Summer 2021 First Impressions – The Dungeon of Black Company

Streaming: Funimation

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Kinji Ninomiya has finally achieved his ultimate dream. After investing his allowance and making money day-trading, he’s made himself into an independently-wealthy NEET. As he looks down from his penthouse apartment on the sorry masses below, though, he’s suddenly sucked into a gateway and deposited in a fantasy world that immediately sets him back to square one. This new world is run by mining demonite, and after Kinji takes out a loan it’s indentures servitude in the mines for him and many other unlucky souls. The mining company assures compliance by working its employees to the bone, and Kinji wants nothing more than to find a way to reestablish his lazy lifestyle.

That’s something easier said than done; money leaves his hands to pay back his loan just as quickly as he receives his paychecks. He works 16 hour days with no days off. But a lucky discovery gives Kinji an idea, and he manages to rope a fellow laborer Wanibe into the scheme. But as they take a shortcut to the lower level of the mine, they’re confronted by one of its guardians – Rim, a hungry dragon. Not to be deterred, Kinji makes a deal with her – if she doesn’t eat them both and promises to defend them from even scarier creatures, he’ll ensure she’s well fed. That becomes a failed scheme, as does another major manipulation that takes advantage of some magic items and Kinji’s coworkers. Kinji’s ideal NEET lifestyle seems farther and farther out of his reach with each passing day.

Impressions: Kinji Ninomiya is the very pinnacle of bad-guy protagonists. His moustache-twirling love of capitalism and the lucky break that allowed him to take major advantage of the free market’s mechanisms seem like true villainy in an age where so many of us are being taken advantage of within that very system. So there’s something somewhat cathartic about watching a man who only knows scheming and financial manipulation continue to fail due to his own lack of foresight and penchant for choosing the easy path toward his goals.

I’m not really in the business of hate-watching, and that usually also includes watching decent-ish series where I deeply dislike the characters and/or what they represent. However, there are certainly very rare cases where characters who do bad things and bring consequences on themselves can be entertaining to watch, and I think this series has the potential to take that angle if it’s able to walk a very fine line. Kinji is the ultimate douche, someone who chooses to try to game the system to make things better for himself and himself alone. But he’s also a pretty clever schemer, truth-be-told, and imagine if that power to make big plans might be harnessed to help organize his fellow workers rather than to simply take advantage of them? Well, I can dream.

I think living in the times that we do, our collective fantasies are less about getting filthy rich and more about just being able to live a comfortable life and to create equity for others. Perhaps Kinji’s forays into making the big bucks might at some point turn to more constructive pursuits.

Or this might just be a completely one-joke anime series about the misadventures of a dumbass misanthrope. Either way, I found this episode pretty entertaining and enjoyed its twist on the isekai formula. Having been on the lookout for the anti-power-fantasy version of this storytelling style for a long time, I may have found it in some form here.

Pros: I like that the world in which this story takes place isn’t medieval age fantasy setting. The world may be populated by orcs, goblins, and other various demi humans, but it’s also industrialized. This actually helps the whole capitalist hellscape angle land more soundly, as the sort of “Black Company” term used in the title of the show is a 21st century turn of phrase (though definitely not just a recent practice).

I also like how Rim, the hungry dragon girl, basically just becomes this sort of feral child after a certain point. Admittedly a lot of the gags kind of fell flat throughout the episode, but I always got a kick out of this endlessly hungry trash child.

Cons: As I implied above, while some of the material here is cathartic, the comedy rarely seems to hit as it’s intended. I can’t quite nail down what the issue is – lack of timing, phrasing, or finesse, it’s difficult to say. The scenarios themselves are humorous in theory, but the execution could really use some work.

Content Warnings: Slapstick. Mild nudity. Capitalism in general.

Would I Watch More? – I’m leaning toward watching at least a couple more episodes of this. It’s not “good” in that I really think I’d recommend it widely, but it scratches a certain mean-spirited itch I get every once-in-a-while and has a protagonist who kind of deserves what he gets, so I can see a time where I might watch some more just to get some feelings out.