***ENTIRE PLOT SPOILER WARNING***

What seemed like a simple anime about adventure, and the many ways to prepare food, turned out to be so much more. For those of you who have never heard of Dungeon Meshi, or Delicious In Dungeon, it’s a manga and anime about a group of curious adventurers traveling through a dangerous dungeon, whilst battling monsters and hunger. At least, that’s the spoiler free version.

Be warned, as unless you’re interested but not enough to actually read the manga or watch the anime, there are spoilers ahead – although this review will exclusively be discussing the anime. The anime started off dramatically with a fight scene, involving a powerful dragon and our protagonists being defeated left and right.

Laios, a human knight, the main character and brother of Falin, is determined to defend his sister, Falin, alongside his two friends Marcille, an elven mage, and Chilchuck, a half-foot dungeon delver (one who checks for traps). Of course, since they’re out of food, and they can’t fight on an empty stomach. 

In comes Senshi, a dwarf warrior with a big cooking pot and a sturdy metal spoon to accompany the cooking subplot that set this anime apart. 

It seems like the end, but then Falin sacrificed herself to save the party. After the survivors are spirited away to the safety of the outside, two members of the party quit, leaving the protagonists low on supplies, morale, and the numbers needed to save Falin. It may have seemed like this anime was going to be simple and fun, but the truth is…complicated.

Senshi sees their plight and offers to cook for them, but to their surprise, he cooks food made out of monsters. This confuses the party, except for Laios, who is so determined to try new things, that he eats it without a second thought and becomes enthralled. With that, the party dynamic is established. Senshi and Laios cook and eat without hesitation, dragging the disgusted Marcille and Chilchuck with them.

Wacky hijinks ensued as Laios considered eating every monster he came across (yes, even the ones made of metal or nearly human ones), which terrified poor Marcille who despises the concept of eating monsters. This dynamic continues for a while as they find more strange and dangerous monsters on their journey.

What about Falin, however? Why is the party distracted with wacky adventures? This is a reasonable thought process as the anime did not make it seem like she’s  a priority. That is until they finally run into the Red Dragon that nearly killed them.

This went terribly, of course, as they’re only four people (who aren’t particularly strong), battling against one of the most powerful monsters in the dungeon. With a bit of luck and clever tactics, Laios delivered a killing blow. Falin was eaten, however, so what do they do?

For reference, death is not the end when in the dungeon. As long as your body can be found, you can be revived. However, the more broken the body, the harder it is to bring back. Being eaten alive and digested in a dragon’s stomach, fits the ‘difficult to revive’ criteria. Even so, the party desperately searched for her remains so they could at least try.

They find very little and things seem dark, when Marcille suggests something…controversial. It’s dark magic. It works! Falin is alive, and the siblings are reunited. The party believed all is well until night falls, when the insidious creator of the dungeon revealed himself with an attack.

The party is greatly injured and forced to retreat, but Falin strangely insisted on staying behind with their attacker. Once again, the party must journey to save Falin, but things have now taken a darker turn as she’s turned into a Chimera not long after the party leaves.

The anime mostly returned to form once the arc involving Falin’s strange and horrific transformation was done, but there was an ominous tone to it all. While the party delved through the dungeon and had fun times on the way, Falin is now a half-dragon monster under the dungeon master’s control. 

The anime seemed to move away from the Falin rescue plot in favor of focusing on the food aspect, which felt a bit jarring at first. One couldn’t help but wonder why the party, especially Laios, were so cavalier about rescuing Falin, his own sister. However, with death being more of a hindrance than a danger, it’s clear that they were just being optimistic.

It is addressed multiple times while they make their trek, but it doesn’t really feel discussed until they attempt to revive Falin. At the same time, talking it over and stressing about it in a dangerous place does seem counterproductive, so perhaps the party was just being logical. 

Despite that complaint, the anime is wildly entertaining with its wacky hijinks, informative cooking sessions, and thought out battles. The best part is how the anime handled conflicts. 

The party didn’t clash with every monster they saw, either,  with special techniques and choreographed movesets. Sometimes they used tactics, sometimes they didn’t even attack the monsters. They simply scared them off with goofy techniques like real animal handlers, or using whatever is handy to distract the attackers while the party escaped. 

Fights are always unique as the party must think things through if they are to survive. The party’s curiosity in place of daring is what sets it apart from other ensemble groups in other fighting animes. 

All in all, Dungeon Meshi is a breath of fresh air as its characters aren’t moral paragons, but aren’t gritty action heroes either. They’re just trying to survive and eat some monsters.