DanMachi Season 4 release date confirmed for Summer 2022 by trailer

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 release date
The Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 release date is confirmed to be scheduled for 2022. Pic credit: Studio J.C. Staff

The DanMachi Season 4 release date has been confirmed for July 21, 2022, the Summer 2022 anime season.

The official title for Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka? Season 4) Part 1 is New Chapter: The Labyrinth Arc.

The DanMachi Season 4 Part 2 release date is on January 5, 2023, the Winter 2023 anime season. The official title for the second half is Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV – Deep Chapter: Calamity Arc.

(This continuation in 2023 should not be considered to be DanMachi Season 5 since the fifth anime season will adapt a story arc about Freya.)

This story arc runs from Volume 12 through 14 (although Volume 15 provides the aftermath of the expedition). DanMachi Season 4 will have Bell Cranel, Hestia, and friends fighting to level up so the Hestia Familia can go on their first expedition mission, but what they find in the deep plunges Bell into a literal pit of despair.

Here is the official DanMachi Season 4 Part 2 trailer PV:

Want to watch Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 streaming? Unfortunately, the DanMachi anime series is a HIDIVE exclusive this time around since Sentai Filmworks is the streaming licensor. The reason is that Crunchyroll lost the streaming licensing rights after Sony purchased both Crunchyroll and Funimation. In late March 2022, DanMachi Season 1 was removed from Crunchyroll, and the fourth season was reserved for HIDIVE by Sentai Filmworks.

It’s confirmed that DanMachi IV will have at least 2 cours as part of a split-cour anime season. The DanMachi Season 4 Episode 11 release date was on September 29, 2022.

In July 2022 anime news leaker Sugoi LITE claimed that DanMachi IV would have 2 parts/cours with a total of 22 episodes.

On September 21, 2022, Sugoi LITE updated the rumor by stating that DanMachi Season 4 Part 2 would be subtitled Deep Chapter: Calamity Arc and that the second half would be a split-cour (that’s when an anime season takes a TV broadcasting break but the separated parts are still considered a single season).

Based on this release schedule, the fourth season will have the best adaptation pacing for the anime series thus far.

On June 14, 2022, the third DanMachi Season 4 trailer was released:

The announcement of the time frame was made during Anime Japan 2022 on March 26, 2022. The exact premiere date was leaked ahead of the official announcement made during a live streaming event on May 22, 2022.

During that event, a second new DanMachi Season 4 trailer was released:

Here is the DanMachi Season 4 trailer that was released in early January 2022.

A new DanMachi Season 4 commercial was broadcast on Japanese TV and released on Twitter on April 1, 2022.

For those who missed it, a DanMachi OVA 3 episode was released in 2021. (See the Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? OVA 3 section below for the trailer and key visual.)

The anime series is being produced by animation studio J.C. Staff, known for the original Sorcerous Stabber Orphen anime, the KonoSuba movie (Studio Drive is making the KonoSuba Season 3 anime), A Certain Scientific Railgun, One Punch Man Season 2 (and, hopefully, One Punch Man Season 3), and the Food Wars! anime series.

In 2022, Studio J.C. Staff is also releasing notables such as How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom Part 2, The Strongest Sage with the Weakest Crest, Requiem of the Rose King, and The Executioner and Her Way of Life.

Most of the main animation staff at studio J.C. Staff returned for the third season, but there are some major changes for DanMachi Season 4.

For the first three seasons, Hideki Shirane wrote the scripts. The writer will be joined by original light novel author Fujino Omori, who is directly joining the anime staff for the first time as a series script supervisor and as the series composition writer.

In other words, light novel readers can’t complain that the anime is not faithful to the source material since the original creator is adapting the story as he intends it to be watched in the animated episodic TV format.

DanMachi 4
This key visual for DanMachi IV was released on May 22, 2022.Pic credit: Studio J.C. Staff

Shigeki Kimoto is the returning Character Designer and Chief Animation Director. Jin Aketagawa is the resturning Sound Director. Keiji Inai is returning to compose the music.

