Delicious in Dungeon (Japanese: ダンジョン飯, Hepburn: Danjon Meshi, lit. "Dungeon Meal") is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Ryoko Kui. It was serialized in Enterbrain's seinen manga magazine Harta from February 2014 to September 2023, with its chapters collected in fourteen tankōbon volumes. The story follows a group of adventurers in a fantasy world who, after failing to defeat a dragon that consumed one of their own, embark on a journey through a dungeon to revive her, surviving by cooking and eating the monsters they encounter along the way.
Yen Press has licensed the series in North America. An anime television series adaptation produced by Trigger aired from January to June 2024. A second season has been announced.
Plot
In a fantasy world of dungeon exploration, adventuring parties set out on expeditions to raid dungeons, with many hoping to find the mysterious Golden Kingdom, which is said to be the treasure of an island dungeon.
The story begins as a group of adventurers unsuccessfully attempt to slay a red dragon and are forced to escape as it consumes the leader's sister, Falin Touden, a "tallman" (human) spellcaster. Wanting to rescue Falin, who used magic to teleport them to safety, the remaining members of the party—Laios Touden, a tallman swordsman; Chilchuck Tims, a halfling locksmith; and Marcille Donato, an elven spellcaster—brainstorm how to get back to the dungeon level with the dragon in time to save Falin from digestion. With most of their supplies left behind in the dungeon, their mission seems impossible until Laios, who secretly wants to eat dungeon monsters, suggests they sustain themselves by finding food inside, to which Chilchuck and Marcille reluctantly agree. Inside, they encounter Senshi, a dwarf with many years of experience surviving in the dungeon by cooking monsters and harvesting food.
The story details their travels through the dungeon, the environments, traps, and monsters they encounter, and the meals they create.
Characters
Laios's party
The initial members of the Touden Party (from left to right: Senshi, Marcille, Chilchuck, and Laios) as seen in the anime adaptation
A "tallman" (トールマン, tōruman), or human, who, along with his party, ventures into a dungeon to rescue his sister Falin before the dragon that defeated them digests her. He is a strong fighter and the leader of the party, and is calm and gentle. However, he tends to speak quickly when excited and can be tactless. He is excited to try different monster meals, and often uses the knowledge gained from cooking monsters to develop techniques to defeat them.
Kensuke (ケン助)
A mollusk-like creature from the "living armor" monsters that takes the shape of a sword, which Laios adopts to replace his original sword. It fidgets when it senses monsters, but also occasionally runs away when extremely frightened and cannot be drawn from its scabbard when rattling too much. Its sensitivity makes it unreliable, but helpful when exploring the dungeon.
A cautious half-elfmagician and an original member of Laios's party, who wields a wooden staff and can use various forms of magic. She is usually hesitant and even sometimes unwilling to eat monsters. Because of her skill in magic, she can often perform complicated or high-power spells with little preparation, a skill which her companions often do not appreciate.
A "half-foot" (ハーフフット, hāfufutto), or halfling, locksmith and an original member of Laios's party. He has good dexterity and keen senses, which he uses to disable traps, locate hidden pathways, and pickpocket for the group. He often admonishes Laios for his tactless behavior and obsession with monsters, but deep down cares about his companions. He dislikes when others take over his job or take needless risks and generally avoids combat, but can use a bow and arrow.
A dwarf warrior who joins the party to fulfill his dream of cooking the dragon Laios and his party set out to kill. He is knowledgeable about the dungeon and the monsters within it, and is an expert chef. He typically wields a large axe, but always carries a pot and cooking utensils. He ensures the party is well fed and have a balanced diet to keep them going through the dungeon.
A young tallman catgirl who was kidnapped and turned into a beast-man when she was six years old. She shares her form with the essence of a Big Cat, a monster resembling a large cat. After Shuro's father bought her, she traveled with his party under the alias of Asebi (アセビ) until she meets Laios's party, after which she joins them to find a cure for her body. She is independent and apathetic, but will protect her companions when needed.
A tallman spellcaster and Laios's younger sister; a gentle person who shares her brother's love of monsters and was an original member of his party. She was eaten by a dragon at the bottom of the dungeon after using her magic to teleport the party to safety. Laios and his party set out to rescue and revive her before the dragon's month-long digestion cycle ends and she can no longer be resurrected. She has the unique ability to communicate with ghosts, which she used to protect the party and remove ghosts possessing corpses.
