A lot of pressure was on Geek Toys this season to make up for the mistake J.C Staff made that was Date a Live Season 3. And for the most part, they did a mostly passable job. I'm glad we got more DAL and there's still quite a bit to like. But with that being said, some of these changes come with caveats... and even a few complaints from me in certain areas, to be quite honest.

There won't be direct spoilers in this, just enough details to explain what they did good and bad here. So if you're on the fence about giving this season the time after season 3 left a bad taste in your mouth - you can read this without worry for ruining your watch experience and make a decision whether you want to dedicate time watching this from there.

Story: We pick up right after the speedrun that covered the 12th light novel in the final epsiode of season 3 (no retcon episode for that, sorry for the fans who were hoping for that to be fixed. But it probably was for the best just to keep moving onward instead of wasting time backtracking). Shido goes back on his quest to help more spirits, and it pretty much follows suit on how they series has always gone. The twist in the plot starts to emerge as the first arc ends and we finally learn the intentions of the main villain, Westcott, and what he wants with the spirits after 2 seasons of knowing barely anything about his sinister plot. In the 2nd arc we get to see 2 unexpected characters return for a brief spell, some more information is slipped through, and then it ends in similar DAL fashion. The 3rd arc... is where DAL goes into overdrive: the Kurumi arc. We finally learn the story of Nightmare and how she ended up as a spirit. We learn of the final boss of series, and a twist on par with Kotori's reveal as a spirit in season 1. I won't spoil anything, but all I'll say is: DAL has approached it's Endgame, and with Season 5 now confirmed we now sit on the edge of our seats to see the final act.

While there were a fair number of distractable slice of life episodes in between all the action, this isn't far off the course that the series has been doing throughout it's runtime. It's just become more noticable now that there's a darker, more interesting theme approaching and its being interrupted by all the s.o.l shenanigans. While I understand it can be bothersome, it didn't derail it enough to be harsher about it.

Also if you still didn't get enough Love is War in your life even with it's latest season going on then you'll love this last arc in particular - you'll understand why.

The biggest issue by far was the that the 2nd arc is... quite frustrating, given how they adapted it. They effectively sped up and did 2 novels in 5 episodes. And despite being sped up, they felt so sloooow which is the worst thing they could've done. 1 episode was essentially 1/2 of an info dump on the newest spirit, and the other half sitting around learning Ratatoskr as an organization. Which couldn't be skipped because they had already cut so much of what could've/should've been introduced/integrated in already during previous season - and so they needed to do it now or the future plot/events would make no sense. So they gave it the Slime Isekai table-talk treatment (except without even the benefit of being in depth) and called it a day. And then another was basically a filler episode where Shido and the gang get sucked into fairy tale land for... reasons. Meanwhile the Mukuro arc is going on and this episode genuinely accomplishes effectively nothing going there. I can live with filler episodes if they're placed correctly, this wasn't. It was frustrating to watch this season weekly and on rewatch it honestly felt worse. It was the first (and only personally) time I got bored watching this series.

The final arc is good enough to not only salvage - but CARRY this season with how incredible it is, but it does require you to go through an extremely testing middle arc that may frustrate and bore you. It is worth it, and this arc isn't all terrible, but it is unquestionable my least favorite in the DAL anime.

Consensus: solid story that's continuing the escalation setup by last season. While it has a bit of a frustrating middle, it generally kept me interested despite its interruptions and has set the stage for it's next season - which will be the climax of the series.

Art/Animation: The new art style divided the community to some extent. Of personal opinion, I liked the character remodels and vibrant colors that gave so much more detail and life to the cast and background art. Though I understand why other folks don't, it took a lot of familiarity away from the series and no longer matches the illustrations of the source material. And I admittedly do miss that a bit. But it was universally a step up from last season's trainwreck deviantart level style, so the general impression I've seen is that it's gotten at least a "pass" from most the fanbase.

Tho there was also the unfortunate factor of some additional censorship sewed into this season. I don't care that some of the echii was diluted down in some scenes (that was mostly expected), but the darker parts of the story were significantly changed to be less gruesome - to the point where it almost changed entire scenes and brought down the weight of the final arc (Nibelcole and Shido's room scene for example). LN readers have been very vocably upset about this particularly, and I agree with them.

