So, Dungeon Meshi just finished its first season, huh? I started binging the anime right after Frieren ended. And boy, it didn’t disappoint.

Dungeon Meshi first came off to me like the usual fantasy anime, what I expected was something more like Danmachi. But, its lightheartedness despite the story’s initial premise quickly changed that impression.

This anime quickly grew on me. The characters feel grounded and realistic without reducing their fantastical feel. Like Marcille, for example. Marcille has a magical expertise similar to most elves in anime, but she is way more relatable.

Simply said, I fell in love on how nuanced the characters in Dungeon Meshi are. Especially, after a few episodes watching my two favorite characters, Senshi and Laios.

I love how detailed Laios gets when he rambles about the biology and behavior of monsters. It reminds me of a TV show I watched as a kid where they explained animals and their habitats.

I enjoyed those types of show, because they awaken your inner nerdy tendency, while being informative and fun at the same time. Dungeon Meshi did exactly that.

How Laios is when explaining the monsters in the dungeon alwasy put a smile on my face. To add to that, how the anime integrates his knowledge and Senshi’s cooking, it’s perfection.

Seeing the anime’s approach on world building and its lack of hesitation in presenting how things work in the dungeon was simply fascinating.

Okay, before we go into what I’d like to talk about in this post, let me address one criticism I’ve heard about Dungeon Meshi. There are people who complain about this anime, saying it has too much exposition. They say it’s a whole cooking recipe being read out loud.

Well, we don’t like it when a show is all talk without showing the subject being talked about, do we? It feels like you’re forced to read when all you want at the moment is to watch.

However, Dungeon Meshi doesn’t fall into this pitfall. If anything, the visual presentation of the food and the monsters serve us as the audience pretty well. There won’t be a thing anyone could use to convince me otherwise.

Also, I think anyone who drops this anime because they think it’s too boring hasn’t paid enough time and attention until a certain point. My first thought about Dungeon being a casual funny anime was blown away by how plot-heavy this anime really is.

Especially, the whole part involving Laios and his sister, Falin. What happens between these two simply elevates Dungeon Meshi from something you watch to get a laugh to something we might consider as a classic in the future. And today, I’d like to give a spotlight to Falin.

The Sibling Trope And Falin Touden’s Character

A disclaimer, I am currently an anime-only Dungeon Meshi fan. Admittedly, I feel a strong urge to go to the local bookstore and buy the manga right now.

Okay, now let’s talk about Falin Touden, Laios’s sister. I would never guess the Falin we last saw on the last episode is the same one we first saw on the first episode.

While writing this post and thinking about her character, there are some things that came across my mind. First, her death. It’s a focal point in the anime, and it becomes our Laios and his group’s prime motivation.

In fact, Dungeon Meshi started with Falin sacrificing herself to save Laios from the red dragon’s jaw, didn’t it? A sibling who wants to save/protect the other sibling. It’s a common trope yet hardly ever fail in anime.

Exhibit A: Tanjiro Kamado and Nezuko in Demon Slayer. Also, in Fullmetal Alchemist, Edward was willing to gave up his arm to get Al’s soul. And, of course, Itachi refusing to kill Sasuke in Naruto, although their relationship ended up complicated.

It seems that the sacrificing oneself for another is a major theme in Dungeon Meshi. Especially when it comes to protecting somebody we care about, like a sibling.

Then the second thing is Falin’s overall character. We got to know how Falin is as a person, mainly from Laios and Marcille’s flashbacks. She is talented, a kind soul, and adventurous. A literal angel for a few other characters in the anime, am I right, Toshiro-sama?

Yet, she was shunned by her village because she’s able to communicate with ghosts, lagged behind in school, and a bit awkward.

So far, there is nothing too strange about her. At first, I expected her to be a solid background character who has a significant role later on. And boy, by the time I got to the end of episode 11, I was right, but wrong at the same time.

Dungeon Meshi Tricked My Gullible Brain Cells!

Episode 11 and 12 where Laios finally found and rearranged Falin’s remains was gutty, gruesome, and going by the vibes of Marcille’s totally not forbidden magic, it was heartbreaking. Although, her ancient magic left a bad taste, especially for Chilchuck I reckon.

However, I have to side with her here. After all, as Phinis Gestor in Skyrim said, “Necromancy, as any other type of magic, is a tool to be used. Of course, non-mages may not see it that way, so we don’t go around flaunting it.”

I thought this was the darkest point in the anime. After all, it’s a gourmet anime where we get to experiment with unfamiliar and wacky ingredients for our food, right? (The answer is no. And this poor little guy had his jaw dropped, again, by the time he watched Senshi’s episode.)

People that I know who already read the manga said to me, this is where the REAL Dungeon Meshi starts. I was too innocent not to foresee how Falin would end up. She was turned into a dragon/harpy-like chimera (quick flashback to Nina Tucker), by Thistle, the lunatic magician.

