Isn't It Confirmed In The Comic Where Itzutsumi Talks To Lycion That She Was Actually A Cat Turnt Into

deranged ramble incoming abt the succubus arc but like. god it fucks me up bc up until this point izutsumi has been a bit estranged from the rest of the group and rightly so, because she joined late, because the others knew each other better, because she has spent her whole life relying on herself. yes, her saying she could beat the succubus cuz she doesn't have anything she's attracted to is a Big Aroace Moment but ALSO in the official translation i read they translated that line as "i don't want anybody" ie. it's not just that she's aroace she also has no one else! and when she sees the succubus in the form of her mom and it doesn't have as huge an effect on her she thinks to herself "do i not have a heart?" and it's like!!! god!!! bc this arc isn't about how she needs to give up her self-reliance and learn to depend on others sometimes. it's about her capacity to care in the face of how up until now no one has cared for her. how her being a monster doesn't make her a monster, so to speak. at the end of the arc she still thinks she doesn't need the party to look after her but she wants to look after them and that's so important bc it's like. the part of her that cares about others hasn't been damaged forever. she hasn't lost her heart, she just has two of them. and like. idk. it's so good these chapters are so good izutsumi my little guy of all time ever. i think it's missing the point to go "um actually the succubi can still turn into family" or w/e bc THIS IS WHAT THE ARC IS ABOUT. whether or not izutsumi can have it in her to be a part of a family at all (she does) (she's just traumatized and aroace and doubts herself about it)

Chimera Izutsumi 🐈‍⬛

alright ive resisted for long enough, but its time i finally post on tumblr, ive posted times before but eventually delete it,

what made me cave?

dungeon meshi ofc

this latest episode is just the fucken best one, im gonna gush so hard right now okay

there are like 15 moments that just have have me going XD and i mean CAPITAL ECKSDEE

yea ill be going thru all of them with screenshots

1. oh fuck the elves are really really reaaaallly hot, especially these 3 like aidbwkdnkajiffoqpqoldkwj

2. uh oh here comes meanie

2.5. mean asf! what a way of portraying this too wow

3. “you fucken heard me the whole time?!” (XD)

4. beautiful uwu by izutsumi here, marcille doesnt even know shes in for a whole day of clinging

5. of course the LAOIS IS A FREAK MONSTERLOVER moment, thought he was reaching for a titty grab at first

6. “not tryna hear it” - chillichuck

7. laois like “whats up with your cat” completely oblivious to marcilles beauty, marcilles expecting a compliment like “OH YEA MY CAT YEA!” like yes bish your cat. 7.5. also izutsumi cling 10/10

8. the way izutsumi just withouta fuck drunkenly sits in marcilles lap i love this so much

, also i am guilty of doing this EXACT same thing irl, notice how i say EXACT because when i did this i too had purely aroace intentions (reason #420 izutsumi is my favorite and also me)

9. nya!

9.5. laios is mortified to be denied. cant blame em.

10. ah i can only dream of being the aroace kitty at the end of the bed in a polycule as perfect as this ;-;

, i mean im halfway there ;"3

11. senshi. XD

this is easily the best anime, no contest

i have not watched or read any dunmeshi and will not do so but i really really really really really love izutsumi. so shes minnesotan now sorry

Thoughts are a brewin'...

I made a blank Dungeon Meshi character sheet based off of the ones in the Adventurer's Bible if anyone wants to use it

EDIT

Hey! @whatifyandsand found some similar fonts used for the sheet so make sure to thank them!

They've included a psd file with a detailed guide on which fonts to use

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gDhewpREYS5A6nbCKbMBGKU_6HgTb0bz/view?usp=sharing

Do you guys think Izutsumi does teenager talk and chilchuck is the only one who can understand her? No? Aw man ☹️

Idk how to draw senshi if you can’t tell

Honestly, it's really fun how Dungeon Meshi haa the main party take on a teenage cat girl halfway through the series, except she's covered in fur all over so nothing shows even when she's naked, she's arguably the most skilled combatant in the group, basically everyone treats her like a kid they're taking care of, she acts like a feral cat begrudgingly choosing to adopt a group of humans instead of a needy kitten, she's a picky eater, she's immune to monsters that try to seduce you, and her past as a slave is directly shown to be traumatic and miserable to the point that her former owner literally made her have a magic seal on her neck that would murder her if she managed to escape.

She's basically the antithesis of fanservice catgirls. Every single trait other series use to turn catgirls into sex objects is inverted to make for an entertaining and interesting character.

Thinking about how the two children in dunmeshi were both sold into slavery and how their enslavement differed. 

