Laios being the classic *Male Human Warrior* , the most basic of RPG archetypes, and at the same time being the strangest and most bizarre of the group never ceases to be funny
I studied ecology in college and I work at a science museum. The moment I knew I'd love this series was when I was reading the manga and saw the life cycle of a slime in a little extra, tucked away at the end of a volume. It's got a multi-stage parasitic relationship that I recognized from some species of snails. Kui didn't just take a glance over the basic concepts of a food chain, she dug deep and threw enthusiasm into the stuff that isn't glamorous, and I was freaking out and texting old classmates about it.
@@SheliakDragon Also read "The Adventurer's Bible", a sort of guidebook for the series created by Kui towards the end of the series. It contains some spoilers for things that happen between chapters 30 and 70, but it layers on the worldbuilding even more by focusing on the actual "human" characters and their goings on rather than just the dungeon/monsters.
Can you imagine of that existed i real life it make someone cautious when going swimming at the beach or diving itll suck to get stab out of nowehere by one of these things
"Ah, yes. After the war was ended, they threw all their "Scary Armors" into the sea. Them sea critters went FREE REAL ESTATE in that right away!" And that's why you fish on a boat. "And You would have heard me if you didn't just laugh and walk away! You're that tall cause you ain't a baby, right??" ...what a mean Halfling.
@@seeranos I'm pretty sure the Lekgolo, the species of simple worms that create hive mind colonies, were not mollusks. Their whole thing was that they are a hive mind large enough to inhabit the equipment of two hunters. They go insane when their nest mate perishes. Lot of cool ecology in the halo world building books.
My favorite DunMeshi lore tidbit is that being on the chunkier side is actually a sign of a very skilled adventurer in the Dungeon. They explain this being the case because when you die in the Dungeon, Resurectors use alot of the calories in your body to Revive you. The Manga also explain that this is why Kabru is so skinny haha. The Living armor was the first sign that this was gonna be something quite special when I first read it, but the intricacies of Ressurection magic was the thing that sealed the deal for me.
oh yeah the specifics of resurrection magic was great because upon seeing that the initial premise was "we need to save Falin before she gets digested" while they also mention past deaths just made me go "okay so why is her case a race against time" & the series answers that beautifully with the fact that part of how it's even possible is the way the dungeon's mana is set up & that they still need the physical body
@@Triforce_of_Doomyeah when I watched it I was kinda confused, but when they talked about the corpse collectors I was able to figure it out myself without them telling me “we need to find falin because we can’t resurrect her without her body”
Ryoko Kui is the true heir to Terry Pratchett's genius- a comedic fantasy that's secretly full of thoughtful world building informed by research, interests and experiences. Then when you least expect it you're hit with philosophical pondering that changes your whole life and characters you would literally die for.
A look at the mindset of the elves is Kabru. He's a goofy little guy but when push comes to shove he will end you. The elves didn't teach him how to fight, they taught him how to kill. And when he did he did so with no hesitation and pinpoint precision. I like that little murder twink.
I also think it’s interesting how both Laios and Kabru are very good at killing the things that interest them (monsters and people respectively), it shows how being successful in combat heavily depends on reading the opponent.
The elves strike me as the Gohan of races- they really don't like fighting. So when they need to, they don't waste any time, they make sure its over as quickly as possible.
@@zoro115-s6bWould make sense for the canonically frailest race to focus on killing things swiftly. They can't afford to depend on armor like the dwarves (which is why dwarves are better)
@@rosenrot234Which is kinda funny since his elf mom who trained him was vice commander of the Canaries, whose job description is to fight monsters, not people.
A piece of world building that I adored was Marcille’s hair. Her varied hairstyles emphasized the importance of hair care to magic even before we learned about it directly. It also showed how much Marcille wants to connect with her elven ancestry, especially in the face of only being half elf and thus seen as not enough of an elf. It was also kind of a clever way to indicate the passage of time, if her hair is different chances are it’s a new day. This is especially helpful for days that are divided amongst multiple episodes!
Tbh I never thought of that changing hair ~ new day I just assume from episode 9 which Namari said it has been a week, and estimate the time from there
Fun fact: none of the elves really have complex hairstyles like Marcille with multiple braids, bows, and ponytails! But because we don't meet them until way later, we think "oh I guess this is how elves style their hair".... Marcille has no clue what elf culture is like, even though she's trying her hardest to pass for a full elf.
I love how much effort Ryoko Kui puts into the characters attire! No character just wears something because it looks cool, but rather it always tells you something about their job, their personality, their history, biological needs, and what they value. Its so intentional and adds such an amazing low level constant hum of world and character building
The utility of clothing also works as setup for what is potentially the best punchline in Dunmeshi: Namari and leg pouches (which probably won't ever come up in the anime, so anime viewers can safely google this one if they want lol)
I think one aspect of the party dynamic that often gets forgotten is that Marcille is as fascinated with dungeons as Laios is. The difference is that whereas Laios is primarily interested in the monsters that occupy dungeons, Marcille is fascinated by the mechanics of dungeons. She knows everything there is to know about the flow of magic within dungeons and their structures, as well as the basics of their ecosystems (though in this area her knowledge is extremely limited, since as the video noted most people outside the dungeon don't see monsters as anything other than a problem to be solved as part of dungeon exploration). Like she wasn't just studying dungeons as part of her broader fixation on magic; we see in flashbacks that she was actually creating her own mini-dungeons in secret. The fact that she shared these very private projects with Falin is part of how the show demonstrates how close they were. I think this aspect of her character is important to acknowledge because without it, a lot of her later actions appear to make no sense. I think her understanding of these systems, and of some of the darker mechanics behind them, also helps to explain her exaggerated aversion to eating monster flesh (beyond the inherent squick factor, which other characters--even those who are also written as being somewhat prissy--get over much faster). It also helps to explain her frustration with Laios and the others treating her as useless. Prior to her arrival in the dungeon, Marcille was basically the only person she knew with anything even approaching practical knowledge of dungeon systems. Again, she'd built model dungeons! Nobody else did shit like that! And so she had reason to expect to be a highly valuable member of the team. But Laios and Falin were doing goldstripping runs for years before Marcille caught up with them, and Senshi has been living down there for, like... Basically his entire life? So of course they have practical knowledge and experience that Marcille doesn't have, even after having gone on several delves with their old team, but because Marcille's entire sense of self-worth is tied up in her special interest for reasons I don't think have been touched on yet in the anime (but which I think are also a great example of the setting's worldbuilding), it is extremely difficult for her to accept that. So early on Marcille needs to learn to mesh that practical knowledge with her own highly theoretical knowledge. Anyway, er. Thanks for reading; sorry for the long-ass comment.
this is a great point, i think its really cool how the party 'roles' are more than the starting equipment they chose or the fighting style they prefer. the roles are treated akin to degrees/professions and are reflected not only in how they approach challenges but in how the knowledge they aquired informs their decision making and character. its nothing groundbreaking but its done so well. everyone in real life is a nerd about something and uniquely talented, and the story it really reflects how each person is valuable, be it to the group or the objective they are pursuing. no one is left behind in this and most characters get their moment to showcase why knowing what they know or doing what they do is important. it puts such value on how being people with diverse interests is of value, to me its one of the core messages of the first half of the story that gets very overlooked.
she's a theory nerd and not a practical nerd!! she has a lot of knowledge about the subject but when it comes to the actual physical reality, her knowledge is less applicable in the day-to-day. it's certainly an invaluable resource that's incredibly important, but like you said, she expected her knowledge to be more helpful in the dungeon than it actually was
True, and Isekai gets dumber and dumber as well. Frieren and the last season of Goblin slayer was really good though so there are other regular fantasy shows out there worth watching still. :)
the irony is something along the lines of dungeon meshi WOULD be perfect for an isekai, give me a protagonist whos genuinly fascinated and mesmerized by all the little things the natives take fro granted
We were spoiled having this and Freiren at the same time. Though you should definitely check out Witch Hat Atelier when its anime adaptation comes out.
I'm a big fan of how Ryoko Kui renames Humans into "Tallmen". Fantasy and science fiction has a problem of making humanity the default in their settings. Turning humans into the standard from which all other races are compared to. By making "human" into a classification that encompasses races like elves, dwarves, gnomes and ogres, it really highlights that people like Laois and the other Tallmen are just another aspect of the world, not better or worse than the other races.
"Despite their size tallmen are actually weak compared to races like dwarves" felt like a really cool line, like it's a common misconception in their world that Tallmen must be stronger because of our size.
@@jamesburrows3602 yeah it really makes them seem more "balanced" overall. The main "advantage" of tallmen (aside from being, well, tall) is that they have higher stamina than the other races, thus allowing them to wear heavy armor for long periods of time without getting as tired.
Man I’m going to miss Dungeon Meshi Thursdays. It was always such a bright spot to sit down with my wife and watch this show together when we were having a rough week. Absolutely cannot wait for when we can do that again.
I’m gonna miss it too😭 I’d watch it with my brother and bf, I’d excitedly text “it’s dungeon Meshi Thursday!!” And I loved texting my friend about the new episode too
Really need to watch this one. I saw a post that read “Marcille X male reader headcanons” and the only one was “she leaves you for a woman”. Peak anime.
I thought the Living Armor being a colony of mollusks was the most inventive thing I'd ever seen. Fun fact: apparently, Marcille has 38 hairstyles over the course of the first 24 episodes. I would love to see you look at Apothecary Diaries' worldbuilding. Although that might not be so difficult because it's a fictionalized version of medieval China to avoid pissing off the Chinese Government.
Another aspect of the show that I really love is their character designs. Every group of individuals you meet no matter how brief has such a distinctive and memorable designs. There are no generic or hair color palette swap characters. The creativity of this show is something else.
Body shape diversity too. Not that generic slim/athletic build slop we often see in other Anime. They have their reasons to make them all like that, but still
I'm so glad it was weekly release too, hearing reactions to each episode is a treat, especially when the source material has enough substance to warrant that continued attention
For me it was Squid Game that made me use my Netflix subscription for the first time in 2 years back in 2021. Since then I've been looking for shows on that platform that interest me and that I've heard a lot of great things about. Even today I am looking forward to a new season of a show I like and a new show that looks promising.
I did not expect Frank Herbert's son to be dragged by the scalp to Evan Call's music in a Delicious in Dungeon worldbuilding video essay. I am not mad about it since Mr.Basement-kun was spitting facts
The only thing missing was calling out Kevin J. Anderson for the part he played in the whole thing. Edit: Kevin J, not Kevin T. Shows how much of that train wreck I've retained.
@@TheColMustang2 His EU Star Wars books weren't bad from what I remember, it's true. But I suspect he did the vast share of the actual writing on the project, and I don't think his style meshed well with Frank Herbert's world from the very start. He should've recognized that, even if he did need to eat.
