First Impression: Delicious in Dungeon

We join our heroes in mid-battle against a fearsome red-scaled dragon, somewhere deep in the bowels of the earth—or rather, some other earth. Distracted by his empty stomach, the leader realizes too late that the entire crew has been wiped out, and his little sister consumed by their foe. It’s kinda ok though, cause they just restart at the last waypoint, right? Well, not Lil Sis, I’m afraid! Apparently, the revival magic doesn’t work if you’re ensconced in digestive juices… Good thing red dragons digest slowly. Time to launch the rescue mission! Only, maybe they should stop to eat first? No! Back to the dungeon immediately! No wait, their tummies are really hollow…there’s no way they can fight like this! Looks like the time has come…to eat some monsters!!! Good thing there’s a dwarf chef with ten years of monster cookery under his belt just hanging out in the dungeon waiting to find some like-minded folk to share a nice hot monster mushroom and scorpion soup with. And so the culinary adventures begin! (Let’s hope red dragons digest really, really slowly cause this rescue op may take time, boy!)

Have you ever wondered what Laid-Back Camp would be like if Nadeshiko was a handsome blond swordsman, Rin was a slightly more talkative dwarf obsessed with slightly more niche forms of cuisine, Chiaki was an elf, Ena a young boy (his unique feature has not yet been revealed unless it’s his youth), and Aoi got eaten by a red dragon was a mage? Well, now you can find out! This is such a bizarre mash-up of genres and yet it totally works! The animation is clean and fluid, bearing the fingerprints of studio Trigger, but more along the lines of Little Witch Academia than the explosive action sequences of Gridman or psychedelic Cyberpunk: Edgerunners vibes. The humor is well-paced with the jokes landing neatly, while the cookery inserts are lively enough to keep from dragging or losing momentum. The episode skips lightheartedly between adventurous confrontations with monsters and chilling with the gang, enjoying some eats, and could almost be considered educational if all the ingredients weren’t completely bonkers. (And yet, that man-eating plant dish looks suspiciously like quiche with cherry tomatoes and bell peppers, so maybe…nah!) The voice acting is strong here, particularly Sayaka Senbongi as Marcille, the hard-put-upon elf maiden who alone questions the health and safety of consuming slimes, poisonous mushrooms, and venomous creatures of the plant and animal variety, and whom you may recognize as a certain drunken, bass-playing senpai from Bocchi the Rock. All in all, this promises to be an enjoyable romp! Just be sure you’ve eaten dinner before watching or you may start getting some crazy ideas… 

Delicious in Dungeon can be streamed on Netflix.

claire
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