“Meals are the special privilege of the living… In order to stay alive, we need to keep eating.”

* SPOILERS FOR BOTH THE ANIME AND THE MANGA *

Dungeon Meshi (or Delicious in Dungeon) follows a party of adventurers led by the Touden siblings, humans Laios and Falin. We meet the party in the depths of the dungeon, fighting a powerful Red Dragon. The party had taken down dragons before, but this particular encounter found them all suffering from hunger, preventing them from fighting at their full capabilities. Laios was particularly distracted by his hunger. He did not notice the Red Dragons incoming attack until his sister, Falin, had already pushed him out of the way. While in the maw of the dragon, Falin casted a spell to teleport all of her companions from the dungeon without her. This incident would cause two of the party members to resign, leaving the remaining three, Laios along with the elf caster Marcille and the half foot locksmith Chilchuck, to rescue Falin.

As it had been hunger that had got them into trouble in the first place, Laios suggested, albeit too enthusiatically, that they eat monsters they find in the dungeon. After a false start in cooking a dungeon scorpion, they meet Senshi, a dwarf who claims to have spent a decade cooking from the dungeon. With the promise of allowing Senshi to cook the Red Dragon when they find it, the party of four set off. From here, we follow the party and their mishaps as they journey deeper and deeper into the dungeon.

It's funny to me how much I had been dancing around this series. I had heard about it briefly with the likes of Witch Hat Atelier (which I also keep telling myself I'll read), but I became especially interested when Studio Trigger was set to do the anime. However I kept putting off reading it. At Anime Expo 2023 I tried getting into the Trigger panel where they would be showing the first episode, but the room capped out long before I was even close to the door. All these missed connections. But I finally started reading it March 1, 2024, binging it in a weekend the watching the anime shortly after. I enjoyed it immensely :-) and now I have a lot of thoughts and opinions.

Laios Touden

The de-facto party leader and the hungriest adventurer. On first glance you may be inclined to right him off as the everyman of the party, but his passion for monsters is so intense it often puts him at odds with the people who come across him. Laios is a character that I feel I am still coming to understand, but in the best way possible. His love for his sister and monsters may be at the forefront of his character; the Winged Lion even uses his apparent disinterest in humanity in his argument for Laios to become Lord of the Dungeon, but make no mistake Laios still shows great kindness to everyone. To say Laios admires monsters because they kill humans isn't right. For Laios, monsters are easier to understand, more predictable, but that doesn't stop him from forming bonds with the people around him. And what better way to connect with others than over a meal?

Marcille Donato

The party's mage and temporary healer while Falin is out of commission so to speak. My favorite desciption of her I've come across is that it's like she's in a pressure cooker, like a neurotic grad student. Marcille is an old schoolmate of Falin's and she's attached to her to a homoerotic degree. Marcille is an extremely powerful mage, but she is often out of her element due to her lack of practical experience. As a half-elf, she grew up painfully aware of the disparity in lifespans between the races and her greatest fear is those she loves passing long before her. Marcille is willing to go to dangerous extremes to keep her loved ones with her. There is a hilarious contrast in how squeamish she can be when it comes to eating the monster dishes Senshi cooks up and how comfortable she is digging through viscera when she has a mission in mind.

Chilchuck Tims

The party's lockpick and the winner of the My Favorite Silly Guy lottery. Chilchuck is a half-foot and is often assumed to be much younger than he is, mostly by the more long lived races. In reality, he is middle aged with 3 daughters and an estranged wife. Despite his shitty attitude and propensity for insults, he has a good heart. He is not a fighter and will often say as much, but when push comes to shove he will do what he can to help. I always gravitate to the characters who have trouble being open about their feelings, I too feel like a short middle aged divorcee. I'm a big fan of the idea that after retiring from adventuring he learns to eat well and gets to a healthier weight. I think a yaoi love affair with Senshi could fix him. Watch my Chilchuck fancam.

Senshi of Izganda

The party's newest member, functioning as both cook and warrior. Without Senshi, the party would either be starving or sick from ill prepared monster meals. I really started cooking for myself in 2020 during the pandemic and I've found a lot of joy in it, especially in that desire to feed others. It's such a special act of care and Senshi really speaks to that for me. Senshi can be stubborn and stuck in his ways, but he always returns to the wellbeing of others. And his philosophy of not taking more than needed and being a part of the cycle of consumption, it's very special to me. Plus he gets a wild amount of panty shots... Have you seen how Ryoko Kui draws him in Daydream Hour? Dwarf fine as hell.