A tallman fighter who leads a separate party to explore the island's dungeon. He is interested in people, but dislikes monsters due to past trauma involving a different dungeon. Despite wanting to reach the bottom of the dungeon and solve its mysteries, his party is bad at dealing with monsters and has been wiped out several times. He hates fighting monsters and monster food, but he is a skilled fighter against other humans. He is talented at reading people and understanding situations with little information.
A brash dwarf fighter and an original member of Laios's party, who has since departed to work with the Tansus. She is an expert in weapons and knowledgeable on types of metal and weapons.
A tallman fighter from a distant island who is part of a noble family. He decided to explore the dungeon to improve his skill, and fell in love with Falin after watching her observe a caterpillar. After Falin's death and being warped to the surface, he returns to the dungeon with several retainers, including Izutsumi, to rescue her. He is reserved and often a victim of Laios's lack of social awareness.
A tallman magician who is one of Shuro's retainers, performs healing magic, and works as the party's chef. She also serves the primary guardian to Shuro, raising and educating him.
A towering ogre who is one of Shuro's retainers and uses her strength as a warrior to deal with enemies. She had a close bond with Izutsumi before Izutsumi separated from the party.
A member of Mithrun's squad of Canaries who acts as his second-in-command and is smug and blunt towards others, with Mithrun being the exception. She specializes in illusory magic.
A member of Mithrun's squad of Canaries who is observant and has a tendency to panic. She has a familiar that doubles as a staff which can cast spells, and she specializes in healing magic.
An elf whom Laios first encountered inside the living pictures. He appeared again before Laios' party after they defeated the red dragon that digested Falin. It is later revealed that he is the Lunatic Magician who controls the dungeon the story is set in.[b]
The current lord of the Golden Country, who is the grandson of Delgal.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Ryoko Kui, Delicious in Dungeon was serialized in Enterbrain's Harta magazine from February 15, 2014,[12][13] to September 15, 2023.[14] Enterbrain collected its chapters in fourteen tankōbon volumes, released from January 15, 2014, to December 15, 2023.[15][16]
In October 2016, North American publisher Yen Press announced it had licensed the series.[17] The fourteen volumes were released from May 23, 2017, to July 23, 2024.[18][19]
The series received an anime television adaptation produced by Trigger.[46] It is directed by Yoshihiro Miyajima, with scripts written by Kimiko Ueno, character designs by Naoki Takeda, and music composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and Shunsuke Tsuchiya.[2][47] The first opening theme song is "Sleep Walking Orchestra [ja]", performed by Bump of Chicken, while the first ending theme song is "Party!! [ja]", performed by Ryokuoushoku Shakai.[4][5] The second opening theme song is "Unmei [ja]" (運命, "Destiny"), performed by Sumika, while the second ending theme song is "Kirakira no Hai" (キラキラの灰, "Twinkling Ash"), performed by Regal Lily [ja].[48] The series aired its first season in two consecutive cours from January 4 to June 13, 2024, on Tokyo MX and other networks,[49][11] with Netflix licensing it for streaming and simuldubbing worldwide weekly.[50][51][5]
After the final episode of the first season, a second season was announced.[52]
After encountering a legendary red dragon in a dungeon, the adventurer Laios Touden and his party are almost killed until his sister Falin is swallowed by the dragon. Her last act is to teleport everyone safely out of the dungeon. Laios hopes to retrieve Falin so she can be resurrected, but this must happen before she is fully digested, or she will be dead permanently. Unfortunately, two party members quit, leaving only Elven mage Marcille Donato, Halfling thief Chilchuck Tims, and no money. Since they need their equipment to survive and cannot sell it to buy food, Laios makes the radical suggestion to hunt and eat dungeon monsters. After spending some time convincing Marcille, they agree to try it. Their initial attempt to cook a monster scorpion is disgusting but does draw the attention of Dwarf warrior Senshi, a veteran of monster cookery. With his assistance, they produce a scorpion and mushroom hot-pot even the reluctant Marcille finds delicious. Learning they seek the red dragon, Senshi joins their party. Moving deeper into the dungeon, they camp for the night while Senshi makes supper; a tart made from the fruits of giant carnivorous plant monsters.
