Dungeon Meshi – Episode 22 Review

「グリフィン/使い魔」 (Gurifin/Tsukaima)
“Griffin/Familiars”

So much important stuff is dropping in every episode of Dungeon Meshi now that it’s hard to keep track of it. Especially what’s already been revealed, and what’s supposed to still be a mystery. But there were a few bombshells this week that don’t raise that problem – I’d remember. There have been times when it was extremely tempting to talk about what was revealed at the end of this episode for example, but of course that would have been inexcusable.

Things start off innocently enough as Senshi whips up a stack of hotcakes (the puffy Japanese kind) for breakfast. Yaad remarks on their warmth and texture, and Senshi tries to give him hope that he might one day regain his sense of taste through training it like a muscle. Yaad shares a little more about the lunatic magician – he came to his grandfather’s castle as a jester, was encouraged to dabble in magic, and eventually became consumed by his lust for magical power. Yaad also shares that his name is Thistle, and this is one of those instances where I don’t remember if that had been revealed already (I’m pretty sure it hadn’t).

To say Yaad is skeptical of Laios’ ambition to speak to Thistle is an understatement. But he offers him some advice – seek the help of the winged lion imprisoned at the heart of the dragon. And he sends the party back to the dungeon, laden with provisions, in the care of the ghosts who’d brought them there. There Sensei and Izutsumi recover from their trip – in his case teleportation sickness, in hers disorientation and then embarrassment – under Chilchuck’s watchful eye as Marcille and Laios go off on a recce. Sensehi asks Chil to copy the ancient symbols on pillars surrounding them, apparently having the ability to read ancient Dwarfish script.

Laios and Marcille return with news that they may have found Falin – but the truth of it is even more terrifying. A griffin is a formidable beast, no question about it. But given that it doesn’t inhabit any level the Laios’ party has been to, Senshi is more viscerally terrified of the prospect than makes sense. He bolts when the beast makes its appearance, clearly the worst thing one can do where a griffin is concerned. He’s captured and the griffin flies off with the dwarf in its talons, leaving his comrades stunned and momentarily flummoxed.

Marcille, fortunately, is resourceful enough to come up with the idea of creating familiars out of meat and vegetables to search for Senshi. This is a bit of a trial-and-error process and proves most dissatisfying to Laios’ otaku side, but eventually she gets the job done. The third and final form she comes up with after the griffin wipes out her first two attempts is something she calls a “skyfish“, and it proves itself more than up to the challenge – thank goodness for Senshi.

As Chilchuck has already remarked to the others, there are things about Senshi that just don’t add up – like his claim to have spent a decade exploring a dungeon only discovered six years earlier, and his continuing misapprehension about half-foots. It’s time to get some things out in the open, but Chilchuck is in no position to lecture – no one has guarded their secrets more closely than he. So to draw the rescued dwarf out, the half-foot shares the truth of who he is – a man with a wife and three daughters who he hasn’t seen for a long time, for reasons he doesn’t care to discuss.

We don’t get too much of Senshi’s backstory just yet – the name “Izganda” is mentioned – but it’s coming. For now Chilchuck’s revelation is plenty to chew on. We don’t know the physical ages of anyone in the party, except that Laios is younger than he and Marcille and Senshi of the long-lived races presumably far older. But Chil is the only one to lay claim to a settled adult life, even it’s now lost to him. Appearances are often deceptive, and behaviorally speaking Chilchuck has always seemed to belie his. Now the onus is on the others to see him for who he really is, not who they’ve conjured in their imaginations.