laios’ shirt fighting for it’s life

Thinking about Dungeon Meshi opening.

izutsumi "how hungry" meme

Halfling microagressions

Kui-sensei loved The Return of the Obra Dinn! Excellent taste, I'll have to check out the other ones that are recommended in the interview

(Also mentioned chrono cross, yessss)

Holy fuck. Holy shit. Holy Damn. I'm definitely not straight.

hypothesis on the ethnic/cultural background of izutsumi's mom

[disclaimer: i am not a professional ethnographer, nor of any of the ethnic groups mentioned in the post. this post was written based on research done over the course of a day.

if you have any corrections, feedback, etc, please feel free to inform me! my inbox/dms are open. if there is any misinformation present, i aim to correct them] ----------

idk if anyone else into dungeon meshi has noticed this, but i think izutsumi's mom (and therefore, izutsumi herself) might've been of Nivkh (indigenous east Siberian) heritage?

[details and explanation under the readmore, its slightly long]

when dungeon meshi chapter 59 came out (~2019), i saw a few people speculating that izutsumi's mom might've been Ainu because of how her clothing style notably differed from typical Japanese clothing.

while the Nivkh robe's trim features a different pattern style (swirly) than what izutsumi's mom wears (triangular), the Nivkh robe still looks to be a closer match than Ainu robes, especially in the collar/neckline & sleeve cuff areas.

note how the Ainu robes (image 2) have a different neckline style and wider sleeves:

heres more images of the robes, but from the past this time, found in Wikimedia Commons:

image 1: Nivkh robe from 1871 image 2: Sakhalin Ainu girl (left), Nivkh boy (center), Hokkaido Ainu girl (right) in 1912

Nivkh people have had interactions with Japan dating back centuries too. heres an exerpt from wikipedia:

"For many centuries, the Nivkh were tributaries of the Manchus. After the Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689, they functioned as intermediaries between the Russians, Manchu and Japanese, and also the Ainu, who were vassals of the Japanese. Early contact with the southern Sakhalin Ainu was generally hostile, although trade between the two was apparent"

(sorry historians for quoting wikipedia as a source here. a lot of the more reputable sources are 20-200+ page papers, and not concise enough to put on a tumblr post)

the English language wiki doesnt have much more detail on Nivkh-Japan relations unfortunately, but there seems to be more info on the Japanese language version of the page.

i've also seen at least 1 speculation that izutsumi's mom might be Mongolian, as her robe somewhat resembles a Mongolian deel. in my opinion, the robe's neckline trim having patterning makes it resemble the Nivkh robes more. this – combined with the fact that prior to the 1900s, Japan-Mongolia relations consisted mostly of Mongolian forces trying to invade japan repeatedly – makes me think Nivkh (or some other indigenous east Siberian) heritage is more likely.

i wont rule it out entirely though, as i don't know how much Ryōko Kui cares about historical-based cultural relations. regardless, here are various deel styles across different Mongolian ethnic groups, if that is of interest to anyone:

i dont really have a profound conclusion for this post tbh. i wanted to document what i found, and figured i might as well share it to tumblr.

theres limited amounts of easily accessible information on traditional eastern Siberian clothing out there, but here's 1 source i found that goes over a few groups (including Nivkh):

Happy Dungeon Meshi day!!

Me: I read/watch Delicious in Dungeon for The Plot The Plot (spoilers for S01E03: Living Armor):

Other delicious Plot:

The Plot in Episode 3 (you are here)

The Plot in Episode 7

The Plot in Episode 9

The Plot in Episode 11

The Plot in Episode 13

The Plot in Episode 14

The Plot in Episode 15

The Plot in Episode 16

The Plot in Episode 17

Good Night!

Source: Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon)

By: Kui Ryoko

might be a bit odd or a stretch and written poorly by me (sorry if its rambly basically) but mithrun has such interesting but devastating symbolism and importance for a message in dunmeshi.

(TW SA/ABUSE MENTIONS)

the goat (demon) being an abusive relationship that to you who is in it only sees a nice perfect person doing anything for you, only for things to slowly get worse and worse… leading to SA (it’s not actual SA but the imagery has subtle implications of it) and other forms of physical and psychological abuse.

this leaving mithrun in an intense state of depression, ptsd and other issues like getting mana sickness really easily, which is also connected to the physical disabilities he got from said abuse. and due to these states he finds he can not desire anything anymore, he can only feel empty, not even a desire to get help and only feels a strong anger to the person and tries to prevent anyone else from going through the same.

but he’s not a lost cause.

