Anime Spotlight #23: DanMachi (Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?)

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. The Prodigal Animeister.

It's been quite awhile since I've done an Anime Spotlight, and it's been even longer since I've wanted to do an Anime Spotlight on Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? (also known by its Japanese shorthand title, DanMachi, so I'll be referring to it by that title going forward). But it's been even longer since I first began watching the series (I think I was working at Subway and had been watching the multitude of harem anime that soon spawned the Anime-BAW, Anime-WTF?, and Anime Spotlight series).

And now (as the cat from Demon Girl Next Door often says) "the time has come." So please remember to comment at the bottom of this post, Become A Ticketholder to join the Ticketmaster Familia if you haven't already, help out my ad revenue as you read, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the blessing of the latest news on my content.

Before we get into the series itself, though, it seems proper to discuss the circumstances that kept me from re-watching DanMachi until now. The most obvious ones were my insufficient financial means, my switch to a new major, the restructuring and collapse of VRV and its expired contract with HIDIVE, the Funimation/CrunchyRoll merger, the difficulty and drive space needed for "any way you can" access to the series, and the continued influx of new, fun-to-watch (but mostly not worth discussing in print here) anime series.

It's also important to review HIDIVE itself (CrunchyRoll only has the latest season on their app), as it is the only sure way to watch all four seasons, all of the OVAs, the Sword Oratorio side season, and the Arrow Of the Orion movie. But HIDIVE is garbage. Not as garbage as the Funimation app was (and probably still is) because it did get a minor but noticeable improvement update in mid-2023, but compared to a media player or other anime streaming apps (especially the now-defunct VRV app), it is painful to use.

The website was a minor improvement for awhile until the update turned it into a mobile-unfriendly, visual clutter-fuck that drove me back to the app. The website has zero stability when it comes to keeping track of your queued and favorited shows and episodes, but while the app is more stable in that regard, it lacks social engagement functionality, has no "go backward/forward x number of seconds" buttons outside of SmartCast Mode, and if you don't watch the credits all the way through to a certain point without sliding ahead on the timeline, the "watch next" button won't trigger, forcing you to back out to the season episode list, choose the next episode, and reconfigure your audio and subtitle settings every time. Plus, the app treats each season, OVA, and movie in a franchise as a different show, forcing you to search out the next part of the series if you want to continue watching and don't properly trigger the "watch next" button. Like I said, garbage.

From this point on, I will be covering all four seasons of DanMachi, including each season's OVA episode and the Sword Oratoria side-story. The Arrow Of the Orion movie will be covered in a separate post on Friday.

Also, spoilers for major plot points ahead.

In an alternate world where all pantheistic religions coexist (chiefly Greco-Roman, Buddhist, Nordic, and Shinto deities), the Gods (and Goddesses, but they are referred to collectively as Gods, regardless of gender) grew bored of their lives in Heaven (hinting that there may be a Judeo-Christian influence at some point, as well) and came to the lower world to bestow their blessings upon mortals in the hopes of creating Familias (these are essentially cults of human and demi-human mortals with skill-specific and traditional level-based RPG powers, though only a few are shown to overtly deserve that negative identifier) and earning the distinction of finding and nurturing the world's next great Hero. DanMachi takes place in this world, and is mainly set in the city of Orario, your basic JRPG town with a guild hall, a tavern, a variety of shops, an arena, a multi-level tower/dungeon full of monsters that fuels the city's various Familia-monopolized economies (the Hephaistos--a gender-swapped take on the deformed Greek smithing deity, Hephaestus--Familia, for example, is a mostly smithing-based Familia, and so monopolizes the weapons, armor, accessory, and maintenance industries, with the only fairness being that prices are set based on the smiths' skill levels and personal blessings),...and a district of ill repute, Amsterdam lighting, and demoiselles d'avignon, if you know what I mean.

But we don't hit that part of town for another season. Instead, we spend the first season getting to know Bell Cranel, the one and only member of the Hestia Familia, who may or may not be the grandson of Zeus. Spurned on by his grandfather's inspirational words that he explore the dungeon, pick up chicks, and become a Hero (but, Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon?), Bell winds up in over his head when the beautiful Ais Wallenstein and her Loki Familia party accidentally unleash a horde of Minotaurs, and she has to save him. Unfortunately, Bell has a young Yamcha-level of gynophobia, and gains a reputation for being weak and cowardly when he bolts from the dungeon and runs through town covered in Minotaur blood. But he is attracted to Ais, and so vows to get stronger and mature as a person so he can prove himself worthy of her affection...to the dismay of his jealous, "childish-looking Goddess with big boobs, but it's 'okay' because she's immortal," but it's really not okay because she's immortal, and it's REALLY not okay if you know Greek mythology like I do because that makes Hestia Bell's great-aunt and members of a God's Familia are referred to as their "Children," so most of the "comedy" centered around Hestia involves either the size of her boobs or romantic feelings and possessive, controlling jealousy that boil down to incest and multi-generational pedophilia. You know? Light-hearted, fun subject matter‽