Where do I even begin...I as a biologist who often daydreams about the anatomy of fantasy animals genuinely teared up a bit about the sheer effort that's put in to reasonably explain the monsters and their behavior rather than relying " magic, evil wizards, old spells, ancient evils". Mixing mythology and biology together and making this bloody well it work is hard. Also the characters, especially main party are just so realistic, we all probably know someone like them or are like them ourselves. Despite the fantastical elements the core of what they are never seems too distant. Be it a divorced, middle-aged dude who's tired of life, a turbo autist with encyclopedia level knowledge, book smart girl who lacks any real wotld knowledge about practical application, moody teenager who doesn't what what she wants in life or soneone who's finally found his "tribe" after suffering through loneliness
Ryoko Kui might just be to fantasy and dungeon ecology and biology what Tolkien is to fantasy history and linguistics (and the genre overall ofc). Delicious in Dungeon is a genius fantasy story, definitely deserving of a podium among legends of the genre like Tolkien. And the character interactions and relations are something to be studied in classic literature university modules. She really went all out.
@@entidade_000 Mostly he would be disappointed. He was a devout catholic, and really wanted stories to bend towards hope and the hierarchy of the universe. That's how he felt about Dune. Disappointed at its cynicism and seeming atheistic character. He would however, probably see a lot of the charm of the Shire in Delicious Dungeon. Were he here, I think he would be overall proud to have contributed such a dear entry into the tradition of fantasy. Maybe also proud that so many were inspired by his work and then went on to produce works of their own. I think.
@@Moe_Posting_Chad I think Delicious in Dungeon has a good amount the theme of hope in it. The gang was literally going to fight a dragon for the slight hope that Falin's body wouldn't be completely destroyed the time they get there. It's honestly why this series feels so refreshing. There's so much positiveness, so much hope, so much companionship. Even after the darkest moments.
About 10 years ago I had a player who would cook almost anything they killed, from giant slugs to goblins. The the other characters had some issues with his meals, so he just started lying about what/who was in his food. They even had huge tents make of cured Giant Slug-skins.
Delicious in Dungeon was honestly a very big surprise for me. I never expected it to be this good. At the beginning of the anime, I was saying, 'Okay, this is a fun anime,' but with time the anime started to become more deeper and darker, especially with episode 11. One of the things I like most about Delicious in Dungeon, other than the great world building, is the characters writing. Almost all of the characters are really well written, I swear even some of the side characters were written even better than our main characters, like Falin and Kabru. I don't think I need to mention other positive things like the amazing production, the comedy, world and monsters design, because they are so obvious. In general, I personally consider Delicious in Dungeon the greatest new anime released in 2024 so far, and my rating for it is 9/10.
i started watching it because i was bored and i had seen some stuff about it on tumblr. didn't know anything about it, but was curious. i was hooked by episode 3! the worldbuilding is just so good, its feels like a real place and its explained in story in a believable way! the characters are so charming, i became invested in saving falin purely on how determined the characters were to save her! its just is so good at what it does, its amazing! and the cooking/food gimmick is a true delight! i love the show very much
What I love most about Dungeon Meshi (In addition to the incredible worldbuilding, food porn, characters etc..) is how scrappy the party is. Nobody has op powers, they have to fight for every scrap of food and power they can get and as a result every encounter with a monster feels harrowing and awesome. In a world where every other isekai is trying to out cool each other with their paint by numbers protagonists, here's a batch of weirdos all just trying to get Laios' sister back using whatever they can find and use along the way. It's remarkably refreshing to have a story where the progatonists are actually underdogs as opposed to stories bending over backwards trying to make their op protagonists hated by the world or called weak for arbitrary reasons to force drama.
yes! their power is literally knowledge and a willingness (and desire) to cook and eat monsters. Its why, despite not actually being the richest, smartest, or most powerful group, they end up making it farther down into the dungeon than anyone ever has. Respect and understanding of the ecology of the dungeon outranks any basic RPG skills which is such a fascinating turn to bring to a dungeon crawl story
To be fair, they all are a top of their leagues: Laios is a very good leader and has encyclopedic knowledge of monsters (plus he's ripped), Farlin is a protege healer, Chilchuck is literally the biggest halfling in town due to him being head of the union, Marcile is a professional (even if very much by the book) mage with specialization in dark magic, Senshi has been underground for a couple of decades, Toshiro is a noble specifically trained in fighting and Namari is a daughter of (disgraced) weapons dealer and weaponhead herself. Thing is, they ARE op. Just by more technically achievable by regular person standarts.
Something I really love about Dungeon Meshi that we'll more-so get into in Season 2 is the way in-which it's focus on food is not only retained as it gets into it's larger narrative, but becomes thematically central to it. Fantasy stories often have a thematic backbone that's something fundamental, like fire in Dark Souls, and I'm always impressed at how Dungeon Meshi tricks you into not realizing it's doing the same thing. Just such a great transition from "I love fantasy cooking, this is so much fun!" to "Eating is the central impulse which unites and divides all peoples, creatures, and ecosystems. To eat is to live, and meals are the special privilege of the living."
Dungeon Meshi is probably one of the best fantasy anime of all time. Take this from to someone who watch too many fantasy to isekai anime. It actually very refreshing from the characters design to world building. They could've only focus this only at the food and cooking aspect like the Campire Cooking in a Another World, or any anime that focuses on food etc, but instead the author manage tell a story with the creatures and the whole ecosystem in the dungeon through food. That is very impressive.
EASILY one of the best anime adaptations of all time. Instantly as good as FMA - Brotherhood. That kind of praise is reserved for the actually universally beloved titles. *The land of Kings.*
Terrible take. Frieren could not possibly be more generic, uninspired, insipid, pandering, paint by numbers insult! The autizum elf is such a fucking meme, it really is the epitome of socially maladjusted anime consumers. That was their target demographic and they will be talking about Frieren and Lucky Star until the day they die. And nobody but more of them will listen.
The moment I fell in love with the series was when they acknowledge that the difference between extraction methods for a mandrake affects the end result. Giving Marcille some credit, even after the risk she put herself, was a very nice surprise.
I have been ranting at everyone i know to read Dungeon Meshi for 3 years ever since I first read it. The world building and attention to detail show so much love put into this work.
Now that season 1 is over, I gotta read because the spoilers are now on a ticking countdown. I don't wanna get spoiled! It would be a waste of good food.
In Episode 4 it clicked for me. When Senshi talked about the Golems for Farming and the Ecosystem, preventing stronger monsters to come up for the lower depths. And as a german i found it incedible funny, when Sensi was later extremly focused on backing bread with sour dough.
The Isekai I enjoy more are not the adventure ones but ones that go into the key details of how a world with magic and mythical creatures would behave with rules and structure. Dungeon here does a great job at explaining how a dungeon can function for thousands of not more than that in a logical way brilliantly
Oh, it goes deeper in the extra materials. There's a short story explaining WHY the dungeon (and in fact all dungeons) end up with that particular ecosystem. Apparently in the beginning Thistle summoned the ultimate monster - "That which ends all" - only to have it dissipate in minutes because it needs to eat the life energy of multiple whales every thirty minutes to sustain itself. So after gradually scaling down his ambitions he just gave up and made a simple self-sistaining ecosystem with weaker monsters up top.
33:45 “It fixates on the same things the characters fixate on.” YES!! This is what I love about this type of writing, it’s a way to build the world and connect with the characters at the same time. One of my favorite moments so far is Chilchuk’s extremely personal hatred of mimics. We get introduced to a new monster in the world and its place in the dungeon ecosystem, while also understanding more of Chil’s backstory and past experiences as an adventurer.
All of this plus a plot as tight as fma makes dungeon meshi easily one of the best ever written. Flawless execution. I am so, so happy the anime adaption is as excellent as it is.
Two things that I love about this series: 1. Subtle hints about ethnicities for each race. We know there's humans like Laios and humans like Shuro, and it seems like there's some culture clash between them, which plants the idea that every ethnicity of human has their own history and relationship, and since the dungeon attracts people from across the world it lets the reader to wonder about the gaps in what they're seeing. It's something like what _Rings of Power_ was trying to do with a diverse cast, but actually discussing the different nationalities and conflicts therein. On top of that, it does something interesting with the Canaries, to see that there are many ethnicities of elves implies a breadth to the elf nation that the shorter-lived races don't have access to. 2. People love and embrace Laios for his autism. Though of course it's only implied by his... everything, people really seem to like him, and I, for one, love the autistic rep for him being such a fascinating character. -Also the fact that people are going carnally insane about him is a small, indirect boost to the ego-
Without going into spoilers (haven’t finished the vid yet, I dunno if Geoff talks about it) this story ends in the most unexpected yet perfect way possible. Despite being a very low-stakes story (compared to its contemporaries at least) Delicious in Dungeon has what might be THE most fascinating end game I’ve ever seen in an anime.
The fact that Ryoko Kui essentially took the premise of the first Wizardry, went "What if I focused on how you'd cook the monsters inside the Proving Grounds instead of beelining for the Mad Overlord?" and then slowly spun THAT into a compelling fantasy adventure all its own, is nothing less that extraordinary.
Considering the very unsubtle jab in one bonus page at western developers who don't release translations of their games in other languages because "most people know english anyways", it's almost certain that Kui took inspiration from old-school fantasy games
@@andrewcapra7153 I understand that frustration at least a little. So many cool looking RPGs never left Japan in the 90s. One day, I will play Wachenroder!
I also like how the larger scale of things doesn't matter much to the casts, they just want to save Falin And the main reason they solved all the problems are because they are a inconvenience to the quest of saving Falin
@bachtrinh8783 "The person who slays the mad mage will-" "Don't care, we gotta save Falin" "Long ago, there was a war-" "Don't care" "The demons" "Don't care. Oh hey, we saved the world"
I love how all the characters approach the dungeon with their own methodologies. Really immerse you in the story that even the side characters are competent, and the victory isn't won by a protag-kun with an OP cheat skill
laios is actually superbly unfit as a standard main character, he doesnt discover hidden powers, or even improve that much at dungeoneering and fighting, he just starts to figure out his own way to "win" by what his experiences and friends teach him, as well as what he excels at can help them in turn. all things considered, laios and senshi are basically redundant as characters, both are decent fighters who understand monsters and ecology, until the little things they do differently from one another start to stack up... and spoilers so i wont talk about it
the worldbuilding of dungeon meshi is one of the best templates for actually running a pen-and-paper campaign in recent memory. it's concentration on a single location while showing your the wider world through character interaction and other hints, it's focus on how cultures and ecologies actually function, the fact that magic is a thing but is not leaned on to explain everything, and the fact that no one in the party(or most anyone really) is bullshit powerful - all of it is a great set of guidelines for designing your own world for a party to actually explore and experience for themselves. it's so nice to have actual fantasy that's not isekai powergaming ;p
It has some of the best foreshadowing / early story consistency at hinting at story beats or facts that come up later. Rereading the manga over again really makes you realize that so much was already there you just didn't know enough to realize it was. I also love you it feels natural when things are explained to you and they don't feel just exposition. Also, that all characters, even Laios, have prejudices that come from their environment. Reading the spin off story where he and fallin are quite racist about their neighboring ppl was really refreshing. Everyone has blind spots and no one is fully non-prejudiced. Its how you handle having your thoughts challenged that really is the key. I love the play in perspectives and running when you realize things happened in reverse order to your reading.