But even without the artstyle debate, a far bigger problem quickly emerged. Moving to the case of contention within this season: The CGI fights. Ima keep it real with you chief: at it's best it wasn't pretty, and at it's worst... it was just awful. The rough transitioning between 3D puppets to still frame 2D action shots as they collided didn't look good. The Origami vs Inverse Tohka fight was supposed to be one of the most action packed moments of the season: it punctuated the OP of this season and from that it looked like it was gonna be great. But after waiting 8 episodes for this promised hyped up fight, we instead got... essentially 2 plastic action figures bashing into each other with only the hands of the kids holding them edited out. The space fights with Mukuro were also very ugly at times when it dipped into the CG for portions of it. The only thing thing that looked fairly good with the CGI was the airship fight between Fraxinus and Goetia.

It's no exaggeration to say the animation is worse than season 3's, but I'd even go as far and say that the CGI was so horrible it could be on par with the likes of Arifureta season 1 - that's how bad it was. And if you've seen or even vaguely know of Arifureta's reputation regarding it's animation: that should upset you immensely. To clarify, I'm not CGI-phobic - but when you utilize CGI it needs to feel as seemless and naturally a part of the production and scenes its used in, as opposed to feeling so out of place it sticks out and takes you out of the experience. And the CGI this season definitely felt the latter. Going from 2D animations to rough looking Playstation-esq block models for fights looked terrible. It is by far the biggest universal complaint from fans this season. Not the biggest issue overall for some people, but nobody liked it.

Overall, for the 2nd season running animation was by far the weakest element. Like season 3 it wasn't unpassably bad to kill the anime, but by God it was awful. The eye-capturing action that makes DAL so unique and special from other harems was butchered badly this season. The only thing saving this grade was that the 2D elements looked better than before, and they put a lot of effort into making the background and fine details look much better. But why wasn't the most important elements and action scenes given as much care? Geek Toys needs improvement here: Badly.

Sound: While it was dissapointing to have the tradition broken and not have Sweet A.R.M.S do the OP, Miyu Tomita did a pretty good job and still gave another equally banging one for this season. As far as background tracks goes, they mostly kept up with properly matching the tone of anime and it's scenes. Now we didn't get many new tracks this season, but tbf they had already been doing Date a Bullet and we heard quite a few of those throughout the Kurumi arc - so I'll give them a pass. My only dissapointment comes from not having an orchestrated version of the OP in the final episode as we've had in the 3 seasons past, but it's basically nitpicking of a hardcore fan at this point.

Voice acting remains solid, on the original japanese end. I'm not gonna factor this into the grade at all because it would be unfair and is irrelevant to anyone who doesn't watch alternative versions/dubs. But the English dub this season... is a mess.

It seems that they couldn't secure back all the original VAs when they needed to this season, so there's a pretty messy rotation of different VAs filling in for multiple characters - and its extremely noticable. Shido was voiced by 3 different VAs throughout the first 6 episodes before they manage to secure his original VA back for the 2nd half of the season, and they not that similar sounding in voice. You have whinny sounding Shido, the original Shido (who did 1 episode in the first 6), and really gruff Shido. It's absolutely bizzare. Reine has a different VA for the first 3, as well as many of the other minor characters (but they don't matter as much tbh). They didn't re-record anything with the original VAs for the blu-ray either, so we're eternally stuck with this version. Upon rewatch it really got to me and irk'd me so much that it takes you out of the experience. While I typically am a preferably dub watcher, this has hard converted me to the original sub going forward.

But back to point: disregarding the dubs problems, overall sound/music was great - still the series' best and most defining aspect.

Characters: I'm not gonna pretend that DAL doesn't have the problem that most harems have as they keep growing in size of sidelining less relevant characters in favor of the ones that are the focal point of the plot - because we all know it's absolutely guilty of it. Yoshino, the Yamai's, Miku, and Natsumi were benched for the majority of the season, bar a few specific scenes where they got some crumbs for attention. And Kotori remains in the same logistics point of directing the plot she always is in (which isn't bad tho, I like Kotori's role - she just doesn't grow or change here). Some points are gonna be docked from this category inherently. That being said, this isn't a new problem for the series (or the genre in general) so you just learn to go with it and focus on the "main" returning characters to develop or take part in the plot in a notable way. Which were: Shido, Tohka, Origami, Kurumi, Reine, and the villains Westcott and Ellen.