Fortunately, though this kind of humor (with the accompanying running gag of Hestia mispronouncing Ais' last name as "Wallen-what's'er-[something]") happens at least once per episode of the main series, the first season also packs in a lot of rich world-building, from basic (but numerically fuzzy for the sake of plot and adding combat unpredictability) RPG mechanics to the many environments and their associated side characters (many of whom are female characters and/or Rule 63 takes on traditional deities because Bell needs to be an ignorant/shy harem protagonist, too, I guess) to building up Bell's combat prowess, weapons and armor, reputation, and party members, the latter of which get several episodes each worth of introduction and development.

First is Liliruca Arde, a cute but wily demi-human Supporter (carrying extra gear and potions and assisting with strategy, cover fire, and picking up mass item drops) whose character development from being a member of the shady, cultish Soma Familia provides commentary on slavery, substance dependency, child abuse, cult-associated criminal activity, and other topics. Beginning as something of a deceptive antagonist in Bell's life, she grows to appreciate and admire him (which makes her part of his unwanted harem alongside Hestia, Ais, his Guild Advisor, Eina, tavern waitress, Syr, and series antagonist, Freya, among many others who will be more active in the harem shenanigans in later seasons), and often serves as the voice of reason when Hestia gets too controlling and handsy (clearly stemming from her tough life under the Soma Familia, but always played off as typical, comedy-relief harem jealousy).

Second to join the party is Welf Crozzo, a Hephaistos Familia smith who gets a slow introduction (we don't see him until two or three episodes after he's mentioned by name when Bell is shopping for armor), and we're still getting drip-fed information about him (such as his much more age-appropriate feelings for his Goddess and his mysterious but tragic past with elemental sword forging) several seasons later.

That's the extent of Bell's party in Season I, but they do collaborate with other Familias when greater threats arise, such as an armed minotaur (which I swear Bell killed in the first season, but it comes back in Season III for a rematch) and this series' equivalent of a Raid Boss, called the Goliath. These fights, as well as Bell's training with Ais, and his solo battle with an escaped, albino cyborg gorilla (all the monster fights of which were instigated by the improbably semi-clothed Goddess, Freya, because she gets off on watching him fight or something) are impressively animated for the time, and make good, minimalist use of CGI backgrounds for their more dynamic moments.

Oh, and there's Hermes, the scheming, perverted, macaroni-looking messenger/courier God who dresses like Yankee Doodle on his way to Oktoberfest and makes it his personal mission to get Bell to violate the ABC's of surviving a harem (Bell doesn't have a sister, so that means Awareness of one's surroundings, Balance to avoid falling face-first into suggestive female regions, and Clenched fists to avoid accidentally groping a female character's breasts upon violating Rule B. See the Mother's Basement PSA on YouTube for further details) to "turn him into a real man." Yeah, the light novel and manga started in 2013, and the anime started in 2015, so it isn't the best aged series going.

I could spoil a ton more, but there's so much content in the first season that I've probably already forgotten some of it, and whatever else I could remember would fill a Russian romance novel (those were very thick books when more physical books existed), so let's talk about the first OVA before we move on to the other first season.

Is It Wrong To Expect A Hot Spring In A Dungeon? is the thirteenth episode of Season I, and in true anime OVA fashion, it's a fanservice episode. It takes place after the entire cast teams up to help Bell kill a Freya-enhanced Goliath, and one of Hestia's jealous tantrums unveils the hidden entrance to a natural hot spring in the dungeon, which prompts the hot spring fanatic of the Takemikazuchi Familia to drag everyone along for the experience. Typical Hot Springs/Bath House episode shenanigans ensue, such as the men peeping on the women, objectification of the female form that would make Michael Bay put on a blindfold, cartoonish tsundere violence, and catfish/angler tentacle monsters that spit clothing-dissolving acid. Bell kills the monsters and everyone escapes with no bearing on the future plot of the series.

