REVIEW: ‘Delicious in Dungeon’ Episode 4 – “Stewed Cabbage/Orcs”

With the threat presented by the Living Armor’s defeat, the party continues its quest to find the Red Dragon. When the group comes upon the floor of the dungeon where Senshi (Hiroshi Naka) lives, the party learns a bit about their newest member and his past in Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi) Episode 4, “Stewed Cabbage/Orcs.”

The opening half of this week’s episode sees the party arrive at Senshi’s home in the dungeon. It turns out that the dwarf doesn’t leave the dungeon except to trade. He was on his way back home when he ran into the party back in episode one. How Senshi manages to maintain his lifestyle within the confines of the dungeon is genuinely fascinating. Like many other elements of the series, how Senshi lives is thoroughly thought out and clever. The level of harmony Delicious in Dungeon Episode 4 shows him living with some of the dungeon’s other denizens is awesome. He even grows his vegetables on the backs of golems.

Beyond what he does for himself, we also learn that he helps tend to other areas of the dungeon. While he gets some benefit from these activities, it’s clear that Senshi is deeply concerned about maintaining the balance within the dungeon. This environmentalist viewpoint on a fantasy setting is interesting to see. Like previous elements within the series, this one helps make the world feel more believable and grounded.

While the party welcomes many of the revelations concerning Senshi, some elements of his life come to rub Marcille (Sayaka Senbongi, Heavenly Delusion) the wrong way. His interactions with some of the creatures in the dungeon break rules concerning magic. As the party mage, Marcille speaks up against these habits of Senshi’s. While not much comes of these quarrels here, it will be interesting to see if these elements come back later in the series with more potency.

With a harvest of freshly grown vegetables in tow, Delicious in Dungeon Episode 4 sees our protagonists set out to trade these items to a local merchant that has set up shop nearby. While trying to trade, however, orcs attack the merchants, killing everyone but the party. As luck has it, though, these orcs are known to Senshi, so they are spared. This leads to an awkward sequence in the episode.

While the orcs had been butchering people just moments earlier, most of the party members seemed to think little of what just transpired. The group travels to the orc’s encampment and bakes bread for them. Only Marcille clashes with their Orc hosts over the details of the history of bloodshed that keeps Orcs from coexisting with the other races.

That no one else seems to even remember that they just witnessed a massacre is bizarre. That everyone just sits down to supper together like nothing happened feels tone-deaf. I appreciate wanting to tell a light-hearted story, but if that is the goal, don’t include wholesale murder in your narrative. What time the episode gives Mariclle to debate with the Orcs about the history of the races and who caused what problems are handled fairly well. At least when they don’t have Senshi butting in to describe the next step of bread making.

As the spat grows in intensity, Delicious in Dungeon Episode 4 never tries to lean towards one direction of the argument or the other. Was it the Orcs that were wronged first? Or was it the other races who acted in self-defense against Orc attacks? While both sides of the argument think they have answers, the viewer quickly gets the impression neither side truly does. It is likely neither is as innocent as they claim. The episode wraps up the brief confrontation with a moment of sweetness as both sides come to an uneasy peace for the sake of the moment.

The visuals continue to work to impart the cheerful tone that the series constantly goes for. No matter what is happening, the visual style never lets the story take on too much weight, even if it feels like it should. If the general tone of this episode doesn’t always jive with the visuals, the food continues to shine whenever it’s on screen. From gorgeously browned loaves of bread to delicious-looking plates of vegetables, the series never manages to fail in its elegantly laid-out presentations of food.

Delicious in Dungeon Episode 4 does some clever world-building as it fleshes out how the dungeon works and Senshi’s place in it. However, the series continues to introduce elements it doesn’t seem prepared to deal with, which causes a tonal dissonance that drags the viewer out of the series’ generally warm storytelling.

Delicious in Dungeon Episode 4 is streaming now on Netflix, with new episodes airing every Thursday.