DanMachi or “Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?” is a fantasy anime series set in a world where gods and goddesses live with humans. The anime series is an adaptation of a light novel written by Fujino Ōmori. Created by J.C. Staff, owner of anime such as Food Wars! and One-Punch Man in recent years, Danmachi was one of the most loved and anticipated anime of recent years. The anime, which recently returned to the screens with its third season, was licensed by Sentai Filmworks and was also listed by Crunchyroll. It also increased its fan base by broadcasting on online streaming platforms such as Hulu TV and Netflix. The last season of the anime was released from October 3, 2020, to December 19, 2020. A new OVA episode of the series has been confirmed, and it will be released on April 28, 2021. But fans want more. So, will there be a fourth season of the anime, and when will it be released?
What is the plotline of DanMachi?
After his grandfather’s death, the adventurer named Bell Cranel comes to Orario (aka Dungeon) to go on an adventure. Orario is a city inhabited by god-goddesses and adventurers, where each god and goddess has its own adventurous clan. Bell goes door to door and tries to impose himself on the clans but is turned down each time for being weak. One day the goddess Hestia, who had never taken an adventurer into her clan before, accepts him, and his adventure begins.
One day, when he goes on an adventure in the Dungeon, he is attacked by a monster called the minator. As he is about to die from the attack of the minator much more powerful than him, he is rescued by a powerful adventurer named Ais Wallenstein. Surprised by what happened, Bell falls in love with Ais at first sight. He will embark on new adventures, deciding to become a powerful adventurer like her to get closer to Ais.
Will there be a fourth season of DanMachi?
The announcement made on January 31, 2021, delighted the fans. The anime has been renewed for a new season! This result, which is in line with our previous speculation, is actually not so surprising when we consider the worldwide popularity of anime. In the new season of the anime, the staff from the previous season will return for the new season. In the first statement made, it was announced that the anime will air in 2022. Later on May 22, 2022, a new promotional video for the new season of the anime was released. The most important part of the new season promotional video was the broadcast date announcement. DanMachi season 4 will begin airing on July 22, 2022, in Japan.
| Episodes | Release Date | |
| Season 1 | 13+OVA | April 4, 2015 |
| Season 2 | 12+OVA | July 6, 2019 |
| Season 3 | 12+OVA | October 3, 2020 |
| Season 4 | TBA | July 22, 2022 |
Light Novel
The source of the DanMachi anime series is the light novel series of the same name, written by Fujino Ōmori, illustrated by Suzuhito Yasuda, which has been published since January 2013. The light novel series began to appear in Square Enix’s Young Gangan magazine in August 2013, and later J.C. Staff adapted the series to an anime. The light novel series published by Creative currently consists of 17 volumes in total. The last volume of the series, which is still ongoing, was released on October 14, 2020.
| DanMachi | Light Novel |
| Season 1 | Volumes 1-5 |
| Season 2 | Volumes 6-8 |
| Season 3 | Volumes 9-11 |
| Remained | 6 Volumes |
In the table above, you can see the anime season and light novel competition. As seen above, six volumes of source material remain for the next seasons. The original light novel by Danmachi is famous; the cumulative circulation of the series is 12 million. Overwhelmingly 8th among all light novels! Each new season will also support the light novel sales. With the release of the third season, sales are expected to increase further.
Disc (Blu-ray and DVD) Sales of DanMachi
To see a new season of an anime, published volumes must sell at least 4,000 copies. In recent years, we see that disc sales have dropped overall and a sales figure of 3,000 is often enough to see a new season.
The DanMachi’s first season averaged around 4,000, and its second season sold around 3,000. These figures were enough for a third season. Amazon took the new season 358th in the anime DVD ranking. This corresponds to a sales figure of 2000-3000. Although this sales figure did not meet the expectations, as we mentioned before, there is a decrease in all anime disc sales these days, and it would not be correct to evaluate it only in terms of disc sales. Also, its general popularity is important based on viewership.
Popularity and viewership of the anime
Although the third season disc sales are not going well, the anime is broadcast on many online streaming platforms. DanMachi, which is among the 100 most popular animations of the Myanimelist, is eagerly awaited each season. The series ranked 69th on the Myanimelist popularity ranking. This ranking shows that it enjoys incredible popularity.
The anime series is popular worldwide and has more than 15 million views on the Chinese-based Bilibili Video. These views are followed by other streaming platforms.
In addition, the series has a smartphone game that was released in 2017 and is still popular. Anime with smartphone games are always more advantageous for new season confirmations because the producers want to keep the series alive. It is one of the valuable sources of revenue, and there is a good chance that this revenue will be invested in the 4th season production.
There are many searches on Google for the new season of the anime, and we can understand that it is a popular anime around the world. Anime is currently more searched for than popular anime like Domestic Girlfriend or Kekkai Sensen. On Twitter, 164k people follow the anime’s official Twitter account, which shows that this anime is also very popular in Japan. If anime maintains its current popularity in the renewed upcoming season, it is inevitable that we will see new seasons.