For the new characters of note from this season: We have our 2 new spirits Nia and Mukuro, the new DEM adaptess Artemisia Ashcroft, Nibelcole, and the final boss of the series... the Origin Spirit.

Of the 2 new spirits, I liked Nia the most. She broke the mold a little bit being that she wasn't some oblivous, innocent girl that Shido easily charmed into liking him like most of the cast. She's an older women in her 20's who's confidence, lack of a filter, and awareness of exactly what Shido is trying to do put him into uncomfortable, less cliche and more interesting situations - which was very refreshing. It got a few genunine chuckles out of me and I was interested in seeing where her story goes. She does get mostly sidelined sadly after her arc ends, but that is the series for ya.

Next up is Mukuro, who falls back into the tropey nature that most of the DAL girls fall into: innocent girl that nearly immediately falls for the MC, but with another gimmick. Personally I found her very uninteresting, though I can see why some fans would like her - she is pretty much a cupcake in both looks and in personality. My distate in her could be attributed to her arc feeling... rather boring. It felt like it dragged on and on, but in reality it was being speedran so much that most of the best parts from the light novel had been cut out. Of the 5 episodes from the Mukuro arc, 1 was near completely dedicated towards info dumping on the Fraxinus organization's backstory (because that had been neglected in the prior seasons up till this point, for some reason) and another was spent on the Fairy Tale episodes that was pretty much a filler episode. 2 Light novels essentially essentially condensed into 3 episodes wasn't a great idea, as it made me feel more annoyed with Mukuro as a character than making me like her. We got all her most boring parts and lost most of the good stuff.

Artemisia takes the place of Mana and Origami as the head AST that follow's DEM's commands. There's apparently a lot more to her, but from what I've been told from light novel readers a good portion of related backstory and scenes involving her have been cut. So for the time being, she left extremely underdeveloped and she kinda drops off from the story after the halfway point. Guess if you want more information on her you'll have to read the light novel... but given that it's expected to be an estimated 2+ years as of writing this before it will get officially brought over in english - it's gonna be awhile unless you go to an unofficial translator. :/

I guess there's also Maria, the newly named Fraxinus A.I that helps the crew out. And while this isn't anime spoilers, it is a direct reference to the DAL visual novel Arusu Install. If you've played the game you know who "Maria" is. But if you haven't don't worry, it bares no weight on the anime. It's just a neat reference.

Not gonna explain who Nibelcole is as well as the Origin Spirit, doing that without spoilers would be too much giveaway. All I'll say is that Nibelcole was notably watered down in brutality in the anime, as I've seen some of translations from the light novel about some of the things she was supposed to do in a few scenes... look up at your own discretion.

Old characters:
Tohka and Origami get their time in the spotlight in the Mukuro arc, but in an unconventional way. Again, don't want to spoil - this review is intended for folks sitting on the fence after going through season 3. Westcott and Ellen's plot starts to unfold, and they get a lot more screentime.

Mana is back after being gone for the entirety of season 3, and that's nice - but she doesn't do much in the grand scheme of things here other than show up in a couple of scenes.

Reine gets more involved in the plot and we see more of her this season. And we're gonna see much more of her next season.

And Kurumi... is once again, the biggest attraction. Her arc is the reason DAL has skyrocketed to the top of almost every poll in the final weeks of the season - and for good reason. The production team clearly went all-in on Kurumi's popularity to carry the season, and it did. The reason DAL 4's the highest rated season is almost entirely off of the strength of the last arc.

But it came at a cost: because they needed to get to her arc this season, both Nia's and especially Mukuro's arcs were forcibly speedran so that they could have as much time as they could get to cover Kurumi Refrain, the 16th volume of the light novel. The blasted through 3 novels in 8 episodes. And while it paid off with immediate rating increases, a solid final stretch and very good last episode, light novel readers were pissed about it. And even a number of anime-onlys noticed the lack of development, especially in the Mukuro arc (like myself). So whether or not it was worth it is a matter of debate.

Shido: the root of many of the problems this season...
Lastly there's Shido, who unfortunately becomes the epicenter of so many of the structural issues within this season. The issue is with how he's been adapted - and how the mistakes and decisions made in the previous seasons have finally caught up and begin to matter now.

