Well Fucks? Get To It!

i do find it very interesting how different the foxes and the trojans go about caring for and supporting each other. well, actually, i mostly find it interesting how differently people seem to feel about it, especially in regards to kevin's drinking problem.

the way kevin's clearly unhealthy relationship with alcohol doesn't get condemned or fixed in the original trilogy for example is something that many people in the fandom have been pretty upset and critical about for many years and jean's reaction to it seemed to have really moved people (though that in particular, imo, had at least as much to do with jean's very restricted and in itself unhealthy relationship to food and drinks as with him uniquely seeing and caring about kevin's substance abuse issues. like, yeah, he really, really cares about him, but i don't think he'd have been thaaat much less upset if kevin was coping by eating chips or something. but well, whatever).

but to me, that never really read as no one caring about kevin or thinking alcohol is the ideal way for him to regulate his emotions.

the whole premise of how wymack runs the foxes and how they treat each other is just very built around the idea that all these people have been through awful things and that the way they'll cope with that won't always be pretty. but as long as they cope at all, they'll be around for another day, and another, which'll buy them to actually get better.

which is how you get stuff like wymack, in good conscience, not only tolerating but at times even soliciting underage drinking. and looking past the harder drugs some of the team are doing. and it's how him and the team all accept that neil is definitely lying about pretty much everything but mostly just leave him be. and how they all agreed to let andrew get off his legally mandated medication during games even though that could have terrible consequences for all of them. and how matt's mom said "sure random eighteen year old calling me on the phone, do give my addict son speedballs, you seem to have a higher success rate at getting teenagers clean than me 👍" because they all view life less as you're either doing good or you doing bad, and more as you're either surviving whatever it takes to do so, or you don't, so who cares if you aren't coping in healthy or acceptable ways, as long as you are coping. (and then once they're ready to work on getting better, they do have a support system in place to help them get there)

meanwhile the trojans are mostly pretty normal and well adjusted, so they have a pretty clear idea of what a healthy person who's doing well looks like, and that's what they generally want for other people, especially those they care about. so when they see someone who's not doing well and not dealing with it in healthy ways they are very direct about it, sort of a "your behaviour is not healthy, stop doing it" thing. your eating habits are really restrictive? try eating different food anyways, it's really good, i prommy. you hurt yourself when you're upset? here's how to physically stop this from hurting. you get incredibly startled when you're touched unexpectedly? well, just let me try hugging you again. you drink to deal with your feelings? please don't, it's not good for you.

and obviously that's a lot more normal and straight forward than what the foxes are doing, and it's done with love and support. and a lot of fans find it very moving and beautiful and sweet. but i also know that i'm not the only person who was really put off by this and still finds it kinda disconcerting. to me it feels, especially in contrast to the foxes, who would largely find this sooo overbearing and rude and uncomfortable, kinda like strongarming someone into doing well, with (at least in the context of these specific books) shockingly little regard for personal boundaries.

my point isn't that one's better than the other or anything, i think both approaches are going to work differently well for different people and within the books it makes perfect sense why the different teams would act this way, and it's also perfectly understandable why some people really resonate with one approach and find the other irritating or unkind. it's simply some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head. building up to: nothing really. oh well

[RELEASE] D.Gray-man Chapter 253.5

Grab a copy of SQ.RISE 2025 WINTER here to support Hoshino if you can!

Release 155 // [01.29.25]

Mangadex | Mirror

Lavi is back in this extra!! Thank you to the talented team for their hard work! ❤️

Enjoy the chapter, everyone~

Some past!laven hc because I'm in the trenches (they shouldn't have that much of a hold on my brain)

They're both occasional smokers. Lavi picked it up from Bookman and Allen was peer-pressured to take it up while in the army. Out of them both, Allen is the most likely to stress smoke.

The cape Allen is wearing in the second part of the flashback was given to him by Lavi, he never bought it. He likes the heaviness of it on his shoulders.

Lavi saw Allen smile for the first time months, if not years after the start of their journey. That's what truly got him.

Lavi smiles whether he's happy or sad. Allen learned to see through his expressions pretty fast, but he still would rather see Lavi be fully sad or angry than look at more fake smiles.

Allen is Lavi's best audience (canon), but it doesn't mean Allen is Lavi's only audience. Whenever they stop at a bar, he ends up telling stories and legends from across the world to drunken men and women, and sometimes to children on the street as well. They typically recieve a few coins for it. Lavi's a pretty good storyteller.

Past!Allen may not be as good a cheat as current!Allen is, but he fares pretty well on his end. Plus he actually has some luck. Lavi tries not to stay too close to Allen whenever he plays, just to be sure Allen doesn't fall victim to his bad luck.

Allen has his own stories to tell, but he doesn't talk about them much. Lavi only hears them sometimes, in the middle of the night, when sleep cannot find either of them and Allen is too tired to keep them in.

