Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill Season 2

Episode 4

At long last! Four episodes into this isekai anime, and we have finally reached the dungeon episode. For an anime that hasn't been too action-packed or even the slightest bit theatrical, there was a lot to be excited about, thanks to the slow simmer of a build-up. Granted, Campfire Cooking might have kicked the can just a teensy bit down the line, but the wait was worth it. This dungeon crawl delivers on all levels, and it's about as fun as you'd think it is.

You know you're in for a warm welcome when even the entrance to the dungeon itself looks great. No joke, it's elegant as hell, coming complete with a perfectly-paved staircase going downwards, bricks surrounding the edges, and gargoyle statues erected at all four corners. The outside is so well-made that whoever did the brick-and-mortar job deserves a raise. The dungeon's insides trade away all of the sickly, darkened greens and blues I've seen so many bad isekai dungeons bear for some warm reds and yellows that make for a very calming environment. There's something Zelda-esque in the way this dungeon is designed, which I know is a generic statement, but hey, it's not every day that I see dungeons in anime look this enticing and mystical. Plus, like a few memorable dungeons in Zelda, it occupies its own space in the middle of the town Muhokda, Fel, Sui, and Dora-chan are in. Does anybody remember the Thieves Town located in Link to the Past's Village of Outcasts, or the Skull Dungeon from Oracle of Ages's Symmetry Village? Well, I do, and I was lovin' it.

Admittedly, you already know what you're getting into before the OP even begins. Monsters are slain, food is nommed on, the gods and goddesses intervene for a moment, and Sui's cuteness rakes in, like, a gazillion and one moe points. With Fel continuing to do the heavy lifting here, he one-shots the dungeons' creepy crawlies with such ease that it's comical. The first wave of enemies he breezes through, even leaving some of the dungeons' other adventurers dumbfounded by his sheer strength. The dungeon comes laced with traps, of course, one of which is the rolling boulder right out of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Everybody and their great-grandmother has seen this iconic boulder scene referenced so many times. I'd be one to groan at the boulder's inclusion in Campfire Cooking had the sequence not been so quick and fit right in with the show's lighthearted comedy. In other words, it's a reference that's deserved.

Nothing about Campfire Cooking so far has been hard to predict, although there are a few attempts at subverting expectations. Dora-chan, who has so far just been the wise-cracking comic relief, gets a shot at glory when he KO's an entire wave of spiders in one fell swoop. The gods and goddesses who have blessed the party come right in towards the latter end of the episode as expected, although their cameo is probably one of the briefest thus far. Muhkoda cooks up food for other dungeon adventurers as well as his gang, and it's a nice change of pace for two reasons: 1) it allows the anime to garner different reactions from other people instead of the usual suspects, and 2) having more adventurers in the dungeon outside of the main cast makes the environment feel more alive. Seriously, I'm surprised by how empty dungeons can be in anime, especially since their very point of existence is to amass as many adventurers as possible so they can yield experience and treasure. Did I mention how much I love this dungeon yet? Because I really, REALLY do.

As one last break from the usual, the episode ends with Muhkoda and the gang exploring an outside portion tucked away in the dungeon. It's a forest environment that looks a tad bit more lush than some of the other forests and plains that the gang has traveled through. Maybe we're not quite out of the woods yet on this dungeon crawl (literally!), and I'm so here for it. Make no mistake: this is the best episode of the season so far.

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Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill Season 2 is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.