Dungeon Meshi - Spelunking On the Spectrum

In addition to the Falin part: imo it's not as simple as "everyone likes Falin" - sure, we're following a bunch of people who care about her a LOT. But when Kabru was talking about Laios being "indifferent to people", he said the same thing about Falin too. It's likely many people outside her own party do find her strange just like Laios. And we're shown that she was a very lonely child who struggled socially and academically, both while living at home and later in school. It's only after she made her first friend, Marcille, that she opens up more. Laios says in the last episode something along the lines of "Falin was a lot tougher than me mentally." It's likely they were both ostracized since they were children, they just dealt with it differently

For me, the point where Laios went from "He just like me, fr, fr" to "Okay, I think this guy is ACTUALLY autistic" was when a friend so me a bonus panel of the manga that explained whose mind created each of doppelgangers and why they perceived that person that way. The way Laios's brain consistently missed obvious and sometimes iconic physical details, was not only very relatable, but all but said that Laios's mind just works differently than everyone else's. Also, that bit where we hear Laios's parents say "How do you expect to survive in the real world?" hit so close to home that I could hear it knocking at the door. Lastly, I'm so glad Delicious in Dungeon gets that an autistic hyperfocus is a compulsion and not a superpower. Laios's "fun facts" can be useful, but can just as well be barely relevant (and we know this is intentional since Senshi does not have this problem).

I would also like to note historically. Romance between nobles in Japan was extremely complicated and autistic traits in women could easily be misinterpreted and seen as “overly feminine” before the Meiji period it was expected that a woman would only communicate via third parties before meeting their expected partner personally (sometimes even speaking to eachother through a paper screen. So Falin’s non romantic autistic behavior could be seen as almost flirtatious and extremely attractive in a medieval Japanese context.

Falin being autistic was solidified for me when she was depicted showing up with random bugs and plants and barging in on Marcille without any explanation. She had no conception of the social rules for making friends and interacting with friends. Just because she wants to hang out with Marcille. but she cannot express this and Marcille didn’t pick up on it either. She and Laios also understand each other and can translate their autism to their friends! We see Laios explain Falin’s actions to Marcille and we know Falin supported Laios in his interactions.

One point I don't fully agree with is that Laios never exhibits a mask... He does not - NOW. The way his party members react when they see him go all out about monsters, how they are surprised with things he says and ways he says them... you'd have thought that this is their first trip together. Which it definitely was not. You said it yourself, they've probably known each other for years. Laios WAS masking by not being so overexcited about monsters. By not saying first thing that came to his mind. By not showing clearly and openly how deep his obsession with monsters goes. Yes, from the societal point of view? Even if he was limiting himself in his expression, and biting his tongue and was not openly gushing about his hyperfixation, he still would be perceived as a "weirdo". But sucking at masking the way that is socially acceptable does not mean that someone does NOT mask. So in general - yes, I do agree with your analysis of Kabru, and you actually put perfectly into words something I was not 100% sure about myself, due to myself having much more of Laios than Kabru form of autism 😉. Which probably explains a lot why I feel so passionate about hearing the lack of mask mentioned when it comes to Laios. People like Laios still do mask, we're just not too good at it 😉 despite feeling like we're doing a lot and enough and desperately trying to shove ourselves into neat little boxes we have no way of fitting in so we would finally belong and be accepted somewhere. P.S. Senshi is another character in series I consider to be autistic 😀. But he gives much more of "autistic dad who never realised he was autistic before talking with his autistic child about autism" vibe 😀

“Her autism doesn’t deprive her of social capital, though” Maybe not with her party, but… the majority of people in the world dungeon meshi don’t like Falin. She was ostracized by her village growing up, and then ostracized by her classmates. She was also a social pariah, it’s just that her party is full of those.

“I’ve picked up on something no one is going into depth about” Me: huh????? “Except for the people on tumblr who really absolutely have” Me: oh right I live there 😅

Saw someone describe Kabru as minmaxing social interaction and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since lmao

It's an interesting exploration of how many people view autistic woman as a desirable manic pixie dream girl archetype, but autistic men that portray the same traits are usually seen as annoying or a joke. I've been in the exact scenario Laios was in. A guy got close to me so he could get closer to my sister (who is also autistic) and called me annoying when he called me out for not picking up on his queues. He was not happy when I pointed out that the traits he found attractive in her where exactly why he found me annoying.

"Maybe you should get better at reading the room, Laios!" "HOW, Shuro?!" These lines punched me in the gut. Laios literally asking "HOW?!" was decades of bullshit being validated. We don't always understand. We don't always pick up on cues. And that one 'how' made me feel understood. I can't stress enough how great it feels to have a hero that feels like me. He's not some unattainable goal or a paragon of some lofty ideal. He's a dumbass trying to be a good person; not always succeeding but trying all the same.

