Dungeon People

PixelB★ 7

Dungeon no Naka no Hito is a surprisingly well-made anime about the logistical management of an artificially made dungeon. It's a slice-of-life sort of fantasy regarding the management of a dungeon. Does that interest you? You're in luck. It's a robust work that's quite varied and doesn't get boring. After all, there's a lot to cover. How does an artificial dungeon refill its chest, get rid of garbage, and design levels? Why is there a lot of magical power flowing through there, and how is there a seemingly infinite supply of monsters? Overall, there are a lot of things to talk about as we see Clay andBelle interact with each other. I'll also be damned if there's anime talking about the management of much more mundane things such as local shops and restaurants, then you can surely pull off a dungeon management type of anime as well. And, of course, characters certainly play a large role in anime. Clay and Belle are employer and employee, but as the two interact with each other, a blooming friendship also occurs. Clay's a typical adventurer, trying to discover the mystery of her father's whereabouts. Her goal seems to be to get strong enough to reach her father's level. On the other hand, Belle is a more relaxed dungeon master, but as a result of that, is lonely and reclusive as a result. Both Clay and Belle seem to have reached near the pinnacle of human ability, Clay being a world-class thief/rogue while Belle a world-class mage. Rather, it's their other departments they seem to be completely clueless about. Neither character has much social interaction due to their lifestyle, and despite their human nature to socialize, they never had the opportunity to or were too scared or anxious to deal with other people. Thus, the slice of life of managing a dungeon gives a good backdrop for character exploration, development, and understanding of characters better. Of course, the dungeon development in its own right is interesting, but the characters complete the story. The way the story deals with more mature themes is also quite consistent. While Belle and Clay are both perhaps good-natured, they also don't shy away from death. After all, it is a fantasy anime about dungeon clearing. A dungeon by nature is a death-churning machine, and thus people will die. People will also reveal their ugly sides when faced with desperate situations. Punishment by death is sometimes necessary in a rule where the iron fist is the strongest, and both Clay and Belle are well aware of this. Belle and Clay are not completely clueless and innocent to the world around them. They know the rules of the world and live by them too, and they don't think so pure-heartedly that they think discourse is the only way to solve a problem. Rather, they've more than fulfilled their physiological and safety needs through personal experience and strength, and the show more focuses on their social and self-actualization needs instead. The show has a solid foundation of decent characters, and while I would like more side characters, it's good enough. The episodes flow seamlessly despite there not being a huge overarching plot, the anime still consistently produces good-quality episodes and I'm never bored of Clay learning more about the dungeon. I also quite immensely appreciate that no CGI was used for monsters. The animation quality is simple but effective.

Kantyash★ 4

I'll start off by saying that I enjoyed the episode-to-episode watching experience. The characters are likable enough and the worldbuilding was sort of interesting. So what's the issue? Well, the issue is that there is literally 0 plot. There are *crumbs* of a plot peppered throughout the show but it never goes anywhere. It is a show completely comprised of filler. At the pace it was going I was certain that it was going to have 24 or even 48 episodes because it was unimaginable to me that they could have any sort of satisfying conclusion after 12 eps... And, well, there wasn't one. The showgoes literally nowhere. Nothing happens. By episode 12 we are basically in the same spot we were in episode 2 or 3. Don't get me wrong, there are still self-contained stories that are kinda interesting but they don't really impact the bigger picture at all. Clay starts off wanting to conquer the dungeon and find her father but each of those goals has 1 episode dedicated to it and, you guessed it, it goes nowhere. They keep setting things up and there is never any payoff, instead, it's all immediately swept under the cupboard. I wish I could say I was looking forward to season 2 but there wasn't even a hook in the finale to give us something to speculate about, it just, kinda, ended... There is nothing that I'd be excited to see them explore in s2 because they have already shown that it doesn't matter and it will just be another crumb contained in a single episode and I don't see this series getting 10 seasons so it has enough times for these crumbs to add up to a satisfying conclusion.