Delicious in Dungeon’s Enduring Legacy Shouldn’t be its Monster Menu

Trigger’s anime adaptation of the popular manga is heading for a Season 2 (eventually), which is great because too many simmering questions remain from the brilliant first course…

There’s no denying that the unique spin in Delicious in Dungeon, which sees the series’ party of adventurers eating the monsters they encounter in an extensive, multilayered dungeon, instead of real food, is one of its main draws. The manga itself has been around since 2014, but outside of Japan its premise has remained largely off most people’s menus. And you’d be right to call said premise an appetising spin on the D&D-inspired norm. But having personally wrapped the first season (despite it being available for over a year now!), I’d argue that the series’ legacy is deeper than the monster-infused umami that Senshi and co cook, prepare and chow down on, often emphatically. Rather, it’s in its exploration of dark magic, the desperation that got the party to where they are in the first place, and what the cost of hope truly is when it seems all but lost.

Oh, and also just how bad a cut of dragyu meat could be for someone whose intestinal lining might not be quite ready for such rich marbling.

The rules created in this high-fantasy setting are among the best we’ve experienced in the format, and yes that includes the likes of the equally brilliant Vox Machina, the slow-but-philosophical-but-very-good (and recently-released) Frieren and another personal fave (in anime), Reborn as a Vending Machine, I Now Wander the Dungeon, among myriad others. Interestingly, however, Delicious in Dungeon shares as many similarities with Full Metal Alchemist as it does the aforementioned through its expressly indulgent spin on transmutation and chimeran ‘monstrosities’ as well as its layered politics. And it’s in these spaces and fallouts where the first season truly shines.

But let’s get back into the multi-leveled kitchen(s) first, for a bit of prep.

Delicious in Dungeon

From: Studio Trigger
Release Date: January 04, 2024
Author: Stephen Farrelly
Date: April 25, 2025

My (Dungeon) Kitchen (My) Rules

From a setup perspective, Delicious in Dungeon is right up there. The very pull of the party’s initial provision-less plunge into the dungeon, but its unflinching resolve to try descend it, regardless, ought to be enough. Any number of setups could have led to this also, but what makes this unique is that the adhoc party is driven to save the sister of our main protagonist, Laios, whom now finds herself being slowly digested by a huge red dragon that both ate her, whole, and decimated most of our adventurers early on in an epic skirmish (don’t worry, these aren’t spoilers as this all happens very early on).

"We’re reminded throughout that a dragon’s digestive system is uber slow which allows our adventurers to, well… adventure!"

So, you see, the foundation of the series itself is food-driven, even from the outset, albeit from the monster perspective. But this is kind of genius when you fully digest it, especially after a few courses in the form of early episodes.

This ‘genius’ becomes even more pertinent, though, because we’re reminded throughout that a dragon’s digestive system is uber slow which allows our adventurers to, well… adventure (ie, take their time, pick up side quests, meet new and interesting other characters etc). Everything here paints a picture of an important endgoal, naturally, but one that allows our heroes to just faff about, for lack of a better way to put it. That being said, the ever-present reminder of their plight -- that being penniless, lacking in traditional rations and overall preparation -- is a decent steamed carrot on a string for them to be doing the faff-about stuff, anyway. So the immediate rules crafted here from a setup perspective are, at least in our opinion, Three Hat or Michelin Star(s) worth. 

All of this allows the anime writers to guide episodes around exposition and character-building which equally allows for that exploration of more than just eating a walking mushroom that may or may not be sentient to shine (in fact "sentience" becomes a philosophical talking point throughout, natch). Each character's plight and background then also becomes an important stamp on the overall "rules" crafted for this dungeonverse(?), and through all of this the world itself starts to simply make more and more sense. But then, it also kind of doesn't.

It's honestly some of the best writing and pacing we've seen in modern anime and only helps to maintain Trigger's newfound position as god-tier in its craft.

Would you like to know more?
Like any good roleplaying tilt, even in passive form, Delicious in Dungeon's cast of characters all feature unique and at times mysterious backgrounds. Their personalities clash as often as they gel and the writers find ways to utilise each's unique skillsets or backgrounds to help the story -- and their adventure -- forge ahead. While gamers and roleplayers will understand the archetypes well, there's an intimacy embedded into the series that is elevated and helps endear these guys to the viewer regardless of your geek alignment, standing as just another excellent example of the writing from both the manga and its anime adaptation here.

New (Old) Nonstick Adamantine Cookware

Mystery also permeates the afore-termed “adhoc party”, representing further flex from the writers. Most notably in Senshi, the dwarf the group meets in the first levels of the dungeon who just happens to know a lot about cooking food, and cooking it well. And whom is also seemingly versed in preparing at least basic monsters from within the dungeon and also, somehow, making them equally delicious. (Click our "Would you like to know more?" box out for... MORE!).

Our initial ragtag group itself sees his culinary skills as necessary and barely query his background or, indeed, his motivations, at least in the first two thirds. Not just for joining them, but for being in the dungeon at all, and on his own. His beat becomes very important in the later episodes of the first season, however, so we won’t spoil his rich and tragic background with you save to say the space in which he and our adventurers find themselves is machinatious in its own right and oft feels like it's working against them and their goals, reactionarily. 

It’s a strange way to consider things, too, because we quickly forget a lot of ‘whys’ while the party just survives, so backgrounds and personal journeys easily fall by the wayside, but this is seemingly by design (see, flex), because once you remember that everything is kind of mysterious and moving and reactionary, you start to really see flavours emerge.

"The layer cake that is its far richer story shows there’s something special and different here..."

