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Dungeon Meshi is a well liked manga, and an adaptation by Studio Trigger is now airing. If you haven’t picked this one up, consider joining us. Both for fun and as a way of contributing to activity on Lemmy.
Episodes are available to stream on Netflix.
Laios and the gang finally gain a new party member! It’s not Falin, and she’s a bit of a pain, but how can they say no to adopting a catgirl in need?
The adventure continues as our heroes delve deeper into the dungeon.
Remember not to spoil anything if you’re a manga reader, but feel free to elaborate on tidbits of lore that may not be coming through in the adaptation.
This episode adapts two of the most pivotal chapters in the manga. The proper introduction of our fifth member of the main cast, Izutsumi. And the first deep-dive into one of them, Marcille.
I could gush endlessly about Izutsumi. I am so happy to finally have her around. Seeing Marcille animated so beautifully has had me waiting on the edge of my seat to finally see this gremlin of a catgirl in motion.
She’s standoffish, assumes the worst of others, selfish, and quick to violence.
She’s a cat!
So often anime nekomimis are depicted as cuddly fluffballs of adorable softness. And while cats like that exist, you don’t see many nekomimis in anime that act like the more aloof and wild cats that are out there. The ones you have to build trust with for years before they’ll get in your lap, or purr at your touch.
The second chapter adapted this episode is the nightmare encounter.
When I read the manga, up to this point, I had merely liked it. I thought it was funny, and at times pretty cool. But this chapter is when I realized this story might turn out to be my all time favorite manga. And eventually it did.
We dive into the very core of who Marcille is. A frightened child, terrified of everyone she’ll ever care about, aging to death before she really even comes to feel like an adult. And having those fears re-inforced by the fact that at merely the starting steps of her lifespan, she has already lost one the most important people a person can have.
I really, really loved the nightmare sequence. The paintings were not a thing in the manga, BUT HOLY FUCK ARE THEY A BIG HINT. Marcy obviously hasn’t had a normal elven upbringing. She didn’t attend an elven school of magic, or at least didn’t stay in one if she did. Instead she wound up hanging out as the sole elf in a human/gnomish school. What’s up with that? How and when did she even get into dark magic, and why? She’s claimed her interest is to help society, but she’s an outcast that’s barely part of it herself. What is her personal reason for pursuing the forbidden arts and researching dungeons in general? What spell is she referring to when she shouts at Laios that her magic is not yet complete?
There are a couple of different paintings, but they tell a pretty explicit story.
Marcilles dad was human, and he aged to death before she even began puberty. She’s not a bure-blood elf. She is half-human.
Spoiler for a small detail about half-elves in the Dungeon Meshi world
Worse. Half-elves do not have lifespans that are half that of full elves. They live longer. Much longer. Longer than any race. She is doomed to outlive almost everyone she will ever love.
Also. Remember how Marcy said her research involved another dimension where infinity exists? What symbol is the eye on the mad sorcerers book? The way it was the sole colored object in the dream for a moment was an amazing addition that wasn’t possible in the manga.
Much like the master noticed Laios in the paintings…
The book, has noticed Marcille.
And did you think I was kidding back when I said the Laios x Falin fuel started dropping? Have some more!
Man, I didn’t even notice those paintings on first watch. But boy are they some great insights into the core of Marcille’s character.
They hit so much harder than just “yeah she’s a half elf and her dad’s dead” like in the manga where the paintings aren’t there in the background. Only that first portrait of Marcilles mother can be seen.
But here in the adaptation, this sequence of her aging dad, ending with her crying her heart out with mom at a grave is something else.