This was, among many things, an eventful episode of Dungeon Meshi. Eventful in every sense of the word. Not only did it introduce a ton of new plot and characters, it was a standout in terms of execution. This series has great dark episodes and great comic ones, but the ones balanced between those extremes are not to be taken for granted. Dungeon Meshi offers a great many pleasures to the viewer but those eps are among the very best.

It starts out at the surface, as the Shuro-Kabru parties arrive back in town. Shuro announces that he’s going to tell the Lord of the Island everything. But not everything – the details of the Laios party he’s going to keep to himself. But Mickbell notices a huge ship in the harbor, and Kabru immediately recognizes it as belonging to the Canaries. They’re sort of an advance squad of the Western Elves, dispatched to deal with dungeons that are starting to become a threat to the general populace. And because of his personal background, Kabru knows all about that.

The Lord is not well-equipped to deal with the strong-arm tactics of the elves, among whom are the dour Mithrun (Uchiyama Kouki) and the sharp-tongued Pattadol (Ise Mariya). The gnome Tansu-san is in his ear trying to give steel to his spine, but the LotI seems mainly interested in giving the elves what they want to they’ll stop scaring him. What they want is to take control of the dungeon, which they theoretically need permission to do as it belongs to the tall men. And because Kabru saw what happens when a dungeon collapses – monsters flooded out, his village was wiped out, and his mother killed – he’s desperate to forestall that.

This is an interesting conundrum for Kabru. He really doesn’t like Laios, and not all of his reasons for feeling that way are misguided. But he also senses that Laios may be the only one who can bring the dungeon to order without the elves causing a bloodbath. His initial efforts to buy Laios time seem to make things worse, but Kabru is a stubborn young man.  He’s also known to the Canaries as he was the only survivor of the dungeon incident from his childhood, which seems to give him a bit of a curiosity factor in the elves’ eyes if nothing else.

Meanwhile, back in the dungeon, Senshi is waxing philosophical about souls and eggs. And Laios is still seeing his mana sickness hallucinations. Except, it turns out, they’re not. Izutsumi can’t see what Laios sees but she senses a presence, and Laios realizes that the specter actually wants to speak to him. And what it tells him is that it knows someone who wants to talk to Laios. Having saved Laios once already, this ghost has earned a certain level of credibility, and one the OK is given the quintet are dragged off (teleported) to somewhere quite different from where they started the day.

That somewhere is a green and fertile land, and a young farmer in a unicorn-driven cart immediately behaves as if these visitors have been expected. He takes them back to his village, where everyone looks similarly young and healthy, but the village chief is away so there’s time to fill. Laios naturally wants to see the domesticated monsters (he’s especially taken with the dairy Minotaur), and Senshi the fields. Chilchuk heads for the brewery, and Marcille and Izutsumi get drafted to model dresses (and not at all in the style you’d expect) for the some the local maidens. Izutsumi seems to have regressed to full house cat mode, somehow impacted by the spells which govern the land’s monsters.

Eventually the leader, Yaad (Murase Ayumu) returns and announces that he’s the grandson of Delgal (from the painting). Yaad paints a pretty stark picture. His people were cursed with immortality by the Lunatic Magician. They require no food, and all their fields and “livestock” and distilling and brewing are a means of keeping themselves from going insane from boredom. They want nothing but to be freed, and none of them can even escape the village – if they try to flee they become disembodied spirits. Their only hope is the prophecy of “one with a winged sword” who will defeat the Lunatic Magician and save them. And not only does Kensuke have wings, but a lion’s head that wasn’t there the last time Laios checked…

There’s a lot to take in here, obviously. And some if it I’m not at liberty to discuss. But this all works splendidly well both as entertainment and an adaptation of the source material. The mix of comedy (like Laios’ “speaking of Marcille and Izutsumi” moment) and serious world-building is spot on. We’re finally starting to get a sense of how everyone fits into the big picture – and what that big picture looks like. The stage is set – all that really remains is some clarity on just how the rest of this adaptation is going to play out in terms of length and timing. But the calendar tells us that some sort of answers have to be coming soon on that front.