DISCUSSION: Episode 21

Last weeks thread - 13 Comments

Dungeon Meshi is a well liked manga, and an adaptation by Studio Trigger is now airing. If you haven’t picked this one up, consider joining us. Both for fun and as a way of contributing to activity on Lemmy.

Episodes are available to stream on Netflix.

The elves have arrived.

This episode opens on Shuros and Kabrus parties returning to the surface, and the events on the surface that follow. It seems representatives of the elven nation are here, consisting of the canaries. Military special forces, and experts on dungeons in particular.

Why are they here?

Meanwhile, Laios and his gang are invited deeper into the dungeon than anyone has been before.

Remember not to spoil anything if you’re a manga reader, but feel free to elaborate on tidbits of lore that may not be coming through in the adaptation.

13 comments

I can never ever predict where this show will go next, it's insane how nothing ever proceeds in a way that I expect and it also never feels unnecessarily subversive, so good! Even though it's supposed to be a very old-school style fantasy, it's such a fresh story.
- It helps that it's all been plentifully foreshadowed.
  The paintings, the kingdoms history, the ghosts on the fifth level, the winged lions all over the place.
  The previous mentions of other dungeons, the elven nation, the pressure they've been putting on the governor.
  It's so damn well done!
  
  Yeah it's really cool how something initially seems not important and later gets elaborated on, nothing ever feels like it came outta nowhere.
- I came to say this!
  I was watching this show because it poke fun at all the dungeon crawlers from the 80s-90s I used to play. And yet it continues to expand how I mentally think about dungeon crawling. It's great!

Welp, the elves are here. It seems like in this world, when the elves show up to take care of a dungeon, it ends up like the Fire Nation just attacked. So, best boy Kabru has a plan (and a backstory). I know Kabru is not the most popular character out there, but I say we let him cook...
Speaking of cooking, I think this week's dish is probably the tastiest looking one I have seen yet. I mean, just look at this thing:
I watched this episode while eating dinner and seeing that made me realize how much I would have preferred to eat that instead of the beef and broccoli I was eating (it was still good though). Another dish well made Senshi...
Speaking of Senshi, we got a heaping portion of sultry Senshi this episode. I know people have been talking about shipping Laios and Marcille, but how about Laios and Senshi?
Silliness aside, this was a pretty lore heavy episode. Laios is the chosen one? Our party has been isekai'ed into a village of immortals? Izu is tame now? Some winged lion deity has prophesied their coming? Lots of interesting stuff going on. No idea how this season is going to wrap up from here.
- Laios reads too ace for me to want to ship him with anybody lol, but yeah, they never miss a chance to provide the people with some good Senshi fan-service XD
- I think Senshi might be too much Senshi for anyone to handle.
  Only three episodes left. If the current style of adaptation continues, we'll end on chapter 52. That chapter and all the ones before it, focus on Laios' party.
  The very next chapter would continue the above-ground plotline, but it feels kind of weird to cut off there, to only have seen that the elves arrived, and that's all. And the underground chapters wind down again, not up. (Though they are great chapters, still)
  I'm really kinda puzzled, it seems the series might leave us with serious narrative blue balls, and not even in the traditional sense of an intentional cliffhanger.
  Maybe they'll rejigger the order of the chapters a bit, as the above-ground stuff and underground stuff doesn't necessarily need to follow the same back and forth order as the manga.

Shifting up a gear on the storytelling, yet again. The elves are here to deal with the dungeon. I've been waiting for this episode, but I could say the same for what's coming next week, too! GOD I LOVE THIS ANIME!!
With this party of elves, the five parties of characters that are featured in the story have all been introduced. A truly massive cast.
The gang gets whisked away by a ghost friend that's been following them since they encountered the master of the dungeon, taken to a level so deep and vast, it's like being on the surface.
There is an entire country buried in the dungeon.
Back during earlier episodes, I kept pointing out depictions of winged lions. They are all over the dungeon. Now, we finally learn the significance of this.
It is a god. A real creature that exists within the dungeon, and in fact existed before it, as well. The deity of the golden kingdom, a country which the lunatic magician used powerful forbidden magic to transform into the dungeon, thousands of years ago.
Why? The paintings provided a hint. A long lived elf, he kept seeing the humans he lived with die of old age. Learning the ways of dark magic, and mad with grief, he cursed the kingdom and all of its citizens with eternal life, so he would never lose a loved one again.
Millenia later, still living deep in the dungeon, or as ghosts roaming its upper levels, the citizens are now begging for a death that refuses to come.
The serious tone in this episode was so well done, but it's also full of the usual hilarity.

And can we appreciate how absolutely stunning Marcy is in a fancy dress?!

This episode brilliantly answers a few questions, while inviting us to ask a hundred more!
- When I saw the extra Marcille designs I thought they were pulled from early concepts, poor girl, not a single fashion appreciater in her party.
  There was another ship moment when they were standing in front of the window, they looked like a cute family. Unfortunately, I just don't see Laios as the romantic sort.
  
  You're right in that so far only Marcy has openly shown affection for him and Falin that feels like it would have potential to be romantic.
  Meanwhile Laios seems to only get passionate when monsters are involved, but he definitely cares about humans. He just doesn't show it.
  While we won't be getting to it in this season, there is an event that shows Laios not to be entirely uninterested, and in Marcille in particular. Still, no ships are full-on confirmed in the story.
  Also, both Laios and Falin have actually been engaged before. They left those relationships behind when they became adventurers.
  He and Chilchuck also have a general rule to avoid workplace romances, as the friction they can cause is devastating to the social dynamics of a party and their ability to co-operate.
  It's the reason why the mage that was in the party before Marcy was fired, she was a husband hunter and was hitting on everyone.

Marcielles hand was animated so good that I would say it was rotoscoped.
Elfs ware interesting. It felt like every one of them has modified their bodies with dark magic.

Dungeon Meshi - episode 21

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13 comments