High School DxD Producer Addresses Season Four's Canon Retcon

One of the more prominent marks against High School DxD's anime series is how the third season of the anime adapted the original story in Ichiei Ishibumi's and Miyama-Zero's light novels. By taking elements from several of the later volumes at once, fans were displeased about how the third season of the anime eventually deviated from the source for its own non-canon ending. The fourth season of the anime eventually fixed this will a special prologue episode retconning those events, and the producer behind the anime recently talked about those changes.

Speaking with Monsters and Critics, High School DxD Hero producer Satoshi Motonaga opened up about how fans' response to the Episode 0 retcon helped to better prepare them for the changes in animation studio and character design coming with the surprise fourth season return.

As Motonaga explained, fans didn't mind the changes once it was revealed that Issei would be hearing the hilarious "Oppai Dragon" children's song in the new version, "I think there was some concern among the fans with the shift in animation studio along with the character design. But I think once Episode 0 aired and the Oppai Dragon song started playing there was a lot of laughter and that [concern] kind of transitioned into acceptance."

What better helped get this retcon across to fans of the anime too was its surprise drop, which eventually lead to it trending overall, "We actually didn't publicize that there was going to be an Episode 0. Everywhere on the websites, it said we were going to start with Episode 1 so I think Episode 0 came as a surprise. It's kind of like a review of the past series, but I think the Oppai Dragon song brought it into acceptance. The song trended on Twitter and Yahoo searches, as well. [Laughs]."

Motonaga's definitely got a strong grip on the anime, and hopes to see it again in some form someday. Whether it be an anime sequel, or a full feature film, fans will definitely be along for the ride if Motonaga pushes forward with big changes or fixes like this!

Originally conceived as a light novel series written by Ichiei Ishibumi with illustrations by Miyama-Zero for Fujimi Shobo's Dragon Magazine in 2008, High School DxD follows a boy named Issei Hyodo who is best known for his perverted ways. After being asked on a date, the boy is killed when the girl turns out to be a fallen angel. Issei is revived by a busty classmate of his named Rias who is a devil herself, and she contracts the boy to become her new pet as she reincarnated him into a devil during his resurrection. The series is currently four seasons total, and the full run can be found streaming on Crunchyroll and FunimationNOW.