A new key visual has been released for the fourth season of Bungo Stray Dogs. The visual highlights Armed Detective Agency president Yukichi Fukuzawa and a young Ranpo Edogawa in front of a large red moon. The series premiered on January 4, 2023, with the first episode centering on the two characters.
The returning production staff for season four includes Takuya Igarashi as director, Youji Enokido as series screenwriter, Nobuhiro Arai as character designer and chief animation director, Yumiko Kondou as art director, Yukari Gotou as color designer, Tsuyoshi Kanbayashi as photography director, and Taku Iwasaki as music composer. Bones is once again in charge of the animation production.
The main voice cast members include Yuuto Uemura as Atsushi Nakajima, Mamoru Miyano as Osamu Dazai, Yoshimasa Hosoya as Doppo Kunikida, Hiroshi Kamiya as Ranpo Edogawa, Toshiyuki Toyonaga as Junichirou Tanizaki, Hiroyuki Kagura as Kenji Miyazawa, Yuu Shimamura as Akiko Yosano, Rikiya Koyama as Yukichi Fukuzawa, and Sumire Morohoshi as Kyouka Izumi. Additional voice actors playing the new antagonists consist of Takehito Koyasu as Nikolai G, Makoto Koichi as Teruko Okura, Akio Ootsuka as Ochi Fukuchi, Takeshi Kusao as Mushitarou Oguri, and Shouya Chiba as Sigma.
The original manga series is written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa. It was first serialized in Kadokawa’s Young Ace magazine on December 4, 2012 under the Kadokawa Comics Ace label. Twenty-three tankoubon volumes have been released as of December 2022.
The series has also inspired the spinoff Bungo Stray Dogs WAN! manga, which was adapted into a 2021 anime co-produced by Bones with Nomad. Other media adaptations include a live-action film, stage play, light novels, and many more.
The first two anime seasons were released in 2016, while the third was released in 2019. An anime film titled Bungo Stray Dogs: DEAD APPLE was released in 2018.
Crunchyroll is streaming the fourth season of Bungo Stray Dogs and describes the story as:
It has been about a month since the Armed Detective Agency, in collaboration with the Port Mafia, won the “cannibalism” operation masterminded by the “Rats in the House of the Dead”. The Armed Detective Agency was awarded the highest medal for safety contribution, the Order of the Azusa Bow of Exorcism, and was praised by the whole country.
Then an urgent request from the government comes in. The four murders of the young senators were likened to the five signs of the mortality of the highest heavenly being of Rokudo Rinne, the Six Realms of Reincarnation. The Armed Detective Agency sets out to prevent the remaining murder from happening.
Officials of the government are suspicious of the justice they uphold. A special unit of the military police, the “Hunting Dogs,” is ready to take action. The “Decay of the Angel” are roaming the streets to bring about the destruction of the world.
