Dungeon no Naka no Hito

For the last three years, Clay has undergone rigorous training in order to find her father, who was last seen exploring a dungeon. While dungeon exploring is difficult for any regular adventurer, Clay knows her father, a thief who doesn't purely rely on raw power or magic, managed to progress farther than anyone else. Clay sets off after him, following in his footsteps until she encounters a furnished room behind a dungeon wall.

Clay is shocked to find the room is filled with monsters that can talk and a girl who claims to be the dungeons administrator. However, the room is meant to be kept hidden from explorers. Now that she knows the secret behind the dungeon, Clay is hired to be part of their staff. While she never expected to find a job in her adventure, doing so may just help Clay unravel the mystery behind her father's disappearance.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Belle Main

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Clay Main

Senbongi, Sayaka Japanese

Kraitze Supporting

Shimada, Bin Japanese

Rangard Supporting

Kusumi, Naomi Japanese

Fuuka Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Beccomo Supporting

Koyama, Tsuyoshi Japanese

Binky Supporting

Arai, Satomi Japanese

Sendai Supporting

Tobita, Nobuo Japanese

Parapparrow Supporting

Tone, Kentarou Japanese

Adventurers' Guild Master Supporting

Terasoma, Masaki Japanese

Kamei, Hiroshi Producer

Yamai, Sayaka Director

Tateishi, Yayoi Sound Director

Shimura, Jouji Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 27, 2024

KANLen09

Recommended

Dungeon People - Dungeons have gotten more complex over the years seen through anime, so let's take a step back to attend a masterclass on how dungeons operate, shall we?

Let's be real for a hot moment: the world is getting more complex, things are getting tougher by the day, and entertainment is slowly seeping into our brains that are suffering from decreasing IQ each and every day. Sometimes all you need is just something that pulls us back to its roots and slows us down in the ever-growing pace of life that never slows down. Luckily, within the height of the rom-com genre for the ... hot and sour Summer season, if you need a show that just allows you to be a couch potato and just go figure, boy do I have the show for you: mangaka Sui Futami's Dungeon no Naka no Hito a.k.a Dungeon People, a slice-of-life fantasy adventure comedy about dungeons and what goes on in the deep troughs that is, its many layers of underground obfuscation. And if I didn't know any better, her earlier adaptation of the 5-minute short series Mahou Shoujo Nante Mou Ii desu kara. back in 2016 was an awkward and cringeworthy write-off.

A small family so fixated on wanting to conquer the dungeon, that's a good thing. But what's not is that when one of the family members goes missing in said dangerous place, someone has to go find that family member to reassure him or her that he or she is safe. This is the scenario for Clay, a young woman with the skills of a thief, whom she traverses the dungeon to find her missing father, who's been gone for 3 years. Clay is so capable in fact that her Thieves' Guild acknowledges her as one of its best adventurers, being able to reach the deeper depths of the dungeon alone. But once she gets there, she gets a rude awakening facing the usual monsters...in a rather unkempt environment that feels like a dungeon, yet it is not at the same time. In fact, the dungeon is led by the final boss...of a young girl, whom Clay coincidentally found out when she was facing a rather tough monster, that after the fact, she dismisses the monster like it was her fellow co-worker and takes Clay under her wing...to help manage the dungeon alongside her.

For starters, this rather uncanny dungeon doesn't even feel like a dungeon at all, but rather, resembles an upside down typical human office, but for monsters instead. The final boss of the dungeon, this cute lil' sweet girl of Belle, she's as easy as she comes, despite the fact that she actually exudes boss energy thanks to her outstanding abilities. And unlike the human bosses of ego and pride, she takes care of the monster population within her dungeon like an actual kind and thoughtful caretaker, discerning issues as they go. Of course, how would a human like Clay come to understand all of this, and that's where the abnormal relationship between the young'uns of the human and the final boss comes in to weigh on the overall situation. The job ranges from taking care of the monsters in various rooms, dungeon operations from design to ideation, heck, even planting your soul to monsters through gems to imitate being monsters with human capabilities. Anything goes in this dungeon management class that's a sight to behold, being a change of pace outside of the typical stuff that we're so used to seeing. It's actually infotainment value, I've gotta say, for the standard and the unusual.

Clay and Belle's relationship is so tight, you could almost call this a Yuri-esque CGDCT trait for the goofy comedy banter between both girls who act just as normal as they come, or even towards the point of disbelief (at least much for Belle) to play off as the funny woman who feigns ignorance at times and expecting Clay to get her meaning, but which often fails to decent hilarity. Alongside another fellow employee of the dungeon, Rangard is the undisputed dungeon's treasurer, taking care of things that range from monetary expenses through its many treasure chests, weapons manufacturing, and even on-site construction supervision of the monsters he's in control of. I just find the small rock golems that Rangard supervises, quite the adorable monotone monster that's actually quite versatile with its occupation of dungeon maintenance and handiwork, aside from just the typical small and weak monsters they are to face the usual group of adventurers invited to tackle Belle's ever-changing dungeon. One thing's for sure: don't expect the complex out of this rather simple dungeon, just take your time sinking things in at a slow, comfortable pace that honestly, doesn't take away the enjoyment out of a simple, almost generic show like this.

