Dungeon Meshi

adapted to anime adult protagonist adventurers androgynous characters appearance different from actual age atypical premise award-nominated work award-winning work bittersweet ending black and white webtoon/webcomic black/dark magic blonde-haired protagonist blood blood and gore blood magic cat girls character deaths character growth cheerful male lead comedic moments in a serious manga cooking crazy male lead curses dark magic/power deal with the devil death of leading characters death of loved ones demons different cultures difficult childhood discrimination dragons dungeons dungeons exploring dwarf/ves eccentric characters eccentric male lead eccentric protagonist elf/ves ensemble cast european ambience fantasy creatures fantasy ecology fantasy world female fighters flashbacks food lover food/gourmet forbidden knowledge/wisdom forced transformation friendly male lead friendship golden/yellow-eyed protagonist gore guilds half-elf half-human high fantasy huge cast of characters human becomes nonhuman human in monster/demon environment hybrids important non-romantic relationships important secondary characters improvisation kemonomimi knights legends legendary beasts lost civilizations mage female lead mages magic magic books magical beasts magical transformations magical world male demographic with female author male protagonist medieval european ambience monochrome monsters multiple narrators multiple povs muscular females neurodivergent protagonist ninjas nonhumans ogres old man old woman older brother orcs plot twist pointy ears prejudice quirky characters race against time racism rescuing from death