I seriously went into this with a lot of hype seeing as it is one of my favorite genres, a fantasy setting with elves and dwarven. On top of it it even is a gourmet anime, another one of my favorite genres, so what could go wrong?! Just about everything as it turns out...
First off I want to say that the animations look ok, but are nothing spectacular. The bigger problem is the art style, I don't think the characters look very appealing, most characters are looking a bit dumb honestly, but that's just a personal preference, so nothing that makes or breaks an anime. And I don't know if it's the art style or just a lack of detail, but the food of this gourmet anime (which I have to remind everyone on) doesn't look that great. But let's forget this for now, first let's take a look at the characters.
We have our four main characters whose adventure we accompany in this story. But to be perfectly honest other than Marcille, I couldn't care less if one of them choked on a slime mochi the next moment or not. Those characters just didn't grab me and even Marcille - whom I cared a little about, probably because she is the only half way sane person in this group - I wouldn't shed a tear over.
Other characters I actively disliked, like the brother for example whom I disliked from the first minute. His creepy obsession with eating monsters and him caring more about the food than getting to his sister who is slowly being digested in the stomach of a dragon, just left a bad taste in my mouth right from the start. This being said, he could have redeemed himself, but did he though? No of course not, my disdain for the brother got arguably even worse, as he finally went from eating everything under the sun to save his sister to just eating his sister. And not in the Yosuga no Sora way.
Other characters I just didn't care about. Like the dwarf or the furry that joined them. But of course Laios doesn't stay the only unlikeable character, not when you have a useless thief like Chilchuck around, who is grumpy 24/7 and keeps on berating people despite him being useless for 90% of the time. The remaining 10% of the time he disarms some traps that could probably be disarmed by Marcille if she just learned a spell for it just as easily.
But let's not forget that this is a Gourmet anime so aside from the adventure and the unlikeable characters (Yes Chilchuck, you make the top of the list.) there is also the food. So as a lover of gourmet anime and good food in general I could still be salivating in front of the screen scribbling down some great ideas for tomorrow's dinner, but of course, I got disappointed here as well. Most of the food was either incredibly uninspired or just seemed flat out disgusting, which is a major problem for an anime that is listed and intended as a gourmet anime. And yeah I know "oh but you know, it looking / sounding disgusting was a plot point, you didn't get it at all!" But do you know what? I do not CARE! If a gourmet anime doesn't make me salivate all over my keyboard, it has failed, end of story. If you compare this one with others like Food Wars or Campfire Cooking in Another World from last year, this one just doesn't hold up at all. And that is also partly due to the animation or art style, it just doesn't look as good as the food from other Gourmet anime I have seen.
And not only does it not look as good it just isn't on the same level when you look at the way of preparation either. I mean sure we get some dishes that are prepared with a little bit more effort, but do you know what we also get? Boiled cabbage. Or bread with the most basic of ingredients. Or the "crab" aka mimic they found, which they boiled in salt water! I know, genius right?! SALT WATER! Who would have thought?!
But even the more elaborate dishes are not something you can cook for your next family dinner, or better said WANT to cook. Looking at you Bug Burger and Sorbet with AGAIN BUGS and the souls of the damned. But it's a fantasy world sure, so of course I wouldn't use Basilik meat in my Oyakodon but substitute it with chicken instead. Which is something that Campfire Cooking excelled at and understood to convey to the audience. With the mc telling us that it tasted just like chicken or pork or something, to build a connection with the viewer, so they could try to cook it for themselves but Dungeon Meshi fails to do that time and time again.
Overall I did not like Dungeon Meshi, the animation was fine, the art style I didn't care for and it diminished a core aspect of the anime which should be the food. The music was solid but that can only make up so much for the many downsides this anime has. Before starting this anime this was a safe bet for me since I absolutely love the genres, but in the end the story and the characters were just as bland as the food. 4/10
