I went off anime when the isekai and moe craze took off about 10 years ago.
I tried to get into modern anime, but couldn’t (JoJo is based off an 80s manga, that doesn’t count as modern to me).
But I’m on episode 3 and I’m really digging Dungeon Meishi/ Delicious in Dungeon. I’m watching the English dub and It’s like if Monster Hunter and Dimension 20 had a baby. The humour is great, I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. The world is cool too.
I like how it isn’t following the anime tropes. The characters aren’t high schoolers, the women act like real human beings, there’s no Shonen toy commercial BS. It’s just a good fun adventure.
My only criticisms are that it’s a little videogamey, it makes me hungry and that the title Delicious in Dungeon makes no sense, it should be Delicious in THE Dungeon.
Senshi is my favourite.
Pst! The title is goofy in English because a creative decision was made to make it sound like both a play on D’n’D and a cooking show on public television, for example “Barefoot Contessa” or “Welcome to Homegrown!” instead of doing a direct calque of its Japanese name and calling it “Dungeon Meal.” Real clunker, huh?
shoulda been Dungeon and Dining
Diners, Drive-Ins and Dragons
:flavortown:
Dungeons, Drag-ons and Skrives.
On a quest for the Funky Kobold Medina.
I once saw someone suggest “Dungeon Delicious” and even that sounds better
I think “Lord of the Wings” takes the cake.
Literally me
Amazing.
Everything dungeon meshi related should come with a big certification sticker that says “Contains no isekai content!”
I’d have checked it out even sooner if I saw that sticker.
There are so many reasons to recommend this manga / anime. Like that Laios is undeniably autistic—that man loves monster meals the way I love dinosaurs.
(I write this as my daughter and I are arguing about whether or not Butterfree’s wings are intrinsically toxic or not. The Pokédex says that it can flap its wings to release toxic scales / powder, but that doesn’t necessarily imply that the wings themselves are comprised of toxic scales! These are important questions to ask when assessing a Pokémon’s snuggleability.)
pretty sure if human skin and oils touch butterfly or insect wings it heavily damages them right? 0 on snuggleability factor
He also has a lot of affinity with dogs. He’d go to furcons for sure if his world had them.
Senshi is raw sex appeal.
You come to this level often?
It is an honest to god dungeon crawl in the old tabletop sense, where the characters triumph due to their knowledge and cunning rather than raw power. Everyone’s personality is believable, and each member of the party has complimentary strengths and weaknesses.
Ryoko Kui plays CRPGs and it shows, but she also transcends the videogame logic by centering the narrative on the party’s mastery of the environment (the dungeon, the monsters, the nature of magic and so on) rather than a series of pitched battles. I recommend it to pretty much everyone who has an interest on anime or computer RPGs.
But more importantly, I want to eat the ice cream.
You will live in the dungeon. You will eat the mimics.
But more importantly, I want to eat the ice cream.
I wish my house was haunted so I could use holy water bludgeons to make exorcism sorbet.
the title Delicious in Dungeon makes no sense, it should be Delicious in THE Dungeon.
It’s trying to be a pun on DnD but the english title doesn’t translate well.
WHY DIDN’T THEY CALL IT DISHES & DRAGONS
Damn that is a better name… or maybe Dungeons and Dishes
That is also an excellent name.
FUCK! That IS a missed opportunity.
I like the Spanish version mazmorras y tragones which is kind of a blend of dnds names in both English and Spanish and also the play on words between tragones and dragones
Ok my friend recc’d this one to me just the other day and i had been blowing it off as “one day”. But you reiterate some good things she said said and some magic words she didn’t and now I have to check it out. Here goes
Edit yup this is funny. When she fed that adventurer the antidote i lost my shit
This show was so good! It starts with a gimmick but quickly grows into a full D&D-based world (unlike many others which start and end with just their gimmick). I like Chilchuck the best myself, the idea that he’s a professional working on a contract with a family back home speaks to me I guess.
I like Chilchuck the best myself, the idea that he’s a professional working on a contract with a family back home speaks to me I guess.
He’s a fun subversion of “this childlike anime waifu is actually 1000 years old even though she talks acts and looks like a child” creep pandering; he acts and even talks like a grumpy middle-aged man because he is.
The videogamey goes right out the window very soon. One of my favorite manga.
It somehow dodges that “what if bibeo bame” isekai exploitation shit entirely and gives decent lore explanations for what’s left. Excellent.
I’d even argue that the video game vibes are more down to our conditioning as viewers and consumers of media in general. Also any fantasy anime that isn’t an isekai will have a decent chance of being a good show. We even had frieren recently. Unless it’s trash like goblin slayer. And the only fantasy type anime that’s worse than goblin slayer is surprise, an isekai. The dogshit trash that is Gate. It’s wild how people forget Imperial Japanese were basically the Asian Nazis and this let’s nationalist garbage like Gate be produced. Then there’s mushoku tensei… holy shit isekai sucks ass.
Then there’s mushoku tensei… holy shit isekai sucks ass.
I never heard of that one, but you seemed to imply it’s worse than Goblin Slayer, Surprise, and Gate. I don’t dare look it up even for curiosity.
The MC is a pedo. And he’s reincarnated.
I assume it’s one of those “kiddie creepers care about kids and are so misunderstood about their intentions” cognitohazard messages.
I mean I straight up think it’s just the authors own fantasy. Like having a pedo reborn as a kid and the implications of that isnt even good propaganda. Although I don’t think any pedo propaganda can even be good. Rebranding as maps hasn’t done anything for them. Probably the best niche for pedos is to become right wingers.
