REVIEW: ‘Delicious In Dungeon’ Episode 7 — “Kelpie/Porridge/Broiled With Sauce”

With Chilchuck (Asuna Tomari) overcoming one of his long-hated enemies, Delicious in Dungeon (Dungeon Meshi) Episode 7,  “Kelpie/Porridge/Broiled with Sauce” from studio TRIGGER sees the party venture deeper into the dungeon. Some of their beliefs are challenged as the group dives further into danger. If that wasn’t enough, familiar faces also spring back into focus.

This week’s entry opens with a surprising return. Rather than joining with our protagonists, we see a pair of adventurers reviving the group that had fallen prey to the insect coins a couple of episodes back. Once the fallen adventurers are back on their feet, they discover some of their valuables are gone. The group sets off to give chase after the ones they believe have robbed them.

This sequence creates a curious moment for Delicious in Dungeon Episode 7 to open. There are two ways the secondary party’s journey can go. They can continue falling victim to monsters, becoming more of a joke as the series continues. Or catch up to our heroes for a pitched battle. Both of these outcomes could have merits if handled well. There is some hint to how their fates will play out later in the episode, but it still feels early. Hopefully, the continued presence of these adventures will yield a return worth the time investment.

As the episode catches up with our protagonists, we find them preparing for another day’s adventure. While they partake of what routine cleanliness they can deep in the dungeon, Delicious in Dungeon Episode 7 makes use of the moment to expand on some of the intricacies of magic and what can interfere with a spell’s success. This moment provides some clever nuance into the world’s magic system.

Once the party is ready, they embark on the fourth floor of the dungeon. This level of the dungeon resides around a massive lake adventurers must cross. Marcille (Sayaka Senbongi) plans to enchant the party with a water-walking spell to cross the lake. Senshi (Hiroshi Naka) immediately protests the plan. As always, he sees magic as a crutch that allows weakness to fester. He soon embarks on his plan to cross the water against the advice of the others.

This leads to the episode’s biggest surprise as Senshi’s plan backfires horribly for him. Nearly dying at the hands of a monster, Senshi is forced to face up to the fact that he was wrong. Given how faultless every one of his plans had been prior, this moment of imperfection is a great spot of character-building for him. Especially since he uses his moment of failure to reach out to Marcille to let her help him cross the water with magic.

Before the party heads out, Chilchuck and Laios’ (Kentarô Kumagi) do some local exploring. They come across a conflict that sees a merman and some familiar adventurers battle, resulting in both sides perishing. While cleaning up the battle, Laios takes a few things that have been scattered to make a meal for the party.

The ingredients used in this meal start to flirt with some uncomfortable lines. Laios wants to harvest the merman directly. However, Chilchuck refuses to let him, stating that the line has to be drawn at demi-humans. That Laios wants to eat sentient creatures and sees no problem with that is moderately disturbing. What’s worse is that it is revealed that Laios purposefully tricks Chilchuck and the others into eating the merman’s eggs. This moment is another unpleasant return to the disrespect that Laios shows toward the feelings of others. There was no need to trick his friends into eating things he knew they wouldn’t approve of. His lack of care for their feelings feels like a major character flaw the series continues to simply ignore.

Once the party begins their trek across the water, Delicious in Dungeon Episode 7 sees the story’s pacing pick up as the group runs afoul of a Kraken. This sequence is cleverly implemented. With the party’s water-walking spell keeping them dry, the battle becomes a running engagement as the monster repeatedly breaches the surface and attempts to ensnare our heroes. The scale of the monster is excellently delivered. As the party avoids the monstrous beast, huge waves ripple between characters, creating one of the most intense encounters of the series to date.

We see Senshi look to Marcille for aid in finally bringing the monster down. This brings the narrative focus of the episode into this action sequence. Combining his knowledge of animals and her magic creates the perfect plan to defeat the monster. The final resolution is clever. Once it begins, the viewer instantly appreciates the ingenuity of the concept. It also comes with a moment of goofiness visually that helps the action-filled sequence feel right at home with the light-hearted focus of the series.

Delicious in Dungeon Episode 7 delivers some great character and action while managing to rehash its biggest stumbling block. It feels close to turning a corner into something great. It needs to address a couple of recurring character problems first.

Delicious in Dungeon Episode 7 is streaming now on Netflix.