What happens when a portal opens beneath your feet as you mock the poor and unfortunate who have to head to work in the midst of a raging typhoon? Of course you end up as a corporate grunt working in the mines of another world!
The Breakdown
Criteria
Grade
Summary
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
⭐⭐⭐★☆
Slightly Above Standard
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Above Standard
⭐⭐⭐★☆
Slightly Above Standard
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Above Standard
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Yes!
Summary Review of The Breakdown
With fairly standard animation, but a crazy and unpredictable story and great supporting tracks, The Dungeon of Black Company doesn't fail to excite! Each part of the show works fairly well together creating an enjoyable time and an uncommon outlook for an anime to take. Greed and gluttony rule this show and create one heck of a ride for the viewer to consume!
Animated by SILVER LINK, a company founded in 2007 who's worked on titular Isekai series such as The Wiseman's Grandson and The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, shows their experience with The Dungeon of Black Company.
Criteria
Grade
Summary
⭐⭐★☆☆
Slightly Below Standard
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Above Standard
3D
The Dungeon of Black Company proficiently bucks the trend of lazily using 3D animation in a 2D show to save loads of time. Although, while there exists some instances of 3D objects in almost each episode, such as the image down below, these instances happen fairly briefly. It neither annoyingly bothers the eye, nor does it make you go "waow!" at the sight of it.
The Dungeon of Black Company Episode 1.
3D Coin is one of the few obvious uses of 3D.
Special Effects
Frequently, this show uses a myriad of different particle effects for different actions. Mist in hot tubs, light coming out of a magic spell, and normal background lights. Each have their own unique shape and flavor to them, giving the world an unique sense of identity. However, the overuse of a parallel panning camera shots during "downtime" parts of the show or when a character talks really builds up over each episode. Seeing a talking head for the twentieth time with the same monotonous pan lowers excitement for the next crazy plan.
The Dungeon of Black Company Episode 1.
Good use of different particle shapes.
Emotions play an important factor in this show, as all the higher ups love exploiting them! Despite this, many characters are straight up bipedal insects or other animals and have a limited palette of expressions. During high intensity scenes, the main character and supporting cast will have a wide variety of different faces, but during slow parts, most of the talking is just the same facial expression, usually with a blank stare from all the characters. However, the show does do well in animating background character's faces as in the example below, helping to flesh out a general "atmosphere" of feeling for a given subject.
The Dungeon of Black Company Episode 3.
3 background characters with slightly different crying features.
For a fantasy show, background art becomes an incredibly important aspect of visual world building. Places in the show will always have a necessity for a background and having a consistent or unique approach to these backgrounds will flesh out a world in subtle but impactful ways. The Dungeon of Black Company handles backgrounds remarkably well. Scenes in the show take place in a variety of different locations, each with their own unique and almost genre bending quirks, but the backgrounds help ground the scene and give life to the environment.
The Dungeon of Black Company Episode 6.
A PC Cafe-style room breaks genre conventions with the background seemingly in place but also absurdly out of place.
Going against the grain, The Dungeon of Black Company has the protagonist randomly fall through a hole for no apparent reason in the first episode to find himself in another world. This portal-quest styled show brings a refreshing taste to the genre.
- As the strongest point this show has, character writing brings out the best (worst) in a character.
- Makes for an interesting commentary on the nature of the Japanese worker.
- Hilarious antics and jokes will keep you on your feet for most of the show.
- Hard to predict what comes next due to the absurd modernistic fantasy world the protagonist finds himself in!
Even with a great plot and setting, this show suffers from fairly slow writing and repetition at the beginning, with a small lull in progression between the fifth and sixth episodes. But overall, it has an incredibly unique and fun story that will surely poke a reaction out of you.
Voice Acting
Having a great cast helps bring this show to a higher level than its competitors in the genre. Most of the main cast has experience in roles for Isekai series, allowing them to easily understand the history of the genre to better prep. However, this show more specifically breaks genre conventions, allowing the voice actors to bring out their talents in ways a normal Isekai would fail. The absurd actions of the protagonist, the hilariously normal voice of the side characters, and the quiet and calm voice of a certain dragon all bring this show together and give it a ludicrous sound!
Soundtrack
Unfortunately, neither opening by HOWL BE QUIET or ending by Humbreaders (ハンブレッダーズ) really spoke out to me as important to the show and sound better as standalone music. On the flip side, background music for this show goes above and beyond. Different tracks from different genres all come together to create some crazy music for the insanity of each character's actions, pushing the hilarity of it all to a higher level.
Criteria
Grade
Summary
Opening
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
Ending
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
Background Tracks
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Above Standard
Sound Effects
⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Standard
Did you enjoy the story or find any meaning in the issues of work brought forth by this show? Comment down below!
Thank you for reading!
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