It wouldn’t be a proper season if we didn’t have at least one anime targeted towards the horny weebs out there, and this season, that job falls on The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter.
Introduction
The anime is set in a fantasy world that includes various hidden dungeons that houses dangerous monsters and valuable loot. In the first episode we are introduced to Noir Starga, the sun of a poor noble who gets cheated out of a job and is subsequently in need of employment. Due to this, he decides to become a hero. To gain the necessary skills to do so, he explores the titular hidden dungeon where he meets Olivia Servant, an entrapped boisterous and powerful adventurer who shares her overpowered skills with him.
These typical RPG-like skills include being able to literally create any other skill, as well as edit and gift others said skills. Thanks to these skills, Noir is able to pass the Hero entrance exam and is one step closer to becoming a full-fledged hero. Of course, if this was your usual generic fantasy anime, the first episode would just stop right there. But Hidden dungeon is a little unlike the rest despite still being generic.
Ladykiller in Noir
See, to use these skills, Noir will need to have an adequate amount of LP (life points) which varies depending on the skill, and to refill these points, he’ll need to do things that make him “feel good” such as eating and spending money. But of course, the anime chooses to focus solely on the other raunchier ways such as kissing, hugging, fondling and more as they provide more LP for lack of a better excuse. Lucky for Noir, he not only has a younger sister that dotes and hugs him on a regular basis, he also has an almost too devout childhood friend named Emma Brightness, who he awkwardly French kisses regularly to top off his LP. And that’s basically the anime’s whole gimmick. In each episode so far, Noir moves from one goal to the next with the aid of his overpowered skills and slowly increasing harem.
Same Type of Trash
So the anime is just as trashy and raunchy as you’d heard or expected. The odd thing is how the anime tries to paint Noir as a good guy, yet he does questionable things like reducing a girl’s breasts without consent or insisting on seeing a girl’s panties. The other characters like Emma and Lola Metrose (Noir’s Guild supervisor) also have very little personality and only act as damsels to hype up the protagonist as much as possible. The only person who’s at least a little enjoyable to watch was Olivia, as she’s the only one in the anime so far who doesn’t have a generic, watered-down personality. Other than that, the plot in its entirety is almost nonexistent as whatever goal Noir may have had just seemed like an excuse to present how he’ll either use his god-like abilities to conquer his hurdles without any struggles or, more likely, to show how much fan service it can shove into a single episode.
So far, it seems the fan service is the most, if not all the anime has to offer and the kissing scenes (which is the worst of the fan service we’ve seen so far) are animated quite lazily. Awful kissing aside, the overall animation is just decent, nothing incredible or blinding, and the character designs are as standard as you can get. The point is, The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter doesn’t bring anything innovative, creative, or even exciting and instead opts to shove fan service at the viewer’s faces to compensate for its mediocrity.
Final Thoughts
While I can go on to criticize this anime for several paragraphs, the truth is that I don’t often tend to take anime like these seriously, as it obviously doesn’t take itself seriously. So I usually laugh at and sometimes even enjoy them for what the trash they are. Like Eromanga Sensei or Domestic Girlfriend, some dumpster fires are hard not to look at (though Domestic Girlfriend was a lot more interesting dumpster fire to look at.) Though to its credit, the anime has some comedic moments, and I found myself laughing at a few of them. But Overall, The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter is an anime that should be taken at face value. Just an anime that only offers a lot of fan service in-between its few comedic moments, and that’s all there is to it.
If you haven’t seen The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter, it’s available to stream right now on Crunchyroll.
Have you seen Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter? What do you think of our impressions? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
