English Dub Season Review: Dungeon People Season One

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Master thief Clay (Donna Bella Litton) heads off into an unexplored dungeon, but much to her surprise, the dungeon’s caretaker offers her a job!

Our Take:

Dungeon People is an anime adaptation of a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Sui Futami.  It is directed by Sayaka Yamai, with Toshimitsu Takeuchi writing the scripts and OLM Team Yoshioka producing the series.  Hiroki Nakayama designed the characters, and Pieru and LASTorder composed the music.  The opening theme song, “Micro Revolution”, was performed by TrySail, while Akari Nanawo performed the ending theme song, “Blueprint”.  

Dungeon exploration is a fundamental aspect of adventure fantasy anime, along with isekai tropes and RPG-inspired elements.  Many brave adventurers traverse through multiple rooms, fighting dangerous monsters, surviving against deadly traps, and finding some unique treasures.  However, a dungeon is also known for housing many secrets, including one that most adventurers were unaware of.  That secret is that it functions as a workplace, and one particular adventurer just happened to be its next employee.

Dungeon People is the latest addition to the dungeon-crawling subgenre that may seem like another series involving dungeon exploration, but it offered much more to make the concept more refreshing.  In this case, the series puts an interesting spin on the dungeon aspect by shaping it into a workplace environment and exploring the ins and outs of the underground chamber and its functionalities.  It’s operated by a young girl named Beilleheila Langdass (Annie Wild), or “Belle” for short, who’s also the dungeon’s tenth-floor boss due to her extraordinary abilities.  She then gets an unexpected extra hand from a master thief named Clay, who goes inside the dungeon to search for her missing adoptive father, Brans (Jeremy Gee).  Despite their distinct personalities, Clay and Belle work side by side to keep the dungeon functional while Clay searches for more clues about Brans. 

As most dungeon-crawling anime focus on adventurers fighting through obstacles in dungeons, Dungeon People took a refreshing approach to the concept by resembling the dungeon as a work environment.  Not only that, but it also provides a laid-back and easygoing tone involving Clay and Belle’s friendship that isn’t without its share of violent moments in between.  While it retains the aspect of conquering dungeons, the series focuses mainly on Clay experiencing the functionalities of Belle’s dungeon, including the monsters and the creation of its treasures, while searching for her father.  At first glance, it may seem repetitive regarding its episodic structures, especially when some of them don’t progress the plot that much.  While that may be the case for some, it’s also surprising that Dungeon People managed to provide enough charm and humor to make those episodes entertaining.

Part of that is due to the protagonists’ partnership, which not only delivered some effective humor from their distinct personalities but also injected some adorableness into their reactions.  Clay is a skilled yet stern thief whose adventuring abilities compensate for her minimal expressions. However, those are later challenged when she learns more than she experienced in the dungeon.  On the other hand, Belle’s personality is the exact opposite: a cheerful and bright young girl posing as the dungeon’s tenth-level boss due to her impeccable magic.  However, some episodes show that she may have lots to learn since she’s also the successor of the dungeon’s old master.  These contrasting personalities have been the staple of other shows with similar concepts, with some benefitting from the characters’ chemistry and direction, especially in the world of anime.  Dungeon People solidified itself as one whose treasure comes from Clay and Belle’s endearing partnership as they navigate the low-stakes trials of the workplace environment in a humorous fashion.

The main actresses behind the protagonists, Donna Bella Litton and Annie Wild, were also the reason behind their engaging charm, even though some of their dialogue deliveries sounded a tad forced.  Litton suitably conveyed Clay’s deadpan humor and minimalistic expressions through her vocal performance, emphasizing some of the show’s darkly comedic moments.  As for Annie Wild, I honestly couldn’t think of anyone else worthy of capturing Belle’s seemingly adorable nature besides her.  She was an absolute treat in manifesting Belle’s innocent and joyful personality, even when sharing information about the dungeon’s ins and outs or reacting to Clay’s misunderstandings.  The rest of the voice cast was also respectable in catching up with the main leads, including Jay Hickman as Rangado, the dungeon’s dwarf employee, and Ben McLaughlin as Fen, the leader of the adventuring group Ice Wolf’s Fang.

Regarding its tone, Dungeon People is another example of the phrase, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”.  While it may seem like an innocent, low-stakes series about two girls running a dungeon, the series also had a few dark moments in between that often overshadow its tranquility.  Most moments come from its violence, in which Clay slices and dices her way through the dungeon occasionally.  There’s also its penultimate episode, “Those Who Are Not Protected”, where Clay and Belle gruesomely kill a group of murderers that don’t play nice with other adventurers.  While the violence didn’t push enough boundaries to give itself a mature rating, the show’s tone should still be considered before applying for this job.  Its tonal balance may occasionally be off-putting, but it worked fairly well when it provided some unexpected humor from those mildly dark moments.

The animation style reflects the anime’s simplistic and storybook-like design of the characters and environments, emphasizing its fantastical and lively appearance.  This was a different approach for OLM compared to its other shows I reviewed, including I Parry Everything, which went for a more graphic novel and detailed look.  Despite not having much innovation and creativity in its simplicity, the animation was serviceable enough to represent the show’s cute appeal and limited presentation.  Even the action scenes, while subtle and violent, have their share of engagement through the show’s restricted yet compelling style.

Overall, Dungeon People offers enough endearing perks of the job to make this position worth accepting for dungeon enthusiasts.  It got off to a rough start with its first episode, which gave me a sense of emptiness for the dungeon’s rooms and hallways.  But after that, the show improved itself through its humor, presentation, and chemistry, resulting in a laidback, refreshing, and agreeably entertaining addition to the dungeon-crawling anime department.  It’s no groundbreaking achievement for the genre regarding its tone and story, with that award still belonging to the incredible Delicious in Dungeon.  However, as far as dungeon anime go, this is one job I wouldn’t mind being promoted to full-time, that is, if the show decides to continue Clay and Belle’s adventures with a second season.