Embarrassing Interview from ANN Gets Mocked by the Anime Community

Honestly, reading some of those answers, I gotta say, I'm thinking maybe the author is autistic.

Frickin MHA-like stans touching one of my favorite anime/manga makes me sick. What are they gonna ship or make head cannons of next? Winged Lion and Chilchuck?? and Izutsumi is actually a trans???

Imagine writing this amazing story with deep characters and plots and all the interviewer cares about is
Ships, sexuality and disabilities

jesus fucking christ. can we all please agree to stop using the Delicious/Deliciousness in Dungeon name and just use the actual name Dungeon Meshi/Dungeon Food? It still boggles my mind that they went with Delicious in Dungeon when the name literally translates to Dungeon Food. I hate that name so much. It's so fucking stupid.

Another example of people projecting their desires on someone else's creation.

Well, Lynzee Loveridge wrote the article

Oh dear, when the LABEL is more important that the REALITY for certain people then they've lost the plot.

Understandable given the Western culture via the United Nations promotes this garbage approach to life so excessively via bloated rules, laws, regulations and other invisible layers of bureaucracy gone nuts.

Western authors would have dove headfirst into media Pandering. Japanese authors still have integrity for their visions.

Dungeon Meal Author: My job is is to write an entertaining story!
IGN, ANN, Twitter: Our jobs are to TALK AND MAKE SHIT!

Anyone watching Dungeon People?

I kind of read it as the author saying "I never wrote it with that in mind, but if that's how fans see it, that's fine."

ANN has already been a laughingstock for years. I'm surprised they're still in business.

This happends when people from the delulu communities like a series

I mean, I think it's fine if people perceive him as autistic and see him as their autistic champion, but it's when people try to press their ideas onto EVERYONE ELSE when it starts to just divide fans? 🫤

Bro, what a waste of an interview. Author's story is amazing and has great character development and world building. And this interviewer being a weirdo.
Toxic twitter fans.

"You must have played a lot of TTRPGs!"
"I've never played a TTRPG."

Average Twitter Freak behavior. They make a headcanon and even when the author dismisses it, they can't accept it. One of the problems of not perceiving the barrier between fiction and reality.

I myself am on the autism spectrum and I have known multiple other people throughout my relatively measly 37 years of life who are as well so despite the fact that it wasn't the author's intention he still comes across as being on the autism spectrum despite the fact that it wasn't her intention in my opinion it comes across that way in the anime so maybe just didn't do a good job of making him seem normal when adapting the manga I just don't know!!!

They just mark to much as autistic in america. I can she why she thought that. Im classified as autistic. Its just anyone who doesn't administer to normal terms so they can drug us up.

Intentional or not a lot of the situations with Senshi are fanservice. He is put in pretty weird positions that would definitely be deemed fanservice by everyone if he was a women. So the author might not have meant for it to be fanservice but it definitely is

anime becoming mainstream was a mistake

Wait it wasnt a meme calling him autistic? I thought it was known this was a meme

Is the interviewer autistic?

I think the question was closer to, "Laios seems to have issues with reading social queues, and some of the readers who are autistic said that they relate with this character due to those struggles. Did you envision Laios as Autistic?"

The author answered he's normal.

This brings me to something that I didn't think about, is missing social queues and being excited about something even when others are not, a defining trait of autism? This brings me to the conclusion, no. I think this comes from a misunderstanding of autism.

Autism has to do with certain regulatory functions within the body not properly working throughout the body, this can take form in sensory issues, logical issues, emotional issues, the wiring of the body being unregulated or malformed connections, the chemical balance of the body being off, touchy, or unregulated. This outwardly manifests itself and it's something that we can observe the end results or symptoms but not the source.

Given this, Laios is not Autistic, he's just really curious, adventurous, stubborn, and tries everything (that hopefully won't kill him) at least once.

I mean...The author's word is pretty much law...But...Does she really consider Laios "normal"? That's absurd... especially since most characters who interact with Laios throughout the series clearly express that they think he's odd or get the anime sweat drop on head thing "💧😅" aluding to them feeling awkward when he goes on rants about nonsense and eats monsters which is abnormal... Surely she was joking, right? I don't blame the Tumblr people for reading into certain things such as say Falin x Marcielle as I know that "Class S" (culture) exists in Japan and is extremely prevalent since the early 1900s onwards(Wikipedia states "A 1911 article in Fujin Kōron claimed that between seven and eight women out of ten had experienced Class S relationships.") and the overuse of blushing/blush lines in places where there probably wouldn't usually be aside to up the cute factor can be confusing seeing as us westerners usually interpret it quite literally. Also Senshi...He's clearly not intended to be attractive and his fundoshi always being exposed is simply for comedic effect, at least that's how I interpreted it. The author could very well be autistic...Google says "The rate of autism in Japan—about one in 55 children—is nearly twice as high as the rate in many other countries including China and the United Kingdom. (The prevalence of autism in the U.S. is said to be one in 44 children, one of the highest rates in the world.)" but she isn't Laios, so it's pretty irrelevant wether or not she is autistic or if she is that her quirks can be seen in him as it wasn't her intention, it's a good thing she cleared that up.

