Latest Posts by bundlebats - Page 3

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Dungeon Meshi - Izutsumi & the Ninja's Room

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

seeing a glimpse of izutsumi's mom's appearance, really made me wish the story delves in more of izutsumi's unknown past. like are her parents still alive? and how exactly izutsumi became a beast man? who made her like that?

The story keeps focus on whats happening at the moment and there isn't many flashbacks, I think we don't know because Izutsumi doesn't know or remember.

By context it was probably some scumbag demi human seller that turned her into beastkin to sell her to a freakshow. How he got his hands on a human child we can only guess. She was turned when her human half was 6 and it says she was separated from her parents.

By that little description I don't think they sold her so perhaps she was kidnapped?

She wasn't originally from the Isle of Wa (the equivalent of japan in dunmeshi from what I understand) either. So she was taken from one of the other islands.

The wiki says her mother is wearing a Deel

Here's what wikipedia says "A deel (Mongolian: ᠳᠡᠪᠡᠯ /дээл [deːɮ]; Buryat: дэгэл [dɛɡɛɮ]) is an item of traditional clothing commonly worn by Mongols and Turkic and Tungusic peoples for centuries, and can be made from cotton, silk, wool, or brocade."

So yeah Izutsumi is a victim of human trafficking that was turned into a beastman to make money for her kidnappers.

sorry if this piles up with other izutsumi's talks but since it is on my mind. sometimes i think all the hang ups about her and the soul-mixed stuff is because some people are incapable of being open minded, not to drag real world issues but i wonder how these people discuss intersex, bigender or two-spirit identities if they feel the need to rule over a fictional character whose arc is about recognizing needs and desires with a body that is at odds with her self-image and a personality that refuses to compromise either.

thanks for all your hard work with this blog i love it.

No problem! It's honestly confusing to me since the fact she has both souls inside her is a big point of the character. My only guess was that it was anime only people that only happened to see that extra and extrapolated from it.

It's one of my biggest pet peeves cause that's like the whole point of her self acceptance journey, why does one need to prevail above the other? Why does it need to be "a girl was turned into a cat" or "a cat was turned into a girl"?

She literally said it out loud "Maybe it's not because I don't have a human heart, but because I've got two hearts"

I think you make an interesting point, maybe it's hard for people to accept that something can be two things at the same time? Without needing to be one first and the other second? Intersex conversation is interesting cause we really think in binaries non stop "but what were they supposed to be first" cause people assume it can only be one or the other?

To keep good faith I'll just assume it's anime onlies tho.

diversity win! cat who calls you a bitch and drinks your pepsi is aroace

thinking about izutsumi bringing the party small dead monsters as gifts. marcille is horrified (mostly because izu is keeping the dead thing in her mouth and that has to be unhigenic), chilchuck is really not giving two shits, laios is really excited and bombarding izu with questions and senshi is just ^c^ dinner is here!

make bad art or you will always feel bad about your art. Make bad art until you find joy in the crooked lines and the off colours. Make bad art because art is about expression and artwork is never ugly because it was made by someone who has lived a life no one else will ever live. Make bad art and find love through ugly. Make bad art so you make art at all. Make bad art.

what if we saw shapeshifter versions of izutsumi?

Explanations under the cut

#1 is Laios' Izutsumi:

extra detail on her cat parts

more monster-y traits present

outfit mistake

#2 is Marcille's Izutsumi:

influenced by their time in the Golden Country

a little more chill than the others

softer hair

#3 is Senshi's Izutsumi:

details of puffed up fur

this izutsumi is skinnier than the others (ribs showing)

^^ senshi must take care of the child

#4 is Chilchuck's Izutsumi:

rounded ears like marcille's

eyes kinda look like his kids puckpatti and flertom

stanced

IT freaking annoys me

Izutsumi is part feline MONSTER

A wild beast

I see longtime fans forget the fusion process is never talked about with ordinary animals, only monsters

Not a cute little kitty cat

A freaking cat monster

She acted like that under the influence of inner barrier because it caused ALL monsters to act domesticate , it was a further perversion of herself.

Izutsumi isn't part domestic cat, she's part wild animal.

She cannot be "domesticated", she can only be reached and improved by treating her as a person.

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

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

Trying to convince my dnd friends to watch dungeon meshi...

So beyond her just being picky- or seemingly so- What if Izutsumi isn't actually simply just ' a picky eater' and just appears so on the outside.

Consider what if the reason she doesn't like/won't eat Mushrooms for example is because she CAN'T. After all she is a CAT Chimera, and cat's don't eat, and outside of like extremely controlled small amounts of like commercially grown Mushrooms, can't and shouldn't eat them anyway.

So sure maybe taste/texture wise they're off putting but on a deeper level, perhaps that not even Izutsumi understands it's the feline side of her body basically telling her "No, DO NOT EAT"

Like don't get me wrong I love me a picky eater character. Picky eater rep goo, But also given the series it is I think it' would have made for an interesting challenge for Senshi himself to be faced with a situation where sure ordinarily beggars can't be choosers about their food, but instead of just him simply making a lecture on not wasting foods- which you could still have- but then him also having to come to understand Izutsumi's side of things of sometimes there are people who literally CAN NOT eat certain things having to adapt and accommodate for it.

Maybe even learning the hard way of feeding her something but she ends up sick while everyone else feels fine.izu

Easily being in Laios' vast knowledge of monsters/animals he could bring up the suggestion that since she is a Chimera and has the partial body of a Cat what if that means it reflects in her diet as well (Meaning she likely needs a high protein/animal based diet)

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.

