Sometimes I Like To Imagine Izutsumi Sounds Like Me-mow From Adventure Time

DIVERSITY WIN!

THIS TERRIBLE 17-YEAR-OLD CATGIRL IS ARO-ACE!

[Image ID: Izutsumi from Dungeon Meshi talks excitedly, grinning. She holds up a mug in front of her, and the liquid sloshes as she outstretches her arms in excitement. /End ID]

catnap

Not the best, but it's a start!

Quick lil design exploration of my self insert esque WoF character.

Body and head could def use some work but that tail is KILLIN IT!!!!!

I gotta say I’m impressed with what they done with Falin as a character.

She was set up as a plot device character, a sort of fridged character for her male relative’s main drive for the series and a sort of manic pixie dream girl for the other male character but she’s more than that.

She’s the autistic coded human mage who was set up as the weird girl who couldn’t make friends besides Marcille at the magic school she was attending. She followed her brother because she wanted to not just because she was asked. Falin chose to save everyone else at her own expense but she got to be revived thanks to the dungeon’s magic that keeps them alive. She was willing to eat the dragon that ate her. Even when she became the “damsel-in-distress” again she was also the fierce dragon for the mad mage.

She’s not motivated by romance. At least not initially. Especially with guys. At the end of the manga (spoiler alert), she turns down Shuro’s proposal and opted to follow her own desires rather than follow others like she has done her whole life. Falin doesn’t let the permanent feathers on her body phase her and she still wanted to partake in exotic monster cuisine like her brother and his party had been doing.

She got to be weird, flawed, and not limited by the relationships to the other male characters in the story.

Lil bat doodle for your troubles

When I first saw the scene in Dungeon Meshi where Izutsumi comforts Marcille, I was a bit surprised. Izutzumi's grown a lot since the party picked her up, but she's clearly still uncomfortable with Marcille's emotional vulnerability despite being the one who reached out to offer comfort.

Izutsumi could have just sat there and done nothing while Marcille held her and cried her eyes out, but instead, she pushes aside her own discomfort and reaches out to pat Marcille on the back.

But reading the manga reminded me that this scene doesn't take place too long after their trip to the Golden City. The trip where Izutsumi spent the whole time acting more like a docile housecat than a person. The trip that traumatized her as soon as she had enough of herself back to realize what she'd done.

The trip where Marcille took it on herself to look after Izutsumi, even though Marcille herself expressed her own discomfort with the way Izutsumi was acting. The trip where Marcille had the village girls dress up Izutsumi alongside herself as if Izutsumi was still functioning like a person, even though they all probably could have just shoved her someplace warm and more or less ignored her. The trip where no one gave her grief for eating like a literal animal at the table, and they still included her at a more formal food table than the party generally gets to eat at.

All of this "having friends" and "building healthy bonds" and "looking out for others" might still be new to Izutsumi, but she saw what they all, especially Marcille, did for her when she was completely vulnerable and in no position to defend herself, and despite her stubborn nature and general discomfort with soft emotions, she's doing her best to pay their kindness back.

It’s so sad to me that Izutsumi Dungeon Meshi’s mother wears something similar to Mongolian/Central Asian clothing, not Japanese clothing. That Izutsumi was probably dragged out of their native culture and doesn’t know it.

Dungeon Meshi Settei

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