Laios being the classic *Male Human Warrior* , the most basic of RPG archetypes, and at the same time being the strangest and most bizarre of the group never ceases to be funny
Can you imagine of that existed i real life it make someone cautious when going swimming at the beach or diving itll suck to get stab out of nowehere by one of these things
"Ah, yes. After the war was ended, they threw all their "Scary Armors" into the sea. Them sea critters went FREE REAL ESTATE in that right away!" And that's why you fish on a boat. "And You would have heard me if you didn't just laugh and walk away! You're that tall cause you ain't a baby, right??" ...what a mean Halfling.
@@seeranos I'm pretty sure the Lekgolo, the species of simple worms that create hive mind colonies, were not mollusks. Their whole thing was that they are a hive mind large enough to inhabit the equipment of two hunters. They go insane when their nest mate perishes. Lot of cool ecology in the halo world building books.
I studied ecology in college and I work at a science museum. The moment I knew I'd love this series was when I was reading the manga and saw the life cycle of a slime in a little extra, tucked away at the end of a volume. It's got a multi-stage parasitic relationship that I recognized from some species of snails. Kui didn't just take a glance over the basic concepts of a food chain, she dug deep and threw enthusiasm into the stuff that isn't glamorous, and I was freaking out and texting old classmates about it.
@@SheliakDragon Also read "The Adventurer's Bible", a sort of guidebook for the series created by Kui towards the end of the series. It contains some spoilers for things that happen between chapters 30 and 70, but it layers on the worldbuilding even more by focusing on the actual "human" characters and their goings on rather than just the dungeon/monsters.
What I love most about Dungeon Meshi (In addition to the incredible worldbuilding, food porn, characters etc..) is how scrappy the party is. Nobody has op powers, they have to fight for every scrap of food and power they can get and as a result every encounter with a monster feels harrowing and awesome. In a world where every other isekai is trying to out cool each other with their paint by numbers protagonists, here's a batch of weirdos all just trying to get Laios' sister back using whatever they can find and use along the way. It's remarkably refreshing to have a story where the progatonists are actually underdogs as opposed to stories bending over backwards trying to make their op protagonists hated by the world or called weak for arbitrary reasons to force drama.
yes! their power is literally knowledge and a willingness (and desire) to cook and eat monsters. Its why, despite not actually being the richest, smartest, or most powerful group, they end up making it farther down into the dungeon than anyone ever has. Respect and understanding of the ecology of the dungeon outranks any basic RPG skills which is such a fascinating turn to bring to a dungeon crawl story
To be fair, they all are a top of their leagues: Laios is a very good leader and has encyclopedic knowledge of monsters (plus he's ripped), Farlin is a protege healer, Chilchuck is literally the biggest halfling in town due to him being head of the union, Marcile is a professional (even if very much by the book) mage with specialization in dark magic, Senshi has been underground for a couple of decades, Toshiro is a noble specifically trained in fighting and Namari is a daughter of (disgraced) weapons dealer and weaponhead herself. Thing is, they ARE op. Just by more technically achievable by regular person standarts.
My favorite DunMeshi lore tidbit is that being on the chunkier side is actually a sign of a very skilled adventurer in the Dungeon. They explain this being the case because when you die in the Dungeon, Resurectors use alot of the calories in your body to Revive you. The Manga also explain that this is why Kabru is so skinny haha. The Living armor was the first sign that this was gonna be something quite special when I first read it, but the intricacies of Ressurection magic was the thing that sealed the deal for me.
oh yeah the specifics of resurrection magic was great because upon seeing that the initial premise was "we need to save Falin before she gets digested" while they also mention past deaths just made me go "okay so why is her case a race against time" & the series answers that beautifully with the fact that part of how it's even possible is the way the dungeon's mana is set up & that they still need the physical body
@@Triforce_of_Doomyeah when I watched it I was kinda confused, but when they talked about the corpse collectors I was able to figure it out myself without them telling me “we need to find falin because we can’t resurrect her without her body”
Ryoko Kui is the true heir to Terry Pratchett's genius- a comedic fantasy that's secretly full of thoughtful world building informed by research, interests and experiences. Then when you least expect it you're hit with philosophical pondering that changes your whole life and characters you would literally die for.
MYCOLOGY MENTIONED! There's actually a thing in the "Monster Tidbits" bonus manga where the canaries talk about the Walking Mushrooms being a problem for the organization because they draw humans to them. Kabru assumes it's through the spores, but it's explained that Actually, it's because mushroom-obsessed humans will go out in droves to look at them anytime a dungeon pops up. The "Walking Mushroom Association" apparently has more members than those obsessed with dragons. I felt so seen by it lol
I love that the author incorporated more lesser-known creatures like the barometz (based off of an actual plant that people mistook for a sheep growing out like a flower) and the sky fish (a cryptid that appears in photography, likely some fast-moving flying critter who ended up really blurry in the picture taken of them). Also, spirits in this universe basically operating the same way as a microscopic ecosystem, as seen in the flashback to Marcille and Falin’s school days. That was the part that made this series’ world building truly click for me.
One pretty small detail that I feel adds a lot is the fact that "humans" in this world are referred to as "tall men". The show does a really good job at avoiding the human defaultism that plagues fantasy. Humans aren't at the center of some overlapping ven diagram between dwarves, elves, and orcs, but rather, every race is distinct in their own way, humans, or rather, tall men, no more or less so than anyone else.
Yes! And even then they are Not a 1-1 depiction of irl humans, they have a bit shorter lifespan than us and a bit bigger average size, according to the suplemantal material
Regarding demihumans: there are bits in the manga and a few adventurers' bible pages that show the line is partly arbitrary; ogres are considered human in some places but not others. So the word is sort of a fantasy species thing And sort of an in-universe scientific racism thing. another neat writing choice imo
A piece of world building that I adored was Marcille’s hair. Her varied hairstyles emphasized the importance of hair care to magic even before we learned about it directly. It also showed how much Marcille wants to connect with her elven ancestry, especially in the face of only being half elf and thus seen as not enough of an elf. It was also kind of a clever way to indicate the passage of time, if her hair is different chances are it’s a new day. This is especially helpful for days that are divided amongst multiple episodes!
Tbh I never thought of that changing hair ~ new day I just assume from episode 9 which Namari said it has been a week, and estimate the time from there
Fun fact: none of the elves really have complex hairstyles like Marcille with multiple braids, bows, and ponytails! But because we don't meet them until way later, we think "oh I guess this is how elves style their hair".... Marcille has no clue what elf culture is like, even though she's trying her hardest to pass for a full elf.
My favorite part about this anime it's the way they adapted the title in spanish, "Tragones y Mazmorras" meaning "Guzzlers and dungeons", that being because D&D it's called "Dragones y Mazmorras" in spanish, a simple yet smart and funny pun that makes my dad joke oriented brain super happy
My understanding is that a lot of other languages use names like that. The english title is just the official english name that the japanese author gave, which is unfortunately slightly less catchy.
I'm sad they couldn't called the series, "Calabozos & Tragones" in Latin America, because D&D is called Calabozos & Dragones in LA Spanish, Mazmorras is the word used in Spain. But to be fair, the word "mazmorra" is closer to the meaning of dungeon, a "calabozo" is more associated with a prison. I also love the fact that in the Latin American Spanish dub the character of Marcille is voiced by Erika Ugalde, who also voices the titular Frieren, she's also known for voicing Disgust in Inside Out and its sequel
@@i.147 See, i would have preferred if they went with "Donjons et Gloutons" or something like that, because the pun is exactly intact but the dungeon is way more important to the story than any dragon :/
@@i.147 may I ask, who are the VAs who voice the main characters in the French dub? What other roles have they played, either in other anime, cartoons or live-action dubbing?
I'm a big fan of how Ryoko Kui renames Humans into "Tallmen". Fantasy and science fiction has a problem of making humanity the default in their settings. Turning humans into the standard from which all other races are compared to. By making "human" into a classification that encompasses races like elves, dwarves, gnomes and ogres, it really highlights that people like Laois and the other Tallmen are just another aspect of the world, not better or worse than the other races.
"Despite their size tallmen are actually weak compared to races like dwarves" felt like a really cool line, like it's a common misconception in their world that Tallmen must be stronger because of our size.
@@jamesburrows3602 yeah it really makes them seem more "balanced" overall. The main "advantage" of tallmen (aside from being, well, tall) is that they have higher stamina than the other races, thus allowing them to wear heavy armor for long periods of time without getting as tired.
I think one aspect of the party dynamic that often gets forgotten is that Marcille is as fascinated with dungeons as Laios is. The difference is that whereas Laios is primarily interested in the monsters that occupy dungeons, Marcille is fascinated by the mechanics of dungeons. She knows everything there is to know about the flow of magic within dungeons and their structures, as well as the basics of their ecosystems (though in this area her knowledge is extremely limited, since as the video noted most people outside the dungeon don't see monsters as anything other than a problem to be solved as part of dungeon exploration). Like she wasn't just studying dungeons as part of her broader fixation on magic; we see in flashbacks that she was actually creating her own mini-dungeons in secret. The fact that she shared these very private projects with Falin is part of how the show demonstrates how close they were. I think this aspect of her character is important to acknowledge because without it, a lot of her later actions appear to make no sense. I think her understanding of these systems, and of some of the darker mechanics behind them, also helps to explain her exaggerated aversion to eating monster flesh (beyond the inherent squick factor, which other characters--even those who are also written as being somewhat prissy--get over much faster). It also helps to explain her frustration with Laios and the others treating her as useless. Prior to her arrival in the dungeon, Marcille was basically the only person she knew with anything even approaching practical knowledge of dungeon systems. Again, she'd built model dungeons! Nobody else did shit like that! And so she had reason to expect to be a highly valuable member of the team. But Laios and Falin were doing goldstripping runs for years before Marcille caught up with them, and Senshi has been living down there for, like... Basically his entire life? So of course they have practical knowledge and experience that Marcille doesn't have, even after having gone on several delves with their old team, but because Marcille's entire sense of self-worth is tied up in her special interest for reasons I don't think have been touched on yet in the anime (but which I think are also a great example of the setting's worldbuilding), it is extremely difficult for her to accept that. So early on Marcille needs to learn to mesh that practical knowledge with her own highly theoretical knowledge. Anyway, er. Thanks for reading; sorry for the long-ass comment.
this is a great point, i think its really cool how the party 'roles' are more than the starting equipment they chose or the fighting style they prefer. the roles are treated akin to degrees/professions and are reflected not only in how they approach challenges but in how the knowledge they aquired informs their decision making and character. its nothing groundbreaking but its done so well. everyone in real life is a nerd about something and uniquely talented, and the story it really reflects how each person is valuable, be it to the group or the objective they are pursuing. no one is left behind in this and most characters get their moment to showcase why knowing what they know or doing what they do is important. it puts such value on how being people with diverse interests is of value, to me its one of the core messages of the first half of the story that gets very overlooked.
she's a theory nerd and not a practical nerd!! she has a lot of knowledge about the subject but when it comes to the actual physical reality, her knowledge is less applicable in the day-to-day. it's certainly an invaluable resource that's incredibly important, but like you said, she expected her knowledge to be more helpful in the dungeon than it actually was
Man I’m going to miss Dungeon Meshi Thursdays. It was always such a bright spot to sit down with my wife and watch this show together when we were having a rough week. Absolutely cannot wait for when we can do that again.
I’m gonna miss it too😭 I’d watch it with my brother and bf, I’d excitedly text “it’s dungeon Meshi Thursday!!” And I loved texting my friend about the new episode too
I love how much effort Ryoko Kui puts into the characters attire! No character just wears something because it looks cool, but rather it always tells you something about their job, their personality, their history, biological needs, and what they value. Its so intentional and adds such an amazing low level constant hum of world and character building
The utility of clothing also works as setup for what is potentially the best punchline in Dunmeshi: Namari and leg pouches (which probably won't ever come up in the anime, so anime viewers can safely google this one if they want lol)
They could have easily gone the way of a hundred other fantasy manga/anime with a cooking gimmick, but instead, they crafted a genuinely intriguing and fleshed-out world with intriguing history and, surprisingly enough, a pretty comprehensive ecology. Like, even the best fantasy series won't go that far on the latter. The creatures here feel like they fit into a wider framework rather than just sort of being plopped into ecosystems they feel out of place in. As someone who writes spec evo as a hobby, that just makes me really happy.
I feel like you'd love the Stormlight Archive (which he showed a picture of at the beginning of the video) if you really appreciate world building the ecology. It's generally much more common in western fantasy novels, but Dungeon Meshi is the first time I've seen an anime do it too. I can't wait for season 2!
@@GallowglassVTRight?! And I'm not sure if you've read the latest book, so spoilers below but Finding out that HORSES weren't native to Roshar completely blew me away, I've never been hit so hard by a plot twist in my life
@kjarakravik4837 fr, and I say this as someone who knew all the Shin creatures weren't native from the get go, it was cool to see how Sanderson incorporated creatures familiar to us in an organic way rather than trying to justify their evolution on Roshar.
