i've been poking at this too long to care how visually appealing it is anymore. My headcanons for the main characters' sexualities, based on canon information! (has no bearing on ships.) Canon speculation below the cut.

marcille (bi): fascinated by romance and loves romance. we only see her show explicit interest in a male (fictional character (General Halleus from the book series she loves)), but i don't think she's fully straight.

falin (aro? ace? lesbian? genderqueer?): falin's only interest in relationships in canon is 'she considered accepting shuro's proposal because she was afraid nobody else would want her, but felt it'd be unfair to him because she had no feelings for him'. i consider whether she's aroace or a lesbian or maybe bi/pan, and she also seems like she might have some genderqueer feelings, based on some of her discomfort with her body and wearing certain types of femme clothing. (Also the fact that she‘s part male dragon.) Since she ends the story going on a journey for herself, it feels like she'll finally get the chance to figure out what she wants.

laios (pan, demi): he hasn't shown explicit interest in men, but similar to marcille, i don't feel he's fully straight. He’s aesthetically attracted to monsters, at the very least, so gender probably doesn’t factor in for him. romance/sex just don’t seem to be much of a high priority to him in general, but he did think his ex-fiance was cute and didn't seem uncomfortable with the idea of marriage (just seemed unhappy with being trapped in his hometown), so i feel like demisexuality fits him well.

About his succubus: He was very noticeably not stopped in his tracks by it like Chilchuck and Marcille, but that could possibly be because it just….looked exactly like Marcille, not an obvious fantasy. He started blushing and stammering heavily when it turned into a monster, which like….this boy is definitely a furry/monsterfucker, if anything, but that doesn’t speak on his attraction to actual humans.

I think it speaks for something that the succubi are able to literally read minds and craft the perfect fantasy for their specific target. And for Laios, it wasn’t just “his friend Marcille”. It was a version of his friend Marcille that wasn’t grossed out by monsters, didn’t think he was weird for wanting to be one, and was able to turn Laios into one. It was a Marcille who understood him at his deepest level that made him become a blushing, stammering mess to rival Chilchuck. Which is why I think he’s Demi, and needs a strong emotional connection with someone before he finds them attractive.

kabru (pan): his special interest is people, and he's bold enough with his sexuality to kiss rin despite not being in a relationship with her. so being pan/bi feels appropriate.

chilchuck (bi): he has a wife, and they were childhood friends, so he's definitely allo. but his comments and behavior towards senshi makes me suspect he might be bi, and just never considered the possibility due to being in a committed relationship.

senshi (gay, ace): this is 90% off of vibes. he keeps to himself in the dungeon and doesn't seem to have any need for social company, he's a complete hermit. Being ace makes sense to me, but so would him just having a low social drive. His succubus was 'a woman he hadn't seen since he was a child', but his journal implies it wasn't a romantic/sexual attraction.

namari (bi/lesbian): she is at the very least attracted to women, given her behavior with kiki, but she does make a point to say that kaka is also attractive to her, and her friends at the bar tease her about Kaka being her “new” boyfriend (implying previous boyfriends).

shuro: the token straight (in love with falin, asked her to marry him). i love you shuro <3 (but i can also see him being into men. there's no evidence to the contrary)

izutsumi: aroace. literally no question. her succubus is her mother.

NOOOO THEY BOTH DID IT

The way I feel about Shuro's crush on Falin is probably the same way fujoshis feels when a girl gets in the way of their yaoi ship

Like hey excuse me sir Falin and Marcille are trying to be lesbians here can you fucking leave

"why couldn't shuro have just been honest about what he felt with laios and falin it's not that hard" are you. are you White

Not leaving until we get him that dungeon meal

I will be elaborating on MY interpretation of this panel again, because I have been receiving comments not understanding how I believe this is about fem!Shuro having a crush on Laios.

This said, you are allowed to have YOUR interpretation of it, there is nothing wrong with that, but don’t come here being hateful just because you don’t like it.

The context is that the mirror Laios is looking in shows you how things would have turned out if *insert some condition here*.

In this case, Laios asked how things would have gone with their party if Shuro was a girl.

In the original timeline, Shuro fell in love with Falin, which according to Chilchuk is one of the things that doomed their party. There was ought to be conflict with Shuro being in love with Falin and Falin not reciprocating

In my interpretation of this timeline, fem!Shuro fell in love with Laios but… Shuro is still Shuro so he is… basically embarrassed and maybe grossed out that it was Laios the one that stole her heart.

So yes, she is crying and blushing.