Sword Oratoria: Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? On the Side? (or however the order goes) is kind of like the Scientific Railgun of the DanMachi series, as it follows the events of the first season from the perspective of Ais and the Loki Familia, giving focus to characters who only had background presence or limited speaking roles in the main series.

Key moments include the events leading up to Ais saving Bell from the Minotaur, her growing attention towards Bell as the season progresses, her accompanying Loki (who is gender-swapped into a flat-chested, lecherous yuri Goddess) to her meeting with Freya, and the more fleshed-out Loki Familia quelling the Monsterphilia disaster (while Bell is fighting the cyborg gorilla monster elsewhere in the city). Speaking of Bell, Sword Oratoria has two of them now, as the semi-focus character here has awkward, repressed romantic feelings (but just barely repressed, and more obviously and tropishly Japraved to an eye-rollingly frequent degree because they don't have overt gynophobia) for Ais, is insecure and wants to get stronger to be worthy of Ais' attention (but it's really annoying for most of the season), and is a spellcasting prodigy with crazy potential (that they can't tap into without getting a glimpse of that sweet, flowing, blonde hair because they have self-esteem issues, a yuri crush, and a jittery case of monsterphobia), but it's an elf girl (top-center on the poster).

The interesting part of this gaiden season comes with the appearance of carnivorous, flower-like tentacle monsters with enough mouth-ception going on to give me nightmares and give a Xenomorph a migraine. They first show up at the Monsterphilia incident, and are eventually revealed to be under the control of a mysterious, bloodthirsty, female Adventurer with ties to Ais' past and an evil organization called Evilus (because author Fujino Omori was feeling uncreative that day), which will get further mention in Seasons III and IV. I'm not entirely sure why (probably money because it's always money), but despite Leifya being an inferior focus character with a name that's not spelled anywhere near how it is pronounced and Loki being Loki (a semi-recurring gag about Loki sexually assaulting Leifya is actually used as a point of character progression for the elf-mage), Sword Oratoria had some of the best character work in the entire series, yet it only got one season. Too bad the DanMachi Project folks expected to make more (and leaned hard on the old, "read the manga" standby tactic), because instead of definitive answers (we did learn that Ais is part Spirit, but not much else--we don't really even know what Spirits are), we got the promise of more questions. Great final battle episode, though; really impressively animated....

DanMachi II is a perfect example of what happens when a popular series has a good enough freshman outing to mandate a sequel. Rather than a single, character-rich narrative, this next batch of twelve episodes packs in an inter-Familia War Game for the fate of Bell and the Hestia Familia (wherein a mysterious elvish assassin named Ryu joins Hestia's small ranks to improve their odds in the War Game against Apollo and add another member to Bell's unwanted harem), a growth arc for Liliruca as she proves her personal convictions and earns her freedom from the wine-addicted Soma Familia (and becomes an official member of the Hestia Familia as well as of Bell's unwanted harem), a trip to the Red Light District that starts a war with the Amazonian Ishtar Familia (who monopolize the brothel industry in Orario) when Bell decides to rescue a fox-girl escort whose soul is to be sacrificed so Ishtar can settle her ongoing conflict with Freya, and an inconsequential series of episodes where Hestia gets her feelings hurt, gets kidnapped by a one-off loser of a comic-relief deity, Ares (yes, the Greek god of war is a self-important, incompetent dumbass in this show...because war commentary?), and Bell has to rescue her and learn to admit his feelings (which was supposed to serve as a big, Season Finale moment, but feels shoehorned in to pad the episode count, and is never mentioned seriously again). Oh, and speaking of things that feel weird and have no bearing on the future plot, there's

Is It Wrong To Go Searching For Herbs On A Deserted Island? This second Original Video Animation episode (and thirteenth episode of Season II) sees the members of the Hestia Familia (Hestia, Bell, Lili, Haruhime--that's the fox-girl from earlier in the season--Welf, and Mikoto--a transplant from the Takemikazuchi Familia, who was also partly responsible for the hot springs shenanigans from the previous OVA) and Ryu participate in The Beach Episode of every harem anime ever, including the women fighting over Bell and copious amounts of swimsuitsploitation. But things get weird when Ais shows up out of nowhere with a mushroom growing out of her head and starts acting like a ditz. Then everyone starts hallucinating and it turns into Invasion Of the Body Snatchers.

But was it? Whatever the case, it has no bearing on the plot of the next season.

