Delicious in Dungeon

by Ryoko Kui

Genres: Fantasy, Manga
Pages: 191
Series: Delicious in Dungeon #1
Rating:

Synopsis:

When young adventurer Laios and his company are attacked and soundly thrashed by a dragon deep in a dungeon, the party loses all its money and provisions... and a member! They're eager to go back and save her, but there is just one problem: If they set out with no food or coin to speak of, they're sure to starve on the way! But Laios comes up with a brilliant idea: "Let's eat the monsters!" Slimes, basilisks, and even dragons... none are safe from the appetites of these dungeon-crawling gourmands!

I didn’t really know much about Ryoko Kui’s Delicious in Dungeon going in, only that it featured a team of broke adventurers who need to learn to cook monsters in order to help them progress in a dungeon. I didn’t know about the whole “because a dragon has eaten the main character’s sister” part, which… to be fair… is not a major part of the story because they don’t seem to feel much urgency about it at all.

The pacing feels weird, as each chapter is essentially just a little episode in “what to cook next”. There are some fun touches, like the nutrition balance cards after the various meals, and the ingenuity of how to cook some stuff, and I really enjoyed the almost scientific interest Laios has in various creatures, figuring out how they work.

Overall, though, I felt a lack of character development (the most was Marcille, but it was mostly “whiny elf girl whines and then eats the food anyway”) and… direction? So I’m not sure I’ll read more. The lack of pace would probably have come across better if Laios’ sister wasn’t, you know, being digested. I know that they expect to just resurrect her but… yeah. Still.

Rating: 2/5 (“it was okay”)