The last anime I actually really liked was Cowboy Bebop. I try getting into it off and on but I’m kind of put off by the common tropes. That said, my d&d characters for the past 20 years have been some variation of “that’s an awful lot of hydra meat that’s going to waste if I don’t cook it” which I understand is the premise of the show.
Is it worth giving it a try? Am I going to have to sit through an unreasonable amount of jiggling tits?
Dungeon Meshi doesn’t follow a lot of the anime tropes that people who aren’t into anime often dislike; so, I would say it’s at least worth a shot.
I know that’s not what you’re asking, but if you decide you want to watch more good anime without unreasonable amounts of jiggling tits, you should try Apothecary Diaries and Frieren: Beyond Journey’s end.
If you plan to DM any homebrew, you should definitely watch it. The “lotta hydra meat that’s going to waste” aspect is a driving force, but the major theme is exploring the dungeon as an ecosystem; its flora, fauna, structure, everything.
It’s like Julia Child meets Anthony Bourdain meets Steve Irwin meets David Attenborough meets Brennan Lee Mulligan. If you enjoy thinking about dungeon design at all, you will enjoy this show.
There’s not much fanservice in Dungeon Meshi. I would say it’s exactly like how you would expect it to turn out if you just played DnD and then hired someone to animate it. Complete with the player stupidity and boss cheesing.
The series does take time to build up - it starts off feeling like a generic gimmick anime, but the story and lore gets deeper the more you watch. And the gimmick (eating monsters) ends up becoming a lot deeper than you would expect. (I’ll talk about it more below.) The storytelling is, in hindsight, extremely efficient, but the writers just never draw attention to the info that you’re supposed to remember. So I think it’s one of those series where you really have to rewatch afterward in order to pick up all the lore tidbits that the characters just toss around.
Speaking of lore, I would say that the worldbuilding is one of the most extremely detailed that I’ve seen in any media, where it touches on really mature topics like implicit (and explicit) racism, tribal tensions, political feuds, cultural differences. And every little thing must have an explanation. And there’s actually different races of humans in this world, each with their own nation and culture. I think it all ties back in to the core theme of the series, which is that eating is so fundamental to life that it influences human culture. And, inversely, that because eating is the one universal constant across all cultures, it is the one thing that can unite people. Over the series, you stop seeing “eating monsters” as a gimmick and it starts becoming more like a thesis. Like, “yeah, of course it would be a show about eating. What else could be so fundamental to discussing the human experience?”
Touching on the typical icks with anime (oversexualization, often with minors, harem, OP main characters, etc.): the series actually avoids all of the typical anime pitfalls. There’s no sexualization. Characters don’t talk or hint about sex at all. No revealing clothing, and all characters dress appropriately for their job/environment. There is one single scene where one character tries teaching another character about sex (giving the “birds and the bees” talk), but it’s not sexual in nature and IMO it is really meant to highlight a common implicit bias in this world (the character receiving the talk is actually a grown adult, but due to his race, gets infantilized frequently). Speaking of grown adults, every character in the show appears, acts, and is a fully grown adult. And as for power scaling, the main characters don’t have any OP skills and never learn any OP skills. They’re just a standard party of adventurers, and it’s made clear that the only reason they’re successful is because of the party’s deep understanding of monster biology and dungeon ecology and their willingness to use creative solutions to difficult problems (aka: cheesing every boss).
As a complete side note, I think it has one of the best and most accurate representations of autism that I’ve seen. I’ll leave it vague, but there are several characters that are strongly autism-coded, and the writers really went above and beyond to show how autism is interpreted differently by others when the person in question is a male or female.
Overall, I’d say I highly recommend the anime. It instantly became one of the best animes that I’ve watched, and it’s an anime that can be enjoyed casually, or analyzed for lore to hell and back, or analyzed for its literary merit.
Characters don’t talk or hint about sex at all
This is sort of true and the relative lack of traditional fanservice type stuff is refreshing, but I don’t think it would be fair to say Dungeon Meshi isn’t horny, because a lot of its thematic focus is indirect, allegorical commentary on sexuality, even if it is generally very tasteful about it.
Am I going to have to sit through an unreasonable amount of jiggling tits?
No not at all. The only boob jiggle type moment I can think of happens many episodes in and lasts about 5 seconds. Default throughout the show you aren’t getting constant creepshot angles or focus on fanservice. The show is, more or less, of a wholesome tone that sometimes dips into some series moments. There is a catgirl later on, but she’s actually like cat-girl with an emphasis on cat like behavior and is a good character who is dressed slightly lighter than everyone else but nothing you’d think twice of seeing.
The show is good. Developed characters and episode to episode they are usually focused on problem solving whatever is in their way to get to the next step for their overall goal.
Between you and the guy who hates things, I’m sold. I’ll be slapping it on the jellyfin this weekend.
Anime is a medium, not a genre. It’s a medium that’s very prone to Sturgeon’s Law, but there’s so much more out there than just the tropey stuff. No matter what your tastes are I guarantee you can find something you’ll like somewhere.
But it’s hard to really know for sure what you’ll like without knowing more about your tastes. If I have to squint real hard to compare it to Cowboy Bebop, it does share some themes in having a ragtag group of misfits that slowly becomes a found family, and it starts off lighthearted before slowly transitioning into more serious character-driven drama.
Personally : I hate everything
Many series and movie don’t do it
However the first half of Dungeons meschi is well written, there’s many jokes and reinterpretations of classic DnD monsters that I find imaginative and interesting
… Buuuut ! The second half is dull. When they (the writers) choose to don’t explore their low key ecological propos they lost me. So far the direction that they choose will not do it for me.
I watched the English dubbed anime with my kids. It’s absolutely hilarious and loads of fun. Never in a million years would I have believed such a mashup possible.
I know many of the manga lovers seemed to like the adaption. I’m not personally into anime, but I still loved this show. I’d especially recommend it if you’re into d&d… and absurdity… and laughing.
Honestly, the only way you’ll know is to try. I don’t normally go for a lot of new anime, but I really enjoyed some of Dungeon Meshi.
My daughters got super excited to hear I was watching anime. I was like what, the D&D cooking show? I had not even realized it was anime. It is intensely odd, and I find that delightful.
