Teleportation magic in Dungeon Meshi & Analyzing Mithrun through his use of magic (Megapost)
Teleportation has always been my favorite power in fiction, and I always found myself researching how it works so I could make my sonic oc more lore accurate and cool...
But I've never seen it done so uniquely like in Dungeon Meshi.... So I spent hours and hours reading through the manga, Adventurer's Bible and Daydream Hour. I also researched through other sources like DND spells and other pieces of fiction that contain teleportation in some way. I reallyyyy wanted to get to the bottom of this..
In this post I want explain how it works, it's traits and then I'll analyze Mithrun's use of it through examples. Lastly I'll explain why Ryoko Kui chose to have him use this type of magic specifically and what that says about his character.
Veryy long post......
How teleportation magic works in the world of Dungeon Meshi:
The spells here work similar to actual DND spells and items, such as "Dimension door" and "Teleport". We see usage of items like teleportation scrolls.
Most notable features of teleportation are unreliability and danger. Teleportation being unreliable and dangerous is a universal trope, and there's always some long term consequence to using it, usually involving characters getting stuck in another dimension or teleporting somewhere where they didn't want to end up (but here there's no dimension hopping). First, let's discuss the most reliable version of this unreliable magic type,
Teleportation scrolls (also called Return spells), are the most reliable version of teleportation magic, they are items that act as portals between two concrete points in space which are interlinked,
What stumped me at first was "How can magic scrolls work outside the dungeon?", and the answer to that is a preparation ritual that makes a room outside a part of the dungeon,
But even with meticulous preparation and two physical components that link the two spaces its still regarded as unstable, for reasons pointed out in the image above. Also shown in the manga:
Holm here warns Daya that even the slightest contact with the outside could disrupt the spell,
Also when Kabru and Mithrun spent a week in the dungeon The Canaries had to prepare a room (while having very limited time) to act as a closed space outside the dungeon needed for Mithrun to hop over, which makes this panel of Pattadol even funnier
(this poor girl had to worry about her captain not dying in the dungeon while being taken care of by a stranger, controlling a group of feral prisoners and ALSO had to not only prepare a room for an unstable spell which might not even work, but also had to worry that those idiots don't accidentally open a window and ruin a weeks worth of progress LMAOOO)
This type of teleportation magic is the easiest to understand. It uses the power of ever flowing magic inside the dungeon and the flowing magic inside the caster which can then be used to make a magical space which mimics that of the dungeon's. Also the physical copies of the scrolls (even paintings in Mrs. Tansu's case) act as bridges between the two magical places. The physical manifestation of magic in the form of items is very important here...
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Now, let's talk about Falin's brief use of a teleportation at the beginning of the manga,
Somehow Falin was able to teleport multiple people to the surface WITHOUT a prepared room outside and also without touching them. (which are basic components of return spells and general teleportation magic) But apparently it's a special type of spell made to be used to escape the dungeon and unfortunately I can't find any more info on this spell :(
(and she took a BIGGGG gamble here, which she admits to Marcille in the panel above)
Other than just being a talented mage, her mental strength and a VERY determined goal is what made her spell succeed when in no way it should have. Her goal being Laios and Marcille making it out alive,
And who else is a magic expert with a clear goal in mind???????
..
.
Mithrun and teleportation magic - How does he use it?
Mithrun most commonly uses the type of teleportation magic that teleports objects and living creatures. This type of teleportation requires physical contact through touch.
He also focuses on teleporting one thing at a time and usually teleports smaller objects (easier to aim and loses less mana, though I'm not sure about how mana consumption works in this scenario (⸝⸝๑﹏๑⸝⸝) ), not to mention he excels at short distance combat (especially meele).
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The easiest way to explain it is that he's switching places of objects and even materials,
Switching the places of the bandits body and the stone in the wall,
At first I didn't understand how it was physically possible to replace someone's body parts with STONE without dismembering them but the key here is that he's just replacing materials and their places like this
The place that the stone was occupying the wall is now occupied by the bandits legs while the spot where the bandits legs were is now occupied by stone... It's also confirmed that they are unharmed in a panel I can no longer find dfgfgfg where the governor is being slowly chiseled out of the stone. (also interesting that he can control what body parts he wants to teleport. I don't know what it's determined by, maybe length of touch? )
But this material switching can also harm, depending on where he aims and if he's switching places of objects
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Instead of relying on teleportations intended long distance usage, he mainly uses it in short distance combat which leaves him with minimal room for error. Let's discuss his usage of teleportation in different distance scenarios starting from long range.. He's very versatile in this regard as well, probably years of practice and generally being very intelligent.
