So far almost all the screen time has been spent with our main quartet, Laios, Chilchuck, Marcille and Senshi.
We met some orcs, and Kabru’s party has had two short minisodes. Farlin has also been around in flashbacks. But aside from that, the cast is still quite small.
The OP teases that the eventual character count will rise well past two dozen, but I though it might be fun to facilitate some discussions based on what we’ve seen of the main group so far, before the next episode introduces several more significant members of the cast.
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I’ve made it no secret how much I like our girl Marcy.
She’s an absolute cinnamon roll flavoured with industrial grade moe extract.
But can we acknowledge the absolute tour de force of best girl energy that is Senshi?
Tough question. In ensemble shows like this, it can vary for me depending on the story/episode. If I had to pick a character that I have been enjoying the most, it is probably Marcille. Between how expressively she is drawn and the great VA work to go alongside, it has been great.
I think the character that I am most interested in is Laios. He can be really weird sometimes. He has a tendency to kind of forget what he is doing or get easily sidetracked or off on some tangent. You could see this all the way back in episode 1 when he was busy thinking about how hungry he was instead of focusing on the fight with the dragon. Similarly, this has happened in a couple other fights they have had, where Laios is kind of standing around, thinking about some nonsense while his party continues to fight. This tendency to go off on tangents (often monster food-related), is at odds with what should be a high priority for him, saving his sister. I just feel like there is more to Laios that we haven’t really seen yet. Or…maybe he is just kinda weird that way.
I have seen people elsewhere online compare Laios to being neurodivergent. I don’t really have much firsthand experience with neurodivergence, so I can’t really speak to the comparison. However, I do find it interesting that people are connecting to an anime character in that way.
Laios is definitely a bit of a scatterbrain, despite being quite competent, and at times very intelligent. Monsters to him are like trains or monster trucks to a kid, endlessly fascinating.
I suspect he and Falin have been a two for one deal for a good few years, and that they kind of complete each other in a way that we can’t see, as Falin isn’t around.
He hasn’t made any lethal mistakes yet, aside from the one at the start which might be explained away by the hunger the entire party was feeling at the time. That time, his focus got derailed by “this isn’t going well” while the time he fought the living armor he was actively figuring out the situation and only slightly delayed applying what he learned due to his enthrallment. Everyone has screwed up at least once by now, with the rest of the party making up for the mistake to keep them alive.
We do also see Laios being an effective party lead a lot, his mediation of the emotional tension between Marcille and Chilchuck on the second floor. His instant decision for the guys to be a diversion while Marcy hits the Kraken with magic. Snapping Chilchuck out of the trance induced by the mermaids (which didn’t affect Laios at the same distance, due to his shittier human hearing).
He seems to do his thing without even thinking, and while the rest hardly consider him flawless, each time things go wrong they very clearly organize around him to deal with it.
It’s hard to pick when they all seem like kind people.
I’ll go with Falin, for sacrificing herself back in episode 1.
Falin is a solid pick. We wont see too much of her given she spends most of the plot being digested (ew) but she’s a real one.
Gotta be Senshi, for me. I’m already a fan of the dwarf aesthetic, but he’s also really knowledgeable and wise. I like how he appreciates a simpler life and seems to believe in keeping a balance. It’s not what you’d expect from the classic Tolkien dwarves or even most modern depictions where they tend to be overly industrious, and I think that subversion of expectations makes him that much more likable. I also like chef characters
The female character that used to be in Laios party, and who commented “what idiot would cook here” at the end of the last episode is also a dwarf.
When they meet in tomorrow’s episode, we’ll learn a lot more about what a “typical” dwarf is from her reaction to meeting Senshi.
If you didn’t see his character sheet that I posted earlier, go check it out. Also, his helmet belonged to Gillin, a fellow dwarf who took him in after Senshi lost both his parents. Senshi is the sole remaining survivor of Gillins group.
I love how expressive his deadpan eyes can be, and the way they go narrow sometimes, is gold.
Nice. I’ll have to check it out. I’m still a couple episodes behind and I am completely unfamiliar with the manga, but I’m sure I know the character you mean just based on the intro/outro
She’s in the fight against the dragon in episode one, as well.
I look forward to seeing you in the episode discussions if you catch up!
Chilchuck for sure. He can reverse engineer and disarm traps. Those big ears are too goofy to not like him.
If you read the character sheet I posted, you’ll also learn that he’s multi-lingual, an advocate for halfling rights as they are sometimes treated as little more than disposable canaries, and the leader of the half-foot guild.
He is middle-aged for a half-foot, and was even retired for a bit.
There’s much more that we’ll learn, but it’s kinda funny to me how he’s the most experienced delver in the group, by far (except Senshi, maybe). He really didn’t appreciate Marcy thinking of him as a child.
He really feels like dependable guy
Hard to say because I like the cast as a whole. Even the side characters.
But if I had to pick one, I guess that it would be Marcille. Book-smart without a shred of practicality, willing to learn and bend her preconceptions, I can get why Falyn took a liking of her.
Truly one of the big reasons I adore the story so much. Not a single character is a miss, every single one has some thought put in, so they feel like there’s more to them than whatever we see on-screen.
Marcy is my favorite as well, but the difference between her and the entire remaining cast is not large.
In so many series you groan when screen time is wasted on characters you don’t care about, but Dungeon Meshi could spend a full episode on any one of its characters and I would feel no need to complain.
every single one has some thought put in, so they feel like there’s more to them than whatever we see on-screen.
I fully agree with that. For plenty series there’s always that feeling, that the writers barely thought about the characters; sometimes the main cast, sometimes the support. Dungeon Meshi though? Sometimes I get the feeling that the Ryoko Kui spends a whole night writing a character, then at sunrise she holds her head and say “I can’t add all of this to the manga! It’s too much detail! Wait I didn’t decide the colour of his cousin’s childhood puppy yet.”
My kid really likes Chilchuck.
But I think we all know who the real hero of the story is, my boy Kensuke.
How could I forget about Kensuke!? He (it?) is such a good companion to Laios. The two are so close, like they are stuck at the hip.
AH! It’s not a quartet, but a quintet!
Kensuke will come in really clutch if they ever need an emergency snack.
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