Tuesday, August 13, 2024

2024 read #94: Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 2 by Ryoko Kui.

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 2 by Ryoko Kui
Translated by Taylor Engel
191 pages
Published 2015 (English translation published 2017)
Read from August 12 to August 13
Rating: 4 out of 5

Somehow it’s been four months since I read Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 1. Volume 2 has been sold out, and pretty much impossible to obtain, this whole time, until quite recently. In the meantime, I finished the first season of the anime, then I began Witch Hat Atelier to scratch that fantasy manga itch, and became obsessed with it.

After all this time, it almost feels strange making my way back into the dungeon with Marcille, Laios, Senshi, and the gang. Having watched the thoroughly faithful anime adaptation not so long ago, I struggled a bit with feelings of repetition. The creative ways Kui utilizes the creatures in her dungeon (such as the golem fields in Chapter 8, or the exorcism sorbet in Chapter 11) lose some of their impact when you know what’s coming. It’s important, but not always easy, to try to recapture that sense of wonder from when I watched the anime. It’s harder to turn off that part of my brain when my attention span is already frazzled with summer.

None of that, of course, should detract from the manga. And sure enough, so gradually that I didn’t notice it at first, it transcended mere repetition and became a comfort read. I’ve missed these characters, and I’ve missed the dungeon ecosystem Kui maps out. 

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