For the second and third season, the biggest staff change was the position of director.

After the first season, Yoshiki Yamakawa was replaced by director Hideki Tachibana, who is best known for directing BlazBlue: Alter Memory, Armed Girl’s Machiavellism, and Circlet Princess. Tachibana will stay on as director for DanMachi Season 4.

Argo Vesta
The Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 anime will pick up the story again with light novel Volume 12. In the fourth season, Bell Cranel creates a new flamed-based attack technique called the Argo Vesta, which can obliterate strong monsters with a single strike. Pic credit: Suzuhito Yasuda (colored version by Shadow_King_98)

In the first three seasons, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka voiced Bell Cranel, Inori Minase portrayed Hestia, and Saori Oonishi was Ais Wallenstein.

The new DanMachi Season 4 cast members will include relatively minor side characters since most of the plot focuses on the main characters. However, there will be new characters like a Xenos mermaid named Marie.

The third season’s opening (OP) theme song music “Over and Over” was performed by Yuka Iguchi, while the ending (ED) was performed by the Sajou no Hana band.

The Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 OP (opening) “Tentou” will be performed by sajou no hana, while the ED (ending) “Guide” will be performed by Saori Hayami.

The third season of the anime series was streaming on Crunchyroll and VRV (Netflix U.S. still hasn’t released Season 2 or 3, while Hulu is up to Season 2). As previously mentioned, the fourth season was exclusively on HIDIVE.

The finale, DanMachi Season 3 Episode 12, aired on December 18, 2020.

  • Updated September 21, 2022: DanMach Season 4 Episode 12 release date reportedly in January 2023.
  • Updated September 15, 2022: Added DanMachi Season 4 Part 2 info and Episode 11 release date.
  • Updated August 3, 2022: Added HIDIVE streaming explanation.
  • Updated June 13, 2022: Added rumor of 2 cours/parts.
  • Updated May 22, 2022: Added DanMachi Season 4 trailer 2 and key visual.
  • Updated May 20, 2022: Added exact DanMachi 4 release date and OP and ED info.
  • Updated March 25, 2022: DanMachi Season 4 release date release date confirmed for October 2022.
  • Updated January 4, 2022, Added DanMachi Season 4 trailer, key visual, and main staff.
  • Updated March 26, 2021: Added Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Volume 17 book cover art.
  • Updated February 24, 2021: Added DanMachi Volume 17 release date.
  • Updated January 31, 2021: DanMachi Season 4 anime confirmed for 2022! Added OVA 3 and S4 trailer!
  • Updated December 31, 2020: Added DanMachi Blu-Ray/DVD sales data.
  • Updated December 18, 2020: DanMachi OVA 3 release date confirmed!

This article provides everything that is known about DanMachi Season 4 (Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4/Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka Season 4) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.

Why the Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 release date is in July 2022

The exact Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 release date is on July 22, 2022.

The production of a Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka Season 4 sequel was announced at GA FES 2021 on January 31, 2021. The release time frame was announced on March 26, 2022, while the exact date was announced on May 22, 2022.

The fourth season will be broadcast on Tokyo MX channel, BS11, and AT-X at 25:05 on July 22, 2022, which is effectively 1:05 AM JST on July 23, 2022. Internationally, it will be streaming on Crunchyroll.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 New Chapter: The Labyrinth Arc
The key visual for DanMachi New Chapter: The Labyrinth Arc that was released on January 4, 2022. Pic credit: Studio J.C. Staff

The announcement of the third season quickly followed the second season. While the ending of DanMachi Season 3 Episode 12 teased the future of the TV series by having Bell and Ais talk about his need to grow stronger, the fourth season wasn’t confirmed until later.

While there’s no concern about the anime catching up to the DanMachi light novel series (see the comparison section below for more details), the main issue is whether the most recent seasons maintained their popularity.

In recent years, streaming revenue has replaced Blu-Ray/DVD sales as the biggest factor for financial success, but they’re still an indicator of how the Japanese perceive an anime series. The first season sold 5,200 copies in its first week in 2015, whereas the second season sold 2,663 disc volumes in 2019.