And even worse for Falin and Laios, we started with the premise of the Touden siblings wanting to protect each other. And now, they had to kill each other, willingly or not. Man, not only the food, but the story, and the twist. People weren’t kidding when they say Dungeon Meshi is a top tier anime.

Give Falin A Break!

As I rewatched this particular episode, I thought to myself, Falin really couldn’t catch a break, could she? When she was a kid, people avoided her. At school, not everyone was keen to be friend with her. Now into her adulthood, a dragon munched her like a snack, and then she got turned into a dragon herself.

Much to the Laios and the others’ horror, and the rest of us too, what happened to Falin was a complicated soul binding process, not just combining the red dragon’s body with a human.

However, at one point, Senshi made an excellent analogy. Izutsumi is in a similar situation, but she retains her conscience unlike Falin. Falin’s and the red dragon’s souls are like a sunny side up on a bacon, while Izutsumi’s is like a scrambled egg.

Right now, Falin’s soul is merged with the red dragon, but the one who is under the lunatic magician’s control was the red dragon. So, there is a chance we can separate the two, if we get rid of the dragon part, hence Senshi’s sunny side up analogy.

However, the solution they came up with was also wild. In this dungeon, monster meat that has been digested by creatures loses its identity and thus can’t be used to resurrect or to create another creature. So, for now, the only solution seems to be eating Falin’s dragon parts until it’s only her human soul that’s left.

What happens to Falin feels so unfair. Maybe, it’s the anime successfully making me sympathetic towards her character. But, I can’t help to notice a trope where a good-natured person suffers an unfair circumstance in life.

The Sacrifice Tropes

What happened to Falin remided me about two common tropes involving sacrifices. What I’m talking about are the sacrificial lion and the sacrificial lamb tropes. Both of these are quite similar to each other.

The most defining and simple difference between the two is a sacrificial lamb often times serves as a proof of how the villain is a one hundred percent bad guy, especially when it involves death of a character.

Characters who fall into this trope mostly are non-essential to the plot. Their death counts not as a turning point but to showcase that the villain is indeed a bad guy.

Like a random cute dog the villain kicks for no reason. However, sometimes it’s also a more plot-relevant character who has a meek and timid personality.

Also, there are instances where a good-natured character has to go through some hardships, not necessarily death, albeit not voluntarily. Just like what happened to Falin when Thistle got to her.

On the other hand, the sacrificial lion is much more impactful. Their death or their demise stirs up the story, but also can be an important point where a new arc starts.

More importantly, the sacrificial lion is often a critical character or even one of the main characters. This is how I felt when I first saw Falin’s death, her resurrection, and her eventual transformation.

Her first death sets the first half of settings and motivation in Dungeon Meshi. It makes the moment when Laios killed the red dragon felt like it’s his final destination in the story.

Moreover, what Falin did was out of courageous intent to protect his brother, making her the very definition of a sacrificial lion. Same thing with how Laios was willing to lose a leg in an attempt to defeat the red dragon. It shows their dedication to protect and save each other no matter what the cost is.

In addition to the Touden siblings, Senshi’s dwarf mining crew was also big on the idea of protecting the younger one in the group. So much so, that I think Senshi internalized this idea deeply as he grew older, and then became a caretaker for Laios’s group himself.

What Makes Seeing Someone Makes Sacrifices In Stories Feels Good

Okay, this post can only be so long before it becomes an essay assignment my professors often gave to his class. Let’s wrap it up by examining what’s the real appeal of these two tropes.

For all the history of literature around the world, from various culture, we have many stories of heroic sacrifice. How the Touden siblings were willing to put themselves in harm for each other mirrors this theme.

Especially, when it comes about the sacrificial lion trope. The Toudens exhibit not only self-lessness, but also total commitment to make sure the other one is safe and sound.

The appeal of tropes which include heroic sacrifice has been ingrained in our brain for a long time. I think there are several reasons to this. First, we seek inspiration from others, even fiction.

The thought of making a real-life sacrifice that comes with risk, be it financial, or social, can be terrifying at times. Even when we know what we want to do is right.

Seeing someone else doing it might be just the push that we need, even if it’s a fictional character. Think of the trend of saying, “It’s what hero Himmel would do.”

Himmel even inspired an anime fan who stopped a knife attack in Taiwan. That is an excellent example of the sacrificial lion trope in real life, risking his life for the safety of others. That is how powerful inspiration can be.

Second, it’s empathy and sympathy. When we watched Laios’s and Marcille’s flashbacks, I found it to be way easier to share the same feeling because how Falin went down is presented in the anime.

Falin is a likeable character. However, her death elevates memories of her to the point of more than remembering another person. There is a feeling of longing and loss mixed up in between. Especially, for Marcille and Laios, when Falin’s met her death before she teleported them out of the dungeon and saved the whole party.

I don’t think tropes revolving around sacrifice will go old anytime soon. If anything they will likely stay forever since they are genuinely have interesting nuances and are great storytelling tools. How about you? What does make the characters in Dungeon Meshi sticks to you the most?