Senshi lectures the group on the typical poor diet of adventurers, which is high in fat and low on vegetables. As Marcille is craving meat, Senshi recommends either hunting a basilisk and its eggs. During the hunt, another adventurer is poisoned, but Senshi shows them cooking then eating the basilisk acts as an antidote. Requiring vegetables, Senshi harvests screaming mandrakes using a shortcut method. Marcille tries to demonstrate the proper method of harvesting mandrakes, but messes up and is attacked by a bat monster. Laios helps her feel better by pointing out things she is good at. Senshi discovers harvesting mandrakes the right way makes them taste sweeter, so he credits Marcille for teaching him something new and cooks mandrake and basilisk egg omelettes. Moving to the next floor, Chilchuck takes the lead as the area is full of booby traps. Unfortunately, Senshi delights in setting off traps on purpose and repurposes a fire trap and a hot oil trap into an oil fryer to make mandrake and bat meat kakiage. During the process, the two gain a better appreciation of each other as Chilchuck shows Senshi how to manipulate traps in exchange for basic cookery skills.
When Laios' sword is damaged, he recalls how he first found it. Three years ago, he and Falin were novices and Laios was killed for the first time by a living armor monster but managed to keep the armor's sword once he was resurrected. By chance, the party is now in the same area where suits of armor congregate and end up surrounded by them. Marcille suspects the armors are not monsters themselves, but empty puppets magically controlled by another monster. Laios confronts a larger armor guarding an egg and his damaged sword is destroyed. He realizes the armors are actually the shells of dozens of small, mollusc like monsters. Using the egg as bait, Laios defeats the larger armor then distracts the smaller armors and they safely escape. Deciding to treat them like giant shellfish, Senshi removes all the monsters from the large armor and cooks them in several ways. While edible, everyone agrees the armors are flavorless. Laios takes the large armor's much stronger sword as a replacement but makes the odd decision to hide from the others that one monster is still alive in the sword's handle.
Senshi reveals the third floor is populated only by undead and golems. Fortunately, golems are made of mud perfect for growing vegetables, so he keeps three at his secret campsite. After enjoying stewed cabbage, Marcille is disgusted that Senshi uses toilet waste as fertilizer. Senshi reveals the only thing stopping more dangerous monsters rising to the surface are the golems, but only his three remain alive. By keeping them healthy, he keeps adventurers on upper floors safe. They take the extra vegetables to a merchant, but the shop is attacked by orcs led by Chief Zon. It transpires Senshi intended to trade with the orcs all along as they are friends. The orcs are struggling as the red dragon has been invading their territory. Senshi gives them the vegetables and also shows them how to make bread. Marcille and Zon argue due to their species' past conflicts, but when Zon's infant son interrupts, they manage to share a meal. Laios shares the party's reason for hunting the dragon and his goal of conquering the dungeon. As such, Zon reveals the dragon was last seen two floors down on the fifth floor.
An adventuring party led by Kabru are also attempting to conquer the dungeon. After slaying an undead, they find treasure in its pockets. Later, Laios and the others find Kabru and his party mysteriously dead and the monster in Laios' sword goes berserk. It turns out the treasure Kabru found are actually venomous insects called Treasure Bugs. After defeating them, Laios continues to conceal the monster's presence. To Marcille's horror, Senshi reveals some of the bugs are edible and can be made into fried snacks. After Chilchuck throws the inedible treasure into an abyss, Senshi reveals they are inedible due to it being real treasure. Laios suspects the monster tried to protect him, so he names it Kensuke. They are then attacked by ghosts using ice magic, causing everyone to remember Falin used to treat ghosts kindly as she could communicate with them. Senshi drives them away with his version of holy water; a mix of alcohol, sugar, slime organs, herbs, and sweet Treasure Bugs boiled over blessed candles. The ghosts eventually disperse but Senshi discovers their coldness froze the holy water into an ice cream he dubs Exorcist Sorbet. Laios wishes Falin were there with them.
"Boiled in Salt Water" Transliteration: "Shioyude" (Japanese: 塩茹で)
The party discover a disused dining hall where paintings turn out to be Living Picture monsters. Laios decides to see if being absorbed by the paintings makes the food inside them edible. As he passes from painting to painting, he witnesses scenes from the life of a Prince Delgal. In each painting, Laios encounters an elf who remembers and ultimately tries to kill him, believing he is there to assassinate Delgal. Proving the food is not real, the party remains hungry and sets up camp. Chilchuck spots a Mimic but says nothing as he despises Mimics for always disguising themselves as treasure chests. However, while everyone asleep that night, he accidentally lets a Treasure Bug lure him into the Mimic's room and becomes trapped. Figuring out how to open the door, he escapes the Mimic, which is crushed when the door closed on it. With everyone now awake, Senshi boils the Mimic in saltwater, since without its disguise, a Mimic is just a giant crab. Chilchuck eats it reluctantly as his experience has only made him hate them more. Chilchuck also admits that he is 29, meaning Laios is actually the youngest party member.
