#any manga spoilers

[jitteryfool]

Me, a naive fool: "Hmm.. it's been almost a year since I read Akatsuki no Yona, I guess now is a good time to catch up! I can't wait to see my blorbos and their happy found family again :)"

The latest manga chapters:

WELL I DID NOT EXPECT TO TEAR UP OR STRAIGHT UP CRY IN ALMOST EVERY CHAPTER BUT IT'S FINE. EVERYTHING'S FINE.

[batneko]

okay okay okay one more dungeon meshi thought

I keep seeing people saying Falin is "better at social cues" than Laios. Y'all she's just quiet. 😭 She just keeps her mouth shut. 😭😭 Girl was proposed to, said "let me think about it," and then did not even tell her own brother. She doesn't know what's going on either she's just quieter about it!!! 😭😭😭

[tofixtheshadows]

Sorry but Kabru is so fascinating to me as a character, in a pure mechanical sense, because of what Ryoko Kui does with him. Everything about him is a red herring. He's deliberately introduced as some kind of rival for Laios, a party leader who is hopeless against monsters but absolutely brilliant with people both in and out of combat, and who has good reason to oppose him.

By the end of chapter 31, you might even think Kabru's going to end up as some sort of anti-villain, an antagonist with the best of intentions who nevertheless tries to foil our hero's plans. He wants to defeat the Mad Mage himself, he suspects Laios of being too irresponsible to be trusted with control of the dungeon, and his crew even thinks that Laios's party stole from them (and they're kind of right!). All signs point towards an inevitable showdown.

And then ... none of that happens.

Confrontation over the stolen treasure? Kabru is literally too smart to fall for the classic miscommunication trope and correctly decides it's not worth making a big deal of.

Kabru's deadly PVP skills? Aside from trying to take down Falin, he never fights another human again.

Wanting to be the one who defeats the dungeon? Turns out he was only doing that because he didn't think any other adventurer would have people's best interests at heart, and he's more than willing to play a support role in the whole affair.

Thinking Laios is up to no good? He really did just want to get to know the guy more. He has his misgivings, but ultimately ends up trusting Laios with his life.

Is Kabru going to get some sort of comeuppance for hating monsters and not appreciating their ecosystem? Well no, he has good reasons for hating monsters. He ends up wanting to learn about them through Laios's eyes, but he's never forced into any "Wow, guess I was wrong about them!" revelation.

Hell, even his implied ladykiller ways, which might lead you to think he'll end up being the stock "chivalrous lech" type of character, don't really manifest. He has a lot of opportunities to act flirtatiously around women, but doesn't. He's just a guy whose natural charisma makes him into human catnip.

And that's all hysterical to me, to pull it off. It's a fascinating way to tell a story. To introduce a character explicitly as a rival, potentially even a villain, and instead make them a deuteragonist. It's like a magician making a coin disappear, then slowing down their trick to show you the misdirection. "Did you see what I did there?" they ask with a wink. "The coin was in my other hand the entire time."

[iztea]

imagine if they didn't pull that sword out of Bram in time and then Fyodor got reincarnated as a lollipop stick

[dunmeshistash]

Do you have a compilation of all the times Kabru wanted to kill/beat up Laois? That's one of my favorite gags

I love Kabru with all my heart

Bonus:

[buttercupshands]

can you even call it a warm up if I'm going to bed without drawing anything big

and a sketch I made while sitting in the park today

[hinamie]

siren!megumi concept sheet i whipped up in a single-minded fever state fr @uriekukistan

[amaranthdahlia]

somebody pls talk to him

[justplaggin]

impeccable thought process

[vioshortforviolence]

YOU WOULD KNOW THAT, FOUR, WOULDN'T YOU!

first image from @linkeduniverse

[ahaha-ahahaha]

yesss absolute win for momo

she got the costume she deserves

[fumifooms]

People have speculated a lot about Chilchuck’s nightmare, my own reading’s changed a lot about it over time too. Anyone is afraid losing the people they love, but what does this say about this character’s specific fears, experiences and priorities? What’s implied to have went down exactly, here?

My own take about Chil’s nightmare is that at the center of it, what it represents is the fear that Chilchuck couldn��t protect them.

A big part of Chil’s character is his worrying for others, mainly for their safety, and taking responsibility for keeping them safe. He puts the weight on himself to make sure things go right and if they don’t he’ll worry about if he could have done anything differently. It’s also part of why he has this defense mechanism of giving up on interpersonal matters easily, because while it’s his duty to make sure his coworkers and daughters are safe for example, he thinks that when it comes to relationships and others that things are out of his hands and no matter what he says people won’t care. So he has to lie and trick his party members to go back to the surface, because surely they wouldn’t listen to his opinion or request to go back. So he’ll play chaperone to make sure no one says something incriminating. So all day he has to keep himself on his toes to hear and see the traps hidden away, has to keep himself starved to make sure he won’t trigger said traps, has the party’s lives on his shoulders and one moment of distraction could be the end.

This safety he worries about is both physical, fights and traps, and legal & socio-economical, laws, reputation and financial & job stability.

Here Chilchuck has blood on him, he seems to be looking at his hands. The corpses of his daughters are huddled laying around him but he’s not touching them. This has a sense of purposeful framing, they’re laying at his feet pointing up to him bloody and he has bloody hands, which is why people including myself have speculated that his nightmare could be about him murdering his family. Whatever happened, he blames himself, it’s his fault, is what the composition seems to evoke. But the intent of that sentiment shifts as effortlessly and easily as going from "he’s horrified at what he did" to "he’s horrified at what he didn’t do".

