Warning: Contains spoilers for Delicious in Dungeon episode #1.Delicious in Dungeon is the latest anime from Studio Trigger and one of the first new shows of the winter 2024 season. The story revolves around the warrior Laios leading a party through a dungeon to revive his sister, Falin, after a dragon eats her. To work around a lack of supplies, Laios, somewhat too eagerly, forces everyone to survive by eating the various monsters they encounter in the dungeon.
With the fame of both Studio Trigger and the original manga, Delicious in Dungeon had a lot of hype surrounding it, and it more than lives up to it, so far. While there’s only been a single episode released, Studio Trigger’s Delicious in Dungeon boasts incredible direction and charm through a combination of its staff and the original source material, and that’s resulted in it having one of the strongest premieres of the season so far.
Delicious in Dungeon is set to run for about half the year, and if its premiere is anything to go off of, it’ll be one of the best anime to watch during that time.
Delicious In Dungeon’s Direction Perfectly Captures Its Dungeons & Dragons Style
One of the best things Delicious in Dungeon has going for it so far is how well-crafted of an anime it’s been from the very start. One notable area where that can be seen is with the music, as Yasunori Mitsuda’s soundtrack does an excellent job of portraying a medieval fantasy vibe that’s perfectly in line with the Dungeons & Dragons aesthetic, and it results in every scene excellently getting that feeling across to the audience. Mitsuda has a long history of composing fantasy-style music with games like Final Fantasy and Chrono Trigger, and he was clearly the right choice for a show like Delicious in Dungeon.
Adding to that, of course, is the animation and composition of the series. Thanks to Yoshihiro Miyajima’s stellar direction, every scene in Delicious in Dungeon not only looks good, but has incredible care put into its shot composition and overall execution that makes everything stand out, with one notable aspect being how Laios’ armor always makes noise with every little movement he makes. While this is Miyajima’s directorial debut, he already has plenty of experience with fantasy anime through his work on Little Witch Academia, and that experience is being used to make Delicious in Dungeon a great watch from the get-go.
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Delicious In Dungeon Lives Off Of Its Story & Characters
What ultimately sells Delicious in Dungeon as an anime, of course, is how great the writing is. The basic premise of the characters eating monsters is funny on its own, but it’s taken even further by how Delicious in Dungeon spends a lot of time going into the finer details of the anatomy of the monsters and how said anatomy dictates what the best way to cook and eat them ends up being. That level of detail elevates Delicious in Dungeon into a story that actually puts thought and care into its premise, and that, in turn, adds another level of quality that it’s sure to benefit from, going forward.
Going off of that, the characters, of course, are another part of what makes Delicious in Dungeon so great. The seriousness in which Laios takes eating monsters to the point that Falin’s situation was just an excuse to try it out is greatly contrasted with Marcille and Chilchuck’s straight man routine and reluctant acceptance, and it makes every scene with them always feel lively and a perfect execution of the story’s premise. The more serious aspects of the story do promise some more substantial development, of course, and seeing how that all plays out will undoubtedly make Delicious in Dungeon great to watch.
Delicious in Dungeon releases new episodes Thursdays on Netflix.
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