Dungeon Meshi
Delicious in Dungeon

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Dungeon Meshi has been a wonderful, overwhelmingly well-orchestrated rollercoaster of emotions; one I just couldn't get tired of.

It started as a relatively simple (at least that was the impression) sword-and-sorcery parody meant to deconstruct the concept of eating monsters. It really is disgusting if you think about it for a moment, isn't it? Would you love to eat a rabid dog chasing you, or a snake about to bite you? That's the kind of mental struggle the characters had to go through at the beginning.

And it would be perfectly alright if it had stayed just that: a comedy around eating disgusting things. But the story ... eventually evolved into a compelling adventure where the procurement of food is not a comedic gimmick, but a unifying theme around which characters are exposed and relationships develop. And the best part? By the way you make it to the halfway point, you begin to realize everything has been planned and foreshadowed from the very beginning.

It bears repeating that Ryoko Kui is an incredible talent. She is very well-versed in both human and animal psychology, and the command she has over her characters is undeniable. Their interpersonal dynamics are some of the best I've ever seen in any story. They feel familiar but don't conform to any stereotypes; they are completely distinct from each other but have instant onscreen chemistry. And their behavior is one hundred percent convincing, true to established character traits and informed by their past experiences.

These experiences are the key to everything, and I can't get enough of the grace and finesse with which every character's development is presented. Every event the party goes through has long-term consequences. Every little thing remains in their memory as the author is meticulously tracking every aspect of the dungeon's closed ecosystem. A bar of "very good" soap is lost in volume 1, which is noticed in volume 3, and then it is found in volume 7, leading to a bath scene, leading in turn to another bonding experience for the party. The author will never fall so low as to beat you over the head with verbal descriptions of the characters' growth: she just shows you the gradual progress as it happens, both cause and effect, and trusts your intelligence to connect the dots. It's depressing how rarely I see authors in traditionally pop-entertainment genres show so much respect for the audience.

The exact same reverence is given to the setting. Although it can be easy to dismiss it as another banality inspired by Tolkien and Dungeons and Dragons, that would be missing the forest for the trees: the depth of fantasy and mythology lore explored and the precision of weaving it into the setting is well on par with the best works in the genre (and I'm not talking just about manga!) and opens new perspectives even for die-hard fantasy fans. The dungeon inhabitants' physical attributes are articulated in a unique style and follow the internal logic of the story. Kui has a *lot* of shorter stories and random designs showcasing her love for mythical creatures.

This goes lengths to show passionate research put into it and makes for a lot of interesting and often gut-busting interactions among the cast. And the fact that no experience is ever truly lost with the group leads to a lot of sitcom-like comedy that naturally emerges when well-written, quirky characters are put together in any sort of unusual scenario. The humor emerges naturally from their personalities and the audience's memory of their past experience. Organic setups pay off all by themselves, just like that. Very few stories ever end up in such a desirable state!

The visual comedy is further punctuated by beautiful art. Ryoko Kui isn't just a great writer and fantasy buff—she's also an amazing artist and character designer. You can always infer a character's emotions by looking at their face, allowing for both much tighter comedic timing and more diligent adherence to the 'show, don't tell' principle. The designs themselves are fantastic; they're never cutesy in the typical moe way, they are highly physically-accurate, and they grow on you so much you wouldn't want to change them for anything. Even orcs look appealing in their own way. If you can gain access to volume releases and supplementary materials, there are pages upon pages of top-tier designs, such as imagining the same characters as different sex or fantasy race. And yeah, there's not even a hint of deliberate fan service. The author evidently respects her craft far too much to pander and compromise the narrative's tone and message just for titillation; instead she opts to engage the audience by the means any good story should. And engage it does.

Throughout it all, Dungeon Meshi never abandons its food focus: all the monster dishes are unique, original, look hella tasty, and always feel appropriate for the circumstances. Again, the range is incredible: it's used as a comedic relief after a tense situation, to make a point by one character to another, to assert a victory over a tough enemy, to soothe a troubled heart... What seemed like a mere fun gimmick at first has proven to be a potent narrative tool that subtly enriched the story without forcing it into a repeating formula.

If all of that sounds like I'm just endlessly heaping praise upon this manga, well, it's because that's exactly what I'm doing. It's *that* good. It starts out unassuming and then just keeps punching far above its weight while making it look effortless and not messing up in the process. It sucks you in before you even realize how good it really is in everything it does. It's a rare miracle of a fun and endearing adventure story about a tightly-knit, lovable group of characters on a quest to save their friend and explore the intricacies of self-sustenance in a dungeon, with incredible art and a satisfying ending. And I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.

(Trigger, pls, make the adaptation deserving of the source material!)