Speaking of all the talk about special interests, I've had two prominent ones ever since I was a kid: fungi and fairy folklore. The revelation that this show manages to seamlessly COMBINE THEM, I literally started shaking with excitement - this was the deciding video for me, I have GOT to watch Dunmeishi. (also as a real life Mushroom Guy I can confirm your speculation, if mushrooms were also occasionally little dudes who popped out of the ground, I would in fact lose my mind about it every time)
I think it's also worth noting how the character design also plays a part in the world building -- I think there was another video on this by lines in motion(?) but the way Marcille's more fashionable clothes reflect her preference for elven beauty standards informs a lot about her character
Dungeon Meshi really is a master class of worldbuilding. The seamless blending of speculative biology and implicit deep history makes the whole world feel like it _works_ outside of the story, which is something I always appreciate.
what an excellent video on dungeon meshi's attention to detail for those interested in Ryoko Kui's world building sensibilities after this great breakdown of dungeon meshi's worldbuilding by Geoff i highly recommend reading Ryoko Kui's short story anthologies aswell. besides just being fun little reads with great punchlines they also give excellent insight into how she thinks about the worlds she creates aswell as some other things that may help you understand dungeon meshi's characters aswell. my favorite of her short stories is "distant utopia", which is about a group of highschoolers being tasked with making a little story about how bullying is bad using mice and bunny people, but as they think about the underlying causes of the bullying they think up of a whole complex world around these mice and bunnies. another standout one to me is "wolves tell no lies" about a kid born with werewolfism and his relationship with his mom who is basically a famous autism mommy blogger. i really like this one because it shows just how well Ryoko Kui understands neurodivergence and how laios being autistic coded is 100% intentional. and lastly in following rules of thirds i want to talk a little about a short story ryoko kui wrote called "how to be that girl" that's not in one of her anthologies. it follows a short exchange between a detective and his android partner named steve while steve is in the process of putting on a disguise for a mission which involves him removing his "skin" to put on a female "skin" so as to be able to infiltrate someplace. the crux of the story is about the detective's difficulty in processing steve's changes making him no longer seem like himself ultimately for steve to reassure him that no matter what may change that he is still the partner he knew underneath the disguise with the detective internalizing that atleast a little by the end, as it turns out that the detective's worries stemmed from his own difficulty processing his sibling's transition which he now accepts better as he comes to thank her for borrowing her clothes for steve's disguise. i like this story showing Ryoko Kui having an understanding and acceptance herself of lgbtq+ people and how that also informs many people's reading on the nature of falin and marcille's relationship (not to mention the other canonical gay characters like otta in dungeon meshi) I could gush a lot more about all the other various short stories but then this comment would be even longer than it already is and i want to leave all the other short stories to be read on you the comment reader's own terms if my gushing has peaked your interest in them
[HEAVY SPOILER WARNING FOR LITERALLY ALL THE MANGA] Its so hard wanting to talk about the worldbuilding of this story when most people dont know about my favourite part of it yet, the Demon. As a character the Demon is up there with my favourite anime villains of all time (why wouldn't an evil version of Robin William's genie be amazing) through its charisma and terror, with the image of the goat appearing over Mithrun's bed in his flashback is a legitimate jumpscare. But going into it's place in the greater world makes you feel almost bad for it, and infinite being trapped in a finite world. It makes sense why it would be so ravenous for human desires, they are one of the only things in this world that are truly infinite, no matter what someone has, theyll never be completely satisfied. But on the flipside, the state the Deomn leaves it's victims in once it has consumed their desires is horrifying. What's worse is that most of it's victims still long for it, not being able to replace the "love" they feel the Demon gave them. Even Mithrun is obsessed with it, despite processing the yearning as one of hate and revenge instead of one of love. The Demon is a lot of things to a lot of people. To the Dungeon Lord, it is a source of infinite power and the most trustworthy of companions. To it's victims it resembles an abusive contact that you've cut out of your life, but are still scarred by, needing the help and compassion of others to overcome. To the worldbuilding of the story it is an interesting possible explanation to why things are the way they are in the setting (with it being heavily implied that the difference in lifespan between races is a result of a wish granted by the demon). And to the themes of the overall story, it provides an infinitely hungry force that will eat and eat and never be full, opposing the series' ideas of sustainability and healthy eating habits. In short, cannot wait for the Demon to be animated in season 2, and I hope people can enjoy the interesting ideas the Demon provides to both the story and the worldbuilding, and not just post thirst-filled screenshots on Twitter (however tempting that may be to some people 😅).
The Demon is so horribly sinister with how it effortlessly weaves together truths and lies, and will, with no hesitation, drag up its victims' worst impulses, fears, and traumas to break them down. When Marcille has been tricked into becoming the Demon Lord, he outfits her in her mother's funeral dress, the one that she wore at Marcille's father's funeral when she gave the speech that Marcille would have to accept that all of the people around her are going to die one day.
Yeah, season 2 is gonna be soooo wild once we get introduced to the Demon. I love love love how even the seemingly simple, harmless, fight-a-new-monster-that-leads-to-a-new-meal episodic adventures in the first half of the anime are literally all just an elaborate setup for the manga's bigger, overall themes of the cycle of consumption and hunger and desire and sustainability.
hpnestly if youre looking for worldbuilding that you can really chew on, adventure time has some of the craziest long term worldbuilding ive ever seen especially for a cartoon. Ive never seen a story that has a better grasp on the art of the retcon and how to make it not just not suck, but make it incredible. Not sure if I have every AT lore book, but I have most of them and it still blows me away the amount of work and research that goes into the philosophies and politics of AT while still keeping that consistent tone and remaining extremely funny and charming.
I'm so tempted to get back into AT, I enjoyed it so so much when I was younger, but there's so many episodes😅. No excuse though, I've gotten through really long shounen after all.
All the hints that set up the revalations about the dungeon in the final chapters are there from the first pages: a sure sign that this manga was planned out before it was written and drawn. I love that about a story!
Dungeon Meshi is... A MASTERPIECE, I don't use this term lightly, I mean every letter of it. Everything about it from the overall story, to the worldbuilding, to the characters, to the art is... SUPERBLY made, it may not be for everyone, but even then it isn't a question of flaw, but simply taste. I followed this manga since around chapter 10 I think, maybe 15, it has been years I can't quite remember but it was early... and what a journey it was, I savored every bit of it just as much as the crew savored every meal they had. The end wasn't "emotional" so to speak, but... I cried when it ended because this is a very special story, one that I strongly recommend to anyone. I won't even say to prioritize the manga... because the anime is INCREDIBLE, a true work of art in adapting a story.
I like how the characters are just average people who exist, have interests, and aren’t overpowered. I don’t like the “generic dude who is super over powered” troupe that lots of fantasy anime have. It feels rewarding to see the dungeon Meshi cast win battles and struggle on their adventure
Trigger has done it again. Plus Marcille managed to help me stay fulfilled with elf content this season after Frieren ended. Just in time for the Thicc elves to come.
To me as someone who is working tirelessly to be an author (as I am editing the draft of my book as I speak). Dungeon Meshi's world building and approach to story telling opened up possibilities and question how I approach the ecosystems of my own world. How little details like clothing, city layouts or heck accent and talking patterns all influence and indicate what the world is like. Definitely excited for the next season of this series for sure!
@@hellowendy1029 Added the link under the basic info in my profile (so I don't flood this comment section with links as I don't imagine people would like that too much)
I just love the attention to detail in the info we get about magic, with the flash back to magic school and Marcel's talks about forbidden magic, With how it pertains to spirits and uses physical means like blood, meat, plants, etc to channel it. Like how Marcel mentioned she grew her staff over a long period of time, wile falin uses a lamp like staff, showing the difference between the longer lived races along with the magic systems and methods at the same time.
Another banger, Jeff. DiD is one of the freshest takes on the fantasy genre I've seen in years, no pun intended. (Maybe a lil) I'm an older fan (43), and Record of Lodoss War was one of my first experiences with anime at all. This show makes my heart soar the same way Lodoss did all those years ago. Love you, love the community, best wishes to all.
One of the many things I love about this show is that it is fixated on the same weird, niche details of world building that I also find fascinating. I can't remember the last time I watched an anime that I vibed with as much as this one
It's so weird to say but dunmeshi has some of the most well written fantasy racism ever. Some of it is so subtle, like how most elves view short lived races as essentially children and treat them as such. Or Marcille openly accusing the orcs of being violent for violence sake. It's a reflection of the world and how each character has lived their lives up until the story begins. What I really love is how the character slowly overcome their biases as the story goes on. By the end, racism certainly isn't over, but there's at least some progression.
@@animeotaku307 yeah, it's so cool to see one of your favorite UA-camrs in a show you really like. ProZD voices Senshi in the English Dub if you didn't know.
@@BurneraccountXD69 No wonder. I had this vague feeling of familiarity. Good for him!
3 місяці тому+6
8:05 as a bug nerd myself and a Biology and Ecology student, this anime explored so many different dreams and fantasies in an exceptionally delicious way
I think I speak for countless people when I say I would play a game set in the world, or in a world like, Dungeon Meshi, with all the races and monsters. I'm thinking a rogue-lite, multiplayer optional. Something like Hades or CotL where you venture into the dungeon or dungeons that constantly change mixed with the character customization of Baldur's Gate 3, the goal is to get to the end or as much treasure as you can, with checkpoints to serve as food breaks to cook up what you hunted, gathered, or brought from the surface. Your player character and party members are fully customizable; you can swap out your party like decks of cards. My main would be an Oni ranger, he'd have a blunderbuss (picture a caravan shotgun from Fallout New Vegas with octagonal barrels, also the shells are hollowed-out bamboo), a big one-handed axe, a black and orange striped tunic in place of tiger pelt, and a dog named Onigiri (he has a horn; picture a black-brown-white shiba with a singular oni horn).
I really love laios,he very relatable,as a neurodivergent person myself,i understand and feel emotionally connected to what happened to laios and how you feel like you don't belong,the little things we learn about his life,hit to close to home to me
My personal favorite was how the explained resurection magic needing animal sacrifice in order to replace the flesh of the deceased and what implications that might have for those resurrected with the flesh of monsters/magical creatures.
I really like the character design, I've heard from other UA-camrs how Ryouko Kui has like tons of character design templates and even played with the characters as different races and no 2 characters ever look the same.
One minor, semi-defence of Brian Herbert: He was not an incompetent pulp horror writer, and his role as his father's literary executor initially stemmed from the bitter falling out between Frank and his eldest son, a gay rights activist who Brian himself considered the better choice but was sidelined by their homophobic sister and brother-in-law after Frank's death. In any case, thank you for reminding me to read and watch Dungeon Meshi. Really love what I've seen and read of this story.
I've never felt safer than when Senshi told the gang you can feement slimes in little mesh presses, put the slime in his backpack, and thinking "theyre gonna eat that slime one day"
oooo thank you thank you thank you for interweaving manga extras into the video, especially for the anime-onlys its amazing how much more in depth they go into the world, i kinda hope trigger makes an OVA for them
I’m actually really glad that you pointed out how Kabru has the same amount of special interest as Laios, but in humans instead. I am not the biggest fan of Laios bc I am kinda jealous by how he’s just, so unmasked all the time, but I really do like Kabru a lot I am an autistic person and I can really see how both characters fit on the spectrum
This anime is ridiculously good. When they put holy water in a jar attached to a rope to make a holy water mace to take out ghosts because holy water alone just passed through them, which THEN made a sherbet of the holy water, blew my brain completely out of my head. I knew I was hooked at that point.
I respect the absolute hell out of you Geoff from bringing up the dragons of Pern and how they chew firestone. Legit my favorite book series ever and love when people show it the respect it deserves.
