Tower Dungeon is a Dark Fantasy manga by Tsutomu Nihei (of Blame! fame), which started serialization in 2023.
The series is set on a fantasy kingdom where a princess was kidnapped by a mysterious entity posing as the king. The Kingsguard sets off to rescue her by going to the Dragon Tower, a massive, floating building infested with demons, undead, and threats. Yuva, a strong boy from a rural area is made to go with them when a convocation is made to replenish the injured Kingsguard.
Yuva, now a part of a special segment of the Kingsguard set for rescuing the princess, now faces the strange and dangerous tower with all of its bizarre lifeforms and monsters protecting the way up while several other parties also grow interested in the rewards for saving the princess.
Tropes
- Damsel in Distress: Yuva's sister is targeted by a very dangerous man, Marquess Karash, which requires Yuva and Garamna swear to protect her.
- Dungeon Crawling: The plot essentially takes place inside a gigantic dungeon, filled with monsters and treasure to loot. In a lampshading, Lilisen casually starts breaking pots open in Chapter 3 looking for valuables.
- Expy: Marquess Karash is one to Count Dracula. They're both powerful noble who watch over a village from where many people get taken away mysteriously because said noble feeds on them. They also both have an imposingly tall figure that turns into a monstruous form for fighting. Karash being able to transform into a dragon creature itself may be a reference to Dracula also being associated with dragons.
- Eyepatch of Power: Captain Minserbel.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Insect on the 50th floor, the Chymus Insect, is a giant, floating monster whose body looks like a mix of a woman with an insect, with a bulbous neck from which more insect-like eyes come out.
- Mega Dungeon: In the usual Nihei fashion, the titular tower dungeon is a mega structure. As stated below in The Tower trope entry, the tower is 3 kilometers wide, and taking that into account, around 15 kilometers tall. Each floor is also stated to be on average 10 meters high, meaning that there's potentially over 1000 floors of dungeon to explore!
- Noodle Incident: The presence of undead and shortcuts between floors make clear that people first tried to conquer the Dragon Tower a long time ago, even though it was only recently called down from the sky. The circumstances of these first efforts remain unknown.
- Running Gag: Ledges and walls keep giving way whenever Yuva puts his weight on them, and he keeps accidentally discovering new areas of the tower as a result.
- Save the Princess: The central premise involves rescuing the Princess. That being said, she seems to be very calm about the whole ordeal, and when she shows up, she assures the main characters that she can't be killed until the villain reaches the top of the tower, so they should focus on combat.
- Succession Crisis: With the kidnapping of both the King and Princess Ignelia, the second in line, Minserbel, is forced to take the throne despite her wishes to be trying to rescue her sister. She has to return to the kingdom, but creates a new unit made of the Battalion's rookies to keep going after the princess in her stead.
- Super-Strength: Yuva has a bizarre super human strength that surprises anyone that sees him lift anything.
- The Tower: The Dragon Tower is an inhumanly massive tower (three kilometers wide, and many times taller) that leaves the planet and reaches space, populated by all manner of creatures and monsters.