I think it was from the manga bonus chapters but i love that having body fat is an advantage in the dungeon. Aside from the obvious part of being able to burn fat when food is scarce having body fat means if you get killed and your body is missing an organ that got exploded or torn out, party members can use the healing magic to replace your missing important organs with transmuted body fat. Plus the exhaustion from waking up after a resurrection can be curbed by the fat being burned for energy during the resurrection process.
Also i watched the first couple of episodes with a friend who loves ecology stuff. The hermit crab mimic had her so excited and we geeked out about how the kraken tasted terrible which is true to giant squids irl. Their deep sea habitst and biology causes them to circulate ammonium chloride through their body which has a lower density than salt water allowing them to use it instead of a swim bladder filled with air (which could rupture if sea creatures aren't careful ascending/descending in the deep). However if you didn't already figure it out from the "ammonium" part, this chemical tastes terrible.
That also ties into why Chilchuck is so adamant about never participating in fights. He's very tall for a halfling, so to avoid setting off pressure traps he has to limit his fat intake to keep his weight down, but as a tradeoff that means that he can't afford to die and get healed as often as a dwarf or tallman, who can build up body fat between dungeon runs.
I'm so glad it was weekly release too, hearing reactions to each episode is a treat, especially when the source material has enough substance to warrant that continued attention
For me it was Squid Game that made me use my Netflix subscription for the first time in 2 years back in 2021. Since then I've been looking for shows on that platform that interest me and that I've heard a lot of great things about. Even today I am looking forward to a new season of a show I like and a new show that looks promising.
I thought the Living Armor being a colony of mollusks was the most inventive thing I'd ever seen. Fun fact: apparently, Marcille has 38 hairstyles over the course of the first 24 episodes. I would love to see you look at Apothecary Diaries' worldbuilding. Although that might not be so difficult because it's a fictionalized version of medieval China to avoid pissing off the Chinese Government.
A look at the mindset of the elves is Kabru. He's a goofy little guy but when push comes to shove he will end you. The elves didn't teach him how to fight, they taught him how to kill. And when he did he did so with no hesitation and pinpoint precision. I like that little murder twink.
I also think it’s interesting how both Laios and Kabru are very good at killing the things that interest them (monsters and people respectively), it shows how being successful in combat heavily depends on reading the opponent.
The elves strike me as the Gohan of races- they really don't like fighting. So when they need to, they don't waste any time, they make sure its over as quickly as possible.
@@zoro115-s6bWould make sense for the canonically frailest race to focus on killing things swiftly. They can't afford to depend on armor like the dwarves (which is why dwarves are better)
@@rosenrot234Which is kinda funny since his elf mom who trained him was vice commander of the Canaries, whose job description is to fight monsters, not people.
Another aspect of the show that I really love is their character designs. Every group of individuals you meet no matter how brief has such a distinctive and memorable designs. There are no generic or hair color palette swap characters. The creativity of this show is something else.
Body shape diversity too. Not that generic slim/athletic build slop we often see in other Anime. They have their reasons to make them all like that, but still
Ryoko Kui might just be to fantasy and dungeon ecology and biology what Tolkien is to fantasy history and linguistics (and the genre overall ofc). Delicious in Dungeon is a genius fantasy story, definitely deserving of a podium among legends of the genre like Tolkien. And the character interactions and relations are something to be studied in classic literature university modules. She really went all out.
@@entidade_000 Mostly he would be disappointed. He was a devout catholic, and really wanted stories to bend towards hope and the hierarchy of the universe. That's how he felt about Dune. Disappointed at its cynicism and seeming atheistic character. He would however, probably see a lot of the charm of the Shire in Delicious Dungeon. Were he here, I think he would be overall proud to have contributed such a dear entry into the tradition of fantasy. Maybe also proud that so many were inspired by his work and then went on to produce works of their own. I think.
@@Moe_Posting_Chad I think Delicious in Dungeon has a good amount the theme of hope in it. The gang was literally going to fight a dragon for the slight hope that Falin's body wouldn't be completely destroyed the time they get there. It's honestly why this series feels so refreshing. There's so much positiveness, so much hope, so much companionship. Even after the darkest moments.
I did not expect Frank Herbert's son to be dragged by the scalp to Evan Call's music in a Delicious in Dungeon worldbuilding video essay. I am not mad about it since Mr.Basement-kun was spitting facts
The only thing missing was calling out Kevin J. Anderson for the part he played in the whole thing. Edit: Kevin J, not Kevin T. Shows how much of that train wreck I've retained.
@@TheColMustang2 His EU Star Wars books weren't bad from what I remember, it's true. But I suspect he did the vast share of the actual writing on the project, and I don't think his style meshed well with Frank Herbert's world from the very start. He should've recognized that, even if he did need to eat.
True, and Isekai gets dumber and dumber as well. Frieren and the last season of Goblin slayer was really good though so there are other regular fantasy shows out there worth watching still. :)
the irony is something along the lines of dungeon meshi WOULD be perfect for an isekai, give me a protagonist whos genuinly fascinated and mesmerized by all the little things the natives take fro granted
We were spoiled having this and Freiren at the same time. Though you should definitely check out Witch Hat Atelier when its anime adaptation comes out.
Delicious in Dungeon was honestly a very big surprise for me. I never expected it to be this good. At the beginning of the anime, I was saying, 'Okay, this is a fun anime,' but with time the anime started to become more deeper and darker, especially with episode 11. One of the things I like most about Delicious in Dungeon, other than the great world building, is the characters writing. Almost all of the characters are really well written, I swear even some of the side characters were written even better than our main characters, like Falin and Kabru. I don't think I need to mention other positive things like the amazing production, the comedy, world and monsters design, because they are so obvious. In general, I personally consider Delicious in Dungeon the greatest new anime released in 2024 so far, and my rating for it is 9/10.
i started watching it because i was bored and i had seen some stuff about it on tumblr. didn't know anything about it, but was curious. i was hooked by episode 3! the worldbuilding is just so good, its feels like a real place and its explained in story in a believable way! the characters are so charming, i became invested in saving falin purely on how determined the characters were to save her! its just is so good at what it does, its amazing! and the cooking/food gimmick is a true delight! i love the show very much
Really need to watch this one. I saw a post that read “Marcille X male reader headcanons” and the only one was “she leaves you for a woman”. Peak anime.
Where do I even begin...I as a biologist who often daydreams about the anatomy of fantasy animals genuinely teared up a bit about the sheer effort that's put in to reasonably explain the monsters and their behavior rather than relying " magic, evil wizards, old spells, ancient evils". Mixing mythology and biology together and making this bloody well it work is hard. Also the characters, especially main party are just so realistic, we all probably know someone like them or are like them ourselves. Despite the fantastical elements the core of what they are never seems too distant. Be it a divorced, middle-aged dude who's tired of life, a turbo autist with encyclopedia level knowledge, book smart girl who lacks any real wotld knowledge about practical application, moody teenager who doesn't what what she wants in life or soneone who's finally found his "tribe" after suffering through loneliness
Dungeon Meshi is probably one of the best fantasy anime of all time. Take this from to someone who watch too many fantasy to isekai anime. It actually very refreshing from the characters design to world building. They could've only focus this only at the food and cooking aspect like the Campire Cooking in a Another World, or any anime that focuses on food etc, but instead the author manage tell a story with the creatures and the whole ecosystem in the dungeon through food. That is very impressive.
EASILY one of the best anime adaptations of all time. Instantly as good as FMA - Brotherhood. That kind of praise is reserved for the actually universally beloved titles. *The land of Kings.*
Terrible take. Frieren could not possibly be more generic, uninspired, insipid, pandering, paint by numbers insult! The autizum elf is such a fucking meme, it really is the epitome of socially maladjusted anime consumers. That was their target demographic and they will be talking about Frieren and Lucky Star until the day they die. And nobody but more of them will listen.
I heavily recommend everyone to check put the “ Real World Cultural and Linguistic Influences in Delicious in Dungeon” research essay by Room_Surprise, posted on ArchiveofOurOwn. Some of the bits Geoff said at the end made me think he might have had a look in there, but if not!! It’s great. There’s months of research behind it, and it’s still being updated and written. Long story short… every named character has a name that exist irl, carefully chosen to fit the character it was given too. If anything, the names’ origins and meanings inform us about the characters, shining lights on character writing that was included in the story.
Another awesome bit about mimics: the colors of the claws are clearly based on the Coconut Crab, which is the largest species of Hermit Crab and is known to eat dogs and cats and are a real threat to humans. Scientists have theorized that they're just too big to find something large enough. D in D's Mimics are just Coconut Crabs who finally managed to find something to hide in.
My favorite part is the way so much of the plot keeps tying itself back to cooking and eating in a way that really WORKS. From straightforward stuff like the effects of food on the dungeon explorers and the dog-eat-dog world of dungeon ecology, to more dramatic or emotional moments like Senshi's mystery soup and the ultimate plan to save Falin, to more subtle things like the way that the community of immortal people from the old kingdom's inability to truly "live" is expressed through their dulled sense of taste, or how big of a role feasts play in Thistle's memories of important moments in the magic paintings
About 10 years ago I had a player who would cook almost anything they killed, from giant slugs to goblins. The the other characters had some issues with his meals, so he just started lying about what/who was in his food. They even had huge tents make of cured Giant Slug-skins.
Something I really love about Dungeon Meshi that we'll more-so get into in Season 2 is the way in-which it's focus on food is not only retained as it gets into it's larger narrative, but becomes thematically central to it. Fantasy stories often have a thematic backbone that's something fundamental, like fire in Dark Souls, and I'm always impressed at how Dungeon Meshi tricks you into not realizing it's doing the same thing. Just such a great transition from "I love fantasy cooking, this is so much fun!" to "Eating is the central impulse which unites and divides all peoples, creatures, and ecosystems. To eat is to live, and meals are the special privilege of the living."
I love the rule the series has for resurrection spells and how death works in dungeons. being able to resurrect people at first would seem like a really great way to lower the tension since it drastically lowers the risk of mistakes and bad judgements. there's no actual danger down here so we get to take our time to explore and check out the fun monsters for our silly cooking anime. but nearly every adventurer we meet has a story about the first time they died and it's never pleasant. the only reason we are able to see just how brutal and vicious death is within the dungeon is because we are able to revive the victims of it and they get to tell us their traumatizing experience going through it in explicit detail. and then the implications of ressurection get taken to their logical extremes. we see businesses crop up of people finding, cataloguing, and reviving adventurers to the point where if another group happens to find your group and revive you it's common courtesy to pay them upon waking up (which incidentally also alligns with how many RPGs will punish players who wipe with losing money). even criminals can get into this business incredibly easily since killing someone from the shadows/ having someone else kill them, reviving them and taking their money is a really solid way to milk lower skilled adventurers. since there's hardly any enforcement of laws deep in a dungeon this type of exploitation is also really easy to get away with. in order to engage with that terrible system though, your body has to be found first. if you die in someplace that's hard to reach or is incredibly well hidden you're out of luck. we see even in the dungeons second floor this can happen as there are still long dead adventurers within the carnivorous plants. depending on how you die, your body might also have to be changed in order for you to not immediately die again upon waking up in a non functioning body. how do you rebuild someone who has been crushed, partially digested, melted with acid, killed by spells that rearranged their bodies in ways you don't understand, etc? liberties will sometimes have to be taken and it's in the hands of whoever's reviving you and their skills as a magic user. even worse, you might die in a dungeon and nobody would care enough to go back and revive you. falin is incredibly lucky that she has people who love her enough to brave fighting a dragon to revive her, even in that case not all of that original party even stuck around for that. even reasons as simple as money problems can be enough for someone to turn around and move on. if someone's quest is to go find someone specific to revive them, "this dead dude owes my employer money" is probably one of the most common reasons. there's also no way of knowing when you'll be revived or where, so you could wake up months or even years into the future and you just have to deal with that, the dread that everything else moved on without you and you now have to readjust. TL:DR - ressurection is used masterfully to make the feeling of existentialism even more potent. 10/10 would recommend the silly cooking anime to my friends and family
In Episode 4 it clicked for me. When Senshi talked about the Golems for Farming and the Ecosystem, preventing stronger monsters to come up for the lower depths. And as a german i found it incedible funny, when Sensi was later extremly focused on backing bread with sour dough.
The moment I fell in love with the series was when they acknowledge that the difference between extraction methods for a mandrake affects the end result. Giving Marcille some credit, even after the risk she put herself, was a very nice surprise.
I think Laios being heavily implied to be autistic is one of my favorite things about the entire anime besides Marcille and Falin's relationship. The argument he has with Shuro spoke to so many people on the spectrum, including myself AND Laios' English VA, Damien Haas.
