Last year I was scrolling on social media and saw a niche manga account post a screenshot of a Dungeon Friends Forever panel. It was my first time hearing about the manga but the concept immediately caught my attention.
The series is written and illustrated by Yasuhisa Kuma and follows the relationship between Van the Adventurer, and Ryuka the boss of a famous dungeon. The two are childhood friends and Van fights his way through the dungeon every day to spend time with her. Readers experience the wholesome interactions of their daily lives, the chaos of the other dungeon employees, and the logistics of how a dungeon operates.
By the end of the first volume, Ryuka had become one of my favorite manga characters, and I was hooked by how wholesome and silly the story was. There was just one problem: it took less than an hour to read everything that was available. Less than two volumes had been translated into English at the time, and they were predominantly online, so I took a break and forgot about it.
Earlier this year I was shopping at Kinokuniya and was surprised to find out that there were already four English physical volumes printed by Seven Seas Entertainment. It was a pleasant surprise and I fell in love with the series all over again.
After catching up to the fourth volume, I realized that it had the makings of a great slice of life anime. There were three characters that I adored, so many wholesome moments, and a lot of solid world-building for what’s basically a pseudo-romance. The series gave off similar vibes to anime like Delicious in Dungeon and Horimiya.
The series also received a voiced comic when the first volume was released, further proving that there is demand for more. Now that there are six completed volumes and the series is gaining in popularity, fans hopefully don’t have to wait too long to see if Dungeon Friends Forever gets an anime adaptation.