The axe in the wall, which some argue would be too heavy for a half-foot, then hints at something more like home invasion. Home invasion is a valid fear a lot of ethnic minorities and lower class people have had to face, wether it be because of overpolicing and law enforcement forces being dangerous and fickle, being the target of hate crimes or the general unfortunate environment and circumstances making their place of residence an unsafe spot. We don’t know why Chilchuck moved from his hometown to Kahka Brud, one of the bigger cities with half-foot populations reputed for its booming economy and job opportunities, but moving from a small town to a big city has its own pros and cons on that end as well. Chilchuck of course is very aware of the discrimination half-foots face, not only being dismissed and infantilized but also seen as expandable, as bait, little lives of little importance, and he’s deep into activism for half-foots especially with the union he leads. He strivess to protect his peers as well. He’s been scared for his life before, hiding and fleeing from humans, his party at the time. He’s had to hide and fear and flee humans before. The theory that he’s scared of specifically home invasion as a hate crime is very founded, on top of Chil being very worried about getting into trouble with the law in general and also again being implied to be/have lived in empoverished areas, just the whole bingo card of potential trauma to go off of.

He has blood splattered on his hands and cheek. Was he there when the rampage happened? Was he effortlessly pushed aside as his family was slaughtered, or did he stand aside frozen, unable to do anything in either scenario? If there’s another way to have gotten those blood splatters, it can also play on him being absent from his home. Maybe not unlike his wife, the fear of returning home to see things have been taken from you without even knowing or being able to do a thing. The fear of coming home and the place having been ransacked and everyone in it killed. Home, your haven, destroyed, your family, killed. It cannot be fixed, which in itself can be a nod to his tendency to be pessimistic and to think hoping for better is useless, like with being able to reach out and reconcile with his wife.

"The nightmares that the clam monsters give people tend to be specific, and based on deeply rooted emotional wounds, so I think it’s possible that Chilchuck isn’t just afraid of his home being attacked randomly, he is afraid of his daughters being targeted for their race and their gender specifically, perhaps because that is something that happens commonly to half-foots in the Dungeon Meshi world, and something Chilchuck feels powerless to protect them from." — @Room-Surprise , essay (source, go read it) It’s definitely in line with the lore. This whole thing reinforces how for example trusting his party with his daughter’s life, telling them to hire Meijack if he were to die, was a huge deal and testament of trust for Chilchuck.

So yes in my interpretation home invasion is especially relevant, but I still think the protection aspect is at the core of the scenario’s horror otherwise too, not having protected his family from himself if he was the one to kill them (which could be stretched to include the notion that his family’s closeness crumbled because of his attitude, or a manifestation of his low view of himself, maybe worried about his own alcoholism and anger issues) or having prevented whatever tragedy happened. The aftermath is what Kui chose to show after all, whatever happened the end result is the same and that’s what was deemed important. In the end it’s up to interpretation, whatever the intent was, but yes there’s much to be dug at here. It’s a bit like a chimera of all his biggest worries, fears and insecurities, all wrapped into one vision. If you want more discussion about it, there’s tons in the engagement of this post.

[lovereadandwrite]

“I shall protect you, & you alone… even if…you stand as the last person on this earth”

[pupkashi]

gojo’s first thought when he gets unsealed is you, his eyes are darting from face to face trying to find you, he wants to get home to you.

and when he finally does and sees you he feels okay again, he’s running to take you in his arms, his hearts racing so fast and he’s sure you can hear it but he doesn’t care.

you’re holding him in shock, your fingers digging into the fabric of his t shirt and you can’t believe he’s here and he’s real and he’s holding you. there’s tears down your face but you don’t care, you’re squeezing him so hard and he had almost forgotten how strong you truly were.

it’s only minutes later that the two of you pulls away, your hands flying to his cheeks and wiping away the couple stray tears on his cheeks, he’s smiling down at you and you can’t help but smile back.

“you’re really here?” your voice is small and weak, your eyes drinking in all of his features, afraid he’d be taken from you again.

“i told you i would always come back to you didn’t i?” he’s smiling and you want to roll your eyes, you want to smack his chest but all you muster is a small nod before crashing your lips onto his.

you’re smiling into the kiss, he giggles at the way your teeth bump against each other, but the two of you don’t pull away, even when you’re out of breath you do your best to get one last kiss in before pulling away, breathing a little heavier and your cheeks heating up as you looked at him.

you finally gain enough courage to let go of him, you’re cheeks flushing even more when you see the tight black t shirt he’s wearing, gojo can only smirk as he watches the way your eyes widen a bit.

“haven’t been home for even an hour and you’re already checking me out? I’m just a piece of meat to you aren’t i sweetheart” he’s pouting and your mouth falls open, attempting to protest but you have nothing.

“you were gone for so long what do you expect?” you quip back, you grab his hand, pushing him onto the couch before laying on top of him, your head buried in his chest as his arms instinctively wrap around you.

gojo swears he’d never felt more comforted in his life.

“missed you so much lover” you whispered, peppering kisses all over his face, satoru catches your lips with his. his heart skipping a beat as the name of endearment hits his ears.

“i missed you so much more sweets” his voice has no teasing lilt to it and your heart aches for him. all you do it hold him tighter, hoping if you hold on tight enough you’ll be able to keep from falling apart from all he’s been through.

[illybean]

YO THIS MOMENT!! THE COMPOSITION AND EVERYTHING. THE DIFFERENCE IN VALUES TO HIGHLIGHT HOW KOHARU ISNT THE SAME AND THAT SHE CANT GO BACK TO HOW THINGS WERE. THIS MANGA OMG!!

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Okay serious question why are there so many people complaining about how popular labru is as a ship or that’s it’s a reach with no canon basis when the entirety of chapter 76 exists? Like??????