That the party -- not by design, but through necessity -- utilises the dungeon to survive by not just eating its monstrous inhabitants, but also reckoning the symbiotic nature of many of its nasties they encounter in order to bypass traps, predators and other deadly impediments makes it feel like the space somehow becomes angry with them because of their on-the-fly ingenuity. Which also unfurls in very cool and unique ways the deeper they (and we) get in.

It would have been easy for this manga and even its anime adaptation to just use the schtick of turning D&D-flavoured monsters into delicious food as its base, but the layer cake that is its far richer story shows there’s something special and different here. This is led, most notably, as you close in on the end of the first season by the concept of what’s natural and what’s unnatural; a full circle narrative tilt foreshadowed by most of the party’s initial reluctance to eat the dungeon’s monsters in the first place because… you guessed it: unnatural.

And to equally full circle our own sentiments here, the unnatural in any fantastical writing normally comes in the fusion of things not meant to be, or in fantasy (and even mythological) writing terms: chimeran.

D&D Fusion

From here on out this gets hard for us, because we honestly don’t want to spoil it for those of you who’ve not watched yet, but shit gets pretty weird (so some spoilers are ahead, just FYI). And let’s be honest, outside of Japan, the basic idea of eating the monsters in a dungeon in any type of D&D-type setup might just not be on the mind, at least in fantasy. We mean, who fancies munching down on a slime let alone wondering what one even tastes like? How the heck do you even prepare such a thing to be palatable in the first place? Not a dig at Japan, mind, it is a hell of a culinary adventure to eat there and we have so much to thank the nation and its rich and storied history for, for so much of the food we eat and the horizons we’ve all likely broadened. But this spin is still fairly special for its approach, and we applaud it for that, despite its uniqueness among a sea of what can usually be defined as absurdism. 

"There’s simply so much D&D flavour here - and some even beyond the base Pen and Paper setup - that it’s hard to look past..."

But umami storytelling can’t come at the cost of a significant narrative based in realms we can understand or mildly relate to, but that are also so far removed from reality they become fantasy, in concept alone. Which is something Delicious in Dungeon excels at. Such as assuming the slow digestion of a dragon is going to help the length of time to save a swallowee. Or that a particular type of metal best tempered to slay magical beasts is also better than the best George Foreman nonstick griddle available for cooking, but is also a great shield. Or that wearing the skin of a frog after you eat its meat is a good thing because you’ll avoid being poisoned by the dungeon flora… there’s simply so much D&D flavour here -- and some even beyond the base Pen and Paper setup -- that it’s hard to look past when you start to eat up the peripheral elements to just ‘eating monsters’.

It does come, however, and it comes both in the form of one of the truly epic dragon fight sequences, and then in what all of that "faffing about" might have cost the team -- a cost casually paid for in dark magic blood, but one with a cost of inflation the likes of which no one could expect. Where sisters and endgoals and machinatious dungeons coalesce to transmute expectations and deliver up the most nightmarish of degustation.

Degust Deserts

It’s about here we can bring back Full Metal Alchemist because the third act of the 24 episodes (many of which are also split into two-ish stories per) deals heavily with the fallout of fevered decision making made with no thought for consequence. It’s also where the high fantasy base of the show (e)merges with dark fantasy themes and D&D boundaries are stretched to new limits. Which is saying a lot.

In respect of those spoilers we are desperately trying to avoid, however, the truncated aftereffects of said decisions, the ones with “no thought for consequence”, sees the point of this whole sojourn turned so heavily on its head it feels piledriven into the viewer. But the gravity of it is even worse for our adventurers, and where victory over a great red dragon, the saving of a loved one and the apparent completion of an ‘impossible’ dungeon seemed all but sewn up, things go from fucked to proper fucked, and all within the blink of an eye.

"The questions you want answered aren’t 'will they stock up on provisions and money for next time?' but rather, 'how the heck can they come back from this?!?'..."

These elements leave questions, too. Questions that can’t be answered by eating a creature that controls a chest and is therefore a mimic but might as well be a hermit crab. So, quickly, what was a cheeky and at times indulgent course is actually very real, and very dark. The last third of the show is simply in realms you didn’t expect things to go, and it’s bloody and it’s grotesque and even throws appreciative spanners into the usual fan-service works of things. It also tells us Studio Trigger is ahead of the tropey and expected cultural curve in the space. And, honestly, it is so, so welcome.

The dark that comes with what is (and was) peripherally pitched as bubbly is, frankly, overwhelming. Not aromatic, either. Full flavour shift-levels of tonal pivot. But there’s so much maturity around this 180° that the questions you want answered aren’t “will they stock up on provisions and money for next time?” but rather, “how the heck can they come back from this?!?”. Remember when we said in the opening salvo “what the cost of hope truly is when it seems all but lost”? At the close of the key arc towards the season finale, as a viewer, it resonates all too heavily and will leave you pondering just what can, and will, happen next. One thing is for sure, though, no sour taste was left in my mouth at the Season One close, only a desire for a heaping second course.

Bring on Season Two, Netflix and Studio Trigger and piping hot, please.

Would you like to know more?
Manga readers will of course be able to discern at least some of what we can expect in Season Two, but if you're at all across both mediums you'll know that often there are key differences and even new ideas and concepts explored in the adaptations. Berserk is a perfect example of this, and while its anime history is patchy at best, there's stacks the manga goes into the anime(s) simply couldn't, but the shortened versions of some arcs, or more thoroughly explored elements means each medium has plenty to offer. So don't go thinking that just because you've read the Delicious in Dungeon manga that you're in the 'know' for what's in store for Season Two!

About the author

Written By Stephen Farrelly
Stephen Farrelly is a veteran journalist and editor with more than two decades experience in the worlds of gaming, entertainment, lifestyle and sport under his belt. He is a proud pug dad, loves art in all forms but particularly street and tattoo culture, and is the director of Swear Jar...
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