Just how powerful is Bell Cranel in DanMachi Season 2? Power levels for anime characters are often shifting based on the needs of the story. There’s always more powerful enemies available to take on even the most OP protagonistic (we’re looking at you, Goku and Saitama). And it certainly seemed like Bell must have gone up a level based on his actions in the Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? (Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no ha Machigatteru Darou ka) movie.
In the case of the 2019 DanMachi movie Arrow of the Orion, the story was written by DanMachi light novel series author Fujino Omori. The timeline for the overall DanMachi series has the DanMachi movie’s story wedged in-between light novel volumes 5 and 6 (as in, the ending of the first anime season and the beginning of DanMachi Season 2).
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Arrow of the Orion introduces a new character named Artemis who is friends with Hestia. Although she’s not directly in the light novels, Artemis has always existed in the DanMachi universe as one of the three virgin goddesses.
The director for the film, Katsushi Sakurabi, asked Omori to make Bell and Hestia the focus of the movie’s story, but the writer tried to give equal screen time to Artemis.
“Since we were doing an anime-original film, we decided to bring out some original characters,” Omori explained in an interview with Comic Natalie. “And since we were going out of our way to make new characters, I wanted the original new heroine to be the main focus.”
Omori felt like he was “venturing into uncharted territory” since the dynamic between Bell, Hestia, and Artemis was a “fresh experience” for the writer. Artemis’ friendship with Hestia and Bell trying to save Artemis made for a different story structure in comparison to the rest of the DanMachi stories, including the spin-offs and games.
The creator also discussed the power level differences between Bell of DanMachi Season 2 and the Bell we watched in the movie. Omori said he was working on the scripts for both the DanMachi: Memoria Freese smartphone game and the film in the same time frame.
The writer wanted to make certain that neither story held anything back, but the staff for both the video game developer and the animation studio were questioning whether the content even belonged outside of the main series since it was so action-packed.
Warning: The following contains a spoiler for DanMachi Season 2.
After all, Bell should have been too weak to defeat the strong enemies contained in the game and film based on the main timeline. In the DanMachi anime series, Bell fought the Minotaur to become Level 2 but he won’t become a Level 3 until the middle of DanMachi Season 2.
The author admits that he prioritizes writing an “interesting” story over other issues when writing for a TV anime series. If Omori had prioritized consistency within the timeline, then “pre-volume 11 Bell shouldn’t be a match for the enemy” contained in Arrow of the Orion.
“That’s how epic the story [for the DanMachi movie] is,” Omori said. “So if you’re familiar with how the light novels go after volume 6, then you might be a bit taken aback by the film. That’s the difference between novels and TV, so please pretend you didn’t see anything.”
So, yes, Bell Cranel’s power levels for DanMachi Season 2 should be a step down from the movie. But that doesn’t mean the second season won’t be action-packed. For more details and spoilers, including the DanMachi Season 2 release date, please check out our full-length article on Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? Season 2.