Plus him stimming with his hands to get ready to confront the shapeshifter!!! As someone who purposefully hides my stimming to avoid looking silly it felt amazing to see someone do it and look badass/ hot doing it
And Falin! Don't forget our girl who just has different coping mechanisms but still very much autistic (including playing with rocks by stacking them onto eachother on one of background flashbacks). Toshiro might be one as well, but that's not as clear if you don't look into his background and motivations, plus a lot of his symptoms are often brushed off as cultural differences. I just think that wide variants of rep like that is neat :3
@@Homodemon in village where magic was seen as dangerous, in around middle ages. Also European. Are you sure she or anyone alse there had the knowledge about zen rocks? (hope this comment won't get eaten by TH-cam)
33:45 “It fixates on the same things the characters fixate on.” YES!! This is what I love about this type of writing, it’s a way to build the world and connect with the characters at the same time. One of my favorite moments so far is Chilchuk’s extremely personal hatred of mimics. We get introduced to a new monster in the world and its place in the dungeon ecosystem, while also understanding more of Chil’s backstory and past experiences as an adventurer.
I have been ranting at everyone i know to read Dungeon Meshi for 3 years ever since I first read it. The world building and attention to detail show so much love put into this work.
Now that season 1 is over, I gotta read because the spoilers are now on a ticking countdown. I don't wanna get spoiled! It would be a waste of good food.
All of this plus a plot as tight as fma makes dungeon meshi easily one of the best ever written. Flawless execution. I am so, so happy the anime adaption is as excellent as it is.
The Isekai I enjoy more are not the adventure ones but ones that go into the key details of how a world with magic and mythical creatures would behave with rules and structure. Dungeon here does a great job at explaining how a dungeon can function for thousands of not more than that in a logical way brilliantly
Oh, it goes deeper in the extra materials. There's a short story explaining WHY the dungeon (and in fact all dungeons) end up with that particular ecosystem. Apparently in the beginning Thistle summoned the ultimate monster - "That which ends all" - only to have it dissipate in minutes because it needs to eat the life energy of multiple whales every thirty minutes to sustain itself. So after gradually scaling down his ambitions he just gave up and made a simple self-sistaining ecosystem with weaker monsters up top.
Without going into spoilers (haven’t finished the vid yet, I dunno if Geoff talks about it) this story ends in the most unexpected yet perfect way possible. Despite being a very low-stakes story (compared to its contemporaries at least) Delicious in Dungeon has what might be THE most fascinating end game I’ve ever seen in an anime.
Two things that I love about this series: 1. Subtle hints about ethnicities for each race. We know there's humans like Laios and humans like Shuro, and it seems like there's some culture clash between them, which plants the idea that every ethnicity of human has their own history and relationship, and since the dungeon attracts people from across the world it lets the reader to wonder about the gaps in what they're seeing. It's something like what _Rings of Power_ was trying to do with a diverse cast, but actually discussing the different nationalities and conflicts therein. On top of that, it does something interesting with the Canaries, to see that there are many ethnicities of elves implies a breadth to the elf nation that the shorter-lived races don't have access to. 2. People love and embrace Laios for his autism. Though of course it's only implied by his... everything, people really seem to like him, and I, for one, love the autistic rep for him being such a fascinating character. -Also the fact that people are going carnally insane about him is a small, indirect boost to the ego-
I think it's also worth noting how the character design also plays a part in the world building -- I think there was another video on this by lines in motion(?) but the way Marcille's more fashionable clothes reflect her preference for elven beauty standards informs a lot about her character
NB on your point about Laios naming his sword - the kanji for Kensuke is a pun on a common boy's name and the fact Laios literally calls it 'sword-assistant', lmao - the translators just chose to leave it untranslated
what an excellent video on dungeon meshi's attention to detail for those interested in Ryoko Kui's world building sensibilities after this great breakdown of dungeon meshi's worldbuilding by Geoff i highly recommend reading Ryoko Kui's short story anthologies aswell. besides just being fun little reads with great punchlines they also give excellent insight into how she thinks about the worlds she creates aswell as some other things that may help you understand dungeon meshi's characters aswell. my favorite of her short stories is "distant utopia", which is about a group of highschoolers being tasked with making a little story about how bullying is bad using mice and bunny people, but as they think about the underlying causes of the bullying they think up of a whole complex world around these mice and bunnies. another standout one to me is "wolves tell no lies" about a kid born with werewolfism and his relationship with his mom who is basically a famous autism mommy blogger. i really like this one because it shows just how well Ryoko Kui understands neurodivergence and how laios being autistic coded is 100% intentional. and lastly in following rules of thirds i want to talk a little about a short story ryoko kui wrote called "how to be that girl" that's not in one of her anthologies. it follows a short exchange between a detective and his android partner named steve while steve is in the process of putting on a disguise for a mission which involves him removing his "skin" to put on a female "skin" so as to be able to infiltrate someplace. the crux of the story is about the detective's difficulty in processing steve's changes making him no longer seem like himself ultimately for steve to reassure him that no matter what may change that he is still the partner he knew underneath the disguise with the detective internalizing that atleast a little by the end, as it turns out that the detective's worries stemmed from his own difficulty processing his sibling's transition which he now accepts better as he comes to thank her for borrowing her clothes for steve's disguise. i like this story showing Ryoko Kui having an understanding and acceptance herself of lgbtq+ people and how that also informs many people's reading on the nature of falin and marcille's relationship (not to mention the other canonical gay characters like otta in dungeon meshi) I could gush a lot more about all the other various short stories but then this comment would be even longer than it already is and i want to leave all the other short stories to be read on you the comment reader's own terms if my gushing has peaked your interest in them
It has some of the best foreshadowing / early story consistency at hinting at story beats or facts that come up later. Rereading the manga over again really makes you realize that so much was already there you just didn't know enough to realize it was. I also love you it feels natural when things are explained to you and they don't feel just exposition. Also, that all characters, even Laios, have prejudices that come from their environment. Reading the spin off story where he and fallin are quite racist about their neighboring ppl was really refreshing. Everyone has blind spots and no one is fully non-prejudiced. Its how you handle having your thoughts challenged that really is the key. I love the play in perspectives and running when you realize things happened in reverse order to your reading.
the worldbuilding of dungeon meshi is one of the best templates for actually running a pen-and-paper campaign in recent memory. it's concentration on a single location while showing your the wider world through character interaction and other hints, it's focus on how cultures and ecologies actually function, the fact that magic is a thing but is not leaned on to explain everything, and the fact that no one in the party(or most anyone really) is bullshit powerful - all of it is a great set of guidelines for designing your own world for a party to actually explore and experience for themselves. it's so nice to have actual fantasy that's not isekai powergaming ;p
Speaking of all the talk about special interests, I've had two prominent ones ever since I was a kid: fungi and fairy folklore. The revelation that this show manages to seamlessly COMBINE THEM, I literally started shaking with excitement - this was the deciding video for me, I have GOT to watch Dunmeishi. (also as a real life Mushroom Guy I can confirm your speculation, if mushrooms were also occasionally little dudes who popped out of the ground, I would in fact lose my mind about it every time)
Dungeon Meshi really is a master class of worldbuilding. The seamless blending of speculative biology and implicit deep history makes the whole world feel like it _works_ outside of the story, which is something I always appreciate.
Im really fascinated with the ever subtle build up of small events from how Chil thinks he really motivated Laios on going in the dungeon to save his sister again, to how they meet Senshi, to the unfortunate gameover of Kabru's party to greed (treasure bugs) and the foreshadowing that maybe, just maybe - as Kabru has stated, Laios might have something to do with the dungeon (with my hunch that hes the decendant king) really sparks with me how the world building is in-depth even to through small details. then theres Senshi panty shots, absolutely necessary fanservice
[HEAVY SPOILER WARNING FOR LITERALLY ALL THE MANGA] Its so hard wanting to talk about the worldbuilding of this story when most people dont know about my favourite part of it yet, the Demon. As a character the Demon is up there with my favourite anime villains of all time (why wouldn't an evil version of Robin William's genie be amazing) through its charisma and terror, with the image of the goat appearing over Mithrun's bed in his flashback is a legitimate jumpscare. But going into it's place in the greater world makes you feel almost bad for it, and infinite being trapped in a finite world. It makes sense why it would be so ravenous for human desires, they are one of the only things in this world that are truly infinite, no matter what someone has, theyll never be completely satisfied. But on the flipside, the state the Deomn leaves it's victims in once it has consumed their desires is horrifying. What's worse is that most of it's victims still long for it, not being able to replace the "love" they feel the Demon gave them. Even Mithrun is obsessed with it, despite processing the yearning as one of hate and revenge instead of one of love. The Demon is a lot of things to a lot of people. To the Dungeon Lord, it is a source of infinite power and the most trustworthy of companions. To it's victims it resembles an abusive contact that you've cut out of your life, but are still scarred by, needing the help and compassion of others to overcome. To the worldbuilding of the story it is an interesting possible explanation to why things are the way they are in the setting (with it being heavily implied that the difference in lifespan between races is a result of a wish granted by the demon). And to the themes of the overall story, it provides an infinitely hungry force that will eat and eat and never be full, opposing the series' ideas of sustainability and healthy eating habits. In short, cannot wait for the Demon to be animated in season 2, and I hope people can enjoy the interesting ideas the Demon provides to both the story and the worldbuilding, and not just post thirst-filled screenshots on Twitter (however tempting that may be to some people 😅).
The Demon is so horribly sinister with how it effortlessly weaves together truths and lies, and will, with no hesitation, drag up its victims' worst impulses, fears, and traumas to break them down. When Marcille has been tricked into becoming the Demon Lord, he outfits her in her mother's funeral dress, the one that she wore at Marcille's father's funeral when she gave the speech that Marcille would have to accept that all of the people around her are going to die one day.
Yeah, season 2 is gonna be soooo wild once we get introduced to the Demon. I love love love how even the seemingly simple, harmless, fight-a-new-monster-that-leads-to-a-new-meal episodic adventures in the first half of the anime are literally all just an elaborate setup for the manga's bigger, overall themes of the cycle of consumption and hunger and desire and sustainability.
To me as someone who is working tirelessly to be an author (as I am editing the draft of my book as I speak). Dungeon Meshi's world building and approach to story telling opened up possibilities and question how I approach the ecosystems of my own world. How little details like clothing, city layouts or heck accent and talking patterns all influence and indicate what the world is like. Definitely excited for the next season of this series for sure!
@@hellowendy1029 Added the link under the basic info in my profile (so I don't flood this comment section with links as I don't imagine people would like that too much)
hpnestly if youre looking for worldbuilding that you can really chew on, adventure time has some of the craziest long term worldbuilding ive ever seen especially for a cartoon. Ive never seen a story that has a better grasp on the art of the retcon and how to make it not just not suck, but make it incredible. Not sure if I have every AT lore book, but I have most of them and it still blows me away the amount of work and research that goes into the philosophies and politics of AT while still keeping that consistent tone and remaining extremely funny and charming.
I'm so tempted to get back into AT, I enjoyed it so so much when I was younger, but there's so many episodes😅. No excuse though, I've gotten through really long shounen after all.
I love how all the characters approach the dungeon with their own methodologies. Really immerse you in the story that even the side characters are competent, and the victory isn't won by a protag-kun with an OP cheat skill
laios is actually superbly unfit as a standard main character, he doesnt discover hidden powers, or even improve that much at dungeoneering and fighting, he just starts to figure out his own way to "win" by what his experiences and friends teach him, as well as what he excels at can help them in turn. all things considered, laios and senshi are basically redundant as characters, both are decent fighters who understand monsters and ecology, until the little things they do differently from one another start to stack up... and spoilers so i wont talk about it
The thing I really like about the dungeon is that nothing is “just there”. Mimics in fantasy never really made sense to me because…what do they eat? Well, they were actually a precaution that more experienced adventurers would know about in games, but that still doesn’t answer the question, and it only brings up more. Did the person who made the dungeon plan on people coming across these conveniently placed treasure chests that look like conventional treasure chests and expect them to get swallowed up, how often were they expecting these adventurers to come by, and why would they place these walking stomachs in spots so out there only a child would be enticed by them? In DunMeshi, it explains mimics as crustaceans that hide in boxes, effectively ambush predators, which makes infinitely more sense to me. The monsters aren’t just there to inconvenience the adventurers, the adventurers are coming into the monsters’ territory making them fair game.
Makes even more sense when you realized the coconut crab, which is terrestrial once fully grown, is a hermit crab. The mimic is basically just a large coconut crab that didn't lose its instinct to hide in shells once it matured!
I love the show's unpredictability as it weaves its rich and diverse characters into one great adventure emphasizing everyone plays a unique role in each other's lives; a ripple effect
dungeon meshi is genuinely one of the best anime to come out so far in the 2020s. its character writing, dialogue, and worldbuilding are all fantastic. the comedy is top notch, and pacing is (mostly) perfect. it has amazing but more subtextual queer representation and laios is one of the best representations of autism that's ever been put to television. it's so good
All the hints that set up the revalations about the dungeon in the final chapters are there from the first pages: a sure sign that this manga was planned out before it was written and drawn. I love that about a story!
Trigger has done it again. Plus Marcille managed to help me stay fulfilled with elf content this season after Frieren ended. Just in time for the Thicc elves to come.
I just love the attention to detail in the info we get about magic, with the flash back to magic school and Marcel's talks about forbidden magic, With how it pertains to spirits and uses physical means like blood, meat, plants, etc to channel it. Like how Marcel mentioned she grew her staff over a long period of time, wile falin uses a lamp like staff, showing the difference between the longer lived races along with the magic systems and methods at the same time.
Dungeon Meshi is... A MASTERPIECE, I don't use this term lightly, I mean every letter of it. Everything about it from the overall story, to the worldbuilding, to the characters, to the art is... SUPERBLY made, it may not be for everyone, but even then it isn't a question of flaw, but simply taste. I followed this manga since around chapter 10 I think, maybe 15, it has been years I can't quite remember but it was early... and what a journey it was, I savored every bit of it just as much as the crew savored every meal they had. The end wasn't "emotional" so to speak, but... I cried when it ended because this is a very special story, one that I strongly recommend to anyone. I won't even say to prioritize the manga... because the anime is INCREDIBLE, a true work of art in adapting a story.
I think I speak for countless people when I say I would play a game set in the world, or in a world like, Dungeon Meshi, with all the races and monsters. I'm thinking a rogue-lite, multiplayer optional. Something like Hades or CotL where you venture into the dungeon or dungeons that constantly change mixed with the character customization of Baldur's Gate 3, the goal is to get to the end or as much treasure as you can, with checkpoints to serve as food breaks to cook up what you hunted, gathered, or brought from the surface. Your player character and party members are fully customizable; you can swap out your party like decks of cards. My main would be an Oni ranger, he'd have a blunderbuss (picture a caravan shotgun from Fallout New Vegas with octagonal barrels, also the shells are hollowed-out bamboo), a big one-handed axe, a black and orange striped tunic in place of tiger pelt, and a dog named Onigiri (he has a horn; picture a black-brown-white shiba with a singular oni horn).
Another banger, Jeff. DiD is one of the freshest takes on the fantasy genre I've seen in years, no pun intended. (Maybe a lil) I'm an older fan (43), and Record of Lodoss War was one of my first experiences with anime at all. This show makes my heart soar the same way Lodoss did all those years ago. Love you, love the community, best wishes to all.
@@animeotaku307 yeah, it's so cool to see one of your favorite TH-camrs in a show you really like. ProZD voices Senshi in the English Dub if you didn't know.
The fact that Ryoko Kui essentially took the premise of the first Wizardry, went "What if I focused on how you'd cook the monsters inside the Proving Grounds instead of beelining for the Mad Overlord?" and then slowly spun THAT into a compelling fantasy adventure all its own, is nothing less that extraordinary.
Considering the very unsubtle jab in one bonus page at western developers who don't release translations of their games in other languages because "most people know english anyways", it's almost certain that Kui took inspiration from old-school fantasy games
@@andrewcapra7153 I understand that frustration at least a little. So many cool looking RPGs never left Japan in the 90s. One day, I will play Wachenroder!
I also like how the larger scale of things doesn't matter much to the casts, they just want to save Falin And the main reason they solved all the problems are because they are a inconvenience to the quest of saving Falin
@bachtrinh8783 "The person who slays the mad mage will-" "Don't care, we gotta save Falin" "Long ago, there was a war-" "Don't care" "The demons" "Don't care. Oh hey, we saved the world"
Do not speak her name. It only gives her more power. Seriously, that woman thrives on rage-bait. And like any good troll, it takes far longer to debunk her than it does for her to spew out that verbal garbage (that she probably plagiarized anyway).
So wait a minute... are y'all actually mad at this person (whoever she is), or are you deliberately trying to drive people to her channel so her ragebait gets more views? 🤔
@@Brasswatchman The former, more or less. Not much sense in getting angry at Lily's review because it's not even that. It's just 25 minutes of her calling Laios a terrible character who hates his sister. I don't recommend watching it.
So one of the things in writing that I will die defending is that food is a very important and often over looked aspect of world and character building. Especially in fantasy settings. Like it can dive into characters history, or local economy, or class issues. I've said it for years that feeding your characters is an important part of stories. I always try to include some meals in my own writing. Thats why Dungeon Meshi was amazing to me. It took it a step further and builds the world through the monsters and ecosystem even. It's going to be an inspiration for a wave of fantasy books I promise.
One of the many things I love about this show is that it is fixated on the same weird, niche details of world building that I also find fascinating. I can't remember the last time I watched an anime that I vibed with as much as this one
I'm glad you brought up the bonus chapter with Laios feeling imposter syndrome for real dragon fans. As a birder for going on 2 decades I've felt the same way while reading and interacting with others who are way more into raptors that I am, or when I see how herpetologists go about their hobby. Reading that bonus comic felt very real to me as Laios gets challenged by Chilchuck with his seemingly basic facts.
I really like the character design, I've heard from other TH-camrs how Ryouko Kui has like tons of character design templates and even played with the characters as different races and no 2 characters ever look the same.
When I saw the trailer, I was hooked When I found out Trigger and Bump of Chicken were involved, I was eager to watch When I watched the first episode, I was super invested Now when I watched the 3rd episode, I cursed the world for having to wait for the rest of the series, because the take on Living Armor convinced me this was fantasy like never seen before, AND I COULDN’T WAIT TO SEE ALL OF IT
My personal favorite was how the explained resurection magic needing animal sacrifice in order to replace the flesh of the deceased and what implications that might have for those resurrected with the flesh of monsters/magical creatures.
I really love laios,he very relatable,as a neurodivergent person myself,i understand and feel emotionally connected to what happened to laios and how you feel like you don't belong,the little things we learn about his life,hit to close to home to me
It could be recency bias, but I think delicious in dungeon is in my top favourite shows. I spoke about loving the natural flow of how they give exposition for the world building with my friends. The whole world feels loved in with characters coming from different backgrounds, each having their own culture. The characters also have personalities and habits that fit their roles in the party, but aren’t fixed to them. They were given room to show when they branch out when the situation called for it, not just when the story called for character growth. Absolutely loved this first season and I can’t wait to see the second season. You know the world story is good when you’re left thinking “I can’t wait to see how this plays out (the future of the story), and learn more about this world (the past of the story)”, rather than just “I want to see more” with no clear points to focus and look forward to
I wasn't expecting much from Dungeon Meshi when I started it if I'm being honest. It looked like a fairly standard fantasy show with a cooking show quirk and a soft appealing art style that got me to give it a chance. But what really got me was the almost Jojos like pacing of some of the encounters. Like, it was the living armor episode that caused me to binge the rest of the season. The way living armor was described as a magical construct sounded like your bog standard dullahan sort of thing, but then I started noticing things like... a frame or two ahead of Laios. The helmet being put back on to face forward, the way the armor needed to re-attach limbs at joints, etc. And with Laios noticing, that puts the thought of "Hey, something weird is actually going on, it's not just artistic flair" and primes you for the reveal of the more naturalistic explanation. The level of thought and care put into tying so many things together, like blending various religious practices and superstitions together to improvise holy water, or that using it as a flail works because ghosts phase through matter and the water makes contact that way, dispelling the ghost is nothing short of mind boggling. There has not been another series ever to get me to chuckle at how a solution or monster is depicted only to go "Oh that makes perfect sense, why didn't I think of that" moments later anywhere close to this much.
oooo thank you thank you thank you for interweaving manga extras into the video, especially for the anime-onlys its amazing how much more in depth they go into the world, i kinda hope trigger makes an OVA for them
I like how it went from happy-go-lucky dungeon adventure to a Dark, using Black Magic on a dragon corps to resurrect a friend like it was nothing adventure really quick.
5 หลายเดือนก่อน +6
8:05 as a bug nerd myself and a Biology and Ecology student, this anime explored so many different dreams and fantasies in an exceptionally delicious way
This video helped me with some of my own world building, especially the comments on micro-worldbuilding. I am trying to build a urban fantasy world but honestly i just need to focus on the town where everything takes place! Plus DnD is so good thank you for covering it.
I like how the characters are just average people who exist, have interests, and aren’t overpowered. I don’t like the “generic dude who is super over powered” troupe that lots of fantasy anime have. It feels rewarding to see the dungeon Meshi cast win battles and struggle on their adventure
One of my favorite new anime. More writers should take notes from this series because of its world building. The characters are fun and feel like believable people. The world feels full. And I love it
One minor, semi-defence of Brian Herbert: He was not an incompetent pulp horror writer, and his role as his father's literary executor initially stemmed from the bitter falling out between Frank and his eldest son, a gay rights activist who Brian himself considered the better choice but was sidelined by their homophobic sister and brother-in-law after Frank's death. In any case, thank you for reminding me to read and watch Dungeon Meshi. Really love what I've seen and read of this story.
Big thanks to Naraka: Bladepoint for sponsoring! Download the game and prove your skills: gsght.com/c/o8s3pe
*fistbump for the Pern reference* Ah, one of the Old Ones such as I. I salute you.
Japanese Dungeon Meshi manga or Korean Dungeon Smashy manhwa ???
Can you check out some old Isekai like "MäR Heaven" ?
This channel is ripping off your videos, fyi
th-cam.com/users/shortsrkG_SjI66zo?si=OJbKgHwUT6G3wAwJ
I actually liked your comment at 7:00 . It is making me consider a lot on some concept I wanted to do. Thanks for that.
Laios being the classic *Male Human Warrior* , the most basic of RPG archetypes, and at the same time being the strangest and most bizarre of the group never ceases to be funny
Tall Human
tallman
He's not weird at all, he's just a foodie!
Troll Human
@@jadedragon216 He's not a foodie, he's obsessed with monsters, eating them is just a side effect of that. Senshi is the foodie.
When they explained that living armor is actually a colony of mollusks, I knew we were in for something special.
Can you imagine of that existed i real life it make someone cautious when going swimming at the beach or diving itll suck to get stab out of nowehere by one of these things
It’s so genius I’m mad I didn’t come up with it first.
"Ah, yes. After the war was ended, they threw all their "Scary Armors" into the sea. Them sea critters went FREE REAL ESTATE in that right away!"
And that's why you fish on a boat.
"And You would have heard me if you didn't just laugh and walk away! You're that tall cause you ain't a baby, right??"
...what a mean Halfling.
They're Hunters from Halo!
@@seeranos I'm pretty sure the Lekgolo, the species of simple worms that create hive mind colonies, were not mollusks. Their whole thing was that they are a hive mind large enough to inhabit the equipment of two hunters. They go insane when their nest mate perishes.
Lot of cool ecology in the halo world building books.
I studied ecology in college and I work at a science museum. The moment I knew I'd love this series was when I was reading the manga and saw the life cycle of a slime in a little extra, tucked away at the end of a volume. It's got a multi-stage parasitic relationship that I recognized from some species of snails. Kui didn't just take a glance over the basic concepts of a food chain, she dug deep and threw enthusiasm into the stuff that isn't glamorous, and I was freaking out and texting old classmates about it.
Yes! This!
Now I'm doubly convinced that I must read the manga. Thanks for the extra nudge!
@@SheliakDragon Also read "The Adventurer's Bible", a sort of guidebook for the series created by Kui towards the end of the series. It contains some spoilers for things that happen between chapters 30 and 70, but it layers on the worldbuilding even more by focusing on the actual "human" characters and their goings on rather than just the dungeon/monsters.
I love this sort of stuff.
Whoa! That's awesome!! !
What I love most about Dungeon Meshi (In addition to the incredible worldbuilding, food porn, characters etc..) is how scrappy the party is. Nobody has op powers, they have to fight for every scrap of food and power they can get and as a result every encounter with a monster feels harrowing and awesome. In a world where every other isekai is trying to out cool each other with their paint by numbers protagonists, here's a batch of weirdos all just trying to get Laios' sister back using whatever they can find and use along the way.
It's remarkably refreshing to have a story where the progatonists are actually underdogs as opposed to stories bending over backwards trying to make their op protagonists hated by the world or called weak for arbitrary reasons to force drama.
yes! their power is literally knowledge and a willingness (and desire) to cook and eat monsters. Its why, despite not actually being the richest, smartest, or most powerful group, they end up making it farther down into the dungeon than anyone ever has. Respect and understanding of the ecology of the dungeon outranks any basic RPG skills which is such a fascinating turn to bring to a dungeon crawl story
One might argue that Laios' autism is a special power lol
Ah, a fellow frieren sceptic ❤
To be fair, they all are a top of their leagues: Laios is a very good leader and has encyclopedic knowledge of monsters (plus he's ripped), Farlin is a protege healer, Chilchuck is literally the biggest halfling in town due to him being head of the union, Marcile is a professional (even if very much by the book) mage with specialization in dark magic, Senshi has been underground for a couple of decades, Toshiro is a noble specifically trained in fighting and Namari is a daughter of (disgraced) weapons dealer and weaponhead herself.
Thing is, they ARE op. Just by more technically achievable by regular person standarts.
What do you mean you don't want another fantasy where the MC has a cheat skill that breaks all the conventions of his setting?
