For better or for worse, DanMachi’s full title of “Is it Wrong to Try to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon” has always acted as a filter of sorts to screen out people looking for a good story and filter in people who were just looking for a fun anime to watch. And through the first 3 seasons, the anime acted the part as it leaned into the haremy aspects of the story while keeping things fast enough paced to make sure it was never boring. The collective opinion on it was that it worked well for Season 1, failed for Season 2 and was somewhere in-between for Season 3. When Season 4 came around, most were expecting more of the same, but instead the bold decision was made to change up the strategy to align more with the source material which paid immediate dividends. Season 4 Part 1 was darker and more intense than any prior season. There was palpable danger at every turn, and the side characters got more focus than ever before. If there was one issue with it, it felt like it dragged a little as it did everything it could to fill the 11 episodes and end on a huge cliff hanger, all to set up this season.
I’ll be giving my spoiler filled thoughts in the next section but wanted to provide this section specifically for people who wanted to hear about the season without being spoiled. If you have already watched the show, you can save yourself a little time and skip to the Spoiler Section.
Calamity had struck in the lower levels of the Dungeon as Bell and Ryu had been badly injured and fallen a full 10 floors below their comfort zone with the Dungeon’s “Cleaner” hot on their tails. Meanwhile, the rest of the party who had been relying on Bell a lot in Part 1 were in equally dire straits matched up with a high-level floor boss. This season was all about their struggles to survive the unparalleled dangers that they now faced.
The perspective flipped from one group to the other and back again with the party getting more of the focus in the first half of the season and Bell and Ryu getting the focus in the second half. The second half was the clear highlight of the season with the final 4 episodes (especially episode 9) being particularly great, but the first half, especially the first 3 episodes, was also pretty strong. This season, more than any other allowed for nearly all of the individual characters (Bell, Ryu, Welf, Lili, Mikoto, Haruhime, Cassandra, Daphne, Ouka, Chigusa and Aisha) to shine with Welf, Mikoto and Cassandra getting particular focus from the party and Bell also getting his usual time to shine as the MC.
But the star of the season was without a doubt Ryu to the point where she often outshined even Bell. A character who had always had supporting roles in past seasons, Ryu finally got her own arc and absolutely owned it. Her character arc touched all points of the spectrum from hype to devastating to heart melting to solemn. We got her back story and finally got to understand the motivations behind one of the most complex characters in the series.
From a production standpoint, this was probably the best season yet as JC Staff put out strong episode after strong episode, only noticeably slacking on one episode (which I’ll discuss in the spoilers section). Overall, it was a great experience, and I’d highly recommend watching it.
Part 1 (Episodes 1-3) The Amphisbaena Fight
The primary focus of the first 3 episodes of the season was the Party’s Battle with the Amphisbaena (Floor 27 Boss), and it was much better animated and directed than I was honestly expecting. Pretty much every character got their chance to shine with Mikoto, Haruhime and Aisha having particularly big roles. The fight kept up the intensity throughout and flipped back and forth between the party and the Amphisbaena having the advantage with there being moments such as the end of episode 2 where it looked like a few party members really were about to die. Speaking of that, if I had one complaint about the fight it’s that it made it look like Haruhime survived the Amphisbaena’s fire breath attack due to plot armor rather than the Goliath Cloak she was wearing.
The climax of the fight was awesome with Mikoto and Haruhime epically starting their spell chants as last-ditch efforts after getting hit by the Amphisbaena’s attacks. The rest of the party took advantage and delivered the winning blows to the Amphisbaena. And after the battle, Cassandra got her chance to shine as well when she finally convinced Daphne to believe in her visions which ended up saving the party.
At the same time that all of this was happening, Bell and Ryu were struggling on the 37th floor. Bell looked the part of a newbie in the Dungeon again as he was scared and unable to think straight. Ryu was even more out of it as she had to be convinced by Bell to even try to survive. She was emotionally ready to die there but decided that she should at least do everything she could to help Bell survive the ordeal. Bell struggled mightily against his first monster on the floor and barely won while tiring himself out. If not for Ryu’s guidance, he probably would have died, and that was against a mere common monster on the floor. And when the Juggernaut came calling, Bell panicked even more and launched off several firebolts which luckily for them succeeded in piling up enough rubble to block off the Juggernaut. Bell and Ryu eventually found a cave where they were able to get a little rest.
