Review for Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?! Season 4 - Part 1

Introduction

There are shows that blow their own trumpet, anime franchises that roll through like a juggernaut, your Attack on Titans, your That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slimes, your Tokyo Ghouls and your Overlords that make a big hullabaloo whenever there is a new instalment, another new season or movie spin-off. But then there are those franchises that quietly keep on keeping on, dropping a new series here or there, and before you know it, you’re in your fourth season, fifth counting a side story. Or maybe I’m just not tuned into social media the way I used to be. Either way, I had to blink twice when Part 1 of Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV showed up for review. Yes, Part 1. This time the story’s going to be told in two cours instead of just one. The thing is that I’ve been enjoying this little comedy adventure franchise a lot more than those I mentioned before, and I had a grin on my face already as I put the first disc into the player.


I suppose it could get pretty stolid being a god, lounging about atop Mount Olympus, sipping ambrosia, reminiscing about the good old days when there was more smiting. It could also get pretty boring just looking down on the world instead of interacting with it. Apparently long ago, the gods sealed their powers, and descended to the mortal realm seeking excitement. All that was left was the ability to bless adventurers enabling them to fight monsters. Those blessed would become part of a god’s Familia. Although some gods would have more worshippers than others, have more status in the world. The goddess Hestia has just one adventurer in her Familia, the unlikely Bell Cranel, who is a whole novice at this dungeoneering thing. It’s getting so bad that Hestia has to take a part time job. But Bell Cranel has an unexpected talent...


Bell Cranel is now a Level 4 adventurer, with all the skills and powers that come with it. As a result, the Guild are giving the Hestia Familia some high level missions, this time sending them to explore further down the dungeon than ever before. The problem is that the Hestia Familia’s climb has been so rapid, that no one, not even Bell has the experience they need for this kind of adventure. So for this new descent into the Dungeon, they’re recruiting plenty of friends to help them on their quest, as well as one or two unlikely faces.


12 episodes are presented across 2 Blu-rays in this release from MVM.

Disc 1
0. (Play Back) Reminisce
1. (Prelude) Night Before Departure
2. (The Great Falls) The Great Falls
3. (Parasite) Vis cum Album
4. (Mermaid) The Girl of Water City
5. (Argo Vesta) Heroic Slash of Holy Flame
6. (Rabbit’s Foot) Rabbit’s Foot
7. (Cassandra Ilion) Dream Seer
8. (Mirabilis) Chaos

Disc 2
9. (Lambton) Ill Omen
10. (Juggernaut) The Destroyer
11. (Endless) Brutal

Picture

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? gets a 1.78:1 widescreen 1080p transfer on these discs. We have a solid transfer of an anime series here, clear and sharp throughout with strong consistent colours. The image also comes across without aliasing, with smooth and fluid animation. Once again darker scenes suffer from digital banding, and given that these episodes take place mostly in the depths of the eponymous dungeon, there are more than a few darker scenes here. Hestia’s boob ribbon is the gateway into this show, and that little element of costume design is carried off well, but the show has generally agreeable character designs, and a solid, fantasy inspired world design. The animation is of good quality for the most part, but it really does perk up for the action sequences, touching theatrical quality at its best.

Sound

The show offers the usual DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo English and Japanese, with English subtitles and signs locked to the appropriate track. There is also an HOH English subtitle track (a.k.a. dubtitles) to go with the English dub if you require. I have to admit that I didn’t even try the dub this time around, sticking to the original Japanese audio. The characters are cast well for their archetypes, and the actors deliver enthusiastic and lively performances. The action comes across well, as does the music, with the stereo offering much in the way of dynamic sound design. This time I paid attention to the music a lot more, and was really impressed with a music score that wouldn’t be out of place in a feature film. The orchestration and emotional impact of the music can’t be understated in this show. The subtitles are timed accurately but there are a couple of typos, “father” instead of “further” in episode 2, and a missing word in episode 9.

Extras

The discs present their content with static menus. Each episode is followed by a translated credit reel.

On disc 2 you’ll find the textless credits, and 9:41 of Web Previews.

Conclusion

Is it wrong to love this show so much? I mean, it’s hardly an original concept, an anime based on RPG tropes, with a whole lot of adventuring and dungeoneering, the kind of thing that has been a perennial draw since before the Slayers franchise, and made even more ubiquitous alongside the advent of the ‘isekai’ lost-in-another-world trope. Danmachi isn’t an isekai, but it is a whole lot of fun, and now, in its fourth season, it’s just as appealing as it was with its debut, if not more so.