"Broiled with Sauce" Transliteration: "Kabayaki" (Japanese: 蒲焼き)
Kabru and his party are resurrected and tricked into believing they were killed by Laios' party. Meanwhile on the fourth floor, Laios' party must cross a lake using magic, only for Senshi to refuse, revealing he has so much monster blood and oil in his beard that magic does not work on him. When he summons his pet kelpie, Anne, she cunningly tries to drown him. With Laios' help, Senshi kills her. Laios and Chilchuck later find Kabru's party has died again, this time drowned by mermaids. Chilchuck rejects Laios' suggestion they eat the latter. Laios makes porridge from grain Kabru dropped, Mimic and lake weeds. Chilchuck is furious when Laios secretly adds mermaid eggs. Marcille makes soap from kelpie fat, which Senshi uses to bathe for the first time in years, allowing them all to cross the lake. They are then attacked by a kraken, which Senshi kills with a mermaid's trident. Due to the kraken's bitterness, they instead eat the giant parasitic worms infecting it. When Laios foolishly tries to eat it raw, he becomes infected with a smaller worm, leaving him with a stomach ache.
While considering the effects of adventurers on the dungeon's ecosystem, Marcille remembers her youth as an academy student when she dreamed of creating a balanced dungeon that would be safe for adventurers. By contrast, Falin was aimless and easily distracted yet achieved better results by sneaking out to experience a real dungeon. Marcille accompanied her on one trip and realized even dungeons that seemed chaotic were delicately balanced and designing one herself would be much more complex than she naively assumed. This gave her great respect for the sorcerer who created this dungeon as he supposedly did so despite being insane. Chilchuck decides they are only two days away from the dragon and plans their sleep schedule accordingly. Marcille misses other girls, causing her to angrily remember the party members who quit after Falin died. Marcille later accidentally provokes an Undine. She eventually escapes but runs out of magic to recover from her blood loss, delaying the party's progress. To recover, Senshi feeds her ingredients high in iron, namely grilled kelpie liver, angering her when they eat all the other tastier meat without her getting to try any. Meanwhile, another party smell them cooking and become curious.
The other party consists of gnome researchers Mr. and Mrs. Tansu, bodyguards Kaka and Kiki, and female dwarf Namari. Marcille is unhappy as Namari is one of their party members who quit. The Tansus arrogantly assume the Undine will not attack them, resulting in Namari's death. After resurrecting her, Mr. Tansu's further impatience gets Kiki attacked by a tentacle monster. Once it is defeated, Senshi discovers tentacles pair well with vinegar. As it will take a week for the Undine to calm down, the Tansus decide to return to the surface. Laios tries to send Marcille with them but she refuses. Marcille then asks Namari to rejoin the party, but she cannot due to financial reasons. To recover her magic, Marcille decides she must eat the Undine. Senshi offers his cooking pot and lid as a shield, which Namari realizes are forged from adamant. Namari and Senshi trap and kill the Undine by boiling it, after which Marcille turns it into a kelpie and tentacle stew. Before departing, Laios asks Namari about the other former member, Shuro. Namari reveals that since he is in love with Falin, she believes that he too is trying to rescue her.
While trying to get to the fifth floor, a frog monster attacks the party on a staircase infested with tentacles. Chilchuck discovers frog skin is immune to tentacle venom, allowing him to rip out a tentacle blocking a crossbow trap, killing the frog. To bypass the tentacles, Laios makes frog suits while Senshi makes pasta from tentacles and frog meat. Reaching the Castle City, the party find the orcs' abandoned stronghold. Laios is confused why the dragon is still moving from place to place. Elsewhere, Mr. Tansu reports to the local Lord who has recently received a demand from the Elf King to return lands that once belonged to the elves, which includes the dungeon. Tansu suspects the elves want the dungeon's unique spell of immortality. As the spell is likely to be held by the insane sorcerer, the Lord decides to delay the elves and support the adventurers until they defeat the sorcerer. Back in the dungeon, Laios starts to realize how difficult killing the dragon will be due to the absence of Falin, Namari, and Shuro. The decision is instead made to lure and trap it. The dragon finally appears after Senshi makes frog meat cutlets.
