High School DxD Hero: Taiikukan-ura no Holy

I had to give everything 10 out of 10 since they follow the novel story perfectly it's almost just like how I Imagine it to be and it was really great of them to patch up what TNK screwed up in born.

the art is also great to me many people were upset with the new art style but I was glad they finally got a chance to change it since I Hated TNK art style of the story I feel this one is closer to the source material though if I had to choose, mad house that did The "Ambition of Oda Nobuna" that ... is a novel made by the same artist of dxd is the closest thing I see to dxd art but I still quite like the art style this studio went with and it seems to have good animation to booth with.

the sound was really high quality,one thing I could of always give TNK credit for was the fact that they had great soundtracks that I always from what I see so far it seems the new studio will keep up that job.

characters were true to the source material and even follow the exact lines from the novel.

I truly enjoy watching it and can't wait for the whole season to end so I can rewatch it with no interuptions

overall I'm really looking forward to this spring I just hope the uncensored version come out quickly :3

High School DxD Hero: Taiikukan-ura no Holy is an alternative conclusion of the previous season, High School DxD BorN. With this one being more canon than the other, as well as a showdown of the animation work of the new studio that's taking over the production of season 4.

- Story (7.0/10):
I personally liked the way this ending took root more, it made a lot more sense and used some past plot points to justify the yet ridiculous conclusion. What I liked, even more, is the minimalistic fanservice here, the lack of fanservice really helped to get the viewers to focus on what's going on, which ... did make the confrontation and Issei's transformation more emotional. But the rest still was low on effort and quality.

- Art (6.5/10):
I think that this might be the downfall in regards to the animation, the colors are more vibrant and attractive, but the art style just doesn't work with Hich School DxD, we used to have sharp edges and hard colors, but everything looks soft and out of proportions, for instance, Asia looks like she suddenly grew a cup size or something.
Sometimes faces look very ugly and unappealing, the really screwed the face features mapping this time.

- Sound (6.0/10):
I give this low score mainly because of the poor auditions, the voice acting felt so blunt and forced, like when Issei screams, he sounds like his voice actor was doing his last recording for the day after 20 hours of none stop work, very tired and lazy. And what doesn't stop only at Issei!

- Character (6.0/10):
Again, which the poor character design,n this art style just doesn't deliver the old nostalgic vibe of the previous series. I even struggled to recognize some of the characters due to the staggering change they went through.

- Enjoyment (7.0/10):
I know I've stated so many flaws, but I still enjoyed what I've seen for what it was, I like me some High School DxD every once and a while, and this one did deliver, even though barely.

- Overall (6.5/10):
I wouldn't highly recommend this, but it could serve as a good startup to get your a bit familiar with the nex animation and direction, and also, to make you reconsider your hype for the 4th season.
Although, it's not that necessary, and is very skippable.

some minor DxD Born spoilers are included in this Review

First, I want to give advice to anyone who've watched DxD Born and satisfied with it, you should SKIP this episode, just go to first episode of DxD Hero, there will be animation difference you'll either content or disappointed. But plot-wise, I don't think we need this episode as "bridge", we can continue into 4th season(DxD Hero) with final Born memories in mind.

Story:
As I stated above, this one is has some differences from final 4-episodes of DxD born but I think it's unnecessary. Main difference is Rias 'Arc' that's completely removed. I don't read the ... LN, so I don't know the reason, but to us who've watched Born, we can't just erase it from our memory, right? The other major difference is how they resolve Issei rampage, and I would say this with 100% confidence, how DxD Born resolve that is ten times better than this. How could you change beautiful moment into silly joke? I don't care even if that's deviation from Novel, I still think it's unnecessary to create special episode for this crap.

Art:
Different studio handle 4th season including this, it's not unusual if they want to change art and animation style. I don't really want to complain, as mostly it change into lighter tone but at least they're still recognizable. BUT.. the one that I won't accept, and probably stay the same for entire 4th season is.. Rias Appearance. What a terrible things they did to the mature, elegant, beautiful looks of our Ruin Princess, they completely ruin it (no pun intended). And here, they change her into cliche cute and plump girl. Usually I like those kind of character art, but for Rias, that's complete bust of character. And I need to endure it for this and next installation of DxD?

So to summarize this, I won't recommend this episode for DxD anime fans (anime-only, as LN reader would have different perspective). That recommendation also applied to those who are completely new to DxD series (are they even exist?), they would need to watch the first 3 season anyway, and that's from different studio, result in different art style and plot, like it or not.