DanMachi Season 4.  Spanning two different years, a floor boss, quite a few magical swords (1 super magical sword), and one new best girl contender.  This has been quite a pair of season-ettes: is this DanMachi’s comeback?  Or is the franchise starting to lose steam?  Let’s take a look.

The Good

The positives!

Bell	+5%	Our hero was fantastic.  From the first cour’s exploration of his rapid growth to saving Ryu, Bell did it all, with style.  His growth this season might have been a bit subtler, but I’m confident in our lead.
Ryu	+10%	Ryu is a fan-favorite and the pressure was on to do her justice this season.  DanMachi delivered in spades, and I have nothing but praise for how her character was handled.  Major props to VA Saori Hayami – fantastic job all around.
Aisha	+1%	A surprising bright spot from the disaster of Season 2, Aisha has become quite a nice staple for the gang.  Still ho’ing it a bit, but toning that done and focusing on her Amazon tendencies during fights was a nice development.
Supporting Cast	+2%	Boris, Eina, even Hestia – the characters with smaller roles shone in their limited screentime and provided some much needed comedy for a generally somber season.
Welf	+2%	Our favorite blacksmith has sort of faded along with Lili compared to Bell’s meteoric rise, but this season showcased some nice work by him.  Holding off the monsters to make a Deus Ex Machina was a wonderful respite to a generally lackluster party adventure.
Astrea Familia	+20%	One of the most significant in-world events that had the extra disadvantage of already occurring, the destruction of the Astrea familia has hung over DanMachi since the beginning.  I was very afraid that when we finally saw it on-screen it would somehow be botched – good news, it wasn’t.  The introduction of the characters in bite-size flashback preludes was perfectly done, and the episode itself (S4E20) was a masterclass.  Superlative work.
Colosseum Fight	+10%	While not as impressive as the Astrea familia fight, the Colosseum had excellent writing, mechanics, and heroism that deserves accolades.
Ending	+10%	Come on, that date was great.  That’s the way to end this gloomy season on a high note!

The Good: +60%

The Neutral

What parts of DanMachi were neither good enough to win points, but not bad enough to be penalized?

Animation (Fights)	+0	DanMachi isn’t known for top shelf animation.  However, when the animators really try, the results are excellent (see: Juggernaut vs. Astrea).  Other times, such as the slime fight, not so great.  I rate this as neutral, since it doesn’t add or detract from the show in general – but I wish it was just a little better.
Slime Monster	+0	This was a potentially interesting monster that sort of fell off as nothing but plot fodder.  At least it wasn’t a minotaur, right?
Juggernaut	+0	I’m really, really mixed on the Juggernaut.  I think its implementation was comically bad in the first half, and surprisingly well done in the second half (with the Astrea fight and the final evolutions and augments).  I’m going to say the two cancel each other out – the Juggernaut doesn’t live up to its potential (and is a bit of a misnomer) but provided a serviceable enough challenge for Bell’s growth.
Xenos	+0	This arc didn’t see much of Xenos, except for Marie.  Her utility was primarily service oriented, but the mermaid tears mechanic did come in handy, so I’ll call it even.

Neutral: +0

The Bad

What did DanMachi do poorly to lose points?

Floor Boss	-10%	Ugh.  This was probably the worst use of CGI in the series.  I hope this experiment is never repeated, because I just could not get into that fight at all.  The battle itself wasn’t very realistic either, but the coordination of the team is what stopped this from detracting even more from the series.  Definitely the low spot of the second half (as I kind of predicted).
Pacing	-7%	This is a minor complaint, but the pacing felt weird this season.  There was quite a bit of story covered, with the Slime -> First Juggernaut -> Lower floors -> Second Juggernaut.  I think the last episode could have been spread over two without issue, while some of the first season could have been condensed a little.  Not a major complaint, but I felt this is a small area of improvement.
Jura	-8%	While the Floor Boss probably garnered the majority of my annoyance, I also disliked Jura substantially.  He had the potential to be a more complicated villain, carrying out the desires of his deity as a foil to the “justice” of Astrea.  Instead, he was just a shouty, one dimensional bad guy.  Bit of a shame, really.  The mechanic to try and control the Juggernaut was pretty interesting though.

Bad: -25%

Final Thoughts

So how was DanMachi Season 4?  In short, it was quite good.  I wouldn’t say it was the best season to date, but I think it handled some important stories masterfully and pulled through without major issues.  If anything, I’m relieved that there wasn’t a disaster of any kind (story or production wise).  I’m glad we got back to the Dungeon, where I think DanMachi shines.  The world building is still on point, and our characters grew a bit too!  I miss Ais, but I’ll support team Ryu as a second option, no question.  While I don’t think this season was better than the Xenos in S3, it was still quite enjoyable, and honestly, exceeded my expectations.  Animation still struggles at times, and some characters are transparently disposable, but I think DanMachi as a franchise is in a great spot going forward.  Thanks for joining me and I’ll see you next time the Dungeon comes to town!

Total: 85/100 (EXCELLENT)

(Note: if 70/100 was average, the score would have been 91%)