Same Energy

i think there’s something to be said for the circumstances that izutsumi was brought in under, as her backstory isn’t entirely clear about whether she was even meant to be trained as a retainer. shuro’s father comes to maizuru acting like he got izu for her as a pet, and i think that colors a lot of the way she’s treated. the others probably think of keeping and training her as a retainer like the others as a unique privilege they’re granting her in spite of what she is, while she just wants to go back to a home she can’t remember

Since she has given a new name and trained in ninja arts just like the others I assumed she was the same type of servant. They do have ranks and Izutsumi is the lowest ranking of them (she has no mole tattoo and Tade only has one) but she seems to be treated about the same as Tade. The difference in Izu's treatment seem to be because she's a beastman and because she tried to escape.

Hien is their team leader I imagine that's why she scolds Izu here.

Still not a great situation they're in. But yes it seems like they think of the bare minimum they do for Izu as big privilege that she should be thankful for. And yet they put a cursed collar on her so she can't leave this "good life" LMAO

Perhaps this is a hot take in the fandom But i really dislike how the wider fandom at large has reduced izutsumi to just "cute kbitty that does kbitty stuff and is the parties funny cat" Congratulations, You have completely stripped izutsumi of the nuance and personality of her character and reduced her to this one specific extremely exaggerated trait that the fandom has played up so incredibly beyond belief that the character is genuinely unrecognizable and the impression people get of them is so radically different than what she actually is that people do not even recognize that she is the same character and end up disappointed on how she actually is or even actively dislike her because of it. Ive seen people say they thought she was this cute cat girl (one person not even realizing she spoke) and were caught off guard she is actually an incredibly abrasive, mean, and even selfish at times person. Its even more heinous to me because the fandom has reduced her to nothing but being a cat, the very thing she hates the most about herself and the sole reason for her joining laios party to try and get rid of. The thing that has caused her so much pain and misery in her story and the aspect of herself that she actively hates more than anything else. It is a key part of her character that she HATES being fused with a cat and she gets furious and even physically aggressive when people treat her like a cat or a helpless child and will yell at people and even physically attack them. The fandom at large has somehow managed to reduce izutsumi to nothing more than the very specific part of herself that she hates the most. They have dehumanized her so much they view her as nothing more than the party cat(girl) and do not see her as the fleshed out tragic character who struggles with her identity and who she is as she tries to separate the very thing the fandom has latched onto as her only trait. It just feels especially heinous considering what her character arc actually is about

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)

I think what people miss about Laios/Izutsumi interactions and why she doesn't like him at first and thinks he's creepy, isn't because he's a grown man petting a teenage girl, but because he's so fascinated with the Wrong Parts of her.

Izutsumi hates her cat half. It was what made her a circus freak, what made her mother abandon her, what made Maizuru put a literal leash on her (from her perspective). She said it outright in the sauna scene: nobody would want to look at a beast. Her feline parts are freaky, gross and she wants them cut off because nobody wants to look at her the way she is. It's teenage body disatisfaction turned up to 11 + actual CPTSD.

But Laios does! Everybody knows that Laios would, given half a chance, absolutely love to look Izutsumi all over! The party knows it's not in the way a normal man would look at a pretty girl, though they still don't like the optics, but Izutsumi would probably be miles more okay with that. Because then Laios would like the half of her she thinks has actual value, and she's a teenage girl coming from a Certain Kind Of Society and that would be affirming to her more positive self-image, whether or not she felt any interest in him.

But Laios doesn't even register her as An Adult Member Of The Opppsite Sex, partly because he's autistic, partly because she's young enough that he sees her as a kid and partly because she really does act more like a cat than a human and THAT is the real stinger. Because here's a healthy young man who actually wants to look at her strutting around in armor bikini and he's interested in the wrong part of her. He's not interested in what makes her a girl, he's interested in what makes her a cat, and THAT'S what rubs Izutsumi the wrong way. At least the other party members look at her like a girl with some extra appendages, but Laios sees her as a cat with some human appendages (which we learn she actually is, thanks to Lycion) and that just feeds her self-hate.

Like, eventually she learns that Laios is just a freak, and when he's in Team Leader mode he treats her like a proper party member and she warms up to him. But the damage he accidentally did, confirming that only the parts of her she considers undesireable are what makes him want to look, are definitely contributing to her teenage angst.

Isn't it confirmed in the comic where itzutsumi talks to lycion that she was actually a cat turnt into a beastman?

She's a human soul and a monster soul fused together 😔

That comic's revelation is that its impossible for her to be freed from her monster half like Lycion. Not that she's a cat.

It's a little disheartening to me that that comic somehow convinced everyone she isn't human when a big part of her character is her accepting that she is both human and monster.

Proof that she's still a human child that was turned into a beastmen ALONG with a monster cat

Profile says she's a tallman beastman

This says HER SOUL is mixed with a monster soul

Succubus chapter

Lycion confirming the human soul is the one in charge

The issue with izutsumi's body is that she's more cat than human. She's still very much the human child that was kidnapped and fused to a monster cat. What Lycion can tell her is just that she's more cat than girl. I don't like the wording that she's actually "A cat cursed to be a human" she's both human and cat, there was a child involved in this fusion.

Here's another post I made about my thoughts

Commented this in a youtube video but I wanna share it here cause more people should hear it, actually. (also op of the video was really nice about it once I pointed it out so wanna share it w more people)

"I’m actually really sad about your take on Izutsumi’s ‘picky eating’ esp after the praise for how Laios’s autism was handled. It was honestly so refreshing, when it's so often dismissed as childish, to see Izutsumi get treated with respect for it and have it accommodated as best they could. So often these things are glossed over in shows, and for a bit I thought our only take on it would be Marcilles cultural food hangups which would be treated as a flaw to be overcome. So seeing Izutsumi, and that the story would actually address this topic for once was… amazing, if scary as idk how it’ll be handled fully yet. I have a lot of difficulties with food from a lot of underlying mental health issues, most other ‘picky eaters’ do too (I’m sure Izutsumi with her cat nose and tongue and many on the spectrum can relate to the sensory hell certain foods can be, as one example). It's always been a huge source of shame and serious difficulty in my life, particularly because so many people view it the way you do in this review. With ridicule and seeing it as unreasonable, as just choosing to be difficult. But asking me or Izutsumi to “just get over it” because it's not convenient right now is every bit as unreasonable as asking Laios to “just take the hint/read the room”. It's just this behavior is from a disorder you don’t respect.

Sure yes it causes problems! Of course it would, disabilities do that! But honestly, as an anime only, I deeply hope that while Izutsumi becomes less selfish, she DOESN’T stop being a picky eater. That those two things are decoupled from one another! I am so sick of seeing it portrayed as some character flaw people just have to get over whenever it actually comes up. Having someone who doesn’t stop being a 'picky eater' but still has a healthy and respected relationship with food, in a show so focused on the philosophy and morality of food, would be amazing. I don't know if that's how the story will take it, but I hope it does. I'd be really sad to see it treated as a childish flaw here.

All this to say: seeing Izutsumi treated with respect for what food she can and can't eat, and through being treated with respect starting to work with Senshi and doing what she could to compromise, was every bit as therapeutic for me as the Laios/Shuro fight was for those on the spectrum. And I just wish people would treat that with a bit more respect and understanding."

Half-foot Name Generator

Made a script to generate half-foot style names for original characters, fic extras, or just for fun! Many thanks for the people who provided content and feedback on this generator! Please feel free to send any feedback to my ask box.

my favorite running bit in the dunmeshi manga is when there's a panel showing everyone's reactions to something and izutsumi is just

LETS GO anti poaching win

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)