There's something about the world building that reminds me of Discworld. Equal parts absurd and realistic, with a healthy understanding of human imperfection and biases
Something I love is that while we follow our party of Dingus's and see them succeeding, we also get to follow more serious parties from time to time and see how their outlooks can make them fail. At the same time, we also get an idea of what the greater world around them thinks of our party of goofballs. Like the fact that Fallin and Laios are fairly well known in the community but not necessarily well respected. We see that they are kind but get taken advantage of. We see, much like you mentioned in the video, how Chalchuck is viewed by the younger generation of half foots. How Marcille is perceived as a bonafide genius in her field by many but an abominable traitor to the magic arts by others. The fact that we follow other people ironically lets us get to know our part even better.
"And the King Look dejected".. " Meals are the privilege of the living, to eat is to live" this story fun wild ride, hopefully there arent any Netflix shenanigans. S2 would be dope.
Dungeon Meshi hit a particular itch that has previously only been met by Discworld and I love it so much for that. I love how much thought was put into the history of the world, as well as the implications of some of Kui’s world building. I especially love how “human” isn’t synonymous with the tallmen, and that elves, dwarves, halffoots, etc are all “human”. I’d love to see you do a similar world building dive for either Discworld or the Witcher universe!
This video helped me with some of my own world building, especially the comments on micro-worldbuilding. I am trying to build a urban fantasy world but honestly i just need to focus on the town where everything takes place! Plus DnD is so good thank you for covering it.
I think one of the things i love most about this series is the fact that every character feels like they're in the dungeon or doing whst they do for their own reason. We get a sense of each character's feelings towards situations. Who they are and what they are looking for. And it just feels like even with minimal screentime, we get so much good info on each character. Like the group we see die over and over are new to the whole thing and they struggle through the floors. The more veteran group led by the gnome are all in it for money or wisdom. And the more you learn the more you want to know about the other adventurers in the dungeon. Cause the eco system is so well made it even takes the characters into account❤ love this show and i need to read the manga
It could be recency bias, but I think delicious in dungeon is in my top favourite shows. I spoke about loving the natural flow of how they give exposition for the world building with my friends. The whole world feels loved in with characters coming from different backgrounds, each having their own culture. The characters also have personalities and habits that fit their roles in the party, but aren’t fixed to them. They were given room to show when they branch out when the situation called for it, not just when the story called for character growth. Absolutely loved this first season and I can’t wait to see the second season. You know the world story is good when you’re left thinking “I can’t wait to see how this plays out (the future of the story), and learn more about this world (the past of the story)”, rather than just “I want to see more” with no clear points to focus and look forward to
One of my favorite new anime. More writers should take notes from this series because of its world building. The characters are fun and feel like believable people. The world feels full. And I love it
great video sir! :) One thing I thought was particularly good about the worldbuilding was how the different race's notions and preconceptions on the others varies depending on where those people lived. I think it didn't make it into the adaptation, but one of the things that makes Chilchuck think maybe Senshi wasn't from the surface after they're done with the hippogriff is the fact that Senshi treats him like a child, which he says he'd expect from dwarves coming from places without half-foots like the eastern land Shiro and Izutsumi come from, but not from someone who's been living on the island since they would have met other half-foots and thus know they're a different race. Frieren's soundtrack in the background was a very nice touch, even if it meant I had to keep going back to rewatch the part with Knife to the Throat over and over again since the song kept distracting me because it's *SO DARN GOOD* I couldn't pay proper attention to what you were saying lol. Zoltraak is amazing, but Knife to the Throat is where it's at.
That part with Chilchuck is brought up during the Senshi backstory two episode arc near the end of Season 1. He does say that in the anime when he lists out his suspicions about Senshi.
This is how I realized the writing in this was stellar. The whole initial premise was based on the ability to ressurect adventurers. At first I thought this was going to be treated as a trivial thing, almost a video game mechanic. But later the gnome explains it's becaust of a curse that keeps the souls inside the bodies that die in the dungeon. Not only was this a good explanation. It was interesting and foreshadowed that there are intentions behind the dungeon's existence. But more importantly, it showed the restraint in the writing. They could have explained this in episode 1, and show off both that there is an explanation and that it's pretty cool. But there was no reason to do it that early.
My guy casually snuck some of the best Frieren soundtracks in there and thought we wouldn't notice, but we did Excellent homage to the fact that we're lucky enough to get two of the best fantasy anime ever created in the last year. Good video!
My favorite little detail in this story is the use of the word human. Most fantasy stories use the same approach to dealing with the concept of the word human. The reason it and other words derived from it are so universally used is because humans are the most numerous race and thus are treated as the default. But in DID, the group of people we'd call humans in Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft or Baldur's Gate, is instead called Tall-men, and the word human is used for everyone. An elf is a human, a dwarf is a human, a half-foot is a human, etc. It means person, making so that its use in terms like demihuman or humanoid doesn't feel like one race being seen as the standard, but comes from a term that describes all of the sentient races. It is such a little, basically insignificant detail, but to me it shows just how much care was put in the world building.
Laios instantly became my favorite MC out of all anime because I kid you not, he IS literally me. His reactions and actions throughout the anime is EXACTLY how I'd react to seeing various monsters and their biology.
Genuinely has me wondering how on earth a manga writer could have such in-depth knowledge of cooking, biology, mythology, etc. it’s amazing and I wish I could reach that level of writing
Read encyclopedias about subjects you like and implement your knowledge into worldbuilding, “A writer tells you about their world, a good writer tells you what they know about ours.”
What i hope for Dungeon Meshi, that they could bring out a spin off / side anime about the Worldbuilding. Just like the Slime Diaries with Rimuru and the Charaters and the city life.
8:11 This so true in Dunmesh world, in one of the extra manga, I don't remember who said it but I think it's Laios said to his party that Treasure Bugs actually valued with the prize as much as a rare treasure by some collectors, knowing this, Chil & Marcille starts freaking out why Laios didn't told them sooner.
I mainlined DunMeshi at the beginning of the year and so far, the only series that's given me a similar high is Undead Unluck which was in significant part because it was brought up on this channel for the way Disney failed it! I'd love to see a video about Undead Unluck to help give it the boost it deserves. Both it and DunMeshi have such incredibly fun magic systems and world building that actually feels planned from the beginning, not many series are doing it like they are!
I gotta be real I showed up to the dub, wife in tow, purely because of Sungwon Cho, and I cannot be more glad that I did. My wife being on the spectrum, she has at worst, tolerated some episodes, but by the time we got to the latter half of what's on Netflix thus far, she's figured out that while she does not share Laios' special interest, she gets him. She's also had a lot of good laughs, so that's another point in its favor. I was really worried I'd never get her to enjoy anything with me after we tried both types of Bebop and she was not enamored with either. (worse, I think she liked the live action more....) Thank Dende she's been taken with live action One Piece. That one could have gone either way, with her.
One thing I love is when a writer isn't afraid to have the exposition their characters give be *wrong*. It sounds weird but like people probably wouldn't fully understand things like magic or supernatural creatures to their full extent. People make mistakes and assumptions all the time. So it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to present something like a magic system with full knowledge of every little detail about how it works, in the same way that if you asked a random person off the street, they wouldn't be able to tell you every facet about how physics works beyond a few basic facets of it. So when there are details based in misconceptions like Halffoots calling Tallmen Trolls or people assuming Living Armor is magical instead of biological, I love those kinds of things
If you like that sort of thing, Bleach has it in spades. The first lore dump given by Rukia is full of holes because, as we learn later, she’s kind of a dumbass
Big thanks to Naraka: Bladepoint for sponsoring! Download the game and prove your skills: gsght.com/c/o8s3pe
*fistbump for the Pern reference* Ah, one of the Old Ones such as I. I salute you.
Japanese Dungeon Meshi manga or Korean Dungeon Smashy manhwa ???
Can you check out some old Isekai like "MäR Heaven" ?
This channel is ripping off your videos, fyi
ua-cam.com/users/shortsrkG_SjI66zo?si=OJbKgHwUT6G3wAwJ
I actually liked your comment at 7:00 . It is making me consider a lot on some concept I wanted to do. Thanks for that.
Laios being the classic *Male Human Warrior* , the most basic of RPG archetypes, and at the same time being the strangest and most bizarre of the group never ceases to be funny
Tall Human
tallman
He's not weird at all, he's just a foodie!
Troll Human
@@jadedragon216 He's not a foodie, he's obsessed with monsters, eating them is just a side effect of that. Senshi is the foodie.
I studied ecology in college and I work at a science museum. The moment I knew I'd love this series was when I was reading the manga and saw the life cycle of a slime in a little extra, tucked away at the end of a volume. It's got a multi-stage parasitic relationship that I recognized from some species of snails. Kui didn't just take a glance over the basic concepts of a food chain, she dug deep and threw enthusiasm into the stuff that isn't glamorous, and I was freaking out and texting old classmates about it.
Yes! This!
Now I'm doubly convinced that I must read the manga. Thanks for the extra nudge!
@@SheliakDragon Also read "The Adventurer's Bible", a sort of guidebook for the series created by Kui towards the end of the series. It contains some spoilers for things that happen between chapters 30 and 70, but it layers on the worldbuilding even more by focusing on the actual "human" characters and their goings on rather than just the dungeon/monsters.
I love this sort of stuff.
Whoa! That's awesome!! !
When they explained that living armor is actually a colony of mollusks, I knew we were in for something special.
Can you imagine of that existed i real life it make someone cautious when going swimming at the beach or diving itll suck to get stab out of nowehere by one of these things
It’s so genius I’m mad I didn’t come up with it first.
"Ah, yes. After the war was ended, they threw all their "Scary Armors" into the sea. Them sea critters went FREE REAL ESTATE in that right away!"
And that's why you fish on a boat.
"And You would have heard me if you didn't just laugh and walk away! You're that tall cause you ain't a baby, right??"
...what a mean Halfling.
They're Hunters from Halo!
@@seeranos I'm pretty sure the Lekgolo, the species of simple worms that create hive mind colonies, were not mollusks. Their whole thing was that they are a hive mind large enough to inhabit the equipment of two hunters. They go insane when their nest mate perishes.
Lot of cool ecology in the halo world building books.
My favorite DunMeshi lore tidbit is that being on the chunkier side is actually a sign of a very skilled adventurer in the Dungeon. They explain this being the case because when you die in the Dungeon, Resurectors use alot of the calories in your body to Revive you. The Manga also explain that this is why Kabru is so skinny haha. The Living armor was the first sign that this was gonna be something quite special when I first read it, but the intricacies of Ressurection magic was the thing that sealed the deal for me.
oh yeah the specifics of resurrection magic was great because upon seeing that the initial premise was "we need to save Falin before she gets digested" while they also mention past deaths just made me go "okay so why is her case a race against time" & the series answers that beautifully with the fact that part of how it's even possible is the way the dungeon's mana is set up & that they still need the physical body
ah yes, dying a lot makes you twinkier
@@Triforce_of_Doomyeah when I watched it I was kinda confused, but when they talked about the corpse collectors I was able to figure it out myself without them telling me “we need to find falin because we can’t resurrect her without her body”
Ryoko Kui is the true heir to Terry Pratchett's genius- a comedic fantasy that's secretly full of thoughtful world building informed by research, interests and experiences.