My favorite DunMeshi lore tidbit is that being on the chunkier side is actually a sign of a very skilled adventurer in the Dungeon. They explain this being the case because when you die in the Dungeon, Resurectors use alot of the calories in your body to Revive you. The Manga also explain that this is why Kabru is so skinny haha. The Living armor was the first sign that this was gonna be something quite special when I first read it, but the intricacies of Ressurection magic was the thing that sealed the deal for me.
oh yeah the specifics of resurrection magic was great because upon seeing that the initial premise was "we need to save Falin before she gets digested" while they also mention past deaths just made me go "okay so why is her case a race against time" & the series answers that beautifully with the fact that part of how it's even possible is the way the dungeon's mana is set up & that they still need the physical body
ah yes, dying a lot makes you twinkier
@@Triforce_of_Doomyeah when I watched it I was kinda confused, but when they talked about the corpse collectors I was able to figure it out myself without them telling me “we need to find falin because we can’t resurrect her without her body”
Ryoko Kui is the true heir to Terry Pratchett's genius- a comedic fantasy that's secretly full of thoughtful world building informed by research, interests and experiences.
Then when you least expect it you're hit with philosophical pondering that changes your whole life and characters you would literally die for.
"It's ready........."
Just like pratchett would have liked
Oooooo!!!!! OK, I'm watching it 🤩🤩🤩🤩 thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!
You're onto something here.
So much of this
MYCOLOGY MENTIONED! There's actually a thing in the "Monster Tidbits" bonus manga where the canaries talk about the Walking Mushrooms being a problem for the organization because they draw humans to them. Kabru assumes it's through the spores, but it's explained that Actually, it's because mushroom-obsessed humans will go out in droves to look at them anytime a dungeon pops up. The "Walking Mushroom Association" apparently has more members than those obsessed with dragons. I felt so seen by it lol
I love that the author incorporated more lesser-known creatures like the barometz (based off of an actual plant that people mistook for a sheep growing out like a flower) and the sky fish (a cryptid that appears in photography, likely some fast-moving flying critter who ended up really blurry in the picture taken of them).
Also, spirits in this universe basically operating the same way as a microscopic ecosystem, as seen in the flashback to Marcille and Falin’s school days. That was the part that made this series’ world building truly click for me.
barometz is allegedly a cotton plant described by person who doesn't know about it before
kelpies too, and I love the novel ways of combating monsters like singing poorly to thwart a siren's music.
Wow!!!!! The phrase "microscopic ecosystem" somehow reminds me of Mushi-shi Shi since that was kind of about magical bacteria!!!!!! 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩
I didn't know that the 'vegetable lambs' had another name, they sure did their research
not the first appearance of skyfish in popular anime - they're in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Part 6: Stone Ocean!
One pretty small detail that I feel adds a lot is the fact that "humans" in this world are referred to as "tall men".
The show does a really good job at avoiding the human defaultism that plagues fantasy. Humans aren't at the center of some overlapping ven diagram between dwarves, elves, and orcs, but rather, every race is distinct in their own way, humans, or rather, tall men, no more or less so than anyone else.
“Humans” are actually elves, tall-men, half-foots, dwarves, ogres, and gnomes. Anything else is a “Demi-Human”, like Orcs and Goblins.
@@kneerow3 ogres are humans??
@@kneerow3arent orcs and ogres swapped around?
Yes! And even then they are Not a 1-1 depiction of irl humans, they have a bit shorter lifespan than us and a bit bigger average size, according to the suplemantal material
Regarding demihumans: there are bits in the manga and a few adventurers' bible pages that show the line is partly arbitrary; ogres are considered human in some places but not others. So the word is sort of a fantasy species thing And sort of an in-universe scientific racism thing.
another neat writing choice imo
A piece of world building that I adored was Marcille’s hair. Her varied hairstyles emphasized the importance of hair care to magic even before we learned about it directly. It also showed how much Marcille wants to connect with her elven ancestry, especially in the face of only being half elf and thus seen as not enough of an elf. It was also kind of a clever way to indicate the passage of time, if her hair is different chances are it’s a new day. This is especially helpful for days that are divided amongst multiple episodes!
Tbh I never thought of that changing hair ~ new day
I just assume from episode 9 which Namari said it has been a week, and estimate the time from there
Fun fact: none of the elves really have complex hairstyles like Marcille with multiple braids, bows, and ponytails! But because we don't meet them until way later, we think "oh I guess this is how elves style their hair".... Marcille has no clue what elf culture is like, even though she's trying her hardest to pass for a full elf.
My favorite part about this anime it's the way they adapted the title in spanish, "Tragones y Mazmorras" meaning "Guzzlers and dungeons", that being because D&D it's called "Dragones y Mazmorras" in spanish, a simple yet smart and funny pun that makes my dad joke oriented brain super happy
My understanding is that a lot of other languages use names like that. The english title is just the official english name that the japanese author gave, which is unfortunately slightly less catchy.
I'm sad they couldn't called the series, "Calabozos & Tragones" in Latin America, because D&D is called Calabozos & Dragones in LA Spanish, Mazmorras is the word used in Spain. But to be fair, the word "mazmorra" is closer to the meaning of dungeon, a "calabozo" is more associated with a prison.
I also love the fact that in the Latin American Spanish dub the character of Marcille is voiced by Erika Ugalde, who also voices the titular Frieren, she's also known for voicing Disgust in Inside Out and its sequel
in french its called "gloutons et dragons" (gluttons and dragons) so pretty close to the spanish translation!!
@@i.147 See, i would have preferred if they went with "Donjons et Gloutons" or something like that, because the pun is exactly intact but the dungeon is way more important to the story than any dragon :/
@@i.147 may I ask, who are the VAs who voice the main characters in the French dub? What other roles have they played, either in other anime, cartoons or live-action dubbing?
I'm a big fan of how Ryoko Kui renames Humans into "Tallmen". Fantasy and science fiction has a problem of making humanity the default in their settings. Turning humans into the standard from which all other races are compared to. By making "human" into a classification that encompasses races like elves, dwarves, gnomes and ogres, it really highlights that people like Laois and the other Tallmen are just another aspect of the world, not better or worse than the other races.
"Despite their size tallmen are actually weak compared to races like dwarves" felt like a really cool line, like it's a common misconception in their world that Tallmen must be stronger because of our size.
@@jamesburrows3602 yeah it really makes them seem more "balanced" overall. The main "advantage" of tallmen (aside from being, well, tall) is that they have higher stamina than the other races, thus allowing them to wear heavy armor for long periods of time without getting as tired.
I think one aspect of the party dynamic that often gets forgotten is that Marcille is as fascinated with dungeons as Laios is. The difference is that whereas Laios is primarily interested in the monsters that occupy dungeons, Marcille is fascinated by the mechanics of dungeons. She knows everything there is to know about the flow of magic within dungeons and their structures, as well as the basics of their ecosystems (though in this area her knowledge is extremely limited, since as the video noted most people outside the dungeon don't see monsters as anything other than a problem to be solved as part of dungeon exploration).
Like she wasn't just studying dungeons as part of her broader fixation on magic; we see in flashbacks that she was actually creating her own mini-dungeons in secret. The fact that she shared these very private projects with Falin is part of how the show demonstrates how close they were.
I think this aspect of her character is important to acknowledge because without it, a lot of her later actions appear to make no sense. I think her understanding of these systems, and of some of the darker mechanics behind them, also helps to explain her exaggerated aversion to eating monster flesh (beyond the inherent squick factor, which other characters--even those who are also written as being somewhat prissy--get over much faster).
It also helps to explain her frustration with Laios and the others treating her as useless. Prior to her arrival in the dungeon, Marcille was basically the only person she knew with anything even approaching practical knowledge of dungeon systems. Again, she'd built model dungeons! Nobody else did shit like that! And so she had reason to expect to be a highly valuable member of the team. But Laios and Falin were doing goldstripping runs for years before Marcille caught up with them, and Senshi has been living down there for, like... Basically his entire life? So of course they have practical knowledge and experience that Marcille doesn't have, even after having gone on several delves with their old team, but because Marcille's entire sense of self-worth is tied up in her special interest for reasons I don't think have been touched on yet in the anime (but which I think are also a great example of the setting's worldbuilding), it is extremely difficult for her to accept that. So early on Marcille needs to learn to mesh that practical knowledge with her own highly theoretical knowledge.
Anyway, er. Thanks for reading; sorry for the long-ass comment.
i love your long-ass comment, chef kissed
this is a great point, i think its really cool how the party 'roles' are more than the starting equipment they chose or the fighting style they prefer. the roles are treated akin to degrees/professions and are reflected not only in how they approach challenges but in how the knowledge they aquired informs their decision making and character. its nothing groundbreaking but its done so well. everyone in real life is a nerd about something and uniquely talented, and the story it really reflects how each person is valuable, be it to the group or the objective they are pursuing. no one is left behind in this and most characters get their moment to showcase why knowing what they know or doing what they do is important. it puts such value on how being people with diverse interests is of value, to me its one of the core messages of the first half of the story that gets very overlooked.
she's a theory nerd and not a practical nerd!! she has a lot of knowledge about the subject but when it comes to the actual physical reality, her knowledge is less applicable in the day-to-day. it's certainly an invaluable resource that's incredibly important, but like you said, she expected her knowledge to be more helpful in the dungeon than it actually was
Man I’m going to miss Dungeon Meshi Thursdays. It was always such a bright spot to sit down with my wife and watch this show together when we were having a rough week. Absolutely cannot wait for when we can do that again.
Thankfully season 2 already been confirmed 😂
It'll be back! Albeit probably not for a few seasons.
@@ConvincingPeople I'm hoping for Fall 2025. I'd wish it were sooner but I'm keeping my expectations realistic.
I’m gonna miss it too😭 I’d watch it with my brother and bf, I’d excitedly text “it’s dungeon Meshi Thursday!!” And I loved texting my friend about the new episode too
Same! I'm hoping to find a replacement watch with my wife before her interest in anime dies back down.
I love how much effort Ryoko Kui puts into the characters attire! No character just wears something because it looks cool, but rather it always tells you something about their job, their personality, their history, biological needs, and what they value. Its so intentional and adds such an amazing low level constant hum of world and character building
Manga spoilers technically///
I love how Laois’ armor neckpiece was only bought by him because of the rumors of the dungeon rabbits.
The utility of clothing also works as setup for what is potentially the best punchline in Dunmeshi: Namari and leg pouches (which probably won't ever come up in the anime, so anime viewers can safely google this one if they want lol)
@@PurplesttCoffee
Kiki telling Namari that she heard that she likes “long legs” and Namari immediately becoming flustered is adorable.
WHAAAAT THAT'S SO COOL!!!!!!!!! I'M TOTALLY GONNA WATCH THIS NOW! I love stuff like that!!!!!!!!
The ninja babes and Tade are a sad exception to this good character design
They could have easily gone the way of a hundred other fantasy manga/anime with a cooking gimmick, but instead, they crafted a genuinely intriguing and fleshed-out world with intriguing history and, surprisingly enough, a pretty comprehensive ecology. Like, even the best fantasy series won't go that far on the latter. The creatures here feel like they fit into a wider framework rather than just sort of being plopped into ecosystems they feel out of place in. As someone who writes spec evo as a hobby, that just makes me really happy.
I feel like you'd love the Stormlight Archive (which he showed a picture of at the beginning of the video) if you really appreciate world building the ecology.
It's generally much more common in western fantasy novels, but Dungeon Meshi is the first time I've seen an anime do it too. I can't wait for season 2!
@kjarakravik4837 love Stormlight! Genuinely feels like an alien landscape as opposed to generic fantasy land.
@@GallowglassVTRight?! And I'm not sure if you've read the latest book, so spoilers below but
Finding out that HORSES weren't native to Roshar completely blew me away, I've never been hit so hard by a plot twist in my life
@kjarakravik4837 fr, and I say this as someone who knew all the Shin creatures weren't native from the get go, it was cool to see how Sanderson incorporated creatures familiar to us in an organic way rather than trying to justify their evolution on Roshar.
I think it was from the manga bonus chapters but i love that having body fat is an advantage in the dungeon. Aside from the obvious part of being able to burn fat when food is scarce having body fat means if you get killed and your body is missing an organ that got exploded or torn out, party members can use the healing magic to replace your missing important organs with transmuted body fat. Plus the exhaustion from waking up after a resurrection can be curbed by the fat being burned for energy during the resurrection process.
Also i watched the first couple of episodes with a friend who loves ecology stuff. The hermit crab mimic had her so excited and we geeked out about how the kraken tasted terrible which is true to giant squids irl. Their deep sea habitst and biology causes them to circulate ammonium chloride through their body which has a lower density than salt water allowing them to use it instead of a swim bladder filled with air (which could rupture if sea creatures aren't careful ascending/descending in the deep). However if you didn't already figure it out from the "ammonium" part, this chemical tastes terrible.
@@Lucky_Dagger Fascinating. I definitely did not pick up on that!
That also ties into why Chilchuck is so adamant about never participating in fights. He's very tall for a halfling, so to avoid setting off pressure traps he has to limit his fat intake to keep his weight down, but as a tradeoff that means that he can't afford to die and get healed as often as a dwarf or tallman, who can build up body fat between dungeon runs.
This show made me use my Netflix subscription for the first time in ages.
