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magzanilla's review
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
3.75 stars despite being (healthily) obsessed with it.
The art is very beautiful and the character design is rather varied. Ryuko Kui is an art inspirtation for our own illustrations.
However, the main cast and the often re-occuring supporting cast, their designs and bodyshapes are highly influenced by their fantasy race.
You won't much find a fat or very short tallman ("humans"). Not as adults.
Dwarfs are usually the "fat" and medium-short ones.
Halflings and gnomes are the "short" ones.
All adult elves are blonde skinny, androgynous medium to tall - unless they're literally cursed to forever be short children.
Each fantasy race follows a general template in body shape range, which limits whats allowed since they've been assigned as "what a race looks like". This is common with DnD and Tolkien-esque fantasy.
But it's a shame in this case since Ryuko Kui is known for playing with her art and character design limits, and this would be a good opportunity to flex for her. And to go beyond those templates and playing with what makes these fantasy races "recognizable". So it just leaves us wanting, especially with her "Day Dream Hour" sketches.
The direction of the story really pulls off misleading on purpose in multiple places, including making much of the audience believe manipulation. The twists and turns in the story's journey makes sense, and there is a lot of balance in tension and payoff.
The characters are lovable, even the ones with more prominent "off-putting" personality traits. If anything it is because of that, that they are lovable (and relatable).
The Worldbuilding was made with so much love and attentiveness, and everything has answers for things we didn't even realize we wanted to know.
Dungeon Meshi is an example of a story by someone so in love with worldbuilding and her own characters, without cramming in so much into the main story - knowing what to include and what not. From that angle, this is the ideal for people like us with our own worlds and Original Character projects. Gnomes vs Elves with magic and their relationship to spirits, is taken into consideration. So is how elves communicate with each other long-distance (faeries), and how they are created. But half of every worldbuilding aspect is in the plot and the other half is either in the margins between chapters or in "optional" extra content guides. Its a whole WORLD.
And the way the blood, injury, and gore is used makes it shocking when need emphasis, despite the very premise of the story being about hunting and cooking monsters while on a journey to save a party member that was eaten alive by a dragon (inherently bloody and gruesome of an idea). It still elicits a reaction without it being stale! Which is a good thing. When a character cuts off his leg at an important confrontation to survive? you can feel it.
The story length - works well for it. Though by the end of binging through it after struggling to keep up for so long initially, it feels so much shorter than it actually is. It takes a hold of you, and you look back on it all. Ah, the story is done.
Dungeon Meshi's theming of eating or being eaten, the cycle of desire and consuming, being a part of an ecosystem, dying and reviving wrt eating... is it's strongest aspect. It is a part of everything. The execution is strong, and it just so happens to be how we think of things - through eating and consuming.
Still...
The lower score is for not fully connecting with it at this stage in life, and the feeling of void in not being able to now - which isn't fully the Manga's fault. The wish that Ryuko Kui would push the fantasy race body types, is a desire yes, but not the main reason at all for it. Dungeon Meshi is the best result of what it was shaping up to be.
The art is very beautiful and the character design is rather varied. Ryuko Kui is an art inspirtation for our own illustrations.
However, the main cast and the often re-occuring supporting cast, their designs and bodyshapes are highly influenced by their fantasy race.
You won't much find a fat or very short tallman ("humans"). Not as adults.
Dwarfs are usually the "fat" and medium-short ones.
Halflings and gnomes are the "short" ones.
All adult elves are blonde skinny, androgynous medium to tall - unless they're literally cursed to forever be short children.
Each fantasy race follows a general template in body shape range, which limits whats allowed since they've been assigned as "what a race looks like". This is common with DnD and Tolkien-esque fantasy.
But it's a shame in this case since Ryuko Kui is known for playing with her art and character design limits, and this would be a good opportunity to flex for her. And to go beyond those templates and playing with what makes these fantasy races "recognizable". So it just leaves us wanting, especially with her "Day Dream Hour" sketches.
The direction of the story really pulls off misleading on purpose in multiple places, including making much of the audience believe manipulation. The twists and turns in the story's journey makes sense, and there is a lot of balance in tension and payoff.
The characters are lovable, even the ones with more prominent "off-putting" personality traits. If anything it is because of that, that they are lovable (and relatable).
The Worldbuilding was made with so much love and attentiveness, and everything has answers for things we didn't even realize we wanted to know.
Dungeon Meshi is an example of a story by someone so in love with worldbuilding and her own characters, without cramming in so much into the main story - knowing what to include and what not. From that angle, this is the ideal for people like us with our own worlds and Original Character projects. Gnomes vs Elves with magic and their relationship to spirits, is taken into consideration. So is how elves communicate with each other long-distance (faeries), and how they are created. But half of every worldbuilding aspect is in the plot and the other half is either in the margins between chapters or in "optional" extra content guides. Its a whole WORLD.
And the way the blood, injury, and gore is used makes it shocking when need emphasis, despite the very premise of the story being about hunting and cooking monsters while on a journey to save a party member that was eaten alive by a dragon (inherently bloody and gruesome of an idea). It still elicits a reaction without it being stale! Which is a good thing. When a character cuts off his leg at an important confrontation to survive? you can feel it.
The story length - works well for it. Though by the end of binging through it after struggling to keep up for so long initially, it feels so much shorter than it actually is. It takes a hold of you, and you look back on it all. Ah, the story is done.
Dungeon Meshi's theming of eating or being eaten, the cycle of desire and consuming, being a part of an ecosystem, dying and reviving wrt eating... is it's strongest aspect. It is a part of everything. The execution is strong, and it just so happens to be how we think of things - through eating and consuming.
Still...
The lower score is for not fully connecting with it at this stage in life, and the feeling of void in not being able to now - which isn't fully the Manga's fault. The wish that Ryuko Kui would push the fantasy race body types, is a desire yes, but not the main reason at all for it. Dungeon Meshi is the best result of what it was shaping up to be.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Minor: Ableism
More...