Dungeon Meshi - Vol. 10 Ch. 64.1 - Daydream Hour 3

[Pentium_MMX]

Following Kui-sensei's numbering...

07 and 08: Kui Ryoko, the consummate professional.

15: This is seriously impressive by itself. More so, when you consider that manga and anime are well known for their homogenized character designs, for which this kind of outfit-swap mostly cannot work. Nos. 07 and 08 show Kui-sensei's discipline; No. 15 shows her talent, her sense for the underlying essence of a character. A bit of a digression, but this reminds me of how Hank Azaria, voice actor of The Simpsons fame, showered praise on Mel Blanc. One cartoon had Daffy Duck impersonating Bugs Bunny, and vice versa. Mr. Azaria said of Mel Blanc's performance, "You know how hard it is to do, to take your own character, have it imitate another one of your own characters? It's almost impossible. If you try to, like, combine two voices that you're doing, you kind of just land in the middle [...]".

16: These outfits would not look out of place in Renaissance Italy. Give 'em some lances and warhorses, and watch the crowds step back.

23: Look at that beautiful twist that Izutsumi's doing. Which again makes me wonder: why don't the volume covers have this level of anatomical excellence?

24: The body language is Marcille through and through.

25 and 26: Kui-sensei sees things most of us can't.

 

[narra]

@Pentium_MMX Volume 7 cover?

 

[Pentium_MMX]

@narra Volume 7's cover is all right. I was thinking of volumes 5, 7 and (maybe) 8.

 

[daywithoutgames]

artwork number 04 and 05 : in a previous chapter , namari is the one who invites chic chac out for some drinks to get totally drunk , because she wants to have $ex with her male co-worker , lol .

art 06 : i just read chapter 1 again , and chic chac really has a lot of strands of long , white hair . he is really an old grandpa hobbit .

art 10 : note that kabbage dude has close , skin-to-skin , physical contacts with his female friends , but he doesnt even touch his male friends , lol , what a pervert .

art 14 : the shirtless elf is sniffing something , because he is a were-wolf / were-dog , lol .

art 22 : what the ? this big , fat pork orc girl is in middle school 3rd year = 9th grade = 14-years-old ?

 

[Eruza]

this really shines through how much passion and thought the author has in creating the manga and art

(this is why il never be an artist)

 

[Metadragon]

Is this part of the manga itself? I am buying the English Volumes as they release and was curious if it was included in them or if this is a special of some sort.

 

[StrangePibcuo]

finally, some body diversity

 

[Metadragon]

@StrangePibcuo When hasn't this series had that. Even the elves are different heights and skin colors.

 

[o8o]

@Pentium_MMX @narra
Volume 5 cover: Farlyn is slightly knock kneed (X -kyaku)?? Link Link

Volume 7 cover: Cats are digitigrades, Izutsumi being a catgirl prefers walking on tip toes and not placing her weight on the heel leading to exaggerated foot arch, kinda like ballet feet.

Volume 8 cover: Kabru is pictured in follow through after a kick. His upperbody does seem overly twisted compared to the optimal balanced kick posture but maybe that's because he's skewed his kick (the kicked object should be travelling in the direction of the foot).

 

[Pentium_MMX]

@o8o Hi, let me say first of all that I appreciate your efforts... It's nice to be taken seriously, and you've made some good points.

I'll give you Volume 8's cover. As you've shown, Kabru kicking is anatomically correct. I was hesitant to name it initially, and my reasons for not liking it much are subjective.

With Volume 7's cover, I still say that Izutsumi's foot looks... weird. Your reference images are on point and what you've said about an exaggerated foot arch is true, but to me Izutsumi's foot looks more misshapen than anything else. Have a look at Vol. 7, Ch. 44, Page 1 for an attractive drawing of our catgirl.

As for Volume 5's cover, the knock knees weren't an issue. The issue was that the whole drawing was "meh". To be specific, it has a centered composition coupled with an awkward running pose -- not very dynamic. All the other covers have off-center compositions, save for Vol. 6 that has two opposing figures for dynamic effect.

You can boil down my argument to: "These aren't quite up to Kui Ryoko's artistic standard". She's capable of kick-ass illustrations, some of which you'd be happy to put on your wall.

 

[lespookycarrot]

Megane Laius should be a thing haha

I love the artist's dedication to her art!

 

[Sem]

I'm coming back to this and looking over it again and I'm freshly amazed but also very curious!
I'd love to have some more insight on Ryoko Kui's hobbies and interests, and what her influences are. Dungeon Meshi takes a lot from Dungeon and Dragons and western fantasy more than most fantasy manga to begin with. But things like shape language and body variation, these are super important design guidelines I take for granted every single day in western art mediums. It's one of the first rules any western character design class will teach you, and yet it's something largely ignored in eastern media in favor of emphasizing other things, like textural detail. It's a rule I know well, and all of my colleagues know well, and yet I rarely think about how little manga abides by it.
I wonder how much western influence is deliberate on Ryoko Kui's part?

 

[Metonym]

@Sem Quite deliberate. Here are two sets of Baldur's Gate character portraits by Kui: https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1557909433939.jpg https://i.4pcdn.org/tg/1557909497769.jpg
Also, folks I discuss this manga with draw many parallels between it and Wizardry, another western video game series that I'm told had/has quite a following in Japan.

 

[JohnnyK]

Her art is amazing

 

[f0xhunt]

This really showcases how outstanding the art is in this series.

 

[Diomedes]

Ogre-chan thiccer than a bowl of oatmeal.

But all this art is so good, I love seeing concept art and design sketches, and all the race-swap, clothin-swap, era-swap, gender-swap ideas are SO interesting to me!

 

[Pollomonteros]

I totally ship dancing Marcille with glasses Laius

 

[Carn109]

The art is so nice~

 

[disky01]

the mangaka is so talented and i love her anatomy of the different races

 

[Redmonkeybox]

Ryoko Kui inspires me to get better at art.