History Manga / DeliciousInDungeon

* ''Manga/DeliciousInDungeon'': Contrast is drawn between Laios, a fantasy-European adventurer in plate mail, and Shuro, a fantasy-Japanese aristocrat and samurai. Previously members of the same adventuring party, Laios's cheery, InnocentlyInsensitive personality got on the more reserved Shuro's nerves, not that Laios ever noticed. After Laios's sister Falin (whom Shuro was courting) got eaten by a dragon in their last expedition, they went their separate ways to rescue her: Laios dove right back into the dungeon, trusting in speed and his [[NightmareFetishist monster obsession]] to reach her before the dragon digested her, while Shuro gathered his retainers to make a well-prepared second attempt. Ironically, by the time they meet again, this dynamic has reversed; Shuro has been running himself ragged without proper food or rest to rescue Falin, while Laios has been eating a healthy diet (of monsters) and getting plenty of sleep, and is stronger than Shuro as a result, despite Laios himself admitting Shuro is usually the better warrior. More portentously, [[spoiler:when Shuro learns of the [[TheDarkArts drastic measures]] Laios's party used to save Falin, he's horrified and comes to blows with him, despite later admitting he would've done the same thing in the same situation. It's not simply that what he did was deeply illegal and possibly evil, it's that Laios is so ''blithe'' about it too.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The scene where [[spoiler:the goat demon]] devours [[spoiler:Mithrun's desires]] is framed a lot like a rape, as the incident takes place in a bedroom with the victim made to stop struggling. The imagery is repeated [[spoiler:when the Winged Lion eats Thistle's desires]], including long laviscious licks and the victim screaming and struggling against the violation. It returns a third time when [[spoiler:Laios]] devours [[spoiler:the Winged Lion's desires]], this time depicted in a more feral manner.

* EvolvingCredits: Starting from episode 20 of the anime, [[spoiler:Izutsumi is added to second intro after properly joining the Thoden Party. She also gets inserted into the group still of the party in the ending.]]

* BittersweetEnding: By and large sweet. [[spoiler:After everything they go through, not only does Laios's party save Falin for real, they destroy the Winged Lion and resurface the lost Golden Kingdom, which Laios is crowned king of. The bitterness comes in three-fold for Laios: first, he never wanted to lead (in fact, he became an adventurer to get away from the responsibility of eventually being chief of his village); second, eating the appetite of the Winged Lion has left Laios perpetually slightly hungry (he states he never feels more than about 40% full), which doesn't change the fact that his body can only eat so much before he'll get fat; finally, his greatest dreams were about monsters - living in harmony with them, ''being'' one, etc. However, the Winged Lion's DyingCurse that his greatest wish will never come true ends up meaning that all monsters give him a ''very wide'' berth. This incidentally makes his kingdom more prosperous as the monsters stay out of the kingdom itself but protect its borders from invaders simply by existing, but it's a big bummer for Laios himself.]]

* CastOfSnowflakes: Ryoko Kui deliberately designed her cast so that they could all be told apart even if they swapped clothes with characters who have similar silhouettes. Each has their own unique features, even relatively minor characters. Characters who are related have similar features while still not being identical. This is illustrated beautifully in a page that shows what each of the main cast would like as a human, elf, halfling, dwarf, or gnome. Each character and their race are completely distinct but identifiable. Marcille braids and ties her hair up into a new style ''every time'' the party rests but remains completely recognizable [[spoiler:even when her hair becomes as unkempt and ragged as that of one of the Canaries]].

* CatGirl: Izutsumi, due to her curse. Playing with the trope, she is notably more like a cat personalitywise rather than just a girl with cat ears.[[spoiler: In supplementary material it's revealed that she is not actually girl who got mixed with a cat's soul, but a cat who got mixed with a girl's soul. Thus it's impossible for her to turn her body into a human since she was never a human in the first place and the original cat soul is just surpressed, and she cannot turn fully into a cat either because the human soul is too powerful to surpress.]]

* DisciplinesOfMagic: An {{omake}} explains that elvish and gnomish magics, the two primary magic systems (half-foots and dwarves tend to be magically deficient races, while tallmen tend to use either one or the other) differ in application despite originating from the same source. Elven magic is more rigid and reliable, treating magic as a tool, but has a higher mana cost, while gnomish magic tends to be more powerful at a lower mana cost, treating magic like a sacred gift, but the results are more variable and unpredictable.

* {{Elfeminate}}: All the elves so far range from androgynous to very feminine-looking, with some of the males being the latter (albeit flat-chested). Some non-elf characters struggle to discern male from female. [[ButchLesbian Otta]], one of the Canaries, keeps her hair very short and wears a masculine outfit that has her sometimes mistaken for a boy even by other elves. In a Daydream Hour where the artist genderswapped the main Canary party, all the characters' faces and hair are unchanged and clothing is barely different, with ''heights'' being the most visible alteration. When Senshi is transformed into an elf by changeling mushroom spores, his huge beard turns into a single lock of a beard and a wisp of a moustache and his stout and burly dwarf body is turned into a very slender one, complete with {{Bishie Sparkle}}s.

** PlayedForLaughs when the party kills a kraken and Senshi grills one of its giant parasites. Laios eats some raw parasite and contracts one of ''it's'' parasites, which tries to bore through his stomach lining and gives him a miserable night before it dies. The narration concludes that chapter and episode by saying that Laios vows to never eat raw parasite again.

** [[spoiler:The elves are very well aware of the existence of demons and how they use dungeons to lure potential victims to them, devouring their desires to become even more powerful. However, they've covered up this fact so that they have a monopoly on the information and they don't want any other race finding out, lest they try to find a demon themselves. However, this secrecy means that Laios and his party have absolutely no idea what they're dealing with when they encounter the Winged Lion.]]

* ShoutOut: One end-of-chapter short is about [[ChestMonster Mimics]], who in this series are basically giant hermit crabs that live inside chests, and how young Mimics will hide inside smaller objects like jars or pots. The final one shown is living in an [[Film/TheThing1982 upside-down helmet with its spider-y legs sticking out that Marcille destroys by blasting it with a very flamethrower-like fire spell.]]