Then when you least expect it you're hit with philosophical pondering that changes your whole life and characters you would literally die for.
"It's ready........."
Just like pratchett would have liked
Oooooo!!!!! OK, I'm watching it 🤩🤩🤩🤩 thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!
You're onto something here.
So much of this
A look at the mindset of the elves is Kabru. He's a goofy little guy but when push comes to shove he will end you. The elves didn't teach him how to fight, they taught him how to kill. And when he did he did so with no hesitation and pinpoint precision. I like that little murder twink.
I also think it’s interesting how both Laios and Kabru are very good at killing the things that interest them (monsters and people respectively), it shows how being successful in combat heavily depends on reading the opponent.
The elves strike me as the Gohan of races- they really don't like fighting. So when they need to, they don't waste any time, they make sure its over as quickly as possible.
@@zoro115-s6bWould make sense for the canonically frailest race to focus on killing things swiftly. They can't afford to depend on armor like the dwarves (which is why dwarves are better)
Well they taught him how to kill humans. They didn't do shit for him with monsters.
@@rosenrot234Which is kinda funny since his elf mom who trained him was vice commander of the Canaries, whose job description is to fight monsters, not people.
A piece of world building that I adored was Marcille’s hair. Her varied hairstyles emphasized the importance of hair care to magic even before we learned about it directly. It also showed how much Marcille wants to connect with her elven ancestry, especially in the face of only being half elf and thus seen as not enough of an elf. It was also kind of a clever way to indicate the passage of time, if her hair is different chances are it’s a new day. This is especially helpful for days that are divided amongst multiple episodes!
Tbh I never thought of that changing hair ~ new day
I just assume from episode 9 which Namari said it has been a week, and estimate the time from there
Fun fact: none of the elves really have complex hairstyles like Marcille with multiple braids, bows, and ponytails! But because we don't meet them until way later, we think "oh I guess this is how elves style their hair".... Marcille has no clue what elf culture is like, even though she's trying her hardest to pass for a full elf.
I love how much effort Ryoko Kui puts into the characters attire! No character just wears something because it looks cool, but rather it always tells you something about their job, their personality, their history, biological needs, and what they value. Its so intentional and adds such an amazing low level constant hum of world and character building
Manga spoilers technically///
I love how Laois’ armor neckpiece was only bought by him because of the rumors of the dungeon rabbits.
The utility of clothing also works as setup for what is potentially the best punchline in Dunmeshi: Namari and leg pouches (which probably won't ever come up in the anime, so anime viewers can safely google this one if they want lol)
@@PurplesttCoffee
Kiki telling Namari that she heard that she likes “long legs” and Namari immediately becoming flustered is adorable.
WHAAAAT THAT'S SO COOL!!!!!!!!! I'M TOTALLY GONNA WATCH THIS NOW! I love stuff like that!!!!!!!!
The ninja babes and Tade are a sad exception to this good character design
I think one aspect of the party dynamic that often gets forgotten is that Marcille is as fascinated with dungeons as Laios is. The difference is that whereas Laios is primarily interested in the monsters that occupy dungeons, Marcille is fascinated by the mechanics of dungeons. She knows everything there is to know about the flow of magic within dungeons and their structures, as well as the basics of their ecosystems (though in this area her knowledge is extremely limited, since as the video noted most people outside the dungeon don't see monsters as anything other than a problem to be solved as part of dungeon exploration).
Like she wasn't just studying dungeons as part of her broader fixation on magic; we see in flashbacks that she was actually creating her own mini-dungeons in secret. The fact that she shared these very private projects with Falin is part of how the show demonstrates how close they were.
I think this aspect of her character is important to acknowledge because without it, a lot of her later actions appear to make no sense. I think her understanding of these systems, and of some of the darker mechanics behind them, also helps to explain her exaggerated aversion to eating monster flesh (beyond the inherent squick factor, which other characters--even those who are also written as being somewhat prissy--get over much faster).
It also helps to explain her frustration with Laios and the others treating her as useless. Prior to her arrival in the dungeon, Marcille was basically the only person she knew with anything even approaching practical knowledge of dungeon systems. Again, she'd built model dungeons! Nobody else did shit like that! And so she had reason to expect to be a highly valuable member of the team. But Laios and Falin were doing goldstripping runs for years before Marcille caught up with them, and Senshi has been living down there for, like... Basically his entire life? So of course they have practical knowledge and experience that Marcille doesn't have, even after having gone on several delves with their old team, but because Marcille's entire sense of self-worth is tied up in her special interest for reasons I don't think have been touched on yet in the anime (but which I think are also a great example of the setting's worldbuilding), it is extremely difficult for her to accept that. So early on Marcille needs to learn to mesh that practical knowledge with her own highly theoretical knowledge.
Anyway, er. Thanks for reading; sorry for the long-ass comment.
i love your long-ass comment, chef kissed
this is a great point, i think its really cool how the party 'roles' are more than the starting equipment they chose or the fighting style they prefer. the roles are treated akin to degrees/professions and are reflected not only in how they approach challenges but in how the knowledge they aquired informs their decision making and character. its nothing groundbreaking but its done so well. everyone in real life is a nerd about something and uniquely talented, and the story it really reflects how each person is valuable, be it to the group or the objective they are pursuing. no one is left behind in this and most characters get their moment to showcase why knowing what they know or doing what they do is important. it puts such value on how being people with diverse interests is of value, to me its one of the core messages of the first half of the story that gets very overlooked.
she's a theory nerd and not a practical nerd!! she has a lot of knowledge about the subject but when it comes to the actual physical reality, her knowledge is less applicable in the day-to-day. it's certainly an invaluable resource that's incredibly important, but like you said, she expected her knowledge to be more helpful in the dungeon than it actually was
The first season left me hungry for more because us anime fans are starving for non-isekai fantasy
Edit: Guys I just wanted to make eating puns
True, and Isekai gets dumber and dumber as well. Frieren and the last season of Goblin slayer was really good though so there are other regular fantasy shows out there worth watching still. :)
the irony is something along the lines of dungeon meshi WOULD be perfect for an isekai, give me a protagonist whos genuinly fascinated and mesmerized by all the little things the natives take fro granted
7th Prince?…
We were spoiled having this and Freiren at the same time. Though you should definitely check out Witch Hat Atelier when its anime adaptation comes out.
Also in Delicious In Dungeon/Dungeon Meshi there's no useless or pointless perv characters
I'm a big fan of how Ryoko Kui renames Humans into "Tallmen". Fantasy and science fiction has a problem of making humanity the default in their settings. Turning humans into the standard from which all other races are compared to. By making "human" into a classification that encompasses races like elves, dwarves, gnomes and ogres, it really highlights that people like Laois and the other Tallmen are just another aspect of the world, not better or worse than the other races.
"Despite their size tallmen are actually weak compared to races like dwarves" felt like a really cool line, like it's a common misconception in their world that Tallmen must be stronger because of our size.
@@jamesburrows3602 yeah it really makes them seem more "balanced" overall. The main "advantage" of tallmen (aside from being, well, tall) is that they have higher stamina than the other races, thus allowing them to wear heavy armor for long periods of time without getting as tired.
Man I’m going to miss Dungeon Meshi Thursdays. It was always such a bright spot to sit down with my wife and watch this show together when we were having a rough week. Absolutely cannot wait for when we can do that again.
Thankfully season 2 already been confirmed 😂
It'll be back! Albeit probably not for a few seasons.
@@ConvincingPeople I'm hoping for Fall 2025. I'd wish it were sooner but I'm keeping my expectations realistic.
I’m gonna miss it too😭 I’d watch it with my brother and bf, I’d excitedly text “it’s dungeon Meshi Thursday!!” And I loved texting my friend about the new episode too
Same! I'm hoping to find a replacement watch with my wife before her interest in anime dies back down.
According to supplemental material, dark elves don’t exist and it’s actually an assumption of Tallmen who wondered why some elves are hostile.
Really need to watch this one. I saw a post that read “Marcille X male reader headcanons” and the only one was “she leaves you for a woman”. Peak anime.
LOL thats great because she is 100% a lesbian
Just "a woman"? Fake news, we all know there's only one woman in her heart
@@christiancasaverdepertica1802 not for long.
Relatively speaking.
For your sister, specifically, would be most accurate
she scolds you for cooking pasta wrong before she leaves
I thought the Living Armor being a colony of mollusks was the most inventive thing I'd ever seen. Fun fact: apparently, Marcille has 38 hairstyles over the course of the first 24 episodes.
I would love to see you look at Apothecary Diaries' worldbuilding. Although that might not be so difficult because it's a fictionalized version of medieval China to avoid pissing off the Chinese Government.
Honestly curious if those 38 hairstyles includes those of the shapeshifter Marcilles that are encountered
Because it's basically what?! D:
@@himesilva It's basically medieval China in everything but name to avoid pissing off the Chinese Government.
@@samfisher6606 it is called a fictional dynastic Setting that's common east Asian fiction 架空王朝-架空朝代 also, stop being overly politicized it
It's not fictionalized to avoid pissing off the Chinese government; Japan writes stuff about Imperial China all the time.
Another aspect of the show that I really love is their character designs. Every group of individuals you meet no matter how brief has such a distinctive and memorable designs. There are no generic or hair color palette swap characters. The creativity of this show is something else.
Body shape diversity too. Not that generic slim/athletic build slop we often see in other Anime. They have their reasons to make them all like that, but still
This show made me use my Netflix subscription for the first time in ages.
I'm so glad it was weekly release too, hearing reactions to each episode is a treat, especially when the source material has enough substance to warrant that continued attention
It's what finally got me to get my own Netflix subscription
For me it was Squid Game that made me use my Netflix subscription for the first time in 2 years back in 2021. Since then I've been looking for shows on that platform that interest me and that I've heard a lot of great things about. Even today I am looking forward to a new season of a show I like and a new show that looks promising.
It was the reason I subsribed to Netflix at all.
"... Where the mushrooms are fun (little) guys..." That was a good one
I also appreciated that.
You know, 'fungi' is pronounced as 'fun guy'.
I did not expect Frank Herbert's son to be dragged by the scalp to Evan Call's music in a Delicious in Dungeon worldbuilding video essay. I am not mad about it since Mr.Basement-kun was spitting facts
The only thing missing was calling out Kevin J. Anderson for the part he played in the whole thing.
Edit: Kevin J, not Kevin T. Shows how much of that train wreck I've retained.
@@Brasswatchman At least Kevin J anderson writes his own books about a zombie detective and wrote some of the best EU star wars books.
@@TheColMustang2 His EU Star Wars books weren't bad from what I remember, it's true. But I suspect he did the vast share of the actual writing on the project, and I don't think his style meshed well with Frank Herbert's world from the very start. He should've recognized that, even if he did need to eat.
KJA is a horrid writer, and the callout of Dune was when I hit the thumbs up on the video.
lol
Where do I even begin...I as a biologist who often daydreams about the anatomy of fantasy animals genuinely teared up a bit about the sheer effort that's put in to reasonably explain the monsters and their behavior rather than relying " magic, evil wizards, old spells, ancient evils". Mixing mythology and biology together and making this bloody well it work is hard.
