Reasons why I cannot bring myself to recommend this to friends

So... LN spoilers ahead!

Sure, if that's how you feel. I don't know your friends so all of these points are probably valid.

But just between the two of us (and the rest of the subreddit):

First: Remember on what timescale DxD plays out. We are talking here about months. Issei is one of the most hard working MCs in anime - and probably the single most hard working harem MC.
He is in many aspects very human and while he is working hard you simply can not totally change that fast. If you start to work out now you will not look like a bodybuilder in a few months, if you stop smoking now you will still long for it in a few months. And if you start working on your personality you will not become another person in a few months.

DxD is filled with action and story - and the character development has a rather realistic pace. Issei is slowly changing in many, many aspects.
If anything it's the usual "I have seen someone do something cool once and now I am a completely different person"-characters that are dumb.
IIRC he held back in the fight at the devil school in order to go around the battlefield and help where it's needed. Yes, he still went in face first in the end - but that's just how humans are. They change slowly.

Second: Well, if someone does not like harem, then there is very little you can do. I like DxD's harem for a number of reasons:

  1. Issei has a clear favorite girl. He loves her and he would probably give up the other girls for her.

  2. Issei earned his harem. (As said above) he is hard working and he suffers quite a lot. He got hurt badly or gave his left arm in order to safe some of the girls.

  3. The harem grows slowly. Yes, Issei is surrounded by girls right after his resurrection - but that's no harem.
    Asia falls for him in Volume 1, Rias in Volume 2, Akeno throughout Volumes 3 and 4, Koneko in Volume 5.
    In anime terms we are talking about 2 girls in the first season, another one in the second, a fourth one in the third.
    While Xenovia and Irina seem interested in Issei (especially in messing with him) I don't think they have truely fallen for him. So the next in line would be Rossweisse in Volume 17.
    That's way slower than the usual: Your are the MC so now everyone wants you in five episodes.

Third: DxD is overall relatively light on the deaths - at least the big ones.
On the "evil" side some people got executed for their crimes (Raynare, stray-devils), some would not stop fighting (Siegfried, Shalba), some turned into monsters (Freed) and some were killed by other evil guys because they were not useful anymore (Diodora).
Now here is the thing: "good" guys usually don't do this kind of stuff.
We had three deaths on the "good" side. The first to got revoked by Rias because she is a good person and very caring and the third one got fixed by Ophis, Ddraig and Great Red because of all the good things Issei did.

Personally, I don't think the plot armor is too unbearable simply because it often applies to both sides. There are so many "evil" characters that got defeated and nearly killed but survived and came back stronger or a simply unable to die for some reason.

I think we could need a death on the "good" side but it has to be impactful. Death of the "evil" side is retribution, death on the "good" side is a plot point.

I'm not saying that these are the reasons you should give your friends especially since most only apply later on. I just want to contribute to the discussion.

/r/HighschoolDxD Thread