It’s really disturbing also that this anime is extremely popular. I sometimes wonder why anime fans get a bad rap. Then I see a situation like this.
Definitely another “dare ye enter my magical realm” creepy maker issue. Similar deal with the sex pest that made Ready Player One and his issues with consent and respecting boundaries especially in his shitty book’s shittier sequel.
Worse than that, “Shield Hero” was an incel revenge/power fantasy that takes their deep fear and hatred of “false SV accusations” and turns it into punitive SV with slavery characteristics.
Goblin Slayer is basically an Isekai minus the Isekai part, it’s the exact same wish fulfillment stuff for socially inept losers and waifu pillow manufacturing machine that they all are, it just didn’t start with the goblin slayer travelling to the fantasy world after being hit by a truck.
True. I don’t know why I went the technically route with that.
Has the best character been introduced yet?
I think she shows up in episode 17 or something. She’s amazing every time she’s doing anything I go hoohooheheheheMy only criticisms are that it’s a little videogamey
I had to dig up and old post @[email protected] made where the author was talking about games she liked and games she played with her dad on twitter, plus some of her CRPG fanart
Now watch dragon pilot
I will convince you with this ed https://youtu.be/hG-ahxkDPCA
Honestly a lot of anime coming out these days are so much better than the isekai dark ages. Dead dead demons destruction is absolutely goated and probably the best thing I’ve seen in a while.
Dead dead demons destruction is absolutely goated and probably the best thing I’ve seen in a while.
Agreed, it’s been killing it.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
I wanted to like Isekai. I mean who doesn’t want to get teleported to another dimension and make new friends and have an adventure or whatever, but they always make the protagonist so impossible to identify with. Yeah there’s also the “Guess slavery is okay here. When in Rome!” Shit. I liked Dr. Stone up until they awoke Mr good guy capitalism. You literally had communism in your hands and you threw it away!
One of the oldest isekai anime, Aura Battler Dunbine, is pretty cool. It’s also based off of a Tomino-written novel, so it has that going for it.
I at least like that the good guy capitalism womanizer man appreciates all women, no matter shape or size they’re all beautiful, which is like one micron better than Sanji
Still hated that part of Dr stone though, like fuck off with the strongest primate highschooler baki Jojo shit, I wanna watch these prehistoric communists recreate all tech pls
The problem with isekai is not that its isekai. I mean its just this all encompassing premise for fantasy it must be responsible for half of all stories in the genre. The problem is that its a fad. And with all anime fads its self referential to the point of absurdity.
The only isekai I liked was Log Horizon and Grimgar. The former because it actually takes the premise of being trapped in an MMO and does things with it. It’s more about the player politics than anything else. Grimgar otoh for all its faults made it so that being conscripted to the fantasy militia monster killer corps sucks ass.
Re: zero also isn’t too bad, at least the mc has an actual personality and don’t get everything handed to him unlike most isekais, he’s just a normal human, no super isekai power (well, he does go back in time when he dies, but it’s more of a curse than a power), he’s not good with any weapons, barely know a few basic spells that are useless against most enemies, and while he can be smart when he needs to he also does plenty of dumb shit driven more by emotion than logic.
The Neverending Story was technically an isekai, but it lacked the “what if capitalism ruining the place that’s supposed to be the escape from capitalism” part of typical isekai.
The problem is not isekai itself, some of the most beloved animes like Fushigi Yuugi, Inuyasha, Spirited Away are isekai (specifically, girl-isekai) and even Digimon, all of them are fantastic. It is a great way to introduce a protagonist with background you can relate into fantastical world (Spirited Away is the best example for this).
What poisoned the chalice is the mid 2010s onwards Japanese light novel - anime adaptation - merchandise meta. This is why modern isekai has a long, clickbaity title such as “I’ve Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level” or “I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World and Became Unrivaled in the Real World, Too”. The meta is so that the people pick up the light novel just because of clickbait title, and based on 1st volume sales alone one can get an anime adaptation, then make money off selling waifu merchs. So what happened is that the initial transport is not well-thought of (hence, truck-kun joke for the mechanic of transporting the protag), video game rules (in a sterile, bright colored, generic medieval fantasy world) and waifu-harem cast (to sell merchs).
The meta is so that the people pick up the light novel just because of clickbait title, and based on 1st volume sales alone one can get an anime adaptation, then make money off selling waifu merchs.
To add on a bit, the clickbaity titles are literal clickbait because what happens is that a lot of these stories start out by being published online for free on what are essentially fan-fiction boards in the hopes that publishers will pick up the most popular ones and they get book deals. That’s the reason for the overly long titles summarizing the plot, also why most of these aren’t well written (usually the first time an editor sees the script, it’ll be when the story is picked up for publishing and usually there are very few rewrites etc).
It’s going to get better further as the world and lore opens itself. The world has a surprisingly well-established tabletop DnD rule, with each race given fairly sufficient lore just like the edible monster that you have seen so far. I also highly recommend going to the manga after you complete the anime, as the manga has concluded (it is only 90 or so chapter) and the art is gorgeous. Unlike many other manga that drags on, the author wraps it up where it makes sense with very satisfying book-end (although some people suspect that she did wrap up the series just in time for BG3 release last year, the author is a massive western CRPG fan, she’s too much of an anti-social to actually play DnD with other people).
although some people suspect that she did wrap up the series just in time for BG3 release last year
This is confirmed. The final chapters were delayed slightly because BG3 came out in August.
