© Trigger Inc.
Episode 14 of Delicious in Dungeon kicks off the new season with some great ideas and scenes mixed with puzzling structural choices.
Most of this episode focuses on Kabru and his adventuring party. It's nice to have a change of pace to travel with a different group of companions through a dungeon, reset expectations, and kick back as a just-adventuring lady. Kabru and his crew don't leave the most lasting impact as individuals or crew, but they don't give up watching. They feel pretty typical in most respects, although we learn about how Kabru views/values leadership and the joy of inference. Additionally, the dog guy is a very fun cartoon character, making viewers feel excited, even if most of what he does in this episode is just breathing air.
The draw in the first half of the episode is the fight with the bandits. It's an incredibly beautiful animated film, but there's much more to Trigger than we're used to. I think conceptually it's also really interesting to have an illusionist in the group and Kabru uses his deduction skills to guess what's going on. The part about having to kiss a witch to stop them from casting spells-the fanfic practically wrote itself, guys. I'll be curious if this comes up again.
In my opinion, the strangest thing about this episode is that it was a season opener and I didn't feel it was entirely necessary. Kabru's reasoning works more as a summary than a truly engaging discussion between the characters, and that makes sense for the first episode of the new season… except we just saw the finale of part one last week. I think this would make more sense if there was a gap between airing seasons, or perhaps it could be useful if this was when there was a break in the manga or a break between episodes (maybe so, I can't say). As an incessant weekly viewer though it seems perfunctory.
At the end, we are introduced to another crew—Shuro's new group! There are a lot of great designs here and the Trigger team has given them a grand debut. This is my bias but I was hoping the tall girl (oni? Ogre?) of the club would get more screen time in the future. Curious about the drama that Shuro's team will introduce into the series.
Rating:
Grant is a host on the Blade Thief Podcast and the Super Senpai Podcast.
Delicious in Dungeon is now streaming on Netflix.
Delicious in Dungeon is now streaming on Netflix.
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