When watching fantasy anime, there’s a wonderfully whimsical world that viewers can fully explore. Spectacular magic, brave warriors, and strange creatures are all expected, but every exploring troop needs supplies. Money, weapons, and of course, food are needed to survive the wondrous yet perilous adventures they set out to embark on. Delicious in Dungeon recognizes these practicalities, and creates a whole episodic adventure that focuses more on the possible food ecosystems of a fantasy world rather than the seemingly serious quests they embark upon. It makes for a slightly silly approach poking fun at the fantasy genre, but it’s definitely something unique, especially when it brings about mouthwatering exotic dishes made from monsters.
Dungeons, dragons... and delicious monster stew!? Adventurers foray into a cursed buried kingdom to save their friend, cooking up a storm along the way.
In a fantasy world, groups of explorers called guilds raid dungeons to defeat the magician that sank the kingdom. After a dragon wipes out his party and devours his sister Falin, Laios, along with Marcille, a healer, and Chilchuck, a thief, are determined to save her… But first, they have to eat to regain their strength.
Dungeon exploration can seem hard to explain for the uninitiated, so it would be hard to jump into manga and anime centered around the fantasy game without knowing anything about. To its credit, Delicious in Dungeon starts its first episode helpfully explaining things– we get to learn some of the creatures in the Golden Kingdom, as well as the guild that we’ll be following for the whole season– but it’s why the show starts off a bit slow, even with the time-sensitive mission of saving one’s sister from being fully digested inside a dragon’s stomach. However, all the exposition is delivered so earnestly and straightforwardly by Laios, which makes Marcille’s easy disgust at eating exotic creatures feel hilarious. This sort of humor might not float everyone’s boat, and certainly, casual viewers new to fantasy anime might prefer a more character oriented show, but its absurdity might appeal to some viewers, especially fans of the original manga.
You’d think that your sister being eaten by a dragon would be more important than your curiosity over eating monsters, but okay.