I'm so glad it was weekly release too, hearing reactions to each episode is a treat, especially when the source material has enough substance to warrant that continued attention
It's what finally got me to get my own Netflix subscription
For me it was Squid Game that made me use my Netflix subscription for the first time in 2 years back in 2021. Since then I've been looking for shows on that platform that interest me and that I've heard a lot of great things about. Even today I am looking forward to a new season of a show I like and a new show that looks promising.
It was the reason I subsribed to Netflix at all.
I thought the Living Armor being a colony of mollusks was the most inventive thing I'd ever seen. Fun fact: apparently, Marcille has 38 hairstyles over the course of the first 24 episodes.
I would love to see you look at Apothecary Diaries' worldbuilding. Although that might not be so difficult because it's a fictionalized version of medieval China to avoid pissing off the Chinese Government.
Honestly curious if those 38 hairstyles includes those of the shapeshifter Marcilles that are encountered
Because it's basically what?! D:
@@himesilva It's basically medieval China in everything but name to avoid pissing off the Chinese Government.
@@samfisher6606 it is called a fictional dynastic Setting that's common east Asian fiction 架空王朝-架空朝代 also, stop being overly politicized it
It's not fictionalized to avoid pissing off the Chinese government; Japan writes stuff about Imperial China all the time.
"... Where the mushrooms are fun (little) guys..." That was a good one
I also appreciated that.
You know, 'fungi' is pronounced as 'fun guy'.
A look at the mindset of the elves is Kabru. He's a goofy little guy but when push comes to shove he will end you. The elves didn't teach him how to fight, they taught him how to kill. And when he did he did so with no hesitation and pinpoint precision. I like that little murder twink.
I also think it’s interesting how both Laios and Kabru are very good at killing the things that interest them (monsters and people respectively), it shows how being successful in combat heavily depends on reading the opponent.
The elves strike me as the Gohan of races- they really don't like fighting. So when they need to, they don't waste any time, they make sure its over as quickly as possible.
@@zoro115-s6bWould make sense for the canonically frailest race to focus on killing things swiftly. They can't afford to depend on armor like the dwarves (which is why dwarves are better)
Well they taught him how to kill humans. They didn't do shit for him with monsters.
@@rosenrot234Which is kinda funny since his elf mom who trained him was vice commander of the Canaries, whose job description is to fight monsters, not people.
Another aspect of the show that I really love is their character designs. Every group of individuals you meet no matter how brief has such a distinctive and memorable designs. There are no generic or hair color palette swap characters. The creativity of this show is something else.
Body shape diversity too. Not that generic slim/athletic build slop we often see in other Anime. They have their reasons to make them all like that, but still
Ryoko Kui might just be to fantasy and dungeon ecology and biology what Tolkien is to fantasy history and linguistics (and the genre overall ofc). Delicious in Dungeon is a genius fantasy story, definitely deserving of a podium among legends of the genre like Tolkien. And the character interactions and relations are something to be studied in classic literature university modules. She really went all out.
Its impressive, but I'm not yet convinced we should canonize Kui among the legends like Tolkien...
iirc the creator has said in an interview that lotr is one of her inspirations for dm :D
@@entidade_000 Mostly he would be disappointed. He was a devout catholic, and really wanted stories to bend towards hope and the hierarchy of the universe.
That's how he felt about Dune. Disappointed at its cynicism and seeming atheistic character. He would however, probably see a lot of the charm of the Shire in Delicious Dungeon.
Were he here, I think he would be overall proud to have contributed such a dear entry into the tradition of fantasy. Maybe also proud that so many were inspired by his work and then went on to produce works of their own. I think.
@@Moe_Posting_Chad I think Delicious in Dungeon has a good amount the theme of hope in it. The gang was literally going to fight a dragon for the slight hope that Falin's body wouldn't be completely destroyed the time they get there.
It's honestly why this series feels so refreshing. There's so much positiveness, so much hope, so much companionship. Even after the darkest moments.
I did not expect Frank Herbert's son to be dragged by the scalp to Evan Call's music in a Delicious in Dungeon worldbuilding video essay. I am not mad about it since Mr.Basement-kun was spitting facts
The only thing missing was calling out Kevin J. Anderson for the part he played in the whole thing.
Edit: Kevin J, not Kevin T. Shows how much of that train wreck I've retained.
@@Brasswatchman At least Kevin J anderson writes his own books about a zombie detective and wrote some of the best EU star wars books.
@@TheColMustang2 His EU Star Wars books weren't bad from what I remember, it's true. But I suspect he did the vast share of the actual writing on the project, and I don't think his style meshed well with Frank Herbert's world from the very start. He should've recognized that, even if he did need to eat.
KJA is a horrid writer, and the callout of Dune was when I hit the thumbs up on the video.
lol
The first season left me hungry for more because us anime fans are starving for non-isekai fantasy
Edit: Guys I just wanted to make eating puns
True, and Isekai gets dumber and dumber as well. Frieren and the last season of Goblin slayer was really good though so there are other regular fantasy shows out there worth watching still. :)
the irony is something along the lines of dungeon meshi WOULD be perfect for an isekai, give me a protagonist whos genuinly fascinated and mesmerized by all the little things the natives take fro granted
7th Prince?…
We were spoiled having this and Freiren at the same time. Though you should definitely check out Witch Hat Atelier when its anime adaptation comes out.
Also in Delicious In Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi there's no useless or pointless perv characters
Delicious in Dungeon was honestly a very big surprise for me. I never expected it to be this good.
At the beginning of the anime, I was saying, 'Okay, this is a fun anime,' but with time the anime started to become more deeper and darker, especially with episode 11. One of the things I like most about Delicious in Dungeon, other than the great world building, is the characters writing. Almost all of the characters are really well written, I swear even some of the side characters were written even better than our main characters, like Falin and Kabru. I don't think I need to mention other positive things like the amazing production, the comedy, world and monsters design, because they are so obvious.
In general, I personally consider Delicious in Dungeon the greatest new anime released in 2024 so far, and my rating for it is 9/10.
i started watching it because i was bored and i had seen some stuff about it on tumblr. didn't know anything about it, but was curious. i was hooked by episode 3! the worldbuilding is just so good, its feels like a real place and its explained in story in a believable way! the characters are so charming, i became invested in saving falin purely on how determined the characters were to save her! its just is so good at what it does, its amazing! and the cooking/food gimmick is a true delight! i love the show very much
Really need to watch this one. I saw a post that read “Marcille X male reader headcanons” and the only one was “she leaves you for a woman”. Peak anime.
LOL thats great because she is 100% a lesbian
Just "a woman"? Fake news, we all know there's only one woman in her heart
@@christiancasaverdepertica1802 not for long.
Relatively speaking.
For your sister, specifically, would be most accurate
she scolds you for cooking pasta wrong before she leaves
Where do I even begin...I as a biologist who often daydreams about the anatomy of fantasy animals genuinely teared up a bit about the sheer effort that's put in to reasonably explain the monsters and their behavior rather than relying " magic, evil wizards, old spells, ancient evils". Mixing mythology and biology together and making this bloody well it work is hard.
Also the characters, especially main party are just so realistic, we all probably know someone like them or are like them ourselves. Despite the fantastical elements the core of what they are never seems too distant. Be it a divorced, middle-aged dude who's tired of life, a turbo autist with encyclopedia level knowledge, book smart girl who lacks any real wotld knowledge about practical application, moody teenager who doesn't what what she wants in life or soneone who's finally found his "tribe" after suffering through loneliness
the living armor was what completely hooked me on the show.
"oh this is show is cute and funny" to "OH MY GOD THAT'S THE COOLEST THING EVER WHAAAAT??"
According to supplemental material, dark elves don’t exist and it’s actually an assumption of Tallmen who wondered why some elves are hostile.
Dungeon Meshi is probably one of the best fantasy anime of all time.
Take this from to someone who watch too many fantasy to isekai anime. It actually very refreshing from the characters design to world building. They could've only focus this only at the food and cooking aspect like the Campire Cooking in a Another World, or any anime that focuses on food etc, but instead the author manage tell a story with the creatures and the whole ecosystem in the dungeon through food. That is very impressive.
The character design is super refreshing. Everyone looks so diverse and has different body types. Makes it much more immersive.
If it wasnt for Frieren I'd definitely call it THE fantasy anime
This and Frieren are the best fanstay anime they both rise the bar
EASILY one of the best anime adaptations of all time. Instantly as good as FMA - Brotherhood. That kind of praise is reserved for the actually universally beloved titles. *The land of Kings.*
Terrible take. Frieren could not possibly be more generic, uninspired, insipid, pandering, paint by numbers insult! The autizum elf is such a fucking meme, it really is the epitome of socially maladjusted anime consumers. That was their target demographic and they will be talking about Frieren and Lucky Star until the day they die. And nobody but more of them will listen.
I heavily recommend everyone to check put the “ Real World Cultural and Linguistic Influences in Delicious in Dungeon” research essay by Room_Surprise, posted on ArchiveofOurOwn. Some of the bits Geoff said at the end made me think he might have had a look in there, but if not!! It’s great. There’s months of research behind it, and it’s still being updated and written.
Long story short… every named character has a name that exist irl, carefully chosen to fit the character it was given too. If anything, the names’ origins and meanings inform us about the characters, shining lights on character writing that was included in the story.
thanks for bringing this to my attention, since i've basically already read everything rioko kui put out about dungeon meshi.
Another awesome bit about mimics: the colors of the claws are clearly based on the Coconut Crab, which is the largest species of Hermit Crab and is known to eat dogs and cats and are a real threat to humans. Scientists have theorized that they're just too big to find something large enough. D in D's Mimics are just Coconut Crabs who finally managed to find something to hide in.
That’s incredible
My favorite part is the way so much of the plot keeps tying itself back to cooking and eating in a way that really WORKS. From straightforward stuff like the effects of food on the dungeon explorers and the dog-eat-dog world of dungeon ecology, to more dramatic or emotional moments like Senshi's mystery soup and the ultimate plan to save Falin, to more subtle things like the way that the community of immortal people from the old kingdom's inability to truly "live" is expressed through their dulled sense of taste, or how big of a role feasts play in Thistle's memories of important moments in the magic paintings
About 10 years ago I had a player who would cook almost anything they killed, from giant slugs to goblins. The the other characters had some issues with his meals, so he just started lying about what/who was in his food.
They even had huge tents make of cured Giant Slug-skins.
*I wanted to milk the minotuar too. YOU HAVE NO IDEA MAN!*
you were playing with laios before laios even existed
The prophecy
I am interested in his take about Anime. Hope he likes it
Something I really love about Dungeon Meshi that we'll more-so get into in Season 2 is the way in-which it's focus on food is not only retained as it gets into it's larger narrative, but becomes thematically central to it. Fantasy stories often have a thematic backbone that's something fundamental, like fire in Dark Souls, and I'm always impressed at how Dungeon Meshi tricks you into not realizing it's doing the same thing.
Just such a great transition from "I love fantasy cooking, this is so much fun!" to "Eating is the central impulse which unites and divides all peoples, creatures, and ecosystems. To eat is to live, and meals are the special privilege of the living."
I love the rule the series has for resurrection spells and how death works in dungeons. being able to resurrect people at first would seem like a really great way to lower the tension since it drastically lowers the risk of mistakes and bad judgements. there's no actual danger down here so we get to take our time to explore and check out the fun monsters for our silly cooking anime. but nearly every adventurer we meet has a story about the first time they died and it's never pleasant. the only reason we are able to see just how brutal and vicious death is within the dungeon is because we are able to revive the victims of it and they get to tell us their traumatizing experience going through it in explicit detail.
and then the implications of ressurection get taken to their logical extremes. we see businesses crop up of people finding, cataloguing, and reviving adventurers to the point where if another group happens to find your group and revive you it's common courtesy to pay them upon waking up (which incidentally also alligns with how many RPGs will punish players who wipe with losing money). even criminals can get into this business incredibly easily since killing someone from the shadows/ having someone else kill them, reviving them and taking their money is a really solid way to milk lower skilled adventurers. since there's hardly any enforcement of laws deep in a dungeon this type of exploitation is also really easy to get away with.
in order to engage with that terrible system though, your body has to be found first. if you die in someplace that's hard to reach or is incredibly well hidden you're out of luck. we see even in the dungeons second floor this can happen as there are still long dead adventurers within the carnivorous plants. depending on how you die, your body might also have to be changed in order for you to not immediately die again upon waking up in a non functioning body. how do you rebuild someone who has been crushed, partially digested, melted with acid, killed by spells that rearranged their bodies in ways you don't understand, etc? liberties will sometimes have to be taken and it's in the hands of whoever's reviving you and their skills as a magic user.
even worse, you might die in a dungeon and nobody would care enough to go back and revive you. falin is incredibly lucky that she has people who love her enough to brave fighting a dragon to revive her, even in that case not all of that original party even stuck around for that. even reasons as simple as money problems can be enough for someone to turn around and move on. if someone's quest is to go find someone specific to revive them, "this dead dude owes my employer money" is probably one of the most common reasons. there's also no way of knowing when you'll be revived or where, so you could wake up months or even years into the future and you just have to deal with that, the dread that everything else moved on without you and you now have to readjust.