Marcille seems to be in shock like saying “really? You like THAT guy?” Because through the whole show everyone explicitly thinks of Laios as a weirdo basically-

Falin, being Laios’ sister is showing concern for her friend liking this man that is only obsessed with monsters like “oh no…”

Laios saying that this whole scenario just would make the situation worse than it already is (issues regarding Shuro loving falin) makes sense with this interpretation.

Again, you are allowed to see things differently, but at least to me this interpretation makes sense in context.

just came to me part of the reason why kabru probs came to like/trust/whatever u would call his rapport w him shuro so quickly is he saw how maizuru treats him and saw a bit of his relationship w milsiril

My darling daughter has returned!!!!!

shuro!!! stop being mean to my best friend laios!!!

😭 ppl r bringing up laios being white not bc they believe dunmeshi universe has the same racial dynamics but bc he is othering shuro by bothering him abt his homeland and stereotyping. in case that wasn’t obvious

i should swing by an animate or bookstore tomorrow and buy the upgraded adventures bible thing for dm, it seems fun. i wish noda was as indulgent as kui when it comes to trivia and extra content, though i understand their immersion in their own characters and universes is drastically different (not to mention the genre limitations). i think in gk the characters were created with specific roles for the story at large, while in dm it's the story that is created around the characters, so the degrees of separation are very very different. dm is an universe for kui to drop her myriad of beloved, detailed, thought out original characters - this is why there's so much affection poured into them and there's such a huge amount of trivia and extras. gk is a story with players who have strict narrative roles, a story which ended in a timely manner. besides gk was a weekly gig so it's understandable why noda couldn't afford much of that. still i wish there was a second fanbook after all or at least an official magazine held popularity poll

Dungeon Meshi Ending - 'Party!!' Drawings

[Part 1/2]

ok so i am THEEE firstborn japanese son Hater. AND at the same time god i feel for toshiro. the racism is so. like they dont even respect HIS NAME!!!!

like imagine the Most Annoying White Guy You Know just going around doing whatever the fuck he wants without caring about how his actions reflect on him and those around him. how nice it must be!!! how much less painful!!!!! but a few things: 1. this wont work for you. you are first and only ever a Foreigner. 2. you dont even want this, not really. you dont want to be the white man so much as you want the freedoms of a white man.

and at the same time, toshiro is so frustrating because he doesn't recognize that he is also doing this too!! the call is coming from inside the house!!!!! no 1 frustrating thing about asian men is that they dont realize their own privilege. like his retainers -- does he realize how much power he has over them? his family literally owns itsuzumi as a pet. its hard not to draw the conclusion that toshiro determines peoples value depending on how much he personally likes/feels attracted to them (and, much like laios, it doesnt seem like he has this self awareness). tade is right, he is incredibly immature. which, pretty on par for 26 :)

new dungeon meshi episode was soooo good

With the end and all, it just gives too much of an opening to make Shuro learn his place and realize just how much Falin and Laois have in common— after finally realizing he’s got much to learn especially from those who are more eagerly set on their goals than he’s even been— hopefully so much so he learns to loosen up a lot more, and anyways what I’m trying to say here is Laois and Shuro should make some yaoi I think.

The first time I read Dungeon Meshi I was like “I love all these characters but Mithrun is hands down my favorite, it’s been a long time since I went this feral for a fictional character.” And like. That’s still true. I still absolutely adore Mithrun and he’s extremely important to me and his character arc is so beautiful and also I want to kiss him. BUT.

I’m not gonna lie, the way that like 85% of western fans either ignore Toshiro or straight up dislike him is turning me into a Shuro stan from the sheer injustice of it all.

He should get more love. He’s wonderful. It’s a little tricky to get a read on him initially but once you learn more about him he’s such an interesting character with so much going on under the surface. He seems like the stereotypical Stoic Eastern Warrior type, but it’s only because he’s using that stoicism to hide his shyness and uncertainty and fear of doing or saying the wrong thing. (And honestly, if you really thought Ryoko Kui of all people would write such a flat stereotype of a character you haven’t been paying attention). By the end of the series it’s shown that despite his issues Toshiro is a good and kind person beneath the impassive noble facade he’s been taught to put up his whole life.

And! He’s such a perfect character foil for Laios! Because they both struggle socially (personally I think Toshiro is also autistic, like Laios, but I’ll probably make a separate post abt that bc this one is already getting long), but in ways that contrast each other. This brings them into conflict when at their core they both crave the same thing: a deep connection with their peers that they’ve struggled to find their entire lives. They’re two sides of the same coin, at opposite ends of the spectrum of outward responses to a very similar internal experience. It’s really well done, as is, like, every character/relationship in DM.

Anyway if no one else is gonna ride or die for Nakamoto Toshiro then I will, god damn. I have to do everything myself around here.