Last weeks thread - 16 Comments
Dungeon Meshi is a well liked manga, and an adaptation by Studio Trigger is now airing. If you haven’t picked this one up, consider joining us. Both for fun and as a way of contributing to activity on Lemmy.
Episodes are available to stream on Netflix.
The cast grows by 5! Namari is back, for a short while at least… While Marcille isn’t too hot on seeing her again, it’s clear Namari isn’t as callous about leaving the party as Marcy might suspect.
Again, we learn many new details about the world, the Tansus are real experts on the dungeon and they share some tidbits on what makes the place so different to the outside world. Though both them and their adopted twins tend to look down on “normal” adventurers.
Marcille cooks up a stew, new relationships are formed over a meal, and an old friendship gets repaired.
Remember not to spoil anything if you’re a manga reader, but feel free to elaborate on tidbits of lore that may not be coming through in the adaptation.
Man, it is so nice to see a happy and healthy Marcy again. The whole episode felt different in tone after the stew. Here’s hoping that our intrepid group can proceed a bit smoother from here. If I remember correctly, they are just ~2 days away from where the dragon is. However, the anime viewer me knows that we are simply on episode 9/24, so there is a lot of story left to go.
Earlier today, I read through the latest production notes entry from Sakugablog about this series and I think it applies to this episode a lot. The basic premise was that Trigger has been smart and deliberate about what episodes/sequences they invest time/money into. This episode is one in which they could stay relatively restrained in their animation, and instead rely on the incredible voice talent to convey a lot of the emotion instead. Things like the barely concealed hostility in Marcy’s and Namari’s voices when they reunite for the first time make it obvious how they are feeling.
Speaking of Namari, her death really shocked me. It came out of nowhere so suddenly. I think that helped get across just how casually death is often perceived by adventurers in the dungeon. It was fortunate that there was somebody in the group that could heal Marcille though. So, you might have been a bit of a dick gnome-dude, but you were a bro when it counted.
Finally, I was happy to see some of the magical genius side of Marcille this episode. I get the impression that coming up with the idea of cooking/eating spirits to regain magic is not a standard thing that is done. So, she managed to connect several magical knowledge dots together to come up with a solution that allowed her to continue their quest. I work professionally in the sciences and this is what innovation looks like. Often, all the principles have existed for a while, it just needs the right connections to be drawn between them for a new discovery to be made and put to use.
Marcille is actually a lot more educated than she lets on. Being an elf she’s had time to hit the books for decades, before finally going into the field for real. But she has a lack of confidence in what she’s learned from literature, which started when she met Falin.
That’s why she’s so naive, yet knowledgeable, at the same time. She’s had time to read up, but not to gain confidence in applying all that she knows. But she knows a lot. Way more than Falin, despite Falin being the more skilled mage.
The difference between Marcy and the Tansus is likely just that she hasn’t spent 150 years on her own research yet.