As a comparison, My Hero Academia Season 4 only sold 1,574 copies for its first-week disc sales, and yet the My Hero Academia Season 5 release date is in 2021.

Arguably, the third season had a more intense storyline, but the series’ popularity in Japan continued to decline. The DanMachi Season 3 Blu-Ray/DVD release date happened on December 23, 2020. The first volume sold 2,224 copies in the first week.

(The Sword Oratoria anime sold only 1,316 copies, which might factor into why there’s been no rush to announce a DanMachi: Sword Oratoria Season 2 anime.)

As for streaming popularity, Crunchyroll revealed in 2019 that the second season was in the top 20 for most popular anime during the summer 2019 anime season.

Unfortunately, Crunchyroll’s list is alphabetical and not by the numbers (which they never release), so it isn’t easy to discern the viewership.

The third season was hovering in the top 8 on Crunchyroll’s popular anime list. While not quite as popular as Haikyuu!! Season 4 Part 2, DanMach was still beating competitors like Fire Force, Re:Zero (which is on break until Re:Zero Season 2 Part 2 in 2021), Jujutsu Kaisen, Golden Kamuy, and even the InuYasha sequel Yashahime: Princess Half-Demon.

Based on that data, the streaming revenue was high enough for the anime production committee to justify renewing DanMachi Season 4 for production. Typically, the release time frame will be confirmed within six months of the premiere date.

Therefore, the DanMachi Season 4 release date was in Summer 2022.

DanMachi Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon Hestia Thumbs Up
The blue string that defies gravity will surely be back in the future. Pic credit: J.C. Staff

DanMachi Season 2 Netflix release date in the U.S.

In early February 2020, the Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon anime was streaming on Netflix U.S. for the first time.

The second season is currently available on Netflix Japan. Unfortunately, as of January 2022 Netflix U.S. has not yet announced when DanMachi Season 2 will release on Netflix U.S., never mind DanMachi Season 3 or 4.

In the meantime, the second season is available for streaming on HuluVRVHIDIVE, and Crunchyroll. The third season is on Crunchyroll and VRV.

DanMachi OVA 3 episode confirmed

They’ve already released the obligatory beach episode (Hestia and Ais in swimsuit bikinis!) as an Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? OVA 2 episode in January 2020, so why not continue the theme? In this case, the DanMachi OVA 3 episode will be focused on a hot springs theme.

The title for the new DanMachi OVA episode is Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? III OAV: Is It Wrong to Crave Hot spring in Orario? – God of the Hot Spring Forever. Here is the story summary by Warner Bros.

A strange hot spring resort has suddenly sprung up in Orario.Since it appeared, people visited there daily to relieve stress and daily. Of course, Bell and the other faces of the Hestia Familia were seen within the crowd.
However, there was a group of people who are suspicious of the popular resort…
Hot springs, conspiracy, and a secret hidden behind the veil…
After a dazzling adventure, Bell witnesses the truth of it all!

The Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? OVA 3 release date is scheduled for April 28, 2021.

Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? 17 Light Novel
The cover art for DanMachi Volume 17 certainly has Bell looking depressed. Pic credit: Suzuhito Yasuda

DanMachi manga/light novels compared to the anime

The story for the DanMachi Season 4 anime TV series is based on the Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no ha Machigatteiru Darou ka?) light novel series by author Fujino Omori and illustrator Suzuhito Yasuda.

As of April 22, 2021, the books were up to DanMachi Volume 17.

The main series has generated two major DanMachi spin-off stories. Familia Chronicle is limited to Episode Ryuu and Episode Freya right now, although the author has discussed writing about more characters and groups in the future.

The more substantial spinoff, DanMachi: Sword Oratoria, focuses on the adventures of Ais Wallenstein. It features a parallel timeline that begins before Bell is introduced.

The Sword Oratoria light novel and manga series are already up to Volume 13 and Volume 20, respectively.

The DanMachi light novel and manga series’s official English translation is being published in North America by Yen Press. As of July 27, 2021, the official light novel English translations reached Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? Volume 16.

