Delicious in Dungeon‘s director, Yoshihiro Miyajima, and character designer and chief animation director, Naoki Takeda, came together for their first Anime Expo this year. Prepared to share information on how season one was made, the creative duo also shared that season two is in the works, though no release date or time frame can be shared yet. Ahead of the reveal of an impending season two, the pair also held a short Q&A reflecting on season one.
Takeda first shared that his favorite character, and the one he finds most relatable, is Marcille, though he does not explicitly say why. Going into some more details about her design, however, he shares that a lot of thought went into every aspect of her. “The fans said they counted and discovered about 30 different hairstyles Marcille wore in the anime. However, we had actually created many more. We wanted to have as many as we could to choose from [but not all of them made it into the show].” As this was Takeda’s first time designing characters, he also felt that the hair was the most difficult aspect. “The most troubling was choosing the hairstyle per scene, then relaying that to the various staff and animators.”
The sheer amount of detailed work that went into Marcille wasn’t peculiar or favoritism, however, as each character and each moment was given just as much attention. Concept artist Sayaka Shimada drew storyboards of several variations of each moment with minute differences just so they could review all options. Some scenes were depicted in the final work as black-and-white, but Shimada had actually drawn them in several different color schemes. Or, some scenes would have just a slight difference in the color of the fire, awaiting the final decision based on what specific magic Marcille would be using.
For director Miyajima, rather than the animation, his focus was on making the show an accurate depiction of Ryōko Kui’s work. “I’m a fan of Delicious in Dungeon. The original work is exceptional, even within the realm of fantasy manga, and it stands out even amongst others in its genre,” he began. “It didn’t feel too different from my other projects, but it was my first project where I directed, so my challenge was my lack of experience.” When asked how much creator Kui participated, he mentioned that she was all in. “She was heavily invested in script meetings, and we got a lot of feedback from her for the storyboards and concepts we drew,” Miyajima said. “I also included as much [of the source material] as I could, so what’s presented is really at its limit.”
Of course, no Delicious in Dungeon Q&A would be complete without the mention of eating monsters in the dungeon, or Senshi’s panties. “I’d like to preface that I wouldn’t actually want to eat anything within the dungeon,” director Miyajima jokingly began. “But, if I had to choose, I suppose I’d eat the Red Dragon.” When pondering whether he’d still eat the Red Dragon in its Falin form, he stated he’d only eat the dragon portions. For Takeda, he would also eat part of the Falin Dragon form. “The dragon’s thighs look quite good, right?” When it came time to discuss the sheer amount of scenes featuring mighty warrior Senshi’s panties, Director Miyajima immediately pushed the responsibility elsewhere. “I would like to clear up these misunderstandings. These extra scenes [with the panties] were not my decision to add, as I didn’t see or make the storyboards! The animators who got those specific scenes were the ones who decided to add them.”
