Posted by  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
「たとえばラストダンジョン前の村の少年が序盤の街で暮らすような物語」 (Tatoeba Rasuto Danjon Mae no Mura no Shounen ga Joban no Machi de Kurasu You na Monogatari)
“Suppose a Kid From the Last Dungeon Boonies Moved to a Starter Town?”
Ahh, new year, new season, and oh yes, new anime. And what better way to start off the festivities than with a little fantasy? Well, unless you dislike fantasy (god knows why), but dammit I like it so here we are with Last Dungeon. Besides having a name whose line number probably exceeds the word count of multiple contemporaries (thus explaining my choice of title contraction), Last Dungeon is about as cookie cutter as you can get, yet hasn’t forgotten the one aspect that can turn a stone into a jewel: fun.
Per the RC Preview, Last Dungeon is straightforward. Main kiddie Lloyd (Hanamori Yumiri) thinks he’s weak, and so decides to set off on a mission to become a soldier since doing soldier things is obviously the only way to prove his worth. Except the kid isn’t your ordinary kind of weak thanks to heralding from a village full of demigod-like people. Or in other words, a play on the ubiquitous nobody coming to possess a massive degree of power able to help save the world. This is coupled with the paint by numbers fantasy setting and the usual character archetypes always found in these sorts of series which effectively leaves things predictable and arguably bland. After all, when you’re already hinting towards spies, foreign rivals, and demon lords, you know exactly what’s coming down the pipeline.
What prevents Last Dungeon from falling off the rails though is its characters. All of them. Mage Marie (Kayano Ai) is case in point, going from typical magical girl (literally) to outright hater of female octogenarian tweens in a perfect display of I cannot breathe comedy that I really need more of in my life sooner rather than later. Lloyd too, no matter his utterly unimpressive personality gets kudos for keeping fully in tune with the blissful ignorance of his actual power (yes, he ran that distance) and letting the likes of Marie go hog wild. And then we get to Selen (Asahina Madoka) who I am dead certain no one had pinned for an unintentional admirer of the Man in the Iron Mask when we were still in preview territory. Oh and a total yandere that is hilariously likely to kill someone once Lloyd commences the harem building process, but hey, one step at a time! I honestly couldn’t tell you if the strength of the cast is entirely down to the source material, script writer choices, or the impressive voice acting, but I do know I’m loving what we have so far – and the best part is we haven’t even seen the entire cast of misfits yet.
While Last Dungeon won’t be winning any awards for ingenuity this season, this one will definitely be a show to consider if in need of some comfy lighthearted fantasy and more than a bit of deadpan hilarity. I likely won’t wind up covering this one through, but I certainly will be watching to see just what Last Dungeon has in store for the rest of this season.
Random Tidbits
Another positive for Last Dungeon is its animation. It may be simple, but it’s not often these days we get such crisp anime art and full 2D animated monsters in all their buggy glory.
Just in case Lloyd’s strength was ever in doubt, his last name Belladonna should helpfully reinforce just how deadly he is. As some fellow characters are quick to identify for themselves.
Preview
 |
I like the washed out simplistic style of characters that are further than 5 feet away
https://i.imgur.com/oQA6BGG.jpg it fits great into comedic factor of this show.
Also the faces of characters in the background are basically ” 🙂 ^_^ -_- https://randomc.net/image/Tatoeba%20Last%20Dungeon/Tatoeba%20Last%20Dungeon%20-%2001%20-%20Large%2027.jpg
The washing out is a nice touch especially, it helps hide what is often noticeable blob figure art you get in other shows. Overall it’s just impressive how much effort is going into this show.
The character designs are super cute. Love the detailed and colorful outfits.
Oh yeah without a doubt, I especially love the variation in comedy faces, it keeps things so comedic and cheerful that it’s incredibly hard not to break a smile.
Almost split my side with this first episode from laughter with this one❗️
I couldn’t figure out if there’s a reason for some people being able to see his
OP-ness (and tremble in fear, e.g. Riho Flavin), and others were completely
blind to it (e.g., the witch Marie and the “Cursed Belt Princess”). Pretty sure it’ll
be explained and part of the gag when he has to confront enemies down the road…
Speaking of Riho Flavin, some of the character naming randomness reminds
me of Maou-sama, Retry!
Really looking forward to the next episode where we learn why he failed❓
Personally I suspect the reason some can tell Lloyd’s power is due entirely to experience, similar to how professional pugilists/fighters or veteran soldiers are able to discern someone’s general threat level at a glance. Might be something else here, but I really hope that’s the case.
Both the LNs and manga are available in English.
https://yenpress.com/9781975313296/suppose-a-kid-from-the-last-dungeon-boonies-moved-to-a-starter-town-vol-4-light-novel/#book-description-full
https://squareenixmangaandbooks.square-enix-games.com/en-us/series/suppose-a-kid-from-the-last-dungeon-boonies-moved-to-a-starter-town
According to its official translator, “the novels do a good job giving the whole cast plots of their own, and the author is the master of the mundane metaphor. “She smiled like a waitress cleaning up a child’s vomit” was one of my favorites.”
https://www.reddit.com/r/anime/comments/kqbjrg/tatoeba_last_dungeon_mae_no_mura_no_shounen_ga/
Heh well that explains the comedy, the script and its execution is probably what will wind up defining this adaptation if it can keep up.
A nice surprise. Nothing original but I enjoyed it.
Don’t like the character design of some character, they seem all over the place, the village guys seem out of a different anime, they are drawn totally different.
The village designs make sense to me given all the residents are effectively world ending monsters. They’re isolated and likely have minimal involvement with others, I can see them being quite different from everyone else.
Am I the only one who finds that Lloyd looks suspiciously like the version of Link from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild?
https://characterprofile.fandom.com/wiki/Link_(Breath_of_the_Wild)?file=BotW_Link.png
Even the fantasy universe itself kinda resembles Zelda in some ways (although we are talking about typical demon lord-esque fantasy universe; I guess they could all be the same one for all we care!).
Wouldn’t shock me if that’s where some of the inspiration came from, but until we get the proper Zelda insert we won’t know for certain 😛
Aren’t you going to cover this? T_T Pretty please!! :3
Yeah, I agree.
After episode 2, there seems to be a decent
enough plot ∕story to warrant covering, IMHO…
I got to say, having read the Light Novel, this first episode was really good, faithful and a good adaptation with enough to make it stand on its own against the source…so far anyways,