Falin Touden

The driving force of the narrative, her abscence has so much presence. Falin is the party's cleric and had a special talent for dealing with the dead, her methods stemming from sympathy and understanding. It's through her abscence we come to understand why the party (mostly Laios and Marcille) are determined to save her. For Laios, with all his difficulties in relating to others even his own father, Falin always understood him. In the lowest point of his life, it was Falin that lifted him up. It's a powerful familial bond that makes me tear up just thinking about it.
For Marcille, Falin is her closest friend. She admires her kindness, believing her to be almost saintly. Every time a party member needs to be protected or healed, Marcille wishes Falin was with them. The thought of losing Falin aggravates Marcille's deep fear of losing those she loves and leads her perform forbidden magic in order to resurrect her.

Falin's ability to draw people absolutely worked on me as well, I quickly understood what was so charming about her and why so many of the characters cared for her. However I will say, I wasn't sure how the story would end. Was this to be a story about learning to let go? And I feel a second reading would help me solidify the themes in my head, but for now I will say, I like the idea that this is a story about allowing Falin to take up space, to impose on others. Falin has often been self-sacrificing and now there are people sacrificing for her because they love her. To me, Dungeon Meshi is a story about love in all it's forms and how we care for others.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! There is a myriad of characters we meet along the way, each with their own fully realized lives and points of view! To me, the most interesting detail is the way a character's relationship with food will give the reader a great insight into their personality. For example, Izutsumi being picky with food reflects her unwillingness to do things that are neccessary, but uncomfortable; really emphasizing the immaturity of her character. Or Mithrun, who no longer has the desire to eat and therefore no longer has the will to live. Maybe I'll add more character entries at a later date, but for the record, besides the guys mentioned above I also really love Thistle!

ONTO THE ANIME!

Now Studio Trigger is THE studio that gets me the most excited when I hear they're involved with a project! I have watched most of their catalogue and while they're not all hits, guaranteed you'll find some fun, stylish animation. (My personal faves are Kill La Kill, Space Patrol Luluco, Little Witch Academia and Promare :-) I'm also fond of Kiznaiver but it might not be that good... The OP is a banger though) Of course when I heard they would be adapting this manga I had been interested in, I was excited! So how is the anime?

IT'S GORGEOUS! What a shock! It's Trigger doing what Trigger does best; vibrant colors, strong character drawing and, of course, energetic animation. I originally watched it on one of those sites, but I needed to watch it in high quality so bad that I learned to get it from one of those other sites. It's been such a treat to scrub through episodes and look at the individual frames. I love every inbetween and smear, it really is inspiring!

Storywise, yes some details have been cut, but personally I can't complain too much. I don't need a 1:1 adaptation as long as the adaptation is doing something unique or interesting and I think Trigger has added it's own visual flair to certain scenes. I'm not even just talking animation wise, my favorite example is the way they handled the scene of Laios picking up Falin's skull...

The framing goes SO hard. In the manga, we see Laios pick up the skull in profile. This puts a certain amount of seperation between the viewer and Laios. But here, the viewer is in the scene, viewing the horror on Laios's face head on. The scene feels so much more impactful! What a way to end an episode.

Maybe it's obvious, but the Red Dragon episodes have been my favorite so far. And ESPECIALLY this particular scene of Senshi throwing Kensuke back to Laios. If online sources are to be trusted, the key animation for this scene was done by Ichigo Kanno. The coolest drawings of the series so far! Senshi moving and growing with power, completely blocking out Chilchuck and overtaking the whole frame, truly the embodiment of his earlier speech:

The anime has just been such a joy to follow. It's been a while since I followed an anime weekly, the last one might have been Brand New Animal? So it's fun to have something to look forward to every week! And thank god they didn't do the N*tflix thing of just dumping it all on streaming like they did with Little Witch Academia. It's that anticipation that keeps people interested longer! Sure I love a good binge but nothing beats seeing the weekly reactions online.

I'll probably continue to add more as more episodes come out and I reread the manga, but thats all for now :-)

YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE FANON ZONE

Now this is the part where I expose myself as an ex homestuck and as having terminal fudanshi brain. Read my Chilchuck-centric Chilshi fanfic. Listen I know Senshi's first impression of Chilchuck is very specific, but isn't the whole story about going beyond initial prejudice and changing your mind? And I love middle aged dad yaoi with joint custody of Izutsumi leave me alone.

And I've classpected a few characters, just my own silly interpretation: