Just Ships And Stuff

senshi got me giggling and kicking my feet

Thinking about laios and marcille are nervous whenever they go in their laishuro and farcille dates, and frequently ask kabru for advice because to them hes like this casanova or something like that, but in reality hes a nervous wreck as they are but in kabumisu dates

(Like yeah generally kabru is at ease when with mithrun, and is more honest/relaxed, but i think when they do label themselves as something romantic -- and potentially leading to marriage -- while Mithrun works on slowly but surely getting back his desires, which includes specific desires for a romantic partner, the tension and overthinking would set in. Does he like the food? Does he like this gift? Am I doing enough??? Not to mention that there are cultural differences between them, which Kabru knows very well, so I can see him worrying a lot about the future of their relationship, which is something that he wants to sustain, until he is old and dying, because he wants Mithrun, he is selfish about Mithrun. And Mithrun also has his own worries, perhaps more down the line, but in a very early courtship Kabumisu he'll be figuring out what he wants to do and if he likes doing this and comparing them to what his old self used to do -- then realizes that the intricacies of elven social rituals and cues are a nuisance to him now)

world hard and cold... farcille soft and warm

acally i desided I’ll just post this here too

Always thinking that this is the moment that Kabru fell for Mithrun:

his change in career has captivated me

bonus:

fake marcille understood the assignment. all she needs to do is sound desperately gay, and they'll all believe her

ambition vs perception

Can’t stop thinking about Kabru’s lamb stew from chapter 62. “We don’t have nearly all the ingredients we need”  baby boy you have none of the ingredients you need. The only lamb stew ingredient you have is water. There’s not even any salt in there.

He goes, ‘I want to make something nice for Mithrun’ and this is his Something Nice for Mithrun:

“LAMB STEW”

Ingredients (serves 2)

Ryoko Kui Does Not Believe in Epiphanies (or: why Marcille and Mithrun's endings are great actually)

I have seen a couple of people who are upset about the way that Mithrun and Marcille's stories were resolved so I'm writing this to clear some things up. Ryoko Kui does not believe in epiphanies. An epiphany is a sudden and usually brief realization, an "aha" moment. Epiphanies are emotionally powerful moments. Both Marcille and Mithrun have powerful moments of realization, epiphanies.

Whether or not you like these resolutions, there's something you need to understand, Ryoko Kui does not put that much stock into these moments. Immediately after Marcille has her realization, Tansu responds like this:

While this is mostly his own opinion, what he is pointing out is that epiphanies are brief, they are singular moments that do not define a life. Life is long, and epiphanies do not sustain you. Marcille might feel like this now, but what about tomorrow? what about nex year? ten years, a hundred years, five hundred years from now? How often have you felt a sudden understanding? a burst of inspiration, or perhaps a realization that everything is pointless? It generally passes quickly, and you make dinner, and go to bed.

Think about the best meal you have ever had, it was probably a special occasion, maybe it felt like something magical, in the moment you might have felt like your life was changed. Then, in the morning you were hungry, so you ate breakfast. You cooked, you did the dishes, you went on with your life. What "meaning" did that meal have if you were hungry again the next day? Mithrun has to rebuild everything, every day he has to come up with new desires to do the very basics. None of it comes naturally, he has to find a reason to eat beyond being hungry, a reason to want to do anything when he doesn't want anything. Ryoko Kui tells us outright, that there is no magical solution:

The same thing applies to Ryoko Kui's representation of racism in dungeon meshi. Around when the orcs appeared in the anime I saw people gripeing about the way racism is treated. They seemed to think that Laios's party having dinner with the orcs was presented as them "solving" racism. Once again people misunderstand, they did not solve racism in a single moment. A few people, understood each other a little better, came to an arrangement and then parted. This was merely a moment in their lives. The characters continue to do micro-agressions, hold stereotypes, and have implicit biases. In dungeon meshi, characters don't suddenly stop being racist in the course of an evening. Life is a process, learning about others is a process, it's about the accumulation of experiences through the meat and potatoes of life, the daily activities that we actually fill our lives with, not the sudden realizations. Once you make learning about and living with other people into part of your routine, once it is embodied, then it is part of your life.

