So here we are with season four of Is It Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon and once again I’m here to review the show. I’ll start by repeating something I said in my season three review and that was how much I loved how each season had a unique feel to it. Like the last three seasons, season four takes an entirely different tone to the season and it sets itself apart from what we’ve seen before.

Season four is all about Ryu and the dungeons. We’ve seen Ryu a lot but she’s always been very reserved so she was this consistent mystery that left fans wondering about her back story and what made her who she is. This is where we finally get those answers and we get them in a very dramatic and grandiose fashion. Ryu is accused of horrible crimes and the more Bell and his party look into it the more it seems those accusations might be true. Along the way, Bell recruits several characters from other familias to lend a hand in this endeavor and they make their biggest appearances yet in the show. In an effort to prove their strength and understand what is going on with Ryu, Bell’s party ventures to the lower floors for the first time and we the viewers get to see how the challenges are increased dramatically in this part of the dungeon. The lower floors really push Bell and his companions to their limits and present monsters that not only are tougher than what they are used to but are also smarter and it truly was amazing to see how Bell’s party tackled the challenge. However, this season truly personifies the idea of just when you thought it was safe something worse appears because a dark familia associated with Ryu’s past shows up and unleashes a deep dark secret lurking within the dungeons that is truly horrific and seemingly unstoppable and it is the introduction of this monster that leads us to the even more challenging second half of season four.

After the conflict with the dark secret of the dungeon Bell and Ryu are forced away from the party to a much deeper part of the dungeon in the deep floors. The first part of the season shows us just how dangerous the lower floors were but in an instant, we see that what we experienced was nothing compared to the horrors of the deep floors. As Bell is forced to become stronger to survive the harsh environment the rest of the party on the lower floors are forced to deal with dangerous threats on their own and this is where we see the full amazement of what season four has to offer. It’s natural to see the main character Bell push past his limits and show new heights in the course of a season but season four didn’t stop there. Literally, every single party member at one point or another pushes themselves to new incredible heights to meet the seemingly impossible challenges bearing down on them with unrelenting fury. We have never seen anything push our favorite characters like this season has and they showed us they had so much more to offer than the already incredible things we’ve seen them do up to this point.

In the mix of these incredible moments of rising up and conquering adversity, we learn the horrors that Ryu endured in her past and the trauma she has hidden this entire time. Not only was it horrible but directly tied to the very secrets of the dungeon that are bearing down on Bell and Ryu in the deep floors. Seeing what Ryu had to go through made the wait to learn all of these details worth while and seeing how the dynamic between her and Bell changes as she fights on for survival was a really masterful way to show character development.

I also really love how season four really showed the results of Bell’s journy up to this point and I’m not just talking about him as a person but how he affected the world. People that Bell has influenced over the first three seasons came to help in this desperate time of need and in doing so we really got to see what kind of impact Bell has had on these characters. It does a great job of not only developing these characters further but also showing just what kind of protagonist Bell is and it was wonderful to see. Not only that but it offered most of the light hearted moments in what is mostly a desperate never ending fight for survival and provided a bit of much needed balance for the tone to bring that little bit of humor and care free tone that we’ve come to know and love from this show.

Overall season four presented a seemingly never ending and truely unyielding series of obstacles for Bell and his allies to overcome and just when you think things are working in their favor something even more horrible shows up. In the mix of all this we discover horrible secrets lurking in the dungeon, Ryu’s past and incredible growth of so many characters. This season was a roller coaster of emotions and conflict that had me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Then when everything was said and done and we got to see the final result of all that growth at the very last moments of the season it was so refreshing it was like the conflict of the season brought new life to Ryu and seeing who she became at the end of the season made for a perfect way to end a season that constantly made you wonder how many, if any, of the characters were even going to survive.