Also the characters, especially main party are just so realistic, we all probably know someone like them or are like them ourselves. Despite the fantastical elements the core of what they are never seems too distant. Be it a divorced, middle-aged dude who's tired of life, a turbo autist with encyclopedia level knowledge, book smart girl who lacks any real wotld knowledge about practical application, moody teenager who doesn't what what she wants in life or soneone who's finally found his "tribe" after suffering through loneliness
Ryoko Kui might just be to fantasy and dungeon ecology and biology what Tolkien is to fantasy history and linguistics (and the genre overall ofc). Delicious in Dungeon is a genius fantasy story, definitely deserving of a podium among legends of the genre like Tolkien. And the character interactions and relations are something to be studied in classic literature university modules. She really went all out.
Its impressive, but I'm not yet convinced we should canonize Kui among the legends like Tolkien...
iirc the creator has said in an interview that lotr is one of her inspirations for dm :D
@@entidade_000 Mostly he would be disappointed. He was a devout catholic, and really wanted stories to bend towards hope and the hierarchy of the universe.
That's how he felt about Dune. Disappointed at its cynicism and seeming atheistic character. He would however, probably see a lot of the charm of the Shire in Delicious Dungeon.
Were he here, I think he would be overall proud to have contributed such a dear entry into the tradition of fantasy. Maybe also proud that so many were inspired by his work and then went on to produce works of their own. I think.
@@Moe_Posting_Chad I think Delicious in Dungeon has a good amount the theme of hope in it. The gang was literally going to fight a dragon for the slight hope that Falin's body wouldn't be completely destroyed the time they get there.
It's honestly why this series feels so refreshing. There's so much positiveness, so much hope, so much companionship. Even after the darkest moments.
About 10 years ago I had a player who would cook almost anything they killed, from giant slugs to goblins. The the other characters had some issues with his meals, so he just started lying about what/who was in his food.
They even had huge tents make of cured Giant Slug-skins.
*I wanted to milk the minotuar too. YOU HAVE NO IDEA MAN!*
you were playing with laios before laios even existed
The prophecy
I am interested in his take about Anime. Hope he likes it
Delicious in Dungeon was honestly a very big surprise for me. I never expected it to be this good.
At the beginning of the anime, I was saying, 'Okay, this is a fun anime,' but with time the anime started to become more deeper and darker, especially with episode 11. One of the things I like most about Delicious in Dungeon, other than the great world building, is the characters writing. Almost all of the characters are really well written, I swear even some of the side characters were written even better than our main characters, like Falin and Kabru. I don't think I need to mention other positive things like the amazing production, the comedy, world and monsters design, because they are so obvious.
In general, I personally consider Delicious in Dungeon the greatest new anime released in 2024 so far, and my rating for it is 9/10.
i started watching it because i was bored and i had seen some stuff about it on tumblr. didn't know anything about it, but was curious. i was hooked by episode 3! the worldbuilding is just so good, its feels like a real place and its explained in story in a believable way! the characters are so charming, i became invested in saving falin purely on how determined the characters were to save her! its just is so good at what it does, its amazing! and the cooking/food gimmick is a true delight! i love the show very much
What I love most about Dungeon Meshi (In addition to the incredible worldbuilding, food porn, characters etc..) is how scrappy the party is. Nobody has op powers, they have to fight for every scrap of food and power they can get and as a result every encounter with a monster feels harrowing and awesome. In a world where every other isekai is trying to out cool each other with their paint by numbers protagonists, here's a batch of weirdos all just trying to get Laios' sister back using whatever they can find and use along the way.
It's remarkably refreshing to have a story where the progatonists are actually underdogs as opposed to stories bending over backwards trying to make their op protagonists hated by the world or called weak for arbitrary reasons to force drama.
yes! their power is literally knowledge and a willingness (and desire) to cook and eat monsters. Its why, despite not actually being the richest, smartest, or most powerful group, they end up making it farther down into the dungeon than anyone ever has. Respect and understanding of the ecology of the dungeon outranks any basic RPG skills which is such a fascinating turn to bring to a dungeon crawl story
One might argue that Laios' autism is a special power lol
Ah, a fellow frieren sceptic ❤
To be fair, they all are a top of their leagues: Laios is a very good leader and has encyclopedic knowledge of monsters (plus he's ripped), Farlin is a protege healer, Chilchuck is literally the biggest halfling in town due to him being head of the union, Marcile is a professional (even if very much by the book) mage with specialization in dark magic, Senshi has been underground for a couple of decades, Toshiro is a noble specifically trained in fighting and Namari is a daughter of (disgraced) weapons dealer and weaponhead herself.
Thing is, they ARE op. Just by more technically achievable by regular person standarts.
What do you mean you don't want another fantasy where the MC has a cheat skill that breaks all the conventions of his setting?
Something I really love about Dungeon Meshi that we'll more-so get into in Season 2 is the way in-which it's focus on food is not only retained as it gets into it's larger narrative, but becomes thematically central to it. Fantasy stories often have a thematic backbone that's something fundamental, like fire in Dark Souls, and I'm always impressed at how Dungeon Meshi tricks you into not realizing it's doing the same thing.
Just such a great transition from "I love fantasy cooking, this is so much fun!" to "Eating is the central impulse which unites and divides all peoples, creatures, and ecosystems. To eat is to live, and meals are the special privilege of the living."
Dungeon Meshi is probably one of the best fantasy anime of all time.
Take this from to someone who watch too many fantasy to isekai anime. It actually very refreshing from the characters design to world building. They could've only focus this only at the food and cooking aspect like the Campire Cooking in a Another World, or any anime that focuses on food etc, but instead the author manage tell a story with the creatures and the whole ecosystem in the dungeon through food. That is very impressive.
The character design is super refreshing. Everyone looks so diverse and has different body types. Makes it much more immersive.
If it wasnt for Frieren I'd definitely call it THE fantasy anime
This and Frieren are the best fanstay anime they both rise the bar
EASILY one of the best anime adaptations of all time. Instantly as good as FMA - Brotherhood. That kind of praise is reserved for the actually universally beloved titles. *The land of Kings.*
Terrible take. Frieren could not possibly be more generic, uninspired, insipid, pandering, paint by numbers insult! The autizum elf is such a fucking meme, it really is the epitome of socially maladjusted anime consumers. That was their target demographic and they will be talking about Frieren and Lucky Star until the day they die. And nobody but more of them will listen.
The moment I fell in love with the series was when they acknowledge that the difference between extraction methods for a mandrake affects the end result. Giving Marcille some credit, even after the risk she put herself, was a very nice surprise.
I have been ranting at everyone i know to read Dungeon Meshi for 3 years ever since I first read it. The world building and attention to detail show so much love put into this work.
Now that season 1 is over, I gotta read because the spoilers are now on a ticking countdown. I don't wanna get spoiled! It would be a waste of good food.
In Episode 4 it clicked for me.
When Senshi talked about the Golems for Farming and the Ecosystem, preventing stronger monsters to come up for the lower depths.
And as a german i found it incedible funny, when Sensi was later extremly focused on backing bread with sour dough.
German Bread is superior 😆
The Isekai I enjoy more are not the adventure ones but ones that go into the key details of how a world with magic and mythical creatures would behave with rules and structure.
Dungeon here does a great job at explaining how a dungeon can function for thousands of not more than that in a logical way brilliantly
Oh, it goes deeper in the extra materials. There's a short story explaining WHY the dungeon (and in fact all dungeons) end up with that particular ecosystem. Apparently in the beginning Thistle summoned the ultimate monster - "That which ends all" - only to have it dissipate in minutes because it needs to eat the life energy of multiple whales every thirty minutes to sustain itself. So after gradually scaling down his ambitions he just gave up and made a simple self-sistaining ecosystem with weaker monsters up top.
33:45 “It fixates on the same things the characters fixate on.” YES!! This is what I love about this type of writing, it’s a way to build the world and connect with the characters at the same time. One of my favorite moments so far is Chilchuk’s extremely personal hatred of mimics. We get introduced to a new monster in the world and its place in the dungeon ecosystem, while also understanding more of Chil’s backstory and past experiences as an adventurer.
All of this plus a plot as tight as fma makes dungeon meshi easily one of the best ever written. Flawless execution. I am so, so happy the anime adaption is as excellent as it is.
Check out seirei no moribito if ever! That and fma are my constant fantasy reccs
im always saying this, its the fma of this generation, so goooooood
The crazy part is Dungeon Meshi really only have one big arc. Everything is interconnected from the start to end without a clear gap between arcs.
Two things that I love about this series:
1. Subtle hints about ethnicities for each race. We know there's humans like Laios and humans like Shuro, and it seems like there's some culture clash between them, which plants the idea that every ethnicity of human has their own history and relationship, and since the dungeon attracts people from across the world it lets the reader to wonder about the gaps in what they're seeing. It's something like what _Rings of Power_ was trying to do with a diverse cast, but actually discussing the different nationalities and conflicts therein. On top of that, it does something interesting with the Canaries, to see that there are many ethnicities of elves implies a breadth to the elf nation that the shorter-lived races don't have access to.
2. People love and embrace Laios for his autism. Though of course it's only implied by his... everything, people really seem to like him, and I, for one, love the autistic rep for him being such a fascinating character. -Also the fact that people are going carnally insane about him is a small, indirect boost to the ego-
Without going into spoilers (haven’t finished the vid yet, I dunno if Geoff talks about it) this story ends in the most unexpected yet perfect way possible. Despite being a very low-stakes story (compared to its contemporaries at least) Delicious in Dungeon has what might be THE most fascinating end game I’ve ever seen in an anime.
The fact that Ryoko Kui essentially took the premise of the first Wizardry, went "What if I focused on how you'd cook the monsters inside the Proving Grounds instead of beelining for the Mad Overlord?" and then slowly spun THAT into a compelling fantasy adventure all its own, is nothing less that extraordinary.
Considering the very unsubtle jab in one bonus page at western developers who don't release translations of their games in other languages because "most people know english anyways", it's almost certain that Kui took inspiration from old-school fantasy games
@@andrewcapra7153 I understand that frustration at least a little. So many cool looking RPGs never left Japan in the 90s. One day, I will play Wachenroder!
I also like how the larger scale of things doesn't matter much to the casts, they just want to save Falin
And the main reason they solved all the problems are because they are a inconvenience to the quest of saving Falin
@bachtrinh8783 "The person who slays the mad mage will-" "Don't care, we gotta save Falin" "Long ago, there was a war-" "Don't care" "The demons" "Don't care. Oh hey, we saved the world"
Ryoko Kui is a huge fan of western crpg ( baldur's gate, pathfinder and such) and it shows. Her manga is a love letter to the genre.
It’s a rumor, but apparently she finished the manga some days before the launch of BG3 so she could have time to play it 😅😂
From what I hear she’s a huge Wizardry fan
@@mothersbasement yea somehow wizardry was a big deal in Japan
@@mothersbasement Yeah, it's why her Kobolds are the older dog like version versus the more lizard like that got popular in the West.
