Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: Delicious in Dungeon
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Thesarum
Posts: 415 |
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I think this is true, but at the same time the "stakes" of the Falin encounter were never about death really. We're "supposed" to take death just about as seriously as you do in games. It's a problem, sure, but also not a big one most of the time.
Yep, what is serious is everything else that's happening in this encounter besides the deaths. The stakes are the impact her appearance (in both senses) has on each of the people present. We've mostly only seen Falin in flashback through the perspective of the regular party, but what we have seen suggests she is gentle and perhaps a little clumsy and spacey. Her grace, power and sheer violence here are clearly a huge clash with that, which has a number of implications. What might this mean for the collapsing relationship between Shuro and Laios? How does this play in to whatever Kabru has cooking (he once again shows himself to be a brutally efficient hunter of humans, even if he's a little incompetent at dungeon delving)? The nebulous threat of the elves and how they might treat this. And more immediately the mad mage himself. There's plenty for the party to lose even if their lives aren't truely on the table. On to this week... I thought like pretty much all of Dungeon Meshi's monsters this was a good twist on the doppelganger type monster. Laios realising he had to determine the fakes by observing them when we're now familiar with the fact that he pretty much sucks at reading humans is a good bit of tension and humour. His realisation that he understands their relationships with monsters far better than he understands them otherwise was great too. Also, Laios getting carried away with being the alpha dog and Marcelle just unceremoniously torching the monster got good laughs. |
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Covnam
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Great episode this week. Dealing with the duplicates was a fun change of pace after the last few weeks.
Re: Death in the series: When Tansu shoved Namari in front of himself and she got taken out with a headshot I thought that was pretty brutal and that he was pretty awful. Then he brought her back to life in the next scene and while that scene was now more understandable in how it played out, it also said to me that a normally shocking scene like that in most series, isn't very consequential in this one, taking away the impact of any future scenes in this series.
Thanks! |
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SaneSavantElla
 Posts: 230 |
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Hands down the most hilarious episode since the cockatrice one. I didn't think they could top that (but then again, I didn't think the cockatrice episode would top the frog suit episode) - it just gets better and better! How this series can see-saw between grim and zany and somehow still make it work is beyond me.
Would also like to point out that Laios didn't just suss the impostors out because of their personalities (the finalists seem to be very close to the originals in that regard) -- he did it specifically in the context of their behavior in relation to monsters, which makes it extremely consistent with his character in the series so far. After all, Laios is no Kabru; he is, as everybody else notes, not judgmental towards people. And that's partly because, as Kabru later notes, he just seems to care more towards his passion (monsters) that he tends to neglect social intelligence -- part and parcel of which is forming opinions of and behaving accordingly around other people. Talk about neurodivergent-coded indeed. |
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FishLion
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It is so emotional to see how judgmental they are of him. It is very fair to say he is reckless and dangerous and doesn't realize how his actions affect others, between the lack of understanding Shuro and Chilchuck having to beg for him to stop mindlessly chasing his goal his lack of social intelligence is clearly not just an awkward trait but a sometimes dangerous one for his livelihood as a person on a team of adventurers. It just hurts so badly to see firstly because it is a familiar feeling and also because the way he sees things so clearly due to his lack of social understanding is also his strength. Not just because his hard headedness and passion make him function as a glue socially in the party, but because in unfamiliar situations his creativity and willingness to think outside the box is what saves members of the party again and again. It is very upsetting to see that is their strongest memories of him even if the impressions are not entirely unfair, and he proves this mindset is unfair by using his unconventionality to save everyone again. At the end of the day he has no less expertise than anyone else, it is just in a field that makes people think he is a weirdo. He's not that different from Marcille in that regard, Marcille simply has experience in something that is easy to measure the value of due to the sought after nature of magic as a tool and practice besides her socially devalued knowledge. while Laios has something that would never get him anywhere on a resume yet keeps the party afloat all the time. |
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bravenewdust
Posts: 6 |
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I'm disappointed in this week's review. There was a lot to discuss but this article feels like someone had to meet a minimum wordcount for homework. The opening line is "Episode 19 is another fun two-parter that introduces a bundle of fun ideas wrapped in a charming package." So... a fun episode with fun ideas? The review is short but it literally begins and ends with "the episode was fun". It actually uses the word "fun" five times. It reads like a first draft.
I know this sounds snotty, sorry, I just think there is a lot to dive into with this show and it's being ignored. I love ANN and I come here for the thoughtful analysis and humorous critiques. However, this review simply feels phoned in. |
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Sasuke149
Posts: 61 |
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I am so amused with this series because the only panty shots we get are from Senshi. Idk why but it's so funny.
