseudo DxD

[Palmito]

Originally Posted by Emperor of D.

Both Issei and Saji were both idiots. Yes, Saji didn't use his abilities but than again Issei didn't use Ascalon which would've given him another advantage due to it being a dragon slayer.

Issei not only forgot about Ascalon, but he also forgot about the Wyverns too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time Issei used the Wyverns in a fight was in Volume 19, right? The amount of interesting fights that could be created with the Wyverns.... sigh, what a waste.

[Lucidrago]

Originally Posted by Palmito

Issei not only forgot about Ascalon, but he also forgot about the Wyverns too.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time Issei used the Wyverns in a fight was in Volume 19, right? The amount of interesting fights that could be created with the Wyverns.... sigh, what a waste.

Well the Wyverns were really only something Issei used in a pinch and when at a disadvantage. There really aren't cases like that anymore so really there's no need for Issei to use the Wyverns except for the purpose of giving Rias and Xenovia their Dragonar armors.

Ascalon seemed like another thing that Ishibumi forgot along with Saji being a technique-type.

Issei still had plenty of stamina to use Cardinal Crimson Queen and there was no indication that its power was lessened due to Issei activating Pseudo DxD and using Infinity Blaster. And Issei used that at the very beginning of the match and it was hours after that that he fought Saji. He had plenty of time to recover his energy so that isn't an excuse in my view.

I can understand Saji being stubborn and tenacious. But making him a straight-up power type in this match was just lazy on Ishibumi's part.

@Parry999.When was Absorption Line ever a low-tier Sacred Gear? From what I've seen, It's pretty high up on the ladder considering the way Saji used it in Volume 5. It isn't a Longinus but is still a powerful Sacred Gear being one of the many abilities of the Dragon King, Vritra.

Again Ishibumi writes the series so anything overlooked is on him from where I stand.

But looks like Tsubaki has a bright future as a doujinshi writer ahead of her.

And another thing. How is Nimura worth only one pawn in this tournament even when she achieved Balance Adjust and was even faster than Issei in his Crimson Armor? Yet Hoderi is worth two pawns? I understand he has a famous holy sword but that really seems off to me.

[Ka-el]

Originally Posted by Lucidrago

And another thing. How is Nimura worth only one pawn in this tournament even when she achieved Balance Adjust and was even faster than Issei in his Crimson Armor? Yet Hoderi is worth two pawns? I understand he has a famous holy sword but that really seems off to me.

Nimura was worth one pawn even with normal valuation of the Evil Piece, the opposite would have been stranger.

[The Infinite Dream]

Holy swords, demonic swords, and artificial sacred gears dont effect piece value. They arent a part of the person so they wont be able to change that persons value. It all comes down to the persons potential. Normal sacred gear possessors their sacred gears are attached to their souls so they can actually effect the value.

[bluestahli1]

Doesn't matter, Saji is still ass

[Parry999]

@Lucidrago so you emit he did well against a high tier satan class months ago and CxC is mid tier maou tier at best.

Originally Posted by bluestahli1

Doesn't matter, Saji is still ass

If being a high tier dragon king class that is satan class is ass then sure.

[Lucidrago]

Originally Posted by Parry999

@Lucidrago so you emit he did well against a high tier satan class months ago and CxC is mid tier maou tier at best.


If being a high tier dragon king class that is satan class is ass then sure.

I said 'kind of' well. But Saji is not Maou-class. He is Dragon Kinf-cpass according to the story.

It's just stupid that Ishibumi would make the fight basically an almost exact copy of Issei vs Sairaorg. A fight between two power-types is understandable. But Saji isn't a power-type. I'm sure he has decent offense and defense but his strength lies in his abilities. Not being a power idiot like Issei.

Rias' peerage revolves around power with Kiba really being the only technique-type and her bishops being support-types. And Issei is basically has the most Power out of all of Rias' servants(current and past).

Sona's peerage revolves around technique with Loup Garou being the only power-type and her bishops being support-types. And Saji has the most technique out of Sona's servants due to his various abilities.

That's just the way I see it.

[TheWu8128]

Reading up to the fight both of them making the selfish request to fight each other. It was pretty obvious how it was going to go. I think you missed the point of the fight, and why he had them fight that way. I think the author did a good job of conveying that before the fight and during the fight.

[Blazor 98]

Sucks about Saji's past. It's like everyone besides Issei had a sad past.

[bluestahli1]

My boi Lion Muscle also had it rough, though not that bad as black and red lizard but still though, the way he was treated because Muh Blud line.