Delicious in Dungeon was not what I expected when I first started watching, initially I could not care for the characters the story or even the food but by episode 3 I was hooked.

The story itself is quiet standard (yet interesting), while still playing with a lot of stereotypical fantasy troupes, ultimately making a very comfortable hook and easily relatable outline. The start of the story from what I found was slow and hard to get into as we are dropped right in the middle of a conflict that we don't know much about, which is where a story has to start but the anime spends more time on the food than the actual characters and progressing the plot. Although the progression of the plot and the bread crumbs for further events and revelations are done amazingly and although we don't have the full story in anime form the pieces are there to pull everything together.

The food, being the whole selling point of the anime, is cool but ultimately brings the story to a halt in some aspects. Especially at the start of the story the cooking gets in the way of the story to throw around the gimmick of eating monsters and initially I wasn't that impressed. Later in the show it does become a jumping off point for a lot of good character moments and turning points for key events but that doesn't really out way that it stumbles at times. The food mostly excels in adding new aspects and features to the story itself, from transforming mushrooms to edible metal and bricks the additions of finding away around a conflict by lateral thinking or learning something new about the monster, characters or dungeon that really made the food worthwhile after the slow start.

The characters are what really sell this piece, as each character is lovable and flawed in amazing ways and truly bring the story and events into its own. At first, like most stories we are dropped into the middle of the inciting moment but for a story to progress it needs to get us to care about the characters and for myself that didn't happen quickly. Though as stated, after some time the characters really come into there own and complete the package. Where the food lags in some points, the connections and interplay between different storylines, groups and emotions made the episodes grow and grow until I was already at the end of the season and needing to watch more.

As a small note, the environments are interesting and add intrigue to the story itself but not that much more outstanding than other fantasy stories and act more as a playing ground for more and more monsters to use the environment to the stories advantage. From this same point, the magic system is compelling with the way it impacts the entire narrative is fun and engrossing.

Overall Delicious in Dungeon was not what I expected, whether that is cause I started off on the wrong foot or not is hard to tell but the rising stakes and character moments surmount to a beautiful story that is worth the watch.