Dungeon People

 Dungeon People (ダンジョンの中のひと) is a 12 episode fantasy series based on the manga of the same name by Futami Sui.  The series originally aired during the Summer of 2024.

    Clay is a young and skilled adventurer having spent most of her childhood being trained as a top class rogue by her father, the legendary adventurer Bran's.  A few years after he was last seen entering their towns local dungeon she has fine tuned her training and is ready to go after him, to find out his fate.  Clay's training has paid off and she easily descends farther than the officially recorded depth by an adventuring party.  While engaging with the boss of the seventh level, the Minotaur suddenly pauses combat after an attack destroyed an interior wall, revealing another space that would be more appropriate on the surface.  Unsure what to do Clay takes the pause in fighting as a chance to reassess the situation and regain some stamina.  To her bewilderment a young girl arrives from a door in the newly revealed room.  The girl talks with the Minotaur in a friendly manner and then directs her attention to the increasingly confused adventurer.  She explains to Clay that she is the manager of the dungeon and she wants to the take the unusual circumstance to explain things to its intruder.

    The girl, Belle, gives Clay a brief tour behind the scenes.  Clay is thoroughly confused and on guard at this point, not understanding whats going on or why.  Belle fully understands the odd situation the other girl finds her self in and does the best she can to ensure her there is nothing weird or dangerous going on, as they pass through the well maintained hallways and antechamber rooms.  Belle is the manager of the dungeon, ensuring the monsters are there for adventurers to face, making sure the chests are filled with loot and keeping the system healthy so that people from the village can continue to explore it.  She wants Clay to join her team, working to ensure the dungeon continues on.  After being defeated in a dual against the unassuming girl, Clay relents and agrees to work as a caretaker.  She see's it as a better way to look for clues to her fathers fate, instead of continuing to risk her own life fighting her way to the bottom floor.  She has doubts that she would have succeeded in the end, given that Belle is the guardian of the dungeons tenth floor and easily defeated the rogue in a friendly dual.  As she shifts her perspective from invader to employee the reality of the machinations of the dungeon reveal themselves to her as part of her on the job training.  Will the dungeons adversary become its champion and will she be able to find out what happened to her father?

    We are in a bit of a fantasy anime renaissance currently, with a series of new and fresh approaches to the traditional sword and sorcery worlds inspired by The Lord of the Rings.  Dungeon People takes a novel but not unique approach to the standard dungeon crawling story by focusing on the dungeon its self and presenting it as an organization whose purpose is to maintain its self as a place for adventuring, instead of a threat to the surface.  Its more like an adventure theme park than anything else.  Belle is a strange girl that has a lot of questions swirling around her, who cares for the continuation and health of her amusement park above all else.  Even though she employs countless beings to help maintain the dungeon, she is lonely and reaches out to Clay as a way to have frequent contact with another human.  Clay, whose entire life has centered around training to conquer the dungeon finds a suddenly very different option in her life.  The story is primarily a workplace 'comedy', with each episode explaining various aspects of the day to day operations and its personnel.  It also serves as a story about the need for connection with others as the two odd girls bond over their situation.

    This was a cute and fun series that had some pretty plain artwork, which goes really well with the story.  Its meant to be cute and a little off putting, distracting you from the grim reality of the world they live in.  At times it dips its toes into the grimness but the artwork keeps it from being as harsh and horrifying as it really is.  But there are two major flaws with the series, two questions that exists from start to finish that never get close to being resolved.  What happened to Clay's father and why was Belle in a position to be the caretaker of the dungeon in the first place?  Both of these were sadly left hanging as the final episode wrapped up, not even hinting at any theories.  Clay is a really fun character though, as she approaches everything with stoic skepticism, constantly analyzing the situation and calmly evaluating the information before her.  While its disappointing that we don't actually have any sort of resolution in the story this was an enjoyable and lovely anime with a lot of low key comedy that built an interesting world for the viewer.  I should probably check out the manga to see what else exists in this world outside of these 12 episodes.  It also makes me want to play Dungeon Keeper.  Why does it feel like her dad may have been the previous manager?

    The series was simulcast on HiDive.