Dungeon Meshi

Delicious in Dungeon, a cooking show where mythical dungeon critters are used as ingredients for real world recipes.

There is a sub genre on the rise recently called "cozies". Cozy mysteries is the oldest one going back to the 1940s but more recently it's started to infect other genres.

Dungeon Meshi is a clear cut example of a Cozy Fantasy, dungeon crawler subtype. Instead of exploring, plot or character development the focus instead is shifted to the food aspect with actual recipes included for the dishes per volume (yes, most publishers require that for a cozy series)

On the surface it's an ok idea, it combines two ... popular genres and the 8.6 score on MAL is a testament to it's success.

Personally though, I have mixed feelings about this. The cooking portions break the build up tension way too often. The show has a story and is good about create a sense of urgency... which is thrown to the wind because it's a cozy so obviously everything needs to be slowed down to a crawl.

The characters are paper thin, they have exactly one role each:-

Laios = Monster! yay! can I eat it?
Marcille = ew! Yuck! ew ew ew EW! ok, I'll eat it... yum.
Senshi = Cooking mama
Chilchuck - Ugh, don't treat me like a kid! So annoying.

In the second half of the show Marcille becomes the designated butt of the joke character for some reason, that's about it.

There are a lot of inconsistencies as well. In one episode the group is introduced to a new monster type, the very next episode Laios is an expert on that monster's eating and breeding habits... how?! This includes monsters never seen before and have moved to the realm of myth. How does he know everything about them including their anatomy and behavioral patterns? Aside from an exposition dump for the viewer I mean.

Dungeon Meshi is two shows forced to share the time slot. The cooking aspect ruins the adventure pacing, the adventuring is too dark and morbid for a cooking show.

Dungeon Meshi or Delicious in Dungeon is a Netflix anime that follows a fairly traditional dungeon group through a fairly traditional dungeon setting on a fairly traditional quest, but the unique flavors and subtle hints of other genres, and maybe a side order of memes and fan-service, are what will make you want to savor every bite of this anime. (This marks the end of the food puns I swear)

Dungeon Meshi is made by Studio Trigger, and some viewers will right away notice the very expressive and stylish animation, lending itself to the abundant comedic moments that really define the show. While there are a ... good mix of battles, in a genre that's already overly saturated with flashy sword and magic fights this show uses character comedy as the primary source of entertainment. While some anime may drop the pretense of the group dynamics during "serious" moments, this show largely sidesteps that and instead leans in to the different personalities and how they interact, sometimes to good results and sometimes to hilariously bad ones. This is a dungeon party show, and almost everything they do is done together as a team.

As far as the characters themselves, Dungeon Meshi tends to emphasize quality over quantity. There is a large revolving cast, and they all have unique personalities and motivations that find them at odds or in cooperation with each other depending on the situation. For the most part however, the series sticks to the core group and emphasizes their differences while exploring their development. This show does tend to suffer a bit from pacing, and too often a character will toe the line between appearing mysterious and guarded to just being bland and uninteresting.

This series is sometimes aided and sometimes diminished by its attempt to be so many different things at once. While the main course tends to be comedy, action, and cooking, there is also a chorus of intersecting plots, motivations, characters, factions, and it all ends up feeling like too much for the show to handle, while also somehow being boring because of the pacing. It's as if one aspect of the show is not nearly enough on its own, so there needs to be more and more wrinkles to the plot, the setting, the backstories, the alignments, etc. The end result is that while all of the attempts succeed, it just feels confused about what the show really is. The actual cooking portion for example is really only a small aspect of the show, once you consider the overall plot and the ensemble of characters that have nothing to do with cooking whatsoever.

Many will enjoy this show but whether it will stand the test of time is definitely in question. There's a lot going on here, and it's all good, but none of it really stands out on its own enough to raise this high above its peers. Hopefully a second season can provide some focus and more to engage with but even if it doesn't solve the issues of the first season it will be worth watching, preferably while having a delicious meal.

It's really hard to tell if this show can be recommended to anyone. It has a Dr. Stone kind of theme, and it's definitely good. But other than being good, there's nothing to it. It basically went stagnant after few episodes. It's all about eating, eating, and eating, and that's it. Nothing happened.

The art style feels makes you feel like watching a cartoon show. It's kind of mixed in between. The characters are just weird in general kind of sense.

