Season four assumes you never left, and that's exactly the deal you signed up for back in 2013. This is OVA-pace Strike the Blood, dropped in Blu-ray pairs, which means no filler breathing room and no recap hand-holding: it moves like someone adapting light novel chapters with a stopwatch, and if you haven't read them, you will be lost. Fans will tell you straight that the plotting is a knot. They'll also tell you it's worth it, because this is where Kojou finally stops being the reluctant Fourth Primogenitor who apologizes for existing and starts carrying the weight of twelve beast vassals like he means it, while Yukina keeps that spear pointed at him out of duty she stopped believing in ages ago. Threads laid down in Itogami City in the very first season get paid off here. The art holds, the fights land, and the reward is aimed squarely at the people who stayed.

Strike the Blood IV is the fourth season of Strike the Blood, released as a 12-episode OVA in 2020 and adapted from the light novels by Mikumo Gakuto, illustrated by Manyako. The franchise centers on Akatsuki Kojou, the Fourth Primogenitor, a legendary vampire said to be the strongest in the world, and Himegari Yukina, the apprentice Sword Shaman sent to Itogami City's Demon District to watch over him. Expect supernatural action, fantasy and ecchi elements.