“Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Volume 3” Review

Warning: If you have not read “Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Volume 3” by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda, do not read this review unless you don’t mind spoilers or already read the book!

I’m back with another book review, and this time it is “Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Volume 3” by Fujino Omori and illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda! Here’s a summary so we know what it’s about:

“With the help of his new supporter Lilliluka, novice adventurer Bell Cranell is making progress deeper into the Dungeon. With new equipment and new allies, he thinks things are finally starting to go his way…but he’s dead wrong! Bell’s in a panic, Lilliluka’s being cryptic, and Hestia’s drunk! The trouble never seems to end in this third volume of the hit comedy-fantasy series!”

As noted in the summary, Lililuka, a.k.a Lilly, is back and she and Bell are finally being allies together! Hestia does begrudgingly let her join, though technically Lilly isn’t fully part of Hestia’s Familia yet because of, well…plot complications from Book 2. Hopefully Lilly can fully transition to being part of Hestia’s Familia at some point, and it was fun to see how her presence affected Hestia and Bell’s interactions with each other.

I complained at length last book that Aiz was just watching from the shadows for the past two books and not doing much else, but that majorly changed this time around! I loved how she was more active this time by freely giving Bell lessons to help him sharpen his fighting skills to go further into the Dungeon. It’s also this book where it’s pretty much confirmed that Aiz does have, at least, a minor crush on him. She doesn’t let this affect how she trains him, though (she beats him pretty badly the first time they trained together with all the sparring and such).

I also think Bell got some major development. He’s mentioned for the past books how he was inspired by his now-deceased grandpa to go be an Adventurer to pick up girls, but just how far his grandpa’s influence gets to him is emphasized hugely in one section with Bell and Aiz. Both of them have laid down to nap, as it’s important to learn to recover health quickly through power-napping, but Aiz was the first to fall asleep.

…And that is when Bell recalls something along the lines of “I COULD KISS HER,” thanks to the influence of his grandpa. Bell internally struggles with this, because it is true that he did get into this adventuring thing to pick up girls, and Aiz is female, but he’s also clearly aware that kissing her in her sleep is completely non-consensual. Also, Hestia would get mad at him if he did that, too.

With Bell fighting off the influence of his grandpa as well as Bell’s own desires to pick up girls, he chooses, on his own, to do the right thing and not kiss Aiz in her sleep in the end. This is a huge development for him compared to the first book where he initially went into being an adventurer for the sake of picking up girls (and then later on did it for the sake of himself and genuinely helping people as I discussed in the review of the first book), and I’m honestly proud of him for that.

Freya comes back from book one, still desiring Bell for herself, and while I’d commented about how weird her character development was for her to suddenly be obsessed over him, I’m starting to get used to it in this book now. She’s clearly still obsessed over him, yes, but she’s doing it in a way that’s bringing her out as the true main villain—she does it strategically, intelligently, and that gives me chills. She even has a loyal minion, Ottar, to help her out with this (and help her out with it he does—though I can’t spoil what because that affects a major part of the plot).

Overall, I’m rating this book 5 out of 5 stars! This series just keeps getting better so far, and I look forwards to reading more!