Thistle was given to the Royal Family as a trophy, a sign of status because he was an elf. Although he was doted upon and “treated as a second son,” Thistle was clearly a different race, of different stature and ultimately a companion for Delgal.

Despite being a child for the entirety of their relationship, Delgal used Thistle to vent his anxieties and worries to him. Here is an uncomfortable and tragic scene where Delgal is absolutely distraught about the death of his father, with the kingdom being taken over. And it is Thistle, the child, who was supposedly seen as a son to the king too, is comforting Delgal.

This ultimately culminates in Delgal placing the responsibility of the Kingdom’s health on Thistle (who, again, was his elf child slave.)

Kui places obvious signs the mental toll it’s taking on him, and his anxieties and worries drive him to self harm and endless stress.

(We see how Falingan recognises him as a burdened baby and hugs him 😣 so cute…)

(EDIT: This is an edited panel of Thistle! Sorry, I should have mentioned that… I think it’s cute. The original says “His Majesty will return soon, when he does, let’s have a grand celebration.” Thank you to the commenter for pointing this out.)

Thus, Thistle was shaped into a child desperate for approval from his owners, to the point that his deepest wish was to ensure the safety of the Golden Kingdom, forever freezing himself and the citizens in time. It is only towards the end of the story where Delgal realises this all happened because of the mental burden he placed on Thistle.

I believe the The Lion keeping its hold on Thistle for so many years compared to the comparitively instantaneous period it kepts Marcille/Laios is partly because of Thistle’s youth. The other Dungeon Masters became mad, yes, but Thistle was unable to ever be convinced to relinquish the book, as he was too dogmatic, too vindictive, just like the child he is.

On the flip-side, Let’s compare Izutsumi. Like Thistle, she has no idea where she came from as she was sold into sorcery and slavery. While Thistle’s trauma came from the emotional abuse suffered by his owners, Izutsumi’s was very physical. She is part cat, part human, thus a beast man.

Izutsumi is even sold to Toshiro’s family as part of his all-female guard, and as a result of her escape attempts she is also cursed to never be able to escape them. Unlike Thistle, Izutsumi absolutely abhors the violation of her body, as well as her lack of freedom. She not only wants to escape slavery, but wants to lift her Beast-man curse and go back to being a human.

It makes it sadder when Izutsumi eventually discovers that it is impossible for her to life the curse. This is because she is a cat who had a child’s soul imbued into her, and removing the curse would remove her personality and revert her into an animal. This implies that the person who trafficked her murdered her human-child self to do so.

Despite this, Izutsumi is the complete opposite of Thistle. She is rebellious, unshakeable, and extremely self centred. All of this is a result of a life where she’s had to fend for herself. However, just like Thistle, she is still childish in her wants and needs and thoughts. While Thistle took on the responsibility the entire fate of the kingdom, Izutsumi wants nothing more than to do whatever she likes.

Whereas Thistle was a status trophy for the royal human family, Izutsumi was a sick science experiment for a trafficker.

Izutsumi is never able to remove the physical effects of what her traffickers did to her, and spent her life fending for her freedom, so she struggles to understand why anyone would take on unpleasant tasks or selfless responsibilities.

She’s also very inept at doing things like emotionally comforting her big sister figure (compare this scene to how Thistle comforts Derghal.) She hates emotional physicality, doesn’t crave approval, but like a cat, and like a child, she craves warmth of another when she sleeps (so cute!)

Meanwhile, Thistle is never able to shake off the emotional effects of what his traffickers did to him, and spent a millennia desperately clawing his way towards their demands to appease them, and struggles to ever stop for a moment and think, “I’m a child, why is this my responsibility?”

There is one thing that they have in common though — it’s that they entirely refuse to depend on others. That’s so tragic for two children to think. ☹️ This concludes my analysis of the two most prominent children in Dunmeshi.

(Sorry I didn’t put more Izutsumi panels, theres a ten photo limit..)

Maybe its because I'm bitter or because I just left a fandom that reduced one of the main characters to a one off joke when the POINT is that they're complex but I hate how this fandom treats Izutsumi.

I hate how some people who interacted with the fandom before watching the anime thought that she didn't even speak because EVERYONE just draws her as a cute stupid cat whose personality is just being a cat

Again, maybe I'm just bitter, but I hate how the most common joke is the "Izutsumi: izutsumi" cause apparently no one can be bothered to actually consider her thoughts and feelings and personality.

Like yeah I'm not saying it can't be funny but it quickly becomes tiring when she's reduced to just that

Especially when her entire arc is about finding her identity as a person and as part of a community, finding a balance between her human and cat souls because she's both but also neither. Especially when canonically she's ashamed of the one time she behaved like just a silly little cat (golden kingdom)