The plan goes awry when Laios drops the cooking pot shield thanks to the dragon's fire breath, forcing the party to lead it to a trap Marcille has set up. When this fails, Kensuke panics and jumps out of reach, leaving Laios weaponless while Senshi's axe shatters on the dragon's scales. Luckily, Senshi's chef knife is made of mithril, which Chilchuck ultimately uses to blind the dragon's left eye. With the dragon distracted, Chilchuck and Senshi grabs Kensuke and throw it to Laios before they are buried under rubble. With Marcille's magic, Laios manages to kill the dragon. However, he loses his leg in the process. While on the ground, Laios remembers how he first discovered Falin was able to communicate with ghosts after she rescued him. He abruptly awakens after Falin confusingly tells him goodbye and not to worry about her. After Marcille heals everyone, Chilchuck demands Laios eventually explain about his sword. The party then slowly carves the dragon up to reach the organs. Unfortunately, they discover the dragon staying awake for longer than normal sped up the digestion process and all they find of Falin is her magic staff and her skeleton.
Due to the complex rules of resurrection, the party is unable to take Falin's bones to the surface or fetch a necromancer. In desperation, Marcille decides to perform the spell herself using dragon flesh to regrow Falin's missing parts. This also reveals her strongest magic is Ancient Black Magic, which she rarely uses as it is considered evil. Reassembling Falin's skeleton, Marcille performs the spell and Falin is resurrected. After getting over her confusion, Falin and Marcille bathe while Laios worries about how to safely return to the surface again. Chilchuck is conflicted over knowing Marcille can use illegal magic. Senshi prepares to cook the dragon, unaware the fuel that creates its fire breath has leaked, causing a giant explosion. Everyone survives thanks to Falin, who somehow used magic without an incantation. With the dragon now on fire, Senshi makes dragon soup, pizzas and steaks. Falin easily accepts eating monsters, thrilling Laios who also finally reveals the truth about Kensuke. As no one can decide what to do with it, Laios continues to keep it for now. As the party sleeps that night, another elf finds the dragon corpse and the remains of Marcille's forbidden ancient magic spell.
Falin sleepwalks back to the dragon corpse where the elf is angry she failed to locate Lord Delgal. Laios recognizes the elf as the one from the Living Picture Monsters, now revealed as the insane sorcerer who built the dungeon. The elf uses similar ancient magic as Marcille. As her body is made of dragon flesh, the elf is able to transform Falin into a new form to locate Delgal. Meanwhile, the rest of the party is captured by a group of orcs led by Chief Zon's sister, Leed. While Marcille and Laios are unconscious, Chilchuck suggests lying to them so they agree to return to the surface instead of saving Falin. Leed is disgusted but agrees to take him to retrieve his belongings so he can leave alone. Chilchuck notices the dragon corpse has now disappeared entirely. Leed coaxes him to recount the story of how they killed the dragon. This causes Chilchuck to realize he is afraid of having to watch his friends die. After retrieving everyone's belongings, he tries to convince Laios to follow his plan. When Senshi approves of the idea, Laios reluctantly agrees.
In a flashback, Mr. and Mrs. Tansu resurrected Kabru and his party. Without food, they attempted to return to the surface. However, they encountered an illusion spell that caused them to see each other as enemies. Once Kabru realized this, the culprits were revealed to be the labyrinth's corpse retrievers. After he killed them, he became unexpectedly depressed as similar scams caused less adventurers to bother entering the dungeon. Kabru gathered all the details he knew of the thieves and deduced they must be Laios' party. He also deduced Laios wanted to conquer the dungeon, but doubted Laios could handle owning a dungeon and its resources without harming society on the surface. The party were then attacked by a sea serpent but were saved by Shuro and his new party of women from his homeland in the East. Kabru volunteered his help to Shuro in finding Falin. Back in the present, despite two days having passed since killing the dragon, Laios and his friends remain trapped in the underground city where all the exits have mysteriously vanished, and are in danger of starving to death.