So...

If you like food or silly comedies, then this anime is definitely for you. But if you don't, other anime exist

The story & characters' relationship is interesting. It makes you wonder what will happen next. or will a person be a possible villain?
You can tell it has an interesting worldview, and multiple forces, deeper which leads to interesting & unexpected story development.

The production is great, I can't see any flaws, and the animation is very detailed (even the usual movement animation is great). The food is well-drawn!!!
Feeling: Heart-warming (bro-sister, party members), interesting, hungry, curious (plot).

But you should expect a slow start, for me, the great part (main story) starts from EP 8. EP 1-7 is the intro to the worldview, foreshadowing, and characters, and ... it feels more like a slice of life, slightly repetitive especially the reaction of the elf to the foods, I almost can't make it through, but I'm glad I made it to EP 8.

If you like food or fantasy you should give it a try. Plus, with a great story too!!!

"I watched Dungeon Meshi and honestly, you should be embarrassed"

Look, I’ll make this quick because my brain cells are worth more than whatever half-cooked stew this anime thinks it’s serving. Dungeon Meshi is-how do I phrase this politely-7/10. Which, translated into human language, means: painfully average, tragically overpraised, and yet still somehow better than the garbage your cousin binge-watches on TikTok.

Yeah, it’s "funny." In the same way a medieval cookbook might be "funny" if you’ve never read anything besides reddit memes. Oh wow, they eat monsters. Revolutionary. What’s next, season two where they argue about seasoning? (don’t answer that, I don’t care).

The sad truth is: ... I wanted to like this more. Fourteen-year-old me would’ve died of happiness-dragons, food porn, party banter. But I’m not 14 anymore. I can spell Kierkegaard without googling it. And once you’ve read even a paragraph of existential philosophy, watching these clowns sauté a basilisk feels like scrolling Instagram food reels at 3am: empty calories, zero transcendence, vaguely humiliating.

Fans of this show are the worst. Sorry. No, actually, not sorry. You’re the type who says "omg it’s SO wholesome" while tweeting fanart of an elf crying over soup. Like… congratulations, you’ve reduced fantasy storytelling to a BuzzFeed recipe blog with swords. Go knit yourself a dragon-shaped oven mitt and leave me alone.

The only thing keeping this from collapsing into total mediocrity is the art direction-backgrounds so pretty they almost trick you into thinking the script isn’t held together with duct tape and quinoa. Jokes land sometimes, sure. But that’s like saying a McDonald’s burger "lands" when you’re starving. It doesn’t make it cuisine, darling, it just means you have no standards.

And don’t even start with "but the characters grow emotionally!!" Yeah. My Tamagotchi grew emotionally too. Until it died.

Anyway—7/10. Generous. Too generous. But let’s be honest, you’ll still lap it up, because you’re not watching for "depth," you’re watching because someone told you it’s clever. And you believed them. Which is why I can’t take you seriously.

"Mixed" is absolutely the right description for my feelings about Dungeon Meshi, because despite enjoying the first half of the season tremendously, the end of it and the start of the second half felt like a bait and switch.

Making a fantasy anime with a heavy emphasis of cooking is a great idea. Not exactly an original one, but it certainly makes the anime stand out among the droves of stories about a party of generic fantasy races/classes slaying generic fantasy monsters in nondescript dungeons. And boy, did the first few episodes of Dungeon Meshi stand out. The monster-slaying part was still present, yes, but it ... took maybe half of an episode at most. The rest was all about the dwarf cooking the familiar-looking dishes out of exotic ingredients, and the party trying them out while learning more about each other. This second part was kind of like watching a cooking show, generously spiced with comedy bits, and it was my whole reason to keep watching this show.

Half a dozen episodes in, I felt like the show started to change the tone. Yes, the cooking and the comedy were still there, but now there also were hints about the underlying plot - political intrigues, other parties and so on. I'm not trying to complain about Dungeon Meshi having a plot, but the feeling I got from those additions was kind like watching a cartoon for kids and then having it interrupted halfway through with a 2-minute news report about current events. Still, while that made the show a tad less enjoyable, it was not a dealbreaker.

