2024 read #133: Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 9 by Ryoko Kui.

Delicious in Dungeon: Volume 9 by Ryoko Kui

Translated by Taylor Engel

207 pages

Published 2020 (English translation published 2021)

Read from November 4 to November 5

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Another fucking election coming up. Time to distract myself as best I can, by checking out every single remaining volume of Delicious in Dungeon from my local library. Truly the most 2024 way I could compartmentalize my anxieties.

I had been looking forward to the succubus arc — who doesn't love a sexy monster? But in Ryoko Kui's hands, not only do we get sexy monsters, we get an astonishingly well-constructed arc with emotional stakes, ending with my favorite character moment ever for Izutsumi.

Perhaps it's just the contrast with the pretty but flat art of Tsukasa Abe in Frieren, but Kui's art is absolutely phenomenal in this volume. Her storyboarding and storytelling, too, are at their finest here. We learn more about the dungeon, and that all might not be what it seems with everything we had learned before. Top notch stuff.

2024 read #132: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 7 by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 7, story by Kanehito Yamada and art by Tsukasa Abe

Translated by Misa ‘Japanese Ammo’

187 pages

Published 2022 (English translation published 2023)

Read November 3

Rating: 3 out of 5

This is my library’s last volume of Frieren, so it’ll be the last one I’ll be able to read for some time.

After the extensive arc for the magic examination, this tankōbon brings us back to the series’ more typical episodic structure. We wrap up loose ends with the other mages, head back out into the northern wilds, help a village or two, and find a hot spring. It’s an understated entry, but I’m fond enough of the characters that it didn’t feel at all like a waste of time. It’s as good a stopping place as any.

I do think the series has won me over enough that I do want to continue it, whenever that might be in the cards.

2024 read #131: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 6 by Kanehito Yanada and Tsukasa Abe.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 6, story by Kanehito Yamada and art by Tsukasa Abe

Translated by Misa ‘Japanese Ammo’

189 pages

Published 2021 (English translation published 2022)

Read from November 2 to November 3

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Any disgruntlement that the magical exam storyline continues from Volume 5 (and in fact comprises all of Volume 6, as well) is mollified by the fact that the second test is an extended dungeon raid. Yamada hits an excellent balance of action, character moments, and clever dungeon encounters, setting this volume a nudge above the rest of the series so far.

I’ve been wavering about whether to continue this series or not; this volume lands me solidly in the “continue” column. Which is almost unfortunate, because my county library only has copies of Frieren up through Volume 7. Just one more book after this one, and I’m stuck having to buy them if I want to keep going.

2024 read #130: Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 5 by Kanehito Yamada and Tsukasa Abe.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End Volume 5, story by Kanehito Yamada and art by Tsukasa Abe

Translated by Misa ‘Japanese Ammo’

188 pages

Published 2021 (English translation published 2022)

Read November 2

Rating: 3 out of 5

From the start, the most intriguing element in Frieren was the light touch of melancholy and loss that pervaded its story. Frieren, a seemingly immortal elf, didn’t realize how much her adventuring friends had meant to her until almost all of them had passed away. The idea of drifting through time, watching the world change and those you love wither away, is an obvious outcome of the standard post-Tolkien fantasy setting, yet not one I’ve seen explored that often. Even if I had middling opinions regarding individual volumes, Frieren as an overall story arc had promise.

Jump ahead to Volume 5, and Frieren’s side quests have brought her to a magical qualification exam, randomly assigned to a team with two young mages — one tightly buttoned up, one in hot pants — who can’t stop bickering long enough to perform their sorcerous tasks. It inevitably leads to a bunch of mages with main character syndrome settling into a battle royale. It feels so forgettably generic, so bog-standard for fantasy manga, so… Harry Potter. (Shudder.)

It’s especially frustrating when you recall I only began reading this series to fill the Delicious in Dungeon-shaped absence in my heart. Now that is a worthwhile manga series. Frieren? I get less and less convinced that I’ll make it to the end with each new book.

The magic exam storyline takes up this entire tankōbon, and continues into the next. While I felt it didn’t fit the series’ vibe (or at least wasn’t the vibe I wanted from it), I did get into it, sorta, eventually. Populating a battle royale with brand new characters is a difficult task. Abe’s art contributes many dynamic character designs for the rival mages; easily half a dozen of them look cool enough to star in manga of their own. I’d certainly read an entire series of Übel flirtatiously fighting with everyone.

There are even some scraps of character development and backstory for our dear Frieren, squeezed in between all the mayhem. That appeals to me more than the magical violence.