‘Delicious in Dungeon’ review: The party butts heads in “Kelpie/Porridge/Broiled with Sauce”

You better be prepared because Delicious in Dungeon is kraken down this week! “Kelpie/Porridge/Broiled with Sauce” does a lot of building for both the world and the characters in unique ways. Not only does Chilchuck go into Dad Mode, but we also see Senshi acting childish for a change. Seeing these new sides of the characters while also meeting so many new monsters creates a recipe for a delicious episode. 

“Kelpie/Porridge/Broiled with Sauce” comes full circle with Kabru’s party after meeting them in “Snacks/Sorbet.” After a run-in with some scammer corpse retrievers, they learn that another party has robbed them blind. Unfortunately for them, Laios’ party finds them dead a second time on the fourth floor. How Kabru and his party managed to get there before Laois’ party is unknown, but it’s a mystery to keep in mind as the anime continues. Their party constantly falling victim to monsters in the dungeon only for the main adventuring party to cross them in some way is a running gag that seems lighthearted, but highlights just how dangerous the dungeon actually is. 

Laios’ selfishness shines in this episode. We already know he’s a little freak and that he’ll do anything to eat a monster, but his lack of compassion for the rest of the party is an interesting characteristic for a main character to have. It’s something that has shown up in previous episodes, but not as much as “Kelpie/Porridge/Broiled with Sauce.” This selfishness even causes Chilchuck to lecture Laios not only once about demi-humans being off limits, but a second time when he tricks the party into eating the merman eggs that were hidden in the seaweed attached to its head. 

One of my favorite parts of this episode was Senshi throwing a tantrum when it came to Marcille using magic on him to walk across water. Up until now, we’ve seen Senshi as a dependable and smart man who knows his way around the dungeon.  So when Senshi throws a tantrum all because Marcille wants to cast a water-walking spell on him it’s a surprising reaction.

This behavior isn’t what we’ve come to expect, even as Senshi’s distaste of magic is also well known despite Marcille’s best attempts. It takes Laios holding him down for her to cast the spell, only for them to find out that Senshi’s beard is so dirty that her magic doesn’t work on him. It’s amusing, to say the least, but also leads to Marcille and Senshi coming to an agreement. The two of them are far off from being besties, but him allowing her to wash his beard and cast the spell on him is a great start. 

A huge part of this episode revolves around maintaining the ecosystem of the dungeon — something that Senshi has talked about before in “Stewed Cabbage/Orcs.” It’s easy for Marcille to blast all of the fish to death with an offensive spell, but she doesn’t take into consideration that the other monsters of that floor consume them. Much like the red dragon going into the orc territory, the kraken is another large predator that disrupts the balance on the fourth floor of the dungeon. Because of the kraken, the party notes that there are fewer monsters on that floor than there used to be. Senshi teaches the party once again about how delicate the ecosystem on each floor is so they can’t recklessly kill enemies — even if they’re the smallest fish on the totem pole. 

A monster that wasn’t the highlight of the episode but caught my attention was the siren. In an episode full of monsters, the siren was only appears for a few moments before it moved on. But in those few moments, we see just how powerful their siren song is. Chilchuck, a seasoned adventurer, fell under the spell while they were singing. It was only when Laios clapped that he was able to snap out of the spell. To have such an impact in such a short period of time is major. Plus, Laios joining in on the song so loudly that the sirens stopped singing was hilarious and made even better by how upset he looked at not being able to finish the song with them. 

“Kelpie/Porridge/Broiled with Sauce” is another great example of each episode building off of one another. Not only did the audience get to see a new side to a couple of characters, but the world within the dungeon grew even more fleshed out. Certain personality traits that we don’t typically see from the main characters come to life in this episode, making them realistic even in a fantasy setting. Studio TRIGGER is doing the work needed to bring the anime to life, while keeping the quirkiness that made the manga loveable there. That’s not easy to do, but they make it look that way. If the chapter-to-episode ratio stays the same, next week’s episode will only continue to build off of the structure that this week has produced and I can’t wait to watch. 

Delicious in Dungeon is available now on Netflix.

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Featured images: © Ryoko Kui / KADOKAWA / “Delicious in Dungeon” PARTNERS, Netflix