One thing I liked in particular about this group of episodes was its see-sawing from the Party’s perspective to Bell and Ryu’s perspective. When the party was making some headway, Bell and Ryu were in mortal danger, and when Bell and Ryu had gotten a respite, the party was in mortal danger. It kept up the tension really well and made these three episodes really strong.
Episodes 1-3 Rating: 8.9/10
Part 2 (Episodes 4-7) Fighting the way through the Dungeon
After the highs of the first 3 episodes, this part was more of a transition part, including the necessary in-between details to get from the climax of the season for the Party to the climax of the season for Bell and Ryu.
Starting off with the Party again, the Dungeon was not about to let the Party off with just a Floor Boss battle. It followed up from the Amphisbaena by sending all the monsters on the floor after them. With the party backed into a corner, Welf made the bold decision to make a never-before-seen type of magic sword while the rest of the party held off the monsters. It was time to take the first step towards fulfilling his dream, and he was doing it in a do-or-die situation. Having read the series, this was supposed to be one of the most hype parts of the entire season, but due to past seasons largely ignoring Welf and his motivations, it fell kind of flat and made it seem more like power of friendship than anything which was disappointing.
The other highlight for the party from this section was the Xenos and Benevolent Mistress members saving them once Welf had done everything he could to hold the monsters at bay with his new sword. It was a lot of fun seeing the Hestia Familia members interact briefly with the Xenos again, particularly Haruhime and Wiene. Anya was also a joy to watch with all of her CATch phrases (sorry for the bad pun).
Moving back to the Bell and Ryu side of things, each episode began with a minute or two long glimpse of Ryu’s life with her Familia before they were slaughtered by the Juggernaut, giving insight into who these people were that Ryu had sworn to avenge and into who Ryu used to be. Interestingly enough, younger Ryu was an idealist much like Bell. Through debates around justice with her 3 best friends in Alize, Kaguya and Lyra, we got to understand both what their characters were like as well as what their relationships with Ryu were like. Kaguya was her rival, Lyra was her sempai who taught her many skills and Alize was the person Ryu cherished most in the world.
As for what Bell and Ryu were doing during this part, they were doing whatever they could to try to find a way back to the main path. These episodes were a training arc of sorts for Bell as Ryu advised him on how to fight more efficiently and combining it with the advice he had gotten from Aiz, Bell improved his fighting style to the point where he was now able to go 1 on 4 with Level 37 Monsters. Ryu only participated in the fights as necessary since she had used all her healing powers on Bell rather than herself and hadn't healed her leg. There were some nice moments between Bell and Ryu in this part such as them making a pinkie promise and Ryu getting embarrassed about drinking from the same cup as Bell, but there wasn’t a whole lot of progress being made. Ryu had the foreboding thought that eventually she would likely have to sacrifice herself for Bell to survive, and as if to prove her right, episode 7 ended with Ryu noticing that their path was blocked by the Colosseum, the most dangerous place on the entire floor.
Overall, these episodes on their own would still be strong points of one of the prior seasons, but they felt lacking compared to the other parts of the season. I maintain that they could have cut an episode from this part without losing much.
Episodes 4-7 Rating: 8/10
Part 3 (Episodes 8-11) Ryu and the Juggernaut
And finally we are at the climax. Episodes 8-11 were the highlight not only of the season but of the entire series to date with episode 9 being not only the best episode of the series but potentially the best episode that JC Staff has ever made, and this is coming from a huge Railgun fan.