They spent so much time together Allen can tell the weather based on the state of Lavi's hair. High humidity means Lavi struggles to keep them in a ponytail, cold weather means he won't even try.

Allen cannot grow a beard. He tried, it won't. Lavi shaves though, both to not piss Allen off too much and because he likes the feeling of kissing Allen better that way.

Hanging out with them for less than 24 hours means being subjected to the most old-married-couple-and-happy-about-it energy. They talk to each other like best friends, they flirt with each other in code, they will be insufferably lovey-dovey in the strangest of ways. Oh to be gay travelling lovers in the 19th century and everything it implies.

[EN Sum-up] Hoshino Katsura’s livestream about chapter 253.5 (part 2/3)

Hello everyone, As promised here is a sum-up (more of a transcription?) of the one hour livestream Hoshino Katsura did last Sunday, February 2nd, 2025. The livestream was about chapter 253.5, which came out on January 29th in the SQ. RISE WINTER 2025 issue. This sum-up is very long and will be divided into three parts:

Part 1 about the context around chapter 253.5 (How she came to draw it, etc.)

Part 2 about the art style of chapter 253.5

Part 3 about the story itself and some details which will allow us to theorize about what’s coming next

Obviously, this sum-up is full of spoilers, please be careful if you haven’t read chapter 253.5! This sum-up is not an exact transcription of what has been said: I skipped all the parts where she answered comments (except if it was relevant!) and I mixed some parts, because she has a tendency to repeat herself.

About chapter 253.5 art style (part 2/3)

Hoshino Katsura: “The drawing hell started after I moved to Kobe.

I wanted to give more paternity leaves to my assistant, but, at the same time, I needed him to work. Sadly, I could only give him one month of paternity leaves. We were both tired as hell, him because of his baby, me because of my house move, we were totally down, we worked super silently, just saying “Good morning” “The deadline is…”, when the new year came, we were too tired to wish each other a happy new year. When I asked him about his baby, he was like “the baby is crying all night long” I could only say how sorry I was for him. That’s how we started to draw the chapter.

(Someone asks if she drew about Lavi because he is a top seller character): Well, not exactly. I was totally free to draw whatever I wanted, and I found Lavi the easiest to draw. Actually, my editor was very happy when he heard I was going to draw Lavi. (Someone asks: do you draw the characters first? Or the backgrounds?) For me, inking the characters is my top priority, so first, the characters, and when I finish, I go to see what my assistants have done for the background, and I select what I want. I have also to check what my assistants are drawing.

1. Drawing nature

Do you know which background was the worst to draw this time? It’s not the city background, or those houses with weirds windows, no, not at all. It’s nature. It’s plants. It’s so hard to draw nature, it’s difficult to suggest something through nature, and besides, depending on the plants, they have different positions. We took a lot of time to decide what kind of image we wanted to suggest to the reader through the background. Also, nature is a complex thing: it has its own order without having a physical order. It’s hard to make it natural. It’s important, when you draw nature, to give a realistic touch. For instance, how much do you fill the spots? How large do you make them? This time, we drew weeds, so the question was: how high do you make them? (…)

In D. Gray-man, you often see the wheat field of the Campbell residence, right? It has been years since I have been drawing it, so I’m used now. Of course, at first I struggled, but now, it’s really easy. But the field in the extra-chapter, it’s my first time drawing it, so I had to start everything from zero. It was really hard. Besides, even if I say to my assistants “please draw like this” when it comes to plants and nature, it’s really hard for them to understand what I mean. Because every one of us has a different impression when it comes to nature.

So, in order to avoid creating a weird background, one of my assistants started to do some research on the internet about plants which grow in the area where Lavi is. Basically, I want to make the background as plausible as possible: in this country, there are those kinds of plants, in this season, this plant is growing, etc. I want him to draw something which matches with the universe of the story. While he was doing his research, I started to draw because I didn’t have much time (laughs) (…) I wanted the weeds to be at knee level, in order to make it impossible to distinguish someone from afar. And then, we were wondering if we should add trees, what season it was, what the weather was, etc.

2. Drawing the helix of life

(Someone comments on the fact that drawing the helix of life looks difficult): About this! Actually, I am the one drawing the helix, I am not letting my assistants drawing it. I feel bad saying this, sorry to destroy all your dreams but…it’s really easy. Like really REALLY easy. (…) I’m saying it’s easy to draw but, the thing is, I asked my assistant to make me a special digital brush to draw the helix of life. I was like “this is how I imagine the helix; do you think there would be any good brush?” and he made me one. That’s why now, I am able to draw the helix as I imagine. Anyways, I am the one in charge of making the drawings progressing, and my assistants are my helpers. (Someone says they remembered Bookman’s glass pen design when they saw the helix of life): Thank you for remembering. Yes, it’s exactly this. I forgot what I said back then, but yes (laughs)

3. Screen tones and oblique lines

By the way, when you read the extra chapter, did you feel there were more details than usual?

