Netflix recently released a new anime called Delicious in Dungeon that's generated a lot of buzz among the weeb portion of the internet. While it would be easy to lose this show in the sea of seasonal anime releasing this Winter, Delicious in Dungeon stands ahead of its contemporaries for its refreshing exploration of the fantasy anime genre and, more importantly, how Netflix is uniquely handling its release.
What is Delicious in Dungeon and why is it so special?
Delicious in Dungeon by Trigger, the animation studio behind Crunchyroll's 2023 anime of the year Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and Kill La Kill, is a fantasy anime. The show follows a group of adventurers named Laios, Marcille, and Chilchuck as they attempt a second dungeon run. However, unlike their first failed endeavor, the stakes are at an all-time high because the party must reach the bottom level of the dungeon in time to save their spellcaster (Laios' sister) before a fearsome red dragon completely digests her.
Luckily, it takes a dragon of that genus quite a while to fully digest a meal, thus giving our party of heroes ample time to recruit new allies to slay monsters they encounter into gourmet meals to keep their strength up. Delicious in Dungeon isn't just another fantasy adventure anime, it's a foodie anime with impeccable comedic chops to boot.
Lately, anime has started to take an earnest step toward exploring the fantasy genre by creating isekai (stories where modern characters are whisked away into a fantasy world). Over the years the genre has become oversaturated with increasingly random and forgettable Mad-Libs-esque premises. However, Delicious in Dungeon wisely recaptures the whimsical nature of fantasy anime while adapting the comedy and drama from isekai's fish-out-of-water approach to storytelling by making a show with a simple-yet-effective premise: What if your Dungeons and Dragons party could only eat whatever they kill on their perilous quest?
Delicious in Dungeon's premiere episode answers in kind with hilarious kitchen disasters where slime monsters and carnivorous plants nearly devour poor Marcille — who's already an early lock for anime fail girl of the year.
Netflix's binge-watch model is a touchy subject for anime fans
Another thing of note with Delicious In Dungeon that bares importance is how the show is being released on the streaming giant. Unlike Netflix's standard bing-watch release model where an entire season of a show is released all at once, new episodes of Delicious in Dungeon release every Thursday. This is particularly significant for scorned JoJo's Bizarre Adventure fans who were in an uproar over Netflix's poor handling of its latest season, Stone Ocean.
Back in the day, JoJo's fans had "JoJo Fridays" a phenomena popularized during its previous season where fans shared fan art, memes, and engaged in online discussions coinciding with the release of new episodes. Basically, JoJo Fridays, like "Gundam Sundays" and "Chainsaw Man Mondays," was water cooler talk for weebs that kept the show's hype alive on a weekly basis.
Unfortunately, under Netflix's binge-watching model — coupled with a lack of online promotion of the show — had even the most die-hard fans forget new chunks of the show had been released or that the show had ended. Neflix's handling of Stone Ocean even had fans debatinig whether or not the streamer's staggered binge-release model robbed the show of the ferver its weekly release shedule once generated while provoking anxiety among fans over whether or not other exclusive anime would suffer the same fate.
Thankfully, Netflix appears to be course correcting from its fumbling of Stone Ocean by giving folks ample time to savor in Delicious in Dungeon's comfy seinen cooking vibes with its weeklly release schedule instead of having fans gorge themselves on the show's 24 episodes in one sitting. Seeing as how Delicious in Dungeon's manga ended last September, the only hurdle viewers will have to overcome now is resisting the urge to read ahead before a new episode drops!
Isaiah Colbert is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow them on Twitter @ShinEyeZehUhh.