After episode 14, which is pretty much the start of part 2 (with a new OP/ED animation and everything), I realized that the last couple of episodes (if not more) were all "Dungeon" and no "Meshi". The only parts I enjoyed were gone, and what was left was the usual fantasy anime thing about fighting monsters and other adventurers. And to be honest, the battle scenes of Dungeon Meshi were never particularly impressive, in animation OR writing. So now that the only thing that made this anime stand out is no longer there, what reason is there to keep watching?

It's possible that the cooking parts reappear somewhere down the line, but I see no reason to endure, hoping that the writers throw me a bone.

Okay, first of all, I don't like Tolkien. I don't like MMORPG or DnD content. But sometimes I give it a shot, and I'm surprised by likeable characters and a smooth-paced, philosophy-filled, endearing story, like Frieren. I was hoping Dungeon Meshi would be like this. Maybe not so philosophical or mature, but a cute little show about cooking in a magical world. And I got what I wanted. Sort of.
First, As a lighthearted show without a plot, it falls miserably short in the character department. There's nothing deep or interesting; it's just a basic RPG roster with super generic, clichéd character traits.
Second, Resurrection. It's the ... point where the stakes died. I don't care about Laios's sister, and I have a hard time worrying about the characters' journey.
Third, Cooking. Yeah, it's cozy, delicious, and wholesome. But only for the first four or five times. The repetitiveness made me watch food scenes as if I were watching paint dry.
In conclusion, Dungeon Meshi is painfully boring. I think the author had the idea - let's create recipes with monsters' meat, but nothing more. The simple plot and cardboard characters (cut out with tropes and traits from DnD) were built around that concept.

*No spoilers*

Summary
Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi), is a combination of a cozy genre mixed with adventure. The premise starts off simply and is intriguing, although it feels incoherent. Overall, it has average animation, soundtrack, story-telling, and characters. If you are interested in fantasy, adventure, and cooking stories, you may be interested in this one. It is enjoyable albeit nothing profound, and the general genre feels mismatched.

Story: 6/10
The plot is straightforward and interesting. It feels like a game of Dungeons & Dragons in anime form, but with the immediate need to slow the plot with cooking scenes and recipes of hacked up monsters. Overall, the pacing ... is a disadvantage. Characters witness death and are on missions to save people, with deadlines, but they suddenly stop to slowly cook meals and reminisce about their days. In fact, a certain (no spoilers) character may have been saved in time if the squad didn't take a break every episode to make a meal out of roasted monsters. The anime attempted to make this portion of each episode into a humorous break for the viewer, but it completely detracted from the meaning of the story. To some extent, it was quite repulsive. Characters even witness family members being maimed and slaughtered and what do they do? They have a feast. That's their immediate reaction. When I first watched this, I thought I had skipped some scenes or was watching an abridged version. Overall, I can't say that the story is anything beyond average. It has some high points, but the pacing is poor and the weird combination of comedy, cozy, and action does not bode well for cohesion.

Characters: 5/10
The characters had the potential to grow. While some grew in a few ways, they were generally stagnant. Each had one characteristic which was overused and represented 90% of each character's identity. While it's normal for characters to have flaws, these characters focus so much on them that their primary trait is the flaw. Additionally, the characters are often inconsistent in knowledge and history. Sometimes, they just know what to do; other times, they forget everything they've ever learned. I found it very confusing how the main character, Laios, goes from an inquisitive adventurer to suddenly knowing everything about monsters randomly. It defeats half the premise of the show. While the characters start interestingly and find creative ways to survive, they stagnate and are mostly forgettable after watching the show because they each have one characteristic that they repeat in every episode.

Art: 7/10
The art is alright. It's nothing spectacular, but it is fitting for the setting.

Sound: 6/10
The soundtrack is average. Some of the openings and ending themes are more interesting than the background music.

Enjoyment: 4/10
This ultimately felt like I wasted my time. The weird combination of adventure mixed with the laid-back cooking started off interestingly, until the cooking detracted from the plot and ruined the story. I couldn't take anything seriously after certain scenes, like when characters witness graphic deaths of family members and immediately eat meals jokingly afterwards.

