Forum

Last edited by Tony K. on Thu Apr 18, 2024 11:48 am; edited 7 times in total

Delicious in Dungeon (TV)

Source: Manga (completed @ 14 volumes, by Ryōko Kui)

Demographic: Seinen

Animation Studio: Trigger

Genres: action, adventure, comedy, drama, fantasy, supernatural

Themes: biology, cooking, dragons, dungeons, dwarves, ecosystems, elves, food science, ghosts, gnomes, gore, medieval, monsters, orcs, sorcery

Plot Summary: The knight Laios sets out with a skilled party to claim the treasure of a lost kingdom buried deep beneath the graveyard of a small village. Unfortunately, they were bested by a Flame Dragon, who ate Laios's little sister, Farin.

Although the party managed to teleport out of the dungeon, they left their equipment behind and were penniless. Demoralized, the party broke up. Now Laios must tackle the dungeon again, and with only one month to save Farin before she is digested.

Air Date & Platform:
January 4, 2024 (Thursday)
Available on: Netflix

Episode Count / Runtime: Pending
----------------------------------

My holdover fantasy food title till S2 of Campfire Cooking.

Episode 1

I like the humour in this but also found the first episode a bit boring. If every episode is just about eating monsters, I could see this getting a bit stale for me. Will check out some more.

Welp, Blood old buddy, I'm on the same page as you, but I'm a little closer to the post script. I was just about to turn the TV off when the gourmand dwarf showed up, and then things picked up a little, and I watched the episode all the way through.

There's a sometimes thin line between an average, easy watch and a mediocre one, and it's like the difference between aroma and smell. Same basic camp, but one falls on the side of enjoyable and one leans toward bland or unpleasant unless something else comes along to enhance it.

I was willing to like this anime, and it's not like I actively disliked it, but I found my mind wandering while I waited for the show to be over.

In my opinion, part of the problem was that so much of the show was exposition. Maybe if the anime had some top shelf voice actors capable of elevating the material it could have pulled it off. Instead, the actors were competent. But imagine if the elf had been voiced by the actress who played the otaku elf, for example. Or maybe if the show had a really distinct artistic style or animation...something to spice up the unfunny, non scary, surprisingly workmanlike script a little, Or maybe if the watching crowds had provided some more humorous reactions of horror or hostility or derision instead of being mostly awkward backgrounds.

But to be fair, food anime aren't really my thing. And it's possible that I'm not in a good anime watching mood today or something because I wasn't really tres enthusiastic about any of the shows I saw today.

I got sick of food anime a while back, even fantasy ones, so I was ready to not be that interested, and also not always a fan of anime with dungeons for the sake of dungeons. I did let my hopes get up a bit when I saw that Trigger was attached, and that it is Netflix sent me to watch it legitimately and with the dub because I guess it is available.

And I actually quite enjoyed the first episode, unlike above I actually wasn't bored. I think that the ecology of the monsters things was pretty fun, and quite up my alley. I liked how they up-front posed some of the questions of eating things that eat people, and I kind of hope that they try to stay back from eating other humanoids (demi-humans), because the eating orcs thing was something I wasn't too fond of in that other show. Also, the food in the first episode didn't really feel like just an excuse for normal food in a fantasy setting.

#1

Last time I watched an anime centred on food was Toriko, with Golden Kamui having Ainu culture (and by extension its cuisine) as a complement to its main storyline. This one has a really silly premise, and it looks like the show is going to be part nature documentary, part gourmet travelogue and the rest maybe focusing on the main plot of getting the warrior's sister out of a dragon's innards.

It's a silly premise because plenty of the show isn't realistic to begin with (fantasy setting notwithstanding). The warrior who's interested in monster ecology should have been fighting the dragon instead of standing around idly doing a monologue, and it ends up with his sister being swallowed whole (miraculously not being killed by dragon teeth chewing her to aid swallowing). Even if digestion takes 30 days before she's reduced to dragon nutrients, she has the small matter of magic not working inside a dragon's belly and with no visible food or drink to sustain her assuming gastric juices don't do her in before then.