The story works in the way it balances its growth and change with comfortable stability. The main characters remain true to type, and the comedy is perfectly judged and welcome, and the series has set a formula in how its story arcs unfold. But against this, there is character growth too, as well as a lot of attraction in seeing how this story universe is explored, and in how the cast grows and changes. Way back at the start of the first season, the story focused on the unlikeliest of heroes in Bell Cranel, and the unassuming but unfeasibly buxom goddess that becomes his ‘patron’. As the series has unfolded, Bell Cranel’s strength and abilities have grown, although he’s never become arrogant with it, and Hestia’s Familia has expanded as more and more adventurers join Bell Cranel on his explorations.


New challenges arise at the start of the fourth season, here given a full two cours compared to the first three single cour seasons. The first is dealing with the Hestia Familia’s rapid ascent thanks to Bell Cranel’s heroics. He’s now a Level 4 adventurer, pretty high up on the adventurer scale, enough to warrant the Hestia Familia being assigned a dangerous mission. But the Familia is still small in numbers compared to the kind of adventurers who usually take on such missions, and strong though he may be, Bell Cranel is still inexperienced and naive. The mission seems simple enough, go and explore levels 25 and below in the dungeon. But this time, the Hestia Familia is reinforced by allies from other, friendly Familia previously encountered, as well as a former adversary or two.


Bell Cranel also has a new goal, that of fostering peace between people and the Xenos, the race of intelligent monsters that played a part in the previous season. He thinks that if he conquers the dungeon to its lowest level, people will no longer feel threatened, and will accept the idea of coexisting with the Xenos. But as always, the latest challenge will prove tougher than anything that has come before, and will test our heroes. A big part of this season comes with the character of Cassandra, a member of the Miach Familia, and who has joined the party exploring the levels. She is a seer, and before they even set foot in the dungeon, she has had an ominous vision indeed, one that she is desperate to prevent. But just as with the original Cassandra of Troy, she is likely to be dismissed, if not disbelieved outright. And even if Bell is sympathetic and trusting, his nature is such that he chooses the danger regardless of prophecy.


The first half of the fourth season is split into two arcs, or rather one and a half arcs as they venture deep into the dungeon. The first episode, or rather zeroth episode is a handy recap of the first three seasons, detailing the previous story arcs, and reintroducing those characters that are most relevant to this season. The first five episodes then act as a rude awakening to the dangers of the 25th level, as they face a foe unlike anything they have seen before, a moss monster of wicked strength, intelligence and speed, and who attacks by planting parasitic spores on its victims.


Episode six briefly returns us to the surface, and a convocation of the Gods, where they decide Bell Cranel’s new nickname. Previously the Little Rookie, he henceforth will be known as Rabbit’s Foot. This is probably the lightest episode in the collection, and the one in which Hestia features the most. The rest of the adventure takes place underground, following the characters in the party. And a murder mystery pulls the group into their most difficult challenge yet. Ryu Lion, the elf waitress that Bell encountered early on has been accused of a murder, and a whole heap of adventurers are hunting the levels 25 and below for her. While Bell trusts her, and even advocates for her, he knows also of her dark past, how she was part of the Astraea Familia, and how they were betrayed and slaughtered by the Evilus Familia, leaving Ryu the sole survivor, and thirsting for revenge. It could be that Ryu is responsible, but even still, Bell realises that he has to find her first if she is to have justice instead of a lynch mob.


When it turns out that there is a member of the Evilus Familia among the adventurers hunting for Ryu, it transpires that there is a whole other conspiracy at work here, one that will have devastating consequences for the middle tiers of the dungeon. And all of this is looking a little too much like Cassandra’s vision for her comfort. There are monsters unlike anything they have seen before, and an aspect of the dungeon long kept hidden will be revealed. Not everyone will survive this adventure... and it ends on a cliff-hanger.


Not every anime puts me in mind of a Ken Russell movie, but if you’re inspired by some of the monsters in this collection, you might want to look up The Lair of the White Worm, if you’re in the mood for a cheesy comedy horror. There’s nothing cheesy about Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV Part 1 though. It’s more fun, entertaining, action packed, funny and dramatic adventure and excitement in the vein of the earlier series. The only niggle is that it ends on a cliff-hanger, and the only saving grace is that Part 2 follows hot on the heels of this Part 1 release.


Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV Part 1 is available from MVM’s retail outlet Anime on Line, from Anime Limited, and from mainstream retailers. Incidentally, don’t use Amazon’s search. You’ll only get Sentai’s US Region A locked release in the results along with some European releases. You’re better off going to the anime section in Blu-ray and DVD and clicking through the pages until you find MVM’s Region B release.