Review for Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?! Season 4 - Part 2

Introduction

I used to think that the joke, “How do you keep an idiot in suspense...? I’ll tell you next week” was pretty witty, but being an anime fan at the best of times can take the shine of that particular witticism. Cliff-hangers are entertainment’s stock in trade, and keeping viewers on tenterhooks is a good way to guarantee eyes on screens, bums on seats, discs on pre-order. It’s just when it comes to anime, you throw in license agreements and distributors’ whims and procrastinating directors (Hideaki Anno, I’m looking at you), and you could wind up waiting far longer than is healthy for a resolution to a cliff-hanger. It feels like the people who started watching Attack on Titan have now got kids who watch Attack on Titan, while we wait for the conclusion. Thankfully when it comes to Series IV of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick up Girls in a Dungeon, MVM are being kind, and are releasing both halves just one month apart. That’s practically civilised.


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. At the end of the first half of Season IV, the dungeon stopped following its own rules, as Bell Cranel and Ryu fell down to the Deep Levels, followed by the monster that was hunting them previously. Meanwhile, the rest of the Hestia Familia have to face off against a Level Boss monster that has re-spawned two weeks ahead of time, and now without the aid of their Level 4 hero.


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

Disc 1
12. (Amphisbaena) A Song of Despair
13. (Morgue) Victim
14. (Daphne Lauros) Friend
15. (Ignis) Flame
16. (Welf Crozzo) Shikou
17. (White Palace) White Labyrinth
18. (Desperate) Dungeon Do-or-Die Time
19. (Colosseum) Arena
20. (Astraea Familia) Heroic Death

Disc 2
21. (Daydream) A Sweet Lie
22. (Luvia) Starry Flower

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 and free of typos, but in a small mix up, the dubtitles and the translated subtitles are transposed on episode 16. If this was Funimation/Crunchyroll or the old Manga Entertainment, this would be a bigger issue, but Sentai’s dubs are usually the translated subtitles massaged to fit the lip flaps, i.e. pretty close. The only real issue is you’ll also get the stage directions and so forth in brackets, “wind howls” and the like.

Extras

You get two discs in a BD Amaray style case, with one on a centrally hinged panel. The sleeve is reversible, if you’re averse to BBFC ratings logos. 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, a Karaoke Video for “Not meet Doubt” that runs to 5:01, and 11:42 of Web Previews.

Conclusion

I love the fact that even after all this time, so many years of watching anime shows come and go in the UK, so many genres done to death, and so many tropes and clichés recycled again and again, that I can still fall in love with a show, still get hooked in the same way that I did the first time I ever encountered this medium. I adore Danmachi, and it feels like the show just gets better and better with each new series. The fact that a fifth season is now being released in Japan merely tantalises me more. This is a franchise that I can’t get enough of.


Things do take a turn for the dark in this fourth season, and more so in the second half as presented on these two discs. Danmachi has to this point been a mix of light and dark, a bit of serious drama and fantasy action leavened with light comedy and the odd bit of boob-ribbon fan-service. But this fourth season leans heavily into the more dramatic side of things, and tones down the frivolity to maintain and increase the oppressive tone. Things get dark figuratively, and literally in the depths of the dungeon. In the previous collection, things ended on an ominous note, when the ground opened up, and Bell Cranel and Ryu Lion, the elf-maiden wanted for murder, got cast down into the lower depths of the dungeon, far beyond what is considered safe.


At the same time, the remainder of the Hestia Familia are left on Level 27, where the dungeon starts behaving oddly, and prematurely regenerates the level boss, an epic beast far beyond their capabilities at the best of times, and seemingly impossible without Bell Cranel there to lead the charge. They’re left facing a two headed dragon of fire and ice called Amphisbaena, and this time we see Welf, Lili, Haruhime and the others having to deal with this threat alone. They all have to rise up to the challenge and succeed if they are to even think of trying to rescue Bell and Ryu.


It looks like Bell and Ryu need that help too, as they are cast into the middle of a purgatory, with just the basic weapons and the tattered clothes on their back, injured and given no respite from the monsters that constantly attack them, as they try and find their way to safety. Worse, the Juggernaut that is Ryu’s personal bugbear, and which had attacked them previously, has also fallen to the lower levels, and is now hunting them.


Where this show really excels is in the emotions that it evokes in the viewer. In the first half or so of this collection, there’s a joy seeing Bell’s friends come into their own, fighting the Level Boss without Bell there to inspire them with his idealistic determination. You get drawn into their travails, their losses and their triumphs in the best vicarious way. Bell’s confidence, shaken as it is, is still needed more by Ryu, who as we learned in the previous collection is facing her own personal demons. She’s wanted for murder, but it’s a vendetta fuelled by the brutal slaying of her own Astraea Familia years back that has driven her killing spree, and she’s compelled to relive those events when she faces the monster Juggernaut, and the dangers of the lower depths. It’s a survivor’s guilt that has permeated her existence to the degree of a death wish, and she has to work through this as both she and Bell fight to survive, and it turns out that Bell’s idealism is just what she needs to remind her of the person that she once aspired to be.


This collection of episodes delivers both triumph and tears in an inspired bit of storytelling, quite rightly keeping things dark and dramatic all the way to the end, where we finally and cathartically get a bit of the show’s traditional character comedy. Once again, I love Is It Wrong to Try To Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? and this fourth season is the best yet. Danmachi Series IV Part 2 is available direct from Anime on Line, and from mainstream retailers.