TL:DR - ressurection is used masterfully to make the feeling of existentialism even more potent. 10/10 would recommend the silly cooking anime to my friends and family
In Episode 4 it clicked for me.
When Senshi talked about the Golems for Farming and the Ecosystem, preventing stronger monsters to come up for the lower depths.
And as a german i found it incedible funny, when Sensi was later extremly focused on backing bread with sour dough.
German Bread is superior 😆
The moment I fell in love with the series was when they acknowledge that the difference between extraction methods for a mandrake affects the end result. Giving Marcille some credit, even after the risk she put herself, was a very nice surprise.
I think Laios being heavily implied to be autistic is one of my favorite things about the entire anime besides Marcille and Falin's relationship. The argument he has with Shuro spoke to so many people on the spectrum, including myself AND Laios' English VA, Damien Haas.
Plus him stimming with his hands to get ready to confront the shapeshifter!!! As someone who purposefully hides my stimming to avoid looking silly it felt amazing to see someone do it and look badass/ hot doing it
And Falin! Don't forget our girl who just has different coping mechanisms but still very much autistic (including playing with rocks by stacking them onto eachother on one of background flashbacks).
Toshiro might be one as well, but that's not as clear if you don't look into his background and motivations, plus a lot of his symptoms are often brushed off as cultural differences.
I just think that wide variants of rep like that is neat :3
@@irregularstuff5290 ...stacking rocks is a form of zen meditation, darling....
@@Homodemon in childhood while living in a European village?
@@Homodemon in village where magic was seen as dangerous, in around middle ages. Also European. Are you sure she or anyone alse there had the knowledge about zen rocks?
(hope this comment won't get eaten by TH-cam)
Ryoko Kui is a huge fan of western crpg ( baldur's gate, pathfinder and such) and it shows. Her manga is a love letter to the genre.
It’s a rumor, but apparently she finished the manga some days before the launch of BG3 so she could have time to play it 😅😂
From what I hear she’s a huge Wizardry fan
@@mothersbasement yea somehow wizardry was a big deal in Japan
@@mothersbasement Yeah, it's why her Kobolds are the older dog like version versus the more lizard like that got popular in the West.
33:45 “It fixates on the same things the characters fixate on.” YES!! This is what I love about this type of writing, it’s a way to build the world and connect with the characters at the same time. One of my favorite moments so far is Chilchuk’s extremely personal hatred of mimics. We get introduced to a new monster in the world and its place in the dungeon ecosystem, while also understanding more of Chil’s backstory and past experiences as an adventurer.
I have been ranting at everyone i know to read Dungeon Meshi for 3 years ever since I first read it. The world building and attention to detail show so much love put into this work.
Now that season 1 is over, I gotta read because the spoilers are now on a ticking countdown. I don't wanna get spoiled! It would be a waste of good food.
All of this plus a plot as tight as fma makes dungeon meshi easily one of the best ever written. Flawless execution. I am so, so happy the anime adaption is as excellent as it is.
Check out seirei no moribito if ever! That and fma are my constant fantasy reccs
im always saying this, its the fma of this generation, so goooooood
The crazy part is Dungeon Meshi really only have one big arc. Everything is interconnected from the start to end without a clear gap between arcs.
The Isekai I enjoy more are not the adventure ones but ones that go into the key details of how a world with magic and mythical creatures would behave with rules and structure.
Dungeon here does a great job at explaining how a dungeon can function for thousands of not more than that in a logical way brilliantly
Oh, it goes deeper in the extra materials. There's a short story explaining WHY the dungeon (and in fact all dungeons) end up with that particular ecosystem. Apparently in the beginning Thistle summoned the ultimate monster - "That which ends all" - only to have it dissipate in minutes because it needs to eat the life energy of multiple whales every thirty minutes to sustain itself. So after gradually scaling down his ambitions he just gave up and made a simple self-sistaining ecosystem with weaker monsters up top.
Without going into spoilers (haven’t finished the vid yet, I dunno if Geoff talks about it) this story ends in the most unexpected yet perfect way possible. Despite being a very low-stakes story (compared to its contemporaries at least) Delicious in Dungeon has what might be THE most fascinating end game I’ve ever seen in an anime.
Dungeon Meshi and Frieren reviving the pure fantasy genre. You love to see it
Two things that I love about this series:
1. Subtle hints about ethnicities for each race. We know there's humans like Laios and humans like Shuro, and it seems like there's some culture clash between them, which plants the idea that every ethnicity of human has their own history and relationship, and since the dungeon attracts people from across the world it lets the reader to wonder about the gaps in what they're seeing. It's something like what _Rings of Power_ was trying to do with a diverse cast, but actually discussing the different nationalities and conflicts therein. On top of that, it does something interesting with the Canaries, to see that there are many ethnicities of elves implies a breadth to the elf nation that the shorter-lived races don't have access to.
2. People love and embrace Laios for his autism. Though of course it's only implied by his... everything, people really seem to like him, and I, for one, love the autistic rep for him being such a fascinating character. -Also the fact that people are going carnally insane about him is a small, indirect boost to the ego-
I think it's also worth noting how the character design also plays a part in the world building -- I think there was another video on this by lines in motion(?) but the way Marcille's more fashionable clothes reflect her preference for elven beauty standards informs a lot about her character
NB on your point about Laios naming his sword - the kanji for Kensuke is a pun on a common boy's name and the fact Laios literally calls it 'sword-assistant', lmao - the translators just chose to leave it untranslated
I don't think it's a translatable pun.
kensuke is also a very common japanese name so its like naming your sword "swordbert". but yea its not easily translatable
what an excellent video on dungeon meshi's attention to detail
for those interested in Ryoko Kui's world building sensibilities after this great breakdown of dungeon meshi's worldbuilding by Geoff i highly recommend reading Ryoko Kui's short story anthologies aswell. besides just being fun little reads with great punchlines they also give excellent insight into how she thinks about the worlds she creates aswell as some other things that may help you understand dungeon meshi's characters aswell.
my favorite of her short stories is "distant utopia", which is about a group of highschoolers being tasked with making a little story about how bullying is bad using mice and bunny people, but as they think about the underlying causes of the bullying they think up of a whole complex world around these mice and bunnies.
another standout one to me is "wolves tell no lies" about a kid born with werewolfism and his relationship with his mom who is basically a famous autism mommy blogger. i really like this one because it shows just how well Ryoko Kui understands neurodivergence and how laios being autistic coded is 100% intentional.
and lastly in following rules of thirds i want to talk a little about a short story ryoko kui wrote called "how to be that girl" that's not in one of her anthologies. it follows a short exchange between a detective and his android partner named steve while steve is in the process of putting on a disguise for a mission which involves him removing his "skin" to put on a female "skin" so as to be able to infiltrate someplace. the crux of the story is about the detective's difficulty in processing steve's changes making him no longer seem like himself ultimately for steve to reassure him that no matter what may change that he is still the partner he knew underneath the disguise with the detective internalizing that atleast a little by the end, as it turns out that the detective's worries stemmed from his own difficulty processing his sibling's transition which he now accepts better as he comes to thank her for borrowing her clothes for steve's disguise.
i like this story showing Ryoko Kui having an understanding and acceptance herself of lgbtq+ people and how that also informs many people's reading on the nature of falin and marcille's relationship (not to mention the other canonical gay characters like otta in dungeon meshi)
I could gush a lot more about all the other various short stories but then this comment would be even longer than it already is and i want to leave all the other short stories to be read on you the comment reader's own terms if my gushing has peaked your interest in them
It has some of the best foreshadowing / early story consistency at hinting at story beats or facts that come up later. Rereading the manga over again really makes you realize that so much was already there you just didn't know enough to realize it was. I also love you it feels natural when things are explained to you and they don't feel just exposition. Also, that all characters, even Laios, have prejudices that come from their environment. Reading the spin off story where he and fallin are quite racist about their neighboring ppl was really refreshing. Everyone has blind spots and no one is fully non-prejudiced. Its how you handle having your thoughts challenged that really is the key. I love the play in perspectives and running when you realize things happened in reverse order to your reading.
The panel you used to underpin "General sense of humility" was genius. Comedy Gold.
the worldbuilding of dungeon meshi is one of the best templates for actually running a pen-and-paper campaign in recent memory. it's concentration on a single location while showing your the wider world through character interaction and other hints, it's focus on how cultures and ecologies actually function, the fact that magic is a thing but is not leaned on to explain everything, and the fact that no one in the party(or most anyone really) is bullshit powerful - all of it is a great set of guidelines for designing your own world for a party to actually explore and experience for themselves. it's so nice to have actual fantasy that's not isekai powergaming ;p
Speaking of all the talk about special interests, I've had two prominent ones ever since I was a kid: fungi and fairy folklore. The revelation that this show manages to seamlessly COMBINE THEM, I literally started shaking with excitement - this was the deciding video for me, I have GOT to watch Dunmeishi.
(also as a real life Mushroom Guy I can confirm your speculation, if mushrooms were also occasionally little dudes who popped out of the ground, I would in fact lose my mind about it every time)
Dungeon Meshi really is a master class of worldbuilding. The seamless blending of speculative biology and implicit deep history makes the whole world feel like it _works_ outside of the story, which is something I always appreciate.
Im really fascinated with the ever subtle build up of small events from how Chil thinks he really motivated Laios on going in the dungeon to save his sister again, to how they meet Senshi, to the unfortunate gameover of Kabru's party to greed (treasure bugs) and the foreshadowing that maybe, just maybe - as Kabru has stated, Laios might have something to do with the dungeon (with my hunch that hes the decendant king) really sparks with me how the world building is in-depth even to through small details.
then theres Senshi panty shots, absolutely necessary fanservice
The manga is finished, and I don't think it gets into if Laois is related to the King. I don't know if Yaad had kids.
[HEAVY SPOILER WARNING FOR LITERALLY ALL THE MANGA]
Its so hard wanting to talk about the worldbuilding of this story when most people dont know about my favourite part of it yet, the Demon.
As a character the Demon is up there with my favourite anime villains of all time (why wouldn't an evil version of Robin William's genie be amazing) through its charisma and terror, with the image of the goat appearing over Mithrun's bed in his flashback is a legitimate jumpscare.
But going into it's place in the greater world makes you feel almost bad for it, and infinite being trapped in a finite world. It makes sense why it would be so ravenous for human desires, they are one of the only things in this world that are truly infinite, no matter what someone has, theyll never be completely satisfied.
But on the flipside, the state the Deomn leaves it's victims in once it has consumed their desires is horrifying. What's worse is that most of it's victims still long for it, not being able to replace the "love" they feel the Demon gave them. Even Mithrun is obsessed with it, despite processing the yearning as one of hate and revenge instead of one of love.
The Demon is a lot of things to a lot of people. To the Dungeon Lord, it is a source of infinite power and the most trustworthy of companions. To it's victims it resembles an abusive contact that you've cut out of your life, but are still scarred by, needing the help and compassion of others to overcome. To the worldbuilding of the story it is an interesting possible explanation to why things are the way they are in the setting (with it being heavily implied that the difference in lifespan between races is a result of a wish granted by the demon). And to the themes of the overall story, it provides an infinitely hungry force that will eat and eat and never be full, opposing the series' ideas of sustainability and healthy eating habits.
In short, cannot wait for the Demon to be animated in season 2, and I hope people can enjoy the interesting ideas the Demon provides to both the story and the worldbuilding, and not just post thirst-filled screenshots on Twitter (however tempting that may be to some people 😅).
I really hope they can capture how feral Laios looks and feels when he starts eating the Demon in s2
The Demon is so horribly sinister with how it effortlessly weaves together truths and lies, and will, with no hesitation, drag up its victims' worst impulses, fears, and traumas to break them down.
When Marcille has been tricked into becoming the Demon Lord, he outfits her in her mother's funeral dress, the one that she wore at Marcille's father's funeral when she gave the speech that Marcille would have to accept that all of the people around her are going to die one day.
I usually see the Demon as a minmaxed version of Kabru
@@bachtrinh8783 Real.
Yeah, season 2 is gonna be soooo wild once we get introduced to the Demon. I love love love how even the seemingly simple, harmless, fight-a-new-monster-that-leads-to-a-new-meal episodic adventures in the first half of the anime are literally all just an elaborate setup for the manga's bigger, overall themes of the cycle of consumption and hunger and desire and sustainability.
To me as someone who is working tirelessly to be an author (as I am editing the draft of my book as I speak). Dungeon Meshi's world building and approach to story telling opened up possibilities and question how I approach the ecosystems of my own world. How little details like clothing, city layouts or heck accent and talking patterns all influence and indicate what the world is like.
Definitely excited for the next season of this series for sure!
Good luck with your book!!
@@hellowendy1029 Thank you! If you're curious about it, I do post updates consistently on discord.
@@TheFlyingRonin awesome! I'll check it out!