Marcille realizes the sorcerer is altering the dungeon's layout to keep them trapped. Noticing everyone is hungry, Senshi feels ashamed over not feeding them enough and decides to hunt the very next monster they encounter. Unfortunately, he, Laios, and Chilchuck encounter dryads whose pollen causes severe hay fever. Using voice commands, Chilchuck acts as Senshi's eyes allowing him to kill the dryads. Meanwhile, Marcille is unable to fight with her staff broken but requires magic and time to regrow it. Senshi makes dryad and mandrake soup and sautéed dryad fruits. To increase their chances of survival, Marcille begins teaching Laios healing magic. Feeling oddly fatherly toward Chilchuck, Senshi bizarrely chooses to give him "the talk". Laios performs his first healing spell but becomes affected by mana sickness, a common ailment for first timers, so the others leave him to rest. They are attacked by a cockatrice. Even though they killed it, Marcille is turned to stone in a very unbalanced position that makes her fragile and easy to break. Using a combination of Laios new healing magic and medicinal herbs, they cure her but it takes four days, making her feel guilty so much time was wasted.
"Dried with Sweet Sake" Transliteration: "Mirin Boshi" (Japanese: みりん干し)
Chilchuck notices a pattern to how the dungeon keeps changing and manages to lead them back to where they killed the dragon. Laios sees an undead that warns him of the Magician's Eye. Marcille then spots cleaners, minuscule magical animals that repair damage to the dungeon. Chilchuck locates the exit to the fourth floor, so Senshi cooks a chicken and egg dish using cockatrice, dryad, mandrake, and leftover healing herbs inside an edible stone dish made of crushed cleaners. The party abruptly encounter Shuro and his party and Kabru, who quickly determines Laios might not be the thief he thought he was. When Shuro collapses from exhaustion, everyone get together to cook a larger meal. Laios tells Shuro and Kabru that Falin might have been taken to an even deeper floor by the sorcerer. Senshi notices Shuro's attendant, Maizuru, is deeply concerned for Shuro's health since she has been taken care of him since he was a child. Senshi consoles her and together they bring a meal to Shuro and Laios. Everyone later sees a furious Shuro attack Laios for using black magic to revive Falin since if this is ever revealed to the authorities, Laios' party will be executed, including Falin. Meanwhile, a mutated Falin watches them from a distance, mindlessly searching for Delgal.
Kabru helps Shuro realize Laios' only other option was to let Falin stay dead. Whilst being attacked by harpies, Falin, now a chimera, suddenly attacks as well and begins killing Shuro's party. Laios hesitates to attack her, resulting in Kabru's death. Once Falin flees, Holm, Maizuru and Marcille manage to resurrect everybody. Shuro blames Marcille and insists that after they kill Falin, Marcille will be handed to the Western Elven Kingdom for punishment. When Laios counters that they should defeat the sorcerer to save Falin instead, they have a fistfight that quickly becomes a childish squabble. Having cleared the air, Shuro decides to treat Falin as though she died, return to his own country and never come back. Laios still plans to defeat the sorcerer and Kabru starts to believe that with his level of monster knowledge and ingenuity, Laios might somehow manage to succeed. After eating a harpy egg omelette, Shuro's party and Kabru teleport to the surface. Before he leaves, Shuro gives Laios a magic tool to contact him with in case he needs help to escape. Alone again, Laios and his friends follow after Falin.
The party follows Falin down to the sixth floor, where there are old dwarven tunnels that should be warm but are instead frozen over by ice. Laios learns from Marcille that Delgal was king 1,000 years ago but disappeared when the labyrinth was discovered, leading to the sorcerer's obsession with finding him. The party soon encounters a shapeshifter that makes copies of everyone. After exposing the obvious fakes, only three copies of Marcille, Chilchuck and Senshi remain, making it Laios' responsibility to identify them. Despite their lack of faith in his deductive abilities, everyone pairs up to prepare dinner. Unfortunately, his general obliviousness means he cannot tell the difference no matter how much he tries. Instead, Laios exposes the shapeshifter by assuming the persona of a hunting hound, scaring it enough to lose control of the copies, which disappear before Marcille blows it up. Laios reveals he actually had several hunches about which were the real ones, which turned out to be correct. Marcille is suddenly taken hostage by Asebi, one of Shuro's party members who went missing during Falin's attack.
Asebi reveals she is affected by two black magic curses, which she demands Marcille remove. When Senshi gives her some cheese and mushroom risotto, she ungratefully throws away the mushrooms. Maizuru's curse summons a demon to kill Asebi. After Senshi kills it, he lectures Asebi on wasting food. The second curse turned Asebi into an artificial beast-man, which is the same curse Falin has. Laios is glad, however, as Asebi's ability to retain her sanity means that it may be possible to restore Falin's mind. Asebi soon abandons her beast-man name and returns to her human name, Izutsumi. Days later, Marcille is affected by Nightmares, a monster that causes bad dreams and eventually death from exhaustion. Laios is able to lucid dream himself into Marcille's dream where a terrified Marcille is running away from a monster. Laios deduces it represents her fear of her loved ones dying. Thanks to his encouragement, Marcille is ultimately able to defeat the monster. An awakened Marcille only vaguely remembers a puppy helping her find a treasure. Laios reveals Nightmares are actually clam-like monsters that nested in Marcille's pillow and are perfectly edible cooked in butter and soy sauce.
