Dungeon Meshi

Adventuring knight Laios Touden leads a small party through a seemingly endless dungeon, a subterranean maze full of dangerous monsters and precarious traps. Through the use of advanced magic, an explorer can sometimes be resurrected, allowing them to learn from past mistakes and give traversing the dungeon another go. However, when a powerful dragon eats Falin, Laios' spellcasting sister, she sends her brother and his companions back to the beginning to save them from permanent ends.

Though strapped for cash and equipment, Laios resolves to fight his way through the dungeon and rescue Falin before she can be digested by the dragon. Despite some of Laios' allies abandoning him, two remain by his side: elven mage Marcille Donato and halfling locksmith Chilchuck Tims. Due to their lack of funds, the party faces the daunting prospect of starving before being able to complete their quest. However, they find salvation in Senshi, a dwarven warrior with a penchant for cooking and safely eating defeated monsters.

With Senshi's culinary expertise, Laios and his companions struggle through the dungeon while learning about gourmet dining—and each other—along the way.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Donato, Marcille Main

Senbongi, Sayaka Japanese

Touden, Laios Main

Kumagai, Kentarou Japanese

Senshi Main

Naka, Hiroshi Japanese

Tims, Chilchuck Main

Tomari, Asuna Japanese

Izutsumi Supporting

Kambe, Mitsuho Japanese

Touden, Falin Supporting

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Mithrun Supporting

Uchiyama, Kouki Japanese

Kabru Supporting

Katou, Wataru Japanese

Thistle Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuu Japanese

Inutade Supporting

Furuya, Yoshino Japanese

Ootsuka, Masahiko Producer, Episode Director

Kikushima, Kazufumi Producer

Usa, Yoshiki Producer, Executive Producer

Vig, Julien Producer

Reviews

Apr 4, 2025

Weeb-OWO

Recommended

I was fully skeptical of this being a good anime when I read the plot and I remember the rating was around 7.5 when it first came out. I thought this anime could never work out. Mixing a dungeon-style anime with cooking as the main theme? Get outta here....

But after binging 24 episodes in 2 days, I can fully say this is one of the best animes I have ever seen. It's smart, mature, funny, exciting, dramatic...I could go on. I believe the best forms of entertainment are able to hit on a wide range of emotions and Dungeon Meshi does exactly that.

I would say ... that the central theme of Dungeon Meshi is that regardless of your background, we all have things in common and can relate to each other if we choose to be open to other's differences. This is primarily expressed through food being a commonality across all species.

The thing I most appreciate about Dungeon Meshi is that it is clearly written for a more mature audience. I don't say this because of all the blood and death, but because a huge focus of the show is on relationships and what it means to make a connection with someone else. That idea alone is not something you truly understand until you get older. Also, unlike your typical shounens, this show explains almost everything in a logical manner that makes sense so it doesn't take you out of the immersion which I feel is a tough task for most animes.

And as this show is focused on relationships, there is a huge amount of dialogue. I don't think I've seen an action anime have this much dialogue. And I'm saying this as a good thing, because I never found myself tuning out the dialogue. Everything said feels purposeful and it really allows you to connect with each character. Sadly since I read subtitles, I probably do not fully understand the nuance to what is being said, but the show is just that good at expressing the words through everything else that I feel I fully understand the weight behind every word.

This leads me to my next point: Dungeon Meshi has some of the most well-written characters I have seen in an anime show. Beyond the character designs (which are amazing), the show does a wonderful job at introducing us to characters and then continually reveal bits and pieces of their backstory to understand their motivations and why they choose to act or say what they do. Despite their being so many different characters, I felt fully connected to most of them which completely elevated my viewing experience.

