THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
Story: 7
There appears to finally be some real plot in this series, previous seasons were primarily focused on Bell overcoming strong monsters or getting kidnapped and saving a person in the process of his escape. This season on the other hand is heavily focused on sentient monsters and the divide between humanity and the creatures of the dungeon. With the introduction of intelligent human like monsters, Bell has to focus a lot more on questioning whether or not he should try to save people even if it might destroy his guild in the process due to how it will hurt their image. He also has to question if it’s worth helping monsters achieve their goals of living on the surface, even if they might still be dangerous to people and not all of them are human friendly.
The addition of a moral conflict and having the Hestia Familia become a part of something bigger finally shifts the story into gear and adds significantly to the world building. Monsters and their nature, the cycle of life with monsters, and the overall addition of how gods, humans, and spirits live, helped add new interesting information to the world Danmachi takes place in. This also opens the story up to more potential plot points, such as actually conquering the dungeon, figuring out the purpose of the dungeon, and having Bell really live up to be a legendary hero over just being a dungeon farmer whose day job it is to clear floors for money and items. Bell truly has to make sacrifices this season, his actions are not just to benefit Hestia or to improve himself, they are to end a major conflict and protect people who are being hunted down, he is actually harming his Familia, his reputation, and himself by doing this but he is choosing to do what is right. This overall sets this season apart in story compared to the first and second seasons and it is why the story can finally be considered decent.
Art: 7
Production values in the previous season were quite horrible, so people may be apprehensive of watching this season, however this season is actually pretty decent looking and there aren’t any significant animation flaws or bad fight choreography. The use of still frames and powerpoint animation has also declined significantly, the backgrounds are still average, the character designs for the new characters are cute as expected. Overall, the art gets a solid 7, it is still pretty average, nothing outstanding except maybe one fight, but there are no obvious quality issues.
The sound: 5
I enjoyed the OP although I can’t say I enjoyed the rest of the sound track as much as prior seasons, the show does reuse the old soundtrack often however when it is used it usually fits the scene well so a pass can be given for the constant reuse. Combat sound effects were average and the metal clanging or magic effect sounds weren’t very different from previous seasons and not very different or exceptionally good compared to any other seasonal series.
Characters: 7
The main cast are the same as always, skeptical Lily, the backup male Welf, the busty Hestia, chill Mikoto, along with the additions of Haruhime from the prior season and a monster girl from this season. If you enjoyed the cast before then there is no reason why you would not enjoy the current cast, they are pretty much the same, none of them do anything really out of character, they tell the same jokes and act in the same way.
One major difference however is Bell’s growth, he used to care about impressing Hestia or Ais but over this season he stopped aiming to just get stronger or get into fights with Familias that were causing problems, this season he risked everything to do the right thing in the bigger picture. Bell risked his standing, his Familia, his friends, and his life all to save another species at no real benefit to himself, this is a significant change in his character in a good way, he finally became a true hero. This change in Bell is a welcome improvement over the previous seasons, he is on a journey to become a hero, it was about time he actually went and started changing the world.
Enjoyment: 7
I enjoyed this season way more than the prior season and as much as the first season, overall the production values have recovered, the story has had its pacing improve, Bell finally grew as a character, and a real conflict is present in the story. It took a while but the series finally appears to be going somewhere besides clearing floors or improving the ranking of the Familia, there is an overall larger problem going on and Bell is taking steps on fixing it.
Overall: 7
This season is a solid 7, it doesn’t have production values as good as the first season but it’s a significant improvement over season 2, the story has also improved greatly since the prior 2 seasons and its still pretty fun to watch. If you enjoyed season 1 of Danmachi then you will likely enjoy season 3, it is nowhere near as bad as season 2 and don’t let that one bad season stop you from watching a decent one.
