Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? - Season 2

  Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? (ダンジョンに出会いを求めるのは間違っているだろうか) is a fantasy harem series based on the light novel of the same name by Omori Fujino and Yasuda Suzuhito.  The second season ran 12 episodes and originally aired in the Summer of 2019.

 

    Following Bell's successes at the end of season one, he finds his fame is beginning to attract more attention than is good for him.  The greatest threat to his survival ends up being jealous members of other Familia's.  To kick things off the Apollo Familia wages open warfare with Bell and Hestia who survive only through the help of the people who call them friends.  To resolve the conflict Hestia challenges Apollo to a dual of their Familias.  Through sure will and the support of friends who change their allegiance to Hestia they are able to persevere.

    The larger but still diminutive Hestia Familia isn't able to rest though as they end up in the middle of a conflict between the Ishtar Familia and the Freya Familia.  Mikoto, one of the new members, learns that a childhood friend is being held captive in Ishtar's red light district.  Her friend is a princess from her homeland who has been missing for years.  The princess ended up being sold into slavery, winding up under the control of the Ishtar Familia, working as a prostitute.  Bell's noble personality refuses to allow him to stand by as the lost princess is going to be sacrificed to increase the power of the Familia.  Their involvement reveals a far greater threat to everyone.

    One of the things I really enjoyed with the original season was its amusing representation of a dungeon crawling video game.  All of that is pushed aside with season two as the focus stays on the surface of the city and the political conflict between some of the strongest Familias.  Of course Bell and his growing band of friends find themselves caught in the thick of the events that threaten to destabilize the city.  Bell's paternal lineage is revealed at the end of season 1, but it is unknown which gods are aware that he is a descendant of Zeus.  Even with this genetic predisposition to greatness, Bell is heavily protected with plot armor, more so in season 2.

    The shift in story focus with this season wasn't bad, but it lost an amount of story telling that I enjoyed with season 1.  At times it falls into tired shonen action tropes, but at least it keeps moving the story at a brisk pace instead of extending things out into oblivion.  It is interesting to see the politics of the city and developing more of the personalities that run things, but season 2 completely sacrifices the charm of the first season to focus on this.  Its hard to see how the story can continue with this escalation of danger with the resolution of this seasons events.  The Hestia Familia finds its self in a secure position and if the story falls back on them just maintaining their status it will easy become stale.

    As with season 1, season 2 is widely available commercially on multiple platforms and formats.