Total score: 5.6/10

I can see this being enjoyable if you're a foodie and you just want something chill to watch while you eat/smoke or something. But to me it was just too boring to keep watching tbh, I mean nearly every conversation is about food or leads to talking about some kind of food. The MC seems way more concerned with eating some monsters than he is with saving his dying sister. Not to mention apparently it's no big deal to revive a person, so what's the rush to get to her anyways? The whole plot just seems pointless and has gone no where so far. Like ... I said though it's chill and enjoyable if you want a goofy food anime that does basically nothing but cook food all episode every episode. This being rank #97 is crazy to me.

One thing to say one thing about this anime.

Its not like any of the other dungeon anime that i have seen before. When you see the title, you will expect it would be some cooking anime that takes place in a dungeon. But heck no, you are in for a ride.

It would take some time to get hooked with the series, the first episodes were a bit slow, but trust me, it takes off somewhere in the middle

I have a mixed feelings about this, i do not know if I would recommend it or not, but I can tell myself Im a picky one when ... watching a series, especially for a 14 episode anime. (Trust me I nearly gave up on episode 2)

Oh and before I forget, I started watching this because of Marcielle, stayed because of Marcielle, held on because of Falin.

This show has a pretty shallow plot, and the characters are pretty one-dimensional and uninteresting. It's still enjoyable because it has some funny bits, and it's cool to see the food they cook, but don't watch this show expecting to fall in love with the characters like in Frieren, to be captivated by the plot like in Death Note, or to enjoy exiciting badassery like in (good) shonen anime. This is an anime you can watch if you want to laugh at a silly elf and halfling complaining about having to eat disgusting-looking monsters which after being cooked by a dwarf look and taste amazing. ... Or if you want to laugh at a man who fantasizes about killing various monsters and then eating them. And don't get me wrong, it is funny. Some might really love it. But it is not a truly great show that can stun you with twists or touch you with great character moments.

DM is well put together visually and has decent world building, but suffers from tone and pacing issues. The show establishes the bleak reality of adventuring and how deadly it is, and yet it's hard to believe that the party is not scarred mentally to the point of not being able to function properly. The atmosphere of the show is dark, yet the characters we see behave like they are playing an MMORPG, not actually living as a part of the world. I don't believe that the unique circumstances of the dungeon would affect this to a degree that we see on screen.

I would ... describe the pacing of DM video-gamey. The goal of the party rarely changes, the means to achieve the goal rarely change. Each episode is very formulaic and I did not feel enough progression episode to episode like I would expect from a show. These things are ok in games because games have gameplay, but an anime does not have gameplay, making us watch the same thing happen and happen over and over again get tedious fast.

I got constantly distracted watching it because it failed to get me invested in the characters or the story. It was serviceable, but nothing stood out that makes you want to keep watching. I don't think that killing and eating monsters is a concept that is interesting enough to carry an entire story on it's own.

To be honest, I'm very conflicted about this series, which is why I don't quite know how to start.

There's the part of me that would like to say the following:
"Delicious in Dungeon is a unique series in many ways. Laios has an extreme fascination with monsters and so visits a dungeon. One day, in order to save his sister, he and his friends are forced to eat monsters from the dungeon. Thanks to the distinctive, witty and likeable characters, this develops into a funny journey in which the viewer is presented with an elaborate world. Laughing and grimacing, the characters find out more and more ... about the history of individual races, the world and the dungeon while also revealing how monsters live and work. So if you've ever wondered "How does fantasy creature X work?" and want to experience a distinct, entertaining and cheerful cast of characters, you're in for a treat!

But the other part says the following:
"Delicious in Dungeon" is a very boring series, which has some jokes, ideas and characters that work well at the beginning, but become dull over time. Until episode 6 they could just about carry the anime, but here I lost my last interest. Apart from the fact that they conspicuously take their time and all the more serious aspects of the series are dragged into ridicule - be it death or even the fact that they have extreme time pressure to save Laios' sister - the series lacks a certain development that would keep the story, characters or jokes fresh enough to make it entertaining for longer. Even the admittedly pretty art style can't help.

In any case, I abandoned the series after 6 episodes and have little interest in taking another look, but can still recommend the series if you are receptive to such ideas.

Dungeon Meshi has very nice production values, but fails to captivate with its content unless you're a fan of cooking and light comedy in your fantasy.


Animation / Art / General Visuals - 8/10
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Looks good. Hard to find much fault.


Sound / Music / Voice Acting - 9/10
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Great across the board.

