Dungeon Meshi – Episode 16 Review

「掃除屋/みりん干し」 (Soujiya/Mirin Boshi)
“Cleaners/Dried with Sweet Sake”

Worlds are colliding on Dungeon Meshi. And things once again got a bit serious (more so than last week, at least). The Laios party is moving in circles, the leader is seeing (and hearing) things, and what he’s hearing is kind of freaky. Laios speculates that he’s still suffering from mana sickness, but Marcille seems skeptical. And if she’s right, he’s being warned by the locals that the eye of the Lunatic Magician is very much on them, the sort of attention no one in their right mind would want to be getting.

The pattern is pretty well-established here. When the party is in trouble that’s not food or magic-related, Chilchuck in the one to take the lead. He’s the most practical and common sensical of the group, and the most systematic too. That’s the approach he takes in finding a pattern in the dungeon changes. After a possible dragon appearance necessitates a detour through a wall (where magic goes it’s Marcille who takes the lead), he eventually leads the party to a staircase – which means a way out.

Senshi suggests it’s time for a meal (Marcille thought it was time for frog suits), and sets about cooking up a concoction of a little of everything they’ve been gathering up. Including edible (though the definition is a loose one in this case) bricks made from “cleaners” – the tiny critters that repair the dungeon after one of its many mishaps. While the group is dining unexpected guests show up, however – old friends (and would-be enemies) among them.

Shuro has become a shell of his former self, so relentlessly has he sought the missing Falin. His retainers worry over him but he routinely disdains food and sleep – which Laios does his best to disabuse him of. Shuro has picked up some strays along the way, as we know – the Kabro party, who now seem to have located the ones they’re convinced are their tormentors. But Kabro, to his credit, is able to piece together pretty quickly that these are not the droids they’re looking for.  Or at the very least, if Laios had anything to do with stealing their belongings, he has no recollection of it.

While Shuro’s high-strung caretaker prepares him a meal with Senshi’s help (and love), Laios takes Shuro aside to explain what happened to Falin. But this is not a story Shuro is happy to hear, even before Laios gets to the worst part (for which he sends Kabro away). The reality of how Marcille brought Falin back makes everyone involved – including Falin – criminals. Whatever the other consequences might be, that much is certain. Laios has good reason to believe Shuro will keep that information to himself, but what about Kabro – who’s soon let in on the secret?

Kabro is definitely a strange dude. Laios is too of course – and Kabro is fascinated by it – but in a very different way. If the idea of an alliance with orcs – who Kabro sees as his duty to exterminate – offends him so much, what about the use of black magic? Kabro is whatever metaphor you like here – a wild card, a loose cannon. He’s a smart guy with rigid ideas of what’s right and a relative lack of real-world experience to educate him on why going by the book isn’t always possible.  And that, to be sure, is a dangerous combination.