A Demon Lord Comes Knocking in "New Comrades"
Episode 85, "Atarashii Nakama-tachi" (roughly "New Comrades"), opens the new cour with a staffing crisis. Rimuru has finally buckled down on the mountain of vessels Diablo asked him to produce, but the sheer size of the order has left his research lab badly shorthanded. Right in the middle of that crunch, a Demon Lord shows up at Rimuru's door, according to the episode preview shared by Japanese fan-news outlet Otaku Soken. The preview doesn't say which Demon Lord it is, so that reveal stays with the episode itself.
The episode hit Nippon TV's national network on Friday, July 3, with follow-up airings on BS11 (Saturday, July 4 at 10:00 p.m.), AT-X (Sunday, July 5 at 9:30 p.m.), and Animax (Saturday, August 1 at 8:00 p.m.).
Two Cours Back to Back in a Friday Night Slot
Season 4 premiered on April 3, 2026 and airs in Nippon TV's FRIDAY ANIME NIGHT block (nicknamed "FuraAni"), a late-Friday slot carried by 30 stations nationwide. Otaku Soken notes the July 3 broadcast slipped five minutes that night, starting at 11:05 p.m. Cour 1 closed out the previous week with episode 84, "Shinka Suru Makoku Renpo."
This season is a large-scale project. The first two cours air consecutively for 24 straight episodes, part of a project that spans five cours in total. Production continues at Eight Bit, with Naokatsu Tsuda (JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) directing, Hitomi Ogawa on series composition, and Ryoma Ebata on character design. The second cour also brings new theme songs: Daoko performs the opening "TACTIC," and Azusa Tadokoro sings the ending "Hymnal," as Anime News Network reported alongside the cour's new key visual and promo video.
Where Season 4's Story Stands
Following the Founding Festival, Rimuru's monster nation of Tempest has been working toward a "commonwealth of humans and monsters," a world where both can live side by side. Not everyone is on board. Granbell Rosso, a former hero who now heads a human kingdom's council of Five Elders, sees Rimuru's rise as a danger and schemes against him with his granddaughter Mariabell. The pair believe humanity should be protected through outright domination. Meanwhile, Demon Lord Leon starts moving toward his own goal in the golden land of El Dorado, and somewhere in all of this, a new hero is on the verge of awakening.
Miho Okasaki returns as Rimuru, with Daisuke Ono voicing Granbell, Inori Minase as Mariabell, and Takahiro Sakurai as Diablo, whose vessel request sets episode 85's plot in motion.
Looking Ahead
Crunchyroll streams Season 4 internationally, with cour 2 episodes arriving Fridays at 7:00 a.m. PT / 10:00 a.m. ET in both subtitled and English-dubbed versions, per Crunchyroll News. Once the current 24-episode run wraps, three more cours are still to come, though their broadcast dates haven't been announced.
The source manga by Taiki Kawakami, based on Fuse's novels with character designs by Mitz Vah, runs in Kodansha's Monthly Shonen Sirius and is available in English from Kodansha. Episode 86 lands next Friday on Nippon TV.