#but falin is the only example so it could purely be about what marcille was to her

[specterthief]

If you don't mind me asking, do you know if when Falin called Marcille 恩師 it is implied she meant the later was literally a teacher at the school? I assumed she meant as someone she had learned from, not as an official position. But my Japanese is far from perfect, so I don't know how weird it would be to call a senpai or such 恩師.

you are correct that it doesn't have to mean a specific position at the school, yes! though with the fact that marcille was a professor's assistant she definitely could have been doing some actual teaching work in some capacity. (assistants in real graduate programs like what marcille is described as being in will still be involved with teaching, just not teaching alone - i.e. they might help students in practical labs or prepare assignments. but we don't really know much about what the program marcille was in is like compared to a real life non-magic grad school, so it's not clear if she ever did that kind of teaching assistance, let alone for falin's class specifically.)

to my understanding from a lot of reading before posting about that (as japanese is also not my native language, i'm doing my best) it does suggest a somewhat delineated teacher-student/mentor-mentee relationship, since even the strict dictionary definition describes it as a word to use for a 先生, but it doesn't mean that was necessarily an official position in the school. 恩師 can refer to unofficial teachers/mentors who were very influential on you as well, like older relatives, but it's not something that applies to a relationship between peers like a close senpai

so yeah, there isn't any indication one way or another if marcille's duties as a researcher/teacher's assistant ever involved any more structured teaching or if falin would have been one of the people she could have taught. 恩師 can mean both, and while it referring to a literal teacher appears to be by far the most common in a modern context, it could also just mean that that's how falin sees and respects marcille and what their relationship was like to her.

sorry for this kind of being a non-answer! i tried to do more research as i was writing this but it's just a complicated word - some people use it for all their school teachers whether they feel strongly about them as a mentor or not and there's some confusion about whether that's appropriate or not, searching for information got a lot of "am i supposed to use 恩師 like this?" questions even from native speakers 😭

TL;DR it does refer to a teacher/mentor relationship but doesn't necessarily imply a specific official job position at the school (nor does it rule it out)

edit: and all this is with the fact that she does also call her her friend alongside it, so whatever specific meaning of 恩師 falin is using here she does obviously also see marcille as a personal friend and not solely as her teacher

[astronomalyy]

Thinking about the lifespans of Dungeon Meshi elves... The fact that they're completely unnatural alters my brain chemistry, because you can tell just how haphazardly the demon implemented their wish. They live five times the length of tall-men, so they age at a fifth of their rate. It's simple maths and the implications are terrifying. No wonder their birth rate and population are declining - their early development is so slow that at the age of two, they're still unable to stand.

They don't reach adulthood until their eighties. What does the infant mortality look like? How many elves succumb to illness or injury before they're fully mature? It only takes one accident to lose the child you've been raising for decades - and could you bring yourself to care for another? Add to that the implication elf culture has no idea how to process grief... just look at the way the Canaries treat Rin after the death of her parents. They're callous and insensitive and detached - part of that's racism, but there's also an element of pure cold ignorance. They don't even recognise the emotion on her face.

And that's just scratching the surface... does elven memory accommodate their extended lifespan? Once you reach two hundred or so, do the years start blurring together? Kabru mentions that their temporal awareness is remarkably poor.

Two years feel like a few months. Their lives are longer but not fuller. They're older but not wiser than the short-lived races, and most refuse to understand this. Those that do grasp it are interesting - namely Otta, who's ostracised for pursuing half-foot women.

A 30-year old elf is a young child; a 30-year old half-foot has entered middle age. Otta is in the equivalent of her late twenties. She knows that her elven lifespan makes her no more mature than a half-foot - but she also acknowledges that it creates a rift between herself and her partners, and not just in the eyes of society. 'She dumps them as soon as they pass 30', but probably not for the reasons Lycion assumes. For this to be a pattern, decades must have passed - it's possible Otta doesn't want to watch them die as she herself barely ages. No doubt some of her previous lovers have already passed away. In the end, all living 400 years accomplishes is leaving them out of sync with the rest of humanity.

Marcille's perhaps the best example. As a half-elf, she's got 95% of her life ahead and the thought terrifies her. She's going to lose everyone she loves, over and over and over again, and this cycle has barely even started. She runs at a different pace. This context adds so much to her dynamic with Falin in earlier chapters.

Marcille loves her! She's scared for her! Maybe even of her! She's grown attached to a short-lived girl who she met as a kid when Marcille was a teaching assistant! Biologically and developmentally, they're the same age, but chronologically she's twice as old as Falin! Considering what happened to her mother, is history repeating itself? Her feelings towards Falin are tangled and messy and fascinating. They're also more than a little homoerotic, which makes Marcille's infantilization of her friend all the more interesting. It feels like her way of resolving their power imbalance, of remaining a responsible (former!) authority figure... but it's also a coping mechanism. She's frightened by the ways Falin is maturing and changing - aging - and keeping her mental image of her friend as young as possible is her way of denying the march of time that's destined to sever their bond.

Marcille's dream of lifespan extension would remove the need for this obfuscation, render them equal... only, they already are! This desire is imposed onto Falin, but it's primarily for Marcille's benefit. Watching her fight for a world nobody wants, for reasons both selfish and altruistic... it's as tragic as it is understandable. I love this manga.

[emperor-of-blood]

I think the hardest part about classpecting this group is going to be that I've read the whole manga but only half the show has come out. I'm going to avoid spoilers to the best of my ability for the aniem-only folks.

I guess I might just have to imply some of the stuff for later lol.

Anyways, let's dive right in starting with Marcille Donato!!

Our elven friend here plays a very interesting role in the little group! With Falin's absence, she's the only mage in the party (I suppose you could count Laios one he starts learning) and she's also quite often the "Straight man" of the group, being the voice of reason amongst a bunch of weirdos. That being said she has her fair share of wackiness! For one thing, she specializes in dark magic! It seems she mainly knows how to make stuff explode, some healing spells, some miscellaneous buff magic, and then a whole bunch of forbidden mumbo jumbo.

She is shown to be both caring and intelligent and is instrumental on the quest to rescue Falin. Probably her most notable moment comes when she finally gets the chance to employ some of that illegal magic and revive Falin.

With that out of the way:

Marcille is...

A Bard Of Doom!!!!

One who destroys [Doom]/one who invites destruction through [Doom]

Now, if you're done laughing, let's dig into this a bit more. Marcille very succinctly fulfills her role as Bard Of Doom, give me a chance to convince you. Take a look at Falin's revival. Marcille brings her back from the dead by employing forbidden magic; but she doesn't just undo her death, she undoes a death that is by and far insurmountable. This resurrection, whether purely her fault or not, results in Falin becoming a chimera and falling under Thistle's control. Shortly thereafter, Falin decimates the combined might of 4 adventuring parties.

As fun as these huge, all inclusive examples are, I also quite enjoy the more minor aspects that allude to her classpect. They're everywhere! For example: Marcille's distaste for eating monsters. Senshi's focus on the dungeon as an ecosystem. Marcille's constant resistance to participating in cycle this showcases how she continually tries to destroy the aspect of Doom in herself. She keeps herself removed from the cycle of life in the dungeon as much as possible.

There are more examples later on and unfortunately, I can't really go over them without spoiling the hell out of people. It really is a shame, but that's just how it is. So if you're anime-only, you'll just have to trust me. And if you've read the manga, then I'm sure you can instantly figure out what I'm talking about.

Alright folks! That'll be it for now, look forward to more soon! I'm planning on going thru the rest of the crew soon as well as answering some of the asks that have built up.