The release date for the English DanMachi Volume 17 has not yet been announced.

The DanMachi manga series is adapting all three storylines. The main story for the manga is written by Omori himself and illustrated by Kunieda.

DanMachi manga Volume 10 was released in June 2018, but the DanMachi manga went on indefinite hiatus in September 2018. Eventually, the manga resumed, and Volume 11 was released on July 22, 2020.

DanMachi manga Volume 11 restarted the numbering, and its official title is DanMachi II Volume 1. Volume 11 began adapting the red light district story arc that was covered by anime Season 2. Unfortunately, that means the main manga’s story is far behind the anime series.

As for the English DanMachi manga series, Yen Press actually caught up with the Japanese release, except for manga Volume 11.

DanMachi II manga Volume 1
The long-awaited DanMachi II manga Volume 1 started adapting the second major story arc of the main series. Pic credit: Kunieda

The first season of the anime series adapted the first five books. When the TV show first aired back in 2015, the anime was already starting to catch up with the source material (Volume 7 was released in April 2015).

The anime has plenty of source material available to adapt since the second season adapted only three books, Volumes 6, 7, and 8. And, it’s predicted that the third and fourth seasons will follow suit.

Part of the reason that the book adaptation rate slowed down was the books dramatically increased in story length. In English, the first five books ranged from 208 pages to 288 pages long, while Volume 6 was 272 pages, Volume 7 jumped up to 384 pages, and then Volume 8 was 400 pages!

Volume 8 was mostly composed of side stories, so when the J.C. Staff writers condensed the plot for Season 2, they completely skipped chapters focused on developing side characters. Since Volume 8 is a series of vignettes, it’d make sense to adapt some of them as DanMachi OVA episodes.

The writers’ task became easier for Season 3. Volumes 9, 10, and 11 averaged close to 300 pages each, so the result was that light novel fans were far happier with the third season since it didn’t have to skip as many details.

Sure, inner monologues were not conveyed to anime audiences, and some detailed explanations were heavily condensed. Still, book readers know they can’t expect an anime to wedge everything into the standard 12-episode TV format.

The only negative is that the anime’s beginning didn’t quite have enough runtime (despite shifting the OP to the end) to adequately convey that feeling of dread that Wiene felt as she was born into this world looking for acceptance only to be rejected, chased, and beaten repeatedly.

DanMachi Season 3 Episode 3 adapted pages 187 through 322 of Volume 9. That meant DanMachi Season 3 Episode 4 finished the remaining 53 pages and launch into Volume 10, which was finished by Episode 8.

Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 3 OP
The DanMachi Season 3 OP teases Bell fighting Ais Wallenstein. Since that story event doesn’t happen until Volume 11, it’s predicted that the finale, DanMachi Season 3 Episode 12, will finish by ending with Volume 11. It’s the best stopping point since the book finishes a complete DanMachi story arc, and Volume 12 shifts the focus away from the Xenos. Pic credit: Studio J.C. Staff

The positive aspect of the first three episodes’ initial fast pacing is that nine episodes adapted the remaining two books. Considering the real meat of the Xenos arc comes later in Volume 11, it was a wise choice on the part of J.C. Staff.

The good news is DanMachi Season 4 has plenty of source material to draw upon. Better yet, English-speaking fans who want to read ahead can jump to Volume 12 and read so far ahead that they’ll be getting into DanMachi Season 5!

On the other hand, assuming that DanMachi Season 4 is 2 cours/parts, it’s possible the anime adaptation could catch up to light novel Volume 15. As previously mentioned, this possibility seems unlikely due to the seasonal title, which means the 22 episodes will allow the story pacing to be better than usual for this major story arc.

DanMachi Volume 13 Art
A prophecy of despair awaits Bell Cranel in DanMachi Season 4. Pic credit: Suzuhito Yasuda

DanMachi Season 4 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)

Note: This article assumes that Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 will adapt light novel Volumes 12 through 15. 