Here are some examples where he tries long distance teleportation,
He's not immune to the unreliability of teleportation of course, but his main goal here was just sending the monsters "away" not somewhere in particular. This being VERY irresponsible and once again VERY dangerous (imagine being some poor adventurer minding your business and you get a whole ass Griffin dropped on your head) (the Griffin mishap can be interpreted as something else which I'll discuss a bit later).
Another interesting example is when he teleports Izutsumi during that confrontation with Marcille. This example also showcases a surprising level of spatial awareness,
By the leaves in her hair and the rabbit she's holding we know she was just sent outside Thistle's house. He of course didn't want to send her wherever in the dungeon so he just sent her to the nearest place he's cognizant of, which is outside the house where she won't bother them. I firmly believe he did this on purpose, if he wanted to teleport her somewhere random in the dungeon he would have. (he's trying to be intimidating, not malicious)
Though I don't know how he managed to teleport him and Marcille EXACTLY on the table in the living room? My guess is the same as when he teleported Izutsumi, he went to the place he has most recently seen (he teleported to the exact spot he was standing on previously since the table is now occupying that same spot) (also he had like a fraction of a millisecond to think, genuinely insane he pulled it off)
It's still impressive that he managed to teleport Izutsumi somewhere not in his immediate vison, but to a place he briefly saw (considering his supposed poor directional awareness). This type of stunt requires very high spatial awareness and it's rarely done correctly based on other media I've seen... My understanding on how he managed to do this is that he's actually hyper aware of the space he's in (as well as being very focused),
In this first panel he's looking at Falin's corpse but I would like to imagine he's also analyzing the forest they're in at the same time since Falin's corpse means that Thistle's in danger/dead so he's on extra high alert. So he takes to exploring the entire layout of the house (in order to find out what happened to Thistle) and stumbles upon Izutsumi and Marcille in the attic. This detour gave him a general idea of the houses layout and that's what allowed him to pull off previous stunts.
Before we discuss short range combat, we need to understand how he's was able to master such a dangerous form of magic (and it's not just because he's awesome and super smart ...... ).
Mithrun and magical focuses:
Thanks to this amazing analysis I was able to better understand how Mithrun channels magic and why he's so good at what he does.
Something that was discussed in the referenced post above is that teleportation spells don't require two very common magical focuses, chanting and wands (Falin used her wand/staff but that spell is a whole mystery). When discussing teleportation scrolls I put an emphasis on them being physical manifestations of magic, they can act as a replacement for wands/staffs.
In Mithrun's case he did use a staff! We can see him wielding it when he was younger,
After his recovery, he went back to using his staff but kept "losing" it,
The only way I see him using his staff for teleportation is either as projectile or a close range weapon like he how uses his cape in later chapters. It probably kept getting stuck in monsters and he couldn't have been bothered to get it back lmaoooo
Because teleportation requires physical touch to work that in itself is a basic link between the caster and what they're using their magic on, hence why staffs or wands are not needed. Touch is the most important in teleportation, when it's disrupted it causes mishaps,
Why Mithrun can't teleport when backed fully into the wall is because he's making too much contact, and he's unable to teleport the whole wall or himself while touching it with his entire body.
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The image below shows how hand gestures and other types of meditation are used by mages BEFORE they start casting.
As far as I know, we never see/hear about Mithrun performing any preparation rituals (like Marcille braiding her hair and Fleki getting high). I think the answer is in his teleportation magic itself, it's very fast paced and relies almost entirely on his mental focus in the exact moment of casting.
Now, he does use hand gestures as a physical focus but in his own non-conventional way.
The only time we see Mithrun using any sort of hand gesture is here, to aim
He's aiming at a specific spot above Falin's head (which I briefly talked about in this shitpost lol). Whenever he's teleporting something he has a general idea on where that something will end up (like in Thistles arm, Winged Lions upper body, Marcilles stomach). If he wanted to, for example, hit Thistle's left pinky finger he would have to use this mini ritual. He would have to sit down, concentrate, aim and then teleport, which isn't very convenient in combat (here Falin is standing still, she can't run and there's no immediate danger). Physical gestures and rituals just don't fit his style of combat and teleportation magic usage. Rituals lower his efficiency, he likes to act first and dispose of the threat as soon as possible.