I'm ready to settle in for a cozy analysis of my current hyperfixation: autistic-coded characters. Kabru really speaks to me as a high masking autistic person. It's so easy to be seen as "manipulative" when you're literally just doing your best to survive.

I have to mention, Shuro's problem isn't STRICTLY cultural; it's that he's a Young Master in this culture, and also very shy. It's repeated in various moments and supplementary material that Shuro is like, very very unusually shy, even by Japanese standards. Literally everyone around him is brash and direct, even the extremely restrained Benichidori. His Japanese culture is not the issue, it's his privilege and innate timidity.

Glad you put the disclaimer in there about low and high functioning being seen as somewhat outdated! For anyone curious, my partner is autistic and is a support worker for other autistic adults and some common terminology is high and low support needs! I am absolutely not correcting superdude just wanted to share ig :)

"Fun" fact from one of the side-comics of the manga (which so far haven't been getting adapted into the anime): Shuro's real name is actually Toshiro. Laios just misheard him and, when Shuro tried to correct him, Laios just started asking questions about the eastern country Shuro was from. Eventually Laios introduced him to the rest of the party as 'Shuro' and by then it was too late to correct him. Note that the servants do call him 'Master Toshiro', not Shuro.

Dungeon meshi's author already had a lot of experience writing neurodivergent people. I really recommend reading a short story from her other manga Hikidashi ni Terrarium - perfect communication. It's only 5 pages but it's such a good representation of anxiety and other difficulties in communicating with other people

If you read the manga (and watch all of season 1), Falin absolutely did not "get away with it". Falin was ostracized as a child, at magic school, and even was considered "weird" by people in the town hear the dungeon. She was blatantly treated poorly by her classmates at school. She ran away from Magic School because she was unhappy. Even Marcell flat out did not understand Falin's behavior towards her. Marcell repeatedly judges Falin's behavior before they became friends. Did Marcell realize her errors? Yes. But Marcell is the exception. I agree with your assessment of Shuro's treatment of Falin vs Lyos. But Falin was just as screwed as her brother when it comes to how she was treated growing up and as a young adult.

The scene with Laois and Shuro struck a big chord with me because I had a similar thing happen to me as a kid. A kid I thought was my best friend told me he had always hated me, and it completely destroyed my self-esteem, basically until after high school. Having Laois go through something similar felt cathartic, especially since the show is asking us as the audience to sympathize with him. I don't know if Ryoko Kui is autistic herself, but she is a master at writing autistic characters.

Thing about Kabru and his mask, his party is already well aware of his faults. Their reaction to their Boss losing the test of wills against Laios is, "oh jeez Kabru's done did it again." Like this absolutely isn't the first time he's boxed himself into awful situations just to get a read on a person. And Falin, she's much better with people than Laios, but she didn't actually have many friends growing up. Marcille was her first (and potentially only) friend in magic school, where the other girls called her weird for skipping class and getting dirt everywhere. I sorta hesitate to call her a savant when her explosion in class was due to her cheating by shoving dirt from an actual dungeon into her assignment. She worked smarter, not harder. And yeah, Falin is absolutely innately good at magic in ways that Marcille is fascinated with, but she also has an understanding of it that neither her or Laios really get (Falin was a poor teacher for Laios when she tried to teach him). Marcille has a wealth of knowledge from all sorts of backgrounds rattling around in her head, but Falin is better at a narrower range of spells. There's also the way they actually use two different schools of magic, Marcille uses elf magic (which is more rigid and consistent) and Falin uses gnome magic (which is less mana intensive). Oh and since it sounds like you're anime only, there's a wealth of bonus material for Dungeon Meshi from the extra pages in the manga volumes, as well as bonus comics from the dvd releases AND extra books like the Adventurer's Bible (which was given an updated release in Japan after the manga's end with even more bonus material). Fun stuff to go through once you're far enough in the series to not mind the spoilers.

When I noticed the dichotomy of reactions to Laios/Falin, my first thought is in the way that autistic girls and women are fetishized, especially on the internet. Off the internet I often see this manifest in the "manic pixie dream girl" trope

I do wonder what would happen if Falin and Shuro did get together. Like how much of his attraction to her is him liking things in her that he hates in Laios, and how much of it is him seeing her (and her mask) through his cultural lens and projecting onto her. Maybe that's just me and my 'Marcille and Falin are gay, deal with it' ass projecting onto them all, but I look at how Falin reacts to the news that Laios and gang have been eating monsters and wonder just how quickly Shuro would realise 'oh no, behind the mask she's just like him.' Anyway, adored this video and you made me relate so hard to Kabru, sharing this with all and sundry.