Rattles These Two Around In My Head

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.

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."

HERE THEY ARE! Dragon au designs!

And these of course

I’ve done a lot of doodles but I can’t fit them all in one post. I’ll be working on more character designs I’ve been sketching some out :] BUT the main guys for now

i dont know why theres so much confusion and discourse about the “age of maturity” in Dungeon Meshi races, like a 16 yr old tall-man is still 16 like they would be irl, its not like in this world humans mature differently, its 16 the same reason we have Sweet 16s and Quinceañeras and Bar/Bat Mitzvahs, humans have marked the “being a man/woman” point around 13-16 for most of human history, it doesn’t mean that in Dungeon Meshi humans age in some crazily different way?

Dungeon meshi does such a great job at displaying platonic intimacy. Like all the characters in our main group are comfortable around each other by the end of the season. And we get to see them get more comfortable the more they open up to one another. Allowing us to have cute scenes like this showing a normal form of trust that's built over time.

i love that she plays with walking mushrooms like she does with birds. you know she plucks their feet off for fun

catnap

wanted a blank version of the adventurer's bible character profiles so i made one. then i made a few variations since i already had photoshop open. figured i'd share in case someone else wants to use them

and some seals for the ability check thing

3 AM izutzoomies

Some alien bat dromaeosaur doodles