DanMachi is a rather peculiar series. My introduction to it was in the form of the anime, and needless to say, I wasn’t particularly impressed. It seemed like your typical harem-bait show set in a fantasy world, complete with the bland main character who fancies himself to be a womanizer, and the hoard of females who seem to fall for him for no conceivable reason. Even the story seemed have adventuring as a side-focus rather than anything else, which gave me little reason to like the anime.
On picking up the light novel though, my impression started to change, little by little. My impression of the first few volumes was quite similar to that of the anime, just that the protagonist felt a little more believable in the LN. As I kept reading, I was quite pleasantly surprised, as the series managed to grow into something rather incredible. Only later did I find out that the author made the first few volumes as such on purpose, so as to gain an audience, and the volumes after that contain the actual story that he wanted to tell. Below, I will attempt to go into the details, while making sure to spoil as little as possible.

Story (9/10):
While the start is certainly slow, but the story picks up considerably after a few volumes, most notably at around volume 6, and yet again in volume 10. The story of DanMachi is centered on two main themes, namely Growth and Adventure.
The Growth aspect is mainly focused on the protagonist, Bell Cranel, whose main feature is his tremendously fast growth as an adventurer. Of course, the speed is only relative, and he simply grows a lot faster than his peers – he does not, in fact, become the strongest there ever was within the span of a few volumes. Bell’s growth, both as an adventurer and as a person is quite believable and fun to read about. It strikes the right balance between being slow enough to not seem rushed, and fast enough for him to stand out.
The Adventure aspect is quite self-explanatory – it’s all about delving into the unknown, with only one’s skills and allies for support, having little idea about what sort of situation one may end up in. This applies both to the labyrinth exploration, and to the various situations that the characters find themselves in.
As you keep reading, you may even notice that the author has thought ahead a fair bit, and brings up various elements in the later volumes that he planted the seeds for in the initial few volumes. On top of that, as the story goes on, it gets increasingly dark – much more so than the initial impression would have you believe. All put together, I would say that DanMachi’s storytelling is quite impressive, despite minor drawbacks.

Art (7/10):
I’m not one to care much about artwork, but I found the art in DanMachi to be pretty good. The ‘cool’ illustrations are done pretty well (especially some of the covers). Still, there are some illustrations that are purely for fan-service, even if the novel itself doesn’t really divulge into that.

Characters (8/10):
The characters in DanMachi start out fairly stereotypical and shallow, but the growth and development is quite well done, as the series goes on. Bell grows from some lecherous kid (not strictly true in the first place) to a proper, hardened adventurer. Even his negative aspects are explained fairly well, so I have no complaints there. While Bell gets majority of the development, the other characters aren’t left out, and receive a fairly good amount of focus. Characters like Welf, Lily and Hestia get a good amount of attention, and even less important characters such as Lyu, Miach and the members of the Takemikazuchi familia are developed, with various character perspectives being the main medium for doing so.
There are quite a few characters who are introduced later in the series, and they are generally of a decent quality and level of depth. Without delving into spoilers, there are quite a few characters who were introduced in volumes 9 and 10, all of whom I found quite interesting.

Enjoyment (10/10):
My enjoyment of DanMachi kept increasing volume by volume, until about volume 10, from where I began to view each volume as an adventure in itself. While there was an occasional drop in enjoyment (volume 7, I’m looking at you), it usually picked back up, with more momentum than it left off at. All put together, I find DanMachi to be an extremely enjoyable read.

Overall (8.5 ~ 9/10):
As you may have noticed from the rest of this review, I quite enjoyed reading DanMachi, and would most certainly recommend it. Of course, it requires a measure of patience, as the initial few volumes may feel rather lacking. Still, I believe that the payoff is more than sufficient to keep going. As long as you enjoy fantasy, adventure and a good fight here and there, you’d most certainly like DanMachi… Provided you persist, of course. With this, I conclude.