Shido's backstory was completely neglected and cut from the anime. His background of being an orphan, which as a result made him wracked with insecurity and was incredibly fearful of being abandoned again by his foster family (the Itsuka's). A huge part of his personality and drive to save the spirits stems from this. While this didn't matter too much at the start of the show, at the stage we're at the point where these details are really starting to matter. Shido's backstory is the connection and link that helps him relate to and save Mukuro. And it's this connection why so many people like and shipped Shido and Mukuro. If the anime properly established this, it would've made the moment significantly more emotional - and shown some visual character growth from Shido. It would've taken some adjustments, perhaps best fitted in poritions or anywhere between episodes 4-8, but the payoff for it would've absolutely been worth it.

But no, we don't get that. Mukuro's arc is rushed and speedran so fast that it leaves room for none of that. Shido's climatic moment with Mukuro where he opens up about his past feels hollow, cheap, and more of a plot convenience pulled out the a$$ because its NEVER - EVEN - BEEN - BROUGHT UP - PRIOR - in the anime. And given where the plot goes from here at the end of the season, it'll be unlikely if they ever find a chance to fit it in. Which still matters, because the next season... Shido becomes more important than ever, and his backstory becomes even more integral to the plot.

I hate being a debby downer, especially about my favorite series. But what I'm unfortunately saying is:

Section conclusion:
While many of the harem girls were pretty much sidelined to where they barely exist and Mukuro's arc was speedran to the point where it felt both rushed yet felt slow and boring - most of the ones that got focused on ranged from fair at its worst to very well written at its peak. Nia's arc may have been short, but she's entertaining as a character. Westcott's intentions finally being revealed was great. Shido starting to become more integral to the plot which is good (although there may be more problems down the line if they don't patch up the backstory loss). And of course, Kurumi's arc and backstory finally being revealed carried this season in the eyes of many.

Overall: I can feel comfortable saying that Date A Live IV was definitively a step up from 3 in terms of it's production. While it definitely still has its issues, the end result was not bad. Subjectively, DAL is one of the best harem series ever made and is still manages to be my favorite guilty pleasure anime of all time. It would've taken a truly awful season to change that, and despite my issues with this season - this wasn't it. While this is my least favorite season of Date a Live, I still enjoyed it overall.

We'll see if Geek Toys breaks the curse of every studio only doing 1 season of DAL before passing it along to the next. But if they do, and you happen to read this Geek Toys: I want to first say I appreciate your work towards adapting this series and picking it up from where J.C Staff abruptly dropped it. But please, Step up your CGI. Every fight made in 3D this season, bar the airship battle, was horrendous and by far the biggest thing that really held this season back.
This is a very fixable problem that I hope they recognize and put effort into fixing for next season to make a finale worth the years of build up and waiting.

Update: they are now confirmed to be doing season 5. I know not everyone will be pleased by this, but they're locked in at this point. All we can do is just wish and hope for the best...

Overall, Firm 7 out of 10 anime/season. While my opinion on the season is positive as a whole, the biggest issue with me that holds it back is how irritated the Mukuro arc's adaptation made me. It felt so slow despite being sped up so much. But even with that aside, it also would've needed to address some of it's issues listed above in the animation and character sections particularly for it to reach a higher score. The issue regarding Shido's backstory being cut is just too much of a problem that makes the issues with the Mukuro arc even worse.

To be quite honest, this was a 6/10 anime that was carried and arguably even saved by the Kurumi Refrain arc at the end. And though that was enough to make a lot of people overlook the majority of this season's problems, to me it was not enough. Very good and worth getting through to, but not enough to not enough to completely forgive it for the problems it caused or had to sit through to reach this point.

Season 4 was definitively better showing over the previous season from a production standpoint (unquestionably), but as an adaptation it left much to be desired this time. I know people have nitpicked on details from the previous seasons, but of all 4 seasons (so far) this is first time I felt it without having to even read up on what they cut. It was... noticeably lacking compared to the previous 3. Not everyone will agree on how it was executed and whether the sacrifice of speedrunning through 3 novels to reach the Kurumi arc was worth it. But I think pretty much everyone will concede this: it absolutely had the potential to be better, but it also could've easily been much worse - and what we got was better than nothing at all.