For a dungeon expedition, they fail badly at logistics as well. Not sure how their priorities were so messed up that they'd end up fighting the dragon on empty stomachs. The latest approach should fix things, since the dwarf warrior cum dungeon monster gourmand solves one of their expenses black holes in food and water supplies when away from civilization. The rest of the show focuses on his clever approach towards preparing monster flora and fauna into something edible and palatable for a variety of species (human, dwarf, elf, halfling).

Regardless of the silly premise and characters with question marks over their sanity, it's a colourful watch and I've not watched food-centric series for a while so am happy to stick around. ED animation hints at more characters to come to replace the two who quit the initial party, and there's the urgency from the time limit to save the swallowed mage from being digested. Whether or not the short term goal can be met before the adaptation completes remains to be seen.

The first episode really worked for me. Be it the quirky group, dark humor and making the most of having to eat nasty looking things, I had a good time. Add some hectic battles to that and a few extra unique characters and I will be hooked. All that said, I like shows about food in different worlds so I am biased. I especially liked the restaurant in another world show.

On a side note, they have a fair amount of time to save the sister, but she is getting slowly dissolved inside the dragon....that is probably not a pleasant experience.

Welp, different stroke and all that, and I'm glad y'all found something you're vibing with. Like I said, it's possible I wasn't in a receptive anime mood when I got home from work yesterday because I had a hard time investing in any of the shows I watched. I'll give this one another shot next week and see if that makes a difference, but I'm not the sort to hang around an anime hate posting negative thread after negative thread all the way through a series, so no concerns there.

I bought most of the manga version of this. However, somewhere part way through I just quit reading it. Not sure why. I'm not sure it there is much point in trying the anime since I would likely do the same with it.

Episode 1
I liked it. There's a dark humor lurking behind everything, if our heroes stringing up a corpse wasn't enough of a clue. The dungeon world is weird with the first floor being a catacomb and the floor below it being a spacious "indoor" forest.

Sadly, the fantasy food aspect is the least interesting as what was done in the first episode was to take exotic ingredients and made them normal. Turns out a scorpion and myconid hotpot is little different than a lobster and mushroom one.

The homemade slime drier was better... even if it just made the slime into ramen noodles. It should have been gumi jerky, that would be good.

Gotta love how the gang uses the dungeon as a weird type of supermarket. Not only did they gather ingredients such as eggs, a giant bat and a basilisk this week, they even went so far as to use the traps as cooking tools. That said, only drinking wine and eating meat is indeed not good for you long term, especially if you are in the dungeon for a long period of time.

The episode was also nice in showing that every party member has a unique role to fulfill.

#2

It's not just about the food; the series will use it as a framework to flesh out its characters. Personalities, abilities and quirks can be written up while the gang searches for their next meal or the means to cook it.

As good looking as the food is, all of it uses monsters as ingredients. The monsters in turn have some resemblance to ingredients in the real world, but it can be a stretch to do an apples for apples comparison for some of the monsters in the spotlight. The chicken and snake components for the basilisk are easy enough, but the mandrake wouldn't be equated to turnip or ginseng root. Likewise I can't imagine what kind of Frankenstein gene splicing could give rise to the Basilisk egg properties.

We already know Laios is a psychopath who's living the dream of eating exotic monsters. This episode we find out more about his remaining party members and a little bit about Senshi. Marcille, unsurprisingly given her distaste for monster food, is very conventional and by the book. She also has an innate desire to be useful to others and to be commended when she's of service. This nearly kills her this week, but the mandrake side effect unexpectedly gets her inner thoughts across and helps close the gap with her party members. Not only that, even Senshi had to admit her time-intensive method of proving the textbook method of extracting mandrakes helped improve its taste as a raw ingredient (much to her consternation).

Chilchuck like Marcille has his specific skill set and is very proud of using it when the situation demands. It also means he can be dictatorial as the rest of the party has to heed his expert requirements to the letter or risk his wrath. This makes Senshi a bad fit for him since outside of cooking he doesn't care for precise instructions. Yet this threw up the unexpected benefit of using a trapped corridor and its component parts to prepare deep fried food off the cuff. The show's emphasis on flame strength and timing is applicable to real world tempura, although I'm surprised olive oil is being used for deep frying when its boiling point usually discourages people from using it as a medium for deep frying like this episode did.

