Delicious in Dungeon
Stories do not live and die within the confines of their mediums. They branch out from the borders of their pages or spiderweb beyond the frames of their video screens. They are less of a moment distilled in time and more of an active conversation. When I read a book, play a video game, or watch something on television--I am both experiencing those things as they are but also drawing connections with other works of art. This conversation happens in recollections, in research, and in discussions, and the stories will often take on new life just by adding in competing dialogues.
Occasionally, something will trigger my nostalgia because it is reminiscent of something special to me. This is a very roundabout way of saying that if I want to talk about my favorite manga series Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui, I must first outline the works of art from my adolescence and early adulthood that sparked all kinds of similar memories.
I can still fondly recall one of my earliest narrative experiences. It was not from a book or a bedtime story but from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). My aunt had an NES in her playroom, and everytime I visited her home, I would spend the lionshare of my time glued to the screen. Sure, Super Mario Bros. was the first game I ever played, but she also had a video game that would become a part of a franchise that would be a major part of my life: The Legend of Zelda. At that age, I couldn’t possibly know that Shigeru Miyamoto directed both of those games. It wouldn’t be until much later that I learned that video games that were the foundation of my childhood, like Dragon Quest, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy, all came out of Japan. With the addition of my love for the movies of Studio Ghibli, it seemed I was heavily influenced by eastern fantasy without really understanding it at the time.
In the late 90s, I picked up a box set of Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition) (D&D). And though I had difficulty understanding the mechanics (THAC0 being a very obtuse system for a teen), I fell in love with the character art and monster design. I dreamed often of exploring dungeons filled with traps and enemies. I always wanted to find items of magical power while exploring the woods behind my home. I never got a chance to play second edition (it wouldn’t be until my 30s before I finally got to dive into tabletop RPGs). The power that game held over me even though I never played, it was no wonder it also inspired so many video games in the 70s and 80s. Those games would travel over to Japan, and from there, they took those inspirations and returned them with their own spin on the genre. I often imagine the Dragon Quest slimes were Akira Toriyama’s version of D&D oozes.
In high school, I purchased The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, and similar to Delicious in Dungeon decades later, I felt an overwhelming sense of nostalgia from reading about Bilbo’s adventures. I was able to explore ancient ruins, solve riddles, defeat monsters, and go on an epic journey. Though it was a monumentally foundational fantasy story, it was my first time experiencing it while constantly drawing connections to D&D and The Legend of Zelda. It became a major part of “the conversation.”
Post grad school, I fell in love with the television series Adventure Time and the very long-running book series Discworld. These would be accompanied by video games like Divinity: Original Sin II and Baldur’s Gate III, and I grew an incredibly deep appreciation for the type of fantasy that would lull me into a false sense of safety with humorous narration just to later break my heart with the incredible weight of character choice. At this point in my life, I had solidified my love for quest fantasy with both heart and humor. I would seek it out any time I could and would occasionally find gems like Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes, Rebecca Thorne’s Tomes & Tea, Nicholas Eames’ The Band, or Kurtis Wiebe’s Rat Queens. I hungerly watched every episode of Critical Role and Dimension 20. The hooks were in deep.
Along came Delicious in Dungeon. My first contact with the series was from a post on social media by a writer and TTRPG designer named James Haeck, and I immediately researched it to find a manga trailer created by Studio Trigger (an anime studio that I have really loved for a long time). The trailer captured everything I adore about fantasy: questing into unfamiliar lands, battling a diverse array of monsters, and characters who put a smile on my face. Since I was writing a novel that had gastronomy as one of its magic systems, I was extremely interested in seeing a series where monsters were slain and then turned into a hearty meal. Echoes of D&D, Dragon Quest, Discworld, and Baldur’s Gate all rang throughout the trailer, and I immediately found a copy of the physical book and ordered it. I proceeded to work my way from Vol. 1 all the way to Vol. 14. The ending of the series brought tears to my eyes, filling me with an overwhelming sense of joy, and has stuck with me since. It has made me a lifelong fan of Ryoko Kui, and I have been in awe of the art I have found from her online. The only other manga that has solidified itself so deeply into my interests has been Kanehito Yamada’s Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, but that is a story for a later time.
I had read that Kui used to watch her father play the video game Wizardry, and later in life, she became a fan of games like Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous and Baldur’s Gate. In many ways, I feel like her path to creating this book was similar to my path to finding it--which was decades of enjoying art with a similar vibe. I feel connected to the author in that way, and it makes me enjoy the series that much more. Many of the same inspirations that have lived with me all these years also would have influenced her to write this dungeon crawler of a manga series. The conversation has expanded.
The conversation continues.