This is the real conclusion: life is not lived in a state of epiphany. Life is about chores, cooking, eating, shitting, working, and sleeping, it's everyday. Life is about doing simple things and doing them well. An epiphany is a useful tool for telling the reader that everything is going to be alright, we love to read epiphanies and be swept up in them. They can also be a breaking of a pattern, an escape from a spiral.

This is the other take away, it's about the people you do those things with, the way they rub off on you, the way they help you be human. For Mithrun and Marcille their paths would be impossible without other people pushing them back on the path as they stray. Mithrun literally would starve to death except for the thought that kabru and others don't want him to. Eating is a communal activity, so is living, you can have an epiphany on your own; you can't live on your own.

One thing that I always think about post-dungeon recovery Mithrun who got home is that people were probably used to talking about him while he was still in the room.

Misiril's squad used to that when he was still in their care. Questions towards him were quickly redirected to others when he wouldn't (couldn't) answer their questions -- where was the rest of his squad? what happened to the demon? how did he even end up like this? Asking or talking to Mithrun is a pointless effort. So they stopped doing that.

And Mithrun, he's gotten used to this set-up, not like he could bring himself to care.

When his caretakers and visiting family started doing it, he continued to be apathetic to them (although, the numbness from this large, gaping hole in his chest makes him think that he used to care).

The caretakers would do their duties, but behind his back, they would probably gossip about Mithrun's chances of recovery. Others think there is still hope, a lot of them think this is going to be permanent. Which is good, at least to their business, because Mithrun's brother pays a lot to make sure he is alive. And Mithrun...is not in the state to do that himself. They at least try to whisper when they're around Mithrun, keep their voices low or mention him under an alias or a codename. But Mithrun knows they are talking about him. He is the elephant in the room.

His visiting family is less nice. They take one look at him and weep -- not out of worry, or pity, or sadness -- but of shame. There is no way they can show him to others anymore, they bemoan. There is no way he can represent himself as a member of the House of Kerensil, they cry. He's just like his brother! And, once upon a time, that comment would've hurt Mithrun, a stab right into his heart. But all he feels is a gaping numbness that cannot be filled (It used to be full, he can't help but think).

I wish he had died, someone from his family said while he was within earshot. And Mithrun, barely alive but still breathing, cannot bring himself to care.

The only person that I think would be delighted to see him alive, at least, is his brother. I can see him visiting Mithrun whenever he can (at least in elf time terms). Talking to him as if he can respond, asking him about things when Mithrun can't bring himself to answer. At some point, Mithrun's brother stopped talking to him when he visits; instead, he would just sit next to Mithrun and watch the birds and the flowers. He would drink tea and Mithrun would do nothing.

But once in a while, Mithrun's brother would tell him, I'm glad you came home, I'm glad you're still alive.

What I really love about the Daydream Hour art is that it really shows that the characters in Dungeon Meshi aren’t just characters in a story, but they’re Ryoko Kui’s ocs. And sure maybe this is a perk that’s granted to mangakas that release on a monthly schedule opposed to weekly IDK but there’s just some about getting to see different interpretations of the characters and peeks into what she draws in her free time outside the story.

Like look Marcille likes to dance

And here’s the characters in Halloween costumes

Taking Covid precautions

And like I just love how casually she draws and depicts the characters in her personal work. There’s something for quite literally all the characters and like I said maybe other mangakas don’t have or can’t find the time to do so or choose to not release their personal work like she does but I think these pieces just make the characters feel more alive. Like she’s an oc artist through and through lol

🍎Desire Animal

✨updated with full version ⬆️

my favorite pages from Daydream Hour

browsing through the artbook and omg the coat mithrun wore is actually falins im losing it