Twenty seven year old unassuming salary man, Tsuyoshi Mukouda, reaches his apartment after a hard day’s work. Living a plain life, his only passion is making food, but his planned dinner is cut short when he’s summoned into a fantasy world by magic. Despite it’s verbose title and simple premise, Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill is a fun story with a plain protagonist set at a casual pace with low stakes. Ah, but it’s not about the stakes, it’s about the steaks.
Our man Tsuyoshi was summoned by the medieval fantasy kingdom of Reijseger, along with three other Japanese High School students. It turns out the students were blessed by the summoning to have the skills and traits needed to be heroes. Heroes that are needed in the kingdom’s war against the demon folk. Tsuyoshi, however, was not as blessed, having only the power of “Online Supermarket.” This absurd power allows him to magically buy things from Japan that the fantasy world does not have access to. Not interested in fighting a war and distrustful of the king’s motives, Tsuyoshi decides to leave and eke out a life on his own. Tsuyoshi is given some money and allowed his freedom, while the students stay to begin their training as heroes.
Seizing the chance for a peaceful life of travel, Tsuyoshi embraces his new role as a wandering merchant. After registering with the merchant’s guild, he sets off with a mercenary escort beyond the kingdom’s borders. To show his gratitude, he cooks the adventurers an incredible meal—one so delicious, they’ve never tasted anything like it. Honestly, it’s some of the most mouthwatering food I’ve seen in animation.
But this food isn’t just tasty—it also grants buffs to the party. Tsuyoshi quickly realizes his cooking is both powerful and potentially dangerous, especially if the wrong people find out. Sure enough, the aroma catches the attention of a mythical, highly intelligent wolf-beast called a fenrir. Drawn in by the scent, it demands to be fed. The group reluctantly offers their meal, but it’s not enough—the fenrir wants more. Terrified, the party flees, knowing they can’t fight such a creature. Tsuyoshi, however, has no choice but to keep cooking—serving plate after plate. Once finally satisfied, the fenrir arrogantly offers a familiar pact, to the shock of the party. For Tsuyoshi, though, it’s a nightmare: he’s now bound to a gluttonous beast who craves nothing but his enchanted meals.
That’s the beginning of Tsuyoshi’s tasty adventure and it’s a treat to watch him work out his success as a merchant, along with the reactions to all of his food. With the mythical fenrir at his side, now named Fel, the world is his for the traveling and money there for the making. Fel, not wanting to lose his meal ticket, does his best to keep Tsuyoshi safe and does the hunting for most of the meats used for his treats. Along the way he meets other monsters that he befriends, as well as other humans, and even the realm’s gods. All of them drawn by his special and delicious gifts. The deities, having not experienced earth food and products, practically throw insane power boosts and blessings at Tsuyoshi in exchange for his offerings.
The anime itself is based on the light novels written by Ren Eguchi, and having read most of them myself, it was just mouthwatering to see the recipes described in the books come to life on screen. MAPPA, the studio behind the anime and directed by Kiyoshi Matsuda, did a great job bringing everything to the screen, especially when it came to the book’s description of the recipes and the process of making the dishes. Of course, when the dish calls for ‘orc meat’ you’d substitute that for pork, ‘roc meat’ would be chicken, etc. Even as I rewatched it for this review I had the sudden urge to start cooking or eating something tasty.
You can catch Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill on Crunchyroll, and if you do enjoy it season 2 is set to premiere in October 2025.
I highly recommend this one, and be prepared to be hungry.
***
English (US) · 