Moving on to his mental focus...
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Mithrun's mental focus is his greatest strength, and the main reason he was able to master such demanding and dangerous magic.
His hyper awareness, quick wit and battle intelligence stem from his one and only long term goal, defeating the demon.
He's also not prone to monetary distractions and isn't mainly interested in social interaction and social customs, which is why he was able to find Marcille and Thistle in the attic so quickly. Instead of focusing on the conversation between The Canaries and Laios, he follows his own judgement and stays firmly on the path of uncovering the whereabouts of the demon.
There are a couple of moments where his concentration is broken, due to multiple factors,
He missed teleporting that Griffin because his vision was obscured by the changeling spores, he was disoriented and also in mid air and his mana was running low/he was tired. In the shapeshifter chapter he had no time to think and concentrate (like he says in the panel, he needs to attack as soon as possible) and also no items available to teleport. He then resorts to teleporting Kabru at an enemy that is pretty far away (also he was running low on mana, this takes place immediately after the big fight at floor one). He misses because he had no time to perform that mini ritual and Kabru is a lot bigger that the stuff he normally uses as projectiles. Even if he's well trained, focused and intelligent he's still human at the end of the day and his casting is still affected by exhaustion, hunger and poor circumstances.
Chapter 75 shows us Mithrun at his peak battle wise, where all the requirements needed to bring out his full potential are met.
Those requirements are: the demon is nearby/there's an active threat of it reappearing/it's already present, closed narrow space perfect for close range combat, plenty of small items laying around, slow/non moving target (The Winged Lion standing still and Marcille "trying" to run),
(perfect narrow corridor and plenty of small and sharp items everywhere)
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Why teleportation?
Ryoko Kui's writing is very deliberate and every writing choice is made with so much love and thought behind it and it's no coincidence that Mithrun uses the most dangerous but efficient magic. Everything we learned up until now will help us understand this creative choice. ( ◜‿◝ )♡
Mithrun only started using teleportation magic after his recovery, after he met the demon. I don't see younger Mithrun using teleportation because of it's inherent danger, but this is worth a whole another analysis. His mind was dead set on a singular goal that gave him the reason to keep living, and he needed to achieve that goal no matter what.
He has now been reduced to an empty shell, completely alone, nothing to hide behind and nothing to his name. He needed to learn the most powerful and efficient skill to essentially kill something that can't be killed.
Teleportation magic required years of practice, high battle intelligence, full concentration but it gave the best results. This was the perfect skill for Mithrun to master due to all these attributes, and so he began devouting all his time to this skill. The biggest downside being the extreme consequences of failure which involve the painful death of others or even yourself. A big part of Mithrun wanted to live no matter what, he needed to live to confront the demon. The other part of him, still full of self-hatred, would gladly take this gamble of death if it meant efficient results.
To reference the speech Kabru gave in chapter 94, Mithrun never lost the ability to gain new desires and he never lost the essence of who he is. His personality shines through his teleportation magic. I sound like a broken record at this point but he's intelligent, quick-witted, strong, determined, dangerous,.. he's so intimidating that he causes Marcille to let out a scream of pure terror when confronted by him(multiple times !!) and Thistle is so afraid of him he wants him gone asap because he's such a threat, because he's THAT skilled!!
Absolutely admirable to be that feared and skilled, that type of achievement can only be achieved by someone truly extraordinary
And most importantly of all, he loves teleporting!!! The only time we see him smile so wide is when he's teleporting (and kicking ass),
Mithrun you're so cool I wish you could see yourself through my eyes
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Thank you so much for reading the whole thing omgggg (。ノω\。)˖⁺‧. This was extremely challenging to research and also write but at the same time it's the most fun I've had making something I'm very passionate about (灬º‿º灬)♡
Feel free to ask me any questions, I definitely didn't cover everything regarding this topic. I'm very curious about your opinions ⸜(。˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝♡
Happy New Year and here's to soon seeing Mithrun teleporting animated !!! ♡(> ਊ <)♡



















