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Delicious in Dungeon Review

Delicious in Dungeon is a fantasy adventure anime series that premiered in 2024. It’s a very charming show that is slight in plot and themes.

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“Eating is, quite simply, the exclusive privilege of the living“

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The story follows a group of adventurers in a fantasy world who, after failing to defeat a dragon that consumed one of their own, embark on a journey through a dungeon to revive her, surviving by cooking and eating the monsters they encounter along the way. This is a very unique series in a way that it’s basically a cooking show set in a fantasy world. This choice was done for better and for worse – it made it original, but also not very engaging.

My main issue with this series is that nothing really happens in it. It’s a slice-of-life story that is still too silly and goofy for it to work within that genre. It needed more gravitas in terms of character arcs and emotional investment. The characters should have been better developed. I liked Marcille, Laios and of course Senshi, but all of their traits quickly grew tired. How many times could we watch Senshi being obsessed with food and Marcille being repulsed by it to be engaged over and over again?

I liked the animation, though it wasn’t as artistic, but it was polished and the show looked great overall. The character designs were appealing and versatile. The world building is fantastic, especially toward the end. The second half of the season introduced more extensive mythology and monsters and this is where it finally reached some momentum, but a bit too late for me personally. The first half was too silly, non-existent in plot and slowly paced.

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The show has a fun opening that is catchy. The series looks and sounds good overall. The writing of dialogue is good and the humor is excellent. I just wished for some character arcs and more extensive storytelling as the show could not sustain 24 episodes where very rarely anything happened.