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malvarez1
Posts: 1713 |
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This was a really good episode, but it’s also the first time I felt that they didn’t even try creating a transition between the two chapters they adapted.
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FishLion
Posts: 27 |
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I love firm dad friend Senshi, I hope they keep this dynamic going
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OpenYourEels4TheNextFeels
Posts: 61 |
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This description completely ignores the very obvious worries Laios has about being unable to understand other people. Like, take this line from the Nightmare version of Laios's ex-party member who pretended to still be recovering to get more money from Laios & became a black-market dealer:
That's not problems with "living up to expectations", that's problems with picking up on social cues. This trend of the reviewer completely glossing over how extremely Neurodivergent-coded Laios is has me very concerned for how things will go later in the series/in later seasons. |
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Aezreal
 Posts: 29 |
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This episode's rendition of the climax of Marcille's dream was beautiful! I continue to be impressed by the sound cues and background themes of this adaptation.
Unfortunately, I have to continue echoing what other folks have said about the reviews. I don't know what's the background for this decline but there have been several episode reviews lately that read like first drafts. For Grant's caliber of writing, they're just plain uninspired. I used to love reading his tweets dissecting One Piece when I still used twitter (and I don't even like OP!) and more recently I still greatly enjoyed his article about Toriyama. So I bear him no ill-will, quite the contrary. Coming from someone who likes his writing when his soul is in it, I've been disappointed by the surface-level commentary and repetitive wording employed. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11406 |
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He's also back to calling Marcille "Marceille." Since he finally got her name right last week, it's frustrating to see him relapse.
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Nev999
Posts: 133 |
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Yeah, as I've said before, I don't want to be critical, far from it, but I was really hoping for reviews that would not just be surface level and that would spark some discussion. Dungeon Meshi's got a lot to dig into, but the minimum word count thing is something I noticed. On one hand, I don't think reviewers should have to do more than what they're paid for, I've been in that grind. And for all I know, times could be tough right now. And Grant seems like a nice person and I'm glad he's not being overly negative and sees the series surface level strengths.
But...the dreams aren't hard to decipher at all if you really dig into them. Pretty much every aspect of them is explained. (Even Laios turning into a dog isn't weird because the previous episode established he vibes with dogs). Marcille's fears here put a lot of how she is into context. We know she's an anxious person who will go to drastic lengths to reverse the deaths of her loved ones. She's going to outlive all her loved ones and that pain has been tearing her apart. She also mentioned she's specifically studying magic to fix that, which is intriguing. This is also where it sinks in that death is a major theme of the series. It's about the ways people can try to defy it, deny it and cope with it.It's about grief, loss and the human condition. Which actually ties into the food theme, since death and being consumed is part of the cycle of life and the food chain...yet the people in the dungeon are in a place where death isn't allowed. Is that a good thing? As Senshi noted, it's not natural. And we learn that Laios has a more painful past than we realized. It's notable hasn't spoken to his parents in ten years. He's estranged from his family which means some serious shit must have happened. He never fit in socially even in this own village, and the way he can't pick up social cues actually really distresses him deep down. He acts unflappable and cheerful, but he's carrying a lot of pain and insecurity. This also puts some of his previous actions into context. I also really like that we see how ride or die Laios is for Marcille here. He also showed this in the episode with Shuro, but he respects her so much and is so supportive. They're slowly forming a close (sibling like imo) bond. She's probably the one in the group he's closest too at this point. Anyway yeah, I love this story and I think it deserves some deeper analysis. |
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OpenYourEels4TheNextFeels
Posts: 61 |
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The Barometz is actually based on the real-world legend of the "Vegetable Lamb of Tartary" (Latin name "Planta Tartarica Barometz"). IIRC the speculation is that the myth arose out of misunderstandings/miscommunications about either the cotton plant, or "the custom of removing an unborn lamb from its mother's womb in order to harvest the soft wool" (with the fetal wool being mistaken for a vegetable substance). |
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malvarez1
Posts: 1713 |
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It’s a small thing, but the action scene against the large monster looked pretty good - except for that final stab, which lacked oomph to a comical degree.
Otherwise, another good and fun episode with some strong character work. |
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Thesarum
Posts: 415 |
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add Lazy. Wilful. Selfish. And masks insecurity with hostility. Prone to lashing out when overwhelmed even if it's something she actually wants. She's a cat. Hilarious that the party knows Laios well enough by now to immediately leap into action to restrain him when Izutsumi foolishly believes nobody would be interested in the body of a "beast". |
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