Raunchy fantasy adventure has innuendo, profanity, violence.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is a fantasy adventure anime about a newbie's journey to heroism on a path paved with romance. Characters explore an underground labyrinth and fight monsters with magic and bladed weapons in suspenseful, bloody combat. Bell (voiced by Bryson Baugus) attracts the eye of many enemies and potential partners with his passion, kindness, and determination. He has some complicated ideas about gender that are at times misogynistic, but his journey includes questioning what masculinity means and how to pursue healthy romance. Many characters flirt with Bell, and female characters wear short, skin-tight outfits. There are occasional references to sexual violence through characters' backstories. Language includes profanity and crass insults like "skank." Characters drink alcohol in social situations, sometimes to the point of intoxication. There's brief imagery of a character smoking a pipe. Themes include developing positive self-esteem, overcoming challenges, and reaching for your goals.
Violence & Scariness
a lot
Fantasy violence of fighting monsters (e.g. minotaurs, hell hounds) with swords and magic is bloody. Characters show fear and distress in combat. Topics of sexual violence come up in different scenarios, sometimes taken seriously but often played for comedy. Bell's grandfather told him that dungeons are the best place to "pick up girls." His grandfather's voice encourages things like kissing someone without their consent while they sleep and uses misogynistic ideas (e.g. "only a man could understand") to justify it. A young girl uses innuendo to guilt Bell into helping her by saying "you touched my special spot" (her cat-like elf ears) and "you need to take responsibility."
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Female characters often wear short, tight-fitting outfits that expose a lot of skin, including parts of their breasts. Multiple close-up shots emphasize women's chests, butts, underwear, exposed skin, and shirtless partial nudity. Characters make jokes about women's bodies. Many characters have crushes on Bell. They jealously bicker with one another about how close they are to him. Bell often finds himself in sexually charged situations, like female characters clinging to him or moaning while sleeping next to him. When Bell levels up, he lies on his stomach with his shirt off while Hestia, wearing a short skirt, straddles him and reads his magical back tattoo. Some episodes take place in areas known as "the city of lust" and "the pleasure quarter" and feature characters who are sex workers.
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Language includes profanity (e.g. "dammit," "dumbass," "hell," "jackass") and crude insults (e.g. "crotch sniffer," "sucker," "pansy," "little heathens"). Characters sometimes use gendered insults like "skank" and make sexual innuendos (e.g. "want a good time?").
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Characters spend a lot of time at one of the local taverns. The main characters drink wine and beer at social gatherings. Background characters drink until intoxicated and act recklessly. A character is given a small bottle containing an aphrodisiac. Another character is briefly shown smoking a pipe.
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Themes include personal growth, developing positive self-esteem, helping others, and determination. Being passionate about your goal helps you achieve more than you think you're capable of. Characters have backstories involving trauma from violence and hardships because of poverty.
Positive Role Models
a little
Bell is brave, determined, and hard-working. His main goal is to get stronger and generally improve as an adventurer. He is generous, kind-hearted, and trusting (sometimes to a fault) with his friends and adventuring companions. Characters generally value honesty, doing good deeds, and self-improvement.
Diverse Representations
a little
The main character is male, but most other characters are female. Women have a range of skills, personalities, and positions of power. Bell has some complicated, sometimes misogynistic ideals. He starts off thinking that masculinity means being strong and that girls are weak and need protection. However, he also admires female adventurers who are more powerful than him. He thinks his generosity, vulnerability, and naiveté are weaknesses, but those are the traits that other people like about him. Appearances are correlated with morality. Characters meant to be heroes are often skinny, dainty, able-bodied, fashionable, and have a lighter skin tone. Characters portrayed as the enemy sometimes have opposite traits (e.g. bigger bodies, excessive makeup, darker skin tones), which is played as a joke. The story is set in a fantasy world with characters named after gods, goddesses, and legendary figures from Greek, Norse, Irish, Hindu, Mesopotamian, and Japanese mythology.
IS IT WRONG TO TRY TO PICK UP GIRLS IN A DUNGEON? follows rookie adventurer Bell Cranel (voiced by Bryson Baugus) as he strives to level up and become worthy of the powerful swordswoman—and his current crush—Ais Wallenstein (voiced by Shelley Calene-Black). Except as the only member of the goddess Hestia's (voiced by Luci Christian) familia, he's caught the eye of many other girls and gods!
This light comedy romance has a little too much gratuitous innuendo that distracts from the otherwise thoughtful character development. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is at least up front about its proposed dating philosophy being a questionable one. Unfortunately, it continues to treat women as sexual objects for both Bell and the viewer's pleasure. The redeeming thing is that Bell is slow to act on romance, and in doing so does show some respect for all the women around him. His character arc also includes relatable lessons about confidence, personal growth, and figuring out what you really want in life.
Families can talk about character strengths. What were Bell's strengths at the start of the story? What new strengths does he gain? What does Bell have to do to gain these new skills?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