It’s because I had to draw more lines. Why? Well, I told you my assistant just became a father, right? I could not give him a proper paternity leave and honestly, having a newborn looks like hell, so, in order to avoid losing time on laying screen tones, I drew a lot of details with lines. For instance, take a look at the first page [which is actually the second, the cover doesn’t count] or the second page [same, it’s the third], you see Lavi stretching out his hand, right? Well, in normal conditions, I would have used screen tones to make shadows. But here, I created the shadow with oblique lines: this way, we would not have to use screen tones, and if at the end, we realized we would not have time to use screen tones, we could let it that way. So, I drew a lot of oblique lines. Until now, I used to draw shadows with screen tones, but here, everything is made with oblique lines. You can compare it with other chapters, you’ll realize that usually, everything is made with screen tones. (…) Please think that those oblique lines are a guarantee for me in case I don’t have time to use screen tones. But, since my assistant is far from being over with his newborn, I guess we’ll keep using this technique for the next chapters.

(Someone says “Is this the reason why you do not use screen tones anymore for Lavi’s hair?): Ah no, I stopped using screen tones for a long time when it comes to Lavi’s hair. I realized I would never finish in time, so I decided to stop using screen tones.

On the first and second pages [Second and third pages, actually], you can see the shadow I drew with oblique lines on Bookman’s face and, look at Past Lavi: I drew his silhouette with oblique lines as well. You might think it is faster to use screen tones but actually, it takes a lot of time during the final check to adjust them. Do you see the page where Past Lavi says “That’s right, keep breathing”? It’s the fourth page [It’s the fifth]. It’s the last page we drew, actually. Also, please look! Lavi is bleeding, right? The blood is drawn with oblique lines as well. I spent a whole month only drawing oblique lines: everything, his mouth, his hand, his stomach, I was always drawing oblique lines. Actually, we wanted to draw more panels with a background, but it was impossible for my assistant who didn’t have any sleep with the baby crying all night, so we had to suppress a whole page of backgrounds. But I think it doesn’t affect the reading experience.

4. Drawing smoke

Besides nature, you also have the smoke coming from an explosion. We discussed a lot about it with my assistants, we had difficulties exchanging our views on it. You know, dusty smoke coming out of a simple explosion, for instance a building, is very different from a smoke caused by gunpowder. In the chapter, the explosion is caused by gunpowder. At first, we drew white smoke, but greyish smoke gives more an impression of an explosion caused by gun powder. (Comment: The smoke appearing on the cover is whiter than the smoke in the chapter): Exactly, on the cover, it’s just almost like dust, it’s a different sort of smoke. In the chapter, it’s gunpowder smoke, it’s not the same texture. It looks like it’s bad for the body, right?

That’s it for part 2 on the art style, to be continued in the third and last part!

Steve Oster [producer of DS9] - about 4.06 - Rejoined

I rushed this. THEY THEM THEMMM. THEHYYY AHHGGHGGGH

Dungeon Meshi Information Sources

Dungeon Meshi has several worldbuilding details and extra comics in different publications and I think they get pretty hard to keep track of so I wanted to make a guide and explain what is what for people that maybe want to look into it themselves!

The Main Information sources are:

Daydream Hour 2-5: Sketch compilations and extra comics by Ryoko Kui with commentary, which can be found on EH Scans blog translated, and also in mangadex in between the manga chapters (The first daydream hour isn't dungeon meshi related)

The Complete Daydream Hour: Or more specifically "Ryoko Kui Doodle Book Daydream Hour" Released in january 2024 it still hasn't been fully translated into english. This version compiles extras and sketches from daydream hour 1-5 along with new content. Some of the exclusive comics have been translated and can be found on reddit and bato.to but the full thing is yet to be translated.

Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: The Adventurer's Bible (2021): A guide by Ryoko Kui that compiles information about the characters, monsters and the world. An official english version is available. It was released in february 2021 and has information pertinent for up to chapter 71 from the manga. It contains extra comics for all the main characters and for all the human/demi human races. The extras that talk about side character's backstories are from this book and the characters section has been translated by EH Scans (Also on mangadex)

Delicious in Dungeon World Guide: Adventurer's Bible Complete Edition (2024): Released in february 2024 and still untranslated, this version of the Adventurer's Bible has information updated for the end of the manga, there's even more extras and lots of comics about post-canon. Some of them are being translated and posted into reddit but I haven't seen them anywhere else. The raw is available on bato.to

Manga and Ryoko Kui's Blog: Some of it are from the manga itself, like Monster Tidbits and other Harta Magazine Extras (Where dungeon meshi is published) and also from the author's own personal blog. Lots of the drawings in her blog were deleted with the publishing of the complete daydream hour but you can still see what was unpublished using the wayback machine.

I hope this helps somehow! It was pretty confusing for myself when I first started looking for more extras after finishing the manga.

The things I post here are all based on one of these and I try to put in the tags what the source is!

Long haired character with the hair falling like liquid all over them as they’re hurt and on their knees

his greed sickens me