DanMachi III pays off the cliffhanger at the end of Season II where a girl with pale, blue skin and razor-sharp fingernails cracked out of the Dungeon wall. Season III has a more focused plot than Season II, but it does follow the same kind of plot with Bell causing inter-Familia conflict when he encounters a girl in danger. Put two and two together with the fact that we've seen monsters spawn from Dungeon walls in previous seasons, and you've probably guessed that the girl in danger this time is a monster (a young Wyvern named Wiene--pronounced "V-Nay" because we've already established that pronunciation doesn't need to make sense). The Familia conflict that he gets in the middle of this time? It's between the Guild (which we find out this season is part of the Ouranos/Uranus Familia) and the monster-hating Ikelos Familia (sentient monsters are referred to in the series as Xenos, and hatred is born of irrational fear, so the Ikelos Familia are literal stand-ins for xenophobia), led by their champion, Dix. So, yeah; in a season about fighting xenophobia, Bell has to protect V-Nay and Uranus from Dix.

Also, it turns out that Dix is a descendant of Daedalus. Instead of drowning in the ocean because he and his son built wings to fly to the sun, like in the original myth, DanMachi's Daedalus went insane and died while trying to build a better Dungeon than the Gods and passed his compulsion on to his descendants, leaving monster killing as Dix' only relief from his family's curse, kind of like if Dexter Morgan was one of the Inglorious Basterds, but for monsters instead of Nazis or serial killers, but I repeat myself.

The downfall of this season (aside from the xenophobia commentary not making sense because most of the Xenos don't look that different from demi-humans, which I guess is also a perfect characterization of xenophobia?) is the final few episodes. Just when Bell defeats Dix and things feel like they've wrapped up, the final act forces Bell to help the Xenos get from the safety they were already in to the even safer safety of the fake, incomplete Dungeon that was built by the insane ancestors of the man who spent most of the season trying to kill them. This brings the Hestia Familia into conflict with every other established Familia, turns into an unnecessary fake-out so Hermes can make Bell kill some of the Xenos he just re-saved because not being racist is so hard that Wiene had to go insane, die, get resurrected, and rip off parts of her own body before Bell's hot, Aryan crush could be convinced that looking different doesn't make sentience impossible. Oh, and this could have all been avoided if anyone who was vaguely monster-looking just opened their mouths and spoke words instead of growling and brandishing weapons.

But also, the nonsense and false endings don't stop there because that Minotaur I thought Bell had killed in Season I is back (either I misremembered his death or he respawned offscreen) with a name and a grudge because having Bell and his team run a multi-pronged, highly coordinated escort mission that put all of their skills to the test against every other Familia in the city at once wasn't a big enough final battle. Don't get me wrong; Bell vs. Asterius II has some of the best hand-drawn fight animation in the series, giving me flashes of Black Clover and the final battle from Ranking Of Kings with how it depicts environmental destruction. But it was also the third major fight in a season that was two fights too long.

We do get an instance of Hestia being so in awe of Ais' fighting power and technique that she gets her name right for once, so there's that to look forward to.

Bath God Forever: Is It Wrong To Try To Find A Hot Spring In Orario? Yes, it's another hot spring episode. But it's totally different because it's above ground! Is it wrong to try to be sarcastic on the Internet?

The Dian Cecht Familia have opened a bath house in Orario, which the dub characters insist on pronouncing as the "Dian Sex Cauldron." 

Insert appropriate Simpsons' meme here.

As some minor Adventurer characters from the third season are furious at Dian Cecht (voiced by Chris Rager in the dub--that's Mr. Satan from Dragon Ball, BTW) for stealing their bath house design and falsely claiming that it is a natural hot spring and Bell has to be in the episode somehow, they rope him, Welf, Hermes, and Ganesha into causing a perverted distraction and recycling dated Bath House Episode tropes while they wear anachronistically advanced, skin-tight spy suits and rip off Star Wars to find out the secret of Dian Cecht's Cauldron Bath House. As it turns out, the secret is that Cecht had been re-using his Saint's bath water (this is Airmid, whom we haven't seen since Sword Oratoria), and she gets so embarrassed that the bath house explodes. But everyone is fine because comedy? Also, another Simpsons' prediction confirmed? And Moe was right? And it has no further bearing on the plot? And it has no further bearing on the plot.

DanMachi IV - Though I am reviewing the seasons in chronological order, my re-watch of the series to catch up with this season actually had me watching DanMachi I-III, then Sword Oratoria, before getting into this season, and it made me appreciate the first arc of DanMachi IV more, and made me more aware of both the many differences from what I had seen before, and what it had all been leading to (at least, until DanMachi V comes out?).

