You know the drill by now, Dungeon Meshi is the fantasy cooking anime. But what makes this series good? When I think of the elements that truly make a series great for me, it always comes down to these three things: characters, world building, and escalation. These are three aspects in which this series absolutely excels. If you were to ask who my favorite character from this series was, it would honestly be an even split between all 4 of the main characters. All of them have well thought out and endearing backstories and their designs are all pretty great as well. Their personalities complement and contrast each other well, just like their differing roles within the party, and watching them learn more about each other and grow closer is a true delight. The comedy that results from their interactions is also pretty good. It’s not particularly clever, but it is highly memeable, especially with some of the Youtube style editing in the anime. I also appreciate how each character goes against the typical role you would expect them to play based on their archetype. Laios, the fighter, rather than being the confident, if a little dull, party leader, is instead socially inept and incredibly knowledgeable on monster biology, Chilchuck, far from the jolly childish Hobbit, is one of the most mature and professional characters in the series. The way this series also showcases the failings of certain archetypes that are normally held in high regard is also refreshing. One of Laios’ foils, the charismatic leader Kabru, is shown to be an abysmal adventurer because he refuses to learn about monsters and he comes off as more of a manipulative sociopath rather than a legitimately likeable guy.
I do have a couple of complaints though. I could do without Izutsumi the cat girl. I understand why she is needed in the story and what her role is, but she just seems like a shitty version of Xellos from Slayers to me. Chilchuck also does not get as much development as the other characters in the party. I’m not typically one to complain about anime dubs, I usually just watch anime in whichever language I find first, but it does seem a bit lacking here and does the characters a bit of a disservice. There are some pretty big exceptions though, Laios, and especially Senshi, are great and Marcille’s voice actress can be very convincing in her more energetic scenes when she’s not making a kind of generic anime girl voice. From what I’ve seen, dubs in other languages seem pretty good and I have to give a shout out to the Spanish title for the series, Tragones y Mazmorras, which is an ingenious pun, far better than the Delicious in Dungeon title that we got.