Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Light Novel Comparison
There's a lot of differing opinions based on this series depending on who you talk to, but it's still probably one of the most-watched anime of the season. Having read the first volume of light novel and the first three episodes, I'd like to share my thoughts.
I read the light novel before watching the anime, and my first idea after reading for a while was that it was really poorly written. It really feels like it was written by a child. "Up! Down! Now he's in front! Slash!" That's generally what the battles are written like. On top of that, it takes place in a game world, like a lot of anime and light novels do lately, so it wasn't very unique in terms of plot, either... Add that the protagonist is a weakling with an agreeable personality, and we're just digging the hole deeper. Then we've got the whole thing about Bell innocently declaring his wish to have a harem. The list goes on and on! There's a lot of flaws in the entire idea behind this series.
Despite all that, it's got a good game world. I really think that this would have excelled as an MMO rather than a light novel or anime. Just reading it really put me in the mood to play some RPG games! They got their stuff down when it comes to their RPG setting.
As for the anime, we've got the same pros and cons, but there's a little more than that. J.C. Staff did a wonderful job animating it. The artwork is gorgeous and the atmosphere is perfect. However, the story is rushed to the point that a lot of things don't make sense. They leave in the important details, but they don't give us any warning for things, like the party Hestia randomly attended. That wasn't so random in the light novel. During Bell's battle with the Silverback, he threw a lamp that was powered by a magic stone at the monster to blind it. In the anime, it looked like he grabbed some random strobe light and turned it up full blast at the monster, but I doubt the watchers really knew what happened. Things like that bug me; while it looks cool and it happens either way, it isn't explained. It doesn't make sense, and the viewer doesn't know what they're watching. That just makes the viewers into absent-minded zombies.
Next, the first volume of light novel covers three episodes of anime. I have never seen this happen before... Not with a TV series. That's either an incredibly slow pace for the light novel, or an incredibly fast pace for the anime. Actually, it's a bit of both. The light novel did have a tendency to drag out, and honestly, that party with Hestia was better left out anyway. It may have introduced some characters, but it was boring and dragged out. But like I said, the anime was rushed, too. So it's not just the light novel's fault for dragging out, but also the anime's fault for getting ahead of itself. Ah, forms of media are not at fault for their own lack of entertainment, it's the creators...
There are good things and bad things about both the light novel and the anime. The anime has J.C. Staff on its side so that's a major plus, but the light novel is the original work filled with problems... In general, I'm not too fond of this title. It may change in the future, though. After all, I've only watched/read the equivalent to three episodes.
