Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? V ‒ Episodes 1-3

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©大森藤ノ・SBクリエイティブ/ダンまち5製作委員会

There’s something about Syr that’s beyond Bell’s ken. I suspect we all – book readers, game players, and anime-onlies alike – knew that, even if the exact truth about her has yet to be fully revealed in this iteration of the story, and these three episodes both lean heavily into that and give us a rather large hint as to what the truth might be. That’s doubtless important, but in these opening moments of the series, one of the most striking elements is how invested Freya Familia is in Bell and Syr’s festival date.

It’s odd enough for Freya Familia to be involved in something outside of the confines of their base or the dungeon in the first place. Although we’ve seen Freya show a mildly alarming interest in Bell himself – remember, she’s the one who gifted him the “firebolt” spell, which as a goddess not his own, she really shouldn’t have – but Syr has largely been left to what we were allowed to assume were her own devices. Yes, Ottar has been more in evidence than his other familia members, but certainly not to the extent that the top brass of Loki Familia has been, or other adventurers like Asfi and Aisha. So why, then, does Hörn show up with Syr’s invitation? Why is Hedin training Bell to be the perfect gentlemanly date? And why on earth is all of Freya Familia mobilized to spy on Bell and Syr during the festival?

We could draw a couple of very clear conclusions from all of this, but even without that, it speaks to the nature of Freya Familia as a group. Hestia Familia is very much a “family” in how its members interact, while the now defunct Ishtar Familia operated as a business. Loki Familia is stern but relatively carefree, with members trusted to do their own thing without getting the whole group into trouble. But Freya Familia? They seem to operate more like a cult. Their devotion to their goddess is feverish, and they clearly divide the world into “us” and “them,” with “them” being very much beneath “us.” The rest of Orario may respect Bell as an up-and-coming adventurer who has shown extraordinary growth, but to Freya Familia, he’s an enemy not to be trusted. They watch him as if he’s planning to do the unthinkable to Syr, to the point where, in episode three, they completely overreact to him taking her on a river cruise. Forcibly tethering a ship under sail to the shore is the act of a pirate, not a law-abiding group, especially since they knew that Bell was taking Syr on a date, and Hedin – one of their leaders – helped (or maybe “helped”) him to plan it. It makes Freya Familia look positively unhinged.

Syr, at least, may have been expecting that because she wastes no time calling upon her friends from the Benevolent Mistress to come to her aid. But more telling is the way that Ais jumps into the fray. No matter how she feels about Bell (and I suspect not even she knows the answer to that), what she’s doing is stopping a familia running amok. She doesn’t want Bell to get hurt, true, but she’s equally stepping in to keep the peace. It’s worth remembering that her familia is led by Finn, a man who is a classic hero in his thinking and strategy. Ais is doing as her captain has taught her, but there’s no such restraint among Freya Familia. Ottar is their captain, and he’s no hero – he’s more of a strongman in thrall to his goddess.

The title of episode three is a place where people who have been reading the spinoff novels or playing the video game will have a slight edge over those who haven’t. The episode is called “Odr,” more appropriately Oðr, an in-world concept central to understanding Freya as a character. In mythology, Oðr is Freya’s husband and father of her daughter Hnoss, and his name is Old Norse for, among other readings, “divine madness.” In the DanMachi world, oðr is a concept, a synonym for someone’s one true love, and in the novel Familia Chronicle: Episode Freya, author Fujino Ōmori outlines how this has shaped Freya’s time on earth.

By the end of these episodes, we should all be questioning Syr’s link to Freya Familia and Freya and her motivation in taking Bell to the Heroes’ Bridge to see the empty plinth across from famed hero Albert. But we should also be thinking about Syr’s abrupt shift in personality over the course of these three excursions – she grows increasingly headstrong, flighty, and uncaring of Bell’s reactions to her suggestions, even when they’re clearly making him uncomfortable. (So many props to Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, whose ability to make strangled sounds is unparalleled.) Syr is starting to look awfully selfish, uncaring of what will happen to Bell if Freya Familia finds him in her room with her in the shower.

Is this really someone Bell wants to be with? Or is he truly in over his head at last?

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