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

If you're still here by the time you're reading this short and sweet review, there's no need to actually do a recap on the prior seasons, to which if otherwise, please go back and watch the 3 seasons, then come back to this one.

The ever so popular LN that is Fujino Omori's DanMachi that's coming back for its 4th season, and potentially the largest since this was first announced to be a 2-cour series (which later became a split-cour), drives the audience back to Volumes 12 and 13 of the LN (for the 1st half) where the Hestia Familia under Bell Cranel and his gang ... of adventurers from all across various Familias, forces to tackle the Dungeon's new unknown: the Lower Floors which contain this signature point called the Great Fall, that encapsulates this huge waterfall that's estimated to be 400 meters wide and twice that in length, marking its beginning which lasts from the 25th until the 27th Floor. And this is said to be the most dangerous floors that adventurers must be at least Level 4 before they can explore this side of the Dungeon, or otherwise it's one-hit KOs, and survival is only barely scraped by the least of coincidence and luck.

The only things to note in Season 4 going forward, is that aside from the LN author himself helping to supervise on the pacing of this 2-cour long story, just about the only new character that's introduced so far is yet another Xenos creature: Marie the mermaid, which like Wiene in Season 3, is yet another female that follows Bell Cranel's never-ending "salute" of picking up girls in the dungeon, though her use case isn't really that much known yet aside from falling in love with Bell after saving her from a strong monster. So, take it as you will about the usual DanMachi trope that's already a mainstay from the very beginning.

Regardless, everything that I've mentioned in prior seasons can be taken here with J.C.Staff's already great production, plus the OST, with sajou no hana's OP and Saori Hayami's ED for the 1st half, which all are pretty good. I mean, if you're enjoying DanMachi or vice versa, it's a no-brainer for anyone who is still keeping up with the anime to go ahead and continue the progress.

*Edited for better context and clarity*

Danmachi season 4 suffers from something that i will call "The main protagonist won't die" problem, that by it self isn't exactly a problem, unless you try to create situations where the MP's life is being threatened in some way, because as we the audience know, he can't die, he's the one who gives the name to the series, whom the entire world revolves around, so it's not about if he will die or not, is that he won't die, he can't die otherwise there is no more series.

Season 4 is entirely built over things specifically threatening Bell's life, and ... sometimes threatening his friends and family's lives, but specifically because we know he wont die, we can't fear at all for his life, we can only expect for someone close to him to die, and that affecting him, but that doesn't even happen. For such kind of history, that is such a miss of opportunity, to use a situation that would threaten his friends to build and develop Bell's character growth, specially considering the previous events.

In an ideal scenario, we could assume bell got careless with fame and leveling up, leading to such dark situation of danger involving a friend or family member, leading to losing someone and Bell needing to deal with the consequences. Instead we got a walking tour through deeper levels of the dungeon, with looming threats that aren't a threat, because bell can't die, and the only gripe we have is if he can keep Ryuu secure while searching for an exit.

This is such a waste of the Berserker plot, the threat it would pose, and Ryuu story getting diminished due to the way the story is told. Also, that's isn't even the only problem with this season, the second one being nothing in this ties or revolves around thing feeding bell's growth and development, this feels like a side story made into a main story. It strongly reminded me of the movie plot, with some more development. Actually, it would've fitted better as a movie then a proper season 4, to how unrelated to bell everything happening here is.

All the motivation of this season lays with Ryuu, her past, her vengeance saga, nothing related to Bell, until he just shows up at the wrong time, and wrong place. That's why this feels like a Ryuu side story turn into a Bell main plot line, that doesn't have any tie to Bell other than him getting accidentally involved, because of his relationship with Ryuu, something that doesn't even help the case for this being a main line story, as it only builds up on Ryuu's reasoning and responsibility for her own decisions and the consequences of her enraged acts.

Other than that, it was nothing out of the ordinary for Danmachi, it just didn't felt like a mainline thing, and that it was just poorly put together to justify extra content

When this series first started airing I was intrigued. Here was a story that wasn't nothing new in the way of anime stories go, but it was seeming self aware and ready to take strides towards creating a story that had depth, development and importantly plot. It introduced a MC that was cognizant of his inadequacies and created a goal to strive towards.

However now here we are in S4 and everything that S1 started, this season killed.

The MC is still weak minded (But hey don't worry about power up because he's got "God Mode" to help him level up), whiny and incompetent and sorely ... needs saved by humongous amounts of plot armor. They have thrown out the actual plot in lieu of fan service and tom foolery which of course, keeps up with the status quo of the garbage already out there. There is no story line other than the wash, rinse, repeat story line of the weekly big bad.

As far as those mysteries they put out there: Yeah forget that we've got HAREM and BOOBIES.

Seriously, for a series that had such a good solid start, it sure became a dumpster fire in a quick minute. Not surprised, but highly disappointing. Bring out the rest of your dead, then drop them and this one in the funeral pyre because they are all victims of the dying anime industry.