The party makes it to where they fought the dragon the first time and recovers the equipment they left behind. Senshi finds one of his golem dolls has fallen down a sewer and bonded with the snow, forming an ice golem. Chilchuck cracks the ice, allowing Izutsumi to destroy it. As the golem contained frozen fish, Senshi makes fried fish and harpy egg custard. Chilchuck later crafts Izutsumi her own adventurer's bag while Marcille makes her clothing better suited for the snow. During a disagreement over her refusal to eat monsters, Izutsumi explains she fears catching incurable monster diseases. Izutsumi soon spots a tree growing a sheep and rushes to harvest the meat, unaware it is a barometz and a food source for dire wolves. When Izutsumi selfishly leaves the battle, she is attacked and almost killed by a wolf until Marcille drives away it and heals her. As the wolves ate the adult sheep, all Senshi can harvest is an unripe barometz fruit containing an unborn lamb. He makes lamb chops with fruit sauce, which a skeptical Izutsumi ends up enjoying. She then takes sadistic delight in forcing Marcille to eat it as well.
"The Golden Country" Transliteration: "Ōgonkyō" (Japanese: 黄金郷)
Shuro and Kabru see that the local Lord is being visited by the Canaries, elvish dungeon specialists. Not wanting the Canaries to take ownership of the dungeon, he and Kabru propose that they could seal the dungeon. The Canaries put Kabru in charge but warn him they will invade the dungeon if his plan fails. Meanwhile in the dungeon, Izutsumi senses a spirit, confirming Laios' recent hallucinations were actually a ghost. The ghost can finally explain it wants them to meet someone. Agreeing, the party is teleported to the legendary Golden Castle where farmers are living with tamed monsters. The village makes Izutsumi strangely docile as the monster taming spells affect her too. Chief Yaad, Delgal's grandson, explains the sorcerer cursed them with immortality. As a result, Delgal fled to the surface to get help but never returned. Once Marcille reveals what happened to him, Yaad explains the winged lion that originally guarded the dungeon was imprisoned by the sorcerer but first prophesized the sorcerer's death by a warrior with a winged sword who would become king of the dungeon. Laios worries this refers to him and is overwhelmed.
Yaad reveals Thistle, the sorcerer, was originally the court jester for Delgal's father but Delgal encouraged him to study magic until he became Royal Magician. Laios still wishes to talk with Thistle so Yaad advises the party to free the winged lion. Once they leave, Thistle furiously confronts Yaad. The party return to the dungeon where they are attacked by a griffin, which Senshi surprisingly has a phobia of, and his attempt to escape causes it to carry him away. While Marcille summons familiars to track him, Chilchuck becomes curious after he realizes there are various inconsistencies concerning Senshi. The familiars knock the griffin to the ground where Laios kills it, saving Senshi. As the familiars were made from their food supplies, Laios wastes no time and cooks them, angering Marcille. Meanwhile, Senshi refuses to butcher the griffin. In an effort to learn about him, Chilchuck reveals more about himself, including that he actually has a family he has not seen in years. In turn, Senshi reveals that in his youth, he was a miner and one day his crew accidentally found the Golden Castle, making them the very first people to enter the dungeon.
23
"Griffin Soup" Transliteration: "Gurifin no Sūpu" (Japanese: グリフィンのスープ)
While lost in the dungeon, a griffin killed most of the dwarves until only Senshi and two others, Gillin and Brigan, remained. Brigan went mad so Gillin killed him. He also claimed he had killed the griffin and fed Senshi its flesh to keep him alive. Gillin then left, suggesting the flesh was Brigan's. Senshi escaped the dungeon but his guilt drove him to begin hunting monsters. After finally eating the griffin, Senshi does not recognize the taste. However, Laios deduces it was actually a hippogriff. With changeling mushrooms, Laios magically transforms the griffin meat into hippogriff meat, which Senshi recognizes immediately. Free from his trauma, a thankful Senshi decides to continue the journey. Unfortunately, the mushrooms causes the party to switch species. While searching for more mushrooms to change back, they actually find the door to move deeper into the dungeon. Kensuke surprises them by emerging from the sword to open the magically locked door, which awakens some nearby gargoyles. Unable to fight, the party flees through the door and find themselves in a dwarven stronghold from the days of the ancient elf/dwarf war. With nothing else to do they make camp and cook hippogriff dumplings.