“so.. even vegetable scraps have their uses, huh?”

he blames himself for his trauma, he sees himself as worthless and not one to be desired anymore because of what he went through. and realizing this, realizing that he actually has grown a desire to BE desired even just in a simple way to be needed (helping with falin) he finally can crack through that depression. the ptsd is still there, the physical disabilities are still there, but through surrounding himself with community of people with different views and trauma has helped him realize he is not broken and shouldn’t be blaming himself for something that was out of his control.

he wants to do new things, he wants to live now and it’s so beautiful to see.

plus, as kabru says here how the desires being eaten is not what it seems like is such an interesting fact. sure the demon ate his desires he had in that moment, making him believe he could never desire again but in fact he could get new desires (change/grow/heal) plus, traveling with kabru, he did show desires whether they be small or not.

in this moment he showed full horror about this memory. now if he was loss of desire, then he shouldn’t even desire to feel fear about this right? shouldn’t he only feel anger due to the revenge? which once again, shows his whole healing journey.

he’s such a great character with so much representation, and in turn is also a character that can show hope for someone like thistle who now is going through similar things and is practically hospitalized.

there is hope, you will heal, you are gonna be okay and your trauma is real but it does not shape you as a person, you are safe now.

dunmeshi is such a great depiction of that

If you like El Goonish Shive

If you like El Goonish Shive, I think you might like Dungeon Meshi, and also O Human Star. They're all three different situations entirely, but Dungeon Meshi has the same earnest portrayal of neurodivergence and the same sense of responsibility to its characters and its readers; and all three have that incredible and sometimes painful compassion for their characters. Dungeon Meshi's kinda long, though not One Piece long, and having recently concluded you can also rest assured it is finite and has an ending as intended. O Human Star is much shorter, much more freely available on its own site. While it lacks in what one might say are obvious warnable content, it does have a forking/cloning situation somewhat coincidentally a bit like Elliot's and Ellen's, and I know one person at least who cannot deal with forking content; there's one death, but it doesn't stick, and is what sets the story in motion; and there's self-harm scars but it's plot-relevant that they're not talked about, much less actively engaged in creating. That said, it's intense. I know only one person who's read it through without having to take a break just to come up for air, and at eight approachably short comic chapters, that says a lot. Personally, I didn't get through the first chapter before I had to lay down and sob uncontrollably. My wife managed to make it all the way to the middle of chapter eight before she had to stop and take it in, and another friend made it to chapter seven before they had to pull out for a bit. It's a lot.

Dungeon Meshi by Kui Ryoko

dungeon meshi by ryōko kui

chapter 60, "the winged lion"

The Dragon’s School is on Top of the Mountain

As a quick breather while we wait for the finale of Dungeon Meshi, I read Ryoko Kui’s short story collection, The Dragon's School is on Top of the Mountain, and it was incredible

The first few short stories are all nominally the same story. The beast-lord in the mountain is terrorizing the local villages and a destined hero slays it to save the people. Except each of the stories is told from a different perspective in a different genre, and the themes plays out so completely different. The first one is the most traditional fantasy of them, with the weary hero returning. But killing the beast-king hasn’t stopped the monsters that ravage the people’s crops, and the human kingdoms go back to war. Killing the boss doesn’t do anything for systematic violence. The second story is a minstrel’s tale, and reframes the whole thing as a Beauty and the Beast situation, turning it into a tragedy when the hero slays him. The third story is some time after the beast is slain, with the local kingdom trying to reclaim his massive castle and land. The hero is depressed and sick of humanity for not supporting him in the fight and letting his friends get killed, and the inhabitants of the castle begin to succumb. But eventually he’s forced to reveal there’s a wellspring of hope beneath the castle, and they have to deal with rebuilding anyway. The final one is the wackiest, where it turns out the beast-lord and monsters were from a terraforming machine gifted to humanity by aliens, but humanity quickly became dependent on the machine and had to learn to live on their own again. None of these versions can really be canon with each other, but it was fascinating to explore the same thing four different ways

The fifth story was its own thing. A poor village is trying find a spirit to watch over them and bring them prosperity, so the village elders take a local boy and try to woo some goddesses. Featuring the choicest examples of Kui’s knack for drawing women as the goddesses, this story is more light-hearted than the previous ones: the characters keep getting in over their heads with the various goddesses, like the lake spirit who is actually the whole lake. It ends with a reveal that the village actually had a guardian spirit the whole time, and while it ends with the village getting the recovery they wished for, it actually ended up being quite bittersweet

The next three stories were very cool explorations of speculative biology, with killer undertones of exploring heavy real topics: disability, discrimination, and environmentalism. This section has the most similar vibes to Dungeon Meshi. These all take place in modern Japan with one fantastical element added. The first is about centaurs living among humans. It cuts back and forth between 4-koma gags of a human man living with his centaur wife, and a serial story of human discrimination in the workforce leading to a political movement to suppress centaur rights. The second is about a girl with angel wings trying to decide if she should go to a special school in America to train to use them as an adult. Her parents and classmates keep pressuring to take that opportunity, but she wants to stay in Japan with the boy she likes and she doesn’t even enjoy flying anyway. At first he tries to support her by telling her that she should only do what she wants to do, but in the end even he says it would be a waste not to use her wings. The third one is about the titular dragon’s school, which is actually a normal university that focuses on the study of dragons: physiology and habitats, dragon flight certification, and veterinary medicine. There are many species of dragon and they’re generally endangered, with dwindling public support for their preservation. Most of the uses for dragons went away with the Industrial Revolution, so the question is whether it’s worth preserving those animals that no longer materially benefit humanity? Fascinating way to end the book

Except there’s one more story, which is a bit of letdown after all that. A group of NEETs are brought in for a human psychology experiment where they all have to live in a house together for a month. Overtime, the more productive members get mysteriously culled from the experiment, only for it all to turn out to be a rehabilitation project. It was interesting, but not on the same level as Kui’s fantasy work

SOOO LUCKY AHHH I missed the pre-order so my only chance was the book store, and there was a SINGLE COPY LEFT when I got there.

PHEW