Hey! Did cha miss us? Well not to worry, cuz’ we’re back with something special this time around. Normally for our Anime REvisited segment we would review anime titles that have been around for five or more years, but we’ve decided to do a special edition where we review a title that’s been released just recently – like this past Winter (2020-2021). If you’re familiar with Danmachi, then this anime title might give you a little taste of that. For our Anime REvisited special, we’ll be reviewing The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter.

Well, the introduction starts off with the narrator telling the story of various hidden dungeons all across the land. Many of which contain labyrinths, monsters, the usual when it comes to dungeon crawlers. It is then that we’re introduced to Noir Stardia; the son of a Baronet which happens to be on the bottom of the social hierarchy. In other words, Noir and his family are peasants in the eyes of nobles and other higher ranking individuals. It’s also the reason why he wasn’t able to secure a job at the library because of his status – talk about brutal. Later on he runs into his childhood friend Emma Brightness (which is actually a cool name for an anime girl) and tells her what happened; causing her to be shocked that he was turned down as she wanted to work with him at the library.

It was then Noir had another idea; become an adventurer (hero) in hopes of boosting his social ranking and becoming set for life. To do so he would require the help of the Great Sage; a skill that he gained that will tell him any and everything about life he wants to know, but gives him severe headaches as a result of said skill. In order to null this Noir was told by Emma that he would have to kiss her, and after finding a better spot away from onlookers, they did…passionately. Afterwards Noir went to the hidden dungeon and made it to the second floor where he found a door. On the other side of the door was a tall blue-haired woman bound by glowing black chains named Olivia. Noir explained the situation to Olivia and why he was in the dungeon to begin with, before she told him that he needed skills in order to pursue the quest that he was on.

After receiving her skills Olivia told Noir that his skills would cost him LP (Life Points) to use, so he checked to see how many he had; and that number was 550. Once he got the hang of his new skills Noir went to the Hero Academy to take the entrance exam, but due to his status as a Baronet, no one wanted to work with him – except Emma (and Lenore, but even she didn’t want to work with him due to his status so she suggested they split up in order to pass the exam). Noir went back to the dungeon and encountered a (Lv. 99) Death Reaper and found himself fighting it. He thought he could use his ‘Edit’ skill to remove its ‘Insta-Kill’ attack, but it would cost 4000 LP to use – which Noir doesn’t have.

Eventually he got a little creative and used his ‘Stone Bullet’ skill and managed to defeat the reaper and boost his level at the same time. By the end of the episode Noir and his team passed with flying colors thanks to a lie that Olivia told him about the power of the reaper. Despite the financial cost of entry, Noir was on his way to becoming an adventurer (Hero).

Much like Danmachi, the main character of this series (Noir) finds himself working to becoming an adventurer and finds himself going through a dungeon to do so. The concept of LP does give the series an action-RPG feel in real-time; much like Cautious Hero and Log Horizon. Even though it’s only the first episode Noir feels like an underdog in the eyes of others above him, but everyone knows that underdogs turn into top dogs after some hard work and dedication. As the series goes on we may see more of that coming from Noir.

That will do it for our first episode review on this special edition segment of Anime REvisited. Until next post, stay nerdy! 😉