She didn't say Laios isn't autistic. It's just she doesn't view him as one but fans are free to do so and no, she didn't say that, she just say that people are free to interpret Farcille however they want 💀 anime fans with their reading comprehension man ..

You're making a drama out of nothing here. It's just a question that's valid because alot of people have been asking it.

I think it's only acceptable to tell the author it's wrong about its characters is if it's really clear the author has a fundamental misunderstanding of a topic or theme. Like how The Acolyte/Rings of Power attempts to portray the protagonist as a sympathetic hero while it acts very much as an unlikable villain.

I feel bad for the Author, people preffer to diagnosis a person with no medical degree and just some wikipedia searches and criticise a whole country rather than admit they got it wrong and made a misstake...

I think people have been hyping each other up so much with the "Laios is autistic" head cannon that they've forgotten it is in fact just a head cannon. I mean you're free to believe that and enjoy your own head cannons, but don't expect the original author to confirm it??

The questions people have problems with here are different flavors of the author's vision not being perceived as intended, and frankly they're not even bad questions and the rest of the interview is very normal too. Other than Fallin x Marcille being total bologna, you can make solid cases for Laios being autistic and Senshi appealing to some in that way, the latter probably illustrating my point the best, as none of the readers has Kui's memories, obviously they're not gonna interpret it as she does. That's important nuance here.

Clearly her intention wasn't to make Laios autistic, and you can make the argument he isn't and explain it through events in the manga. At the same time, he exhibits many hallmark traits present in the autism spectrum (keyword being spectrum), and is probably the most autistic character I've seen. I have to point out how her answering he's "really normal" is in opposition to one of the central points of his character being that he's the most abnormal person around.

Ultimately I would say it's disingenuous to brush off the people that suspected him of being autistic because, while he's not real and thus can't be diagnosed properly, a lot of his character would fit perfectly. I think people are too hung up on "representation" (whether for or against) to concede that whether he is autistic or not, many people can relate to him with or without being autistic.

Interpretation is interpretation, basically akin to fanfiction. You're completely free to have it but never treat it as more than what it is. You are not the writer.

I always knew Laois wasn't Autistic but I think it's neat that people relate to him that way (with in reason )

Anime Tourist Network 😂

I think the interview was in poor taste. I'm not sure I'd ask those questions directly to the author even if I really wanted to know the answer. And it is a shame it caused such a stir in the community.

But if those are the answers they gave, I don't think the author definitively said anything other than Senshi's manservice was unintentional. Regarding Laios, they basically just said, "Everybody is going through it in one way or another. Laios's struggles can be relatable to many, and that's all I really tried to do." Which is why Laios's autistic-coding was so praised - because it humanized particular characteristics and struggles that are relatable to so many in the autistic community.

Autistic character coding is a complex issue to discuss just because often unintentional coding feels more natural and authentic than intentionally created autistic characters (see: nearly every canonical autistic character ever), since so much of the population doesn't actually understand what it is like to be an autistic person. And I guess the reason I'd never ask such a question is because you'd have to see how much the author understands about autism in the first place.

What I do think can be taken from this, though, is that the characters in Dungeon Meshi are well-developed and the author is clearly dedicated to one of its major themes about first learning more about others to understand each other better, rather than basing our interactions off of bias and expectations. XD; Maybe the ANN interviewer can reflect on that a bit more.

autism isn't always that bad. there are some people that are highly functioning autistic people!

Laios might count as autistic to a Westerner, that's because our institutions massively over diagnose autism to the point where basically any behavior that isn't pure normie reactions could be autism by our standards

I have to say it, but you never said the series' name right, and it was the same for Laios' name. That aside, people these days are SO delusional, the brain death is contagious.

Hope this filter the annoying side of the fanbase

As far as i know they were just asking a question not "pushing their headcanons to be true" which would be ridiculous if true.

God i wish anime/manga was still gate kept. . these people don't deserve anime and manga. .

the questions about the characters are very weird and targeted? They used "Senshi is handsome and fanservice, RIGHT?" and "Laios is autistic, RIGHT?" instead of "What was the inspiration for each of the main characters?" or "What was on your mind when constructing this party?"
the interviewer could have also asked questions about how she feels about the cast of voice actors that was chosen to play her characters.

So basically... "It's meant to be uncomfortable but funny... Wow you guys can't think with nothing but your privates... Didn't know you were all perverts.."

No, Chibi, you're totally wrong. I mean, come on, we all know that Twitter people are always right come on man 🤦‍♂️

i think dangeon meshi fandom morely become to bnha fandom and many cringe fandom out there 💀

ah yes... Critics and "journalists" the people I tend to ignore the most because of how stupid they are and they have such bad takes on almost everything... in good news do the opposite of what they say since they are just dumb.

I don't think the interview was bad. It gave the author the opportunity to refute these false ideas.

The author knows and fans should respect if they don't want to put a character in a box. I loved this show and I hope the author doesn't change what she wants to do.

He is definitely autistic and if not he is inspired my autism