Overall, this is a great example of fantasy manga that takes world building and various questions seriously; namely, monster design, world ecology, and consistency. This story takes place in a world that mirrors something like what you would encounter playing Dungeons and Dragons. The way it is written, with rich descriptions of the world and its various creatures, their interactions, and anatomical considerations, take it to the next level, hearkening to the mindfulness of design from older editions of DnD like ADnD2e and 3.Xe. You have meticulous planning of how certain environments work in tandem with their creatures, and how these are divided into different ... environmental spheres throughout the story really takes you on an in-depth journey. The backdrop of food as an excuse to explore the world is also a wonderful and fresh angle in the fantasy genre, particularly because the recipes sound much more accurate or believable than those others that might try to mimic this.
The art is, succinctly put, superb. The author's style has very strong lineart. Some of the shading use of lines rather than texture remind me of European woodblock prints, vaguely. The background art and design of environments is always detailed enough and yet you can still see points of focus easily. Designs of creatures are also not too crazy, with homages to the original inspirations in mythos without re-inventing the wheel. However, you do see some cuter designs of some creatures, and this is welcome as well.
What makes my scoring less than perfect is primarily to do with personal taste. I don't really like much of the main cast save for the halfling. That being said, the characterizations and writing are very strong, giving overt personalities to characters, even if they were only introduced halfway through the story.
One other thing I didn't like, personally, is the power level that the story operates at. One of the things about endgame DnD is that magic will make things like death a mere setback than anything truly staying. This happens a bit with their use of necromancy magic in the story, sometimes for gag purposes. However, this is not to fault the story itself. In fact, the story does deal with themes about life and death in a very poignant and well-rounded way.
For budding worldbuilders, I think this is a better read than something more bizarre like Made in Abyss. The monsters are familiar and the characters provide great comedy relief in the midst of a rather insidious plot that occurs both outside and within.

I feel like there's three major arcs in Dungeon Meshi, and these will help readers decide if they want to stick with the manga.

The first arc feels almost like it's a Dungeon and Dragon's companion, while it might not be directly based on D&D, it's mostly about a party of adventurers in a dungeon, needing to find food, and thus cooking monsters. If you're already a D&D fan, you might enjoy this section the most, but I feel like it's the roughest part of the series.

The biggest issue is that while the main story line is introduced in the first chapter, it's ... almost immediately dropped and so much of the story is "What are we eating today". Monster appears, quick fight (though chapters are of a decent length so there's a bit of action) and then the party sit down while the cook makes something and displays it.

While I really loved Shokugeki no Soma where everything was something that was over engineered, but potentially realistic, Dungeon Meshi clearly lives in the fantasy world, but still has minor pieces about interesting techniques. You won't learn how to cook here, but it's not intending you to and that's kind of the problem with this Arc. It seems more intended to delight Tabletop RPG players, or people so immersed in fantasy that they might discuss how a Basilisk and Cockatrice differ, or how to properly cut up one.

For me this was by far the weakest part of the manga, but also the one truest to the name of the manga.

About a third of the way through the manga, the real story finally hits it's stride, and it comes suddenly. The main thread of the manga is picked up but food still is very critical to the party. The story is well done the writing is excellent, and there's still a strong food theme. This is definitely the part of the manga that I would easily recommend, and if the manga started here, I probably could have even given it a 8 or maybe 9.

The thing is, when Dungeon Meshi wants to tell a larger story they can, and even while it becomes over convoluted, there's enough interesting stories that every chapters is engaging.

But with three arcs, there's always going to be a third one, and here... It's a mix. Ultimately the final third of the book loses a lot of what made me love this manga. It's pass the point of no return, readers need to finish the story, and unlike Shokugeki no Soma (which falls off hard), this arc is still well written, and engaging, but oddly enough I feel like the cooking and food becomes forgotten, or just thrown in enough to satisfy fans.

Again the writing isn't terrible, and there's a lot of interesting action and occurrence, but there's a little more plot convivence, and a lot of characters seem to be persuaded by words just because they have to do something that they might not normally do.

The thing is, I don't hate this section of the manga, but it's really obvious that the writer was wrapping up the manga, and it just took a very long time to do so.

I Believe each of these main arcs are about 30 chapters long, and I feel the weakest arc is the first arc, but I also think the change doesn't exactly benefit the manga, as it would have been lovely to have a strong story the entire manga, rather than a "McGuffin" that the party is chasing for that opening part. In addition while I see the meaning, if the manga really is about food, meals, or consumption of foodstuff, that could have been handled better in the final arc. I do see where that's attempted, but I also think there could have been a stronger connection to the story, rather than it being shoehorned in to check a box.

Overall it's a good, not great manga, I'd recommend it, but I would caution readers that they should have some love of RPGs/D&D/fantasy monster based media before jumping into this. Still I enjoyed it, I easily finished and since it's under 100 chapters, I might even read it a second time as the characters are interesting and well done.

Note: Giving this a mixed feelings ONLY because of the heavy focus on "Fantasy Dungeon monsters" early on. I feel like if I wasn't already interested in D&D I probably would have given this a pass.

Second Note: This only has 97 chapters.