First of all, it is the longest season of the show to date, clocking in at twenty-two episodes when compared to the twelve-plus-the-OVA count seen in the other seasons. Unlike in the past, this season begins with an open acknowledgement (via character dialogue) of the previous season's events and the growth of its characters, particularly Bell Cranel. Despite his crushing defeat at the hands of Asterius the Black Minotaur in the last season's finale, he is acknowledged to be stronger, more mature, more heroic, and more focused than before. It doesn't stop with dialogue, either, nor with Bell himself. Liliruca, who had started out as a conniving thief before becoming a supportive, strategic force for Bell, earning her freedom from her original Familia by sheer willpower, and putting her shapeshifting skills into full effect during the inter-Familia war for the safety of the Xenos, is now put in the role of Party Strategist, able to demonstrate every bit of strategic aptitude and the weight of that responsibility every time she's onscreen (aided by some of the only well-dimensioned dub acting in the entire series, provided by Hilary Haag). Welf Crozzo, the Hestia Familia's smith and big-brother figure, even gets a major--albeit Power Of Friendship-reliant--step up in his strength of character and forging skill. Getting back to Bell, many things mark him as a more mature character. For one, this is the first season without Ais Wallenstein playing an active role (or Hermes being there to get Bell in trouble). Once the focus of his romantic intentions and idolatry, as well as his frequent rescuer, Ais has no physical presence this season, and is only mentioned once by name when Bell refers to her as a mentor, showing that while he may not have surpassed her in terms of strength (the series' fuzzy leveling system places her three experience levels above him), he has surpassed his need for her assistance and approval. Also, there's the new color scheme of his armor and clothing to a brighter shade of blue with red-accented plate-metal armor, giving him a more patriotic (on this side of the Pacific, anyway), heroic look. Bell Cranel; the new Captain America! I joke from a place of truth.... But, yeah; this new look alone (seen in the above poster for the season) pulls double duty as a symbol of Bell's character growth and as a bright juxtaposition for what this Marathon batch of episodes is about to hit the audience with. DanMachi IV is that season of an animated show; the one that says, "we're done with the bright, action-comedy harem content; our audience is older, times have changed, and we're in the Big Leagues now, so it's time for a slaughter!"

I'll get into that in a bit, but first, I want to touch back on another point: the connections to previous seasons. Aside from directly mentioning the events of DanMachi III (and officially bringing the Xenos into the recurring cast in the second half of this season), there are elements of the previous seasons and blink-and-you'll-miss-it nods to the OVAs, such as Cassandra's premonitions from the Apollo War Game and the Deserted Island OVA driving the season's two plots, the "plant monster evolves by eating monster cores" mechanic from Sword Oratoria (this time, it's the uncreatively named Moss-Huge, which is a plant-minotaur-like monster that is--duh--mossy and huge, and serves as the first arc's Boss-level threat), the return of the equally uncreatively named Evilus organization that was mentioned last season and in Sword Oratoria, and is the catalyst for the season's second arc, and elaboration on Ryu's checkered past of revenge against the Rudra Familia, who are part of Evilus.

The first arc, which is a simple resource-gathering Mission for the Hestia Familia (I omitted this so far because it was minor, but the Guild has four kinds of Adventuring activities: unofficially named grinding and harvesting stuff that can be done alone or with a small Party; Expeditions, which are expensive, resource-heavy, long-term Dungeon dives conducted by entire Familias or large, collaborative groups; Quests, which are typical, optional JRPG fodder that anyone with the right qualifications can do; and Missions, which are Guild-mandated operations for specific Familias--basically a large-scale Instacart order, but the supermarket can literally kill you), has them, along with Cassandra and her friend, Daphne, and Haruhime's big sister figure from the defunct Ishtar Familia, Aisha, running afoul of the Moss-Huge while Bell stumbles across a mermaid Xenos named Marie, who heals him and helps him rejoin his Party when they become separated in a fight with the Moss-Huge. But of course, to further illustrate the impending gore and bleakness of the next arc, Bell--almost too easily--dispatches the regenerating beast, and the group heads to the Dungeon settlement to celebrate and refresh themselves, only to be met with news of a murdered Adventurer (another plot element last seen in Sword Oratoria), as well as eyewitness testimony that Ryu is responsible.