"Bacon and Eggs" Transliteration: "Bēkon'Eggu" (Japanese: ベーコンエッグ)
Laios wonders if the mushrooms are powerful enough to transform Falin back to human. The gargoyles soon attack again and in the chaos, Kensuke transforms. Marcille realizes everyone is covered in mushroom spores and by holding hands, they become a magic circle. The gargoyles are turned into harmless statues and the party quickly wash off the spores. Senshi makes more dumplings but uses the spores to transform them into different varieties. The next morning, everyone is back to normal so they explore the dwarf stronghold and get stuck in a trolley that automatically sets off even deeper into the dungeon. Senshi comes up with the idea that to separate Falin from the dragon and make her human again, they might need to cut off her dragon body parts and then eat them to stop them from healing and reattaching to Falin. Laios is worried that this plan could take years to accomplish, unless they ask for help from other parties and everyone they have met in the dungeon. Regardless, they must first find the winged lion. Meanwhile, Kabru, Namari and Shuro enter the dungeon, as do the Canaries.
Other media
In 2017, a stop motion animation, subtitled Senshi's Easy Cooking! (センシのかんたんクッキング！, Senshi no Kantan Kukkingu!), was released on YouTube to commemorate the release of the manga's fifth volume.[56] In 2019, an animated commercial produced by Trigger was released to promote the manga's eighth volume.[57]
Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: The Adventurer's Bible (ダンジョン飯 ワールドガイド 冒険者バイブル, Danjon Meshi Wārudogaido Bōken-sha Baiburu) art and reference book was released in Japan on February 13, 2021.[58] It was licensed by Yen Press and released in English on August 23, 2022.[59] An updated and expanded version, Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: The Adventurer's Bible Complete Edition (ダンジョン飯 ワールドガイド 冒険者バイブル 完全版, Danjon Meshi Wārudogaido Bōken-sha Baiburu Kanzenban), was released in Japan on February 15, 2024.[60]
An exhibition event showcasing replicas of the food from the series was held at Shibuya N-space from January 18–21, 2024.[61][62]
Reception
Manga
Volume 1 reached the 11th place on the weekly Oricon manga charts[63] and it was the 87th best-selling manga volume in Japan from November 17, 2014, to May 17, 2015, with 315,298 copies sold.[64] By August 2015, it had sold 381,614 copies.[65] Volume 2 reached the third place on the charts,[65] and by September 2015, it had sold 362,906 copies.[66] By August 2017, the first four volumes had over 2 million copies in print.[67] By October 2023, the manga had over 10 million copies in circulation; after its anime adaptation premiere, the number of copies in circulation increased in half a year to 14 million by March 2024 (including digital copies).[68]
The manga was chosen as the 13th best manga of 2015 in the Book of the Year manga ranking of Da Vinci magazine.[69] The 2016 edition of the Kono Manga ga Sugoi! guidebook ranked the series at number one on its list of top 20 manga for male readers.[70] The manga was nominated for the 9th to 12th Manga Taishō Award from 2016 to 2019.[71] A panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 highlighted it as one of the "Best Continuing Series for Kids/Teens".[72] It was also ranked second on Amazon Japan's Best-Selling Kindle Book Rankings for 2018.[73] In 2024, the manga won the 55th Seiun Award's Best Comic award.[74] It also won the Japan Society and Anime NYC's first American Manga Awards in the Best Continuing Manga Series category in 2024.[75][76] It won the Harvey Awards in the Best Manga category in the same year.[77][78]
Anime
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 100% of six critics' reviews are positive.[79] In the Anime Corner awards of Winter 2024, it won Best Adventure and Best Comedy, based on 62,120 votes.[80]
Notes
^Sissel is referred to as Thistle in the anime adaptation.
^In the anime adaptation, he is referred to as "the Mad Mage".
^"Works in 2024". procyon-studio.co.jp (in Japanese). Archived from the original on June 11, 2023. Retrieved June 11, 2023. Composition and Arrangement: Yasunori Mitsuda, Shunsuke Tsuchiya