Story - 4/10
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I really just don't get it. It's a fantasy anime that's about dungeon crawling, but instead of cool adventures, all they do is stupid cooking and dumb jokes, making every single character seem brain damaged.

I don't mind cooking content, but it just feels incredibly out of place in a fantasy dungeon crawler.

And there are few things I hate more in anime, than light comedy. Either commit to being actual comedy, or don't even bother. This half-measure comedy where everyone just makes some dumb jokes every now and again, or acts a little awkward here, or trips over something there, or we're expected to be entertained by how eccentric the characters are... It's just weak. It doesn't provoke laughter, at best it gets a chuckle from you. Boring.


Characters - 5/10
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I don't see the appeal. None of the characters are likeable.

We have a big oaf of a human fighter who's excessively fascinated with eating monsters. That's his only real character trait. Wants to eat random monsters.

We have an elf mage who is utterly incompetent, and only knows how to complain about everything.

A halfling thief or whatnot, who seems to be the only reasonable one, but has no backbone and just goes along with everything.

And then we have a dwarf who is some kind of a fanatical dungeon cooking expert for some unknown reason. Apparently adventuring in a dungeon just to cook monsters all day is some kind of a life.

Two oafs who can only thinking about cooking and eating. An incompetent, whiny elf, and a halfling who just follows along.

Who am I suppose to cheer for here? Who am I supposed to like? If I'd meet these people IRL, I'd give them a huge berth, and hope I never see them again.

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Total - 6/10

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People keep calling Dungeon Meshi underrated, but I cannot help but to feel it's massively overrated.

Great production values aside, I'm not sure who is supposed to find this kind of content appealing. Adventuring in a dungeon just to cook a different monster each episode seems like wasted effort.

Dungeon Meshi is pretty much a slice of life, comedy, adventure anime all rolled up into one.

It deals with serious situations with a light-hearted feel. What would be considered a serious issue, such as death and murder, Dungeon Meshi addresses with a light-hearted approach. At first I was taken aback, but keeping an open mind, I would assume this was intentional on the writer's part.

The characters are regular roles that you would generally find in a party, characters don't really have any personal development. We are simply along for the ride in this dungeon run.

The anime's and consideration for the ecosystem of a dungeon as ... well as well as a more logical approach to certain interactions with monsters make it unique in comparison to other anime where that topic is generally ignored.

The art is not bad, but not amazing. It gets the job done.

The plot is simple and most time is spent on interactions with certain monsters and preparation of food (obviously).

The current issue I have with the anime is that it lacks any serious tone. Although we witness a plethora of situations, the series very rarely evokes a negative emotion. This leaves viewers feeling incomplete and empty.

Nevertheless, there is still 18 episodes left and the anime is fine enough to merit a watch. It is worth watching in between your favorite anime episode releases. I will update my review once the series is complete.

Here's a very short review.
This is preetty good for a anime that is best with popcorn and free time.A adventure and food anime of perfect combination.
The characters are pretty good written and lots of smile giving moments not funny though .very bland comedy as the characters have no emotions.cant understand its a serious or fun anime.
Well for some people will find it disgusting and vegans will be having ptsd over it.
Although the animation is topnotch.its even better than friren. The magic and blood is so fukin gorgeous. Even the foods animation is so good.
Although for me its 6.5 /10 as its ... gets boring for me through time.

I'll try to keep this review succinct and to the point.

This series has both it's positives and it's negatives. Let's start with the negatives. I cannot speak for the source material but this show's pacing feels very slow and I almost wanted to stop watching during episode 2 because of how boring it got. I tried to give this show a chance so I watched 4 episodes but it's still largely disappointed me. I think the biggest problem this series has is that the main cast are dull and unfunny. Another series from the fantasy genre like Konosuba does a significantly better job with it's ... comedic scenes, I think this series could learn from that. Unlike in Dungeon Meshi, the main characters in Konosuba have genuine charm and make you want to keep watching. Megumin's passion for explosion magic is appealing and her interactions with Kazuma are always hilarious. The scene where she tries to embarrass him in front of some townspeople while they're both covered in slime is probably my favourite. Compare that to Marcille from this series and it seems like her personality is basically just being a klutz. Now onto the positives... I guess I can't really think of any off the top of my head. There are a few good things about this series though, I am sure. It wasn't good but it wasn't absolutely horrible either.