Bell and his party from the previous arc decide to join the Execution Party so they can get ahead of the mob and learn the truth for themselves, only to fall into a trap set by Evilus, who want to unleash the Juggernaut (this is another missable reference that wouldn't have occurred to me if I had not watched Sword Oratoria before this, but in the final episode's post-credits scene, Uranus and his assistant, Fels, mentioned that the Dungeon is a living, self-regenerating thing capable of generating an all-destroying force if it is damaged enough) so they can control it and settle their unfinished business with Ryu (Evilus had set a similar trap before, then unwittingly summoning the Juggernaut, which wiped out her original Familia and set her on her path of revenge against them).

I feel I must note here how questionable and prevalent the CGI is this season. I'm sure it was a result of a rushed production schedule and the unusual length of the season, but almost everything (the backgrounds, the water, the monsters; everything but the characters themselves) is CGI, and the integration with the less prevalent, hand-drawn elements is far from seamless, including a bit of cel clipping and bad transparency keying, thus making imposing threats like the Moss-Huge and the Juggernaut (the Xenomorph-meets-Red-Eyes Black Dragon-meets-Kafka design for which, I love, as well as its later, Franken-Cronenberg look) feel goofier and clunkier in full light than they should. I mean, this is a big, black, bony bug-lizard with imperceptible speed that can reflect almost all magic back to the caster, and it can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel fear or pity, or remorse, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until every Adventurer in the Dungeon is dead. It's the Juggernaut, bitch! I'm done quoting movies! But the point is, while the animators go hard on the gore, savagery, hopelessness, and illustrating the blinding speed of the thing as it slaughters the remaining members of the Rudra Familia and the Execution Party they riled up, their use of CGI failed to make such an immovable object of a creature look truly scary.

However, that doesn't take away from the masterful way they and the series' author handle multiple concurrent plots. Bell and Ryu's character-rich journey of mutual support and survival, their Party's daunting search-and-rescue efforts, brief cuts to Uranus and Hestia as they mount individual efforts to send reinforcements, and flashbacks to Ryu's time with the Astraea Familia are all woven together with appropriately symbolic transitional imagery, almost feeling like one, epic, "true story of survival" movie with an incredibly heartfelt and satisfying ending (and also a hint from Ryu that Arthurian legends exist in this world?).

However again, one thing that I feel like I glossed over with respect to the series as a whole is how underwhelming the majority of the monster horde battles are. I get that anime is chiefly a motion adaptation of a more visually limited print source, and that animation is a challenging, nigh-thankless industry that must pick and choose its Moments to devote the most resources to (in DanMachi, it is the credits sequences and boss fights, like the Goliath, Asterius, the Corrupted Plant Spirit, and yes, even the Juggernaut, which get the most choreography animation). I also get that DanMachi is a JRPG-inspired franchise, and as such, can have a bit of a turn-based look to its fight editing. This is probably why most of the attacks have a "static character rushes in, cut to projectile or monster(s) with overlaid slashmark animation, monster(s) die and evaporate with character in a cool pose, mash the A button until monster count equals zero" progression to them. It's very samurai movie-inspired and very on-brand for the series' game genre influences, but it can also be very repetitive and cheap-looking, especially in a prolonged season like this, where the Adventurers vs Horde fights are aplenty and can go on much longer than they should.

Nonetheless (because three "However"s would be boring), I appreciated the darker, more character-driven direction this season took. There was still a bit of harem building, Power Of Friendship nonsense, non-commitment to stakes and consequences because of plot armor (I'm trying not to spoil too much, but you can probably figure out what I'm talking about if you've watched or read this far), and a few times where I asked, "why is this working now when it didn't work when they did it before?" But putting Bell in a position where he could question his own strength and sanity, yet still find it in himself to rescue someone--Ryu--who was previously shown to be on par with Ais, while she was struggling with her own worth and mortality made the Juggernaut Arc well worth the price of admission.

I'm looking forward to DanMachi V (or I may just read the manga?).

A few more tidbits about the series as a whole: every episode has two titles, of which only the first is spoken in episode previews. In Sword Oratoria, the two titles are "and"-ed together and both are spoken. Each of the first three seasons features an episode titled either "Bell Cranel," "Argonaut," or both. Season IV has an episode titled, "Argo Vesta," but not one explicitly named after Bell (unless you count "Rabbit's Foot," which is another indication of his maturity from his previous deity-chosen Second Name, Little Rookie, but hasn't yet started to roll off my mental tongue without making a brain fart noise).

Stay Tuned for the Arrow Of the Orion! review on Friday, and please remember to comment at the bottom of this post, Become A Ticketholder to join the Ticketmaster Familia if you haven't already, help out my ad revenue as you read, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the blessing of the latest news on my content.

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Out.