Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka IV: Shin Shou - Yakusai-hen

Looking back on a now completed season 4 of Danmachi, I have nothing but praise for the work J.C staff did. After a decent first season and a subpar second, Seasons three and four have been sure and steady improvements. Culminating in the masterclass that is Danmachi IV Part 2.

J.C Staff have rightfully taken a lot of criticism for their handling of beloved Light Novel Franchises. My main gripes with them were the excessive cuts to the source material, pacing issues and quality control issues. Danmachi season 1 was an ok adaptation. It rushed some aspects of the story but was largely serviceable. Season ... 2 honestly need not have existed with the way it handled the arc. Starting in season 3, whether by staff change or just production committee demands, it’s clear that JC staff focus shifted. They started taking their time with the characters and world more. I have zero complaints with how season 4 was handled quality wise. This was the most important arc for Bell’s individual development and a fan favourite arc from the LNs which has earned near universal praise. It was essential that this got done justice and the studio did just that.

I absolutely loved the dark and gritty atmosphere in this season. Coming from the more upbeat and cheery type of stuff we got in the past, this more mature story was a welcome shift. The drama and tension in every episode was palpable and had me on the edge of my seat. The battle against the Juggernaut was as intense as you could ask for. The fact Bell and his familia were separated forced his familia to have to grow a lot on their own and push their own limits, as well as him as an individual. I loved the emphasis on Bell and Ryu’s relationship in this season as well. Ryu is a character I truthfully did not really care for much until this arc and the studio really did showcased just how multi-faceted she is. She and Astrea familia’s backstory was handled well and seeing her icy exterior slowly, but surely melt away during every episode was a joy. The personal dynamics between characters is really where this season shined and I’m sad to see it go honestly, but at the same time hopeful that the studio will replicate this quality in future seasons.

So, pacing and adaptation wise Danmachi IV 2nd cour was a massive improvement, but how was the technical stuff? Well, I feel like it was great. There was a lot of action this season between Bell and Ryuu fighting for survival and the Hestia Familia’s battle on the upper floors and the fight scenes all looked really good to me. The hype moments had sakuga, emotional voice acting and some nice choreography. Art remained consistent throughout and the OST for this season was great too.

Really can’t overstate how much I enjoyed this cour of Danmachi. It’s one of the better LN adaptations you’ll see and it came at the perfect time. Here’s to hoping J.C Staff apply what they figured out here to other projects going forward.

Danmachi IV 2nd Cour gets 10/10.

The second part of the fourth season of Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka does an excellent job of concluding what the first part began. Each episode is filled with gripping action and maintains a well-paced momentum that hardly wavers until the satisfying conclusion. The animation is well executed, although there are a few moments where the CG feels questionable. The series continues to deepen the established characters, amplifying the impact of heartfelt moments. In of quality, this season stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the third season and wraps up the storyline in a gratifying manner. Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no ... wa Machigatteiru Darou ka IV: Fuka Shou - Yakusai-hen is a valuable addition to the series, demonstrating that there is still ample room for it to evolve.

Danmachi is bad. If you can't think of at least one reason why I'd say that, stop reading and do whatever. I'm not writing this for you.

Now that *hopefully* some people were filtered out, let's start the real discussion. I sometimes wonder how many people ever asked themselves "Why do I like the things I like?" or "Why does my media consumption looks the way it does?". It might be that you have a good answer or you don't, but whatever the case may be, the people generating the media you consume know that answer better than you do. So for people that watch anime, ... the formula has long been established.
1. Create the most bland character so that anybody can relate to him. Since it's mostly guys watching anime, it's going to be a guy almost always.
2. Put him in a world with game-like mechanics, since most of the people that watch it will also play games.
3.1 Fulfill as many fantasies as possible. Start with a harem. There is no better power fantasy for a man. Just always that monogamy is the default for most people, so it all must be platonic.
3.2 He must start as a loser, since everybody feels like a loser in real life (especially gamers). But since it's a power fantasy, he will become stronger and stronger until he saves the day every time.
This formula is so omni-present in anime, so I would lie if I said that I'm not sick of it.
Why is a power fantasy bad? This question is harder than it seems. In essence, there is nothing bad about it on its own. However, everything comes at a price and in this case it's going to be originality, the quality of the story and characters, especially the main one. Ultimately, everybody watches stuff for whatever reason they want to and don't let me tell you what to do. But at the same time, I demand more from stuff I watch. So yeah... I had my finger on the forward skip 5 sec button while watching Danmachi.

Focusing back on the anime in question, it follows the formula 1 to 1, shamelessly so and from the very start. Every season is just the flavor of the week addition to the harem with a simplistic story slapped on and the main character solving the problem in the end. What makes Danmachi different from any other power fantasy isekai? Nothing really... I never understood why some things get popular and other don't. Maybe animation quality or some initial traction from the source material... Who knows.
As you might already suspect, there aren't many good things I can say about this anime. I can't name a single character that is well-written or interesting, the general story patterns easy to follow and way too obvious, there is no important theme being explored. You got a hero. Hero does heroic things. B-ches be loving heroes.

All that being said, there is one thing about this season that stands out from the rest. Even with all my lack of interest towards this anime, it pulled out just one nice thing. Unlike the previous seasons, this time there was an actual sense of danger present. Once the previous set of episodes ended, things were looking very desperate and this season managed to carry this feeling on for a while. This was the first time where Bell actually had to overcome something. Unfortunately, in the end, everything plays out in the same obvious formula. There is some kind of dissonance that happens in my brain when Bell is barely able to kill a basic enemy in the area and later proceeds to kill the final boss in a duo with another heavily wounded and barely moving companion. All while being more exhausted and generally not learning anything new. This is just bad writing, end of story.

Another half of the season is spent following the ing cast. And to be honest... I don't know how anyone cares about any of them, so obviously it feels very filler-ish. There's at least 5 things I can name of the top of my hand that made no sense regarding their decision-making process as a group or the story surrounding their trip, but this would get us into spoiler territory. In the end, everybody makes it out alive and well no matter how much the show hypes you up for huge difficulties. And even if some huge drama someone dies moment happens, nothing would change since again who cares about these characters. Another filler-like segment was the Astrea familia past, which again isn't very relevant to anything and who cares. It's not like you can flesh a cast of good characters that die a tragic death in 1-2 episodes worth of screen time.

Final verdict: I want this medium to grow up, but this most likely will never happen. We will drown in a sea of soulless mediocre copy-paste stories that only differ slightly by flavor.