Starting off with the weakest episode of the group, all things considered, episode 8 was kind of disappointing. It had the potential itself to be the best episode of the series, but JC Staff notably slacked on it. They filled the Colosseum of infinite monsters with just enough of them to make it look very threatening but by no means the impossible challenge that it should have been. As a result, Ryu’s sacrifice on the bridge to save Bell, while touching, felt kind of unnecessary while Bell coming back to save Ryu didn’t feel as epic as it otherwise could have. It was still a strong episode, probably the best of the season at that point, but it was disappointing that it wasn’t even better.
But then we got the absolute banger that was episode 9 which immediately washed away every complaint I had about episode 8. Episode 8 walked so episode 9 could soar. Not only was there no OP or ED animation, but there was also an amazing insert song by Hayamin called 'not meet doubt'. In Episode 9 we finally got the payoff to Ryu’s flashbacks in seeing the tragedy that befell her Familia and boy was it devastating, especially seeing her being forced to kill Alize. The animation and directing was amazing, and they did a magnificent job showcasing exactly why Ryu was so willing to die this entire season. Her talk with Bell as he convinced her that she really was worth saving and that he had always viewed her as the hero of justice that she had so desperately strived to be ever since her Familia's demise was incredible. Equally incredible was the next scene where Bell played dead in an attempt to get an easy kill on a monster after it had blind sided him, triggering Ryu's trauma of how the Juggernaut killed her Familia. Ryu pleaded passionately with Bell to never do that again even calling him Bell rather than Mr. Cranel for the first time as she realized just how much Bell meant to her.
Episode 10 built on Episode 9's momentum to further expand on Ryu’s newfound feelings for Bell. There were some fun awkward moments as expected from 2 of the most virtuous people in the series, but Ryu managed to use the excuse of needing to stay warm to initiate an extremely intimate moment where they cuddled half naked by a fire. Ryu used this situation to finally fill Bell in on her tragic past. They then slept together like that to gain some much needed stamina back and allow Ryu to finally heal up her broken leg. But just as they had finally started hoping again, they came face to face with the Juggernaut. After they narrowly escaped from the Juggernaut with injuries, the episode ended with a really touching but tragic moment where Ryu, thinking this was the end for her, threw away all of her ingrained caution and asked Bell to hold her. Bell lied to her saying he’d stay with her as Ryu fell asleep in his arms as he instead headed off to face down the Juggernaut that had for so long tormented Ryu, vowing to protect her.
And then we got the finale, and in a fantastic reversal of everything we thought we knew about the series, Bell wasn't the star of the final showdown. It was Ryu. But before she could get there, Ryu met her Familia in her dream allowing her to get the cathartic confirmation that her Familia members were proud of everything she’d done to honor their legacy over the past 5 years. It was super emotional and was the boost Ryu needed to finally face down the Juggernaut. Bell’s role in the battle was to take out the Juggernaut’s magic reflection armor which he did spectacularly through his signature Argo Vesta and Firebolt attacks. And Ryu’s role was to land the finishing blow. As she was chanting her spell, Ryu recalled back to the mistakes she made 5 years ago resolute not to make them again. But despite all of her resolve, her Luminous Wind failed again...or so we momentarily thought before Ryu revealed that she’d strategically held back 10 orbs this time, one for each member of her Familia and initiated her Astrea Familia Charge. The charge was simultaneously epic and emotional as she used the orbs to boost herself into point blank range of the Juggernaut so that she wouldn't miss this time. We saw the Astral Body Illusions of the respective Astrea Familia Member that Ryu saw each time she called out their names symbolizing their undying support of their dear friend. Ryu even held hands with Astral Alize before her decisive strike on the Juggernaut. It was absolutely beautiful.
And with that, the fight was over. The rescue party heard the sounds from the fight and made it to a fading Bell and Ryu in time. They had all survived and could go home now. We got a short epilogue where Ryu was both thanked by Hestia Familia for saving Bell and thanked Bell for saving her, and the season finished with Bell and Ryu going on a date, Bell calling Ryu’s first smile in the entire series beautiful, and Ryu getting embarrassed about it and running off. At the end, we heard Alize give one final piece of advice to Ryu, to not let Bell get away.
Episodes 8-11 Rating: 9.7/10
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