Neither its production nor its music will win it any awards, as OLM's animation is quite minimalistic, and the OST is just a simple, charming theme, aside from the upbeat OP and ED from TrySail and Akari Nanawo, respectively, which were mediocre to decent.

Overall, Dungeon no Naka no Hito a.k.a Dungeon People is actually a fine show that still has its own world-building, albeit at a snail's pace that some will like, and many others don't. Instead, what it delivers is a solid, steady pace of an enjoyable trip down the depths of the Earth just to have a good time to hang out with fellow monsters that treat you better than the humans do, that all along, was a strategic approach that does its small wonders to impress the "chosen" few.

If you're on the fence, just try and see if it does work for you.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 28, 2024

Single_fighter

Mixed Feelings

The review for this anime is that the story concept is quite unique but executed very ordinary, meaning there is no added value from the story, animation, soundtrack, etc. All standard and ordinary. From the story that does not have a clear goal or is ambiguous for the main character, at the beginning of the story the clay character aims to find his father but along with several episodes until the end of the episode the goal of finding his father is not a priority for the main character, I can understand if in the process clay actually works in the dungeon but the goal ... is drowned in the daily life of managing the dungeon. in the end the focus of this story is centered on managing the Dungeon, it becomes boring and ordinary because elements such as comedy are very few and fan service is very lacking, so the story of this anime is monotonous and boring. Stories like this Dungeon manager are usually more suitable for the slice of life and fantasy genres because the center of the story is only in one Dungeon location, if you say this adventure anime is not true in my opinion. The weakness of this story which is in the slice of life genre is usually easy to make the audience bored if the author is not good at spicing up or providing surprise elements either from the plot twists of the story, comedy elements, and relationships between characters can be like romantic relationships, shojo ai, or even yuri. If the story of this anime is added shojo ai relationship between the main characters maybe this will be a sweet story, from what I observe the relationship between the main characters clay and belle is no more like a colleague relationship at work, the character development is very slow. So the conclusion of this anime story is boring with a little comedy and less fan service.

Moving on to the animation, this part is quite bad because the character visualization is very simple and the details of the background of objects, NPCs are very ordinary. Do you know the pictures made by elementary school children? That's what the visualization of this anime character is like, for example: pictures of monsters, wall details, plants, clouds and small details of the background look childish. A good animation part should be able to add value to the ordinary story.
That's all that can be reviewed from this ordinary anime. Thank you

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Oct 5, 2024

Kantyash

Not Recommended

I'll start off by saying that I enjoyed the episode-to-episode watching experience. The characters are likable enough and the worldbuilding was sort of interesting. So what's the issue? Well, the issue is that there is literally 0 plot.

There are *crumbs* of a plot peppered throughout the show but it never goes anywhere. It is a show completely comprised of filler. At the pace it was going I was certain that it was going to have 24 or even 48 episodes because it was unimaginable to me that they could have any sort of satisfying conclusion after 12 eps... And, well, there wasn't one. The show ... goes literally nowhere. Nothing happens. By episode 12 we are basically in the same spot we were in episode 2 or 3.

Don't get me wrong, there are still self-contained stories that are kinda interesting but they don't really impact the bigger picture at all. Clay starts off wanting to conquer the dungeon and find her father but each of those goals has 1 episode dedicated to it and, you guessed it, it goes nowhere. They keep setting things up and there is never any payoff, instead, it's all immediately swept under the cupboard.

I wish I could say I was looking forward to season 2 but there wasn't even a hook in the finale to give us something to speculate about, it just, kinda, ended... There is nothing that I'd be excited to see them explore in s2 because they have already shown that it doesn't matter and it will just be another crumb contained in a single episode and I don't see this series getting 10 seasons so it has enough times for these crumbs to add up to a satisfying conclusion.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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	Poll: Dungeon no Naka no Hito Episode 12 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 27, 2024	38 replies	by AnchientProphet2 »» Dec 24, 2:29 AM
	Poll: Dungeon no Naka no Hito Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 13, 2024	23 replies	by UglyBastardNTR »» Sep 29, 7:31 AM
	Possibility of season 2 casual42 - Jun 6	2 replies	by Sekiro94 »» Jun 6, 11:38 AM
	Poll: Dungeon no Naka no Hito Episode 11 Discussion Stark700 - Sep 20, 2024	31 replies	by Magicmist »» Feb 12, 9:43 AM
	Poll: I sometimes don't "get" this show/characters. Should I just turn off my brain? /up to episode 10 spoilers Wannabiteme - Sep 16, 2024	19 replies	by some1uused2know »» Feb 4, 6:40 AM