Dungeon Meshi • Delicious in Dungeon – Episode 18 discussion

Isn’t it great when a [seemingly throwaway joke line](https://i.imgur.com/HDTYJKJ.png) from several episodes ago, comes back to [being relevant](https://i.imgur.com/ix8K5v7.png)?

This episode is going to leave me sus for the next eight episodes.

Kind of hilarious how some of the shapeshifter’s copies looked like some janky AI generated shit lol. It was pretty fun seeing them try and narrow down who’s the genuine article once the obvious fakes were eliminated. No one has faith in poor Laios’ ability to guess the real person lol. Man had an ace up his sleeve though: dog sounds. No one makes a more accurate bark than our boy. He mimics different breeds too! The big goober was seriously about to go full on dog mode on the shapeshifter before Marcille deleted the damn thing’s head lol.

Looks like Kabru’s little friend dropped in on the gang. She went missing after that Falin fight last time. Guess she was lurking after she got resurrected?

Yeah, idk what marcille was talking about, senshi is practically one of the most handsome man in the dunmeshi-verse.

That aside, finally, one of my favorite arcs. All the clues and reasonings of which are fakes and real make sense. Really highlights how well Kui sensei cooks up her characters, on top of the worldbuilding.

The dudes forgetting that no one told marcille laios sneaked in the fishmen eggs in the porridge was hilarious. Back when reading the manga, that was what tipped me off, was wondering why it wasnt brought up, well, until marcille did anyway lmao.

Imagine if frieren’s second exam clones were like this instead though lmao. Really curious to see what land and ubel would do. We’d prolly be seeing fern presenting treasure chests to the frierens though.

I also really like that there even is an explaination for chimera falin to have feathers, which is to withstand the cold of the deeper floor.

“Wdym, Senshi always has been handsome”

also, CAT GIRL REVEAL WOHOO

People are overlooking the rather ominous final moment of the episode? Marcille captured by the monster guy in black. I wonder what that was all about. (And how did he (1) steal the tea, and (2) use it to lay a false trail — without ANYONE noticing?

So did that “wolf” control all the shapeshifters? Not certain what his connection was with that situation.

[Ehhh, OG Senshi is still superior in looks](https://imgur.com/kRTF4il)

We finally got to see Laios’ impression of a dog lol. He really is good at it

Laios certainly is special

seeing how the illusions were made by reading their minds, they don’t really have great views of eachother lol. especially poor Laios who’s illusions were immediately noticeable.

and the one Marcille that also clearly stood out…

and then they called out fake senshi for being good looking, poor real senshi..

i did notice the hand that took marcille’s hand during the snowstorm wasn’t any hand of their group so i was expecting something to happen there at the end

I find it strangely sweeter that Laios is more worried about smaller inconveniences to Falin like going through a cramped hallway and being cold, rather than the fact that she’s injured and a giant chimera being controlled against her will.

This is one of my absolute favorite chapters. It really says a lot about how everybody sees Laios that all of his copies were singled out from the get-go whereas they had a bit more trouble with his. Part of me wishes that it got revealed which copy belonged to who, but there’s also fun to be had in letting anime-onlies guess. Especially for the most offensive copies.

Although the best conflict was with Senshi’s copy. It’s pretty wholesome that the guys have such a positive view of him, even at the cost of accidentally roasting the original. Senshi is a handsome fella, after all. But honestly, none of them escaped getting roasted thanks to this debacle. Like the real Chilchuck looking and sounding meaner than his copy, and the real Marcille being so careless and so picky about food even in this situation.

Between sniffing out the copies and even the main monster itself, Laios really has that dog in him. Literally. I was wondering what it was gonna sound like. I did not expect them to straight up use dog barks… unless his VA is actually really good at making dog sounds as well.

And finally… she’s here. The kbity… Well, I guess she was already there multiple episodes ago. But this is her formal introduction.

This episode is such a good microcosm of a lot of what makes Dungeon Meshi so great: strong characterization, character relationships, very well thought out character design, interesting monster ecology, cooking segments that are integral to the plot, themes, and characters, and fantastic humor. I was *howling* at the Laios barking scene.

When I initially read the manga, I thought the really big Laios was Chilchuck’s perception since it makes sense for it to be so exaggerated. Funny to find out that it was actually Marcille’s

I’m so happy they did the “extremely low res zoom in” gag from episode 1 again

I’m also extremely happy at how cost-effectively they managed this episode until it was time to blow it all on the dog gag, that was really funny

This is one of my favorite chapters from the manga, and I think the anime did a pretty good job adapting the chapter. I’ve always think of this chapter as the biggest proof that the whole ” laios doesn’t care about human ” claim made by kabru is far from true. Not only does laios’s portrayal of the party the most faithful to the real one (albeit with obvious clothing detail errors), He also successfully determined all of the real version of his party members. Laios does care about people. he’s just not very good at dealing with them