The last time we watched DanMachi, Bell Cranel had stood in the gap between warring friends and Familia. He began training for the dungeon in the aftermath, and Hestia happily updates his status after he ranked up to Level 4.

Bell is visited by Hermes, who halfway apologizes for meddling during the Xenos incident, and Fels, who claims that the Little Rookie must clear the dungeon’s bottom-most floor so that the Xenos and surface adventurers can live in peace.

Speaking of nicknames, the Gods hold the Denatus, and they official give Bell the new alias Rabbit Foot. The Hestia Familia’s rank is increased to D, and the Guild assigns the entire Hestia Familia a new mission, an expedition into the dungeon’s deep floors to collect a list of special items.

The Hestia Familia recruits Aisah, Daphne, Cassandra, Ouka, and Chigusa to join them on the expedition. They struggle to make it to Floor 25, where they are shocked when the Elven adventurer Luvis Lilix appears before them with his right arm partially torn off!

While Bell and friends manage to save Luvix from the monsters, everyone begins to panic when a wound on Chigusa’s shoulder begins to sprout vines. They realize that a monster called a Moss Huge must have infected her.

In the resulting battle with the Moss Huge, Bell is stranded a the bottom of Floor 25 when he is thrown over a waterfall. Things look grim for Bell until he receives help from a Xenos mermaid named Marie.

Meanwhile, the Hestia party is being overwhelmed by a Pass Parade (a runaway group of monsters) created by the Moss Huge. Worse, the intelligent monster is gobbling up the magic stones of the defeated monsters to strengthen itself.

Presuming that no could survive a tumble down the Great Fall, the Moss Huge is surprised when Bell suddenly comes out of nowhere for the rescue. Bell had charged Argonaut for four minutes, and he unleashed its power, defeating the Pass Parade in one blow.

But the battle against the Moss Huge is another matter since it can even regenerate from injuries, requiring Bell to create a new attack technique: the Argo Vesta. Casting firebolt on the Hestia Knife, he dual charges them and unleashes their power.

Ryuu Lion the Gale
Who is the elf girl Ryuu Lion, really? DanMachi Season 4 will force Bell Cranel to see his friends in a new light. Pic credit: Suzuhito Yasuda

The party returns to Rivira on Floor 18 to recover from their wounds. But there’s no time to relax: Ryuu Lion the Gale is suspected of murder!

Witnesses claimed the Gale had killed a man. A hunting party is formed to find and kill the elf despite Bell’s protests to the contrary.

While Bell doesn’t want to believe the charges against Ryuu, the Elf has a history with Evilus, and Aisha warns Bell to prepare himself for the possibility that the truth is Ryuu is a murderer.

And then Bell finds Ryuu standing in a room with a bloody Dwarf at her feet. Bell is shocked by the expression on the elf’s face, but when he tried to find out the situation, she angrily cut him off, leaving Bell in a state of confusion about what’s really going on in the dungeon.

Juggernaut Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? Juggernaut
When the dungeon itself is in danger, it creates a monster called the Juggernaut to protect itself from damage. Pic credit: Suzuhito Yasuda

If matters were not already dire enough, the dungeon itself began to cry out after a chain explosion destroys a section of an entire floor. The dungeon spawned the Juggernaut, a terrifying creature that’s stronger depending on the floor from which it emerges.

Five years, this monster had massacred the Astraea Familia and members of Evilus. The new Juggernaut goes on a rampage, killing many adventurers.

In all the chaos, Bell is horribly wounded and then separated from most of his friends. He barely survives due to his high level, but even then, his heart begins to despair when he realizes he’s been plunged deep down into the dungeon to the 37th Floor.

DanMachi Volume 13 Light Novel
The Juggernaut severs Bell’s right arm at the elbow, sending the hand tumbling into the darkness while still clutching the Hestia Knife. Pic credit: Suzuhito Yasuda

While the Juggernaut is hunting bell, the rest of his party has their own problems since the Monster Rex, Amphisbaena is spawned! Lili and the others are forced to on adventure without Bell, who faces off against the impending shadow of calamity.

Unfortunately, anime fans will have to wait until the Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 4 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!

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