I love how all the characters approach the dungeon with their own methodologies. Really immerse you in the story that even the side characters are competent, and the victory isn't won by a protag-kun with an OP cheat skill
laios is actually superbly unfit as a standard main character, he doesnt discover hidden powers, or even improve that much at dungeoneering and fighting, he just starts to figure out his own way to "win" by what his experiences and friends teach him, as well as what he excels at can help them in turn. all things considered, laios and senshi are basically redundant as characters, both are decent fighters who understand monsters and ecology, until the little things they do differently from one another start to stack up... and spoilers so i wont talk about it
the worldbuilding of dungeon meshi is one of the best templates for actually running a pen-and-paper campaign in recent memory. it's concentration on a single location while showing your the wider world through character interaction and other hints, it's focus on how cultures and ecologies actually function, the fact that magic is a thing but is not leaned on to explain everything, and the fact that no one in the party(or most anyone really) is bullshit powerful - all of it is a great set of guidelines for designing your own world for a party to actually explore and experience for themselves. it's so nice to have actual fantasy that's not isekai powergaming ;p
Dungeon Meshi and Frieren reviving the pure fantasy genre. You love to see it
It has some of the best foreshadowing / early story consistency at hinting at story beats or facts that come up later. Rereading the manga over again really makes you realize that so much was already there you just didn't know enough to realize it was. I also love you it feels natural when things are explained to you and they don't feel just exposition. Also, that all characters, even Laios, have prejudices that come from their environment. Reading the spin off story where he and fallin are quite racist about their neighboring ppl was really refreshing. Everyone has blind spots and no one is fully non-prejudiced. Its how you handle having your thoughts challenged that really is the key. I love the play in perspectives and running when you realize things happened in reverse order to your reading.
Speaking of all the talk about special interests, I've had two prominent ones ever since I was a kid: fungi and fairy folklore. The revelation that this show manages to seamlessly COMBINE THEM, I literally started shaking with excitement - this was the deciding video for me, I have GOT to watch Dunmeishi.
(also as a real life Mushroom Guy I can confirm your speculation, if mushrooms were also occasionally little dudes who popped out of the ground, I would in fact lose my mind about it every time)
I think it's also worth noting how the character design also plays a part in the world building -- I think there was another video on this by lines in motion(?) but the way Marcille's more fashionable clothes reflect her preference for elven beauty standards informs a lot about her character
Dungeon Meshi really is a master class of worldbuilding. The seamless blending of speculative biology and implicit deep history makes the whole world feel like it _works_ outside of the story, which is something I always appreciate.
what an excellent video on dungeon meshi's attention to detail
for those interested in Ryoko Kui's world building sensibilities after this great breakdown of dungeon meshi's worldbuilding by Geoff i highly recommend reading Ryoko Kui's short story anthologies aswell. besides just being fun little reads with great punchlines they also give excellent insight into how she thinks about the worlds she creates aswell as some other things that may help you understand dungeon meshi's characters aswell.
my favorite of her short stories is "distant utopia", which is about a group of highschoolers being tasked with making a little story about how bullying is bad using mice and bunny people, but as they think about the underlying causes of the bullying they think up of a whole complex world around these mice and bunnies.
another standout one to me is "wolves tell no lies" about a kid born with werewolfism and his relationship with his mom who is basically a famous autism mommy blogger. i really like this one because it shows just how well Ryoko Kui understands neurodivergence and how laios being autistic coded is 100% intentional.
and lastly in following rules of thirds i want to talk a little about a short story ryoko kui wrote called "how to be that girl" that's not in one of her anthologies. it follows a short exchange between a detective and his android partner named steve while steve is in the process of putting on a disguise for a mission which involves him removing his "skin" to put on a female "skin" so as to be able to infiltrate someplace. the crux of the story is about the detective's difficulty in processing steve's changes making him no longer seem like himself ultimately for steve to reassure him that no matter what may change that he is still the partner he knew underneath the disguise with the detective internalizing that atleast a little by the end, as it turns out that the detective's worries stemmed from his own difficulty processing his sibling's transition which he now accepts better as he comes to thank her for borrowing her clothes for steve's disguise.
i like this story showing Ryoko Kui having an understanding and acceptance herself of lgbtq+ people and how that also informs many people's reading on the nature of falin and marcille's relationship (not to mention the other canonical gay characters like otta in dungeon meshi)
I could gush a lot more about all the other various short stories but then this comment would be even longer than it already is and i want to leave all the other short stories to be read on you the comment reader's own terms if my gushing has peaked your interest in them
[HEAVY SPOILER WARNING FOR LITERALLY ALL THE MANGA]
Its so hard wanting to talk about the worldbuilding of this story when most people dont know about my favourite part of it yet, the Demon.
As a character the Demon is up there with my favourite anime villains of all time (why wouldn't an evil version of Robin William's genie be amazing) through its charisma and terror, with the image of the goat appearing over Mithrun's bed in his flashback is a legitimate jumpscare.
But going into it's place in the greater world makes you feel almost bad for it, and infinite being trapped in a finite world. It makes sense why it would be so ravenous for human desires, they are one of the only things in this world that are truly infinite, no matter what someone has, theyll never be completely satisfied.
But on the flipside, the state the Deomn leaves it's victims in once it has consumed their desires is horrifying. What's worse is that most of it's victims still long for it, not being able to replace the "love" they feel the Demon gave them. Even Mithrun is obsessed with it, despite processing the yearning as one of hate and revenge instead of one of love.
The Demon is a lot of things to a lot of people. To the Dungeon Lord, it is a source of infinite power and the most trustworthy of companions. To it's victims it resembles an abusive contact that you've cut out of your life, but are still scarred by, needing the help and compassion of others to overcome. To the worldbuilding of the story it is an interesting possible explanation to why things are the way they are in the setting (with it being heavily implied that the difference in lifespan between races is a result of a wish granted by the demon). And to the themes of the overall story, it provides an infinitely hungry force that will eat and eat and never be full, opposing the series' ideas of sustainability and healthy eating habits.
In short, cannot wait for the Demon to be animated in season 2, and I hope people can enjoy the interesting ideas the Demon provides to both the story and the worldbuilding, and not just post thirst-filled screenshots on Twitter (however tempting that may be to some people 😅).
I really hope they can capture how feral Laios looks and feels when he starts eating the Demon in s2
The Demon is so horribly sinister with how it effortlessly weaves together truths and lies, and will, with no hesitation, drag up its victims' worst impulses, fears, and traumas to break them down.
When Marcille has been tricked into becoming the Demon Lord, he outfits her in her mother's funeral dress, the one that she wore at Marcille's father's funeral when she gave the speech that Marcille would have to accept that all of the people around her are going to die one day.
I usually see the Demon as a minmaxed version of Kabru
@@bachtrinh8783 Real.
Yeah, season 2 is gonna be soooo wild once we get introduced to the Demon. I love love love how even the seemingly simple, harmless, fight-a-new-monster-that-leads-to-a-new-meal episodic adventures in the first half of the anime are literally all just an elaborate setup for the manga's bigger, overall themes of the cycle of consumption and hunger and desire and sustainability.
The panel you used to underpin "General sense of humility" was genius. Comedy Gold.
hpnestly if youre looking for worldbuilding that you can really chew on, adventure time has some of the craziest long term worldbuilding ive ever seen especially for a cartoon. Ive never seen a story that has a better grasp on the art of the retcon and how to make it not just not suck, but make it incredible. Not sure if I have every AT lore book, but I have most of them and it still blows me away the amount of work and research that goes into the philosophies and politics of AT while still keeping that consistent tone and remaining extremely funny and charming.
I'm so tempted to get back into AT, I enjoyed it so so much when I was younger, but there's so many episodes😅. No excuse though, I've gotten through really long shounen after all.
I just absolutely adore the slice-of-life aspect of this show. It just hooked me in with its basic "what do monsters taste like?" approach to fantasy.
All the hints that set up the revalations about the dungeon in the final chapters are there from the first pages: a sure sign that this manga was planned out before it was written and drawn.
I love that about a story!
Dungeon Meshi is... A MASTERPIECE, I don't use this term lightly, I mean every letter of it.
Everything about it from the overall story, to the worldbuilding, to the characters, to the art is... SUPERBLY made, it may not be for everyone, but even then it isn't a question of flaw, but simply taste.
I followed this manga since around chapter 10 I think, maybe 15, it has been years I can't quite remember but it was early... and what a journey it was, I savored every bit of it just as much as the crew savored every meal they had.
The end wasn't "emotional" so to speak, but... I cried when it ended because this is a very special story, one that I strongly recommend to anyone.
I won't even say to prioritize the manga... because the anime is INCREDIBLE, a true work of art in adapting a story.
I like how the characters are just average people who exist, have interests, and aren’t overpowered. I don’t like the “generic dude who is super over powered” troupe that lots of fantasy anime have. It feels rewarding to see the dungeon Meshi cast win battles and struggle on their adventure
Trigger has done it again. Plus Marcille managed to help me stay fulfilled with elf content this season after Frieren ended. Just in time for the Thicc elves to come.
Wait they are making an anime of that chubby elf manga?!
@@airplanes_aren.t_real Yeah next season in fact. Isn't that great?
To me as someone who is working tirelessly to be an author (as I am editing the draft of my book as I speak). Dungeon Meshi's world building and approach to story telling opened up possibilities and question how I approach the ecosystems of my own world. How little details like clothing, city layouts or heck accent and talking patterns all influence and indicate what the world is like.
Definitely excited for the next season of this series for sure!
Good luck with your book!!
@@hellowendy1029 Thank you! If you're curious about it, I do post updates consistently on discord.
@@RoyJERaiy awesome! I'll check it out!
@@hellowendy1029 Added the link under the basic info in my profile (so I don't flood this comment section with links as I don't imagine people would like that too much)
I just love the attention to detail in the info we get about magic, with the flash back to magic school and Marcel's talks about forbidden magic, With how it pertains to spirits and uses physical means like blood, meat, plants, etc to channel it. Like how Marcel mentioned she grew her staff over a long period of time, wile falin uses a lamp like staff, showing the difference between the longer lived races along with the magic systems and methods at the same time.
Another banger, Jeff. DiD is one of the freshest takes on the fantasy genre I've seen in years, no pun intended. (Maybe a lil) I'm an older fan (43), and Record of Lodoss War was one of my first experiences with anime at all. This show makes my heart soar the same way Lodoss did all those years ago. Love you, love the community, best wishes to all.
One of the many things I love about this show is that it is fixated on the same weird, niche details of world building that I also find fascinating.
I can't remember the last time I watched an anime that I vibed with as much as this one
It's so weird to say but dunmeshi has some of the most well written fantasy racism ever. Some of it is so subtle, like how most elves view short lived races as essentially children and treat them as such. Or Marcille openly accusing the orcs of being violent for violence sake. It's a reflection of the world and how each character has lived their lives up until the story begins. What I really love is how the character slowly overcome their biases as the story goes on. By the end, racism certainly isn't over, but there's at least some progression.
So glad Netflix did a simulcast and simuldub of this, can't wait for season 2!!!
I tend to prefer dubs, so this was appreciated. They got a good cast, too.
@@animeotaku307 yeah, it's so cool to see one of your favorite UA-camrs in a show you really like. ProZD voices Senshi in the English Dub if you didn't know.
@@BurneraccountXD69 No wonder. I had this vague feeling of familiarity. Good for him!
