Chef's Table meets Baldur's Gate in Netflix's first anime banger of 2024

Do you like food? Of course you do. What did you think about Dungeons and Dragons? You mess around, yes? Maybe played a fantasy role-playing game or two? Never? That's cool too. You still want to check out Wonderful in the dungeon.

Based on Ryōko Kui's beloved and recently completed manga, the new Netflix anime is a loving, faithful adaptation of one of the most charming fantasy stories in recent memory, a series that cares just as much about food (as Chef's table) because it allows for fun tabletop style adventures (like Baldur's Gate 3). The story follows a group of adventurers in a world where a mysterious dungeon has appeared, with a ghost carrying the message that an unimaginable treasure awaits those who descend into the depths to defeat the wizard who lies within its heart.

Laios and his friends Marcille and Chilchuck are one of many such groups who make regular expeditions into the dungeons, and we meet them at a moment of particularly bad luck as a dragon kicks their ass and appears to swallow their friend Falin. Laios has run out of resources to conduct a proper rescue operation and is very hungry. He devises a last-ditch plan to return to the dragon and rescue Falin: they eat their way through the dungeon, finding and cooking edible monsters to sustain them on their journey. deeper without supplies.

That's pretty much it! Since there is currently only one episode available (Wonderful in the dungeon is the rare Netflix simulcast), the series can give the viewer the impression that it is quite minor. Given how faithful the adjustment Studio Trigger makes here, this one will almost certainly get better. But that doesn't mean the show isn't without its charms from the start.

As it looks now, Wonderful in the dungeon is a great D&D-flavored hangout show, one that insists on filling its dank, monstrous halls with good vibes and sitcom oddities. You only get a small taste of them here, but it's easy to see how the main cast bounces off each other: Laios is quite a determined dummy, Marcille is prudish and overbearing, Chilchuck resents how hard everyone is trying. job as the thief, and dwarf newcomer Senshi is bizarre in cooking.

A large part of Wonderful in the dungeonThe appeal of Kui in manga form is that Kui is, for all intents and purposes, a huge nerd. She has an obvious love for cooking and fantasy role-playing games (check out her beautiful portraits of the Baldur's Gate 1 And 2 casts), and Wonderful in the dungeon is an admiring outlet for both passions. Reading the manga, it's easy to get caught up in the equal care Kui puts into the illustration of scoring meat with a knife, as well as the equipment of her group of adventurers or the anatomy of the monsters they face.

This is perhaps the biggest hurdle for the anime adaptation of Wonderful in the dungeon: A lot of the manga is skewed from the explanations, which is a little less interesting in motion than on the page. An uninitiated viewer might wonder what the point of all this is.

Knowing where the story is going helps here – because while Kui's manga is heavily episodic and almost hilariously unconcerned with the inciting incident of Laios and company saving their friend from the belly of a dragon, it is in fact very interested in slowly expanding his manga. characters and a long-term story, to an extent that won't be clear for a while.

But until then? Enjoy the details. Wonderful in the dungeon builds an entire fantasy world out of the crazy little questions first-time fantasy fans ask about genre fiction. “What's everyone eating?” is of course the big one, but it doesn't stop there. Instead, it becomes a continuously drawn thread, continually yielding new details. If a dungeon's monsters are edible, what do they eat? Food chains produce ecosystems that produce cultures and rules and a wealth that the generic fantasy world of Wonderful in the dungeon into something unique.

And maybe you'll pick up some cooking tips along the way. The monsters may be fake, but the knife skills are legit.

Wonderful in the dungeon is now streaming on Netflix. New episodes appear every Thursday.