Sword Oratoria: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side
ダンジョンに出会いを求めるのは間違っているだろうか外伝 ソード・オラトリア (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka Gaiden: Sword Oratoria)
- Action
- Adventure
- Fantasy
- Mythology
- Episodes
- 12
- Duration
- 23 min per ep
- Aired
- Apr 15, 2017 to Jul 1, 2017
- Status
- Finished Airing
Synopsis
In the world shaped by the gods, adventurers band together under divine guilds called “familia,” taking on quests that range from exploration and gathering to monster hunting and training for greater feats.
Set in Orario, the bustling city of adventurers, *Sword Oratoria: Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side* follows Ais Wallenstein—the famed “Sword Princess”—and Lefiya Viridis, a novice mage of the Loki Familia. Alongside their comrades, they head to the towering Babel and the dungeon that lies beneath it, a perilous realm filled with formidable monsters. For Ais, the depths offer a path to sharpen her blade; for Lefiya, each step forward brings her closer to her ambition of one day matching Riveria Ljos Alf, the Loki Familia’s vice-captain, as a supreme mage.
Otaku Consensus
Sword Oratoria works best as a brisk J.C.Staff companion piece: Youhei Suzuki’s direction and Hideki Shirane’s series composition keep the 12 episodes action-forward, and critics most often single out the pacing as its cleanest strength. Its recurring weakness is adaptation focus; a side story sold on Ais Wallenstein frequently filters its emotional growth through Lefiya Viridis, while fan criticism centers on Ais being made too blank or oddly comedic compared with her reputation.
Why You Should Watch
Choose Sword Oratoria if you want DanMachi’s adventurer-city machinery without Bell Cranel’s underdog-harem viewpoint. The appeal is tactical: J.C.Staff spends the season on veteran-party rhythm, spellcasting roles, sword-frontline pressure, and the internal pecking order of Loki Familia, so it scratches the guild-raid itch of Log Horizon while staying in DanMachi’s mythological dungeon fantasy. It also works as a continuity decoder; viewers who noticed Ais’s odd pauses or Loki Familia’s unexplained presence in the original season get connective tissue rather than a recap. The ideal viewer is already curious about Ais but patient with a co-lead coming-of-age lens through Lefiya. If you want a colder, more martial side of Orario with brisk action and less romantic comedy noise, this is the side route.
Key Characters
- LLefiya Viridis(VA: Juri Kimura)
Lefiya is the show’s emotional lightning rod, a novice mage whose admiration-driven growth gives the season its coming-of-age angle and also fuels its most divisive fan reactions.
- AAis Wallenstein(VA: Saori Oonishi)
Ais is compelling as a near-unreadable ace swordswoman, but the anime’s handling of her silence became the adaptation’s signature controversy among DanMachi fans.
What Makes It Stand Out
- 1
The series is structured as a gaiden perspective rather than a sequel, recontextualizing moments that viewers of the main DanMachi season found oddly placed, especially Ais’s distant reactions and Loki Familia’s independent movements.
- 2
J.C.Staff’s adaptation emphasizes forward motion over downtime, matching the positive critical refrain that the action is strong and the pacing rarely bogs down across its 12-episode run.
- 3
The cast perspective is unusually female-centered for the DanMachi anime line: AniList tags it with Female Protagonist at 86% and Primarily Female Cast at 82%, with Ais and Lefiya listed as the main characters.
- 4
The production keeps the franchise’s mythological fantasy identity explicit, with AniList tags such as Gods at 87%, Mythology at 73%, Magic at 74%, and Swordplay at 81% aligning with the season’s emphasis on divine familia culture and combat specialization.
- 5
Its most discussed adaptation choice is not a battle sequence but point of view: viewers expecting an Ais-first character study often object to how much of the season’s dramatic access runs through Lefiya.
Fun Facts & Trivia
- Fun fact 1
- Sword Oratoria aired from April 15, 2017 to July 1, 2017, as a finished 12-episode TV season produced by J.C.Staff.
- Fun fact 2
- The anime credits Fujino Oomori with the original story and Kiyotaka Haimura with the original character designs, while the TV version’s character designs were handled by Shigeki Kimoto.
- Fun fact 3
- The core production team includes director Youhei Suzuki, series composer Hideki Shirane, art director Toshiharu Mizutani, director of photography Shingo Fukuyo, sound director Jin Aketagawa, and composer Keiji Inai.
- Fun fact 4
- Its database reception reflects a franchise title with broad visibility but moderate approval: MAL lists it at 7.09 from 245,565 votes with popularity rank #541, while AniList records a 68/100 score and 928 favourites.
- Fun fact 5
- Fan discussion often frames it as more rewarding after seeing the main series, because it clarifies earlier-looking side material; at the same time, at least one review notes that the story can be followed without first watching Season 1.
Studios
- J.C.Staff