I'm this deep and I didn't even get to talking about the plot itself...I could probably go on and on, but I'll just stop there. Look, I may be biased in that I enjoy cooking, but the show is genuinely good. In summary, I would say Dungeon Meshi falls into its very own anime niche that takes a very shouneny concept which is usually plot-driven but flips that and makes it almost fully character-driven. With solid writing, characters, and artwork, Dungeon Meshi will be at the top of my list of animes I am looking forward to.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 6, 2025

Panda_Roll

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Delicious in Dungeon, a cooking show where mythical dungeon critters are used as ingredients for real world recipes.

There is a sub genre on the rise recently called "cozies". Cozy mysteries is the oldest one going back to the 1940s but more recently it's started to infect other genres.

Dungeon Meshi is a clear cut example of a Cozy Fantasy, dungeon crawler subtype. Instead of exploring, plot or character development the focus instead is shifted to the food aspect with actual recipes included for the dishes per volume (yes, most publishers require that for a cozy series)

On the surface it's an ok idea, it combines two ... popular genres and the 8.6 score on MAL is a testament to it's success.

Personally though, I have mixed feelings about this. The cooking portions break the build up tension way too often. The show has a story and is good about create a sense of urgency... which is thrown to the wind because it's a cozy so obviously everything needs to be slowed down to a crawl.

The characters are paper thin, they have exactly one role each:-

Laios = Monster! yay! can I eat it?
Marcille = ew! Yuck! ew ew ew EW! ok, I'll eat it... yum.
Senshi = Cooking mama
Chilchuck - Ugh, don't treat me like a kid! So annoying.

In the second half of the show Marcille becomes the designated butt of the joke character for some reason, that's about it.

There are a lot of inconsistencies as well. In one episode the group is introduced to a new monster type, the very next episode Laios is an expert on that monster's eating and breeding habits... how?! This includes monsters never seen before and have moved to the realm of myth. How does he know everything about them including their anatomy and behavioral patterns? Aside from an exposition dump for the viewer I mean.

Dungeon Meshi is two shows forced to share the time slot. The cooking aspect ruins the adventure pacing, the adventuring is too dark and morbid for a cooking show.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Sep 11, 2024

ryanq214

Not Recommended

Funny

The show has some redeeming qualities, and the characters are good, but frankly (despite knowing what it's name is) the show is dragged down by all the monster cooking. Just slows down the story most of the time, and it stops being funny pretty fast.
In addition, it's so weird how casual and not in a hurry the characters are 90% of the time despite them being on a time limit to save their friend. They have to save someone with like a month but they almost NEVER act like they are in a hurry. Just makes the overall story ... feel not important

The show would have been better without the cooking and characters just focusing on helping their friend as an adventure story. Would have been much better as the dungeon and adventurer side of the show is pretty good.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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'Dungeon Meshi' Gets Second Anime Season

The 24th and final episode of the Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon) television anime announced a second season at the end of its broadcast on Thursday. The offici...read more

Jun 13, 2024 8:09 AM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (22 comments)

'Dungeon Meshi' Second Cour Reveals Additional Cast, Theme Songs, Third Promo

The official website of the Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon) television anime series revealed on Thursday additional cast, theme songs, a second key visual (pict...read more

Mar 28, 2024 7:01 AM by DatRandomDude | Discuss (4 comments)

	Poll: Dungeon Meshi Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 ) Stark700 - Jan 18, 2024	182 replies	by Spootzel »» Apr 5, 2:26 AM
	Poll: Dungeon Meshi Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) valoon - Aug 5, 2023	297 replies	by JKam57 »» Apr 1, 9:25 AM
	Thoughts On Laios And Falin On The Autism Spectrum Enderobot - Mar 12	15 replies	by Mackyreels »» Mar 31, 6:25 PM
	Poll: Dungeon Meshi Episode 7 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Feb 15, 2024	127 replies	by MemeOfMemeIsMeme »» Mar 24, 12:11 PM
	Poll: Dungeon Meshi Episode 15 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Stark700 - Apr 11, 2024	104 replies	by juiceyoyoyo »» Mar 14, 8:10 PM