ah, dungeon food... Dungeon Meshi's great worldbuilding
May 29, 2024
Dungeon Meshi was soooooooo good. So so good I almost wanna reread it all again already...️
Its popularity is wholly deserved. There's just something about a dungeon crawling adventure story slash cooking show! The characters were all so much fun to see interact and really became my best friends by the end of it all.... The artstyle was super appealing and charming.... It plays strongly to the strengths of a somewhat episodic narrative, but then the plot and mystery picks up and gets insane in the best way possible. The themes were full-circle, elegant, and beautiful. There's just so much to love! But what really stuck out the most to me is the worldbuilding...
I'd talked about it with others before, but Dungeon Meshi just has such a refreshing and inspired take on high fantasy. A good chunk of fiction, especially isekai and whatnot, I feel like tends to "borrow" traditional fantasy elements as like surface set dressing. Elves, goblins, magic, etc. All the conventions and Tolkienisms are there, but seemingly out of obligation, rather than because the author has a lot of love for those concepts. Ryoko Kui on the other hand is apparently a stated fan of Wizardry and Baldurs Gate, and it definitely shows going through the work! Dungeon Meshi runs down a checklist of fantasy dungeon crawling staples, but offers its own loving spin on them; the author is never content to just let concepts like a half-foot, a mimic, or even just the idea of a dungeon speak for themselves just because of the years of pop-culture osmosis. Every idea in the series' fantasy world is presented to you with a fresh lens as you learn more about them alongside the characters, helped by its ingenious premise and structure. From the way it addresses the nature of resurrecting the dead to the anatomy of a suit of living armor, it's a series that really captures a strong sense of wonder and adventure in its world. That's a feeling that I think gets easily taken for granted in traditional fantasy-inspired settings these days; largely because many other series fail to create a compelling, exciting world in their own right, and settle for lifting concepts without injecting any new life into their excavated husks. There's so much honest love for the crafted world and its players, and it's a real treat all around.
I've said that despite the story wrapping itself up perfectly, there's just so much to Dungeon Meshi's world that I'd love to see more stories in the same universe; not only that, but many characters are shown or implied to have their own life scenarios that could be worth exploring beyond the bounds of Laios and his party. I think it's a testament to how compelling the world and character writing are that I'm thinking "I want to see more of this place." at the end of a wholly completed narrative. I guess you could say I'm uhhh ahhh hungry for more hahaha ooooo...
READ AND/OR WATCH DUNGEON MESHI!!! but maybe don't do it on an empty stomach...