English Dub Review: Delicious in Dungeon “Hot Pot/Tart”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

After a crushing loss, Laios, Marcille, and Chilchuck quickly reenter the dungeon to save Falin, but this time, they have a foolproof survival plan.

Our Take:

Do you want to know the best part of adventuring? It’s not fighting monstrous enemies nor the weapons we receive. Nope. It’s the food we eat during the journey. However, these particular cuisines aren’t something you’d buy at the marketplace. Instead, they come from the slain monsters themselves, which may sound disgusting at first but are actually quite delectable if you know how to cook them.

This sums up what you need to know about Trigger’s latest anime, Delicious in Dungeon, which is also the first anime series of 2024. What better way to start the new year than with another fantasy dungeon crawler with monster food? The series’ first episode depicts a team of adventurers consisting of Tallman swordsman Laios, elven spell caster Marcille, and halfling locksmith Chilchuck. They’re the only members remaining after their quest to slay a red dungeon dragon went awry, resulting in Laios’s sister Falin, the group’s leader, becoming its lunch and the other two members leaving.  

With very few supplies left, Laios conjures a new plan that could help them survive the village-like dungeon and rescue his sister from being digested: slaying and eating dungeon monsters. Of course, that’s easier said than done, as Laios doesn’t know how to cook and eat the creatures without getting poisoned or worse, even with his cookbook. Luckily, a dwarf named Senshi arrives at the scene to help out. With his immense experience with the dungeon and its monsters, Senshi becomes an official member of Laios’s team, with his goal set on cooking the red dragon.

What makes this team unique in this episode is how their personalities are affected by this plot point. Laios is a calm, strong, tactless leader obsessed with trying different cuisines based on the monsters they defeat and driven by guilt over his sister being eaten. Marcille is a cautious yet skilled half-elf who’s highly uncomfortable with Laios’s insane strategy. Finally, we have Chilchuck, a sensible and caring young locksmith who attempts to keep Laios out of trouble, especially regarding his obsession with monsters.

Regarding the team’s chemistry and the show’s charm, its concept got off to a surprisingly good start with the first episode, which depicts the group eating a hot pot made out of a scorpion and a walking mushroom and a tart from the man-eating fruit plants. The animation by Trigger always impresses with its visual presentation and character designs, and the English voice cast has been pretty decent so far, including Damien Haas as Laios and Emily Rudd as Marcille. With the series being two cours long, it’ll be interesting to see how long this amusingly delicious structure would last until it becomes stale.