@@hellowendy1029 Added the link under the basic info in my profile (so I don't flood this comment section with links as I don't imagine people would like that too much)
hpnestly if youre looking for worldbuilding that you can really chew on, adventure time has some of the craziest long term worldbuilding ive ever seen especially for a cartoon. Ive never seen a story that has a better grasp on the art of the retcon and how to make it not just not suck, but make it incredible. Not sure if I have every AT lore book, but I have most of them and it still blows me away the amount of work and research that goes into the philosophies and politics of AT while still keeping that consistent tone and remaining extremely funny and charming.
I'm so tempted to get back into AT, I enjoyed it so so much when I was younger, but there's so many episodes😅. No excuse though, I've gotten through really long shounen after all.
I love how all the characters approach the dungeon with their own methodologies. Really immerse you in the story that even the side characters are competent, and the victory isn't won by a protag-kun with an OP cheat skill
laios is actually superbly unfit as a standard main character, he doesnt discover hidden powers, or even improve that much at dungeoneering and fighting, he just starts to figure out his own way to "win" by what his experiences and friends teach him, as well as what he excels at can help them in turn. all things considered, laios and senshi are basically redundant as characters, both are decent fighters who understand monsters and ecology, until the little things they do differently from one another start to stack up... and spoilers so i wont talk about it
Her little extra stories and panels show how ridiculously in-depth Ryoko Kui thought about her world and characters.
The thing I really like about the dungeon is that nothing is “just there”. Mimics in fantasy never really made sense to me because…what do they eat? Well, they were actually a precaution that more experienced adventurers would know about in games, but that still doesn’t answer the question, and it only brings up more. Did the person who made the dungeon plan on people coming across these conveniently placed treasure chests that look like conventional treasure chests and expect them to get swallowed up, how often were they expecting these adventurers to come by, and why would they place these walking stomachs in spots so out there only a child would be enticed by them? In DunMeshi, it explains mimics as crustaceans that hide in boxes, effectively ambush predators, which makes infinitely more sense to me. The monsters aren’t just there to inconvenience the adventurers, the adventurers are coming into the monsters’ territory making them fair game.
Makes even more sense when you realized the coconut crab, which is terrestrial once fully grown, is a hermit crab. The mimic is basically just a large coconut crab that didn't lose its instinct to hide in shells once it matured!
I love the show's unpredictability as it weaves its rich and diverse characters into one great adventure emphasizing everyone plays a unique role in each other's lives; a ripple effect
dungeon meshi is genuinely one of the best anime to come out so far in the 2020s. its character writing, dialogue, and worldbuilding are all fantastic. the comedy is top notch, and pacing is (mostly) perfect. it has amazing but more subtextual queer representation and laios is one of the best representations of autism that's ever been put to television. it's so good
All the hints that set up the revalations about the dungeon in the final chapters are there from the first pages: a sure sign that this manga was planned out before it was written and drawn.
I love that about a story!
Trigger has done it again. Plus Marcille managed to help me stay fulfilled with elf content this season after Frieren ended. Just in time for the Thicc elves to come.
Wait they are making an anime of that chubby elf manga?!
@@airplanes_aren.t_real Yeah next season in fact. Isn't that great?
I just absolutely adore the slice-of-life aspect of this show. It just hooked me in with its basic "what do monsters taste like?" approach to fantasy.
I just love the attention to detail in the info we get about magic, with the flash back to magic school and Marcel's talks about forbidden magic, With how it pertains to spirits and uses physical means like blood, meat, plants, etc to channel it. Like how Marcel mentioned she grew her staff over a long period of time, wile falin uses a lamp like staff, showing the difference between the longer lived races along with the magic systems and methods at the same time.
Dungeon Meshi is... A MASTERPIECE, I don't use this term lightly, I mean every letter of it.
Everything about it from the overall story, to the worldbuilding, to the characters, to the art is... SUPERBLY made, it may not be for everyone, but even then it isn't a question of flaw, but simply taste.
I followed this manga since around chapter 10 I think, maybe 15, it has been years I can't quite remember but it was early... and what a journey it was, I savored every bit of it just as much as the crew savored every meal they had.
The end wasn't "emotional" so to speak, but... I cried when it ended because this is a very special story, one that I strongly recommend to anyone.
I won't even say to prioritize the manga... because the anime is INCREDIBLE, a true work of art in adapting a story.
I think I speak for countless people when I say I would play a game set in the world, or in a world like, Dungeon Meshi, with all the races and monsters. I'm thinking a rogue-lite, multiplayer optional. Something like Hades or CotL where you venture into the dungeon or dungeons that constantly change mixed with the character customization of Baldur's Gate 3, the goal is to get to the end or as much treasure as you can, with checkpoints to serve as food breaks to cook up what you hunted, gathered, or brought from the surface. Your player character and party members are fully customizable; you can swap out your party like decks of cards. My main would be an Oni ranger, he'd have a blunderbuss (picture a caravan shotgun from Fallout New Vegas with octagonal barrels, also the shells are hollowed-out bamboo), a big one-handed axe, a black and orange striped tunic in place of tiger pelt, and a dog named Onigiri (he has a horn; picture a black-brown-white shiba with a singular oni horn).
Another banger, Jeff. DiD is one of the freshest takes on the fantasy genre I've seen in years, no pun intended. (Maybe a lil) I'm an older fan (43), and Record of Lodoss War was one of my first experiences with anime at all. This show makes my heart soar the same way Lodoss did all those years ago. Love you, love the community, best wishes to all.
So glad Netflix did a simulcast and simuldub of this, can't wait for season 2!!!
I tend to prefer dubs, so this was appreciated. They got a good cast, too.
@@animeotaku307 yeah, it's so cool to see one of your favorite TH-camrs in a show you really like. ProZD voices Senshi in the English Dub if you didn't know.
@@BurneraccountXD69 No wonder. I had this vague feeling of familiarity. Good for him!
The fact that Ryoko Kui essentially took the premise of the first Wizardry, went "What if I focused on how you'd cook the monsters inside the Proving Grounds instead of beelining for the Mad Overlord?" and then slowly spun THAT into a compelling fantasy adventure all its own, is nothing less that extraordinary.
Considering the very unsubtle jab in one bonus page at western developers who don't release translations of their games in other languages because "most people know english anyways", it's almost certain that Kui took inspiration from old-school fantasy games
@@andrewcapra7153 I understand that frustration at least a little. So many cool looking RPGs never left Japan in the 90s. One day, I will play Wachenroder!
I also like how the larger scale of things doesn't matter much to the casts, they just want to save Falin
And the main reason they solved all the problems are because they are a inconvenience to the quest of saving Falin
@bachtrinh8783 "The person who slays the mad mage will-" "Don't care, we gotta save Falin" "Long ago, there was a war-" "Don't care" "The demons" "Don't care. Oh hey, we saved the world"
The contrast between this video and Lily Orchard's "Review" of Delicious in Dungeon is literally night and day.
Do not speak her name. It only gives her more power.
Seriously, that woman thrives on rage-bait. And like any good troll, it takes far longer to debunk her than it does for her to spew out that verbal garbage (that she probably plagiarized anyway).
life is too precious to waste it thinking about lily orchard
@@juanjuri6127
Indeed. Instead life should be spent thinking about how great the second season of Delicious in Dungeon is going to be.
So wait a minute... are y'all actually mad at this person (whoever she is), or are you deliberately trying to drive people to her channel so her ragebait gets more views? 🤔
@@Brasswatchman
The former, more or less. Not much sense in getting angry at Lily's review because it's not even that. It's just 25 minutes of her calling Laios a terrible character who hates his sister.
I don't recommend watching it.
So one of the things in writing that I will die defending is that food is a very important and often over looked aspect of world and character building. Especially in fantasy settings. Like it can dive into characters history, or local economy, or class issues. I've said it for years that feeding your characters is an important part of stories. I always try to include some meals in my own writing.
Thats why Dungeon Meshi was amazing to me. It took it a step further and builds the world through the monsters and ecosystem even. It's going to be an inspiration for a wave of fantasy books I promise.
There's a reasons shows like these get remembered for a long time.
Interestingly the extras DO say that there are many walking monster enthusiasts to the point that they get in the Canaries' way while working lmao
I've heard good things about this anime; and based on your review, I'll give it a watch for myself. Great video from mothers basement. 💖🎉
I love this series so much. It's so well made. Honestly, it's the perfect D&D show
One of the many things I love about this show is that it is fixated on the same weird, niche details of world building that I also find fascinating.
I can't remember the last time I watched an anime that I vibed with as much as this one
I'm glad you brought up the bonus chapter with Laios feeling imposter syndrome for real dragon fans. As a birder for going on 2 decades I've felt the same way while reading and interacting with others who are way more into raptors that I am, or when I see how herpetologists go about their hobby. Reading that bonus comic felt very real to me as Laios gets challenged by Chilchuck with his seemingly basic facts.
Dungeon Meshi is hands-down one of my favorite manga series. A large part of that is due to the world building.
I really like the character design, I've heard from other TH-camrs how Ryouko Kui has like tons of character design templates and even played with the characters as different races and no 2 characters ever look the same.
When I saw the trailer, I was hooked
When I found out Trigger and Bump of Chicken were involved, I was eager to watch
When I watched the first episode, I was super invested
Now when I watched the 3rd episode, I cursed the world for having to wait for the rest of the series, because the take on Living Armor convinced me this was fantasy like never seen before, AND I COULDN’T WAIT TO SEE ALL OF IT
So happy we are getting a full adaptation of Dungeon Meshi, one of the best anime of this year
Love your in-depth video and explaining the lore of DnD
My personal favorite was how the explained resurection magic needing animal sacrifice in order to replace the flesh of the deceased and what implications that might have for those resurrected with the flesh of monsters/magical creatures.
Finished reading this amazing story literally yesterday, wonderful timing!
I would so love you exploring the world of Mushi-shi!!
I really love laios,he very relatable,as a neurodivergent person myself,i understand and feel emotionally connected to what happened to laios and how you feel like you don't belong,the little things we learn about his life,hit to close to home to me
This has been one of my favorite animes of 2024. It’s so good my wife actually watches it subbed instead of dubbed, and that really surprised me.
It could be recency bias, but I think delicious in dungeon is in my top favourite shows. I spoke about loving the natural flow of how they give exposition for the world building with my friends. The whole world feels loved in with characters coming from different backgrounds, each having their own culture. The characters also have personalities and habits that fit their roles in the party, but aren’t fixed to them. They were given room to show when they branch out when the situation called for it, not just when the story called for character growth.
Absolutely loved this first season and I can’t wait to see the second season. You know the world story is good when you’re left thinking “I can’t wait to see how this plays out (the future of the story), and learn more about this world (the past of the story)”, rather than just “I want to see more” with no clear points to focus and look forward to
I wasn't expecting much from Dungeon Meshi when I started it if I'm being honest. It looked like a fairly standard fantasy show with a cooking show quirk and a soft appealing art style that got me to give it a chance. But what really got me was the almost Jojos like pacing of some of the encounters. Like, it was the living armor episode that caused me to binge the rest of the season. The way living armor was described as a magical construct sounded like your bog standard dullahan sort of thing, but then I started noticing things like... a frame or two ahead of Laios. The helmet being put back on to face forward, the way the armor needed to re-attach limbs at joints, etc. And with Laios noticing, that puts the thought of "Hey, something weird is actually going on, it's not just artistic flair" and primes you for the reveal of the more naturalistic explanation. The level of thought and care put into tying so many things together, like blending various religious practices and superstitions together to improvise holy water, or that using it as a flail works because ghosts phase through matter and the water makes contact that way, dispelling the ghost is nothing short of mind boggling. There has not been another series ever to get me to chuckle at how a solution or monster is depicted only to go "Oh that makes perfect sense, why didn't I think of that" moments later anywhere close to this much.
oooo thank you thank you thank you for interweaving manga extras into the video, especially for the anime-onlys
its amazing how much more in depth they go into the world, i kinda hope trigger makes an OVA for them
I like how it went from happy-go-lucky dungeon adventure to a Dark, using Black Magic on a dragon corps to resurrect a friend like it was nothing adventure really quick.
8:05 as a bug nerd myself and a Biology and Ecology student, this anime explored so many different dreams and fantasies in an exceptionally delicious way
This video helped me with some of my own world building, especially the comments on micro-worldbuilding. I am trying to build a urban fantasy world but honestly i just need to focus on the town where everything takes place!
Plus DnD is so good thank you for covering it.
I like how the characters are just average people who exist, have interests, and aren’t overpowered. I don’t like the “generic dude who is super over powered” troupe that lots of fantasy anime have. It feels rewarding to see the dungeon Meshi cast win battles and struggle on their adventure
One of my favorite new anime. More writers should take notes from this series because of its world building. The characters are fun and feel like believable people. The world feels full. And I love it
One minor, semi-defence of Brian Herbert: He was not an incompetent pulp horror writer, and his role as his father's literary executor initially stemmed from the bitter falling out between Frank and his eldest son, a gay rights activist who Brian himself considered the better choice but was sidelined by their homophobic sister and brother-in-law after Frank's death.
In any case, thank you for reminding me to read and watch Dungeon Meshi. Really love what I've seen and read of this story.