8:05 as a bug nerd myself and a Biology and Ecology student, this anime explored so many different dreams and fantasies in an exceptionally delicious way
As someone with autism, I love and would die for Laios, he's my favorite representation i've ever seen on screen
I think I speak for countless people when I say I would play a game set in the world, or in a world like, Dungeon Meshi, with all the races and monsters. I'm thinking a rogue-lite, multiplayer optional. Something like Hades or CotL where you venture into the dungeon or dungeons that constantly change mixed with the character customization of Baldur's Gate 3, the goal is to get to the end or as much treasure as you can, with checkpoints to serve as food breaks to cook up what you hunted, gathered, or brought from the surface. Your player character and party members are fully customizable; you can swap out your party like decks of cards. My main would be an Oni ranger, he'd have a blunderbuss (picture a caravan shotgun from Fallout New Vegas with octagonal barrels, also the shells are hollowed-out bamboo), a big one-handed axe, a black and orange striped tunic in place of tiger pelt, and a dog named Onigiri (he has a horn; picture a black-brown-white shiba with a singular oni horn).
I really love laios,he very relatable,as a neurodivergent person myself,i understand and feel emotionally connected to what happened to laios and how you feel like you don't belong,the little things we learn about his life,hit to close to home to me
My personal favorite was how the explained resurection magic needing animal sacrifice in order to replace the flesh of the deceased and what implications that might have for those resurrected with the flesh of monsters/magical creatures.
I really like the character design, I've heard from other UA-camrs how Ryouko Kui has like tons of character design templates and even played with the characters as different races and no 2 characters ever look the same.
So happy we are getting a full adaptation of Dungeon Meshi, one of the best anime of this year
Love your in-depth video and explaining the lore of DnD
There's a reasons shows like these get remembered for a long time.
One minor, semi-defence of Brian Herbert: He was not an incompetent pulp horror writer, and his role as his father's literary executor initially stemmed from the bitter falling out between Frank and his eldest son, a gay rights activist who Brian himself considered the better choice but was sidelined by their homophobic sister and brother-in-law after Frank's death.
In any case, thank you for reminding me to read and watch Dungeon Meshi. Really love what I've seen and read of this story.
This has been one of my favorite animes of 2024. It’s so good my wife actually watches it subbed instead of dubbed, and that really surprised me.
I've never felt safer than when Senshi told the gang you can feement slimes in little mesh presses, put the slime in his backpack, and thinking "theyre gonna eat that slime one day"
oooo thank you thank you thank you for interweaving manga extras into the video, especially for the anime-onlys
its amazing how much more in depth they go into the world, i kinda hope trigger makes an OVA for them
I’m actually really glad that you pointed out how Kabru has the same amount of special interest as Laios, but in humans instead. I am not the biggest fan of Laios bc I am kinda jealous by how he’s just, so unmasked all the time, but I really do like Kabru a lot
I am an autistic person and I can really see how both characters fit on the spectrum
This anime is ridiculously good. When they put holy water in a jar attached to a rope to make a holy water mace to take out ghosts because holy water alone just passed through them, which THEN made a sherbet of the holy water, blew my brain completely out of my head. I knew I was hooked at that point.
I respect the absolute hell out of you Geoff from bringing up the dragons of Pern and how they chew firestone. Legit my favorite book series ever and love when people show it the respect it deserves.
I fully believe Delicious in Dungeons world is one of the best fantasy settings of all time, standing on the same level as Middle Earth or Discworld
Finished reading this amazing story literally yesterday, wonderful timing!
I would so love you exploring the world of Mushi-shi!!
After reading Dungeon Meshi I was inspired to make my next DnD character a gnome who's dream was to construct dungeons of his own
There's something about the world building that reminds me of Discworld. Equal parts absurd and realistic, with a healthy understanding of human imperfection and biases
Something I love is that while we follow our party of Dingus's and see them succeeding, we also get to follow more serious parties from time to time and see how their outlooks can make them fail. At the same time, we also get an idea of what the greater world around them thinks of our party of goofballs. Like the fact that Fallin and Laios are fairly well known in the community but not necessarily well respected. We see that they are kind but get taken advantage of. We see, much like you mentioned in the video, how Chalchuck is viewed by the younger generation of half foots. How Marcille is perceived as a bonafide genius in her field by many but an abominable traitor to the magic arts by others. The fact that we follow other people ironically lets us get to know our part even better.
"And the King Look dejected".. " Meals are the privilege of the living, to eat is to live" this story fun wild ride, hopefully there arent any Netflix shenanigans. S2 would be dope.
* 🎉🎉 discworld mentioned 🎉🎉* honestly would love your take on the discworld and its many characters and themes
Dungeon Meshi hit a particular itch that has previously only been met by Discworld and I love it so much for that. I love how much thought was put into the history of the world, as well as the implications of some of Kui’s world building. I especially love how “human” isn’t synonymous with the tallmen, and that elves, dwarves, halffoots, etc are all “human”.
I’d love to see you do a similar world building dive for either Discworld or the Witcher universe!
This video helped me with some of my own world building, especially the comments on micro-worldbuilding. I am trying to build a urban fantasy world but honestly i just need to focus on the town where everything takes place!
Plus DnD is so good thank you for covering it.
I think one of the things i love most about this series is the fact that every character feels like they're in the dungeon or doing whst they do for their own reason. We get a sense of each character's feelings towards situations. Who they are and what they are looking for. And it just feels like even with minimal screentime, we get so much good info on each character. Like the group we see die over and over are new to the whole thing and they struggle through the floors. The more veteran group led by the gnome are all in it for money or wisdom. And the more you learn the more you want to know about the other adventurers in the dungeon. Cause the eco system is so well made it even takes the characters into account❤ love this show and i need to read the manga
It could be recency bias, but I think delicious in dungeon is in my top favourite shows. I spoke about loving the natural flow of how they give exposition for the world building with my friends. The whole world feels loved in with characters coming from different backgrounds, each having their own culture. The characters also have personalities and habits that fit their roles in the party, but aren’t fixed to them. They were given room to show when they branch out when the situation called for it, not just when the story called for character growth.
Absolutely loved this first season and I can’t wait to see the second season. You know the world story is good when you’re left thinking “I can’t wait to see how this plays out (the future of the story), and learn more about this world (the past of the story)”, rather than just “I want to see more” with no clear points to focus and look forward to
One of my favorite new anime. More writers should take notes from this series because of its world building. The characters are fun and feel like believable people. The world feels full. And I love it
DunMeshi's demons are my absolute favorites in recent memory and I absolutely cannot wait for season two to get us there.
great video sir! :)
One thing I thought was particularly good about the worldbuilding was how the different race's notions and preconceptions on the others varies depending on where those people lived. I think it didn't make it into the adaptation, but one of the things that makes Chilchuck think maybe Senshi wasn't from the surface after they're done with the hippogriff is the fact that Senshi treats him like a child, which he says he'd expect from dwarves coming from places without half-foots like the eastern land Shiro and Izutsumi come from, but not from someone who's been living on the island since they would have met other half-foots and thus know they're a different race.
Frieren's soundtrack in the background was a very nice touch, even if it meant I had to keep going back to rewatch the part with Knife to the Throat over and over again since the song kept distracting me because it's *SO DARN GOOD* I couldn't pay proper attention to what you were saying lol. Zoltraak is amazing, but Knife to the Throat is where it's at.
That part with Chilchuck is brought up during the Senshi backstory two episode arc near the end of Season 1. He does say that in the anime when he lists out his suspicions about Senshi.
This is how I realized the writing in this was stellar. The whole initial premise was based on the ability to ressurect adventurers. At first I thought this was going to be treated as a trivial thing, almost a video game mechanic.
But later the gnome explains it's becaust of a curse that keeps the souls inside the bodies that die in the dungeon. Not only was this a good explanation. It was interesting and foreshadowed that there are intentions behind the dungeon's existence. But more importantly, it showed the restraint in the writing. They could have explained this in episode 1, and show off both that there is an explanation and that it's pretty cool. But there was no reason to do it that early.
My guy casually snuck some of the best Frieren soundtracks in there and thought we wouldn't notice, but we did
Excellent homage to the fact that we're lucky enough to get two of the best fantasy anime ever created in the last year. Good video!
My favorite little detail in this story is the use of the word human.
Most fantasy stories use the same approach to dealing with the concept of the word human. The reason it and other words derived from it are so universally used is because humans are the most numerous race and thus are treated as the default.
But in DID, the group of people we'd call humans in Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft or Baldur's Gate, is instead called Tall-men, and the word human is used for everyone.
An elf is a human, a dwarf is a human, a half-foot is a human, etc. It means person, making so that its use in terms like demihuman or humanoid doesn't feel like one race being seen as the standard, but comes from a term that describes all of the sentient races.
It is such a little, basically insignificant detail, but to me it shows just how much care was put in the world building.
Laios instantly became my favorite MC out of all anime because I kid you not, he IS literally me. His reactions and actions throughout the anime is EXACTLY how I'd react to seeing various monsters and their biology.
Izutsumi reminds me of my cat so I loved every scene she was in.
Genuinely has me wondering how on earth a manga writer could have such in-depth knowledge of cooking, biology, mythology, etc. it’s amazing and I wish I could reach that level of writing
Read encyclopedias about subjects you like and implement your knowledge into worldbuilding, “A writer tells you about their world, a good writer tells you what they know about ours.”
What i hope for Dungeon Meshi, that they could bring out a spin off / side anime about the Worldbuilding.
Just like the Slime Diaries with Rimuru and the Charaters and the city life.
This manga and anime filled the DiscWorld shaped hole in my heart, and I could not be happier.
8:11 This so true in Dunmesh world, in one of the extra manga, I don't remember who said it but I think it's Laios said to his party that Treasure Bugs actually valued with the prize as much as a rare treasure by some collectors, knowing this, Chil & Marcille starts freaking out why Laios didn't told them sooner.
I mainlined DunMeshi at the beginning of the year and so far, the only series that's given me a similar high is Undead Unluck which was in significant part because it was brought up on this channel for the way Disney failed it! I'd love to see a video about Undead Unluck to help give it the boost it deserves. Both it and DunMeshi have such incredibly fun magic systems and world building that actually feels planned from the beginning, not many series are doing it like they are!
I gotta be real I showed up to the dub, wife in tow, purely because of Sungwon Cho, and I cannot be more glad that I did. My wife being on the spectrum, she has at worst, tolerated some episodes, but by the time we got to the latter half of what's on Netflix thus far, she's figured out that while she does not share Laios' special interest, she gets him.
She's also had a lot of good laughs, so that's another point in its favor. I was really worried I'd never get her to enjoy anything with me after we tried both types of Bebop and she was not enamored with either. (worse, I think she liked the live action more....)
Thank Dende she's been taken with live action One Piece. That one could have gone either way, with her.
One thing I love is when a writer isn't afraid to have the exposition their characters give be *wrong*. It sounds weird but like people probably wouldn't fully understand things like magic or supernatural creatures to their full extent. People make mistakes and assumptions all the time. So it makes sense that they wouldn't be able to present something like a magic system with full knowledge of every little detail about how it works, in the same way that if you asked a random person off the street, they wouldn't be able to tell you every facet about how physics works beyond a few basic facets of it.
So when there are details based in misconceptions like Halffoots calling Tallmen Trolls or people assuming Living Armor is magical instead of biological, I love those kinds of things
If you like that sort of thing, Bleach has it in spades. The first lore dump given by Rukia is full of holes because, as we learn later, she’s kind of a dumbass