I Feel Like I Had A Very Different Reaction To The Izutsumi Lore Comic Re: Her Beastkin Being Constructed

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

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.

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

IZUTSUMI IS HERE!! THE KIBBY IS REAL!!

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

what if vampires are like mosquitoes and only the ladies drink blood

Creating prints for an upcoming convention and had a literal lightbulb moment

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

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.

Thinking about the way dungeon meshi does queer horror. Using horror to tell queer stories is already subversive, but dungeon meshi subverts it even more

Normal queer horror is like. A monsterous desire and immortal love of something isolated/hated and the uncontrollable but suppressed need to consume someone to live and they only die if you break/pierce their heart. its great.

In dungeon meshi, the group is STARVING. they do things the way they're expected to and they're so deprived that eventually, one of them is consumed by that monsterous desire.

Then when Falin becomes a monster, she doesn't eat Marcille because she doesn't NEED to, Marcille already offered herself up as part of Falin by mixing her own blood with the dragon's for the resurrection.

Also Marcille is a monster too!! She doesn't need to be turned by Falin. She's a 'witch' doing black magic for one but she's also very vampiric

Her name is super vampirey especially given one of the translation spellings was Marcilla, an annogram of Carmilla*. And Marcille is very similar to Marceline from Adventure Time so it's a name with heavy connotations to me. Also her staff is Ambrosia which means immortal.

*ps Carmilla is the original modern vampire that inspired Dracula and also a lesbian. she used annagrams of her name to disguise herself across hundreds of years.

Marcille is like. a vampire in that death is a big part of her theme. She can breathe that immortality into someone else using her resurrection black magic and death is a huge part of her character. She wants them to live as long as she does. To make them immortal. Like. Like a vampire.

But once again this is subverted!! she doesn't 'turn' Falin, she makes her undead by giving her own blood instead of taking Falin's. Falin becomes a monster not because she's attacked or turned, but because her DNA, something INHERENT about her is now intertwined with the monster. so a god-like figure merges them. Then the only way to free her from that frenzy and grant her autonomy again is to finally consume her. something inherently lesbian about all that i think idk about you