Dungeon Meshi Manga || SPOILERS AHEAD

Well... after becoming obsessed with Chilchuck without even knowing who he is, because I kept seeing him on tumblr, it's time to finally read Dungeon Meshi. It feels like the perfect manga for me; good sense of humor, fantasy setting, cool worldbuilding, the horrors, well written characters and character dynamics... this has "sol's new favorite manga" written all over it to be honest. I'm slowly making my way through it right now, as they don't sell the volumes where I live and I have to read them online.

Volume 1

I just finished reading the first volume, and so far I LOVE this manga. It's not really what I expected, I knew it was a "cooking show" but i didn't think it would lean into that vibe so much. It's fun to see a cooking show format in a manga and fantasy setting!

The worldbuilding is so far the coolest part of this. There's fantasy biology in this! I never thought I'd be so interested in monster biology and anatomy, but Laios has me on his side for most of this. He's right, these monsters are cool as hell.

Oh, speaking of the characters... I love all of them. This feels like the bare minimum, but I love how they're not just their gimmick. Laios loves monsters (in a very autistic way, may i add), but I can already tell he cares a lot about his sister and the party. He's dragging all of them back into the dungeon just to save Falin? Man, I hope nothing bad happens to them.

Marcille is great. A friend of mine said I'm like "if Marcille was a trans boy" and honestly, I agree. I love how much anxiety she has all the time, I love to see a girl in a story being an anxious mess while still being cool. I think she's awesome, and I can't wait to see where this goes.

Senshi and Chilchuck are the ones I have the least things to say about... despite them being my favorites. I love Chilchuck. I could say I'm borderline obsessed with him. They say each lesbian has their one guy they're attracted to, huh? Well. I guess Chilchuck is my one guy. I really love his character so far and I'm enjoying his dynamic with Senshi.

I guess my favorite chapters from this one were (sigh) the living armor ones.

Listen. I tend to be on Laios' side with most of these dishes, but the living armor was unforgivable. I mean... I think the explanation the manga came up with for the living armor was super interesting, and really made me realize how cool the worldbuilding is. But also, jesus christ.

I wonder if I'll have time to read volume 2 soon... if not I'll just binge it in a day like I usually do.