Oh, a thing about Izutsumi. Her selfishness is a very funny extended cat joke but also none of her behaviour was maladaptive to the context she was in before she skipped out on Toshiro's party. She was a slave. Inutade responded to being 'taken in' by Toshiro's household one way, by trying to make herself as useful as possible, but Izutsumi saw they were being taken advantage of from the start. Very sensibly, she chose to do the absolute bare minimum needed to stay alive and decided she didn't owe her captors shit. Her life from when she was bought to when she lost her collar was one long ca' canny. Her real arc is from one set of adaptive behaviours that got her through a horrible time to some that make more sense in a better situation. Like all cats, she has excellent boundaries.

Yet another band AU from me!!! But its DUNGEON MESHI💥 I think I did well with assigning them each instruments. Falin is on vocals bc I'd feel like she would have a really good range in singing. Then Izutsumi in the bg rattling the tambourine off beat.

What’s the difference between a dog and a wolf?

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

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

something i see a lot in the dungeon meshi fandom is attributing izutsumi's personality traits to her being a cat. and while ryoko kui definitely gave her cat-like traits intentionally, she's a talented enough writer to also give her a backstory with reasons for those traits. for example, her tendency to only do and eat what she wants.

izutsumi's character arc revolves around freedom. she grew up caged in a circus. and although she was fed enough to survive, this was only because a living catgirl attracted more customers than a dead one.

[id: first image is izutsumi as a child framed behind bars and standing on all fours, making it clear how skinny she is. a hand in the foreground holds out a bowl of what appears to be kibble. narration says “thrown in a cage and given food every once in a while… is that what you would call ‘being raised’?” in the second image she is now sitting on the floor of her cage and eating a rat. end id]

look how skinny she is! we see her eating what appears to be... kibble? oats? and then a rat that she possibly caught for herself. she had no choice but to eat anything she could.

[id: part of the dungeon meshi manga. a slightly older izutsumi is tied to a post and tade sits next to her to say "we've got a roof over our heads, beds, food, and clothes. they've got everything here. is there someplace nicer than this out there?" izutsumi thnks for a moment and says "i hate that someone's already decided what i'm going to eat tomorrow. my name, the clothes i wear, where i sleep, where i go next... here, all of that's been decided by another person... even though, come tomorrow, i might want to eat something else instead. that's why i'm leaving." at this, tade cries out in shock. end id]

when she's taken into the nakamoto household they begin to treat her much better. she's on about equal footing as tade, who also had a rough living situation before being taken in, and tade loves it there! they get healthy and tasty food and they're not sleeping in cages. but izutsumi still isn't free. she can pass off her chores and vegetables to tade and disobey in any way she can but she can't leave. maizuru even put a collar on her, further dehumanizing and trapping izutsumi.

when izutsumi joins laios's party, she's finally 'free', but it's not the kind of freedom she wants. she has to eat even more food she doesn't want or else she'll starve. but the difference now is that she's can leave at any time, and if she stays, she's treated as an equal. they're not feeding her monsters because they see her as inferior. they're all eating the same food so they can reach their goal(s). and this is part of izutsumi ultimately learning that in order to do what she wants, she has to be willing t do the things she doesn't want to

It's always

"When will fanfic writers update their stories?"

And never

"Does this fanfic writer have adequate enrichment to engage in writing behaviours?"

Fanfiction writers (Scriptor fictus) are intelligent animals who need plenty of enrichment as well as encouragement! If they're stuck in poor conditions (e.g. have studies, work, have to actually write to have something written) then they require the proper enrichment to engage in more healthy behaviours, like writing. Remember, due to poor breeding and socialisation, over half of all fanfic writers suffer from low self confidence and executive dysfunction so take care of them!

Give your fanfic writers proper care. Fanfiction writers are a life long commitment.

the bleh family

so i have made Entirely too many dungeon meshi playlists. please enjoy. they are my children. any discussion you wish to engage in around them will delight me beyond measure.

these were made with the whole manga in mind, so there is a possibility of a vague spoiler from a song choice, ymmv:

laios // falin // marcille // senshi // chilchuck // izutsumi // kabru // mithrun // winged lion // thistle

labru // farcille // touden siblings // laios's party

Chimera Izutsumi 🐈‍⬛

We need an Inutade-Izutsumi spinoff series!

Of all the directions to take a potential spinoff, I can't think of a prompt with more potential than "Izutsumi and Inutade go on a road-trip adventure".

As a duo, the two characters are perfect foils with an excellent dynamic that's just begging to be built upon. Likewise both characters individually have plenty of room for further growth. This parallels Dunmeshi's world as a whole, which is basically nothing BUT untapped potential. What better way to explore it further than through a pair of young warriors who know nothing of the lands and peoples beyond their home?

Narratively, it would be extremely easy to set up. Inutade is sent to retrieve the escaped "Asebi," but Izutsumi refuses to return until she's killed the wizard that originally turned her into a beast-man. Izutsumi (falsely) promises that she'll return and never attempt to escape again, IF Inutade helps her with this first.

Thus begins the adventure of the cat and the giant! Two foster-sisters, seeing strange sights, getting into hijinks, and bonding as fellow oddities within this world where their kind is rare.

To tie it back to Dunmeshi, you could use the story to explore the cuisine of different cultures, and how a society's approach to food can define its wider values.

Idk why but these are some my favorite Izutsumi panels

Can't wait to see 'em in animated form today :]

KITY COAT TIME IS ALMOST UPON US

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]