Although their first encounter with the dragon went disastrously, it appears the three remaining party members didn't make it to the dungeon depths by dumb luck or a sequence of fortuitous flukes. Laios is handy with a sword, Marcille's magic was heavily utilised the first time they went deeper down the labyrinth to get past monsters while Chilchuck's rogue skills gets them past heavily trapped areas. Senshi himself is no slouch with an axe, but we are not told why he's never made it to the depths. Perhaps because he spent so long on his own perfecting his monster cooking techniques he's never really developed his combat skills beyond hunting. With this ragtag mob, he might get a chance but they really need more companions as it's clear they're not making enough speed to get to the dragon before it flies out to hunt, which would clearly doom Laios's sister if they fail to kill it before then.

There's plenty of characters featured in both OP and ED animations to suggest there's more to this story than just the monster of the week and its attendant dishes. Still no idea how that's going to pan out, especially as the series is not forgetting about its own self-imposed time constraint.

This show is growing on me. I found the second episode a more compelling watch than the first. I like how the thief profession got a bit of the spotlight. Shows with adventuring parties tend to concentrate on fighters, priests and mages so it was nice to see a thief - especially a halfling one - contributing to the proceedings.

Also got some laughs out of the stubborn dwarf setting off the traps, like a key part of the tropes, especially on contrast to the halfling with finesse and patience.

#3

This episode emphasises just how much of a psychopath Laios is when it comes to dungeon monsters: he'll even ask Senshi about how to cook and eat a suit of armour when common sense (and his companions) dictate there's no way this was going to happen. Yet this is a series about dungeon food, and Laios eventually gets his way (in a manner which casual viewers probably would not have expected at the start of the airtime).

As an aside, the resurrection mechanic is fleshed out more in this episode (and we viewers get a rare view of Laios's sister in a flashback). From what I can tell, it works as follows:

1. Most characters have died at least once but are still in this story because the spell was cast soon after they met their demise.

2. For carcasses of indeterminate age, the spell does not have a 100% success rate.

3. The spell won't work without a corpse/carcass, so if Laios's sister is reduced to dragon droppings his quest has failed. The gold pickers were commenting on (what they thought was) the rusted suit of armour and its long-departed inhabitant in relation to the resurrection spell.

Although he's a psychopath, Laios isn't someone who made it to the dungeon depths through blind luck. He can reason his way through a tough battle but not instantly, and he's clearly skilled enough to defend himself even when he's effectively disarmed. The rest of his party (especially Senshi with his worn battleaxe) can hold their own for a short time against melee opponents, but they're not as good as he is as a pure fighter.

As for this week's course, closest equivalent I can think of is mussels and clams. The cooking techniques used fit those shelled animals, but there's a limit to what Senshi can do when preparing an unknown monster for the first time. The footnote regarding the party's new traveller is creepy, because we don't know if it's going to stay harmless or will take revenge against Laios and company for the ravaging of the colony.

Yeah, I would not want to be in Laios his party, god only knows what would happen if he starts wondering how it would be like to taste some man meat in the dungeon. His skills of observation and combat are solid, yet he is really unhinged when it comes to the dungeon and its delights. The living armor situation was interesting, it makes for a compelling logic as to why they are able to function.

Forum - View topic
Delicious in Dungeon (TV).

trapezium Anime Film Review

Welcome Back, Spice and Wolf

Yura Urushibara's Tougen Anki Manga Gets TV Anime in 2025

This Week in Anime - Will We Ever Know Why Anime Get Cancelled?

Your Anime Rankings - Best of Spring 2024, Apr 1-28

The Spring 2024 Manga Guide

Producer Masakazu Kubo on Making an Anime for Hardcore Golf Fans

	Anime News Network Forum Index -> General -> Series Discussion	All times are GMT - 5 Hours Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4 Next
Page 1 of 4

Forum - View topicDelicious in Dungeon (TV).

Forum

Forum - View topic
Delicious in Dungeon (TV).